Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Unheard Voices Of Al-Intifadah Al-Shabaaniyah: An Exploration Of The 1991 Uprising And America’S Betrayal Through The Testimonies Of Iraqi Participants Residing In America, Zainab Alhussainy

Honors College Theses

This thesis delves into the often-overlooked 1991 uprising in Iraq, a significant early instance of resistance against Middle Eastern dictatorship. Rooted in the experiences shared within Michigan's Iraqi community. Focusing on southern Iraq, the thesis investigates the catalysts and mechanisms that enabled oppressed individuals under Saddam Hussein's Ba’athist regime to unite and rebel. Through extensive oral history methodologies, this research engages with diverse survivors—mothers, youth, and children—across various southern Iraqi cities. Their narratives unveil the hardships endured before, during, and after the rebellion.

Remarkably, despite oppressive conditions and violent impediments, the southern Iraqi populace achieved a formidable mass uprising. This …

Pre-Pregnancy Drinking Among A Sample Of High-Risk Women And The Association Of Social Networks, Sandra Lee King

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACTPRE-PREGNANCY DRINKING AMONG A SAMPLE OF HIGH-RISK WOMEN AND THE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Background: Characteristics of drinking alcohol can include drinking contemporaneously; at the same time as others, and concordantly; when individuals exhibit identical traits or characteristics. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the association of pre-pregnancy drinking among a unique sample of high-risk women and to investigate the association of their social network members as predictors of alcohol consumption during the 3-month preconceptional period. Analysis was conducted on the patterns of alcohol consumption among study participants who were recruited from the Healthy Families Indiana (HFI) …

Beyond The Rainbow: Predicting Intra And Intergroup Political Attitudes Of Latinx And Black Americans And The Potential For Cooperation And Conflict, Randall Wyatt

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation uses social psychological theory and methods to better understand the political attitudes of whites, Blacks, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans in the contemporary United States. Using quantitative methodology and survey research, I estimate the potential for cooperation and conflict between racial minorities and the political implications that these measures may have. I show that perceptions of competition with immigrants are strongly associated with anti-immigration preferences even among racial minorities such as Blacks and Latinx Americans, of who have a long history of migration to the United States. However, I also show that there is potential for interracial cooperation …

Transformation Of The St. Clair Maritime Cultural Landscape From The Seventeenth To The Twentieth Centuries, Daniel Frederick Harrison

Wayne State University Dissertations

The St. Clair system—a river, delta and lake between Lake Huron and the Detroit River—offers significant opportunities to study long-term maritime landscape formation, and to preserve a unique resource. Few maritime landscapes in the Great Lakes remain so deeply and clearly inscribed by successive cultures. This permits both focused and comprehensive analyses and comparisons of the ideologies, technologies and practices of indigenous, colonial, and modern societies as each created its unique place in the environment through four processes: cognition, dwelling, movement, and representation. The socially-conditioned perception of environmental resources and constraints, and resulting strategies to exploit the former while minimizing …

Named But Not Known: Teaching And Assessing The Research-Writing Process, Ruth Boeder

Wayne State University Dissertations

In lived experience, the two processes of secondary research and writing overlap and intertwine interminably, creating an overarching complex system as research becomes expressed in writing and writing generates new research. This classroom study explores the two processes as one—the research-writing process—through coding of student journal responses and assessment of student research papers. Analysis reveals students to be thoughtful but not yet as nuanced in their descriptions of their research process as much be desired. They more frequently discuss writing with weaknesses in their research process than with research strengths. Further findings indicate that although it is difficult to assess …

Turning Passion Into Profit: When Leisure Becomes Work In Modern Roller Derby, Amanda Nicole Draft

Wayne State University Dissertations

Modern roller derby operates as a “by the skater, for the skater” business model, where participants are not paid but must devote a certain amount of time, effort, and money to sustaining their sport and respective organizations. At the same time, while derby is grounded in anti-corporate values, a growing industry has sprouted to support the sport, the larger share of which consists of small business retailers selling gear, apparel, and other accessories. I use the context of modern roller derby to examine the changing natures of work and leisure, specifically how they operate as greedy institutions and emphasizing the …

