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Cleansing The Common: A Narrative-Intertextual Study Of Mark 7:1-23, Eike Arend Mueller

Dissertations

The conflict story of Mark 7:1–23 between Jesus and the religious leaders over the issue of defilement is the meeting point of a variety of disciplines: Purity studies, Jewish studies, exegetical studies, Historical Jesus studies, and studies on Jesus and the law. The crux of the passage, the meaning of the parable in v. 15 and the ensuing “cleansing” in v. 19, has been interpreted very differently. Scholars doing exegetical studies and studies on the relationship between Jesus and the law have maintained that the Gospel writer correctly reflects in 7:19 the meaning of Jesus’ parable (7:15), abrogating the clean/unclean …

An Analysis And Response To The Fear Of Evil Spiritual Forces Among Kamba Christians In The Light Of Biblical And Ellen G. White Teachings, Joseph Mutune Ndisya

Dissertations

This research aimed to discover whether there are any reasons from the Scriptures and writings of Ellen G. White regarding fear of evil spiritual forces. Thus research aims to understand the historical, cultural and religious reasons Kamba Christians frequently live in fear and dual allegiance. Biblical solutions will be suggested to permanently eliminate that fear. Fear is often so great that born-again Christians carry protective devices and practices which they believe will ward off the invading evil spiritual forces.

The Old Testament writings were examined to see how God wanted His people to relate to any evil power. The Old …

Revelation 6:9-11: An Exegesis Of The Fifth Seal In The Light Of The Problem Of The Eschatological Delay, Patrice Allet

Dissertations

The fifth seal of Revelation has most often been treated from an anthropological perspective that appears to be clearly inadequate to account for the depth of this trigger passage located in a climactic setting. In and around the fifth seal, the text suggests indeed that the persecution of the last days has occurred. Imminence and delay do seem to intersect in the passage, creating a crisis of eschatological proportions which, in turn, raises questions of theodicy.

The purpose of this dissertation is to increase understanding of the fifth seal as a whole through a focused study of its delay motif …

Union With Christ In The Writings Of Ellen G. White, Katrina B. Blue

Dissertations

Building on the work of nineteenth-century theologian Augustus Strong, five historical approaches to union with Christ identified by Bruce Demarest in the late twentieth century include: an ontological union, a sacramental union, a covenantal union, a moral or filial union and an experiential union. Given the identification of multiple approaches to union with Christ, my dissertation attempts to clarify Ellen G. White’s concept of union with Christ using Demarest’s categories as an evaluation tool. I traced the development of her writings on union with Christ from 1860 to 1898 to ask whether White’s approach is best described as an ontological, …

Somos Familia: Family As An Organizing Trope In 20th-21st Century Latina/O Literature, Victoria Anne Bolf

Dissertations

This dissertation examines various ways that family has been employed as a model of both oppression and liberation in Latina/o literature. Working from an interdisciplinary standpoint at the crossroads of literary and cultural studies, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, Chicano/a studies, and Latino/a studies, this project seeks to uncover how representations of familia in U.S. Latino/a literary texts accomplish their discursive work, as well as complicating conventional formulations of kinship and family.

I examine Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, in Chapter One, in terms of queer family and the counter-domestic logic of “the streets.” In Chapter Two, I …

Theology And Ideology Critique, Silas M. Morgan

Dissertations

In modern philosophy, the concept of ideology has been a problem for the relationship of theology to politics. Especially in its Marxist usage, “ideology” refers to a specific effect that theology has in modern society so as to conceal or hide the material facticity that shapes human life and practical activity. This is one of the many reasons why theology, even in its political form, has not taken up “ideology” as a matter inherent to its critical form. The absence of theoretical attention to ideology in theology itself has led to the deficit of immanent critique, especially in political theology. …

Social Justice And Ecological Responsibility: A Moral Case For International Collaborative Action On Environmental Degradation And Climate-Induced Displacement, James Stephen Mastaler

Dissertations

The contemporary ecological crisis, manifest in human-induced climate change, is a powerful form of structural violence against the poorest communities on the planet. As such, my research resides at the nexus of structural poverty, gender disparity, ecological degradation, and climate-induced displacement. The social justice implications emerging from this nexus require responsible moral deliberation and discernment over the international community's role in minimizing the human tragedies accompanying forced displacement and migration. While asserting the interconnectedness and dependency of all life upon mutual flourishing, responsible decision-making expands the range of felt moral concern to include ecological flourishing. Social justice is only possible …

Motivated To Adapt: Applying Goal-Setting Theory, Primed Subconscious Goal, And Implementation Intention, Graham Benjamin Wohler

