Digital Commons Network^™

Rehouse Richmond: Plan To Address The Eviction Crisis, Lark Washington

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Rehouse Richmond aims to recommend specific best practices and start-to-finish development of successful organizing strategies for anti-eviction work. The client for this plan, RISC, is an interfaith coalition of congregations across the Richmond region. Richmond has a compounding history of redlining, urban renewal, foreclosure crisis, and now evictions that has drained the wealth of its Black residents for generations. There is a wealth of academic literature indicating the prevalence of eviction as well as the people who are most vulnerable: rent-burdened tenants, and Black women especially with children. There are a lot of responses to the eviction crisis ranging from …

Work Hope And Work Volition: Exploring The Influence Of Community College Students’ Rurality And Socioeconomic Status, Jesse A. Wingate

Theses and Dissertations

Data from a sample of community college students (N = 478) in Virginia were used to examine relations among rurality, socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition. Socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition were positively associated. However, rurality, measured both as a continuous and categorical variable, was not correlated with work hope or work volition. Additional analyses showed convergence between measures of work hope and work volition confirming construct similarity. Results, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future study are included.

A Framework For Forming Resident-Controlled Manufactured Housing Communities In Richmond, Linwood Rogers

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Despite manufactured housing representing one of the most affordable, unsubsidized housing options for families in the United States, the nature of ownership in many manufactured housing communities places families at constant risk of displacement. In mobile home parks, where a household owns their manufactured home but rents the land underneath it from a park owner, residents have few protections from eviction. Richmond contains 58 mobile home parks housing nearly 6,000 households, but poor park conditions and neglect from park owners has threatened the viability of many communities. In other parts of the country, residents have gained control of their communities …

Art Inquiries, Xviii:1, Full Issue

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Student Engagement In Alternative School Settings, Alisha Robinson

UROP Posters

Strengthening Student Engagement in Alternative School Settings

Alisha Robinson, Depts. of Social Work and Sociology, with Dr. Erin Burke Brown, VCU ASPiRE

In the United States public school system students who attend alternative high schools (AHS) are identified as the most socially and academically marginalized group of individuals. AHS last chance and remedial programs are used as a behavioral remediation intervention to serve students who have been expelled or suspended from their traditional school. Reasons that contribute to students attending AHS include poor grades, negative behavior, truancy, and involvement with the juvenile justice system. The student population within AHS settings …

Pelvic Binding Protocols In Ems, Tarek Haggy

UROP Posters

Pelvic Binding Protocols in EMS

Tarek Haggy, Depts. of Science and Chemistry, with Dr. Susan Bodnar-Deren, Dept of Sociology

Background: Pelvic fractures are typically a result of high energy collisions, such as motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). For this reason, pelvic trauma is usually accompanied by a myriad of other injuries. Due to the potentially fatal nature of the injury, Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers are often the first to administer treatment to patients with suspected pelvic fractures. While difficult to make a proper diagnosis in the field, it is essential to properly stabilize the pelvis whenever a fracture is suspected. …

The Politics Of Annexation: Oligarchic Power In A Southern City, John V. Moeser, Rutledge M. Dennis

The Politics of Annexation

This Open Access Edition of The Politics of Annexation presents a newly formatted version of the original 1982 edition. The text itself has been edited only for non-substantive style changes and corrections. The Preface, the new Introduction (“Fifty Years Later”), and the index were prepared especially for this edition. The original edition was published by Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is available online through the UR Scholarship Repository at https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/307/

The Politics of Annexation examines the process of American cities using annexation of suburban areas as a tool to increase their tax base and generate new revenue. The authors …

A Meisner Warm-Up: Advancing The Technique, Andrew Bryce

Theses and Dissertations

Why is there no warm-up for the Meisner technique? Why do standard vocal warm-ups not actually prepare the actor for performance? This thesis seeks to remedy both of these issues in 21st century actor training. It does so by creating a warm-up for the Meisner technique that will also prepare actors’ voice, body, and presence. This warm-up was formed by combining Meisner repetition exercises and the Miller Voice Method. The final warm-up was presented as a workshop for actors at the 2020 Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Psychometric Developments Of The Ace-Iq: Understanding The Trauma History Of Latine Immigrants, Jorli K. Swingen Dr.

Theses and Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a profound effect on an individual’s physical and mental health. The World Health Organization has recently updated the ACE questionnaire so it could be used with international populations. The Adverse Childhood Experiences-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ), has not been translated to Spanish or used with Latine immigrants.

