Digital Commons Network^™

The Youth Music Institute At The University Of Wisconsin, Summer 1969, Phillip Hash

Faculty Publications - Music

The purpose of this historical study was to examine the planning, implementation, participants, and activities associated with the Youth Music Institute (YMI) held at the University of Wisconsin from July 7 to August 1, 1969. Organizers hoped this event would bridge the communication gap between society, educational institutions, and youth through a collaborative learning environment involving students, music educators, guidance counselors, and professional recording artists. Participants used the term “youth music” to encompass multiple genres that captured the interest of young people, including various forms of rock, blues, soul, country western, jazz, and ethnic styles. The program consisted of lectures …

Preventing Suicide In Jails: Examining Community, Facility, And Individual Differences, Mijin Kim, Victor J. St. John, Jason Szkola

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Suicide remains the leading cause of death in U.S. correctional facilities, underscoring the importance of identifying factors contributing to elevated risk. Drawing on national data on jail fatalities from 2011 to 2019, this study examines suicide risk across macro-level (community infrastructure), meso-level (facility characteristics), and micro-level (individual vulnerabilities) domains. Multivariate regression analyses indicate that, at the micro-level, being young, White, male, unconvicted, or serving a short length of stay increases suicide likelihood. Rural isolation is associated with higher suicide rates, whereas overcrowding is linked to lower rates. Interaction models further demonstrate that rural jails without overcrowding experience the highest suicide …

Connecting Classrooms To Communities: A Practical And Effective Guide For Involving Community Development Practitioners In Graduate Seminars, Michael Hendricks

Faculty Publications – Politics and Government

This article examines the pedagogical impact of a strategically structured guest speaker series in a graduate-level community development seminar. Drawing on four cohorts of qualitative student feedback and utilizing an inductive thematic analysis, the study explores how guest speakers influence student learning, professional development, and civic engagement. Findings reveal that guest speakers effectively bridge theory and practice, enhance classroom engagement, and foster critical thinking, career exploration, and long-term civic involvement. Students reported that interacting with diverse professionals helped clarify real-world applications of course content and inspired volunteerism, internships, and employment opportunities. The paper also identifies conditions that enhance the effectiveness …

“…They’Re Still Blaming It On The Person Being Lazy”: Stigma In The Lives Of Precariously Housed And Unhoused People, Brenna Jones, Brian Pitman

Graduate Research - Criminal Justice Sciences

Housing is increasingly a market exploited by corporations and what Samuel Stein calls the Real Estate State. Consequently, the state continues to target those impacted by these policy choices with removal and further stigmatization to clear the way for profit-making, which is tied to the housing market. The process of removal is accomplished through various forms of stigmatization and dehumanization, first at the public and institutional level. These stigmas then trickle down to intra-community and self-stigmatization. In all, these stigmas serve to justify and maintain the evolving status quo of homelessness and precarious housing, deflecting the blame of this “crisis” …

Examining Equifinality And Multifinality Using Outcome-Partitioned Person-Centered Analyses: A Proof-Of-Concept With Youth Developmental Assets And Health, Luke Russell, Todd M. Jensen, Jonathon J. Beckmeyer, Chang Su-Russell

Faculty Publications - Family and Consumer Sciences

Early general systems theorists proposed a key difference between living systems and physical systems is the widespread presence of equifinality and multifinality among living organisms. That is, in living systems, there are often variable pathways to the same outcomes (equifinality), or the same starting conditions can lead to disparate outcomes (multifinality). Family scientists, however, frequently use methods (adapted from the physical sciences) that fail to reflect these characteristics within their statistical models. In this paper, we propose and provide a preliminary proof-of-concept of how an outcome-partitioned set of person-centered analyses might be used to develop alternative models that more comprehensively …

Carceral Consequences And Perverse Perks: Care And The Disciplinary Alternative School, Kaitlyn J. Selman

