Digital Commons Network^™

Discourse, Affinity And Attraction: A Case Study Of Iran's Soft Power Strategy In Afghanistan, Hiva Feizi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach to soft power with a focus on Iran’s use of soft power in Afghanistan. This dissertation is unique as it a delves into the diverse conceptual prescriptions on soft power, especially from a non-Western perspective. Studies of soft power in the current International Relations discipline ignore the implicit widespread liberal democratic bias in the current understanding of the concept. This dissertation argues that there are certain ontological assumptions lying deep within the soft power model first proposed by Joseph Nye (1990) that make it difficult to use …

Beyoncé As A Semiotic Resource: Visual And Linguistic Meaning Making And Gender In Twitter, Tumblr, And Pinterest, Addie L. Sayers China

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the intersection of digital identities and new language and social practice online is the concept of searchable talk (ST). ST describes the process of tagging discourse in a social networking service (SNS) with a hashtag (#), allowing it to be searchable by others. Although originating in Twitter, ST has expanded into other SNS, and is used therein not only to mark language-based posts, but also multimodal posts and images. While scholars have elucidated the structure and function of ST, their studies have primarily examined ST within language-based posts; few have researched ST with respect to images and other types …

Animated Pedagogical Agent’S Roles And English Learners’ Prior Knowledge: The Influence On Cognitive Load, Motivation, And Vocabulary Acquisition, Fadwa Yasin Flemban

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers and educators have always strived for creating appropriate instructional tools and resources that help students to acquire knowledge. Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) embedded within multimedia learning settings are one of the emerging technologies that provide a powerful and supportive learning environment. According to previous studies, APAs can effectively promote learning and support social interaction with learners (Johnson & Lester, 2016; Lane, 2016). However, APAs also may cause cognitive load without providing motivational benefits in some cases and distract learners during the learning process. In other words, the results of previous studies on APAs do not provide enough evidence to …

An Exploratory Study Of Health Promotion And Disease Prevention Communication Among Haitian Mother–Daughter Dyads In West Central Florida, Stacy Eileen Kratz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examined links between health communication and other constructs affecting health promotion and disease prevention among Haitian mother-daughter dyads living in West Central Florida, and the risk or protective factors for HIV. Risky sexual behaviors can be reduced with accurate and effective information provided through parent-adolescent communication (Coetzee et al, 2014; Ogle, Glasier & Riley, 2008; Hadley et al., 2009). In Haiti, a country that bears a disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS, women are the most vulnerable (UNAIDS, 2016a); In the United States (U.S.), foreign-born Haitian women in the state of Florida experience health disparities in many areas and …

Becoming A Woman Of Isis, Zoe D. Fine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine how terrorism is produced and consumed in communication. Using discourse analysis, I investigate how terrorism is constituted in the accounts of four women described in online news reports as having joined, or almost joined the so-called Islamic State (IS): “Alex,” constructed as having been lonely and flirted with IS; “Khadija,” presented as a schoolteacher turned member of IS’s all-women’s brigade; Laura, described as a woman whose partner abandoned her, who met a man online, and who brought her son with her to join IS; and Tareena, referred to as a health worker who brought her …

Initial Evaluation Of The Validity And Reliability Of The Culturally Adapted Spanish Casun (S-Casun), Dinorah Martinez Tyson, Patricia Medina-Ramirez, Coralia Vázquez-Otero, Clement K. Gwede, Margarita Bobonis Babilonia, Susan C. Mcmillan

Community and Family Health Faculty Publications

Purpose: There is a dearth of knowledge and limited research on the needs of Hispanic male cancer survivors (HMCSs). There is a clear need for the development of culturally and linguistically adapted needs assessment tools that are valid and reliable for use among the growing HMCS population. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe the field testing and psychometric evaluation of the translated and culturally adapted Spanish Cancer Survivor Unmet Needs Measure (S-CaSUN).

Methods: Hispanic male cancer survivors (n = 84) completed the Spanish CaSUN (S-CaSUN), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Functional Assessment …

Curating Illustrations Of Lewis Carroll’S Alice’S Adventures In Wonderland, Lindsay Persohn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the 150 years since Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel (1865/1866) first published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, various illustrators have found inspiration in this story to recreate its images again and again. Since Carroll and Tenniel, Wonderland has concerned itself with sociocultural ideas and the work of artists who re-illustrated this story provide ways to trace history of these ideas.

