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A Systemic Functional Linguistics Analysis Of The Discourse Of English Friday Sermons, Ahmad Alenezi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

On every Friday, in every mosque in the world, Muslims gather for Friday sermons in answer to the call: “O you, who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu’ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew” (Quran, 62:9). Typically, the Friday prayer is shortened by half to accommodate the presentation of the Friday sermon; this emphasizes the importance of the sermons. The present study is a discourse analysis that examined 12 sermons delivered on the first Friday of every …

A Hybrid Plithogenic Decision-Making Approach With Quality Function Deployment For Selecting Supply Chain Sustainability Metrics, Florentin Smarandache, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Rehab Mohamed, Abd El-Nasser H. Zaied

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Supply chain sustainability has become one of the most attractive decision management topics. There are many articles that have focused on this field presenting many different points of view. This research is centred on the evaluation of supply chain sustainability based on two critical dimensions. The first is the importance of evaluation metrics based on economic, environmental and social aspects, and the second is the degree of difficulty of information gathering. This paper aims to increase the accuracy of the evaluation. The proposed method is a combination of quality function deployment (QFD) with plithogenic aggregation operations. The aggregation operation is …

The Identification Of Formulaic Sequences In Urdu Language And Their Pedagogical Implication For Sla (Esl/Usl), Hafiz-Muhammad Fazal E Haq

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

In this study, an effort has been made to explore formulaicity in the Urdu language and its pedagogical implication in second language acquisition, both for English as a second language and Urdu as second language learners. It is believed that formulaic sequences or prefabs make more than fifty percent of a language. These formulaic sequences are of various kinds encompassing idioms, proverbs, collocations and sometimes, simple fillers. For the current study, data will be collected from two widely circulated Urdu newspapers. The data will consist of lexical chunks or formulas, which will be identified on the basis of eleven criteria …

The Interaction Of Domain-Initial Effects With Lexical Stress: Acoustic Data From English, Spanish, And Portuguese, Ricardo F. Napoleão De Souza

Linguistics ETDs

The phonetic implementation of domain-initial boundaries has gained considerable attention in the literature. However, most studies of the phenomenon have investigated small samples of articulatory data in which target syllables were lexically prominent and/or phrasally accented, introducing important potential confounds. This dissertation tackles these issues by examining how domain-initial effects operate on the acoustic properties of fully unstressed word-initial CV syllables in phrasally unaccented words. Similar materials were designed for a reading task in which 14 speakers of English, Spanish and Portuguese, languages that differ in how lexical prominence affects segmental makeup, took part. Results from the acoustic analyses show …

Trends In Health, Stress, And Migration In The Pre-Contact Southwest United States, Alexis O'Donnell

Anthropology ETDs

The major goal of this dissertation was to examine migration and its impacts on health through use of dental morphological and paleopathological data. The case study is the Southwest United States between A.D. 1200-1400s. The second chapter, written with Corey Ragsdale, Biological Distance and the Fate of the Gallina in the American Southwest, examines where the Gallina people may have gone upon abandoning their homes in the late A.D. 1200s. We used dental data for 492 individuals and mean measure of divergence (biodistance) analysis to examine several hypotheses regarding where the Gallina went. We find that the Gallina may have …

Southwest Talks: New Mexico Historical Review Interview Series, Anna Nogar

New Mexico Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Framing Of European Union Borders In Online News: Multimodal Discourses Of Inclusion And Exclusion, Ivana Cvetkovic

Communication ETDs

In times of crisis, online news media, on whose reports people heavily rely for information and interpretation of complex European affairs, play an important role in production of knowledge and negotiation of the meanings of the European Union’s response to the “migrant crisis” in 2015 when more than million migrants reached Europe after fleeing their home countries. This research project examines how European online news outlets constructed notions of borders, space, mobility and migration, and thus promoted particular institutionalized discourses on inclusion and exclusion with profound ideological implications. A secondary goal of this research is to explore the particular ways …

(Re)Insurgent Ecologies: Dwelling Together Between Queasy Worlds, Kirsten Elizabeth Mundt

American Studies ETDs

Discourses that construct the “self” as something to be fixed, or made whole, chart a retreat from relational ecosystems back to the individual, reinforcing colonial politics rooted in bounded individualism. This project animates an ontological, relational framework that, in detaching from liberal humanist discourses of healing and “self,” makes affective links from autopoietic frameworks for healing and survival to de-colonial, sympoieitic concerns for expanded kinship. New meanings and attachments are forged within queasy border zones of incommensurability, toggling between the particular and the universal, between desires for solidarity and recognition that colonial violences continue to be unequally distributed and borne. …

An Erp Investigation Of Reward Signals For Differing Classes Of Reinforcing Stimuli, Darin R. Brown