Gender And Work: An Analysis Of Mid-Level Women Administrators In Student Affairs, Eboni Turnbow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research has examined the experiences of women faculty in higher education. However, the experiences of non-faculty mid-level women administrators within higher education continues to be understudied. Women are often the majority in non-faculty positions, yet men dominate senior level positions. Instead, women are frequently clustered in entry and mid-level administrative roles within student affairs divisions or departments, often with limited access to career ladders. Drawing on the theoretical framework of gendered work organizations, this study explores the experiences of women working in non-academic departments, and analyzes how these experiences impact their career advancement at four-year public universities. More specifically, I …

Cultivating Transmedia Storytelling: Real World Perceptions Derived From Popular Media, Tabitha Lynn Cassidy

Wayne State University Dissertations

With continued interest in media convergence, transmedia storytelling is as prevalent to communication studies as ever. However, research into the effects of transmedia storytelling remains scarce. Looking at the difference between heavy and light viewers, cultivation theory purports that those who more frequently view violent programming on television are more likely to think the world is a violent place. As of writing, such effects have not yet been extended to transmedia storytelling. This dissertation fills in those gaps in research by examining the cultivation effects of transmedia storytelling usage on participants. First, the main themes or messages of content within …

Distillation Of Sound: Dub In Jamaica And The Creation Of Culture, Eric J. Abbey

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the early 1970s, the culture of Jamaica shifted politically and culturally with the introduction of the mixing board in music. This writing centers on the ways in which technology created a culture of dub reggae that has gone on to affect the world. The major albums and engineers that influenced this change are the focus here. By doing so, we can view how large changes in technology affected the society of Jamaica and how this led to significant cultural development. With Raymond Williams’ definition of culture and Thomas Vendrys’ structure of Dub music, the culture is defined, furthered, and …

Research Before Teaching And Service? Performances, Perceptions, And Experiences Of Faculty At Teaching-Intensive Institutions, Megan Elizabeth Throm

Wayne State University Dissertations

The privileging of research over teaching is well documented in scholarship regarding the teaching-research nexus. In this dissertation I analyze the experiences and identities related to research, teaching, and service of sixteen faculty members at teaching-intensive institutions through intensive interviews. The focus on teaching-intensive institutions is driven by two goals. The first goal was to gain a better understanding of how the privileging of research over teaching and service is experienced, understood, and reified by faculty members at teaching-intensive institutions. Second, by giving voice to the experiences of those at teaching-intensive institutions I hope to increase the value placed on …

Snowden Is (Not) A Whistleblower: An Analysis Of Ideographs And Anti-Democratic Rhetorical Strategies Within The U.S. Government’S Response To Edward Snowden, Joshua Guitar

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is a rhetorical criticism of the U.S. government’s response to Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed illegal and unethical surveillance tactics of the National Security Agency and U.S. government. Informed by contemporary theories of democracy, this synchronic ideographic analysis examines the rhetorical strategies of U.S. government officials following Snowden’s disclosures. This dissertation contends that in laboring to absolve themselves of culpability, U.S. officials obfuscated Snowden and operationalized as an ideograph. This reification provides methodological development to ideographic analysis as it demonstrates how a political figure can become a rhetorical abstraction used for ideological purposes. The rhetorical interplay between …

Democratic Communication: Lessons From The Flint Water Crisis, Mindy Myers

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation develops an approach to institutional critique that re-works Porter, Sullivan, Blythe, Grabill, and Miles’ foundational configuration. This project argues that John Dewey’s concept of democratic communication articulated in his debate with Walter Lippmann provides a useful heuristic for developing democratic communicative practices that allow citizens and experts to communicate with one another about technical issues such as water quality and safety. Through an analysis of Michigan’s emergency manager law, the relationship between citizens and experts that exposed the crisis, and the Flint Water Advisory Task Force’s Final Report, this dissertation establishes that citizens must participate in technical decision-making …

Liquor Store Theatre: Ethnography & Contemporary Art In Detroit, Maya Stovall, Ph.D.

