Digital Commons Network^™

Diasporic Strangers In The Mirror: Ever-Evolving Identity And The Immigrant Experience, Meriam Metoui

Theses and Dissertations

This text explores the disparity between immigrant parents and their American born or raised children and show the chasm of misunderstanding between generations navigating different national and cultural contexts found in novels such as The Joy Luck Club, The Namesake, Americanah, and Everything I Never Told You.

Approaches To Teaching Music Reading To Piano Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rachel Elizabeth Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to collect information about teaching music reading to piano students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and to determine best teaching practices that may be implemented into existing curricula. The study involved interviewing six professionals who are nationally recognized for successfully teaching piano to students with ASD and analyzing the interviews to learn their procedures for teaching music reading to this population.

The interviews contain information concerning the backgrounds of the individuals being interviewed, the demographic backgrounds of students being taught, and the pedagogical process, instructional materials and technology used for teaching music reading in lessons. …

Non-Empirical Modelling And Theorizing: Scientific Progress In Particle Physics, Cristin Cain Chall

Theses and Dissertations

Particle physics (and other fundamental physics research, including searches for a theory of quantum gravity) faces a problem when it comes to acquiring experimental evidence. Many theories and models make predictions that cannot be tested with current, or even prospective technology. Yet these fields continue to develop, with new models and theories regularly being introduced, scrutinized, changed, and discarded. My project aims at examining the way theories and models are constructed, adapted, and assessed in fields that lack the empirical evidence that usually grounds such tasks. I will focus on two prominent examples: string theory and attempts to explain electroweak …

Thornfield, Wragby, And Their Discontents: Nature And Civilization In Jane Eyre And Lady Chatterley’S Lover, Marianna Alvarado Teuscher

Theses and Dissertations

In Jane Eyre and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Charlotte Brontë and her literary inheritor, D.H. Lawrence, locate the potentially revolutionary romance between their protagonists in natural settings, distant from the social sphere, in order to demonstrate the un-naturalness of an administered capitalist society in which class distinctions work in dehumanizing ways.

Life, Death, And Corporeal Resistance In Immigration Detention, Jana Michelle Moss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes corporeal strategies of resistance used by immigration detainees in the global North. Corporeal resistance is defined as an act of protest that physically harms the actor but is not intended to harm anyone else. Examples include hunger strikes, lip sewing, self-immolation, and other forms of public suicide. In response to the prevailing public opinion that detainees' acts of self-harm or suicide are simply acts of desperation by disenfranchised people who have nothing to lose, I argue that they can be a logical and strategic response to state necropolitics. Detainees take back corporeal necropower by reasserting control of …

Experiences Of Egyptian Female Journalists With Workplace Gender Discrimination, Mai Ismail

Theses and Dissertations

There is an upward trend in the employment of women in the media worldwide and in the Middle East. Despite their growing presence, women working in the industry continue to experience discrimination, gendered practices and sexist attitudes at the workplaces. This study examines the experiences of Egyptian women journalists. It employs a qualitative approach, building on in-depth interviews conducted with twenty early- to mid-career Egyptian female journalists. These work in state-run, private and independent news organizations whether in print, broadcast or online media. The analysis shows that the experience of female journalists is linked to various factors pertaining to the …

"Quiddity | Leaving Home", Jonathan U. Barton

Theses and Dissertations

The poetry collection in four sections features pieces concerned with memory, particularly of the author’s childhood in Ireland. Difficult family relationships as well as early romantic failures are prominent obsessions. Landscapes and careful portraits of characters recur. Travel to Eastern Europe and within the author’s adopted United States give the opportunity to meditate on larger issues and spans of time. Domestic pleasures and the struggle to be a good parent and husband provide the ultimate trajectory of the work.

The nonfiction memoir consists of eight essays which tackle among other topics a failed first marriage, a return visit to the …

Adverse Childhood Experiences Indirectly Affect Child Telomere Length Through Self-Regulation, David Sosnowski

Theses and Dissertations

The goals of present study were: (a) to examine associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and telomere length during childhood using ACE composite scores both with and without “new” adversities (i.e., parental death and poverty), and (b) to determine if ACEs indirectly affect telomere length through children’s self-regulatory abilities (i.e., effortful control and self-control). The analytic sample consisted of national data from teachers, biological parents, and their children (N = 2,527; M_age = 9.35, SD = .36 years; 52% male; 45% Black). Results from linear regression analyses revealed a statistically significant main effect of updated (but not traditional) …