Psychology ETDs

In order to successfully traverse an actively complex environment, an agent is required to learn from the consequences of their actions. For over a century, models of behavior have been developed demonstrating these consequence-based learning systems. More recently, underlying biological systems have been found to adhere to these constructs of learning. The electroencephalographic signal known as the Reward Positivity (RewP) is thought to reflect a dopamine-dependent cortical signal specific to reward receipt. Importantly, this signal has been shown to adhere to an axiomatic (rule-like) positive reward prediction error, whereby it is evoked following outcomes that are better than expected. These …

An Odyssey To The Self: Voices Of L2 Arab Writers And Institutional Practices, Majed Abduallah Alharbi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The term ‘voice’ has been a pivotal metaphor in the fields of composition studies and applied linguistics, and it still has a strong implicit and/or explicit presence in the U.S. classroom. This critical case study examines 6 Saudi graduate student writers’ voices in various U.S. universities. Data were collected by analyzing texts of students’ papers and in-depth interviews with each participant. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an overarching framework and analytical tool, this study examines the voices of Saudi students as they resist and/or perpetuate dominant ideologies both in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia when writing in their L2 …

Using Electrophysiology To Investigate Changes In Brain Activation In Individuals With Chronic Stroke, Sarah G. Dalton

Linguistics ETDs

Many individuals who have experienced a stroke also experience persistent decrements in several domains, such as sensorimotor, language, and cognition. While rehabilitation for these deficits is helpful even decades after a stroke, there is limited information available to determine the most effective pairing of treatment with individual deficits. Further, despite decades of neuroimaging research, our understanding of optimal recovery patterns following stroke is relatively poor. In order to improve outcomes for individuals living with chronic deficits due to stroke, neurophysiological biomarkers corresponding to recovery patterns and treatment response are needed. Electroencephalography (EEG) holds great potential for identifying biomarkers as it …

A New Theory Of Musical Semiosis, Matthew Stanley

Music ETDs

Musical semiotics is the study of the various ways in which musical structures become meaningful. This thesis is an attempt to create a logical, systematized, transformational theory of musical semiotics that can elucidate the various ways in which music conveys meaning. While the semiotic exploration of music is by no means novel, this thesis presents a unique, highly rigorous, and truly theoretical approach to musical semiotics that differs significantly from previous theories. By combining all aspects of the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce with the metaphor theories of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, and Zoltan Kovecses, a theoretical apparatus is …

Multilingual Writers And Online Writing Instruction: Expanding Our Theoretical And Instructional Frameworks, Mariya V. Tseptsura

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation is based on a year-long mixed-methods study of linguistically diverse students in one online composition program. It focuses on the experiences of students and instructors from 27 online sections of first and second-year college writing courses. Using student and instructor surveys and interviews, it analyzes how second language writers’ success was affected by the online environment, especially by the issues of technology and digital divide, students’ online identity construction, and the lack of authentic online classroom learning communities. The manuscript provides a broader overlook of students’ experiences across linguistic backgrounds and uses four case studies to offer a …

The Turkish Spy: A Peripatetic Novel, Alain M. Antoine

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Beginning its published life in a short Italian version featuring 30 letters in 1684, Letters Writ by a Turkish Spygrew into 102 letters in a French version published in 1686, and between 1687 and 1694 turned into a monumental eight volumes English Edition featuring 632 letters. The hero of the novel, a Muslim Arab spying on Louis XIV’s France for the Ottoman sultan undergoes a transformation by his contact with the Christian world, and his reflections on man, society and God seized the imagination of the public. The novel’s popularity helped its rapid spread over European nations in the …

Transborder Testimonios Of Language Learning And Socialization, Maria Teresa Guevara Beltrán

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This qualitative study utilizes a Chicana/Latina feminist lens and the Latin American tradition of Testimonio to explore Spanish-speaking immigrants’ experiences of migration, language learning and socialization, paying close attention to the ways in which the multilayered intersections of identity, race, class, gender, nationality, language, citizenship and power shape these experiences. In the context of a grassroots English as a Second Language class, testimonios are elicited through multimodal data collection methods, including visual, oral and written forms. Critical perspectives of second language learning and second language socialization research in bilingual contexts provide a multidisciplinary framework for this study, bridging conceptual parallels …

Material Matters: Paratextual Bodies In Nineteenth-Century Indigenous Book History, Amy Gore

English Language and Literature ETDs

Material Matters: Paratextual Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Indigenous Book History, focuses on Indigenous authors during the long nineteenth century, from 1772 to 1936, to examine the known “firsts” of Indigenous literature. Starting with the first book published by a Native author and moving to other first entries into Indigenous literary production, I argue that the reprints, editions, and paratextual elements of Indigenous books embody a frontline of colonization as Indigenous authors battle the public perception of Indigenous books and negotiate the representations of Indigenous bodies.

