Sociology Commons^™

Her Story Told Her Way: A Narrative Inquiry Into Black Women’S Perception Of The Strong Black Woman., Chulyndria Chanee Laye

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The narrative surrounding the meaning of being a Black woman has historically been dominated by stereotypes such as the mammy, jezebel, sapphire, and angry Black woman. Black women have attempted to control their own narrative through the internalization of these stereotypes, leading to the creation of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) construct. While the SBW is comprised of a sense of caretaker, independence, and emotional restraint, Black women’s attempts at embodying this construct in the face of societal oppression and familial responsibilities can and often does have negative effects on their mental health. Although the behaviors associated with the SBW …

Hedda Is All Of Us. On Directing Henrik Ibsen’S Hedda Gabler, Laura Catherine Post

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to document the process of directing Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 play Hedda Gabler at the University of Arkansas in February 2023. The chapters include the script selection process, translation selection process, casting, text analysis, research, design process, rehearsal process, and production evaluation.

Differences In Due Process During Post-Conviction: Examining Jurisdictional Influence On Exoneration, Kimberly Hawkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on wrongful conviction has found several factors associated with an erroneous conviction. As of yet, research has not delved into the jurisdictional effects on exoneration. Using the American State’s use of the death penalty for a proxy of punitiveness, this study will examine if there is a relationship between use of capital punishment and exoneration rates. The National Registry of Exonerations is the most comprehensive collection of exonerations to date and this secondary data source will be analyzed using logistic regression models to examine differences across policy environments. Result show that non-death penalty states have a much higher exoneration …

Holocaust Education In Arkansas: An Exploration Of Policy Process And Implementation, Toby Lauren Wagner Klein

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Holocaust was the attempted extermination of the Jewish people--a fact previously considered to be common knowledge. However, recent national surveys find that Arkansas students have the lowest levels of knowledge of the Holocaust in the United States. A recent law mandated the teaching of the Holocaust for 5-12th grade public school students in Arkansas, however, little is known about the policy process and implementation of such a mandate. Given the magnitude of the gaps in the literature on this topic, this dissertation uses a three article format to address specific gaps and make specific contributions to the literature by …

Portal, M'Shinda Abdullah Broaddus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Portal is a series of large-scale multimedia collages that work to show the intersections between three very different and Tim-specific imagery. The imagery utilized, and the intersections highlighted aim to acknowledge a deep cultural history of how black men have been stripped of their personhood in visual media, and how that history has negatively impacted/impacts the way that black men are able to exist in reality.

Lgbtqia+ People And Religious Trauma, Cira Abiseid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual people (LGBTQIA+) experience religious trauma caused by the harmful messaging often aimed at sexual and gender minorities. Identity dissonance can be created when LGBTQIA+ people find their religious and sexual or gender minority identities at odds with each other. A review of existing literature revealed themes of identity erasure, internalized homophobia, and resilience, but there was limited research involving this population. This qualitative study centers the voices of those who have experienced religious trauma based on their identities and works to understand their healing journeys. Fifteen LGBTQIA+ individuals participated …

The Role Of Multiracial Identity On Chronic Health Conditions In The U. S.: Evidence From The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, Anna Ruth Jinlong Wahls

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Racial identity as it informs health disparities has largely been examined using monoracial groups and a binary framework. This study, informed by critical race theory and stress process theory, investigates the relationship between multiracial identity and health. Data from the 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, a national telephone survey that collects health data on adult aged respondents, will be analyzed using a set of regression techniques. Specifically, the number of chronic health conditions reported by those identifying with more than one race will be compared to the number of conditions reported by monoracial individuals.

Inspirando El Futuro: Stories About Latina Leaders In Northwest Arkansas, Wendy Echeverria

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to showcase the Latina leaders in Northwest Arkansas and empower other Latinas to dream and achieve more. With the Latin American and Hispanic communities growing rapidly, it’s essential to highlight research and changes being done in local communities. The project is a five-episode podcast. Each episode features a Latina leader and experts, and it takes a deep dive into who Latinas are, their challenges, successes, and so much more.