Un/Doing Spirituality: Contemporary Art, Cosmology, And The Curriculum As Theological Text, Clark Adam Goldsberry

Theses and Dissertations

Talking about spirituality can be uncomfortable. The topic is especially precarious within the sphere of education. Despite the discomfort and precarity, many scholars argue that there may be room in the postmodern curriculum for safe, open, and generative dialogue about religion and spirituality as cultural phenomena. These curriculum theorists (see Slattery, 2013; Doll, 2002; Huebner, 1991; Noddings, 2005; Whitehead, 1967a/1929; Wang, 2002) propose a sensitive critique of spirituality and religion that can lead to cultural healing, re-membering, re-integration and re-collection (Huebner, 1991). In an increasingly fractured world (Slattery, 2013), where spiritual and religious underpinnings cause an array of conflict, this …

Un/Doing Spirituality: Contemporary Art, Cosmology, And The Curriculum As Theological Text, Clark Adam Goldsberry

Theses and Dissertations

Talking about spirituality can be uncomfortable. The topic is especially precarious within the sphere of education. Despite the discomfort and precarity, many scholars argue that there may be room in the postmodern curriculum for safe, open, and generative dialogue about religion and spirituality as cultural phenomena. These curriculum theorists (see Slattery, 2013; Doll, 2002; Huebner, 1991; Noddings, 2005; Whitehead, 1967a/1929; Wang, 2002) propose a sensitive critique of spirituality and religion that can lead to cultural healing, re-membering, re-integration and re-collection (Huebner, 1991). In an increasingly fractured world (Slattery, 2013), where spiritual and religious underpinnings cause an array of conflict, this …

After Faith, Hope, And Love: The Unique Divergence Of Asceticism By Gregory The Great And Maximus The Confessor, Caleb N. Zuiderveen

Theses and Dissertations

In the late sixth and early seventh centuries, asceticism continued as a frequent expression of Christian devotion. Despite communications between the Eastern and Western Churches and a common patristic foundation, theology in the East and West during this time diverged on the results of asceticism. This paper explores this divergence by examining two theologians, Gregory the Great and Maximus the Confessor. Current scholarship has examined Gregory the Great and Maximus the Confessor on their own, yet the dialogue between each tradition and its implications remains understudied. Thus, this study contextualizes Gregory the Great’s On the Song of Songs and Maximus …

The Plight Of Wage-Earning Women In Peoria, 1905-1915, Cheryl Kay Fogler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the conditions of wage-earning women in Peoria, Illinois, during the first two decades of the twentieth century. I present the plight of wage-earning women as well as the well-intended efforts of both local and national crusaders who helped the working women of Peoria survive and in some cases overcome hardships.

Anti-Sabbatarianism In Antebellum America: The Christian Quarrel Over The Sanctity Of Sunday, Kathryn Kaslow

Theses and Dissertations

In the first half of the 1800s, American Christians posed fundamental questions about the role of faith in daily life by debating blue laws, which restricted Sunday travel, mail delivery, and recreational activities on the basis of the Fourth Commandment. Historians have largely focused on how pro-blue law Christians, or Sabbatarians, answered these questions. They also present anti-Sabbatarian concerns as socially, economically, or politically motivated, largely ignoring religion. However, an examination of religious periodicals, convention reports, correspondence, and petitions shows that many anti-Sabbatarians did indeed frame their arguments in theological terms. Case studies from various faith traditions over four decades …

Amber Outskirts, Ann-Marie Blanchard

Theses and Dissertations

Amber Outskirts opens with 25-year-old Penelope Moore searching for the girl she once loved, Amber, who disappeared after they shared a drug-fuelled night. Penny finds Amber in a gritty town in rural New South Wales where she is every bit as wild, but now married to a brutal man, Pete. There’s no room for Penny in Amber’s new life, but Penny can’t stay away.