Simulated Manual Interaction As The Conceptual Base For Reference And Predication: A Cognitive Grammar Analysis Of The Integration Between Handling Gestures And Speech, Ryan D. Smith

Linguistics ETDs

Prior research on representational hand gestures has shown that an object’s affordances influence both the likelihood that it will be indexed in a representational gesture, and the form of the gesture used to refer to it. Objects which afford being held are associated with higher gesture rates than objects which do not afford being held. Further research has shown that the ways humans prototypically interact with an object also influence the reference technique used to refer to that object through a hand gesture. An object that people interact with manually will tend to be indexed through a gesture imitating the …

La Gota Que Colma La Caguama: Cummulative Tensions Transformed Into The Defense Of Water, Anthony J. Meluso

Geography ETDs

Making water management decisions is often where dreams and visions about potential futures are constructed and contested (Swengedouw 2015). However, in a globalized world, it is not well understood how people can challenge dominant paradigms to shape desirable futures when they are also complicit in, and dependent on existing structures (Arts & Buizer 2009; Emery, Perks, & Bracken 2013: Kleinschmit, Böcher, & Giessen 2009). This project examines a brewery conflict in the Mexicali Valley that provides an example of how protesters were able to challenge dominant assumptions about water management in a complex, globalized environment. I draw on Laclau’s (2005) …

Shawn Hunt's Transformation Mask: The Intersection Of Contemporary And Traditional Heiltsuk Art, Terese R. Lukey

Art & Art History ETDs

Shawn Hunt is an artist of Heiltsuk (Bella Bella), French, and Scottish Canadian ancestry who is at the forefront of contemporary Northwest Coast art in the Vancouver area. Historic artworks of his community have been often overlooked in scholarly literature due to the seeming willingness of the people to adapt to colonization. Viewed as a “tainted” culture, the Heiltsuk have been noticeably ignored in the art historical realm. However, their masks are some of the best examples of traditional regalia that are found in museums across Canada and the United States. Contemporary native artists of the Northwest Coast continue to …

Rich Points In Between Cultures, Languages, And Pedagogies: Experiences And Perspectives Of International Teaching Assistants In The Usa, Natalia V. Rud

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

ABSTRACT

This study presents a qualitative, multiple case, instrumental case study which explores experiences and positionality of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in the US academia. Drawing from, first, the earlier research which focuses on ITAs’ language, culture, and pedagogy with, mostly, a “deficit” perspective and, second, from recent publications which concentrate on exploring ITAs’ identities and perceptions, this study investigates how ITAs approach differences and similarities (rich points) during everyday discourses in their various communities of practice. The conceptual framework is represented by Agar’s (1996, 2006) vision on rich points (differences and similarities); Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept of community …

Amazons, Indian Princesses, And The Artistic Matriarchs Of The Southwest: On Classicization And The Construction Of Native American Femininity In Museums, Kendall Lovely

Museum Studies Theses

This paper explores the Classical influence within the discourses surrounding museum exhibitions that helped to construct colonial representations of gender. I address how Classical receptions and images of Native Americans rendered into Classically influenced discourses have featured in anthropological and later art market structures within museum displays. Constructions of femininity play a significant role here as these representations, especially in the Southwest, serve to gender colonized and Othered subjects with parallels in Classical ideas about foreign others. My analysis is in two parts: I first explore constructions of femininity in museum exhibitions through these insights. I then consider the agency …

It Is More Than A Game: An Ethnography Of Communication Treatment Of Resilience As A Key Element Of Basketball Culture, Matthew Charles Higgins

Communication ETDs

This study, theoretically and methodologically grounded in the ethnography of communication (Hymes 1974; Carbaugh, 1992; Covarrubias, 2008; Philipsen, 1992; Philipsen, Coutu, & Covarrubias, 2005), investigated the relationship between communication and resilience as expressed by professional basketball players and coaches from a particular city in southwest United States, referred to as PG City. Guiding questions include: Is there a basketball culture? Does basketball constitute a speech community? How do basketball and basketball culture help players and coaches fight through adversity? What is the role of resilience within basketball culture? Interviews, using ethnography of communication approaches, were used to uncover elements …

Gifts Of Sovereignty: Settler Colonial Capitalism And The Kanaka ʻŌiwi Politics Of Ea, David UahikeaikaleiʻOhu Maile

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation examines Hawaiian sovereignty in history, law, and activism. The project tracks Indigenous claims, negotiations, and articulations of sovereignty in Hawai‘i. Using a critically Indigenous approach to Hawaiian studies, I advance two main theses. First, Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) are discussed as a community divided on Hawaiian sovereignty. However, I contend that Kānaka Maoli exercise a diversity of strategies and tactics for Hawaiian sovereignty. I show how Kānaka Maoli practice multiple modalities of sovereignty that cumulatively produce the Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (Indigenous Hawaiian) politics of ea (life and sovereignty). Second, the historical development of settler colonial capitalism operationalized the US …

