Digital Commons Network^™

A Gift To My Self: A Psychoanalytic Approach To Understanding The Experiences Of Women Who Choose Not To Have Children, Irina D. Tchania

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although motherhood has long been a normative female experience, individual decisions regarding bearing and mothering children vary among women. Partly due to shifts in gender roles and contemporary societal expectations, the conflation of womanhood with motherhood – and the centrality of motherhood within female identity – is being increasingly challenged. Women who choose to remain childless make up a growing, unique, and understudied population group. Decisions regarding intentional childlessness have been considered through the lenses of sociology and feminist critique, while psychologically and psychoanalytically oriented scholarship is more limited. This study aimed to further our understanding of the voluntarily childless …

Fantasmas Compartidos: Posmemoria, Herencia Y Reescritura De La Guerra Civil Española En México Y España, Mayte Lopez Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes contemporary novels and films about the traumatic legacies of the Spanish Civil War through the lens of postmemory, memory studies, and transatlantic studies. I examine how Mexican and Spanish writers and filmmakers from the postwar generations approach the memories of their ancestors—and their own—to reframe history through fiction, memory work, and personal agency. Studies about historical memory are typically constrained to national contexts, but I highlight how trauma transcends the nation not only in space but also in time. Moreover, I focus on how inherited memories acquire new meanings in contemporary representations and how those resignifications have …

Evidence-Based Practice In The Management Of Tinnitus In Children And Adolescents: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Rivka Deutsch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to conduct a systematic review of the literature to compile and evaluate the known research on the management of tinnitus in children/ The specific aims of this paper are to determine what approaches can be considered best practice for the management of tinnitus in this population, what aspects of adult management (if any) can be adapted for children, and whether the literature supports one management approach over another.

Methods and Results: A comprehensive search utilizing the Medline and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Google Scholar databases, accessible via …

Metabolic Reprogramming In Kras-Driven Cancer Cells, Ahmet Hatipoglu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cancer cells require nutrient uptake for anabolic reactions needed for cellular growth and proliferation. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a key regulator of cellular growth that links nutrient availability and growth factor signals. mTOR mediated signaling pathways are often dysregulated in a wide range of cancers. We previously reported that KRas-driven cancer cells sense exogenous lipids via de novo production of phosphatidic acid, which ultimately activates both mTOR complexes – mTORC1 and mTORC2. Activated mTORC2 phosphorylates the survival kinase Akt at Ser 473 which is required for full Akt activation. A direct substrate of Akt and a major …

The Gilded Tropics: Winslow Homer And John Singer Sargent In Florida, 1886-1917, Theodore W. Barrow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the Floridian works of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent in the context of tourism, race, and the environment as perceptions of the tropics in an Anglo-American context. Both artists sojourned in Florida and produced a number of watercolors and related oils that not only testify to a rapidly-expanding tourist industry to the Sunshine State, but also update the Romantic myths of the tropics with a more sober, ironic Realist take. While Homer and Sargent continue to be popular subjects for studies and exhibitions on their own, this dissertation is the first to consider how their shared …

When Feeling Like A Fake Take A Toll On Your Work: Examining The Moderating Effect Of Task Characteristics On The Relationship Between Impostorism And The Use Of Dysfunctional Work Strategies, Alexandra Tumminia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Impostor phenomenon refers to an experience of hidden feelings of intellectual fraudulence held in achievement domains. While research on the subject is limited, impostors are reasoned to use dysfunctional performance strategies marked by overworking and withdrawing (Clance & Imes, 1988). In the present studies, the relationship between impostorism and the use of overworking strategies (i.e., overpreparation, unnecessary rework) and withdrawing strategies (i.e., procrastination, self-handicapping) were explored among a sample of college students with work experience. These studies were designed to test whether task characteristics including autonomy (Study 1; N = 128) and the anticipation of feedback (Study 2; N = …

Algorithmic Sovereignty: Machine Learning, Ground Truth, And The State Of Exception, Matthew Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the influence of algorithmic security technology on political theories of sovereignty and the state of exception. In computer science, an exception is a special circumstance that prevents a program from terminating normally. In political theory, the state of exception, as theorized by Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben, cannot be encoded within the normal liberal legal order. With states’ increasing turn toward algorithmic answers to questions of ‘security,’ which, per Agamben, is the long-term form of the political state of exception, the relationship between the concept of the exception in these two disciplines comes to the fore. In …