Movie Reviews Sentiment Analysis Using Bert, Gibson Nkhata

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sentiment analysis (SA) or opinion mining is analysis of emotions and opinions from texts. It is one of the active research areas in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Various approaches have been deployed in the literature to address the problem. These techniques devise complex and sophisticated frameworks in order to attain optimal accuracy with their focus on polarity classification or binary classification. In this paper, we aim to fine-tune BERT in a simple but robust approach for movie reviews sentiment analysis to provide better accuracy than state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. We start by conducting sentiment classification for every review, followed by computing …

A Quantitative Examination Of The Influence Of Social And Structural Communication Variables On The Social Connectedness Of People Experiencing Homelessness, Shawn Michael Evans

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the influence of social and structural communication variables on the perceived social connectedness of people experiencing homelessness in the Northwest Arkansas (NWA) and Joplin, Missouri areas. This study employed the ecological perspective of communication infrastructure theory (CIT; Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001) and a communication perspective which envisions communicative interaction as constitutive of social experience. Using survey data from 166 participants, this study examined 11 research questions and hypotheses drawn from extant literature on homelessness, social connectedness, and CIT. ANOVAs, t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed a complex relationship between individuals and the communicative environment. This study …

Exploring Leadership In An Extreme Environment: A Haiti Farm Project, Tami Strickland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined the impact Situational Leadership Theory II® has on followers in a small community in Haiti. Many studies have examined Situational Leadership Theory II® in corporate environments, but not in the low-income context of Haiti. The study focused on how the leadership characteristics and adaptability levels of an expatriate influenced the construction and the ongoing management of a Haiti egg farm project, which is timely based on the volatility currently in the country prior to and after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Using various data gathering instruments, the study explored the expatriate’s leadership …

Multivariate Fairness For Paper Selection, Reem Alsaffar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Peer review is the process by which publishers select the best publications for inclusion in a journal or a conference. Bias in the peer review process can impact which papers are selected for inclusion in conferences and journals. Although often implicit, race, gender and other demographics can prevent members of underrepresented groups from presenting at major conferences. To try to avoid bias, many conferences use a double-blind review process to increase fairness during reviewing. However, recent studies argue that the bias has not been removed completely. Our research focuses on developing fair algorithms that correct for these biases and select …

Understanding Perceptions Of Graduating Seniors From Rural Schools On Higher Education: A Preregistered Study, Desiree Denise Brake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case (preregistered) study is to interview rural young Americans, deeply explore how they think about higher education as they prepare for life beyond high school, and analyze how those views and perceptions translate into barriers or motivators to its pursuit. Rural Americans feel less optimistic about their financial futures, find it more difficult to find a job in their communities, and believe their children will have a lower standard of living than their parents when they reach their parents’ age (Morin, 2016). Rural students are more likely to graduate from high school than their urban …

Forging Community In The Ouachita Foothills Of Southwest Arkansas: Duckett Township, Homesteading, Distilling And Race, Lisa C. Childs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community was key to successful subsistence agriculture in Arkansas, especially in the Ouachita foothills in southwest Arkansas (including Polk, Howard, Montgomery, Pike, Garland Counties) and Oklahoma (McCurtain, Pittsburgh, LeFlore Counties) until the 1940s. Nearly a quarter of Arkansas’s land remained in the federal government’s name twenty years after statehood, and even more of the land in the western Ouachita foothills. Much remains unknown about how farming communities were formed in this area from the end of the Civil War until approximately World War II. As seen in the Duckett community in northern Howard County, while family connections were important to …

“What’S Belonging Got To Do With It?”: An Exploration Of Campus Racial Climate And Sense Of Belonging In Black Counseling Students Attending Predominately White Institutions In The North Atlantic Region, Erin Durrah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dialogues are raging across campuses throughout the U.S. with specific focus on the needs of Black student populations in the aftermath of the George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbury murders. However, if the supportive spirit of the DEI initiatives is undermined by a hostile campus climate and local community, it may negatively impact the learning environment isolating the target population, while also effecting their potential for successful completion of their programs. The current qualitative study aims to explore the perceptions of belonging expressed by Black graduate students enrolled in Council for Accreditation of Counseling …

