Digital Commons Network^™

Selling The Spell: The Commodification Of Feminist Witchcraft, Noël Subrina Sucese

Dissertations

"Selling the Spell" argues that Feminist Witches, or Crafters, navigated a fraught relationship with consumer culture, at once resisting commodification, embracing it, and reshaping it in ways that carried spiritual, political, and economic consequences. Drawing on oral histories, archival and digital sources, this dissertation traces the evolution of American Feminist Witchcraft and related Pagan traditions from the 1960s through the early 2000s. It situates the Craft at the intersection of feminism, counterculture, and capitalism, showing how spiritual practices that emphasized female embodiment and communal ritual became entangled with publishing, festivals, consumer goods, and the Internet. The dissertation contributes to four …

Changing Lanes, Crossing Industry Lines From Higher Education To Business Leaders: A Narrative Inquiry To Understanding The Challenges Faced By Residence Life Professionals Who Had To Change Career Paths Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tatianna Geneva Ingram

Dissertations

This narrative inquiry examined how higher education residence life and housing professionals navigated career transitions into business leadership roles following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using human capital theory as a framework, the study explored the transferable skills cultivated in residence life positions and how these skills supported adaptation across industries. Participants’ narratives illuminated motivations for transition, including job market volatility, compensation concerns, and work-life balance, while also highlighting challenges encountered in reskilling and navigating identity shifts outside of higher education. The findings reveal the enduring value of competencies such as leadership, crisis management, diversity and inclusion expertise, and operational strategy in …

Understanding Early Childhood Community Collaborations (Ecccs) In Relation To Systems Change, Rebecca Waterstone Halperin

Dissertations

The early childhood system in the United States is piecemeal and fragmented (Adams et al., 2017; Gomez & Rendon, 2019; Kagan & Kauerz, 2012; State Capacity Building Center, 2022). The result is that families have unequal access to care, education, and other early childhood services for their young children. There have been various approaches to building, impacting, and changing the early childhood system to move toward equity, and many of these approaches call for collaborative efforts. The state of Illinois is engaged in comprehensive early childhood systems work, and one of the vehicles driving this change has been the work …

University Resilience: Examining The Relationship Of Acute, Externally-Driven Crisis Events To University Enrollment And Financial Stability, Amy Kyhos

Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the phenomenon of a significant, acute, externally-driven crisis event on university resilience at four-year, tuition-driven, public and private higher education institutions in the United States of America. The study primarily considered the resilience indicators of university undergraduate enrollment and financial stability through the crisis context of COVID-19. It is theorized that a perceived lack of reliability, flexibility, and pace to evolve that higher education exhibited during and shortly after COVID-19 is a sustained point of vulnerability to a field under increasing review from a range of stakeholders and points of financial and public pressure. The study contemplated …

Participatory Budgeting And Electoral Outcomes In North American Cities, Gabriela Raluca Pavel

Dissertations

The dissatisfaction with democratic processes and the low participation rates we see trending in cities around the world, have inspired practitioners to experiment with new democratic practices. Scholars of participatory democracy have argued that when people participate in one democratic activity, they are more likely to engage in other activities. Therefore, this project clarifies the expectations set for a specific type of process, called Participatory Budgeting (PB). The two questions I address in this project look at the relationship between PB and voter turnout in local elections, and PB and incumbency retention rates for those who implement the process in …

Investigating Host Factors In Coronavirus Assembly And Egress, Surovi Binte Sharmin Mohona

Dissertations

Coronavirus (CoV) structural proteins congregate at the ER-Golgi intermediate compartments (ERGIC) prior to virus budding into the organelle lumen. Subsequent trafficking and fusion of virus-containing, ERGIC-derived vesicles then release nascent viruses from infected cells. Our findings in this dissertation illuminate mechanisms by which CoV structural proteins coalesce at the virus assembly and budding sites. The cytoplasmic tails of all CoV spike (S) glycoproteins contain variants of a consensus KxKxx coatomer-binding motif. Host coatomer complexes facilitate retrograde trafficking of client cargo proteins via recognition of such motifs. Utilizing reverse genetics methodologies, we introduced variations in the S coatomer motif in a …

