Digital Commons Network^™

Civilizing Settlers: Catholic Missionaries And The Colonial State In French Algeria, 1830-1914, Kyle Francis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that between 1830 and 1914, with increasing intensity over time, French Catholic missionaries sowed divisions among the European population of French Algeria. The French government initially welcomed missionaries to cater to religiously devout Spanish, Italian, and Maltese settlers in Algeria and to foster their loyalty to the colonial state. Missionaries, however, incited the professional jealousy and personal animosity of the territory's generally less devout French population, who saw Catholicism and missionaries as little different from Islam and the "fanatical" Muslim population. Throughout this period, missionaries thus occupied a liminal space in the racialized hierarchy of colonial rule. …

Ni Francaise, Ni Juive, Ni Arabe: The Influence Of Nineteenth Century French Judaism On The Emergence Of Franco- Jewish- Arab Literature, Deborah Rosalind Gruber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study proposes that the influence of nineteenth century French Judaism on the Jewish communities of the Middle East from approximately 1910­‐1956 has had an indelible influence on the evolution of Franco- Jewish‐Arab literature today. From the late nineteenth century, the education of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire was provided by the Paris based Alliance Israélite Universelle, an organization established by French Jews with the purpose of emancipating disadvantaged Jewish communities outside of France. The result was the establishment of Franco­‐Jewish-Arab communities that regarded French education as a means of both social and economic advancement. Although the curriculum of …

Tradición Y Actualidad En La Enseñanza De La Escritura Académica En El Entorno Europeo (Reseña De Rethinking Academic Writing Pedagogy For The European University), David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Removing The Malice From Federal "Malicious Prosecution": What Cognitive Science Can Teach Lawyers About Reform, Sofia Yakren

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Creating An Effective Model For Digital Storytelling In The Esl Writing Class, Mary Sepp, Shoba Bandi-Rao

Publications and Research

Using technology in the classroom is no longer the exception but the rule in most college classrooms. Now the question is not whether to use technology, but which technology to use. Among recent innovations is digital storytelling, a multimodal tool that can be used across disciplines. This paper reports on a pilot study designed to determine the feasibility and pedagogical value of using digital storytelling in an ESL writing course at an urban community college. The report documents a detailed plan for implementation and some of the challenges this process presents.

Understanding Voice: Writing In A Judicial Context, Andrea Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Intimate Partner Violence Against Asian American Women: Moving From Theory To Strategy, Donna Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Tr-2015001: A Survey And Critique Of Facial Expression Synthesis In Sign Language Animation, Hernisa Kacorri

Computer Science Technical Reports

Sign language animations can lead to better accessibility of information and services for people who are deaf and have low literacy skills in spoken/written languages. Due to the distinct word-order, syntax, and lexicon of the sign language from the spoken/written language, many deaf people find it difficult to comprehend the text on a computer screen or captions on a television. Animated characters performing sign language in a comprehensible way could make this information accessible. Facial expressions and other non-manual components play an important role in the naturalness and understandability of these animations. Their coordination to the manual signs is crucial …

Official Orthographies, Spelling Debates And Nation-Building Projects After The Fall Of The Spanish Empire, Laura Villa

Publications and Research

The collapse of the Spanish Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century prompted a need to reorganize the former colonial space in independent countries by creating territorial, political and identity boundaries in Spanish-speaking America. The imposition of a national language – the officialization of grammatical and orthographic norms and their promotion through emerging public education systems – was a key instrument in the nation-building processes developed in Spain and the newly independent American republics. In this socio-political context resistance to official norms and their implementation was frequent. This article studies three language ideological debates over Spanish orthography, occurring …

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Decorum: Quintilian’S Reflections On Rhetorical Humor, Don Waisanen

Publications and Research

Abstract

This study examines ancient Roman ideas about humor’s boundaries in public culture. In particular, I analyze Book 6, Chapter 3 of the Institutio Oratoria, which covers Quintilian’s reflections on the subject. Following Cicero, Quintilian engages the tensions between humor and decorum in his political context, using urbanitas to refine the former and to loosen the latter’s strictures. In this process, the use of urbanitas implicitly points readers toward factors that can make humor rhetorical. Quintilian thus answers Cicero’s question about the degree to which humor should be used and furthers inquiry into how much rhetorical humor can or …

Claims Of Demise Of Humanities Greatly Exaggerated, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Can Group Discussions And Individualized Assignments Help More Students Succeed In Developmental Mathematics?, Reem Jaafar