Play Makes Perfect: An Exploration Of Game And Play Elements In Composition And Performance, Gabrielle Chou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to explore the intersection of play and games in Western classical music and define a new category of pieces, “ludic pieces,” which contain play structures and game mechanics within their composition. Starting with surveying perspectives in ludology and ludomusicology, including those by Roger Caillois, Johan Huizinga, Jesper Juul, Katie Salen, and Eric Zimmerman, I will examine various definitions of a “game” and what its qualifying aspects are. I will then turn to music and consider pieces that interact with play and games without containing game structures, including examples of musical humor and pieces which evoke the imagery …

The Politics Of Expertise And The Articulation Of Authority In Democracy: Cognitive Style And Intelligibility In The Education Of Problem-Solving And Professional Decision-Making In The Domain Of Law, Michael W. Raphael

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computational complexity refers to the representational aspect of problem-solving. This representational aspect is commonly understood to describe the regularities that organize the definition of the problem-situation, the qualities that designate its difficulty, either in terms of the process of arriving at a definition of the problem or in the process of arriving at a solution. It is for this reason, that it is commonly said that “representational design precedes computational efficacy.” The point of this maxim is to serve as a reminder that an efficient use of resources begins with the design of near decomposability, the specification of the properties …

Navigating Through World’S Military Spending Data With Scroll-Event Driven Visualization, Hong Beom Hur

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Catching up with the current geopolitical event is more important than ever these days. Anti-western nations like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea constantly challenge the world order set by the United States and its close allies. As a result, the world has seen a rise in military spending consecutively for the last several years. This data visualization project aims to provide an easy-to-read summary of military spending data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute for hotly conflicted regions: East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Scroll-event-driven visualization implemented using Scrollama.js and D3.js combines text, map, and data …

Voiding The Unwanted Self: An Examination Of Racialized Violence In The United States, Benjamin Stark

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is concerned with the role of the psychic defenses projection and projective identification in the processes which lead to racialized violence in the United States. The dissertation posits that projection has been less considered as a primary driver of racialized violence than other psychic processes and should be better integrated into psychological research and literature on racialized violence. The thesis begins with a detailed examination of two instances of racialized violence, the first a macro example of nation vs. nation: the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, before which the United States fantasized Iraq was developing weapons …

Ethnic Tensions In The Western Balkans And The Experience Of Ethnic Minorities, Nadina Resulani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Western Balkan has experienced a past of ethnic turmoil. From the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo to ethnic tensions in Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. Understanding that ethnicity itself continues to be a salient factor in Western Balkan, the question remains how Western Balkan states were able to remove themselves from the front light of ethnic tensions considering today these countries are known as being tourist destinations, cultural and academic meccas, and democratic candidates in line to join the European Union. In reviewing and comparing the geopolitical and social environment of three Western Balkan states: Montenegro, …

Slow Speed Rail: The Social, Psychological And Environmental Benefits Of Long-Distance Train Travel, Vincent Gragnani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Long-distance train travel in the United States is slow, inefficient and woefully underfunded. Trains are routinely delayed for freight traffic. Many major cities are served in the middle of the night, or not at all. And the cost of a sleeping compartment is far out of reach for most Americans. This is all in stark contrast to the reliable services offered across Europe and parts of Asia. But for the 3.5 million people who ride Amtrak’s long-distance trains every year, the experience can be a fulfilling one. This web-based project, slowspeedrail.com, explores these benefits, namely, an intimacy with the landscape …

Audiological Management Of Children With Down Syndrome: A Toolkit For Caregivers, Natalie Lisiewicz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children with Down syndrome may have multiple medical co-morbidities. This can result in an overwhelming number of medical appointments and information for caregivers to keep track of. Middle ear dysfunction, among other otologic abnormalities, is common in the Down syndrome population, and the presence of these conditions will result in referrals to an audiologist to monitor hearing sensitivity. While hearing may not be the most pressing concern as compared to a possible life-threatening condition such as a heart defect, it is still a crucial factor in a child’s overall development.

This toolkit is designed with the intention of educating caregivers …

Policing The Borders Of An Empire: A Political History Of Tagging (1960–2008), Maria Heyaca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Of the nearly 6 million people monitored by the prison and immigration enforcement complex in the US, a little over 4 million, or 70%, are under community supervision. If we narrow in on the nearly 350,000 people being monitored by the immigration system, the figure goes up to 93%. Yet, most studies on criminalization conducted in the US, prioritize confined individuals, neglecting community supervision. In this dissertation, I present the first theoretically driven, historical and sociological analysis that comprehensively targets fundamental questions about the political history of electronic monitoring in the US -- a practice also known as tagging. I …

Social Identities And Campus Belonging As Predictors Of Flourishing Among College Students, Christine Gilchrist

