Digital Commons Network^™

The Ontological Nature Of Theology: On Heidegger's "Phenomenology And Theology", Casey Garrett Spinks

LSU Master's Theses

Following his newfound celebrity upon publication of Being and Time, Martin Heidegger delivered a lecture in 1927 and 1928, titled “Phenomenology and Theology,” where he discussed how his recent groundbreaking work in existential phenomenology relates to Christian theology. Far from offering his philosophy as a method for theology, he instead attempted to utterly separate the two, setting the former as fundamental ontology and the latter as a positive science more akin to history, with the Christian faith as its positive object of study. The lecture was left unpublished until 1969, when Heidegger added an appendix, a piece exemplary of the …

A Tamed Nobility? An Evaluation Of The Relationship Between The English Monarchy And The Late Medieval Peerage, Elizabeth Paige Long

LSU Master's Theses

The fifteenth century in England was an extremely tumultuous period. The beginning of the century saw the continuation and eventual end of the Hundred Years War while the latter half saw a period of noble-led civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. The Wars of the Roses lasted for approximately thirty years and spanned the reigns of four kings: Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII. The English peerage was intimately involved throughout the entire conflict. Nobles such as Richard, Duke of York and Richard, Earl of Salisbury were responsible for beginning the Wars of the …

Louisiana State University During World War I: A Military Tradition, Angela Michelli Fleming

LSU Master's Theses

When the United States first joined World War I it had long been without a large standing army, it soon became apparent that there was a need for soldiers and training facilities. To solve this problem, the United States utilized colleges and universities as training camps. Because of its strong military tradition, Louisiana State University (LSU) was mobilized for this purpose. Although this mobilization was a serious turning point in the school’s development, not many scholars have written histories of the changes during this time. LSU began as the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana in 1860, but …

Charting A Path: How A Group Of Urban Elementary Music Teachers Understand Their Career Decisions, Joseph J. Casselberry

LSU Master's Theses

This qualitative study was an investigation of the career journeys of two elementary music teachers employed in a large urban district. The study also examined the job changing experiences of eight other elementary music teachers in the same district. Perceived employment considerations (factors that are weighed when considering working at one school over another), and the detailed employment experiences of two of these teachers, were explored in order to better understand teacher mobility and attrition. An open ended electronic questionnaire was sent to all 28 elementary music teachers employed by the district. Two teachers were later purposefully sampled from the …

Pronoun Marking In African American English-Speaking Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Gayatri Ramamoorthy Brown

LSU Master's Theses

The present study was designed to describe and quantify patterns of pronoun use by African American English (AAE)-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their AAE-speaking typically developing (TD) peers. Pronouns were of interest because: they are produced frequently in everyday speech, they are often targeted when a child’s language abilities are evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, and limited pronoun data exists for AAE-speaking children. The data were language samples that had been elicited from 96 children (35 SLI, 61 TD) enrolled in kindergarten. The samples were searched for 11 different pronoun forms, and these were coded as …

Descriptive Aanalysis Of Agritourism In Louisiana: Motivation. Marketing. Limitations., Denys Maksymov

LSU Master's Theses

This study aims to present information on the existing Louisiana agritourism industry and create a descriptive profile of agritourism operators, addressing specifically what motivates people to engage in agritourism. A subsequent focus of the study is to document marketing approaches used in promoting agritourism operations and concerns and limitations faced by Louisiana agritourism operators. These will be achieved through the following objectives: 1. Use a survey instrument to collect information on the demographics of farmers interested and/or engaged in agritourism, farm characteristics, types of activities offered in the agritourism operations, as well as motivators for engaging in agritourism. 2. Analyze …

Gender Beyond Birth: Gender Non-Conforming Students Lived Experiences Residing On-Campus In The Southeast, Tiffany Marlene Shierling

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, using a qualitative approach, gender non-conforming students lived experience living on campus in the south is being investigated. “Trans* students remain largely invisible through college records as no data is collected consistently on their enrollment” (Nicolazzo, 2016 p. 539). Although this is true of all gender non-conforming students, it is even more relevant to those that attend universities in the Southeast. Gender non-conforming students are attending universities in higher numbers than every reported before and yet, student affairs still does not have a theory that relates to these students when teaching their graduate students. The psychological literature …

Measuring Teachers' Perceptions Of Student Behavior Using The Systematic Screening For Behavior Disorders, Megan Ruth Erickson

LSU Master's Theses

As part of school- and district-wide preventative efforts, universal screening serves to identify students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders while their behavior is still amenable to treatment. However, there are few universal screeners available for middle school students, who may be at heightened risk for developing emotional and behavioral difficulties due to major academic and social changes. The Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD), often considered the “gold standard” for behavior screeners, was recently validated for use in middle schools. However, there is little research on the reliability and validity of the SSBD for screening middle school students …

