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An Exploration Of The Contributions Of Parenting Styles And Peer Relationships On The Emotional Expression Of Second-Generation Indian-Americans, Smitha M. Kashi Dec 2024

An Exploration Of The Contributions Of Parenting Styles And Peer Relationships On The Emotional Expression Of Second-Generation Indian-Americans, Smitha M. Kashi

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation used a qualitative analysis methodology to study the contributions of parenting styles and peer relationships on the emotional expressivity of second generation Asian Indian-Americans. Seven participants participated in a 60 - 90 minute long semi-structured interview and the content was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Most previous research regarding this topic has been conducted on White American or European individuals and does not take into consideration the many intersectionalities that second-generation Indian-Americans hold. Many participants discussed the lack of direction they experienced in regards to learning about their emotions and disclosed that college and young adulthood provided …


An Exploration Of Adult Children’S Attachment To Their Parents Across Two Cultural Groups: Indians In India And Indians Who Immigrated To The United States, Vilasini Meenakshi Arun Aug 2024

An Exploration Of Adult Children’S Attachment To Their Parents Across Two Cultural Groups: Indians In India And Indians Who Immigrated To The United States, Vilasini Meenakshi Arun

Doctoral Dissertations

Typically, attachment theory has been studied and explored with western populations. Individuals seeking mental health treatment within the United States include western and nonwestern cultural groups and research, theories and interventions that apply to diverse populations are necessary. Attachment relationships are often a part of, or reasons for clients to seek therapy either overtly or covertly, thus allowing research on attachment to better inform treatment plans and practice. An attachment relationship between a parent and child can be influenced by several factors and may change over the course of development, but little is known about this process among Indians …


"The Land That Feminism Forgot": Birthzillas, Madwives, And The Politics Of Chilbirth, Amber Vayo Aug 2023

"The Land That Feminism Forgot": Birthzillas, Madwives, And The Politics Of Chilbirth, Amber Vayo

Doctoral Dissertations

“The Land that Feminism Forgot” is an in-depth exploration of the politics of childbirth that draws together qualitative and quantitative evidence to theorize the connections between treatment in childbirth and maternal mortality. Situating the qualitative research in the larger national context, the second chapter offers a State Reproductive Autonomy Index that provides an overview of the reproductive policy landscape at the national level. The dissertation then explores the role of institutionalized childbirth, medical mistrust, and obstetric violence in the U.S.’s longstanding maternal mortality crisis and offers policy suggestions in key public health areas. Through 120 qualitative interviews with people who …


The Evaluation Of "The Wrong Answer Project" As Validity Evidence For The Social Consequences Of Testing, Darius D. Taylor Aug 2023

The Evaluation Of "The Wrong Answer Project" As Validity Evidence For The Social Consequences Of Testing, Darius D. Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of educational tests for making high stakes decisions has had societal consequences for decades. Parents, teachers, and administrators have been willing to pay off, lie, cheat, and steal so that their children, students, and they themselves would not fall prey to the negative consequences of subpar performance on educational assessments. Respected psychometric scholars have supported Samuel Messick’s claim over the years, but their advocacy has caught minimal traction. I founded an initiative in 2019 – The Wrong Answer Project – that shows promise as a vehicle for collecting validity evidence based on the social consequences of testing and …


For The Love Of Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience Of Moral Education, Anne Marie Foley Ruiz Aug 2023

For The Love Of Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience Of Moral Education, Anne Marie Foley Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations

Moral aspects of teaching arise each and every day, yet we lack information about how prepared teachers feel about this critical aspect of teaching. This multi-case study explores perceptions of five pre-service teachers in an elementary teacher education program in Western Massachusetts. A series of interviews explore their histories prior to the program and their experiences in the program as related to the pre-service teachers’ orientations to the moral work of teaching. Research questions address the awareness and self-efficacy of student teachers in implementing the moral aspects of teaching. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), this study explores beliefs …


Greenwashing “Brown Gold”: A Critical Analysis Of Anaerobic Digesters And California’S Neoliberal Environmental Programs In Wisconsin’S Dairyland, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio Aug 2023

Greenwashing “Brown Gold”: A Critical Analysis Of Anaerobic Digesters And California’S Neoliberal Environmental Programs In Wisconsin’S Dairyland, Sarah Emily D'Onofrio