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

LIQUOR STORE THEATRE:

ETHNOGRAPHY AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN DETROIT

by

MAYA STOVALL

2018

Advisor: Dr. Andrew D. Newman

Major: Anthropology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Liquor Store Theatre is a study of the struggle for the city in contemporary Detroit. An ethnography completed over several years in an east side Detroit neighborhood called McDougall Hunt, the project exists in a variety of registers, working across contemporary art, performance, urban anthropology, critical geography, visual studies, film and new media, African American studies, and urban studies. The visual work of Liquor Store Theatre includes a four-volume, twenty-plus video episode meditation on city …

Constitutive Memories Of City Space: Rhetorics Of Civil Rights Memory In Detroit’S Urban Landscape, Scott Mitchell

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines public memories of civil rights injustice and resistance as constitutive rhetorics of urban culture and spatiality for the city of Detroit. By studying the city of Detroit as it navigates an ongoing period of dramatic change and redevelopment, this study demonstrates how material manifestations of memory become the constitutive forces that define what many describe as “Detroit’s heart and soul.” This project illustrates the embedded cultural logics produced from sites of public memory, thereby arguing city spaces as locations bound to their legacies and beholden to material and symbolic consequences of their past. This dissertation proceeds through …

Food Waste In The United States: Issues, Ethics, And Solutions, Patrick Erickson

Honors College Theses

One-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. In North America and Europe, 280-300 kg of food is wasted per capita each year, with more than 40% of the losses occurring at the retail and consumer level. In this paper, I compare the amount of food wasted in the United States to the amounts wasted by different societies around the world, and discuss the reasons for the food waste, and the consequences that the waste has on our society, in terms of resource consumption and production of pollution. The pragmatic philosophy of Richard Rorty states …

Black Male Genocide: Sanctioned Segregation In American Policy, Alton Maxel James

Wayne State University Dissertations

College degree attainment for Black Americans has significantly fallen their majority counterparts. While educational attainment for this minority demographic has been less than average, a secondary trend emerges. Despite the rises in graduation rates, Black males consistently earn a smaller percentage of the degrees garnered by Black students. Furthermore, policies throughout sectors of American society produce segregation that manifests as genocidal realities in the lives of Black men—including college graduation. Thus, the purpose of this research was to determine the effect of neighborhood segregation on Black men and women’s 4 and 6-year graduation probability and determine if Black men reduce …

Colorism Bias In Hiring Decisions: Disentangling The Effects Of Hair Type And Skin Tone, Niambi Maia Childress Powell

Wayne State University Dissertations

Studies on colorism bias are prevalent, but there exists a gap in the literature regarding how this construct operates within organizational contexts (Marira & Mitra, 2013). The current research explores colorism bias in organizational hiring decisions, considering both hair type and skin tone as physical markers which influence the enactment of colorism biases; as well as investigating the mediating effect of racial identity strength and attractiveness of the applicant, and moderating effects of job type. In a quasi-experimental design, participants viewed a Black female job applicant being considered for either a blue or white collar job, with varying degrees of …

Digital Literacies And “Glee”: The Role Of Fan Fiction Virtual Writing And Social Commentary In Response To Bullying Themes With Adolescent Writers, Mandy Rita Stewart

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DIGITAL LITERACIES AND “GLEE”: THE ROLE OF FAN FICTION VIRTUAL WRITING AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY IN RESPONSE TO BULLYING THEMES WITH ADOLESCENT WRITERS

by

MANDY STEWART

May 2017

Advisor: Dr. Gina DeBlase

Major: Curriculum and Instruction

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

As the education system turns its attention to climate, bullying, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) issues in the classroom, there is a focus on developing our student population abilities to be more accepting and tolerant of diversity. This study explored how ten students, aged 16-17, interacted with virtual literacy events on www.fanfiction.net, and how that contributed to their refinements …