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Annual data since 2012 shows college students’ flourishing (a measure of psychological well-being) in continuous decline, with 2022 showing the largest decrease. Since the knowledge base of the predictors of flourishing is limited, how college executives can best address this issue is unclear. Variations in flourishing have been observed in studies that examined the relationship between food insecurity (DeBate et al., 2021), race/ethnicity (Lipson et al., 2018, 2022; Nyunt et al., 2022; Parr, 2022), immigration status (Cadenas & Nienhusser, 2021), as well as gender identity and sexual orientation (Parr, 2022). The intersectional impact of demographic and social identities has not …

Design, Synthesis, And Kinetic Study Of The First Generation Phenyloxadiazole Compounds And The Second Generation Phenyloxadiazole Compounds And Highly Selective Hydroboration Of Alkenes, Ketones And Aldehydes Catalyzed By A Well-Defined Manganese Complex, Haisu Zeng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on two projects. In the first project, my goal was to discover a new variant of phenyloxadiazole compounds that could exhibit increased thiol-reactivity during bioconjugation processes. To achieve this, I synthesized several phenyloxadiazole derivatives and subjected them to NMR kinetic studies to assess their reactivity with a model thiol. Based on the results, I was able to identify a phenyloxadiazole analog that demonstrated enhanced reactivity, which included a chlorine atom located in the meta-position of the phenyl ring.

I provided a detailed description of the synthesis and characterization of the newly discovered phenyloxadiazole analog and demonstrate its …

Does Political Advertising Persuade? A Quantitative Assessment Of The Effects Of Campaign Contact In The Context Of Race, Ethnicity, And Immigrant Origin In New York City Council Primary Elections From 2001 Through 2017, Laura M. Tamman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a quantitative analysis of the relationship between New York city council campaigns’ spending and election results between 2001 and 2017, controlling for key factors such as incumbency, I find substantial and statistically significant positive effects for radio advertising on election outcomes. I find small but significant effects for mail, and smaller sized effects for canvassing. My findings underscore the need for further study of the role of ethnic and community media outlets, such as radio, in shaping voter behavior. Moreover, I argue that the fixation of the current persuasion literature on television ads in presidential general elections misses critical …

Understanding The Afghan Diaspora: Exploring The Factors Driving Migration And The Impact Of Migration Policies On Recent Afghan Evacuees Resettling In The United States, Aya H. Mohamed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Afghanistan has been at war with the West since the late 1900’s, remaining in a state of constant turmoil. During the Cold War (1979), Afghanistan had fought a war with the Soviet Union, known as the Soviet- Afghan War. During this time, Afghanistan was invaded by both the Soviet and US, creating a ground for terrorism and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In order to then eradicate the terrorist regime, the Taliban, the United States went to war with Afghanistan in 2001. The Taliban were suppressed by U.S. forces until August 2021, during which President Biden executed a …

English Learners In Nyc, Raquel Neris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

English Learners in NYC is a Digital Humanities project that intersects Migration Studies and Foreign Language Learning Studies by presenting a podcast series about the learning experience of international students in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at English schools in New York City. The project aims to provide visibility to the educational migration in this specific context and to promote a discussion on how international students and educators can reimagine their teaching and learning experience. It also aims to reveal ESL schools' challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they incorporated digital technologies during and after this event. …

Topics For He But Not For She: Quantifying And Classifying Gender Bias In The Media, Tyler J. Lanni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, we used computational techniques to analyze the language used in news articles to describe female and male politicians. Our corpus included 370 subtexts for male candidates and 374 subtexts for female candidates, gathered through the New York Times API. We conducted two experiments: an LDA topic analysis to explore the data, and a logistic regression to classify the subtexts as either male or female. Our analysis revealed some noteworthy findings that suggest the possibility of developing a gender bias classifier in the future. However, to create a more robust understanding of bias, additional research and data are …

How Do Authoritarian Regimes Win Re-Election During An Economic Recession?, Mst Sarmin Akter Mazumder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Democracies around the world continue to decline at the hands of democratic leaders elected by majority vote in free and fair elections. Turkey, one of the oldest democracies in the Middle East has experienced democratic breakdown under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Similarly, Venezuela was one of the longest-running and most established liberal democracies in the Latin American region. Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro have turned the country into one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world. Turkey has been experiencing a prolonged economic decline for nearly a decade. Venezuela’s economy has suffered due to the …