Dissertations

This study investigated the effects that several motivational interventions have on transition and reacquisition adaptability. Goal-setting, whether assigned or self-set, had no effect on either form of adaptability; however, the two goal-setting conditions differed from each other once goal commitment was taken into consideration. High commitment was negatively associated to transition adaptability for assigned goals, but positively related for self-set goals; this trend was marginally significant in reacquisition adaptability as well. Primed subconscious goals were found to have no effect on either form of adaptability. An implementation intention was found to negatively relate to transition adaptability and to have no …

Ancestor Worship In The Middle Sicán Theocratic State, Go Matsumoto

Dissertations

The major focus of this dissertation is the ancestor worship that is inferred to have been practiced in the multiethnic Middle Sicán theocratic state (AD 950-1100) that prospered on the northern North Coast of Peru. The major objective is twofold: (1) demonstrating by archaeological means that ancestors were indeed worshipped in the Middle Sicán society and (2) elucidating the nature and role of the inferred ancestor cult and associated rituals and ceremonies. Ancestor (and the veneration of it) is one of the themes that have the deepest roots in the anthropological thoughts; nevertheless, many archaeologists have uncritically invoked ancestor veneration …

Paper People And Digital Memory: Recreating The Public And Private In Japan, Meghan Sarah Fidler

Dissertations

This research examines how reading and writing on digital platforms establishes public and private spheres in Tokyo, Japan. Based upon findings from a group of students at an international University, I develop new modes of thinking about people and their use of Internet capable devices by exploring the paradoxes present in contemporary literacies. Contextualizing reading and writing within the speech patterns and exchange rituals (aisatsu) which mark public spheres in Japan, writing practices are found to reflect multiple nuanced identity performances in which the varied use of the cultural principles uchi/soto (inside/outside) and ura/omote (back/front) create parallel publics. Constructed by …

"I Don't Want To Hurt Anyone's Feelings": Using Race As A Writing Prompt In First Year Writing, Dianna Shank

Dissertations

First Year Composition (FYC) is one of the most important courses for any incoming college student. This course (often designated as English 101) provides students the rhetorical tools to fully engage in critical thinking and writing on the college level. One of the most common methods of organizing FYC is to use a topic as the center of all the reading and writing prompts. The use of outside subject matter to teach FYC is a common practice that is rarely interrogated for its effectiveness. However, the Hairston debate in the early 1990s opened up a public discussion of how FYC …

Academic And Social Integration Of Nontraditional Students: The Role Of Active Learning Strategies And Sense Of Belonging In Integration And Persistence, Deborah R. Barnett

Dissertations

This mixed methods study, a concurrent triangulation design, explored Tinto's integration theory as it relates to nontraditional students. The study explored the relationship of academic and social integration, defined by classroom active learning strategies and sense of belonging, with persistence. The study also expanded upon the idea of socio-academic integrative moments which might occur when social and academic integration converge or overlap. Consistent with Tinto's model, factors including initial institutional commitment, initial goal commitment, and subsequent institutional commitment were also analyzed. Multiple regression analysis of data obtained from a 38-question survey (n=299) revealed one common predictor of persistence among the …

The Relationship Between Racial Ambiguity And Self-Concept In Multiracial Lndividuals, James R. Jobe

Dissertations

The present study examined the relationship between racial ambiguity and self-concept in multiracial individuals. Research as to the experiences of multiracial people is limited both in frequency and in scope. As multiracial individuals continue to grow in number, understanding their unique experiences will become more important to social scientists (e.g., psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists) across disciplines. The current study examined two hypotheses and explored a series of additional relationships. The theoretical framework that was utilized for this study was Symbolic Interaction Theory. This theory provided an effective way to understand how people use and make meaning of their surrounding social contexts …

Into The Looking Glass: Undergraduate Students' Integrating And Illuminating Their Wisdom And Experiences As Global Citizens, Sarah Jean Wyscaver

Dissertations

Five undergraduate students shared stories about the wisdom they gained while working to integrate their global citizen identity into their every day lives. Using a postcolonial theoretical framework and portraiture methodology, this inquiry followed participants during a 13-day global service-learning experience in Yucatán, Mexico. Through on-site observations, creative representations, and two in-depth interviews, provide new understandings about the ways in which five diverse college students integrate and illuminate their global citizen identities emerged. Participant portraits revealed themes based on global citizen identity integration as it relates to personal history, ethnic legacy, and educational narratives among participations. Further analysis revealed participants’ …

The Experience Of Reducing Environmental Risks In An Environmental Justice Community, Gabriela Dory

Dissertations

Research on Environmental Justice (EJ) communities has focused on quantitative assessment of environmental hazards and general physical health problems. Little is known about how individuals living in EJ communities perceive their environmental risks and how they reduce environmental risks. The purpose of the study is to explore and describe the perceived environmental risks and the experience of reducing environmental risk among individuals living in an EJ community.