Penny gets a job at the local orchard, where Amber works, and it’s not long before she’s invited to a party where there’s a muddle of drink and desire. By the night’s end, Pete slips away …

Divided By A Common Language: A Comparative Study Of University Bilingual Language Policy In The Utrgv Texas And The Upf Barcelona, Shaun Mccrory

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the world, language usage is an arena of conflict and resistance. States, institutions, civil society and individuals all impact on language policy in education but the literature has paid scant attention to the specific issue of tertiary education and language planning. My two case studies - the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Catalonia and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Texas, USA - provide a comparison of an established bilingual university and an emerging bilingual university. Both face similar problems regarding language usage but both face unique and idiosyncratic differences. The issue under scrutiny in this thesis …

Media Messages And Same-Sex Sexual Consent, Ryann Rooney

Theses and Dissertations

There is a difference between narrative and the quality of representation when discussing topics in mass media. However, the difference between narrative and the quality of representation is often ignored when same-sex sex is portrayed in media. Missing from a significant amount of the literature on same-sex sexual behavior is how mass media discuss sexual consent. To fill the gap in the literature, I will examine the following: 1) how mainstream media’s discourse on same-sex sexual consent (SSSC) is similar to queer media’s discourse on same-sex sexual consent, and 2) how media messages define sexual consent between same-sex individuals. To …

Migration And Shifting Borders: Re-Conceptualizing Non-Citizens In Turkey, Jessica Zerrin Holle

Theses and Dissertations

In an age of securitization, in which the movement of individuals across borders has become securitized, and in which borders themselves are being externalized in an attempt to curb migration flows, the conventional notion of a static citizen-state relationship within the nation-state system is increasingly becoming inapplicable. Central to this thesis is the question: In a climate of securitized migration, and against the backdrop of the refugee/migration "crisis" has the externalization of EU borders through its migration management partnership with Turkey contributed to or brought about alternative conceptualizations of foreignness, citizenship, and non-citizenship in Turkey? Protection for asylum seekers in …

Consumption And Ceramics At The Rural Homestead Of The Raddin-Badgley Family, New Providence, Union County, New Jersey, Carissa A. Scarpa

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the expression of consumer behavior and choice through the ceramic assemblage from the Raddin-Badgley house site, a late-18th to mid-19th-century rural homestead located in Berkeley Heights, Union County, New Jersey. Emphasis is placed on the ceramic assemblage recovered from a 4- by 5-meter (13- by 16-foot) cellar hole, the primary feature remaining from the homestead. The analysis was focused on answering three questions. First, how does the ceramic assemblage reflect consumer behavior over time from the earliest period of occupation to the latest? Second, how does the ceramic assemblage reflect the consumption behaviors of specific individuals or …

Backcountry Robbers, River Pirates, And Brawling Boatmen: Transnational Banditry In Antebellum U.S. Frontier Literature, Samuel M. Lackey

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that in the midst of an uncertain but formative period of continental expansion, a revolutionary brand of popular crime fiction appeared and flourished in the pages of cheap periodicals and paperback novels. It consisted of conventional adventure romances and pulpy proto-dime novels that focused on frontier violence and backwoods criminals. Often popular in their day but quickly forgotten, these texts have been given short shrift by scholars and critics due to their shoddiness or ostensibly minor role in literary history. I contend that this obscure brand of crime fiction in fact has much to offer in the …

Emotion Regulation And Life Satisfaction Of Early Adolescents In The Face Of Stressful Life Events, Zi Jia Ng

Theses and Dissertations

In line with calls to define mental health as more than the mere absence of psychopathology, and based on the restorative model of well-being (Lent, 2004), this dissertation sought to elucidate the relationship between stressful life events and life satisfaction by exploring the mediating role of emotion regulation. Using a full Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach, this dissertation first determined the factor structure of the measurement model then evaluated the path analysis of the structural model. The first study examined the factor analytic structure and measurement invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). Results supported the one-factor …

The Popular Education Question In Antebellum South Carolina, 1800-1860, Brian A. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reviews the struggle for popular education in Antebellum South Carolina. It contends that the failure of popular education in South Carolina was not a foregone conclusion nor was it mistake by school administration or state leaders, but instead, the failure to provide education for the white majority was the result of an intended goal. This project concludes that South Carolina remained without a system of public schools for the majority of citizens because those who opposed general education firmly believed popular education held the seeds of revolution while ignorance the better tool to perpetuate the status quo.