Publications and Research

Students taking developmental mathematics courses resist attempting word problems when they are presented to them. Although word problems can help students contextualize learning, develop better understanding of the concepts and apply world knowledge, they constitute an impediment to students’ progress in developmental mathematics courses. A two-semester study on the first developmental mathematics course at LaGuardia Community College shows that students perform better at word problems when they have been discussed in groups with their peers prior to the homework. Moreover, when assigned word problems without a class discussion, students perform better when these problems are individualized based on their areas …

Dress Rehearsal: Word Play And Narrative Construction In The Assembly Of Ladies, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

In the erotics of theater, words are (theoretically) corporeal. They are up there for public scrutiny. The mind's eye echoes the mind's ear. Words act. They are elements of the: scenic investiture affecting, synesthetically, light space rhythm pattern sound, but they also resound at the deepest level of the: mise-en-scene, through self time memory consciousness as well. Mere words, true. Problematic to the last breath of being. The: material elements of theater - like the: body itself - situate us.

Rule, Pattern, And Meaning In The Second-Language Teaching Of Grammar, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

This is a position paper aimed at the interface between meaning-oriented linguistics generally and instructed language-learning. The alliance between usage-based linguistics and form-focused instruction in language teaching stands to benefit from advances on both sides: a recognition by theoretical linguists that systematic meanings of grammatical forms are responsible for observed, emerging patterns of usage; and a greater willingness on the part of advocates of the teaching of grammar to engage in focusing upon individual, meaningful grammatical forms, as distinct from unanalyzed, holistic form. Explicit knowledge of forms and their meanings can usefully guide the practice of teachers and, …

Using Diagrams Versus Text For Spaced Restudy: Effects On Learning In 10th Grade Biology Classes, Bradley W. Bergey, Jennifer G. Cromley, Amanda Kirchgessner, Nora S. Newcombe

Publications and Research

BackgroundandAim. Spacedrestudyhasbeentypicallytestedwithwrittenlearning materials, but restudy with visual representations in actual classrooms is under- researched. We compared the effects of two spaced restudy interventions: A Diagram- Based Restudy (DBR) warm-up condition and a business-as-usual Text-Based Restudy (TBR) warm-up condition.

Sample. One hundred and twenty-eight consented high school students in 15 classes.

Methods. Students completed daily warm-ups over a 4-week period. Students were randomly assigned to conditions within classrooms. Warm-ups were independently completed at the start of class meetings and consisted of questions about content covered 1–10 days prior to each warm-up. Students received feedback on their answers each week. A series …

Translingual Identity And Art: Marc Chagall's Stride Through The Gate Of Janus, Natasha Lvovich

Publications and Research

This hybrid piece, combining scholarly inquiry in several disciplines (from bilingualism and literary theory to visual art, cultural anthropology, and psychoanalysis) with the genre of personal essay, explores the concept of multilingual identity and creativity in visual art. Establishing the parallel with the phenomenon of 'literary translingualism' and exemplifying most salient identity features of several translingual writers, I coin the concept of 'artistic translingualism.' The essay is focused on multilingual life and art of an immigrant artist, Marc Chagall, and analyzes his several paintings within the framework of three translingual constructs: duality, ambivalence, and liminality. The complexity of translingual identity, …

‘‘Where I’M From’’ And Belonging: A Multimodal, Cosmopolitan Perspective On Arts And Inquiry, Tiffany A. Dejaynes

Publications and Research

The paper draws upon a year-long practitioner inquiry with adolescents who conducted auto-ethnographies as part of a research course in their urban public high school. Through ethnographic data collection, youth researched their own lives, cultures, and beliefs with the end goal of producing multimodal films that represented their embodied senses of ‘‘Where I’m From’’, broadly defined. As youth collected and interpreted culturally and personally meaningful artifacts, stories, memories, and family discourses, the cosmopolitan habits of mind and heart that it is argued are important for nurturing reflective citizens of the world. In the process of video production or self-curation, youth …

Developing Moocs To Narrow The College Readiness Gap: Challenges And Recommendations For A Writing Course, Shoba Bandi-Rao, Christopher Devers

Publications and Research

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have demonstrated the potential to deliver quality and cost effective course materials to large numbers of students. Approximately 60% of first-year students at community colleges are underprepared for college-level coursework. One reason for low graduation rates is the lack of the overall college readiness. MOOCs offering "remedial" writing have the potential to better prepare high school graduates for college, thereby increasing their chances of completing a degree and reducing the cost of education for students, families, institutions, and taxpayers. However, MOOCs are typically more suitable for motivated and prepared students. Designing a MOOC on writing …

Creating An Effective Model For Digital Storytelling In The Esl Writing Class, Mary Sepp, Shoba Bandi-Rao

Publications and Research

Using technology in the classroom is no longer the exception but the rule in most college classrooms. Now the question is not whether to use technology, but which technology to use. Among recent innovations is digital storytelling, a multimodal tool that can be used across disciplines. This paper reports on a pilot study designed to determine the feasibility and pedagogical value of using digital storytelling in an ESL writing course at an urban community college. The report documents a detailed plan for implementation and some of the challenges this process presents.