Evaluation Of Estrous Response Patches As A Tool To Determine Optimum Timing For Artificial Insemination And If Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Is Needed At Timed-Ai In Beef Cattle, Danilo Demeterco

LSU Master's Theses

Two experiments evaluated using an estrous-detection patch to identify animals that are in standing estrus at split-timed AI (STAI) and the necessity of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) injection at STAI on a 7-Day CO-Synch + CIDR protocol. In experiment 1 (n=216) and in experiment 2 (n=101), multiparous lactating crossbred beef cows were stratified by age, BW, BCS, and post-partum interval to 2 treatment groups: CTRL=timed-AI (TAI) at 72h post CIDR removal, or TRT=STAI at 72 or 84h post CIDR removal. All females received GnRH plus a CIDR on d0, prostaglandin-F2α, CIDR removal, and an Estrotect estrous-detector patch on d7. At …

Denis Diderot's Anglophilia And Its Impact Upon His Salons, William Judson

LSU Master's Theses

The work of Enlightenment philosophe Denis Diderot went largely unpublished during his lifetime, and upon its discovery in the nineteenth century, his originality was overlooked because of the perceived quaintness of his tastes. Thankfully, as his body of work became better understood and more accessible, his reputation steadily improved. The discipline of literary art criticism is now thought of as having its origins in Diderot’s Salons, a series of letters containing his thoughts on the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture’s biennial exhibitions in the Palace of the Louvre. These were circulated among an elite clientele who were not …

"Things Not Seen" In The Frescoes Of Giotto: An Analysis Of Illusory And Spiritual Depth, Aaron Hubbell

LSU Master's Theses

This research explores Giotto di Bondone's (1266-1337) use of empty and concealed space as a means of implying psychological and spiritual concepts. Focused on his narrative frescoes, this project borrows from art historian Mary Pardo's analysis of the Arena Chapel frescoes as examples of Giotto's ingegno, or visual wit. Giotto conveys the emotional and psychological state of his figures as well as the presence of the divine through spatial and architectural divisions between figure groups and the suggestion of narrative elements outside of the viewers' perspective. Along with close visual analysis, this thesis draws on art historical literature on the …

Social Media And Discourse: A Comparative Study Of English And Spanish Apologies, Adam Logan Majors

LSU Master's Theses

This research is based on the combination of the age-old discussion between written and oral discourse with the emergence of using multimedia to publish apologies for widespread audiences. Because social media applications like Twitter and YouTube give instant publication access to its users, the continuum between written and oral discourse is continuing to shorten not just amongst Americans, but numerous cultures. The aim of this thesis is to observe a number of tweets and videos to determine whether or not multimedia is aiding this movement, as well as whether English and Spanish speech act-making strategies (specifically for apologies) are affected. …

The Slow Evolution Of A Chimeric Field: Perceptions Of Chymistry Through Early Learned Journals, 1665-1743, Amanda J. Arceneaux

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars have made the argument that during the eighteenth century “alchemy” came increasingly to be seen as a fraudulent science or a science for charlatans, while chemistry retained its intellectual prestige. Around the same time "alchemy" and "chemistry" began their divergence, the legitimacy of science came increasingly to depend on public demonstrations. The term chymistry has become accepted amongst scholars of the field when discussing this etymologically complicated period when the terms alchemy and chemistry were both used by contemporaries to describe the field of knowledge without the distinctions that are placed on the terms today.

This study examines 1,029 …

Analyzing User Comments On Youtube Coding Tutorial Videos, Elizabeth Heidi Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Video coding tutorials enable expert and novice programmers to visually observe real developers write, debug, and execute code. Previous research in this domain has focused on helping programmers find relevant content in coding tutorial videos as well as understanding the motivation and needs of content creators. In this thesis, we focus on the link connecting programmers creating coding videos with their audience. More specifically, we analyze user comments on YouTube coding tutorial videos. Our main objective is to help content creators to effectively understand the needs and concerns of their viewers, thus respond faster to these concerns and deliver higher-quality …

Chronicle & Character, Taryn Moller Nicoll

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis paper, I argue that the works in the exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' aim to demonstrate artistic citizenship and can contribute positively to society by provoking conversation about universally applicable (but often uncomfortable) topics. Experts such as David J. Elliot state that being an artistic citizen means that one’s concerns as an artist must shift from issues constrained to the artist alone to those of the artist’s surrounding community. The exhibition 'Chronicle & Character' contains works that serve as detailed chronicles of the medical or physiological experiences of my loved ones. This body of work presents how three …