Rituals Reproducing Race: African American Women's Feminine Hygiene Practices, Shared Experiences, And Power, Angela K. Guy-Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the role African American women’s feminine hygiene practices, namely vaginal douching, plays in the creation and reproduction of race. Compared to their white and Latina counterparts, African American women are the most likely to engage in this practice. Vaginal douching is associated with myriad reproductive and sexual health problems. These problems include but are not limited to recurrent yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, disrupting healthy vaginal microbiomes, and spontaneous preterm birth; of which African American women experience disproportionately. Although racial differences in vaginal douching are well documented, little is known about the impetus for African …

Pathetic Politics: An Analysis Of Emotion And Embodiment In First Lady Rhetoric, Stephanie Lynn Wideman

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation explores the theoretical and practical relationship between our understandings of emotion’s role in political decision-making. In this pursuit I seek a resurrection for pathos’s legitimacy in persuasive studies through the pursuit of the pathetic political realm. This work has three primary concerns: how may pathetic power be accessed, from where does this power originate, and how might political actors enact this power for their own political goals. I draw primarily from theories related to visual rhetoric and the body in order to provide perspective on how the body is politicized through the pathetic realm. Theoretical perspectives are drawn …

Parent Interaction In Primetime Family Themed Television Portrayals: A Replication And Extension Of Dail And Way's (1985) Content Analysis, Anna Maria Katherine Flores

Wayne State University Dissertations

This research is a replication and extension of Dail and Way’s (1985) content analysis identifying parent interactions portrayed in family oriented prime time network television programs. Family structure, parent role, child rearing, and child responses were coded from five episodes each of eight different programs from 2014-2015 television season. The programs presented parent roles more often than child rearing, while mothers were found in child rearing more often than fathers. Traditional family structures were most prevalent with fewer single parent households and a new presence of same-sex parents. Mothers and fathers were still portrayed stereotypically, but children’s responses were more …

The Narrative Of The Outsider: Marginalization In The Works Of María Luisa Bemberg, Lucrecia Martel, And Lucía Puenzo, Natalie Nagl

Wayne State University Dissertations

Through film and literature, my dissertation explores the representation of race, social class, and gender in the works of three Argentine directors. These social constructs have become so ingrained in interpersonal relations that there is rigidity in how they are considered. Therefore, those individuals who do not think and interact appropriately with the constructs occupy the outside. The possibility of marginalization adds another layer to the constructs by sensitizing them to the point that they affect the individual and their relationships (i.e. psychologically and socially). However, several representations, such as those that make up our corpus, challenge the definitions of …

This Is Us Saying Who We Are: Speaking The Rhetoric Of Mental Disability, Renuka Uthappa

Wayne State University Dissertations

People with mental disabilities, or what are sometimes referred to as “mental illnesses,” face stigma when they interact with the public. To fight this stigma, the members of a small, grassroots, advocacy organization known as the Speakers Bureau travel to high school and college classrooms narrating their experiences with mental disability. They do so to replace culturally circulating stereotypes regarding such disability with more accurate and positive images. This dissertation is an auto-ethnographic exploration of the rhetoric of the Speakers Bureau. Through rhetorical analysis of members’ classroom speeches, of interviews with each speaker, and of the speaker’s self- assessment of …

Variations In The Marital Attitudes And Marital Status Of Black And White Americans: An Intersectional Approach, Stacey Ellen Coleman

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the unique socio-demographic positions of Black and White Americans related to variations in marital attitudes and marital status and differences in sex. The study was guided by two research aims: 1.) to assess whether socio-demographic factors were related to racial variations in marital attitudes of Blacks and Whites and if the relationships differ by race and sex and 2.) to assess whether socio-demographic factors were differentially associated with marital status of Black and White Americans and if they varied by race and sex. The study drew on individual-level, nationally representative, cross-sectional, 2010 …

