Digital Commons Network^™

Constructing Victimhood: Opposition To Legislation Protecting Lgbt Students Against Bullying, Kiam Loong Daniel Lai

Doctoral Dissertations

The new millennium has seen various initiatives implemented to prevent and curb anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) bullying in the United States. These initiatives include anti-discrimination policies and programs that raise awareness about LGBT identities and diversity in schools. Conservative reaction against these initiatives, in the form of both legislation and rhetoric, has been swift. The dissertation examines how opponents of prevention and intervention (OPI) have used discourse to resist the efforts of curbing and preventing anti-LGBT bullying in schools. Specifically, I undertake an investigation of how opponents of prevention initiatives used diagnostic and motivational frames – concepts from Snow …

Environmental Gentrification And Development In A Rural Appalachian Community: Blending Critical Theory And Ethnography, Rhiannon A. Leebrick

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: first, to explore the relevance of environmental gentrification, a concept largely applied to urban settings, as a means to understand social change in rural and small town Appalachia; and secondly, drawing upon political economy perspectives within environmental sociology and the tradition of early Frankfurt School critical theory, to contextualize the process of environmental gentrification within global capitalism. Conflicts over green economic development, including the maintenance of idyllic vistas, appear to have arisen among various groups with opposing interests and perceptions. These conflicts are complex, affected by the rise of gentrification accompanying uneven development …

Consumers' Cooperation In The Early Twentieth Century: An Analysis Of Race, Class And Consumption, Joshua L. Carreiro

Doctoral Dissertations

Consumers’ cooperatives are commonly associated with members of the middle class who use their buying power to support local economies and encourage the equitable production, distribution and consumption of food. However, consumers’ cooperation was initially introduced to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century via labor organizations. Consumers’ cooperation continued to develop as a form of consumer activism during the Progressive Era as the consumer became a more influential figure in American society. One faction of the consumers’ cooperative movement, which sought to transfer power to the working class, was unique compared to consumer movements of the time which were …

Emerging Climate Change Publics: Cultivating Sustainability And Justice In The Pioneer Valley, Vanessa Adel

Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is setting off erratic weather patterns and environmental changes that threaten the livelihood, stability, and survival of the planet. Communities and institutions around the globe are sounding the clarion call about these devastating impacts, advocating for sustainable practices and deep changes to every facet of our lives. This dissertation research consists of an ethnography of a local network of actors and organizations who are responding to climate change, centered on those who define sustainability as integrally connected to justice. I analyze this network of activity through the lens of the concept of an emerging public. I start from …

The Shifting Structure Of Chicago's Organized Crime Network And The Women It Left Behind, Christina Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Women are underrepresented in crime and criminal economies compared to men. However, research on the gender gap in crime tends to not employ relational methods and theories, even though crime is often relational. In the predominantly male world of Chicago organized crime at the turn of the twentieth century existed a dynamic gender gap. Combining social network analysis and historical research methods to examine the case of organized crime in Chicago, I uncover a group of women who made up a substantial portion of the Chicago organized crime network from 1900 to 1919. Before Prohibition, women of organized crime operated …

Creating The Ideal Mexican: 20th And 21st Century Racial And National Identity Discourses In Oaxaca, Savannah N. Carroll

Doctoral Dissertations

This investigation intends to uncover past and contemporary socioeconomic significance of being a racial other in Oaxaca, Mexico and its relevance in shaping Mexican national identity. The project has two purposes: first, to analyze activities and observations of cultural missionaries in Oaxaca during the 1920s and 1930s, and second to relate these findings to historical and present implications of blackness in an Afro-Mexican community. Cultural missionaries were appointed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) to create schools throughout Mexico, focusing on the modernization of marginalized communities through formal and social education. This initiative was intended to resolve socioeconomic disparities …

Performing Critical Consciousness In Teaching: Entanglements Of Knowing, Feeling And Relating, Kathleen A. Mcdonough

Doctoral Dissertations

At a time when education reform is guided by neoliberalism, accountability and standardization have reshaped teaching as highly technocratic and threatened the democratic possibilities of public education. Even so, many teacher education programs have taken up the call to prepare teachers to teach for social justice, whether framed as multicultural education, critical literacy, or critical pedagogy. A construct that ties these pedagogical approaches together is critical consciousness, with the aim of some teacher education efforts to evoke critical consciousness among preservice teachers. This study focuses on exploring how nine educators from elementary grades to higher education experience and enact critical …