How American Is The American College Fraternity? Examining The European Legacy Within The U.S. Greek System, Andrew Thomas Bell

LSU Master's Theses

In this study, a cultural dissemination model is used to identify the cultural markers a fraternalism across multiple educational environments all in an attempt to answer the question “How American is the American college fraternity?” Aspects of modern fraternities and sororities were broken down and their historical predecessors were identified in order to track cultural dissemination, or diffusion. “Diffusion is the spread of culture traits and, as Wissler (140,146) and Bartlett (7) have demonstrated, this spread may be either conscious or unconscious” (Willey & Herskovits, 1927, p. 263). Primarily systems the broad European Fraternalism, European Universities (German and English), American …

Welcome (Or Not So Welcome) Home: A Transatlantic Examination Of 19th Century Spain's National Identity Through The Literary Portrayal Of The Indiano In Galdós And Eva Canel, Shelley E. Tompkins

LSU Master's Theses

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Spain’s history was marked by political, ideological, social, and economic crisis. The resultant division on all of these levels and a paralyzing culture of decadence left the nation fragmented and unable to establish a national identity. This and the conflict between tradition and modernity largely contributed to the Disaster of 1898 in which Spain lost Cuba, the last of its remaining American colonies. This thesis presents a transatlantic examination of some of the works of nineteenth century Spanish writers Benito Pérez Galdós and Eva Canel in which I focus specifically on the …

Language Use In Forensic Settings, Emily Faith Wiegers

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding what constitutes proper communication is an important component of interaction for forensic science professionals. Using concepts from linguistic anthropology, this thesis recognizes patterns of discourse and register among individuals working within a forensic setting. Data collected from a survey distributed to members of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and from interviews with forensic professionals working in the state of Louisiana were used to analyze individual perceptions of language use in professional settings. Results show that variation among individuals within the forensic disciplines affects speech. Other determinants of proper speech include audience and the space within which the communication …

Understanding How Incoming First Year College Students Develop Academic Performance Expectations: A Qualitative Case Study, Christina Marie Coovert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore how incoming first year students develop their academic performance expectations, differences between students in the development of academic performance expectations, and lastly the role of the university has in communicating expectations to students. The researcher utilized case study research to examine various perspectives related to the development of academic performance expectation. Research methodology included, participant interviews, document analysis and observation. Research findings are highlighted by ten first year college students’ experiences; half of the participants were previously higher performing and the other half were previously lower performing. Performance was based on …

Descendants Of Abraham: A Comparative Approach To Jewish And Islamic Rhetorics, Brandon Katzir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Descendants of Abraham: A Comparative Approach to Jewish and Islamic Rhetorics provides two important correctives to modern scholarship. It emphasizes the importance of Jewish and Islamic rhetorics typically neglected by Western-centric historians of rhetoric, and it showcases the cultural relationship between Jews and Muslims that has been typically occluded by modern scholarship. Focusing on the early Islamic world, I demonstrate instantiations of interconnectivity between Jewish and Islamic rhetoric in Arabic from the 9th-12th centuries CE. Specifically, I look at how judicial rhetoric plays an important role in the adjudication of halakha and sharia, followed by a consideration of theological rhetoric …

The Holistic Undergraduate Growth Experience: A Case Study Exploring The Development Of A Student Success And Retention Program, Bianca Briana Teats

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This case study depicted the development and implementation of the Holistic Undergraduate Growth Experience (HUGE) student success and retention program that spans the second year of undergraduate study to graduation. This study set out to expand student development theory and practice to include an international perspective, specifically one from the Middle East. An increased amount of attention was dedicated to examining the development of the aforementioned program than to its actual implementation in order to provide a more comprehensive framework. Based on the findings associated with this study, recommendations were made not only to the host institution for the study, …

The Fooding Of Narrative In Contemporary Women's Transnational Fiction, Stacey Marie Amo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Fooding of Narrative in Contemporary Women’s Transnational Fiction examines how foodstuffs are strategically deployed in recent fiction about migration to the United States. The novels examined, all set in the period following the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, depict the experience of resettlement from a diverse set of postcolonial sites: Haiti, Cuba, Vietnam, and India. The Fooding of Narrative argues that food is deployed as a structuring trope and acquires narrative significance in articulating the profound sense of identity crisis that frequently accompanies the immigration experience. By focusing on food’s narrative significance in a broad …