Accordingly, the purpose of this project was to examine connections and breaks with tradition in illustration that contribute to an evolution of meaning in the Wonderland story. Additionally, through this project, I worked to interpret ideas from different artists in …

Breaking The Crass Ceiling? Exploring Narratives, Performances, And Audience Reception Of Women's Stand-Up Comedy, Sarah Katherine Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the long history of stand-up comedy as a distinct form of popular entertainment, there has been little sociological attention given to its cultural significance. Comedians have arguably become legitimate and visible voices in many public conversations about social issues and social justice. This dissertation explores the cultural work of women’s comedy in popular culture. Specifically, I examine narrative representation and audience reception of women’s stand-up comedy through multi-method qualitative inquiry.

First, I analyze stand-up performances by popular U.S. comedians Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Margaret Cho. Through narrative analysis, I focus on the ironic performativity of Schumer and the …

The Viability Of Democratic Governance In De Facto States: A Comparative Case Study Of Iraqi Kurdistan And Syria Rojava, Chelsea Vogel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following comparative case study of Iraqi Kurdistan and Democratic Federation of Northern Syria-Rojava seeks to fill a gap in literature on the viability of democracy in cases of de facto statehood. There is yet to be an assessment of the potential influence of support from patron states on the degree to which democratization in de facto states is possible. This research expands upon on the argument that the decision to recognize de facto states is at least partially dependent upon the national interests of influential third party states. Syria Rojava has relied heavily on the strength of its internal …

Culture Et Langue : Les Séquelles De L'Esclavage Sur La Société Réunionnaise Contemporaine, Illustré Par Le Film Sac La Mort., Lucie Folio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bien que l’esclavage ait été aboli en France il y a maintenant plus de 150 ans, la domination de l’Empire français subie par les diverses colonies, a laissé des traces visibles sur les populations de ces dernières. Par son oppression, sa violence physique et psychologique, et l’imposition d’un modèle occidental à suivre, la colonisation a laissé derrière elle des peuples vidés de leur culture, de leur langue et de leur identité.

En 2017, un film d’Emmanuel Parraud, intitulé Sac la mort, sera la parfaite illustration cinématographique de cette situation postcoloniale sur l'Île de la Réunion. S’appuyant sur les théories de …

Performing "Hurt" : Aging, Disability, And Popular Music As Mediated Product And Lived-Experience In Johnny Cash's Final Recordings, Adam Davidson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sitting at a rarely examined intersection between aging, disability, and popular culture, this project explores how the aging body becomes the disabled body in the context of popular music. In what follows, I trouble the distinction between bodies and mediation, between lived-experience and cultural product, and I argue that the voice of the aging artist engages with his lived-experience even as he performs socially-constructed conceptions of aging and disability.

I read Johnny Cash’s 2002 cover of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” on American IV: The Man Comes Around as a performance of the singer’s age and disabled condition. Through pain- saturated lyrics, …

The "Yellow Peril" In Tampa 1941-1945, Scott Rohrer

Sunland Tribune

No abstract provided.

Penalizing Pregnancy: A Feminist Legal Studies Analysis Of Purvi Patel's Criminalization, Abby Schneller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purvi Patel is an Indian American woman who, in 2015, was the first U.S. citizen to be convicted under feticide statutes for allegedly attempting her own abortion. Though her 2015 conviction was overturned the same year, the feticide conviction was significant as a legal precedent as well as part of a larger trend criminalizing pregnant women of color. With an eye towards the greater pattern of the criminalization of other pregnant women of color (Boyd, 1999; Faludi, 1991; Humphries, 1999; Mahan, 1996; Roberts, 1997), in this thesis I employ a feminist legal studies methodology and the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality …

Once Upon A Genre: Distant Reading, The Newbery Medal, And The Affordances Of Interdisciplinary Paradigms For Understanding Children’S Literature, Melanie Griffin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Typical critical patterns for studying children’s literature, defined in this study as a written text intended for a reader up to the age of 14, make it difficult to chart generic change across a large corpus of texts. Traditionally, criticism of children’s literature focuses on cherry picked archetypes, exemplars, and the standout extraordinary. This study employs interdisciplinary methods and data sources from library science, education, and literary studies to create a method for analyzing a sample corpus of children’s literature more holistically vis-à-vis distant, macroscopic reading techniques.

