Digital Commons Network^™

Gender, Parasocial Interaction, And Nonverbal Communication: Testing The Visual Effect Of Sports Magazine Cover Models, Ben Wasike

Communication Faculty Publications

An experiment examined gender, parasocial interaction, and nonverbal communication regarding sports magazine cover models. Results indicate that a correlation exists among parasocial interaction, nonverbal communication, and gender, with female cover models eliciting larger effects on test subjects. However, gender did not correlate with parasocial interaction or nonverbal communication among the test subjects, contradicting extant literature. Also, the parasocial interaction and nonverbal communication measurement scales positively correlated. In conclusion, static images are reliable experimental stimuli for parasocial interaction studies and nonverbal measurement scales, and sports magazines are better served by featuring more women.

A Review Of Conceding Composition: A Crooked History Of Composition's Institutional Fortunes, Andrew Hollinger

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Compositionists (a community in which I include myself) often work with a chip on our shoulders. Perhaps we find the chip during grad school or when we are asked to teach an overload or when a literature professor’s summer course does not make and they demand a section of first year writing instead or because so many of us remain contingent faculty. Whenever and however the chip appeared, many of us have felt or discussed its presence: we, and our courses, are the misunderstood and much maligned. In fact, this is “the field’s conventional historical narrative, [that] composition is marginalized …

Book Notes: "Providing A Voice For A People: The Longevity Of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza", Valerie Garza

Journal of South Texas English Studies

No abstract provided.

What Is Teacher Agency?, Alcione N. Ostorga

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) With Latinx College Students, Javier Cavazos Vela, Yvette Hinojosa, Mehmet A. Karaman

Counseling Faculty Publications

In the current study, the psychometric properties of a measure of psychological grit among 344 Latinx college students was investigated. Researchers used confirmatory factor analysis to validate a previously identified two-factor model of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Internal consistency was acceptable as measured by coefficient alpha. A two-factor model of Grit-S had a good model fit with the data. A discussion regarding the importance of these findings is provided and implications for counselors and researchers are offered.

Javier Sicilia: Advocate Of Deliberative Democracy In The Americas, Lyon Rathbun

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

When Javier Sicilia’s son was killed by cartel assassins in 2011, he transformed into a civic activist, with a mass following sufficiently large for Time Magazine to recognize him in 2011 as one of its “Protestors of the Year.” His very success mobilizing public opinion against cartel violence overshadows his more fundamental role as an advocate for deliberative democracy in the Americas. Sicilia’s historical importance lies in his recognition that only civic dialogue within the transnational public sphere that includes Mexico and the United States can heal the social pathologies unleashed by globalization and by the war on drugs. His …

Factorial Validity Of Teacher And School Counselor Support Scales In Latina/O Students, Mehmet A. Karaman, Javier Cavazos Vela, Ming-Tsan Lu

Counseling Faculty Publications

In the current study, we investigated the psychometric properties of two meaningful measures of support from teachers and school counselors among Latina/o students. Examining factorial stability with diverse populations is important to make sure that measures provide valid information about constructs of teacher or counselor support. While researchers have provided evidence of reliability (i.e., consistency), no study has examined validity (e.g., accuracy) of Teacher Support Scale Revised (TSSR) with Latina/o students. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA and EFA) methods were used to evaluate structural validity of the TSSR and School Counselor Support Scale (SCSS). Two different models of the …

We Care About Children, Alexandre Couture Gagnon

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Advancing A Transnational, Transdisciplinary And Translingual Framework: A Professional Development Series For Teaching Assistants In Writing And Spanish Programs, Alyssa G. Cavazos, Marcela Hebbard, José Esteban Hernández, Crystal Rodriguez, Geoffrey Schwarz

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Considering the need for writing and language programs to develop translingual and transdisciplinary pedagogies for teacher development at the graduate level (Canagarajah, 2016; Williams & Rodrigue, 2016), the authors examine the design of a multilingual pedagogy professional development series for first-year Spanish and Writing teaching assistants (TAs). As designers of and participants in the series, the authors explore the benefits and challenges inherent in transdisciplinary and translingual conversations and discuss implications for teaching and research in language and writing instruction and teacher development. In order to advance transdisciplinary and translingual approaches as a new normal in composition studies (Tardy 2017; …