A qualitative and longitudinal design with a descriptive phenomenological method is used to recruit 23 participants living in a known EJ community in the urban area of New Jersey. A total of 43 …

The Standard Deviation: Attitude Transference And Perceptions Of Deviant Behavior, Candace Forbes Bright

Dissertations

This dissertation uses a three-article dissertation model to 1) compare how deviance is defined and what is considered deviant comparing the United States to South Korea using content analysis, 2) test socio-demographic and social network variables in the development of one’s approval of deviance using eleven ordinary least squared regression models, and 3) examine the association between social networks and approval of deviant behaviors using social network analysis. All three articles use data from a survey on perceptions of deviant behavior. The survey was conducted in English and Korean. The first article provides comparisons on how deviance is defined and …

Conceptualizing Doctoral Student Mentoring, Flint L. Brent

Dissertations

In this study, there was a convenience sample of 145 doctoral students from 35 states and the District of Columbia. The demographic breakdown of the participants was 101 females and 44 males, with an age range of 22 through 68 years of age, and there were 98 Caucasian and 23 African American participants. The modal doctoral student was 36 years old, heterosexual, Caucasian, and female in the dissertation phase of pursuing a PhD. In this study, the modal doctoral student defined an ideal mentor as someone who functions as a role model, and demonstrated integrity, provided guidance, and developed a …

The Implementation Of Common Core Standards And Teacher Intent To Persist, Eddie Miles Louis Smith

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of the Common Core Standards (CCS) into schools had an impact on teacher intent to persist in the classroom. Specifically, this study sought to determine if the implementation of the CCS was a factor of novice and veteran teachers’ intent to persist in schools located in south Mississippi. A review of the literature indicated that teacher shortages were not primarily due to recruitment and training, but rather, to a significant extent, were the result of teachers leaving the profession long before retirement (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004).

Data were collected …

Beyond Biracial: The Complexity Of Identity Construction For Women With One Black And One White Parent, Roxanne Kymaani

Dissertations

In the United States, the post-Civil Rights Movement era changed forever the social perceptions about race and the self-perceptions of people who are born with mixed racial origin. Choosing to identify as mixed race in America inevitably leads to a racial cross-examination linked to America’s continued struggle with its racial heritage and the enduring legacy of a dominant discourse.

This dissertation focuses on the lived experience of women with one Black and one White parent. While subject to labels such as Black and White, Black, mulatto, biracial, mixed, or other, the central question is what do these women wish to …

Development From Abroad? Transnational Remittance And The Institutionalization Of Diaspora Engagement In Africa., Todd Bryan Combs

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the impacts of transnational remittances and the institutionalization of diaspora engagement on development in Africa. Remittances to Africa are now around $50 billion annually and larger than inflows of foreign aid and investment. African governments continue to realize the potential contributions of their diasporas to development through not only remittances but through skills, expertise-sharing, and coordination of efforts. In 2000, four African countries had national-level institutions nominally dedicated to the diaspora and its potential to effect development: now 36 of the 54 governments have such an institution. An assessment of the political economy of remittances and governmental …

School Climate And Building Highly Effective Schools: How Student Perception Of School Structure And Supportive Learning Environments Affect Their Enjoyment Of School, Amber D'Nay Simpson

Dissertations

Education reformers have long sought to apply scientific framework analysis to engineer the ideal system in which both students and teachers are highly successful. Grounded in the evidence based theoretical framework of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), many academicians and practitioners are now focusing on determinants of school structure and supportive learning environments to bolster students’ enjoyment of school, which supports increased positive outcomes. The Abbreviated School Climate Survey (Student Version) (Ding, Liu and Berkowitz, 2011) instrument was designed to explore student perspective of school climate as an indicator of student outcomes based on seven variables. The purpose of this …

Filipino, Too: Compositions On Culture And Identity, Randy Eugene Gonzales

Dissertations

“Filipino, too: Compositions on Culture and Identity” is a creative dissertation that documents my journey to understand my cultural heritage, focusing on my displacement as an expatriate and as a third-generation Filipino American.