Gender Neutral Parenting: Raising A Generation Outside The Gender Binary, Toni Noelle Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the social and cultural reality remains organized around the gender binary. The binary legitimizes itself on the widely held belief that gender is determined by biology and, therefore, is “natural.” By exploring and firmly placing gender as a cultural construct, this thesis looks at the possibilities of fracturing the binary. Borrowing from Stephan Hirschauer (1994) and Judith Butler’s (2004), this thesis theorizes what a gender neutral world could look like and examines how Gender Neutral Parents contribute toward a gender revolution. Gender Neutral Parents, a community that is mostly found online, represent a small group that …

Court Actor Decision-Making: The Influence Of Victim Characteristics On Legal Outcomes In Cases Of Bias Homicide, Taylor June

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While most states in America have passed laws permitting harsher punishments for those convicted of hate (or bias) crimes, there has been no research to date on the adjudication of these defendants, including how legal and extralegal attributes of bias crime shape prosecutorial and judicial decision-making. This gap in research is likely due in part to the limitations of official data on bias crimes. Fortunately, new data on legal outcomes for bias homicide offenders who target victims because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or homed status have become available from the open-source database known as …

Church, Country, Culture: How Three Aspects Of Authoritarianism Predict Support For Donald Trump, Trenton Leslie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the American bipartisan system, ideologies and beliefs create political views that sort voters between two groups. Political sorting increases polarization based on cultural preferences for an in-group that become ethnocentric views, which develop into ethnocentric cultural politics. I present an augmented concept of authoritarianism in America that encompasses sorting based on aspects of political belief, encapsulating sources of polarization and cultural attachments to political associations.

I develop the argument that authoritarianism is the result of political attachment to identities that feed off one another as individuals identify with an in-group, such as a party platform. My central theory is …

Fostering Queer Consciousness: Using Performative Art As An Activism Tool To Talk About The Lgbtq+ Community In The State Of Bahia, Brazil, Elisangela Pereira Brito

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current scenario in Brazil has attracted the attention of queer artists activists since violence against LGBTQI+ ranks the country as one of the most dangerous places for this community. This study examined how Black gay men have used performative art as activism to foster queer consciousness in the state of Bahia, Brazil. This research employed a qualitative approach, in-depth interview, by providing the unique experiences of three Black queer men artists. Results showed that the early and present experiences of the participants provided a single understanding of how the three Black queer men have used the principles of Pedagogy …

Implementing Food Pantry Nutrition Policies: Perspectives From The Field, Jessica Vincent

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The charitable food system includes food pantries and are often used by individuals and households who are food insecure (Kuhns & Norotny, 2021; Seligman & Berkowitz, 2019; Sangye, 2013). Adults with any level of food insecurity have a 43% to 53% greater risk of developing a chronic disease than those who are food secure. Those who are food secure have a 37% risk of developing a chronic disease (Gregory & Coleman-Jenson, 2017). For this reason, efforts are being made from state and federal levels to focus on nutrition security, rather than only food security, by increasing the percentage of nutrient …

There Are Ghosts In The Machine, Jonathan Green

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are ghosts in the machine is a body of paintings that dare to dissolve the boundaries between my physical body, intimate desires, and paintings. Utilizing the aesthetics of leather lifestyles, the paintings express the transformational potential of desire and transgression. Oriented within my experience as a queer, transgender male, I call upon influences that range from the body horror classics by director David Cronenberg or the transgressive attitude of Nine Inch Nails, to theoretical works on the power of eroticism by Audre Lorde and Georges Bataille.Modified by hardware such as chains, zippers, and grommets, the paintings express the transformational …

The Experiences Of The Transgender And Gender Diverse Community On Coming Out At The University Of Arkansas, Taylor Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researching the experiences of the TGD community can help better understand the unique struggles this community may face, specifically regarding the unique experiences southeastern United States TGD individuals have encountered. We draw on previous studies regarding the entire LGBTQ+ community and the minimal research on the TGD community. There is minimal research looking specifically at the experiences college TGD students have when coming out in different aspects and the perceptions TGD individuals have about themselves as a result of their experiences coming out. We conducted a survey with 37 respondents as well as 4 qualitative interviews. We present interviews conducted …