This study translated the ACE-IQ into Spanish, evaluated the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, and collected data on 184 four adult English Language Learners in Chesterfield County, VA.

There is evidence of internal consistency for the ACE-IQ as a whole (α = .908) and within subscales. Three factors were identified …

From The Margins To The Center: Legitimation Strategies From An Alt-Right Case Study, Lauren C. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing interest in understanding Donald Trump’s election in 2016 as part of the historical trajectory of white racial identity politics, we do not know much about how ideas deemed “radical right” become mainstreamed. My study builds on extant research that implicates the emergence of the think tank industry by viewing one such right wing think tank as a racialized organization. My analysis focuses on the organizational strategies of the National Policy Institute (NPI). Google searches for NPI spiked in 2016 with their vocal support of Trump and visible organizing in D.C. Using Williams’ (2018) theoretical framework of organizational …

Cultural Production In Qatar: Design, Dialog And The New Authentic, Asma Derouiche

Theses and Dissertations

Qatar, as a rapidly modernizing Arab country with a highly heterogeneous emergent community, is working to achieve a balance between accelerated development and cultural identity. Qatar’s cross-cultural environment and diverse attributes offer unprecedented opportunity to produce forward-looking, “100% Qatari Products,” that express a New Authentic.

This thesis explores social dynamics governing cultural production in Qatar, and it challenges unproductive manifestations of social hierarchy—particularly related to norms surrounding the default working relationship between designers and artisans. The research highlights and celebrates the inherent diversity of the Qatari artifact, creating a platform and methods wherein designers and artisans collaborate equally and meaningfully. …

Three Studies Of Research-Based Pedagogy In Physical Chemistry: Development Of A Zno Thin Film Experiment, Analysis Of Student Discourse By Graph Theory And Cognitive Engagement, Building A Physical Chemistry Faculty Network., Dilhara Liyanage

Theses and Dissertations

Three research projects, each focusing on a different aspect, development of a ZnO thin film experiment, student’s cognitive engagement behavior, and building of a faculty network, are presented in this dissertation.

In the first project, a physical chemistry laboratory experiment was developed to answer the question, “How do electrons move in a solid?”. The experiment structure follows the POGIL-PCL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning - Physical Chemistry Laboratory) model. Students begin by using the PhET “Quantum Bound States” animation to compare energy levels for single atoms to energy levels of a lattice containing many potential wells, and they incorporate that …

Internalizing Data Collection: Personal Analytics As An Investigation Of The Self, Neal R. Swisher

Theses and Dissertations

Personal analytics, aka self-tracking, is the practice of using a digital device to track aspects of behavior, such as exercise habits, heart rate, sleep patterns, location, diet, and a host of other data points. This dissertation is an exploration of “self” in self-tracking, informed by theories of subjectivity, autonomy, power and knowledge. As a technological intervention, self-tracking devices change how we experience our own body and behavior. They also serve as methods to digitize human behavior. This data is combined with other data and processed using computational methods. Self-tracking devices are both personal and bureaucratic. They are devices used for …

Hopeless Heartland: Space And Labor In Virginia, Katrina Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

In the US, labor market conditions vary by demographics and space. Though space has been shown to be highly related to labor force outcomes, lower-level analyses are under-utilized as statistical workforce analyses tend to rely on national or state-level data. This study addresses variability in labor markets by taking a spatial approach, using cluster analysis and logistic regression to explore variations in labor market variables across census tracts in Virginia. Cluster analysis reveals several hot and cold spots of key labor market indicators: rates of marriage, poverty, educational attainment, and income. In many cases, poor social conditions, such as low …

A Girl Is A Girl Is A Girl, Paige Lizbeth Morris

Theses and Dissertations

It is well known that Western society uses men’s visual pleasure as a means to determine womxn’s value; her success is dependent on her compliance with culturally determined beauty standards. This process turns womxn into commodities and reinforces notions of gender complementarity, perpetuating a lifetime of servitude to patriarchal ideologies. It reminds the non-male that she is incomplete, insufficient, insignificant, and so easily dismissable. It forces her to be dependent, to shut up, to sit down, and to enjoy it.