In this dissertation, I macroscopically read the corpus of Newbery Medal-winning texts in …

The True Meaning Of Palma Ceia, Eustasio Fernandez

Sunland Tribune

No abstract provided.

Adult College Students' Perceptions About Learning Mathematics Via Developmental Mathematical Xmoocs, Pelagia Alesafis Kilgore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Debates over the promising change Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might offer to traditional online learning now produce significant attention and discourse among the media and higher education. Ample articles discuss the potential benefits of MOOCs from the perspectives of faculty and administration. However, little is known about students’ perceptions of MOOCs. Given the lack of relevant literature and the reality that MOOCs are created to benefit students, it is important to elicit current college students’ perceptions of MOOCs since it is well documented learning mathematics online has its problems (Ashby, Sadera, & McNary, 2011; Frame, 2012; Ho et al., …

Points Of Pride, March 2018, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg. Academic Affairs Office

Points of Pride, Scene & Herd, and E-News

The March 2018 issue of the newsletter, Points of Pride, with academic affairs news and accomplishments sent to faculty at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

Neutrality: A Tool Or A Limit For Preventing Mass Atrocitiy Crimes And Genocide? The Case Of Switzerland, Giulia Persoz

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The present article aims to confront the Swiss practice regarding the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities in Swiss foreign policy and its particularities shaping its international relations. Neutrality, a core part of Switzerland's identity on both the internal political level and the international level, will be at the center of our analysis. Indeed, how can a country engage in prevention activities while keeping its neutral status? How does neutrality influence these activities throughout times? What foreseeable impact could neutrality have on them? To answer these questions, the article will be divided as follow: the first part will be an …

Forging Consensus For Atrocity Prevention: Assessing The Record Of The Osce, Matthew Levinger

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This essay examines the record of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in fostering norms and collaborative practices for preventing mass atrocities in Eurasia. Comprising fifty-seven participating states “from Vancouver to Vladivostok,” the OSCE is the sole regional security organization spanning all of the members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact. Its consensus-based approach to advancing “common and comprehensive security” has proved successful in preventing escalation or containing levels of violence in various conflicts in the Baltic states, Ukraine, Southeastern Europe, and the Caucasus. Since the late 1990s, however, rising geopolitical tensions between NATO and the …

Cross-Modality Information Transfer: A Hypothesis About The Relationship Among Prehistoric Cave Paintings, Symbolic Thinking, And The Emergence Of Language, Shigeru Miyagawa, Cora Lesure, Vitor A. Nóbrega

KIP Articles

Early modern humans developed mental capabilities that were immeasurably greater than those of non-human primates. We see this in the rapid innovation in tool making, the development of complex language, and the creation of sophisticated art forms, none of which we find in our closest relatives. While we can readily observe the results of this high-order cognitive capacity, it is difficult to see how it could have developed. We take up the topic of cave art and archeoacoustics, particularly the discovery that cave art is often closely connected to the acoustic properties of the cave chambers in which it is …

Using A Community Advisory Board To Develop A Serious Game For Older Adults Undergoing Treatment For Cancer, Victoria Loerzel, John Clochesy, Patricia Geddie

Nursing Faculty Publications

Introduction: Older adults undergoing treatment for cancer are at risk for serious complications such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Older adults are often overwhelmed by information and under-manage cancer treatment-related side effects. New educational strategies such as serious gaming may help teach or reinforce key symptom self-management strategies. This paper describes how a community advisory board of older adults, their caregivers, and oncology nurses were consulted to develop a serious game for CINV.

Methods:A formative evaluation process using a community advisory board (CAB) and a series of three focus groups were used to develop this serious game about managing …

Report, Library Services And Resources In Support Of The College Of Education, February 2018, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg. Nelson Poynter Memorial Library

All-Library Assessments Reports, Summaries & Misc Reports

A report assessing library collections that support the College of Education programs. Included is a list of electronic journals.

