Digital Commons Network^™

The Perfect Model: Exploring Gender Differences Within Commercial Graphic Design Preferences, Adeline Roberts

Undergraduate Theses

Personal preferences within graphic design are heavily shaped by social factors, including cultural practices. This project explores the effect of gendered-based experiences on visual design preferences, through investigating men’s and women’s preferences regarding graphic design elements, and the source of these opinions. The data was then used to create two educational images, which mimic contemporary magazine covers, visually illustrating the effects of gendered marketing and experiences on personal design preferences. These images were then attached to an interactive website, so that the findings and pieces from this project can be easily accessed by future audiences.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: Ways Of The Future, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period April 8 - May 5, 2024.

• Anderson, Alexandria. Letter from the Editor – Science, Technology & Business
• Anderson, Alexandria. Women in STEM Make Advances
• Novoselia, Mariia. Turnover on Fountain Square: Local Businesses Share Concerns & Success Stories
• SOKY Rentals Offers New Apartments
• Walk2Campus: Where Home Meets Community
• Bush, Camden. Can a Baseball Team Reduce Their Goals to a Math Problem?
• Hawkins, Kaylee. Student Business Owners Share Experiences – Gatara Townsend, Andrew Garrett, Brittiny Sadler
• Ivory, Larkin. Bikewalk BG, WKU CHHS Offer Chances for Healthy Lifestyle – Health & Human Services

Simulating Information And Communication Applications In Employee Interaction Network Models, Matthew Kanter

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Information and communication technology (ICT) use has been identified throughout its development and evolution with the Internet boom as a net positive tool for most employees and organizations in the working world. Only recently have studies regarding employees’ well-being begun to come to the forefront of research regarding these rapidly evolving technologies, however these are important issues to discuss in the context of work-life boundary management, emotional exhaustion, overwhelming stress levels, and moral disengagement among other employee well-being dimensions. To explore how employees’ well being might be influenced by ICT use, this study conducted a quantitative survey and analyzed a …

Representations Of Gender In Math-Related Films, Jacob Gathje

CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis

This project analyzes how four popular math-related films - Hidden Figures, Mean Girls, Good Will Hunting, and A Beautiful Mind - either follow, resist, or reconfigure gender stereotypes in mathematics. It includes close readings of specific scenes in each of the films, along with broader analysis of the effects of how women and men are represented differently. It concludes forward-looking focus, providing suggestions for how future math-related movies can depict a more realistic and inclusive version of the field of mathematics. Ideally, this will help improve one part of the larger issue of gender disparities in math.

Powering Justice: Sketches For A New Ethos In Energy Policy, Erin Rizzato Devlin

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Energy politics lie at the heart of human activity. In a time of ecological and energy crisis, it is fundamental to realise that our reality systems are always open to change and that, in order to respond to the challenges of a changing energy landscape, we must explore the full possibilities of technology in a radical way. This research aims to consider the ethical implications of energy and technology, presenting an urgent case for cosmotechnical pluralism, that is the diversification of world-views, knowledges, technologies in the pursuit of energy justice in global politics. To reconstruct the world and its politics …

Beneath The Beauty: A Mixed Method Approach To Examining Identity Negotiation Among Asian Transracial Adoptees, Noel H. Mcguire

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Making sense of one’s identity is an integral part of the human experience. This study examines identity negotiation and sense-making processes among individuals who have particularly complex identities: Asian transracial adoptees. In the past six decades, more than 280,000 infants and children in Asian countries were abandoned or surrendered to social welfare institutes and were subsequently adopted by American families, making Asian transracial adoptees (ATRAs) a substantial, if frequently overlooked, proportion of the Asian American community. Prior research indicates that identity negotiation is a particularly daunting task for this demographic due to ever-present paradoxical feelings toward their identity, as they …

Misinformation In U.S. Food And Agriculture: A Policy Analysis Of Impacts And Recommended Solutions, Jamie Woodside

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This paper aims to review the current state of play of misinformation in the U.S. food and agriculture sectors—delving into the roots of misinformation, its propagation through social media and traditional channels, and its consequences for the agricultural sector and society at large. Additionally, through an examination of existing laws, regulations, and potential legal remedies, this paper aims to shed light on the challenges posed by misinformation and offers recommendations for mitigating its harmful effects.