Bringing The Household Back In: Family Wage Gaps And The Intersection Of Gender, Race, And Class In The Household Context., Melissa J. Hodges

Doctoral Dissertations

Using the 1980- 2008 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), this dissertation examines how parenthood exacerbates gender wage inequality within married, heterosexual households and across families stratified by race and social class. The majority of research on motherhood penalties and fatherhood premiums investigates how individual men and women’s earnings change after the arrival of children, yet it is unclear how parental bonuses and penalties accrue within coupled households. Although studies investigating child effects on individuals’ wages draw on theoretical explanations that rely on the joint decision-making of couples, empirical analysis rarely situates the effects of children on …

Reading Queerly In The High School Classroom: Exploring A Gay And Lesbian Literature Course, Kirsten Helmer

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how teaching an English literature curriculum centered on the stories, experiences, cultures, histories, and politics of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) people constitutes a meaningful site for teaching and learning in a high school classroom. The dissertation offers insights on how the teaching of LGBTQI-themed texts in English language arts classes can be reframed by bridging the goals, practices and conceptual tools of queer theory to critical literacies teaching. The project follows principles of critical qualitative research and employs an ethnographic case study approach with the purpose of transforming educational …

Using Social Network Analysis To Investigate The Relationship Between School-Based Team Communication Networks And Implementation Of Positive Behavior Support Systems, Shannon K. Barry

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school-based team communication networks and implementation of school-wide reform efforts and initiatives, namely Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The study employed social network analysis (SNA) to determine if a relationship was present between the structure and properties of the team communication network and the level of implementation of PBIS, the position and properties of the PBIS leadership team and the level of implementation of PBIS implementation, and the quality of internal process for collaboration of the PBIS leadership team and PBIS implementation. It was predicted that schools in …

Interdependent Determinants Of Parental Involvement Among Families Of Children Receiving Early Intervention Services, Rhett Maurice Billen

Doctoral Dissertations

Early intervention programs across the United States use a service delivery model that is strengths-based and family-centered. The purpose of this study was to examine how certain strengths among mothers and fathers of children receiving early-intervention services are related to parental involvement. I used the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) with structural equation modeling to examine the actor (intrapersonal) and partner (interpersonal) effects of parenting self-efficacy, parental role salience, and couple relationship quality on parental involvement. The data used in these analyses were taken from a state-wide project which obtained reports from 131 mother-father dyads whose children were enrolled in a …

The Effects Of Trade Competition On Health, And Determinants Of Workplace Behavior, Thomas Clayton Mcmanus

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation consists of three essays related to workplace behavior. In the first paper, we design a controlled laboratory experiment to study image motives in a setting where decisions signal intelligence. The experiment results show that in some settings social scrutiny can discourage individuals from making choices that signal their intelligence, despite evidence that the signal was privately valuable. In the second paper, we study the effect of Chinese import competition on occupational safety and health at US manufacturers. We find that a change in US trade policy and Chinese import shocks significantly increases worker injury and illness rates in …

Economic Wealth And Social Welfare: A Longitudinal Analysis Of Transnational Well-Being, Kelly Brooke Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

Macro changes in the financial arena have prompted ongoing research focused on global economic trends. As America emerges from an era of stagnant wages, rising unemployment, and growing class stratification it is necessary to explore differences in cross-national socioeconomic behavior to address the changing needs of our country. Many studies attempt to describe statistical correlations between economic wealth and social well-being domestically and abroad by utilizing methodological perspectives that do not account for longitudinal change. To address the gap in existing research, this study seeks to measure variations in econometric indicators between the U.S. and Nordic countries to further explicate …

Deficit Discourse, Literate Lives: Success Narratives Of Black Youth, Ann Marie Bennett

Doctoral Dissertations

The current dialogue surrounding Black youth portrays these youth as “thugs” who come from “broken” families and “apathetic” communities. Even some educational discourses portray Black youth as “at-risk” students who lack the resources necessary to achieve in school. These dialogues traffic in deficit language without paying attention to the successes found in the Black community. The purpose of this study was to utilize an anti-deficit perspective to capture the stories of how urban Black children in a mid-sized Southeastern city are achieving positive literacy and academic outcomes in the upper elementary and middle grades. I sought to understand how Black …

Women On The Move: The Migration Of Wnba Players To Overseas Basketball Teams, Barbra Nalani Butler

Doctoral Dissertations

Through this study, I investigated the migration of American Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players to professional club teams overseas. International migration of professional women athletes has been occurring for decades, yet little is known about the experiences of these labor migrants apart from women’s soccer (Agergaard & Tiesler, 2014). Research examining sport labor migration has largely focused on the experiences of men (Maguire, 2008).

