Communication Commons^™

Texas Children's Hospital: Design As Therapy, Kaitlin Puckett

Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) is a world-renowned children’s hospital facility “located in Houston, Texas, [and] is a not-for-profit organization committed to creating a community of healthy children through excellence in patient care, education and research. [They] are proud to be consistently ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation.” Texas Children’s Hospital commits to daily caring for their patients with a quality that is unlike any other hospital. While this dedication to quality health care is essential, the hospital makes other efforts to maximize quality and experience that should not be overlooked.

Texas Children’s Hospital works tirelessly to ensure …

Prayers, Sex, Islam, And Electric Guitars: A Rhetorical Criticism Of The Taqwacores, Margaret Moore

Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

Punk rock Islam may not a common phrase to hear in society, but it is quickly expanding in popularity and in effectiveness. A fiction book entitled "The Taqwacores" tells the story of faithful Muslims practicing punk rock Islam in their own way. The novel utilizes constittive rhetoric, a concept popularized by Maurice Charland, to create a social movement that is sweeping the world. This paper analyzes the novel using the tenets of constitutive rhetoric and uses social movement theory to understand the implications that a simple book is having upon the world. Punk rock Islam may not be such an …

The New Sexy: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Sherlock, Krystal A. Fogle, Toni Maisano

Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

In recent history, there have been movements advocating for conversation and change regarding traditional gender roles. As a central part of culture, British television has not escaped this scrutiny. BBC's crime drama Sherlock directed by Steven Moffat has received both critical acclaim and attention from the general public for its portrayal of women. In this essay, we venture into this conversation, and explore portrayals of existing gender roles and how the writers of the show choose to dissent with the audience's expectations of gender portrayal. We examine connections between past and present portrayals of the classic character, Sherlock Holmes, and …

“This Whole Quest For Love”: The Role Of Narrative In The Bachelor, Suzanne Shedd

Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology

Reality television has exploded into a popular culture phenomenon in recent years, and it is likely to remain a permanent media staple. With its spike in popularity, reality TV has attracted scholarly interest, but most of this attention focuses on audiences’ responses to and motivations for viewing these fact-based programs. This study, however, is more concerned with the rhetorical strategies employed in reality television that appeal to viewers and compel them to keep watching. Centering specifically on the immensely popular romance program The Bachelor, this study examines the narrative elements evident in the show that connect audiences to other stories …

Learning To Pray The Lord’S Prayer For Spiritual Transformation At Tachikawa Church Of Christ, Naoyoshi Fukushima

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT

This thesis describes a project to lead the members of Tachikawa Church of Christ to learn and experience the power and blessings of praying the Lord’s Prayer for spiritual edification and maturity. The program consisted of eight weeks of learning the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer and doing spiritual exercises. To provide a theological foundation for this project, I delivered eight sermons on the Lord’s Prayer with strong emphasis on the relational nature of the prayer.

Those who engaged in the spiritual exercises were given opportunities to experience joy, peace, and correction as they tried to live in harmony …

Cultural Nuances For Immigrant Adolescents And Adolescents Of The Third Culture Experience: A Book Review Of Immigrant Youth In Cultural Transition: Acculturation, Identity, And Adaptation Across National Contexts, Jennifer L. Wilson

Journal of Cross-Cultural Family Studies

Cross-cultural children include Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and the children and adolescents whose families have immigrated to a new society. The book Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation Across National Contexts (Berry et al., 2012), was a multi-national and multicultural study that sought to explain how immigrant youth navigate among cultures, how they manage their multicultural experience as it relates to psychological and sociocultural adjustment, and how demographics, family variables, and cultural variables affect the immigration, acculturation, assimilation, and adaptation process for these adolescents. Many similar processes have been described in the TCK literature for TCK children, …

Experiencing Difficulties: English Language Issues Among Immersed Third Culture Kids, Marlene E. Schmidt

Journal of Cross-Cultural Family Studies

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are defined as children who have spent a significant part of their developmental years living in, or interacting with two or more cultural environments. The levels, abilities, and use of the heritage language of TCKs returning to their host country from being immersed in a second language environment can cause difficulties. This case study explored the experiences of immersed TCKs using English upon reentry to the United States. The participants are adult TCKs, have English as their heritage language, and were immersed in a second language environment as a child. This research found the following four …