Identity, Access, And Equity: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study Of Mathematics Identity And Socialization In Pre-Service Teachers, Ashley Renaire Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Teaching practices in early childhood through post-secondary learning settings continue to reproduce inequities in mathematics education despite recognition of math’s utility and its necessity for competitiveness in the global economy. For reform efforts to be successful, teachers must change the way mathematics is presented in classrooms where students often experience differences in exposure to mathematics content and time spent covering particular mathematics topics. Therefore, teachers represent a critical component in the cycle of reproduction of unequal access to mathematics. This mixed-methods study examined the processes of mathematics identity formation and mathematics socialization in a diverse sample of pre-service elementary and …

Sustainable To The Core: Essays On Strategy And Sustainability, Junghoon Park

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the intricate relationship between business strategies and sustainability. A growing awareness has emerged among firms about the importance of embracing sustainability—integrating the environmental, social, and economic implications of their actions and decisions into their core strategies—to attain long-term success and competitive advantage. In this context, strategic management research has primarily concentrated on the benefits that firms and their stakeholders can derive from adopting and executing sustainability initiatives. Despite the numerous efforts made by firms to tackle sustainability concerns, pressing issues persist. This situation raises questions about the effectiveness of strategic management research in guiding firms to embed …

Misogyny In Contemporary Populist Authoritarianism, Maxine Mannheim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The regression of rights for women and the LGBTQ community, as well as the freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities are coinciding with the global rise in populist authoritarianism. However, the link between misogyny, gendered narratives, and populist authoritarianism remains understudied and requires further elaboration. There can be no full investigation of modern populism, nor the political leaders who utilize it, without an understanding of the gender dynamics that permeate populist and authoritarian politics. I argue that misogyny is interwoven in populist authoritarianism, and that it is a defining characteristic observable in the ways in which leaders manipulate the emotions …

Searching For Mami & Abuelita: Reimagining Ethnic Studies Praxis Through Women Of Color Feminisms, Art, And Archiving, Wendy S. Barrales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Weaving art-based methods, women of color (WOC) feminisms, digital participatory archiving (PAR-chiving), and Ethnic Studies pedagogy, this dissertation investigates how I explored and produced knowledge collectively with young women of color that reimagines classrooms as learning spaces for liberation. This dissertation, searching for mami & abuelita, is an extension of the women of color archive (wocarchive) a digital storytelling project documenting, preserving and sharing the experiences of our matriarchs of color. This project, born out of an interview with my abuelita Aída about her life in rural Veracruz, sought out to document and preserve the stories of women of color …

Muscling Through: Athletic Women In Victorian Popular Representation, 1864–1915, Julia G. Fuller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Muscling Through” reconstructs an overlooked history of strong female bodies in the nineteenth century. It argues that popular representations of athletic women introduced a new category of identity that was distinct from women’s traditional relational and social roles. The project’s central figure is the hyper-able “Sportswoman,” who bridges the gap between two familiar versions of the Victorian woman’s body: the mid-century ideal of docile, domesticated femininity and the sturdy, capable women who enter universities, professions, and public spaces en masse just before the turn of the century. Representationally, the Sportswoman figures a range of attitudes, from anxious to aspirational, toward …

A Sociology Of Gab: A Computational Analysis Of A Far-Right Social Network, Nga Than

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the racial discourse circulated on Gab, a microblogging and social networking platform, by the far right to proliferate hate speech, and how the far-right discourse has evolved on the platform. Gab was created 2016 in response to mainstream social media’s increase of content moderation and deplatforming of extremist users to curtail hate speech and harassment. The platform gained a substantial number of new users after the Charlotteville incident of 2017. In this thesis, I examine the creation of Gab, as an alternative social media platform, as a strategic site of socio-technical innovation, as well as the important …

Fighting The Invisibility Of Domestic Violence, Yesenny Fernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analyzing the invisibility of domestic violence in New York City as 32% of women in the city experience intimate partner physical violence. In this project, domestic violence refers to all different kinds of violence that occur in a home between all the members who live there regardless of whether they are intimate partners or not. The data focuses on all the daily calls received by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) regarding domestic violence related incidents such as physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual violence, or murder. Even though many …

“For ‘Their Own Good’”: Education, The Performing Arts, And Social Justice At The Brooklyn Academy Of Music, 1915–2023, Anna S. Harb

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the development of an education department at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the oldest performing arts institution in the United States (1861), and argues that education programs in cultural institutions attempt to fill gaps in cultural capital that have been reproduced across generations while also highlighting the need for comprehensive arts education in public schools. An investigation of education for young people at BAM—from weekend programming for the children of Academy subscribers, to a fully staffed branch serving students throughout the tri-state area (often during the school day)—offers a porthole into the larger municipal history, particularly …