A Tale Of Two Schools: The Spiritual Development Of Leaders In Protestant Seminaries, Patricia A. Rhodes Phd

Dissertations

Scholars and practitioners increasingly consider the spiritual development of leaders to be essential, not only for individual well-being, but that of the culture at large. This is particularly important for clergy, a profession centered on spiritual leadership. While the institutions in which most Protestant ministers pursue training have historically privileged scholarship over spirituality, this has changed substantially since the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) added spiritual development of students to its accreditation standards in 1992. Since then, seminaries have sought to comply in various ways. This study explored two Protestant seminaries, addressing these questions: (a) what is the process seminaries …

Blood, Mud, And Money: Place And Public Land Conflicts In The Shawnee Hills, Karen Wolf

Dissertations

This dissertation examines conflicts involving the use of public land for both extractive resources and recreational purposes in Southern Illinois from an anthropological perspective. These conflicts are examined in terms of place, western ideas of nature and culture, and the debate concerning conservation versus preservation. The beginning point for this work was the question of whether or not place building influences conflicts over public land. The conflicts that this work encompasses are logging, hunting, use of off-road vehicles, equestrian, and hydraulic fracturing. My goal was to look at different recreational conflicts of Southern Illinois and determine how issues of place, …

Advocating For Educational Equity: African American Citizens' Councils In St. Louis, Missouri, From 1864 To 1927, Melanie Alicia Adams

Dissertations

Whether in slavery or in freedom, African Americans understood the important role education played in their quest towards citizenship. As enslaved people, they risked their lives to learn to read and write so they would be prepared when freedom came their way. As free people, they continued to strive for an education that would move them beyond their prescribed station in life. Throughout the history of African Americans, they actively pursued their educational aspirations instead of patiently waiting for them to be granted. The research associated with educational agency before and after the Civil War provides some insight into the …

Use Of Task Clarification, Feedback, And Recognition To Increase Desired Behaviors Within An Organization’S Permit To Work System - Analysis Of Data Previously Collected As An Organizational Consultant, Tarek Abousaleh

Dissertations

The term ‘culture’ can be used to describe both a ‘social culture’ and a ‘work culture’. A social culture can be defined behaviorally as a pattern of overt and covert behaviors that are consequated by the verbal community and the contingency specifying rules that facilitate behavior independent of any first hand experience. It is this community that defines which behaviors are reinforced, extinguished, or punished. Similarly, a work culture can be defined as a pattern of overt and covert behaviors that are consequated by the work community (leadership, employees, self, etc.) and the contingency specifying rules that facilitate behavior/performance independent …

A Metaevaluation Of Evaluations Of Health Care Programs That Employ The Chronic Care Model, Jan Fields

Dissertations

Background: The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the use of metaevaluation to evaluate the quality of healthcare studies conducted on programs that employ the Chronic Care Model (CCM) to provide chronic illness care. In this study, healthcare studies of CCM programs are regarded as program evaluations. Method: Using a non-experimental cross-sectional design, 28 healthcare studies of CCM programs were evaluated using the accuracy standards portion of the Program Evaluations Metaevaluation Checklist (Stufflebeam, 2011). The results of the metaevaluations were analyzed and compared to the HEAL grade of the same healthcare studies as determined by the Hierarchy of Evidence …

Harnessing Complexity: Analysis Methodology And Ethical Framework To Facilitate Utilization Of Video Data In Evaluations, Kurt A. Wilson

Dissertations

Most evaluations in the nonprofit and international development sectors are conducted in contexts of complexity; the specific intervention being evaluated is but one of many interrelated factors influencing the desired outcome. Video data, especially when directly generated by program participants, can provide both exceptionally rich qualitative data as well as contextually-relevant feedback within complex systems. Despite these unique strengths and opportunities, video data is underutilized in the field of evaluation. This dissertation addresses specific barriers associated with video data through three inter-related papers: Papers one and two (Chapters II and III) present the findings from two interrelated studies of an …

Innovative Local Texture Descriptors With Application To Eye Detection, Jiayu Gu

Dissertations

Local Binary Patterns (LBP), which is one of the well-known texture descriptors, has broad applications in pattern recognition and computer vision. The attractive properties of LBP are its tolerance to illumination variations and its computational simplicity. However, LBP only compares a pixel with those in its own neighborhood and encodes little information about the relationship of the local texture with the features. This dissertation introduces a new Feature Local Binary Patterns (FLBP) texture descriptor that can compare a pixel with those in its own neighborhood as well as in other neighborhoods and encodes the information of both local texture and …

Benchmarking The Use Of Learner-Centered Teaching Practices In Missouri Community Colleges, Vivian Kathleen Elder

Dissertations

Learner-Centered (LC) teaching focuses on shifting the role of an instructor from a provider of information to a facilitator of learning. Several Missouri community colleges have declared themselves LC institutions through use of the term in their mission statements and/or strategic goals. Although a metric for demonstrating this commitment, in the form of a rubric created by Dr. Blumberg (2009) existed, it was not in common use at the time this study was conducted. Additionally, a void existed on how the traits of LC instructors differed, if at all, from the traits of more traditional instructors. This quantitative, causal-comparative study …