An Examination Of Lysine Acetylation In The Context Of Bacterial Metabolism, Translation, And Regulation Of Gene Expression, Thomas Patrick Bank

Dissertations

Post-translational modifications are a critical tool bacteria employ to survive the challenges of microbial life. Acetylation continues to gain more recognition as a modification of unique importance because the sources of acetylation – acetyl-phosphate and acetyl-coenzyme-A – are critical metabolites associated with central carbon metabolism, acetate overflow metabolism and acetate assimilation. This suggests that acetylation, indelibly coupled to metabolic flux, integrates metabolic sensing with any cellular process or pathway where an acetylation alters the function of a protein. Intuitively, this makes sense. Of course, a bacterial cell would coordinate any cellular process closely with the amount of energy available to …

Thermal Analysis Of The Fiber Fuse Effect, John Seekins

Dissertations

The fiber fuse effect is a self-sustaining damage propagation mechanism that can occur in the core of optical fibers. Under sufficient levels of applied power, laser light is absorbed as heat in the fiber. This phenomenon is characterized by a brightly glowing spot in the fiber that propagates towards the source of laser light at about 1 𝑚/𝑠. A numerical simulation of the fiber fuse effect is developed that solves the transient heat equation with source terms in cylindrical coordinates utilizing an explicit finite difference discretization. For the first time in a simulation of this type, a radiation transport equation …

From Glass Ceilings To Balustrades: The Barriers And Supports In Gender-Balanced Corporate Boards Through The Lens Of Activity Theory, Erica Joy Thompson Dias

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine, through the lens of activity theory (AT), barriers individuals on public company boards of directors experienced in achieving or maintaining gender balance and supports that mitigated those barriers.

Methodology: Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 16 directors representing 13 gender-balanced public company boards. Data were coded using the AT framework, which conceptualizes human activity through interacting components including subject, object, rules, tools, community, and division of labor. In this study, barriers were tensions that obstructed progress toward gender balance, and supports were methods, resources, or actions that mitigated those …

A Delphi Study: Communication Practices For Expert Elementary Administrators During Day-To-Day Crises On Elementary School Campuses, Anthony Michael Langford

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the communication practices expert elementary school administrators consider the most effective for informing their district office, staff, students, parents, and the community during day-to-day crises. The study also evaluated the effectiveness of these identified practices and determined the best methods for implementing the top three practices in each area. Methodology: This Delphi study focused on three areas of research: (a) the practices expert elementary administrators use to communicate during day-to-day crises, (b) the way expert elementary administrators rate the effectiveness of those practices, and (c) the methods expert elementary administrators …

The Adolescent Development Of Small Business Owners’ Entrepreneurial Mindset, Fern Arredondo

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how small business owners in Southern California interpret experiences before age 20 that influenced the development of the eight domains of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Entrepreneurial Mindset Index (EMI). This study used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore how adult small business owners reflect upon and interpret experiences before age 20 that influenced the development of their entrepreneurial mindset. By examining the influence of pre-adulthood on these owners, the study aimed to deepen the understanding of how early experiences shape entrepreneurial mindsets and contribute to long-term entrepreneurial success. …

Principal Leader Behaviors That Create Meaning For Their Teachers To Reduce Stress And Burnout, Angelina Santana

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify and describe the behaviors that exemplary high school principals use to create meaning for themselves and their teacher followers through relationships, character, vision, wisdom, and inspiration. In addition, the study aimed to determine the new teachers’ perceived degree of importance of the principal leader behaviors related to relationships, character, vision, wisdom, and inspiration to help create meaning.Methodology: The mixed methods convergent study design uses qualitative and quantitative means to collect and analyze data to understand how exemplary high school principals make meaning for their teacher followers. First, qualitative interviews …

Meeting Battery Electric Vehicle Demand With A Focus On Throughput Capacity Across The Transport Nodes In The Upstream Cobalt Supply Chain, Nicholas J. Visconti