Special Education Professional Standards: How Important Are They In The Context Of Teacher Performance Evaluation?, Sara B. Woolf

Publications and Research

Teacher performance evaluation represents a high stakes issue as evidenced by its pivotal emphasis in national and local education reform initiatives and federal policy levers. National, state, and local education leaders continue to experience unprecedented pressure to adopt standardized benchmarks to reflect and link student achievement data to formal teacher performance evaluations. No teacher performance evaluation measures have been developed for use with special education teachers or the settings in which they teach. Dedicated focus is needed to ensure that adopted evaluation measures are sensitive to the specific expertise reflected in the practices of specialty teachers and valid for use. …

Variabilidad Lingüística En Las Lenguas De Especialidad, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

El presente trabajo revisa desde un punto de vista teórico algunos de los aspectos fundamentales en los que se ha manifestado la variabilidad dentro de las lenguas de especialidad: desde la misma nomenclatura de este enfoque, pasando por la metodología empleada a lo largo de su evolución, las características de la lengua de especialidad o la variabilidad entre los géneros de las distintas disciplinas dentro del ámbito profesional y académico. La armonía con la que se viene integrando esta variabilidad en las distintas etapas de este enfoque desde hace más de un siglo, hace presagiar un avance al mismo tiempo …

Specters Of Kurdish Nationalism: Governmentality And Counterinsurgent Translation In Turkey, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

This essay examines translations of the Kurdish epic poem Mem û Zîn into Turkish, tracing the logics behind these state-sponsored translations and examining how acts of translation are also efforts to regulate, translate, and erase Kurdish subjectivities. I argue that the state instrumentalizes Mem û Zîn’s potent nationalist currency in order to disarm present and future claims of Kurdish national autonomy. Using translation as a counterinsurgent governmental tool, the state attempts to domesticate Kurdish nationalist discourses even as it reproduces them, thereby transforming Kurdish nationalism into a specter of itself. Attending to this specter, however, allows us to see how …

"Assessing The Efficacy Of Integration Strategies For Immigrant Communities: A Case Study Of The United States And France", Andres E. Gallo

Dissertations and Theses

The movement of peoples across borders has often been a prominent issue in the context of international relations, both historically when looking at the mass waves of European immigration throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and even more so in the current context of our globalized society with its increasingly complex migration patterns. As present-day crises and hardships continue to force individuals to flee their home countries, receiving states must address the various ramifications associated with granting entrance to the new influx of migrants. Regardless of the causal factors that prompt immigrant groups to leave their home countries, they are …

Why Are Grimms' Fairy Tales So Mysteriously Enchanting?, Ana Neophytou

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Can Gender-Stereotyped Depictions Of Occupations In Primary School Textbooks Help Shape Students' Career Choice In The Dominican Republic?, Hurtado Pérez Nohemí

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Inventions Of Truth, Deidre Bird

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Factors Which Prolong Civil Conflict In Africa: The Case Of Angola, Liberia And Sierra Leone, Ntesang Lorraine Molemele

Dissertations and Theses

It has been a long journey for this thesis accomplishment and now finally it is accomplished. First and foremost I thank God for my mother, Seskhutshwe, who has always wanted her children to accomplish through education. It would not have been possible of course without my dad, Judge and my little sister Ikey. My 9 year old daughter, I also thank her for always making sure she did not disturb me whenever I had to concentrate on this project. Above all, I wish to express my gratitude to my exceedingly patient Professor and supervisor, Jacqueline Braveboy. I have probably been …

Literary Translingualism: Multilingual Identity And Creativity, Steven G. Kellman, Natasha Lvovich

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Odds And The Ends: What To Do With Some Letters Of Catharine Macaulay, Olivera Jokic

Publications and Research

Biographers of Catharine Macaulay (1731–91), much like her contemporaries, often agreed that the woman’s reputation was shaped by the peculiar company she kept: prominent, intellectual, political, radical, revolutionary, and occasion- ally “foolish.”3 This essay examines why it matters what company a writer keeps, especially when that writer is a woman and her reputation is tied to the status of her letters and her correspondents.

Ways Of Seeing Language In Nineteenth-Century Galicia, Spain, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

This article discusses a language-ideological debate surrounding Galician between two Spanish intellectuals – one Andalusian, Juan Valera, and one Galician, Manuel Murguía – who clashed on the desirability of the literary cultivation of the language. This encounter is framed as a language ideological debate and interpreted in the context of Spain’s late nineteenth-century politics of regional and national identity.