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Drawing on in-depth interviews with current and former students, parents, teachers, and staff members connected with three alternative schools in one Kentucky, USA school district, this work contributes to the theorization of carceral care. Instead of reducing the alternative school, its processes, and its functions down into a dichotomized question of good or bad, productive or violent, we come to see the dialectical nature of carcerality and the logics of care. Specifically, the negative consequences that students are subjected to are justified and internalized by the (perverse) benefits of attendance, thus dissipating from the realm of critique. As such, I …

“My Pain Was Never More Valuable Than His Potential”: A Rhetorical Thematic Analysis Of Gaslighting Within Sexual Abuse Cases, Makayla Roller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines gaslighting within three prominent sexual abuse cases—Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and Larry Nassar—uncovered during the #MeToo movement, to better understand the rhetorical function of gaslighting. Using a combination of rhetorical thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, a feminist lens, and a gaslighting schema, this study identifies the rhetorical tactics, gendered discourse, and power-laden discourse deployed to gaslight victims and the public. I argue that gaslighting must be examined through a rhetorical lens, as discourse is the mechanism through which gaslighting operates, shaping perceptions of truth, credibility, and power. By highlighting how language is weaponized to deny, distort, and …

"The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love": Identity Creation, Compartmentalization, And Belonging Among Queer Peace Corps Volunteers, Laura N. Keeran

Theses and Dissertations

The Peace Corps advertises that it accepts anyone, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation; however, recruiters and staff ask volunteers to go back into the closet for their twenty-seven months of service due to the Peace Corps’ safety concerns about their volunteers being out in their host countries. Queer Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) answer the call to serve, accepting that it means they will need to keep their queer identities concealed for two years and three months. I conducted ethnographic interviews with ten people who have served or are currently serving in the Peace Corps and identify under …

Warriors Of Faith Vs Passive Men: Gender Binarism And Performance In Evangelical Christian Masculinity, Alexander Koch

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines communications and reflections of self (gendered and religious) in Midwest Evangelical Christian men. The focus was on how these groups perform their gender and religion with each other, and the tactics that were used to reinforce an acceptable notion of masculinity. Drawing upon literature on gender and masculinity studies, feminist philosophy, and hierarchical systems, my project aimed to analyze acceptable gender performance pushed by patriarchal gender norms and evangelical Christian groups. I incorporated multiple settings in my ethnographic study across the Midwest. Methods included semi-structured interviews and participant-observation of men’s conferences and Christian men’s groups, while reflecting …

Genetic Relative-Finder Services: A Qualitative Study Of Consumer Experiences, Sarah A. Sciba

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Genetic genealogy is an emergent topic in sociology. To date, over 41 million individuals worldwide have tested with the top four direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) companies: AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritageDNA (Glynn 2022). These tests provide consumers with ethnicity estimates, a list of DNA cousin matches, or both. Despite the popularity of DTCGT, there is a lack of data on consumer experiences with genetic relative-finder services (GRF) in the sociological literature. Methodology: I conducted exploratory, qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews with eight adult women who have used GRF. I gathered data about their motivations for participation …

Understanding The Influence Of A University-Based Reading And Literacy Center Literacy Tutoring Program On Students’ Literacy Behaviors, Beliefs, And Skills: Stakeholder Perspectives, Wanda D. Turk

Theses and Dissertations

A convergent mixed-methods study designed with a networked systems theory framework investigated the influence of a university-based reading and literacy center literacy tutoring program on students’ literacy behaviors, beliefs, and skills. The study examined stakeholder perspectives of changes in students following their participation in the literacy tutoring program. A convergent mixed-methods design collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data separately before merging for interpretation. Quantitative data came from students’ pre-assessment scores and post-assessment scores. The results indicated that students’ scores increased, decreased, or remained the same from pre-assessment to post-assessment. Qualitative data came from tutor interviews and parent surveys. The …