Doctoral Dissertations

Large dairy farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), have turned to anaerobic digesters as the industry is increasingly pressured to find ways to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. Digesters are machines that turn animal waste from CAFOs into electricity and fuel which are then sold as “credits” in California’s market based climate change mitigation programs such as cap and trade and the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) program. However, this dissertation not only challenges the assertion that digesters are “green,” but also that these programs are doing what they claim to do in a deregulated and re-regulated …


Genealogy Tells: Informing Health And Aging Policies Using East Tennessean Older Women's Family Histories, Perceptions, And Experiences Of Health Inequity, Heather Davis Dec 2022

Genealogy Tells: Informing Health And Aging Policies Using East Tennessean Older Women's Family Histories, Perceptions, And Experiences Of Health Inequity, Heather Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

Older women face unique health inequities challenges. This study aims to provide an understanding of older women’s perceptions and situated experiences regarding the gendered health inequities they face and the social determinants (SDH) thereof. It examines how these health inequities are situated in older women’s genealogical (familial) and geographical health and mortality outcomes histories and how their perceptions and experiences of health inequities and their familial mortality outcomes histories are characterized by the geopolitical and social norms in which they live. The purpose of this project is to present policy and decision-makers with insights about and recommendations from older women …


Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo Oct 2022

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I advance a political ethnography of critical infrastructure to better understand terminal capitalism, in which the waste products of commodification and resource depletion are destroying the ecological systems that support life. My object of study is the massive disjuncture between individual knowledge and intention, and these catastrophic collective planetary outcomes. Theoretically, I develop critical infrastructure theory to diagnose these destructive structures. By “infrastructure,” I mean systems of material and discursive flows fundamental to sedentary human organization, connecting local actions with global systems. Such infrastructure is “critical” in three senses: A) denoting the most important forms of infrastructure …


How Well Does The New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program Work For Black Men? A Mixed Methods Study, Michael A. Dejesus Iii Oct 2022

How Well Does The New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program Work For Black Men? A Mixed Methods Study, Michael A. Dejesus Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research trended towards a deficit-oriented approach to understanding and explaining Black male underachievement. The past education research has focused on discussing the underachievement of Black males in Higher education. Finding solutions often were prescriptive in “fixing” behaviors in Black males to improve academic achievement. Additionally, there has been a trend towards race-neutrality in education policies, programs, and admissions criteria. And there is a lack of research on whether race-neutrality further exacerbates Black male underachievement by ignoring key race and gender targeted supports services that could improve Black male academic outcomes in higher education. While Black men have historically struggled …


Justice Involvement During Covid-19 And The Possibility Of Transitional Justice, Rachel A. Ponder May 2022

Justice Involvement During Covid-19 And The Possibility Of Transitional Justice, Rachel A. Ponder

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced numerous unprecedented political, social, and economic challenges that resulted in unprecedented responses by policy makers. As result, existing inequalities and injustices rooted in a dense history of structural and institutional violence were uncovered and exacerbated. As of June 2021, at least 398,627 people in prison tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 2,715 had died (The Marshall Project 2021). In the United States, the inmate population is disproportionately made up of poor, people of color. This is a pattern that is rooted in the country’s long history of racism and white supremacy. This cycle continues as …


Alt-Education: Gender, Language, And Education Across The Right, Catherine Tebaldi Mar 2022

Alt-Education: Gender, Language, And Education Across The Right, Catherine Tebaldi

Doctoral Dissertations

I explore the ideologies of gender, language and education in conservative, Christian Nationalist, and White nationalist mothers groups. I draw on my own family history, as well as on two years of blended ethnographic research in online right wing communities and one year of fieldwork in New Orleans, Louisiana, to look at homeschooling, online schools, and public teachers’ social, linguistic, and educational practices -- what I call Alt-Education. Alt-education is of course a play on alt-right, and refers to the far-right ideology; but it also refers to an alternative to mainstream education, and to education through a broader range of …


Grammars Of Identity: Political Languages Of Activism In Argentina And The United States, Ana M. Ospina Pedraza Oct 2021

Grammars Of Identity: Political Languages Of Activism In Argentina And The United States, Ana M. Ospina Pedraza

Doctoral Dissertations

In recent history, democratic popular assemblies have played a significant role in political organizing worldwide. Contemporary theorists and social movement scholars see a global ethos of collective action in the growth of the assembly form. This dissertation studies the language of collective action in two movements that illustrate the global significance of assemblies: the neighborhood assemblies of Buenos Aires in 2002 and the New York General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street in 2011. These movements were connected by transnational networks of activism and a commitment to internal democracy now prevalent in the global left. This research asks two questions: what …