In an effort to reject these presumed histories and narrow connotations of womxn, I have analyzed my gender performance in …

Orbiting Forward (Thoughts On The Nature Of Conflict - Sighs On The Struggles Of Change), Bushra A. Alsughayer

Theses and Dissertations

Today’s world is a wide open hyper-connected sphere where human societies worldwide exist in a complex crossroads of historical conditions, ideologies, and power structures. A pool of constant confrontations, minor or major, between the traditional and the progressive, the local and the international, the materialistic and the transcendent, the pragmatic and the idealistic, and countless layers of meaning. For an individual who exists in such an intense moment of history, it seems almost inescapable to be exposed to, affected by, or even involved in a major conflict. A situation that makes individuals always in a critical position where every role …

Current: The River City Library, Abigail Fundling

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis orients a public library toward the James River with the purpose of strengthening Richmond’s connection to this waterway. Adapting an existing warehouse with a history of river industry, this project used evidence-based design decisions to drive its development. Using interviews, surveys, and case studies, the design is organized around a central gathering space where the river enters the building and around which spaces for study, stacks, and children flow. It also incorporates an amphitheater that evokes the feeling of sitting on the river’s shore. Using panoramic views to the river and city skyline along with a material palette …

Come And Get Your Capital, Sis: The Use Of Twitter To Compensate For Gendered And Racialized Job Networks Among Creatives, Sasha A. Pierre- Louis

Theses and Dissertations

Due to racialized and gendered exclusion and discrimination, Black and women jobseekers do not have the same access to social ties in the labor market as white men. A number of Black Twitter users, particularly Black women, have cultivated networks on Twitter and elsewhere as explicit alternatives to this old boys’ network. This study aimed to understand how workers in creative industries—which tend to be more reliant on referrals—use Twitter to expand their social networks and gain access to job opportunities, and how their use of Twitter differed by race and gender. Four hashtags were queried through the Twitter application …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Caregiver Goals For Urban Children With And Without Asthma, Megan M. Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric asthma is a major public health concern that disproportionately affects children of color and youth living in low-income, urban areas. The implications for public health, child health, and family functioning necessitates our understanding and addressing experiences by families who are facing barriers within their socio-demographic context in addition to the stressors associated with managing pediatric asthma. The current study applied qualitative methods to interviews with caregivers of children with and without asthma in an effort to more deeply connect with caregivers’ experiences and yield richer information about the intersection of identities as Black caregivers living in an urban setting …

It’S Funny Because It’S True: The Transmission Of Explicit And Implicit Racism In Internet Memes, Tabitha Fairchild

Theses and Dissertations

Video games are traditionally seen as the domain of heteronormative white males. The purpose of this study is to explore how racism is transmitted and reproduced within digital communities, and how humor is being used to frame racist discourse in virtual spaces. Digitally, internet memes are widely used rhetorical vehicles, reaching large and broad audiences. The roles these artifacts play in the reproduction and transmission of racist ideology is often obfuscated by the perception that internet memes are "just jokes." This study analyzes internet memes collected from 16 months of communication between members of Discord servers that self-identify as communities …

Why We Use A New Currency: The Role Of Trust And Control In Explaining The Perception And Usage Of Bitcoin, Joseph B. Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Social media, e-commerce, global peer-to-peer technologies, and the near ubiquity of computers and smartphones allow people to interact, trust, and exchange value across traditional socio-economic control boundaries and over significant distances. Since the creation in 2008 of a new cryptographic currency system called Bitcoin, a financial technology market sector of about 250 billion USD has rapidly emerged, raising questions about the nature of currency in society and whether new types of non-national money are warranted and viable. This debate has pitted heterodox economic interests against orthodox economic interests while it has rekindled interest in theories that view money as a …

Platform And Place: The Digitization Of Gift Economies, Sara A. Peters

Theses and Dissertations

Especially during times of economic and social upheaval, such as COVID-19, people may consider alternative means of acquiring the resources necessary for survival. These lifestyle shifts, or lifestyle movements, are often associated with economic alternatives to capitalism, such as gift economies. In recent years, many of these economies have shifted to digital platforms where members create and coordinate connections for exchanges. Using a case study of The Buy Nothing Project, an international network of local, digital gift economies, this paper explores the geographic and socioeconomic conditions facilitating the presence and activity of digital Buy Nothing Groups in two US states, …

Black Women And Body Image: Implications Of The Racialized Beauty Aesthetic, Rachel L. Boutte

Theses and Dissertations

Black women have the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity relative to any other demographic group in the United States, however current weight management interventions appear least effective for them. Although several hypotheses have been proposed to explain these outcomes, few studies have collected data to evaluate how well they fit the lived experiences of Black women. In particular, the potential roles of body image and body dissatisfaction in the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity in Black women are not well understood. Extant literature largely reports that Black women are inoculated from body dissatisfaction due to cultural factors, …

Design Hub: Activating Community By Design, Ed Williams

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION

At the turn of the century, Robert Putnam (2000, 27) wrote “...a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current.” Putnam is describing a loss of “social capital” throughout American society. Research suggests that many of our contemporary issues are the result of a decline in “social capital,” or “community.”