The Media’S Representation Of Female Athletes During Drug Scandals, Cassandra Leigh Lavigne

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Managing Work-Life Interrelationships Among High School Teachers Through Icts, Alana Elia

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary focus of research on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and work-life interrelationships has been on traditional office work. However, occupations such as teaching are worthwhile to study because they are structured differently than a traditional office given that students are the direct consumers of teacher labor. There is a lot of face-to-face engagement with students in the classroom, while at the same time teacher’s jobs increasingly incorporate the usage of ICTs. Secondary schools for students (generally 14 through 18 years of age) are complex environments where both teachers and students are experiencing permeations of personal life into the …

Investigating The Experiences Of Evangelical Couples Coping With Painful Intercourse During Early Marriage, Arielle L. Leonard Hodges

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Women who internalize evangelical purity messages face heightened risk for persistent pain or difficulty with penile-vaginal intercourse. Drawing on research in communication, psychology, and sexual medicine, the aim of this multilevel qualitative study is to increase understanding of how evangelical couples communicatively cope with painful intercourse and the memorable messages they believe contribute to their experiences of coping. This study involved conducting qualitative interviews with 20 evangelical married couples (40 total spouses) who currently or recently experienced a wife’s persistent pain during (attempted) penile-vaginal intercourse and 16 female clinicians (pelvic floor physical therapists and mental health professionals) who regularly work …

Beyond The Bedroom Door: Investigating Representations Of Sex In Young Adult Literature, Amelia Gutche

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines representations of sex in young adult (YA) fiction, focusing on negative patterns, empowerment, and healthy relationships. Through analysis of seven YA novels and existing scholarship, three research questions are addressed: the evolution of sexual representations in the twenty-first century, patterns characterizing teenage sexual situations, and distinctions between healthy and unhealthy relationships. Findings reveal a shift toward more inclusive and empowering depictions, yet lingering conservative values and silences persist. YA literature often portrays sex as a source of fear and obsession, limiting adolescent power and perpetuating unrealistic ideals. Healthy relationships are characterized by support systems, mutual respect, and …

A Cultural Communication Perspective On Hispanic Students’ College Experiences, Yanrong (Yvonne) Chang

Communication Faculty Publications

Guided by the theoretical assumption that college life is a culturally situated, symbolic process of interaction between students and various others, this qualitative study attempts to explore how minority students’ home culture, which is different from the dominant college culture, helps them make sense of their college experiences. The respondent interviewing method was used to obtain Hispanic students’ responses to questions that allow them to share their experiences, which were centered around student-professor interactions. A total of 112 Hispanic college students from a comprehensive university in South Texas participated in the study. Results confirmed the significance of examining minority students’ …

A Performance-Based Exploration Of Vocal Anatomy And Pedagogy: Maximizing Technical, Stylistic, And Physiological Frameworks For Superlative Vocal Technique In Artistic Function, Michael J. Civitano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of specific frameworks in performance and vocal pedagogy on artists' capacity to enact evidence-based learning outcomes, with emphasis on vocal physiology and educator-performer relationships. Employing an experimental design, five philosophies that support capacity-building were tested across two trial settings, varying in intensity. The participant utilized narrative reasoning, diversified methods, and mentorship from specialized educators to apply frameworks. Findings indicate that, in practicing evidence-based learning and maximizing anatomic foundations of the voice, substantial developments in artistic capacity ensued. Educator-performer relationships mediate this process through reciprocal collaborations that foster capacity-building. Performers display optimal artistic capacity by effectively …

The Guardian The Month Of May 2024, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of May 2024. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Groomer Discourse: A Transgender-Sensitive Critical Discourse Analysis Of Queerphobic Hate Speech On Twitter, William Evans

Honors Theses

In recent times, online internet hate speech has received more and more attention due to its adaptive and mutative nature, emerging not in a vacuum but instead sprouting from the seeds of social inequity. A specific form of queerphobic hate speech known as groomer discourse or predation libel has taken new form in online spaces. This recent development, targeted almost exclusively towards the queer community and their allies, is uniquely situated at the intersection of transgender rights and sexual education in the United States. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, this study expands Spallaccia’s gender-sensitive critical discourse analysis (CDA) into a …

Gender Equality Threatened: A Digital Communication Analysis Of Spanish Right-Wing Political Parties, Daisy Rehbock

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

Spanish right-wing political parties have become incredibly active on social media within the last decade, especially with the creation of the ultra-right wing party Vox, which now has the most followers of any Spanish political party across all social media platforms. The usage of social media by right-wing political parties is a populistic approach that allows politicians to connect directly to their voter base instead of utilizing more ‘elitist’ forms of media. This paper is focused on analyzing the rhetoric of two right-wing Spanish political parties, Vox and Partido Popular, in order to gauge their stances and impacts on gender …