The study has filled in gaps in the literature, giving voice to women’s experiences as sport labor migrants, specifically in reference to women’s professional basketball players. Historically, many WNBA players have chosen to play two …

Social Systems And Psychic Confluence: Flash Mobs, Communications, And Agency, Nicholas John Hauman

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation involves two components: 1) an analysis of the history of flash mobs including detailed descriptions of specific flash mobs and 2) an exploration of what this analysis elucidates concerning the interaction between individuals and social structure. By focusing on the flash mob as a form of communication, the dissertation displays how the flash mob has communicated multiplicitously through various social systems (e.g. art, mass media, economy, politics) to achieve various and often divergent ends. Within this larger understanding of the interaction between flash mobs and social structure this dissertation also finds, through an application of Luhmannian systems theory, …

"When Are We Going To Be Settled Down And Know This Is Our Place?”: A Phenomenological Examination Of Iraqi Refugee Families’ Lived Experiences With Resettlement, Lisa Shari Silverman

Doctoral Dissertations

Of the 69,930 refugees that resettled to the United States during the fiscal year of 2013, the largest group consisted of over 19,000 Iraqi refugees. Additionally, the recent outbreak of a new wave of violence in Iraq has led to an increase in the number of Iraqi citizens who have fled Iraq’s borders and migrated to the United States. Earlier studies that had been conducted on the resettlement of Iraqi refugees were quantitative in nature, focused on individuals, and did not provided a nuanced and thick description of the lived experiences of refugee families who had resettled in the United …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

Data Fusion Methods For Improved Demographic Resolution Of Population Distribution Datasets, Amy Nicole Rose

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the availability of multiple global population distribution datasets, these datasets are limited by their lack of demographic depth. Although large area spatial datasets of population distributions currently exist, similar spatial representations of other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are scarce. Spatial microdata that include detailed demographic information are rarely available for small areas, thus limiting the complex analysis of population subgroups. To address the lack of demographic resolution in existing population distribution datasets, a first step would be to develop large area microdata that can be attached to a country- or global-level population distribution dataset. This can be achieved by …

On Belonging, Difference And Whiteness: Italy's Problem With Immigration, Flavia Stanley

Doctoral Dissertations

In the past thirty years, Italy has transitioned from a nation defined in part by a history of emigration, to a nation where immigration and attendant issues surrounding increased cultural and ethno-racial diversity dominates as a national concern. The research presented in this dissertation illustrates the ways in which, within this context, immigration is promoted and perceived unequivocally as a “problem” and a “threat.” However, rather than discussing Italy’s immigration problem, the issue here is recast as Italy’s problem with immigration. Despite deep regional differences and identities that continue to exist, increased immigration and the permanent settlement of …

The Effects Of Children, Job Changes, And Employment Interruptions On Women’S Wages, Jessica Looze

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I build upon the literature examining the motherhood wage penalty. Although previous research has found that much of this penalty can be explained by differences between mothers and childless women in human capital acquisition, job experience, work hours, and unobserved characteristics, these reasons do not fully explain the penalty. The portion of the penalty that remains unexplained is often attributed to some combination of discrimination against women by employers and lower work effort among mothers. In this dissertation, I examine another plausible mechanism: I consider the role that job changes and employment exits play in creating this …

Student Perceptions Of Grit, Emotional-Social Intelligence, And The Acquisition Of Non-Cognitive Skills In The Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study Program, Don Gamble

Doctoral Dissertations

p>The Catholic Church has long emphasized an “option for the poor” and relied heavily on its schools to assist in providing the education necessary to help families escape poverty (Benson, Yeager, Guerra & Manno, 1986; Bryk, Lee, & Holland, 1993; Buetow, 1988; Convey, 1992; Greeley, 1982; Neal, 1997; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, 1998; York, 1996). Catholic schools in the United States are closing at a steady rate from a lack of funding, and this has created an ongoing problem for the outreach efforts of the Church and the low-income families with the greatest need (Brinig & …