Dissertations

This study assesses whether cobalt transport capacity in sub-Saharan Africa is sufficient to support projected battery electric vehicle (BEV) demand under the Paris Accord. Using open-source data from ArcGIS, the Highway Capacity Manual, and the World Bank, the analysis applies a simplified linear programming approach to estimate the maximum throughput of the primary transport corridor connecting the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Port of Durban. The model identifies significant constraints along the Rutenga-to-Beitbridge segment, reducing network capacity to an estimated 42,494 tons of ore per day. When converted to refined cobalt, this capacity falls well short of the …

A Qualitative Multiple Case Study Exploring Shifts In Thinking Of Principals Through Initiatives To Foster Relational Leadership Conducive To Retaining Teachers In High-Minority, High-Poverty Public Schools, Rita Seay

Dissertations

Problem

The public education system is broken, and teacher shortages have reached a crisis, especially in some specialty fields in United States (Carrillo & Salhotra, 2022; Podolsky et al., 2016). Lately, the teacher workforce has been described as a “leaky bucket” (Podolsky et al., 2016, p. 1). Indeed, the problems are complex in poor socioeconomic communities with racial and ethnic groups of students because teachers struggle to make a difference and, in most cases, fail due to insurmountable situations that are beyond their scope of influence (Rondfeldt et al., 2013). Evidence published that students suffer immensely from a broken, segregated …

Called To Lead: Leadership Journeys And Workplace Experiences Of Women Presidents In Seventh-Day Adventist Institutions, Gary Thurber

Dissertations

Problem

Although women constitute more than half of Seventh-day Adventist Church membership, they remain substantially underrepresented in senior leadership roles across North America. This disparity raises important questions about the historical, theological, organizational, and gender-related factors that shape women’s access to institutional leadership within the denomination. A growing body of scholarship has examined the life experiences of women clergy in the church; however, limited research has explored the experiences of women serving in presidential leadership roles within Seventh-day Adventist institutions.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to understand and describe the experiences of women serving in presidential leadership roles …

Recruitment Of Black Minority Community Into Irish Police: Evaluating The Dynamics Of Culture In Decision-Making., Adeyemi Adekanle

Dissertations

Ethnic and racial diversity in police services has been a focus for criminologists and policing scholars for some considerable time. But despite intense efforts, most multicultural societies still struggle to get Black minority communities recruited into their police services. Two widely held interconnected assumptions appear to be at issue. The first is that police occupational culture, which has been shown in some studies to be prejudicial, is, in many cases, blatantly racist. This may well be a catalyst or “push factor” in discouraging members of Black communities in particular from taking up police careers. The second is that members of …

Match Or Mismatch? : The Effects Of Fingerprint Evidence And Expert Testimony On Jury Decisions, Kassie N. Thallas

Dissertations

Fingerprint evidence is widely perceived as objective and reliable, yet is typically presented to jurors through expert testimony rather than directly evaluated. The present study examined how fingerprint match status and expert testimony influence juror decision-making. Participants (N = 225) read a mock criminal trial summary and were randomly assigned to one of five conditions. Four conditions were derived by crossing Expert Condition (fingerprint expert alone vs. conflicting experts) and Match Status (match vs. no match), with an additional control condition without fingerprint evidence. The participants made verdict decisions and rated the credibility, honesty and believability of the expert. The …

Quantitative Metabolomics And ¹³C-Enrichment Analysis Of The Effects Of Fat10 Overexpression On Serum And Hepatocytes, Emily C. Hunt

Dissertations

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, is associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and as the prevalence of these conditions increases, the incidence of MASLD is expected to rise. However, the mechanisms that underlie the development of MASLD are complex and incompletely understood. Previous work from our group has indicated that the human leukocyte antigen-F adjacent transcript (Fat10) is overexpressed in the LEW.1WR1 rat model, which develops features of MASLD. The objective of this work was to quantify metabolites associated with MASLD in response to Fat10 overexpression. To achieve this end, we …