Finding Voice In The Academy Through Yellow Storytelling: An Asian American Autoethnography On Suffering In Higher Education, Thuong Thi Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions in the United States (U.S.) were founded for a select segment of the population, i.e. white Christian men from upper socioeconomic classes (Thelin, 2011). Research shows the policies, pedagogies, and practices created for use within majority populations and dominant cultures are not as beneficial or effective for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. As the U.S. becomes more diverse and college enrollment among diverse students increases, higher education institutions need to identify more holistic approaches and investigate alternative methods to better serve these populations. This dissertation is a response to that need. In order to offer other alternatives, …

Symphony No. 1 And The Development Of New Techniques In Contemporary Music Composition, Eric Lacy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The initial part of this dissertation is a symphony. Symphony No. 1 consists of three movements. Each movement begins with a monumental gesture designed to make a bold and unforgettable statement. Within each movement, there is an interesting array of harmonic and rhythmic schemes. In Symphony No. 1, the diametrically opposed concepts of “simple” and “complex” are featured prominently. These concepts are contrasted thematically, rhythmically, and harmonically. The next part of this dissertation establishes the existence of certain obstacles facing contemporary composers and the benefits of developing new techniques in composition. The music of György Ligeti and Arvo Pärt are …

Dorothy Day's Distributism And Her Vision For Catholic Politics, William Patric Schulz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of Dorothy Day’s political ideas, her creation of the Catholic Worker movement, and her relationship with Distributism, the official socio-economic teaching of the Catholic Church. In order to fully understand Day’s views, it is necessary to review her intellectual development, and the foundational ideas and documents of Distributism. As is noted in the introduction, precious little scholarship has been done on Distributism, and few outside of Catholic academic circles are even aware of its existence. Beyond that, Day, herself, is not especially well-known, as existing scholarship tends to focus on either her early, Socialist activities …

Aleksander Peçi Before And After The Iron Curtain, Elida Dakoli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract This research describes the life, compositional style and works of one of the most well-known Albanian composers, Aleksander Peçi, focusing on how the political climate affected his life and his art. Several of Peçi’s techniques are examined, including Carousel structure, Cartesian Production, Kabaoisos, and Polygravité. Albanian iso-polyphony and its influence on Peçi’s work are discussed. The research was done in hopes of reaching a better understanding of the effects Communism and the subsequent period of freedom have had on Albanian music.

An Examination Of The Impact Of Venture Philanthropy On The Mission Of Higher Education, Shon Baker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Across the United States, state legislative funding declines are forcing colleges and universities to rapidly adjust to a variety of shortfalls in revenue. Even the most prosperous universities, normally immune to decreases in funding, find themselves experiencing financial difficulty. To offset fiscal gaps caused by budget shortfalls and legislative decisions, university presidents are increasingly turning to fundraising as a means of filling the financial void and no donors are more poised to give transformational gifts than venture philanthropists. While the donations of venture philanthropists are highly sought, little research has been given to the potential for threats to academic freedom …

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of School- And Student-Level Effects: Mathematics Course Completion And Achievement Beyond Algebra 2 Among Mexican American Female High School Students, Lester Archer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States, as the Hispanic population continues to grow, persistently low mathematics achievement among Mexican Americans continues to exist, particularly among girls. Low mathematics achievement places this group in a disadvantaged position. As such, a multistage mixed method study was implemented to investigate possible factors associated with mathematics achievement and the probability of taking mathematics courses beyond Algebra 2 among Mexican American female high school students. The Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002) database provided the quantitative sample (n = 710) of respondents who self-identified as Mexican American, female, and had a math IRT score. A parallel sample (n = …

Bach's Goldberg Variations: Suggestions For Redistributing The Notes Between The Hands To Facilitate Performance On The Modern Piano, Kia Hadipour

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Goldberg Variations, Bach has written overlapping voices originally intended for bi manual harpsichord. However, playing the piece on the modern piano causes the hands to collide in those segments,creating a technical challenge that remains unresolved in available editions. In this thesis, I propose a method to reduce the hands’ overlap by re-distributing the notes between them. This solution also improves readability of the score by obviating the need for a clef change at each voice cross. I further use a few examples in the piano repertoire to examine how hand and finger re distribution may facilitate performance. As an …

Eduardo Gamboa's Life, Music, And Inspiration. Understanding The Influence Of Folk Music On His Work "Transparencias:" An Analysis, Performance Guide, And Violin Transcription, Perla Del Rocio Fernandez Lopez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life and music of Mexican living composer Eduardo Gamboa. This study intends to fill a void on the research of Gamboa. This document provides detailed biographical information, information about the influences on his music, and an edition of Transparencias for violin. The first chapter provides a broad biography of the composer including his musical formation, folk experience, and a complete catalog of his works. The second chapter is an introduction about Transparencias and contains the point of view of the composer and of the flutist Tadeu Coelho, to whom Gamboa dedicated …