Theorizing A Translanguaging Stance: Envisioning An Empowering Participatory Mathematics Education Juntos Con Emergent Bilingual Students, Luz A. Maldonado, Gladys Rueda Krause, Melissa Adams Corral

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

We propose a translanguaging stance in the bilingual mathematics classroom defined by four elements: (1) Con respeto for other people’s ideas, leading to positive intellectual relations, (2) Con cariño, a commitment to the learning of others, (3) Como familia, working for the good of the classroom collective and for the benefit of individuals, and (4) Con acompañamiento, where teachers actively do math with their students. We propose a focus for the bilingual mathematics classroom and emergent bilingual students that emphasizes the importance of rehumanizing mathematics classrooms for all students and valuing their full linguistic repertoires.

Exchanging Deficit For Affordance: Developing Preservice Teachers’ Capacity To See Emergent Bilingual Students’ Resources, Aaron T. Wilson, Hyung Won Kim, M. Alejandra Sorto

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We present a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research project aimed at helping pre-service teachers to grasp the importance of their emergent bilingual students' bilingualism and cultural backgrounds as resources to serve them in apprehending mathematics instruction and explaining their mathematics to others.

The Rider (2017-12-04), Jesus Sanchez

The Rider Archives

Vol.3 No.14

American Missionaries And The Formalization Of Modern Bulgarian National Consciousness, Christopher L. Miller

History Faculty Publications

Following Ernest Gellner, this paper asserts that national consciousness is a modern phenomenon which arose in response to certain structural preconditions that came together differently in different national contexts. Furthermore, it suggests that this crystallization process is complex, involving the attainment of a tipping point at which time discrete semi-dormant processes merge into a dominant movement. It argues that in Bulgaria, one of the most influential factors in establishing these preconditions and the final tipping point was the publishing and educational work done throughout the nineteenth century by American Protestant missionaries. Six factors are identified as significant in this process: …

In His Wake: Applying Life's Truths In Fiction, Joseph M. Balderas

Theses and Dissertations

The culmination of the creative work and its introduction attempt to delve into the psyche of what it means to lose someone you love. The screenplay explores the grieving process and the coping mechanisms that accompanies it, with an examination on how far some people are willing to go for closure.

To reach my conclusions, I draw from my own life experience, the experiences of others, and a fine amount of research. It also means to shed light on the impermanent mental strain that chaperon’s grief.

Brava & Gloria: A Mexican Counterstory Screenplay, Jose David Garcia Gilling

Theses and Dissertations

“Brava & Gloria: A Counterstory Screenplay” is a thesis work which combines the theoretical aspects of Latinx representation in films with a full-length, feature film screenplay. In this work I use speculative fiction aesthetics to address the matter of representation and I create a version of how I would like to see Latinxs represented on screen. The story of “Gloria and Brava” is a medium to achieve this. Even though it does not mimic my personal experience as an immigrant, the core of the story is my family’s and my own experience as a Latino in the United States. Consequently, …

Coding The Discourse And Translingual Strategies Of Collaborative Writing Of Secondary Education Students, Zane Lee Arredondo

Theses and Dissertations

Kenneth Bruffee used collaborative writing pedagogy to help reacculturate students’ discoursal identities to help them adhere to the expectations of the academic community. Although studies have shown that reacculturation may not exactly happen, Collaborative writing pedagogy still has maintained its presence within Composition studies since then and has been adapted into being implemented into digitally shared spaces. However, one aspect has been overlooked about physical shared spaces, the conversations themselves being studied. This study explores Kenneth Bruffee’s constructive conversations among secondary students within collaborative writing pedagogy. The collaborative sessions are recorded and viewed with a translingual lens applying Johnny Saldana’s …

Aristotle, Redemption, And The Conquest Of The Americas, Luis Angel Buentello

Theses and Dissertations

The central question addressed in my thesis is the claim that the even though the conquest of the Americas by the Spaniards was a brutal and murderous process, the Spanish imperial project in the Americas, based on Aristotelian ideology, resulted in the most beneficial and least harmful form of conquest conceivable in comparison to the next great empire of the age, the British Empire.