Reaching Below Level Ell’S Reading Comprehension, Olivia T. Braunworth, Yvonne Franco Ph.D.

Journal of Practitioner Research

The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms is increasing every year. Developing reading comprehension skills in lower level ELL students can be a challenging but important task for educators. It is crucial for classroom teachers to identify students’ proficiency levels, and then differentiate instruction to meet the reading needs for each of these students. As an elementary classroom teacher, this teacher inquiry study investigates four strategies including: visuals/realia, graphic organizers, language objectives, and building background as a means to support reading comprehension skills among three participants in a third grade classroom. The study investigates the research question, …

Increasing Statistical Literacy By Exploiting Lexical Ambiguity Of Technical Terms, Jennifer J. Kaplan, Neal Rogness

Numeracy

Instructional inattention to language poses a barrier for students in entry-level science courses, in part because students may perceive a subject as difficult solely based on the lack of understanding of the vocabulary. In addition, the technical use of terms that have different everyday meanings may cause students to misinterpret statements made by instructors, leading to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of the domain. Terms that have different technical and everyday meanings are said to have lexical ambiguity and statistics, as a discipline, has many lexically ambiguous terms. This paper presents a cyclic process for designing activities to address lexical …

Disrupting Dominant Discourses: A (Re)Introduction To Social Practice Theories Of Adult Numeracy, Helen M. Oughton

Numeracy

The role of dominant discourse in constructing a deficit view of adult numeracy is examined, using reports from recent international surveys of adult skills as illustrative examples. Social practice theory is introduced as an alternative perspective for examining the ways adults actually use numeracy in their daily lives and work. This perspective suggests the test items used by large-scale surveys such as PIACC are only proxies for real-life numeracy skills, and that performance in such tests may misrepresent the numeracy skills of adults. Instead, social practice theory suggests that adults may have informal, situated numeracy practices that serve them adequately …

College Of Education, 2018-2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

Academic Learning Compacts

The Academic Learning Compacts for 2018-2019 for the College of Education. Includes compacts for the BS in Education, the Master's of Education in Educational Leadership, the MA in Elementary Education, the MA in English Education, the MA in Exceptional Student Education, the MS in Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education and Teaching, and the MA in Reading Education.

Reading Education, 2018-2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

Academic Learning Compacts

The Academic Learning Compact for 2018-2019 for the Master's of Arts in Reading Education.

Anthropology, 2018-2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg

Academic Learning Compacts

The Academic Learning Compact for 2018-2019 for the Bachelor's of Arts in Anthropology.

Reverse Engineering The First Humanities Computing Center, Steven E. Jones

English Faculty Publications

The Jesuit scholar, Roberto Busa, is often called the founder of humanities computing. In fact, starting as early as 1949, he collaborated with IBM to perform experiments using suites of punched-card machines. These punched-card data systems—with their plug-board setups, clacking machinery, and flurries of perforated rectangular cards—were developed for business accounting and tabulating, and adapted for government censuses, defense calculations, archival management, and information processing of all kinds. The first decade of humanities computing can more accurately be described as an era of humanities data processing—in the historically specific and contextually rich sense of the term. This essay describes an …

Variations In Classroom Language Environments Of Preschool Children Who Are Low Income And Linguistically Diverse, Brook Sawyer, Sally Atkins-Burnett, Lia Sandilos, Carol Scheffner Hammer, Lisa López, Clancy Blair

Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications

Research Findings: This study aimed to (a) provide an in-depth description of the frequency and type of language interactions that children who are low income and/or dual language learners (DLLs) experience in their classrooms and (b) examine whether differences exist in children’s language experiences based on children’s DLL status and level of English proficiency. Using the Language Interaction Snapshot, we observed 4 focal children in each of 72 early childhood classrooms: 1 monolingual English-speaking child (i.e., non-DLL), 1 Spanish-dominant DLL child, and 2 bilingual Spanish–English DLL children. Findings indicated that both lead and assistant teachers predominantly spoke in English …