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The Personal Is Political: Promoting Empathy Through The Exchange Of Personal Narratives About Gender Towards Social Change, Emily Tobey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper explores the potential of personal narrative in promoting empathy-based social change. It begins with the premise that humans are storytelling animals; we use narrative to make sense of the self and the world around us. Moreover, when stories are shared, a kinship is created between storyteller and listener based on the empathic response between the two. After reviewing the literature on both the value of narrative inquiry in psychological research and the science regarding the effect of stories on the brain, I propose a story exchange methodology that I believe could be used to increase empathic understanding around …

Deconstructing Rape Culture Through An Exploration Of Consent, Desire, And Pleasure, Yael Rosenstock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Desire and pleasure based education combats the notion of passive consent by prioritizing positive experiences for all members involved in sexual activities. A focus on desire requires that we learn and listen to our partner’s needs and respect their boundaries. It questions a patriarchal script of sex in which male pleasure, specifically when penetrating a partner, is the critical part of the sexual act. Sex motivated by mutual desire and pleasure forces us to step back and learn, not just about our partners but ourselves, so that we may communicate our wants and needs effectively.

To understand how to navigate …

Knowing Others, Or Not: Performing, Caring, Foreboding, And Acknowledging In Nineteenth-Century British Fiction, Meechal Hoffman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Knowing Others, Or Not makes two overarching claims about the nineteenth-century novel’s depictions of relations. First, they are overwhelmingly concerned with epistemological questions about knowing others, and second, more often than not, the problem of other minds is portrayed as productive of both pleasure and valuable negative affects. While much scholarship on the relational nineteenth century focuses on either sympathy or social responsibility within the framework of liberal individualism, I show instead that the authors in this study—Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Wilkie Collins, and George Eliot—repeatedly register doubt about the usefulness or possibility of authenticity, and posit the pleasure that …

Recognizing Freedom: Manumission In The Roman Republic, Tristan Husby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roman manumission was at the center of three different groups: the Roman state, Roman slave-owners, and freeborn Romans who did not own slaves. I draw upon G.F.W. Hegel, Orlando Patterson, Judith Butler, and Pierre Bourdieu to describe Roman manumission as a ritualized practice that transforms a slave’s life from unlivable to livable. The term “unlivable” comes from the philosopher Judith Butler, who developed it in conversation with Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and the term “social death,” which sociologist Orlando Patterson used to describe slavery. Hegel and Patterson’s thoughts on the movement and experience of freedom are useful for theorizing Roman slavery …

The Untold Story Of Africa: What Advertising From Africa Reveals To The Rest Of The World About The Continent, Rachael F. Afolabi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Images of skyscrapers, well-built roads, and deluxe model cars are often absent in the mindset of Western audiences when it comes to Africa. This is because the popular image of Africa in the western world is that of a backward and impoverished continent. Western media is largely responsible for this image. On the other hand, African advertising and advertising produced in Africa reveal a different image of the continent. This image focuses on the technological changes, social improvement, and modernization that are taking place in many African countries. This paper examines television and print advertising produced in different African countries …

Cyber Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Measurement, Prediction, And Means For Reduction, Brittany K. Mercado

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) have received intense attention by both researchers and practitioners over the past few decades, this body of literature has yet to address the many novel avenues for employee counterproductivity resulting from modern technologies. For example, with the current ubiquity of electronic devices and Internet access, employees can conveniently engage in personal tasks while they should be working or even damage organizational data with unprecedented ease. Beyond reputational concerns and productivity losses, firms’ reliance on electronic storage of critical information also produces novel security risks. Measures of CWB and, therefore, investigations into the construct do not …

"Marie Manje La Pom Nan." Examining The Cognitive Process Of Restructuring And Advantage Selection In The Definite Article System In Haitian Creole Among U.S. Born Heritage Speakers Of Haitian Creole, Marie-Michelle Monéreau-Merry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The distributional patterns of heritage speakers’ reanalyzed first language are often grammatically divergent from native speakers. Irrespective of the heritage language, there is converging evidence that the cognitive process of reanalysis of heritage languages is often evident in less salient properties of the language, such as inflectional morphology (Polinsky & Kagan, 2007). Therefore, Haitian Creole (HC) is a candidate for restructuring. In this investigation we compared the morphophonological patterns of the definite article system at the production and perception level between two groups of early learners of Haitian Creole (i.e. native speakers vs. United States (US) born heritage speakers).