“Vacation, All I Ever Wanted?” A Qualitative Analysis Of Travel Narratives From Interabled Families, Mary Heather Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study researched and investigated the travel narratives of 13 interabled families through qualitative research methods of thematic and contrapuntal analysis. Participants were parents who have at least one dependent with a disability in their family unit. Theories used to guide this study include narrative theory, family systems theory, and relational dialectics theory. Narrative theory laid the groundwork for understanding how stories function to communicate and construct identity. Family systems theory provided definitions and terms for how to understand dynamics within families. Relational dialectics theory guided the understanding for what tensions are at play for interabled families and how …

Sacrificial Lambs: The Perils Of Childhood In Shakespeare, Benjamin Sidney Reed

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

“Sacrificial Lambs: The Perils of Childhood in Shakespeare” utilizes childhood studies to read five Shakespearean plays and how they portray child characters in perilous situations such as kidnapping, banishment, and murder. It argues these dangers emulate real circumstances young people faced in the early modern period, including the boy actors playing these roles. The dissertation’s key research questions include how children in these plays exhibit agency in the face of danger, how they resist adult systems of power, and how audiences in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may have responded to these portrayals of imperiled and rebellious youths. The Introduction …

A Compilation, Analysis, And Categorization Of 403 Atmospheric And Climate Science Misconceptions, Haeli Leighty

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) has listed the inaccessibility of research related to misconceptions in atmospheric and climate science as a Geoscience Education Research Grand Challenge (Cervato et al. 2018). This project was a direct response to this call for research and consisted of three distinct steps: 1) data gathering, which included reviewing the literature for relevant misconception data, 2) a qualitative analysis, which included compiling, organizing, and categorizing the data collected, and 3) a quantitative analysis, which included determining the prevalence of each misconception across topic categories, demographic categories, and over time. A total of 403 misconceptions …

An Exploratory Research On The Sexualization Of Young Women On Tiktok, Grace Schmerz

Student Theses

This study adopts a mixed-method approach, utilizing both qualitative content analysis and quantitative metadata assessments to evaluate 1000 TikTok videos tagged under specific hashtags suggestive of youthful and sexualized themes. Qualitative findings highlighted the characteristics of sexualization through thematic content analysis, sorting behaviors, attire, and the context of music and speech within the videos. Themes such as sexualized postures, sexualized attire, sexualized dancing, sexualized speech, and sexualized gestures were categorized and quantified with the support of descriptive statistics. The study found a significant presence of sexualization in the sample, most prominently in post-pubescent women. Quantitatively, engagement metrics provided insight into …

Cultural Norms And The Expression Of Affection In Nigerian Yoruba Families, Tolulope G. Banjo

Theses and Dissertations

Affectionate behaviors have biological and physiological implications for humans. Affectionate communication encompasses behaviors that convey affection to the senders and receivers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the role of culture and cultural traditions in the expression of affectionate behaviors among members of the Nigerian Yoruba family. Two focus groups were conducted in which participants (18-39 years of age) identified the affectionate behaviors they use in their families. Participants also shared how they perceived their culture playing a role in their affectionate communication. The findings revealed 18 categories of affectionate behaviors used by Nigerian Yoruba …

Online Political Participation Among Younger Generations: A Case Study Of The Nigerian Presidential Election, Bowale Odukale

All Theses

The 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria represented a significant milestone in the nation's democratic progression, capturing the interest of observers both within the country and abroad. This study identifies the key online opinion leaders who participated in the electoral discourse, their generational affiliation, and the role of social media in facilitating youth engagement throughout the political process. Using Sprinkl, an online monitoring tool to harvest publicly available tweets containing the hashtag #NigeriaDecides2023 from February 11 to March 15, coupled with interviews, the study identified the prominent opinion leaders with significant influence, their types of messages and the motives behind youth …

End-Of-Life Patient Communication: Exploring Comfort, Communication And Education Of Healthcare Professionals For End-Of-Life Care, Madison Gremillion

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Historically, the medical field has viewed death and dying as incurable ‘medical failures,’ and as a result, many healthcare professionals have difficulties when facing a patient who is dying or at the end of their life. These individuals will use avoidant behavior to avoid end-of-life (EOL) patients or can have difficulty providing essential aspects of care including communication, that contribute to building a strong relationship between the healthcare provider and patient. For the healthcare professional (HCP), this can stem from anxiety related to thoughts of death and a lack of educational support or experience. The study of death is where …