Making Meaning Of The Shared Experience Of Participants In An Undergraduate Lgbtq+ Mentorship Program, Brendan Corbett Csaposs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the ways in which LGBTQ+ students at the University of Miami make meaning of their shared experiences in the LGBTQ+ Mentorship Program that the university offers, in order to explore ways in which higher education institutions might consider better supporting this key group of students. This study draws upon a variety of theories of sexual identity development, building on the work of Rosario et al. (2011) in looking at the ways that students make meaning of their sexual identity based on self-identification, association with the larger community, and engagement in a …

Public Libraries In Rural Arkansas: An Oasis In An Information Desert, Britt Graves

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public libraries in Arkansas are welcome, but those found in rural Arkansas are almost a necessity. The public uses the library for more than just checking out books or their email: it’s become a community gathering place for all walks of life, regardless of age or economic status. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the state, libraries also became essential for education, medicine, news, and employment, nearly overloading their resources and shining a spotlight on technology, or the lack thereof, that so many public libraries are needing. With the Arkansas governor planning an upgrade on broadband technology and the federal government …

Economic Disadvantage, Nativity, And Academic Performance And School Punishment Among Latino/A Children, Yolanda Chavez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cultural explanations of how familial resource inequality negatively impacts the academic well-being of a Latino/a child saturate the literature. This study examines the relationship between economic disadvantage and academic performance and school punishment through Family Stress Process Theory, providing a contextual analysis of resource instability. The additional myriad of legal and social constraints that parental nativity provides for family members can moderate this relationship. Data was drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal measure of U.S. couples and their children in 20 large U.S. cities. Regression models indicate the relationship between economic disadvantage and academic performance …

The Effects Of Alcohol Intoxication And Threats To Masculinity On Engagement In Sexual Aggression: Results From A Web-Based Survey Design And Alcohol Administration Study, Tiffany Lynn Marcantonio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Research examining the combined effects of men’s alcohol consumption and perceptions of their masculinity as precarious (e.g., viewing masculinity as easily threatened) on sexual aggression (SA) is lacking. The goal of this dissertation study was to assess if alcohol consumption and precarious masculinity are related to men’s SA via a web-administered survey (Study 1) and an in-person alcohol administration experiment (Study 2).

Methodology: In Study 1, two samples of young adult men (aged 18-30) were collected, 1) a community sample of 492 men and 2) a college sample of 478 men, to complete a 20-minute survey; participants answered questions …

Voluntary Contacts With Police: Do Differences In Perceptions Of Police Still Exist?, Regan Harper

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Publicized police misconduct and brutality over the past decade have contributed to increased tensions between the police and community. Exposure to these encounters can result in negative perceptions of police and have serious policy implications for funding of police departments. Although prior research has focused on previous contacts with police, little is known about how voluntary contacts with police can shape an individual’s perceptions. Given the recent death of George Floyd and movement to “defund the police,” the current study aims to determine whether there are demographic differences in perceptions of police among those who have experienced prior voluntary contacts …

“All Skinfolk Ain’T Kinfolk”: Attributions Of Race-Based Discrimination When An Ingroup Member Is The Perpetrator, Christin Alexandra Mujica

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most research addressing racial/ethnic discrimination is focused on instances perpetrated by White people or someone not of the same race or ethnic background as the target (i.e., outgroup discrimination). However, based on theories of ethnic identity development and internalized racism, it is possible for people of color to discriminate against people in their own racial or ethnic group. The current study used a qualitative approach to 1) understand what people of color believe about racism and discrimination broadly and based on the race of the perpetrator, 2) describe under what situations (e.g., race of perpetrator or overtness/subtlety of the act) …

Kaboom, Karstin Margaret Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of original poems written between Fall 2018 and Spring 2022.

Possession: The Struggle For Female Bodily Agency In Exorcism Cinema, Michelle Lynne Pribbernow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A dominant trope of the possession genre of horror cinema is the spectacle of the white female body that extends beyond narrowly-proscribed boundaries as being too active, too loud, too sexual, and too uncontrolled. This excess is depicted as monstrous, revolting to patriarchal ideology and in need of containment. In this dissertation, I argue that the long-standing horror genre of possession narratives reveals social anxieties about a loss of control over the productive and reproductive capabilities of the undisciplined female body in U.S. patriarchal, white supremacist, late capitalist culture. This study critically examines three sets of possession films: the Paranormal …