This pervasive lack of community is thought to be detrimental to “educational performance, safe neighborhoods, equitable tax collection, democratic responsiveness, everyday honesty, and even our health …

Gender Identity And Gender Inclusivity: Lesson Plan For Virginia And U.S. Government, Kristina Lee

Open Textbooks and Course Materials

Lesson plan for use with the document Gender-Inclusive Library Workgroup Report. Designed to promote high school level discussion around gender-neutral spaces and policies. Aligns with VA SOL GOVT.1. Includes opening activity for students, articles for discussion, and project outline.

To Read Or Not To Read; That Is The Question, Christopher Latourrette, Morgan Haas

UROP Posters

To Read or Not to Read; That is the Question

Christopher Latourrette, Depts. of Psychology and Sociology, and Morgan Haas, with Dr. Jeffrey Green, Dept. of Psychology

Do regular leisure readers have a different psychological profile from non-readers? We investigated whether particular positive psychological traits (i.e., greater subjective well-being, self-esteem, meaning in life, and lower loneliness) and leisure motivational variables (i.e., intellectual pursuits or distraction source) would distinguish undergraduate readers from non-readers. In support of a larger ongoing research study exploring the psychological benefits of reading and re-reading novels, we conducted a k-means cluster analysis followed by an analysis of …

The Moderating Role Of Body Appreciation On Ethnic Identity And Condom Use Intentions, Breanna Jones, Noelle Manfredi, Calvin Hall

UROP Posters

The Moderating Role of Body Appreciation on Ethnic Identity and Condom Use Intentions

Breanna Jones, Depts. of Psychology and Sociology, Noelle Manfredi, and Calvin Hall, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Student, with Dr. Kristina Hood, Dept. of Psychology

Scholars have long explored the influence of ethnic identity affirmation, or feelings of belonging to one’s ethnic group (Phinney, 1990), on sexual health outcomes (e.g., condom use intentions; Beadnell et al., 2003). Higher ethnic identity safeguards against risky sexual behaviors (Townsend et al., 2010), such that those with higher ethnic identity affirmation reported less risky sexual behaviors. However, limited research has explored how …

A Comparison Of Ptsd, Aud, And Mdd Symptom Patterns In Different Trauma Types, Elizabeth Crump

UROP Posters

A Comparison of PTSD, AUD, and MDD Symptom Patterns in Different Trauma Types

Elizabeth Crump, Depts. of Biology and Sociology, with Dr. Kaitlin Bountress, Virginia Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics

About 66% of college students have been exposed to a traumatic event (Read et al., 2011). Research thus far suggests that interpersonal trauma (IPT; e.g., physical or sexual abuse or assault) is linked to higher risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), variability in PTSD symptom cluster presentation, and comorbidities with substance use compared to accidental trauma (e.g., natural disaster, motor vehicle accident; Kessler et al. 1995; Kelley et …

Assessing Sexual Differences With The Decision To Remain A Virgin, Jessica Del Rossi

UROP Posters

Assessing Sexual Differences with the Decision to Remain a Virgin

Jessica Del Rossi, Depts. of Biology and Sociology, with Dr. Claire Kimberly, Dept. of Internal Medicine, VCU School of Medicine

In the transition to adulthood, the loss of virginity can be seen as an important step in personal development. The first sexual experience someone encounters is often memorable with a positive or negative interaction impacting sexual satisfaction and sexual communication in the future. People have different definitions of virginity which can lead to miscommunication in personal relationships, research and/or a therapy setting. People may remain a virgin till marriage due …

Figuring Out The Aztecs, Milla Gardiola

UROP Posters

Figuring Out the Aztecs

Milla Gardioloa, Dept. of Sociology, with Dr. Bernard Means, Dept. of Anthropology

This project looks at various Mesoamerican artwork with a strong focus on Aztec figurines and sculptures. I take a closer look at the meaning behind the figurines and their importance to Aztec cultures. With religion being an important aspect in Mesoamerican culture, I explore a few Aztec deities and explain who they are and how they are worshiped in their everyday life. There is also a section of this project dedicated to modern figurines and sculptures with the intention to show the relation between …