The founding pillars of Spain’s overseas empire in the Americas, based on an Aristotelian framework, produced a synthesis of political thinking that brought about greater benefits to the native populations, and slave populations, subsumed under the …

Building A History: A Case Study Of Manufactured History In Texas, Gregg L. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Building a History is a case study that seeks to examine Texas mytho-history, and the subsequent historical memory it engenders, from the perspective of Nationalism. Specifically, this paper addresses two periods in Texas’ historical past—beginning with the period of Anglo colonialization of Texas and the subsequent rebellion against Mexican authority, (1820–1836), and transitioning to the progressive era, (1890–1936).

This thesis demonstrates that during progressive era, Anglo-Texans began manufacturing an alternative historical narrative that blended Judeo-Christian and Puritan mytho-symbolism with Euro-centric notions of socio-political and ethnic superiority. This process of manufacturing and legitimizing historical myth in Texas reveals a characteristic similarity …

Ojos Vendados: An Ethnographic Approach To Understanding How Immigration Status And Language Influence The Identity Of High School Students In The Rio Grande Valley, Ariana Garza

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined oppressive factors Mexican immigrant students, or children of Mexican immigrants, face throughout their lives in RGV. These factors, which are termed “blindfolds” throughout this paper, can have a great impact on these students’ identity. The purpose of this study was to expose students to the blindfolds give them an opportunity to remove them and move past the oppressive measures that may have shaped how they are.

Knowing the implications of these stereotypes can explain why students may choose to be certain ways or do certain things. We can use this information to our advantage as educators of …

You're A Genius All The Time: Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Kerouac's Spontaneous Prose On Empowering English Language Learners, Robert Casas

Theses and Dissertations

The engineer of the Beat Movement, Jack Kerouac, began his writing career as an ELL. Kerouac’s Spontaneous Prose helped him navigate through language acquisition to establish rhetoric in English, and empowered other Beat Writers to expressively develop their thoughts. Spontaneous Prose can also help other ELLs develop their own rhetorical agency. For ELL writers, writing in English often makes them feel disenfranchised, disempowered, and discouraged. However, Spontaneous Prose as a pedagogical tool empowers ELL writers to begin the process of transculturally repositioning themselves in using writing as a form of rhetorical expression. This study investigates the pedagogical effectiveness of Spontaneous …

Numerical Cognition In Action: Hand Trajectories Reveal Effects Of Early Musical Training On Numerical Processing In Spanish-English Bilingual Musicians, Daniel Arturo Pizaña

Theses and Dissertations

The mouse-tracking study examined whether early musical experience leads to changes of inhibitory control in numerical processing for bilingual speakers, as has not investigated in previous studies. Twenty-eight Spanish-English bilingual students completed two Stroop-like numerical and physical size judgment tasks via a mouse-tracking paradigm. Results showed that response times were slower during both incongruent and neutral trials for bilinguals who had received early musical training (before age 13) when compared to bilinguals who had received late musical training (after age 13) across tasks. Furthermore, hand trajectories revealed that a spatial attraction toward the incorrect response was more pronounced in bilinguals …

“You Live In The United States, You Speak English,” Decían Las Maestras How New Mexican Spanish Speakers Enact, Ascribe, And Reject Ethnic Identities, Katherine Christoffersen, Naomi L. Shin

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

New Mexico’s unique linguistic and ethnic heritage is the result of a complex history of colonization characterized by oppression. This chapter examines how, in this context of oppression, New Mexican Spanish speakers negotiate ethnic identities through bilingual talk-in-interaction. The study takes an ethnomethodological approach to identity as something that people ‘do’ (Widdicombe, 1998) and analyzes how New Mexican Spanish speakers ‘do’ ethnic identities. The present analysis is based on a subset of the New Mexico and Colorado Spanish Survey (Vigil & Bills, 2000), including 30 fully transcribed audio-recordings of semi-structured interviews with New Mexican Spanish speakers. A positioning analysis of …

Assessing The Factor Structure Of The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, And Cumulative Effect Of Abuse And Neglect On Mental Health Among Adolescents In Conflict-Affected Burundi, Ruby Charak, Jtvm De Jong, Lidewyde H. Berckmoes, Herman Ndayisaba, Ria Reis