Sharing Patient-Generated Health Data With Electronic Health Record: A Standardised Provenance And Context-Rich Information Model And Clinician Evaluation, Abdullahi Abubakar Kawu

Dissertations

With the advent of Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD) through wearable, mobile, and home monitoring systems, there is immense potential for ongoing monitoring and patient engagement. But integrating PGHD with Electronic Health Record (EHR) is challenged by sub-optimal support for contextual metadata and its relevant elements, lack of semantic interoperability among disparate systems, poor knowledge regarding the factors that impact clinician acceptance, and absence of globally agreed standards for data exchange. This thesis explores how contextually relevant patient-generated health data can be shared with EHRs through a FAIR standardized information model that ensures semantic and syntactic interoperability.

The study addresses six …

A Qualitative Case Study Exploring The Processes And Criteria For Presidential Leadership Selection In Three United States Higher Institutions Of Learning, Gabriel Kofi Boahen Nsiah

Dissertations

Background of the Problem

Today, research on U.S. higher education presidential search processes is limited, and existing literature characterizes these searches as reactive postures that are secretive, closed-door practices that have not adapted to the early signals of external seismic change. According to Quincy Martin (2021), “the world has evolved (p. 99).” Therein lies the problem. Quincy Martin insists, “Higher education has entered a period of upheaval, aided by new technologies, but hampered by political and cultural shifts. These are only amplified by modern, warp-speed information-sharing practices. All of this has exacerbated the consequences of scandals that threaten the stability …

The Role Of Department Chairs In Supporting Student Learning Outcomes, Tommy C. Molden Jr

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine high school department chairs’ perceptions of their role in relation to teacher leadership in achieving student learning outcomes.  The study adds significant implications for department chair training in the context of teacher leadership and the achievement of student learning outcomes.  Further, the study extends the literature on the importance of department chairs’ perceptions of their proficiency for adapting to and institutionalizing the role as teacher leader to increase student achievement.  Additionally, the study identified training strategies and resources that enhance department chair competence in teacher leadership for student achievement of learning …

Teacher Self-Efficacy Perceptions For Technology Integration And Social Media Use As Instructional Tools: Future Implications For Pedagogy In Trinidad And Tobago, Paula Edwards Sealey

Dissertations

Problem

As the educational landscape in Trinidad and Tobago evolve post COVID-19, gaining an understanding of the purpose of teachers in the implementation of national and ministerial ICT policies seem imperative. The exploration of teacher’s personal belief about their ability to effectively infuse technology and social media with their traditional teaching practices, may provide much needed insight about the role that teacher self-efficacy plays in this educational shift (Caner & Aydin, 2021; Phillip & Cain, 2015). Very few studies in the local and regional literature involve teacher self-efficacy as a variable of interest. Moreso, there has been no research to …

Validation Of The Touch/Bonding Sense Of The Five Senses Model Of Intimacy As A Spiritually Based Whole-Person Lifestyle Approach To Intimacy In Dating And Marital Relationships, Karen J. Holland

Dissertations

Problem

Intimacy is in crisis and is being culturally defined and redefined through a number of influencing factors. These include the ongoing development of individualist and narcissistic relationships; the fragmentation of human wholeness; the influence of social media and an increasingly entertainment focused society; the permeation of technology influencing personal choice and lifestyle, including the use of generative AI; and the diminishing influence of Judeo-Christian principles and values as key drivers in the development of life-long marriage relationships. This study seeks to address the need for establishing a foundation for relational intimacy based on the biblical relationship demonstrated by God’s …

The Influence Of Black African American Fathers’ Parenting Styles On Young Adult Children’S Attachment Styles: The Roles Of Gender And Fathers’ Residence, Robert Baptiste Thompson

Dissertations

Parenting

Black African American (BAA) fathers in the United States are frequently mischaracterized as absent or uninvolved, reinforcing deficit-based narratives rooted in historical and systemic racism. Such portrayals obscure the meaningful and sustained roles many BAA fathers play in their families and fail to account for the cultural, structural, and contextual conditions that shape paternal involvement and parenting practices. Although a growing body of research has documented the importance of father involvement for child development, comparatively limited empirical attention has been given to how BAA fathers’ parenting styles influence their children’s attachment—particularly as a function of fathers’ co-residency histories. This …