Platforms And Power: Transnational Guatemala, Eric Sippert Sep 2021

Platforms And Power: Transnational Guatemala, Eric Sippert

Doctoral Dissertations

Moving beyond studies of social movements and NGOs, this dissertation examines how grassroots groups in Guatemala use transnational flows of goods, ideas, and people to create new organizational forms and types of political action. This case study of an organization of returned migrants, former combatants, and indigenous youth demonstrates how marginalized groups create platforms that facilitate connections between disparate actors across nation-state and identity borders. Drawing on field research in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, I explore how these platforms emerged, threats to them, their effects, and what they can teach us about political organizing in crisis. I begin by tracing the …


A Minority Within A Minority: Exploring Identity Development In Relation To Mental Health Outcomes Within The Black Deaf Community, Nekolas Milton Aug 2021

A Minority Within A Minority: Exploring Identity Development In Relation To Mental Health Outcomes Within The Black Deaf Community, Nekolas Milton

Doctoral Dissertations

Black Deaf people are a double minority group that faces discrimination on multiple fronts. There is little literature on the relationship of cultural identity development and mental health concerns of this marginalized group. This study employs a mixed method approach to examine this relationship and explore the extant culturally tailored interventions targeted towards Black Deaf adults in a clinical setting. There were two phases of this project. Phase 1 included qualitative interviews with service providers of black deaf people to ascertain the type of culturally tailored interventions that are in place for this population. 5 themes emerged: systemic issues, mental …


“Let Me Talk My Shit”: Exploring Raciocultural Trauma Through Embodied Arts, Andrew Brian Torres Jul 2021

“Let Me Talk My Shit”: Exploring Raciocultural Trauma Through Embodied Arts, Andrew Brian Torres

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on a qualitative study drawing on critical ethnography in conjunction with the self-reflective components of autoethnography, the critical race methodology of racial and counter-storytelling (Johnson, 2017; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), and youth-centering components of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) (Cammarota & Fine, 2010; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Torre et al., 2012). The purpose of this study was to explore the complex relationship between trauma, the lived realities of racially minoritized youth, and the arts. As theory-building research, this study sought to expand trauma theory toward raciocultural perspectives of trauma while expanding performance arts theory into an embodied …


Roadblocks To Access: Perceptions Of Law And Socioeconomic Problems In South Africa, Kira Tait Jun 2021

Roadblocks To Access: Perceptions Of Law And Socioeconomic Problems In South Africa, Kira Tait

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores ordinary Black South Africans' perceptions of the law and how these perceptions impact their views of the desirability and appropriateness of appealing to courts when they have problems accessing constitutionally guaranteed services. Specifically, I study why people choose not to use courts to secure access to water, healthcare, education, and housing when it is both legal and possible to do so. Since it transitioned to democracy, South Africa has become one of the leaders of socioeconomic rights protection through courts. It is globally recognized for its progressive constitution buttressed by an expansive system of rights and a …


Making Meaning Of Equity In A Computer Science For All Research Practitioner Partnership, Itza D. Martínez Jun 2021

Making Meaning Of Equity In A Computer Science For All Research Practitioner Partnership, Itza D. Martínez

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explored how a Computer Science for All (CSforALL) Research Practitioner Partnership (RPP) conceived of and addressed equity through their professional learning community (PLC) structure. Through an adapted equity framework, I analyzed qualities of equity literacy, as defined by Gorksi and Pothini (2018), as well as access and participation of three centrally located PLCs. Using qualitative methods, I examined the meeting artifacts, such as agendas, meeting notes, and video recordings, in order to understand how equity literacy developed over time. I also examined if and how established protocols, commonly used to facilitate collaborative work in PLCs, promoted equity literacy. …


Liberation And Gravy: An Engaged Ethnography Of Queer And Trans Power In Georgia, Elias Capello Apr 2021

Liberation And Gravy: An Engaged Ethnography Of Queer And Trans Power In Georgia, Elias Capello

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims to better understand how self-identified trans activists in Atlanta, Georgia find and build community, by using queer and Black feminist community based methodologies such as participant observation, ethnographic interviews, participatory mapping, and auto-ethnography. In particular, I ask 1) How do trans people find and build community, safety, and understanding? 2) How do transgender activists create and enact place making that does not rely on policing and privatization? To create and maintain safety for wealthy communities in Atlanta, Georgia, systems of policing and privatization are increasing. Although developers, city council members, and legislators promote Atlanta, Georgia as a …