The …

Social Work Students' Endorsement Of Recovery-Oriented Principles And Practices When Working With Consumers Diagnosed With Severe Mental Illness, Jennifer M. Nikou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I examined the extent of endorsement of recovery-oriented principles and practices by conducting both a pilot and final study of 143 total social work students in the Masters of Social Work program in an urban school in the Northeast. I explored five variables highlighted in the literature as most frequently influencing extent of endorsement of recovery-oriented principles and practices when working with consumers diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI). These included knowledge of severe mental illness (mental health literacy), social contact (social distance), concerns regarding safety (dangerousness), knowing someone diagnosed with mental illness (familiarity), and having more …

Making The Gigantic Suburban Residential Complex In Beijing: Political Economy Processes And Everyday Life In The 2010s, Pengfei Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Suburbanization is an ongoing development process in China. Hundreds of thousands of construction projects are being undertaken in outskirts of most Chinese cities, despite the increasing domestic and international concerns over China’s housing oversupply (Xu, 2010; Gough, 2015; Li, 2015). The suburbanization of China, however, is fundamentally different from the suburbanization of most Western countries, especially the United States, whose massive post-war suburbanization took place as a continuation of its pre-war industrialization and urbanization movements. In the Chinese context, suburbanization is the process of urbanization as well—urbanization and suburbanization have been promoted simultaneously since the 1990s. It is …

Social Order And The Culture Of Corruption In India, Arunodhaya Jebamani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Corruption is rampant in India and is prevalent in every sector of the Indian society. The purpose of this paper is to discuss selected cases to understand the widespread corruption that occurs in various sectors of the society such as academia, business, banking, law enforcement and other everyday services. This paper will address how the social order contributes to these corrupt practices, and tries to shed some light on how corrupt practices have been socially accepted and have become an unavoidable norm in many cases. The paper also studies the structures that exist and aide in augmenting corruption in India …

Effect Of Implementation Of Simulation On Critical Thinking Skills In Undergraduate Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Joanne M. Knoesel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Human patient simulation (HPS) is a time and cost intensive teaching modality that is used widely in nursing education, and has been implemented with little evidence to support its efficacy (Jeffries & Rizzolo, 2006). Researchers note the lack of reliable tools to measure learning using this teaching modality, and consequentially there is a paucity of research linking critical thinking and simulation (Jeffries, 2007; Kneebone, 2003; Nehring, 2008). Nursing clinical decision making affects patient outcomes. Critical thinking is a key factor in clinical decision making. A review of the relevant literature is equivocal on the use of simulation in undergraduate nursing …

The Socioemotional Impact Of Disparate Student Discipline: An Examination Of Racial Bias And Out-Of-School Suspensions, Amelia Barbadoro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Most schools find it challenging to effectively manage disruptive student conduct such as violent outbursts, antisocial behavior, bullying, talking back, and truancy. One management tool utilized by teachers and administrators attempting to quell unruly behavior is exclusion through the use of suspension. Out-of-school suspension rates within the United States have been rising since the 1970’s, with a dramatic increase evident after 2002, with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. The higher use of out-of-school suspensions reflects the growth of zero tolerance policies which mandate predetermined, typically harsh consequences or punishments (such as suspension and expulsion) for a …

Affordable And Accessible Hearing Healthcare Interventions In The United States: A Literature Review And Prospective Analysis, Garrett Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Age-related hearing loss is a significant public health concern with serious and far-reaching consequences including: social isolation, depression, faster cognitive decline, and increased risk of falls. Hearing loss is a widespread condition, it is in fact a leading cause of disability among older people. Hearing aids, the primary intervention for adults with hearing loss, are costly and inaccessible to many patients who need them. Among other reasons, these factors have led to a low uptake rate among the adult population; only one in seven adults who could benefit from wearing hearing aids utilizes them. Given the status quo of high …

The Economics Of American Higher Education, Robin Freedman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Economics of American Higher Education

by

Robin Freedman

Advisor: Anthony G. Picciano

American higher education is facing a perfect storm of converging issues and challenges which are threatening the demand for its product and the value proposition it offers. Many of these challenges, such as changing delivery models, rising student debt, lower government funding, growing economic inequality and job readiness concerns are all potential obstacles to a college degree, which continues to command a wage premium in the job market. Using a literature review methodology to examine the body of material that is available on this topic, a synthesis …

Expectations And Aspirations Of Motherhood For Young Women In Foster Care, Joanna Kibel-Gagne