Liking Gap(S) In Getting-Acquainted Interactions, Susan Sprecher

Faculty Publications – Sociology and Anthropology

In first interactions, people often think about how much they like the other and how much the other likes them in return. Recently, a liking gap has been identified, which is the tendency for people to underestimate how much a new acquaintance likes them. With data from a compiled sample of pairs of strangers interacting for the first time, this investigation contributes to knowledge on how common it is to experience this perceived liking gap (versus no gap or an overestimation of how much one is liked). Also examined is an actual liking gap, the difference between how much people …

Addressing Barriers To Racial Health Disparity Policy Change Advocacy: Exploring White Defensiveness Strategies, Mary Beth Deline, Mary Katreeb, Emily Mj Mason, Laura N. Richard, Ertemisa Godinez, Kajsa E. Darlymple

Faculty Publications - Communications

Efforts to effect racial health disparity (RHD) policy change are urgent, necessary, and subject to a key barrier: defensiveness among White privileged audiences. Within the literature to date, such defensiveness is under-investigated, and when examined, is typically conceived of as an individual cognitive outcome—a message effect—rather than a communication interaction. Yet policy change advocacy efforts, ranging from community organizing to change campaigns, necessitate communication interactions between advocates and privileged policy change audiences, such as neighborhood groups or policymakers themselves. This defensiveness conceptualization, focused on individual cognitions, therefore limits our understanding of interactive communication barriers in RHD policy advocacy processes. To …

Positive Youth Development For Youth Living In Structurally Diverse Families, Jonathon J. Beckmeyer

Faculty Publications - Family and Consumer Sciences

Research on family structure diversity and youth well-being has largely aligned with deficit orientations, emphasizing that living in structurally diverse families is a potential risk-factor for youth well-being and development. In this article, I advocate for increased strengths-based scholarship on youth living in structurally diverse families by centering this research with positive youth development (PYD) frameworks. Broadly, PYD frameworks orient scholars toward viewing youth holistically, attending to positive indicators of well-being as well as how youth capacities and experiences intersect with family and community resources to promote flourishing and thriving. Approaching family structure diversity and youth well-being from a PYD …

Artificial Intelligence And Illicit Drugs: A World Of Possibilities, Ralph A. Weisheit

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Large scale drug production and distribution organizations (DTOs) are businesses. As such they face many of the same challenges faced by legal businesses, such as the creation of new drugs, supply chain issues, and identifying new markets. The legal business world is finding creative ways to meet those challenges utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). This discussion uses a horizon scan methodology to suggest how current and anticipated applications of AI in the legal business world might be adapted by large-scale illicit drug trafficking organizations. The focus in this discussion is on its potential application for the largest organizations that control the …

Unreadable, Unfindable, And Incomplete: Evaluating Prea Information In State Correctional Handbooks, Jessie L. Krienert, Jeffrey A. Walsh, Caitlyn Donnelly

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was enacted in 2003 to prevent sexual abuse in correctional settings through a zero-tolerance framework. While all states formally acknowledge PREA, the accessibility, clarity, and completeness of the information provided to incarcerated individuals remain uncertain. This mixed-methods study evaluates PREA-related content in 62 state correctional handbooks from 49 states, assessing three core dimensions: readability, findability, and substantive content. Grounded in compliance theory and institutional betrayal, the analysis focuses on how correctional institutions communicate PREA protections, prevention strategies, and reporting procedures. Results reveal that most PREA content exceeds the literacy levels of the intended audience, …

Parent & Family Newsletter, March 2025, Illinois State University, Parent And Family Services

Parent & Family Newsletter

Parent and Family Newsletter

The Tender Flesh: Dwelling In Soft Wounds And Visceral Bodies, Madelyn Irene Turner-Havens

Theses and Dissertations

Within my painting process, I explore bodily interiority and exteriority in relation to the surface of painting, evoking a discomforting sense of corporeal (dis)embodiment, where haunted flesh becomes palpable. Indexing conversations with the body into the painting is a way to understand my body and create an experience of what happens when language fails to capture the complexity of sensation. Painting becomes a mediation with the canvas, a constant discovery of what can give shape to the intangible: how it feels when my skin folds into itself, bodily urges, and the soft texture of fatty tissue.