The Relationship Between Role Models, Socioeconomic Mobility Beliefs, And Academic Outcomes, Christian Koeu, Marisol Espinoza Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Objective: This study aims to provide insights into the relationships between role models, socioeconomic mobility beliefs and the education outcomes of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. While previous studies highlight the positive influence of role models on academic and career aspirations, the specific relationship between role models and socioeconomic beliefs remains unexplored. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether the presence of role models relates with more optimistic socioeconomic beliefs and how these beliefs, in turn, affect academic outcomes (academic engagement, academic intentions, and grade point average [GPA]). Additionally, we investigate the influence of role model characteristics to …

Patient Understanding Of Fetal Sex Versus Gender In The Context Of Routine Cell-Free Dna Screening, Mindy Kolodziejski

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is the current standard of care to screen for fetal aneuploidy using cell-free DNA (cfDNA). NIPT screens for sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs) and in doing so, can predict fetal chromosomal sex. Despite sex and gender being distinct concepts, many patients refer to NIPT as “the gender test” and elect testing in order to find out predicted fetal sex and assume gender. Our study aimed to evaluate and describe patient understanding of sex and gender in the context of receiving routine prenatal genetics education (PGE) on NIPT. A survey was developed with the goal of assessing patient …

A Rhetorical-Sociological Understanding Of Emotion, Amy Boone

All Dissertations

This project presents a rhetorical-sociological understanding of emotion while foregrounding the place and role of language. Born from Sara Ahmed’s work in The Cultural Politics of Emotion, it presents a simplified equation (contact + orientation = emotion) as both a prescriptive and descriptive formula for making sense of human emotional experience. Starting with an exploration of the difficult-to-understand affect system, this dissertation identifies both rhetoric and affect as energies which cannot be understood apart from their traces, the things they move, produce, and become. As a way to get at these often-invisible forces, two trace studies are conducted which explore …

A Review And Critical Analysis Of Yoga And Mindfulness Meditation In Pain Management For Individuals With Rheumatoid Arthritis: Design Of Prospective Yoga Intervention Lesson Plans, Jamie Butikofer

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes joint pain, inflammation, and in some cases permanent damage. This research project explores yoga’s potential to manage pain and improve quality of life for RA patients. A review of existing research investigated the impact of yoga on pain and function in RA. Studies employed various yoga programs, making comparisons difficult. All studies reported improvements in areas of pain, inflammation, emotional and mental wellbeing, or disease activity. Interestingly, meditation, a core tenet of traditional yoga, emerged as a potentially beneficial component. Studies suggest it may help manage chronic pain and improve …

Plant-Plant Interaction In Early- Vs. Late-Successional Varieties Of The Hawaiian Landscape-Dominant Tree, Metrosideros Polymorpha, Tomoko Sakishima

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Plant-plant interactions play an important role in assembling plant communities. Interactions between neighboring plants can vary as a result of the genetic relatedness of neighbors, impacting rates of growth and patterns of resource allocation. When growing alongside close relatives, some species decrease their growth in a form of cooperation, while others grow faster through facilitation. A complication of plant interaction studies arises because decreased growth in the presence of close relatives can also be due to competition for resources, which increases with phenotypic similarity. Further complicating matters, mycorrhizal fungi, through their connections with plant roots, may strongly influence plant interactions. …

Theorizing Folk Cinema, Cora M M Lewis

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

This honors project theorizes the concept of folk cinema. The project grapples with the complex history of the study of folklore and cinema’s historic inaccessibility as a medium in order to position folk cinema as a revolutionary project capable of reimagining both cinema and folklore. Avoiding concrete definitions or the urge to label any specific films as folk cinema, the project explores folk cinema theoretically through the experimental Spanish short film Aguaespejo Granadino, the films of the Bolivian Third Cinema filmmaking collective the Ukamau Group, and finally my own creative intervention via the creation of a short diary film.

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Pulse, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2024 Talisman:

• Hunter, Leah. Pulse
• Muscutt, Carson. High on Bluegrass – Jordan Riehm
• Meyers, Jeffrey. Science of Movement – Exercise Science
• Murray, Debra. Pasture to Plate – Agriculture
• Murray, Debra. Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
• Coffee, Bobbi. Passion, Pain, Curiosity – Innovation Campus
• Story, Miriam. Drafts of a Postcard (October 2023)
• Johnston, Katelyn. Beyond Sound – Deaf
• Hunter, Leah. One Good Week – Madison Weis
• Alali, Cecilia. Crafted Cadence – Speech Team
• Blankenship, Alisa. Loving You
• Sandlin, Ellie. Here After – Death
• Booth, Pandora. Rooted in Rhythm – Step Shows
• Booth, Pandora. Horoscopes
• Pulse Playlist