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Young women in foster care are more than twice as likely to become teen mothers than their non-foster care peers. However, research regarding teen motherhood for this population is limited. Existing studies focus on risk factors and poor outcomes, which are more prevalent for foster care youth than those in the general population. Some studies have examined the experience of motherhood from the perspective of the youths revealing a complex experience that is not wholly negative. This dissertation builds on this body of knowledge by examining these young women’s expectations and realities of burgeoning motherhood from the point of pregnancy. …

History And Politics In The Thought Of Karl Jaspers, Nathan Wallace

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A relatively overlooked but important work, The Origin and Goal of History, by Karl Jaspers is examined with regard the intellectual history of its development and influence, and its structure and prospects for contemporary and future relevance for political theory. Emphasis is placed on the argument that the central aspect of the work has been neglected in recent, important literature: its connection of a universal historical narrative with a theory of contemporary politics.

Sewing Garments, Sowing Lives: Two Generations Of Migrant Workers' Back And Forth To The Chinese Coast, Alice Tzou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Migrant workers in China have been at the center of popular news media and scholarly attention for three decades, since they started to migrate to work in factories on the coast in the post-1978 Economic Reform era. As western and central China has developed and work opportunities have arisen in these migrant-sending regions, internal migrants have started to return home. Push and pull factors of internal migration have been reversed. Poverty and lack of job opportunities used to be the push factors; they are now replaced by new push factors—long hours of work and long-distance travel to and from the …

Encountering Place, Pedagogy, And Culture: Study Abroad And Experiential Learning In Morocco And Indonesia, Jennifer M. Pipitone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Efforts to globalize higher education have resulted in study abroad climbing to an all-time high in the United States. Amidst this growth, emergent bodies of literature have uncovered problematic trends in study abroad that reproduce hierarchies of power and colonialism, perpetuate views of an exotic cultural “other,” and privilege tourism over education. In my dissertation, I respond to these problems by exploring ways of teaching and learning in study abroad that embrace the pedagogical power of place to foster awareness of the self in relation to other, cultivate relationality, and deconstruct the exotic. Rather than focusing on the individual as …

The Willfulness Of A Missing Frame: Ahmed Zaki And The Politics Of Visual Resistance, Miriam M. Gabriel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ahmed Zaki (1949-2005) is one of Egyptian cinema’s most prominent leading actors, with work spanning three decades of critical films that informed a generation’s visual register of masculinity. However, the beginnings of his career were marked by public skepticism around his place as a leading actor due to him being “too dark” and “too poor”; as his career continued to flourish, those very markings of racing and classing Zaki because a foundation for increasingly stamping his public image with the “authenticity” of an Egyptian citizen. At a particularly neoliberal moment in the Egyptian economy, that of the early 80s, new …

Latino/A Adolescents And Young Adults Coping With Parental Cancer Within A Cultural Context, Amanda Mia Marin-Chollom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parental cancer has a strong influence on the psychological well-being of children at all ages. Children and adolescents whose parents have more distress and advanced disease tend to have lower rates of healthy psychological adjustment. Children from the U.S. Latino/a population may face additional challenges, such as racism and acculturative stress that compound the stress of having a parent with cancer. At the same time, facets of the Latino/a culture may play a crucial role in how Latino/a adolescents adapt to parental cancer, specifically the Latino/a cultural values of familismo (familism), espíritu (spirit), and respeto (respect).

This cross-sectional study examined …

Is There A Secular Tradition? On Treason, Government, And Truth, Ali M. Uğurlu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Because the secular is so much part of our modern life, it is not easy to grasp it directly,” writes Talal Asad, in the introduction to his Formations of the Secular. This thesis attempts to obliquely engage with secular power through a concept that has been at the center of much contention in our political present: treason. Taking the failed coup of July 16and the ensuing purge against the Gülen movement in Turkey as its points of departure, it seeks to broach some of the constitutive and operative logics of the modern nation-state. Inquiring into the State’s perennial presupposition …

Automatically Guilty: Associations Between Evidence And Guilt, William E. Crozier Iv

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Both real-life cases and laboratory research demonstrate that confession evidence is very convincing—even when it should not be. Could this be due to an automatic association between a confession and guilt? We tested this possibility using a Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) list, which measures automatic associations by presenting participants with a list of words that are thematically related but, importantly, lack the word describing the theme (“critical lure”). When the association between the list words and the theme is sufficiently strong, participants incorrectly report seeing the critical lure. We hypothesized that participants would show more false recall for seeing “guilty” on a …