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The present study aimed to examine the factor structure of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1998), highlight rates of abuse and neglect among Burundian adolescents, compare these rates with those found in high-income nations, and examine the cumulative effect of multiple types of abuse and neglect on depression and PTSD symptoms. Participants were 231 adolescents and youth (M = 14.9, SD = 1.99, 58.4% female) from five provinces of Burundi, a country in Central Africa affected by war and political violence. Translation and back-translation of the CTQ was carried out to obtain an adaptation of CTQ …

Words + Pictures: A Manifesto, Jean Braithwaite

Creative Writing Faculty Publications

In the second decade of the 21st century, academic comics studies is well established as a serious intellectual subject, but for many non-specialists, including university administrators, a sense of frivolity still attaches to comics. This brief essay braids together personal history and intellectual analysis: 1) it compares the cultural position of comics today to the position of novels in the 19th century; 2) it analyzes the complementary nature of the verbal and visual channels; 3) it argues that neither words nor pictures should be considered primary in a narratology of comics; and 4) that comics are eminently well suited to …

The Rider (2017-09-18), Jesus Sanchez

The Rider Archives

Vol.3 No.4

“To Write Of Him And Pardon Crave”: Negotiating Biblical Authority In Lanyer’S Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, Andrew Fleck

Literatures and Cultural Studies Faculty Publications

Aemilia Lanyer refers extensively to the Gospels in writing her poem on the Passion, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Alluding to the events of Christ's final day, she incorporates details from each of the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion. Focusing on specific echoes of the translations available to her, it is possible to trace which bible Lanyer preferred. Surprisingly, despite Lanyer's preference for the Geneva translation, she also made use of the Bishops' Bible, suggesting that the poet carefully sifted through different English translations as she sought to generate biblical authority for her account of the Passion.

The Evolution Of La Mexicana In Corridos Popular In The South Texas Borderlands (1930-2016), Gabriela Cavazos

Theses and Dissertations

Corridos have been exhibiting history for almost two hundred years. Moreover, throughout the years, corridos have been demonstrating the cultural shifts of Mexico and the South Texas Borderlands. Corridos represent the spirit of the Mexican and Mexican American culture. They are ballads written to celebrate or to be critical of the life of the protagonists through their accomplishments and actions.

A Testimonio Reclaiming Acceptance Of My Esl Experience: Trauma, Tex-Mex And Third Space, Cinthia E. Bernal

Theses and Dissertations

Language is a tool that brings all of us together, yet at the same time it also sets us apart. For many of us, it is important to be bilingual and biliterate, but for others, bilingualism is something that is pulling this country apart. Many people, after all, view Spanish as a powerful language that can harm this country, a language that has motivated people to attempt to make English the only language. Ana Celia Zentella tell us “Latina/os, who also have a long history in the United States and became the largest minority in the nation in 2003, are …

Testing Acceptance Of Language Difference In Academia: Perceptions In A First-Year Composition Classroom, Crystal Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

In response to Bawarshi’s collective call for educators to be “more responsive and responsible users and teachers of English,” and motivated by the research of Michelle Hall Kells, I argue that it is necessary for educators to introduce first-year writing students to the historical and sociopolitical aspects of language use in academia through implementing lessons that focus on facets of language diversity. After describing a lesson plan focused on language diversity, I then analyze student feedback using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis as a lens. I also discuss the results of a Likert scale implemented during the three-phase study. Student …

Three Essays On Likability Factors, Crowdfunding, And Entrepreneurial Performance, Yuanqing Li

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I conduct three empirical studies exploring the relation between likability factors, crowdfunding characteristics and entrepreneurial performance. Together these studies integrate aspects of major entrepreneurial likability factors including liking of the entrepreneur (source attractiveness, credibility, personal traits) and liking of the message (verbal content and expression), and components of nonverbal and verbal cues. I apply computer-mediated communication (CMC) and persuasion theories, political and marketing literature to provide a more fine-grained understanding of likability on crowdfunding success. In the first essay, I study how the non-verbal cues of a crowdfunding video influence the crowdfunding success. By employing social presence …