Preparing The Expatriate Candidate For Global Success: A Best-Practice Analysis Of Cross-Culture Adaptation Training, Justin C. Velten

Journal of Cross-Cultural Family Studies

Increased demand for global citizenry has led scholars and educators alike to seek ways to improve intercultural communication competence (ICC). Research has focused on the theoretical underpinnings of ICC and how to implement these theoretical factors into a practical educational model. Yet, there remains a gap in the literature regarding the implementation of ICC education in the ever-increasingly popular online context. This quasi-experimental study provides a look at how online expatriate candidate training might influence ICC. Results indicate that online expatriate candidate training provides an effective model for organizational practitioners with limited time and resources.

Culture, Spirituality, Self-Acceptance, And Relationships Among Latino Students, Emily Hervey

Journal of Cross-Cultural Family Studies

While some research has been done on acculturation within the Latino population and the significance of spirituality has been included in a number of studies, there is very little research exploring the influence of these two factors in the formation of identity and relationships to others. This is particularly salient in lives of university students, as it is a time of finding their own niche in society and making decisions that shape their future. This study explores the influence of culture and spirituality on the acceptance of self and relation to others among Latino university students. The findings supported the …

Do We Know What We Think We Know? On The Importance Of Replication In Instructional Communication Research, Nicholas Tatum

Communication and Sociology

No abstract provided.

The Fluency Principle: Why Foreign Accent Strength Negatively Biases Language Attitudes, Nicholas Tatum

Communication and Sociology

Two experiments tested the prediction that heavy foreign-accented

speakers are evaluated more negatively than mild foreign-accented

speakers because the former are perceived as more prototypical (i.e.,

representative) of their respective group and their speech disrupts

listeners’ processing fluency (i.e., is more difficult to process).

Participants listened to a mild or heavy Punjabi- (Study 1) or

Mandarin-accented (Study 2) speaker. Compared to the mildaccented

speaker, the heavy-accented speaker in both studies was

attributed less status (but not solidarity), was perceived as more

prototypical of their respective group, disrupted listeners’

processing fluency, and elicited a more negative affective

reaction. The negative effects …

After The Shoe Fits: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Four Versions Of The Cinderella Narrative, Faith L. Boren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fairy tales hold the power to influence societies and to challenge societal injustices, and the story of Cinderella exemplifies both of these roles. In this study, I conduct a rhetorical analysis of four different versions of the Cinderella narrative: Charles Perrault’s “Cendrillon,” the Brothers Grimm’s “Ascenputtel,” Anne Sexton’s "Cinderella,” and Disney’s Cinderella (2015). I examine Perrault’s “Cendrillon” and the Grimms’ “Aschenputtel” using constitutive rhetoric. This theory operates around the basic premise that rhetoric holds the power to aid in the shaping of societies. While analyzing “Cendrillon” and “Aschenputtel,” I specifically look for themes of classism and nationalism, respectively. I then …

The Effects Of Greek Life On Political Participation And Interaction Involvement, Philip Lamborn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions of higher education are constantly trying to learn more about their own student population. Whether this means a student’s academic performance, social life, personality traits, or political involvement it is important to study the lives of university students so as to better understand and serve that population. Specifically, studying the relationship between communication and political participation among college students is important for those working in higher education, researching voting behaviors, and for the general public. Students in Greek Letter Societies (GLS), also known as fraternities/sororities or social clubs, are a perfect population to study the effects of communication on …

The Influence Of Classroom Cell Phone Policies On Instructor Credibility, Nicholas Tatum

Communication and Sociology

Considering the growth of cell phone usage in the classroom, instructors often attempt to regulate student behavior through specific technology policies in their syllabi. However, research offers little explanation regarding the influence of policies that try to restrict cell phone usage on perceptions of instructor credibility. Using the social influence (SI) model of technology use as a sensitizing lens, results from this study (N = 206) demonstrated that policies encouraging the use of cell phones for instructional purposes resulted in significantly greater student perceptions of instructor credibility than policies discouraging the use of cell phones for noninstructional (i.e. social) purposes.