I let the parts …

Adolescents’ Advanced Stem Course Intentions: Predictors And Reasoning, Jacqueline Cerda-Smith, Emine Ozturk, Angelina Joy, Kelly Lynn Mulvey

Faculty Publications – Psychology

Taking advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in high school can support persistence in STEM. Given gender enrollment inequities in many advanced STEM courses, the current study explored potential gender differences in predictors of and reasoning about advanced STEM course intentions in a sample of high school students. Participants (N = 750, M_age = 15.10 years, SD = 0.83, 50.5% boys) attending five public high schools in the southeastern United States responded to online questionnaires regarding their current STEM classes and advanced course intentions as well as an open-ended item to capture their STEM intention reasoning. …

Popularizing Autogestión: Punk, Zapatismo, And Anarchist Ethics In Mexico City, Livia K. Stone

Faculty Publications – Sociology and Anthropology

Autogestión (self-management), has been a popular articulation of radical politics since its emergence in the 1960s. This article examines how Mexico City's anarcho-punk scene transformed autogestión in the 1990s from an anarcho-syndicalist principle into a unique ethical practice detached from industrial material production. It was then popularized and made more mainstream through university rock festivals. As these were Zapatista benefit concerts, autogestión became inadvertently attached to Zapatismo and detached from anarchism and punk. This history is a crucial one for understanding the political development of an entire generation of the political left in Mexico City who were young in the …

"I’Ll Wait Zero Seconds": Faculty Perspectives On Serials Access, Sharing, And Immediacy, Rachel Elizabeth Scott, Anne Shelley, Chad E. Buckley, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Julie A. Murphy

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study explores how faculty across disciplines access and share scholarly serial content and what expectations they have for immediacy. The authors conducted twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews with faculty of various ranks representing all Illinois State University (ISU) colleges. The findings, presented in the words of participants and triangulated with data from local sources, suggest that faculty use a variety of context-specific mechanisms to access and share serial literature. Participants discuss how they use library services such as databases, subscriptions, interlibrary loan, and document delivery, coupled with academic social networks, disciplinary repositories, author websites, and other publicly available sources to …

Ordering Effects In Stereotype Scales, L.J. Zigerell

Faculty Publications – Politics and Government

Stereotypes about groups are commonly measured by asking participants to rate the groups on a scale. However, the percentage of participants who stereotype a group can be affected by the order in which participants are asked to rate the groups. Data from a randomized experiment in the American National Election Studies 2022 Pilot Study indicated that a group was more frequently positively stereotyped relative to another group when the group was asked about first in the pair of groups, compared to when the other group in the pair was asked about first. Researchers are therefore advised to randomize the order …

Investigation Of The Human Temporal Styloid Process As A Bony Indicator Of Speech, Sommer A. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The temporal styloid process in humans serves as an attachment point for the styloglossus, stylohyoid, and stylopharyngeus, which are involved in tongue movement and deglutition. I hypothesized that the length of the ossified styloid process in humans is the result of selection for increased musculature that would support tongue movements involved in speech. This hypothesis assumes that the relative length of the ossified temporal styloid process is unique to humans. A comparative analysis of the presence or absence of the temporal styloid process was conducted on ten genera of Old-World primates, and it was found that the length of this …

Perceptions Of A Hypothetical Student As A Function Of Binge Eating Disorder And Gender, Erin Rose Hennessy

Theses and Dissertations

Stigma toward those with binge eating disorder and a gender bias toward eating disorders can lead to misattribution of symptoms as well as a reduced likelihood of having the diagnosis of eating disorders (Currin, Schmidt, and Waller 2007). Symptoms of binge eating, such as being overweight, have different social meanings than an eating disorder that can lead to being underweight, such as anorexia (Saguy and Gruys 2010). In addition, social support has been previously found to have positive relationships with eating disorder recovery. The purpose of this study was to understand differences in people’s perceptions of targets who are overweight …