Becoming Biculturally Competent An Autoethnographic Journey Of A Guera Woman, Bernadette M. Hall-Cuarón

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Becoming Biculturally Competent

an Autoethnographic Journey of a Güera Woman

Bernadette Hall-Cuarón

ABSTRACT

This dissertation represents a personalized account of my lived experiences and analytically describes the autoethnographic and qualitative processes of bicultural development and bicultural competency. My autoethnographic study advocates that cultural self-reflection allows for an accurate determination of one’s cultural-self and more importantly provides an instrumental passageway to cultural awareness, bicultural awareness, and proposedly bicultural competency.

Through the implementation of this qualitative research method, I explored my role as the subject, researcher, and narrator of this autoethnographic examination. This bicultural autoethnography necessitated attending to the details of genuine …

Cerebellar Vermis: Contributions To The Phenomenology Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Moriah Eve Stern

Psychology ETDs

Background: Current neurocognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) implicate dysfunction in top-down inhibitory control mechanisms. Research supports alteration in the functional activity of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops in OCD, as well as the inferior parietal region, posterior medial cortex, thalamus and cerebellum. The cerebellum, once only known as a region of motor coordination, is now accepted as being highly involved in cognitive regulation as well. Emerging evidence of connectivity between the posterior cerebellum and areas of the brain related to inhibitory functioning, including the basal ganglia, prefrontal, and inferior parietal regions, suggests a potential cerebellar role in OCD-symptomology. In fact, in …

Formulaic Sequences: An Investigation Of An Efl Textbook In Saudi Arabia, Assem Alqarni

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Over the last decade, an extensive body of literature has demonstrated the essential role of formulaic language in learning and teaching a second language (L2) (Martinez & Schmitt, 2012). Educators and policy makers in the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia have expressed their serious concerns about “the low level of achievement in English among students in schools and universities”(Alrashidi & Phan, 2015, p. 38).

As a result, most Saudi universities have incorporated Preparatory Year Programs (PYP) to enable students to master crucial academic skills, and to target the English language instruction needs in many disciplines. The present study, therefore, …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Saudi Arabian Women In Zoe Ferraris' Finding Nouf, Sharifa Bahri

Linguistics ETDs

Saudi Arabian women are often stereotyped, in Western media, not only as victims of the oppression of their male-dominant society but also as voiceless uneducated objects who are simply housewives. The aim of this paper is to challenge this representation of Saudi Arabian women by digging deeper into how these women are represented in the discourse of literature by an author from the United States. A mystery novel featuring Saudi Arabian women and their struggle inside Saudi Arabia has been chosen for Critical Discourse Analysis: Zoe Ferraris’ Finding Nouf (2009). The novel was chosen not only for its genre, location, …

The Essence Of The Teaching/Learning Process: An Exploration Of The Perspectives And Lived Experiences Of University Spanish Language Teaching Assistants, Sarah Schulman

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

U.S. schools are emblematic of the increasingly linguistic and cultural diversity present in this country. Despite this well-documented shift, U.S. foreign language teacher education programs have yet to align learning outcomes with the cognitive and affective needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Providing educators with opportunities to learn about and prepare for the needs of these students is essential, but this alone will not address the essence of the underlying problem. If foreign language teacher education programs are to evolve, a deeper understanding of the teaching/learning process is critical.

In response to this need, this qualitative study explored how …

A Comparative Analysis Of Saudi Women’S Educational Experiences In Graduate English Programs In Two International Contexts: Saudi Arabia And The United States, Kholod Sendi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Although there are a significant number of Saudi females pursuing graduate degrees in Saudi Arabia and abroad, few studies have examined their educational experiences. This qualitative multi-case study examines the educational experiences of ten Saudi females who graduated with a master’s degree in an English language related field in two international contexts: American universities and Saudi universities. By conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this study explored the challenges these two groups faced and the strategies they used to succeed in higher education institutions in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. This study discusses the roles that culture, religion, gender, …

Applying Anthropology, Assembling Indigenous Community: Anthropology And The Pascua Yaqui Tribe In Southern Arizona, Nicholas Barron

Anthropology ETDs

In the context of the US, anthropology and Indigenous politics are interconnected phenomena with points of intersection that are more often assumed then empirically explored. Using a historical anthropological approach, this study addresses this oversight through a focused analysis of the interconnected histories of anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Southern Arizona. Illustrated through four case studies of engagements between anthropologists and the Pascua Yaqui, I pose three interrelated arguments regarding the relationship between anthropology and Indigenous political formations. To being with, the dichotomous view of anthropology as friend or foe, dominator or liberator, to and of Native communities …