For Narrativity: How Creating Narratives Structures Experience And Self, Natallia Stelmak Schabner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation responds to the challenge to narrativity posed by Galen Strawson in “Against Narrativity,” where he claims that not everyone is Narrative by nature and that there is no reason to be. I make my claim “For Narrativity” as a mental process of form finding and coherence seeking over time that is an inherent mental activity and essential for experience of one’s Self. I make my case through examinations of our experience of time, our use of language, how we plan, and our sense of Self. In the first chapter, I show that considering Narrativity as viewing life as …

Nervous Salomes: New York Salomania And The Neurological Condition Of Modernité, Margaret K. Araneo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In January 1907, New York City had its first major encounter with the figure of Salome. Appearing on three large stages in the city simultaneously, the archetype of the dancing girl quickly became an object of controversy. Her appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House in its staging of Strauss’s Salome resulted in public debate and the ultimate closure of the performance by the Met’s Board of Directors. The event brought attention to the Salome archetype’s already contested character. Salome arrived in the United States from Europe where she had been the subject of a quarter century of debates about how …

The Role Of Language In The Development Of Temporal Cognition In 6- To 10-Year-Old Children, Danielle Denigris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to represent and make sense of time requires the mental representations of the ordering of events and temporal relations, abstract time concepts, natural biological rhythms, the self and other through time, and causal relationships. This representational ability undergoes significant refinement in middle childhood concurrent with advances in children’s language and nonverbal skills. This study explored the representational development of temporal cognition, diachronic thinking, and behavioral prediction in relation to a battery of language and nonverbal abilities with the aims of confirming age-related improvements, exploring whether disparate measures are indices of an underlying ability, and examining the role of …

Exploring The Relationship Between Sequence Learning, Motor Coordination, And Language Development, Rita Obeid

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dual-route approaches to language acquisition posit separable mechanisms for acquisition of vocabulary and grammar (e.g., Pinker, 1998). Working within the dualistic framework, Ullman and Pierpont (2005) proposed the procedural deficit hypothesis, which proposes that impairments in rule-based aspects of language (e.g. grammar, phonology) observed in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) may be linked to neural deficits that govern procedural memory and are critical for the procedural/sequence learning of both, cognitive and motor skills. In support of this hypothesis, recent meta-analyses indicate significant deficits in sequence learning in children with SLI relative to controls (Lum et al., 2014). Further research …

Spectral Bodies: Women's Resistance Across Time In North America, Whitney C. Evanson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project contrasts the lived experiences of feminists within the EZLN in Mexico with the historical persecution of community outsiders during the Salem witch trials. I want to explore the differences between a radical political and social movement (the EZLN), and the radical shift in history in which women were accused of witchcraft based on hysteria and rumors. There are parallels between the witch trials and the causes of the Zapatista movement in the ways that women's bodies were treated--their political usefulness to create fear and obedience from citizens by murdering them for their defiance, burying them in shallow graves. …

Denial: A Sociological Theory, Christina Nadler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation develops a theory of sociological denial through an investigation of contested social problems. I begin by reviewing the literature on denial, both sociological and psychological, in order to situate the project and exemplify the relevance and need for a sociological theory of denial. Then, through examining three scales of the social, I account for multiple layers of the social structure and denial’s place in each. These scales are the sites at which denial happens: geographic, cognitive, and unconscious. I explore five contested social problems through varied paradigms that allow me to analyze each scale of the structural. I …

Culture And Class In Marginalized Minority Educational Attainment, Alan R. Takeall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using a national sample of Black and Latino high school students, I ask: What is the relative impact of demographic factors, aspirations, adherence to an ideology of achievement, and sociocultural capital on future educational attainment? Additionally, how do poor students compare to their non-poor counterparts on these measures? Employing the Educational Longitudinal Study (2002 & 2012) and multivariate statistical techniques, this dissertation examines the role of cultural and other factors on the educational attainment of Black and Latino students and then explores the role of poverty on those outcomes.

In recent years educational reform efforts have placed considerable emphasis on …

Narrating School, Narrative Self: Identity, Agency And The Hidden Curriculum Of (Hetero)Normativity, Mikela Bjork

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes sober women’s narratives of their schooling experiences to reflect on how educators and policy makers can improve the schooling experiences for othered students.. Inspired by the self-reflective and agentic pedagogy found within the figured world of Alcoholics Anonymous, I focused on the narratives of women in Alcoholics Anonymous, ages 18-85, as they narrated their schooling stories from pre-Kindergarten up to the last grade they completed. What the data of this qualitative research project reveals is that, despite the detrimental culture of denial at home and school, the participants, through the radical act of self-reflexivity and personal narrative, …