Emerging Genres Of Online Technical Communciation, Luke Anthony Thominet

Wayne State University Dissertations

Emerging Genres of Online Technical Communication is a study of how the proliferation of non-professional participation has the potential to significantly change the shape of technical communication. More specifically, I use a genre analysis methodology to investigate three forms of user-generated content: crowdsourced documentation wikis, video games user reviews, and video game open development. In the first study, I analyze five crowdsourced documentation wikis and find systemic inconsistency in the workflow and content quality of the documentation. Subsequently, I argue that practitioners should use minimalist documentation theory to design more effective user-centered author support for the wikis. My second chapter …

Mass Incarceration In Detroit: A Historical Narrative, Labreonna \. Bland

Wayne State University Theses

Mass incarceration has pervaded throughout the country and in its wake, the United States is looked to as the country that imprisons the largest percentage of its population than any other place in the world. The phenomenon of mass incarceration continues to be deconstructed by scholars in an attempt to turn the tide and understand the various intricacies that lie at the center of our carceral state. This paper attempts to explore those intricacies on a local level by looking at Detroit, Michigan. The city of Detroit has been constantly restructured economically, politically, racially, and socially throughout the years as …

Conversations On Controversy: An Examination Of Internet Discussions On High-Profile Incidents Of Recorded Police Brutality, Brittany Nicole Jefferson

Wayne State University Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the conversations that Internet user have when discussing publicized, recorded incidents of police brutality. This study examined the deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Walter Scott and the subsequent discussions about the incidents on YouTube.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com. This was accomplished by using an exploratory content analysis to establish what are the general topics of these discussions. This analysis found that there are 2 major themes that are discussed by Internet users when they comment; the content of the video and the social context of the incident itself. However, the popularity …

Anders Breivik And Elliot Rodger: Violence, Communication, And The Mediated Sphere., Walter Anthony Lucken Iv

Wayne State University Theses

The “mass shooting” has become a major hallmark of everyday news and discussions in mass media. Through the lens of two specific cases, this research situates the mass shooting within a few preexisting historical continuities and disciplines. The mass shooting is read as a communicative media event, and is considered from the perspective of mass media proliferation, political violence, discourse, semiotics, and turn of the century cultural antagonisms. The methods employed herein are textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, and post-Marxian models of historical causation.

The mass shooting is an outgrowth of global consolidation and proliferation of mass media. The mass shootings …

The Relationship Between Generation, First And Second, Ethnic Identity, Modernity, And Acculturation Among Immigrant Lebanese American Women, Hanan Elali Fadlallah

Wayne State University Dissertations

Based on Berry’s model of acculturation, when immigrants move to a new country, they choose to live according to any one of the following four acculturation modes: assimilation, integration, separation, or marginalization. The specific cultural and psychosocial characteristics of the acculturating individual or group determine what acculturation mode they will most likely follow. Generation, ethnic identity and modernity are few examples of those cultural and psychosocial referents. The present study examined the relationship of generation, ethnic identity and modernity to acculturation among first and second-generation Lebanese American immigrant women living in the metro-Detroit area. Using the snowball technique, ninety women …

Between Coloniality And Transmodernity:Latino/A Fictional Responses To U.S. Interventionism In Latin America, Dolly Reina Tittle

Wayne State University Dissertations

Abstract: This work focuses on four novels: The Americano (1963) by Enrique G. Matta, América’s Dream (1996) by Esmeralda Santiago, Caramelo or Puro Cuento: A novel (2002) by Sandra Cisneros, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) by Junot Díaz. These novels share a history of U.S. interventionism, which has not only affected the inhabitants of Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, still a colony of the U.S., but also the lives of their population that now reside in the U.S. mainland. As Latino Studies Scholar Juan Flores has explained, many Latinos/as in the U.S. “migrated here …