Exploring Practices Leaders Of Teleworkers Use To Foster Employee Engagement: A Phenomenological Approach, Ronald Eric Snipes

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe the leadership practices used to foster employee engagement among teleworkers in the Veterans Health Administration’s Workforce Management and Consulting division and to examine why leaders believe those practices are important to sustaining employee engagement. The study was guided by the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, which proposes that employee engagement is strengthened when job resources buffer job demands and support motivational processes. As telework continues to expand across organizations, understanding how leadership practices influence engagement in remote environments has become increasingly important.

Methodology: A qualitative phenomenological research design was …

Beyond Words: A Systematic Multimodal Framework For Text, Images, And Extreme Helpfulness In Online Reviews, Alvaro J. Aguado Marin

Dissertations

Online product reviews have become increasingly multimodal, combining text with media-rich elements such as images. However, academic research has largely examined textual features in isolation, overlooking how visual content and its interaction with text shape perceived helpfulness. This dissertation addresses that gap by developing and empirically validating a comprehensive framework capturing how textual, visual, and contextual features collectively influence review evaluation. Grounded in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and extended through the Text-Image Elaboration Likelihood Model (TI-ELM), the framework advances understanding of how consumers process content from both user- and business-generated sources. It also lays the foundation for examining emerging …

Computational Design Of Nanoporous Materials For The Adsorption Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, Daniel D. Mottern

Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of chemicals that have seen wide usage due to their fluorinated carbon backbone. The presence of strong C-F bonds in the backbone lends PFAS molecules high thermal and chemical stability, as well as strong hydrophobicity and lipophobicity. This combination of properties has led to heavy use of PFAS as surfactants, non-stick coatings, and aqueous foam forming films and flame retardants. However, these properties bring their own consequences. The high chemical and thermal stability of PFAS renders them persistent, with the C-F bonds resisting naturally occurring forms of degradation. Existing forms of …

Student Voices On Trauma And Resilience: A Critical Phenomenological Study Of Gun Violence And College Student Experiences, Lucia Helena Garcia

Dissertations

This study posits that gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis and that colleges and universities must actively collaborate to develop and implement solutions to address and prevent this crisis, which affects communities and students. Gun violence can and does lead to disruptions in educational access, travel and safety, as well as have longstanding impacts on mental health. While extensive research exists that is focused on the impact of community and gun violence exposure on K-12 students, the impact of community violence and gun violence exposure on emerging adults in university settings is limited and remains …

Teaching And Learning With Feeling: A Qualitative Case Study Of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences With Socio-Emotional Learning, Anna Melinda Press

Dissertations

Research on socio-emotional learning (SEL) has demonstrated its many benefits for students, justifying its prevalence in pre-kindergarten to grade 12 schools across the U.S. Despite evidence of the centrality of a teacher’s role in effective SEL implementation, less research has been conducted on teacher training in SEL – particularly for teacher candidates (TCs). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine TCs’ experiences with SEL, and the impact of those experiences on their development as providers of SEL. Purposive sampling was used to recruit TCs in either the second or third year of one specific undergraduate, field-based teacher …

Using Light To Dissect Mechanisms Of Septin Recruitment, Shreya Chandrasekar

Dissertations

Cells interpret biochemical and mechanical signals through dynamic regulation of the cytoskeleton and adhesion complexes, enabling key processes such as shape adaptation, force generation and migration. As these signals vary in both time and space, they can be challenging to resolve using traditional bulk assays. To overcome this limitation, we employ light-based optogenetic tools to reversibly modulate biochemical signals and mechanical equilibrium within cells. Specifically, we use the iLID optogenetic approach to locally activate signaling and manipulate contractility within the cytoskeleton for the purpose of investigating the role of RhoA and contractility on septin organization and adhesion protein localization. We …