Boys Build, Girls Glam: An Examination Of Adult Language Use In Informal Steam Education Settings, Alexandra Horton

Theses and Dissertations

Research on STEAM education has primarily focused on formal education settings such as schools, with more research needed in informal or non-traditional education settings. As children frequently engage with informal and non-traditional education settings, it is important to understand how we can transmit information in these settings to bolster and further the learning process and increase engagement. STEAM fields have been plagued by racial and gender inequities that have led to these groups being marginalized and excluded (Blair et al., 2017; Eaton et al., 2020; Martin, 2018; Martin & Phillips, 2019; Miller et al., 2018; Newall et al., 2018, Sheffield …

Exploring How Political Affiliations Influence Trust In Ai Applications, Md Imran Ahsan

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the impact of partisanship on public trust in the utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by private and public institutions. This study utilizes data from the “Artificial Intelligence: American Attitudes and Trends” survey (Zhang & Dafoe, 2019). Survey-weighted OLS regression models are employed to examine the variations in trust levels across different private and public institutions. This study hypothesizes that H1: Compared to Republicans, Democrats will report higher levels of confidence in public institutions to develop AI in the best interests of the public. H2: Compared to Democrats, Republicans will report higher levels of confidence in private institutions …

Immigration Identity And Policy Choices: Exploring How Immigration Status Shapes Public Attitudes Toward Immigration Policy, Ali Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how immigration background influences public attitudes toward immigration policy. The study employs social identity theory and assimilation theory, which elucidate how group affiliation and generational proximity influence political attitudes. Drawing on these theories, the study hypothesizes that individuals with closer ancestor migration ties are more likely to show higher levels of support for favorable policies for immigrants compared to those who have more distant ancestor migration ties. Utilizing the 2020 Cooperative Election Study (CES) data, the analysis incorporates key demographic and ideological variables as control variables, such as education, gender, age, and family income. The study found …

Interfaith Marriages: Exploring The Role Of Upbringing And Lived Experiences On Interfaith Couples' Unions, Meghna Gogoi

Theses and Dissertations

This study on interfaith marriages is an example of the micro-macro linkage that we seek to make in sociology. Marriage is a “primary,” intimate relationship, but one that increasingly involves “intermarriage” across lines of race/ethnicity, religion, and cultural backgrounds. Interfaith marriages, which refer to unions between individuals from different religious backgrounds, are becoming more common in today’s contemporary society. Therefore, it is relevant to understand the experiences of couples in interfaith marriages. It highlights how individual decisions in intimate relationships are influenced by larger social structures, such as religious norms and cultural expectations. This study explores how upbringing and lived …

The Evolution Of Social Protection Norms Within The International Monetary Fund, Cindy W. Ziem

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the evolution of social protection norms within the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and identifies the key norm entrepreneurs. Social protection, which encompasses policies and programs designed to help individuals and communities manage risks, combat poverty and inequality, and access economic opportunities, has undergone significant transformation on a global scale. Traditionally, social policies were not included in the IMF’s agenda, which primarily focused on fiscal matters. However, the Fund has increasingly recognized social protection as vital for macroeconomic stability. This shift reflects a broader transformation in international norms and the progressive inclusion of social policies within global economic …

Normalizing Delinquency And Risky Behaviors In Adolescents: An Application Of Neutralization Theory To Parents, Audrey Cheatham

Theses and Dissertations

Sykes and Matza’s Neutralization theory (1957) was originally developed to explain juvenile involvement in delinquency, with extensions of this theory being used to understand crime in other offending groups. Although neutralization theory has been widely applied to offenders, far less research has examined how neutralizations may be used by non-offending groups. This study applies Sykes and Matza’s framework to parents to explore whether neutralizations are being employed to justify risk taking or delinquent behavior among their adolescent children. This study also examines how parents differentiate risky behavior from delinquent behavior, as well as their attitude towards seven major risk factors …