Chapter …

Hablando De Negocios: Three Rio Grande Valley Businesses During The Great Depression, 1929-1939, Karla A. Lira

Theses and Dissertations

The Rio Grande Valley is in the South most tip of Texas and borders Northern Mexico, it includes Willacy, Cameron, Hidalgo, and Starr Counties. Scholars have focused on gender, agriculture, and labor of the area. However, historians have failed to research the region through a business perspective during the Great Depression. This thesis then seeks to analyze ways in which the Great Depression affected the Rio Grande Valley through the research of two stores and one business in the area: The Manuel Guerra Store, Edelstein’s furniture store, and John Shary’s land selling business. Its objective will fill an existing gap …

Re-Assessment Of Acts Of Piracy Under Contemporary International Law With Particular Reference To Activities Of Somali Pirates, Nutcha Sukhawattanakun

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, I present a range of guidance aimed at addressing maritime security which concerns Somali piracy and armed robbery against ships; this includes guidance to governments, ship owners and ship operators, shipmasters and crews on preventing and suppressing piracy and armed robbery against ships; investigation of offences and the use of armed personnel should be granted and enacted into law which are binding on all state parties internationally and regionally. These recommendations should promote the development of the international shipping industry, and bring peace to the Gulf of Aden.

The Catholic Church And The Formation Of Human Rights Doctrine In El Salvador, Edward Mikus Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The Catholic Church’s focus on human rights in the years following the Second Vatican Council led to increased political activity amongst the clergy in socially stratified El Salvador. This development, in turn, led to a breakdown in relations between the Church and the Salvadoran State

Commuters, Wanderers, And 'International Mongrels': Resistance And Possibility In Post-Immigrant Literature, Leslie Singel

Theses and Dissertations

The recognizable motifs of the immigrant tale have been upended, as the traditional

narrative has been adapted to capture the multitude of directions, individuals, nations, and paths

of the twenty-first century migrant. In four chapters, I examine selected works from the authors

Colum McCann, Junot Díaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to argue for a new

designation, “post-immigrant literature.” Post-immigrant literature treats critically the themes of

loss, regret, and forced assimilation from perspectives shaped by post-colonial, post-modern and

post-identity politics thinking. Rather than narratives stressing the limitations imposed by

deterministic social forces, post-immigrant texts posit more agency, and anxiety, …

"Goin' To Hell In A Handbasket": The Yeatsian Apocalypse And No Country For Old Men, Connor Race Davis

Theses and Dissertations

On its surface, Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men appears to be a thoroughly grim and even fatalistic novel, but read in conjunction with W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming"—a work with which the novel has a number of intertextual connection—it becomes clear that there is a distinct optimism at the heart of the novel. Approaching McCarthy's novel as an intertext with Yeats' poem illuminates an apparent critique of eschatological panic present in No Country for Old Men, provided mainly through Sheriff Bell's reflections on the state of society.

Feedback Environment Intervention: Changing The Performance Management Paradigm From Systems To People, James R. Gallo

Theses and Dissertations

For years, empirical research has supported the claims that an organization’s feedback environment is related to numerous beneficial outcomes for employees and organizations. While we have a valid and reliable way to measure this feedback environment, we don’t know much about how to intervene in organizations to create a favorable feedback environment. This research study attempted to improve an organization’s feedback environment through a planned change intervention and therefore to create new institutionalized group norms often prevalent in a favorable feedback environment. The goal of the intervention was to train employees on the seven dimensions of the feedback environment and …

Versions Of The Alter Ego: A Study Of Joyce, Kushner, And Ellis, Sherif Mahmoud El Newehy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to illustrate the value of reading modern literary fiction through the theme of the alter ego. In this thesis, I demonstrate how the writer explores the various meanings of the alter ego in composing intensely imaginative works of fiction that negotiate the creative process in conscious terms. The thesis is indebted to the psychocriticism of Charles Maurron, which enables the domain of the alter ego to be examined in formal and aesthetic terms. In connecting a given work's themes to the alter ego motif, this thesis evaluates the impact of the writer's psychology on his work and …

Between Rock And Breeze, Lena Schmid

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis project consists of a series of works on paper and songs about the collusion of the body and nature. I use a lens that both distorts and makes clearer the ineffable ways our bodies shake their boundaries, moving without us and within us.

The Quest For Truth In A.S. Byatt’S Possession, Cristina F. Meza

Theses and Dissertations

By examining A. S. Byatt’s Possession, we can see that Byatt is showing the limitations of postmodern thought in examining historical works of literature, particularly in regards to women writers. The focus of this paper is on the novel’s critique of modern critical theories that conceptualize the text as being impossible to define or understand. This paper argues that Byatt satirizes her postmodern scholars to demonstrate the deficiencies of certain postmodernist principles such as the death of the author and the complete nullification of intended meaning and implicit truth. In order to show how Byatt satirizes the postmodern scholars in …