Digital Commons Network^™

Emancipatory And Retributive Labor: Conflicting Representations Of Enslaved Labor In Us And Caribbean Literature, 1830–1855, Michael Druffel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Emancipatory and Retributive Labor follows the development of a concept that I call emancipatory labor as it appeared in the US and Caribbean during the period 1830 to 1855. Emancipatory labor is a subversive tactic in which enslaved people in the United States and Caribbean redefined a portion of their labor in capitalist terms. Re-theorizing a portion of enslaved labor stakes a claim to agency and humanity according to Western, humanistic logic. Examples of the types of labor being redefined include selling commodities, hiring time, and working “extras” for wages. I use enslaved person Lunsford Lane’s 1842 narrative as a …

Understanding The Relationship Between Working Memory And Long-Term Memory, Kelly Cotton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How lasting memories are created is a question that has driven much research into human cognition. An area of renewed research interest concerns the relationship between working memory and long-term memory. Recent research has investigated how the processing that occurs while information is held in working memory influences successful long-term memory creation. Both working memory consolidation and maintenance have been identified as critical in long-term retention, but the mechanisms underlying the working memory/long-term memory relationship remain unclear. The present dissertation examined different working memory mechanisms and their impact on long-term memory in a broader context by addressing two questions: 1) …

The Queer Life Of Lorena Hickok, Samantha D. Leyerle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life of Lorena Hickok, a remarkable woman whose story has been glossed over throughout history. Hickok was an accomplished journalist and writer, and her life offers a fascinating glimpse into being queer in the early twentieth century. While much has been written about Hickok’s relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, this thesis aims to go beyond their connection to examine Hickok’s entire life and experiences in greater detail. Through analyzing her work as a writer, as well as her personal correspondence and unpublished autobiography, this thesis illuminates the quiet details of defining moments in history, including the Great …

An Offer You Cannot Refuse: Understanding The Elusive Construct Of "Voluntary" Plea Decisions, Melanie B. Fessinger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Defendants often plead guilty in exchange for reduced punishments. Some argue that these reduced punishments are necessary for the functioning of the criminal justice system, whereas others argue that they are inherently coercive because they place a burden on the exercise of constitutional rights. This potential coercion is of concern because the constitution requires valid guilty pleas to be made by defendants voluntarily. However, “voluntary” is an elusive construct of which courts, scholars, and laypeople have differing definitions. Although limited research has focused specifically on perceptions of voluntary pleas, decades of research have shown that individuals generally perceive decisions more …

Factors Associated With The Life Satisfaction Of Gay And Bisexual Men And Their Variation By Race, Robert G. Considine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although the literature is replete with evidence showing that gay and bisexual men experience higher rates of negative outcomes than their heterosexual counterparts, the literature exploring the well-being of this population is limited. Life satisfaction is a key aspect of well-being. There has been little research on the factors influencing life satisfaction for gay and bisexual men. Additionally, how these factors may vary by race for this population remains understudied. This gap in our knowledge impedes the ability of social workers to support gay and bisexual men in increasing life satisfaction. In addition, knowledge of how these factors vary by …

Witnessing Climate Change In The United States Virgin Islands: Emotional Responses And Calls For Action, Thomas Bane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity in the 21^st century. This study investigated people’s observations of climate change in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). A qualitative study was used with a Grounded Theory approach to better understand how people witnessed climate change events, what people’s emotional responses were, and what calls for action they had to respond to climate change in the USVI. The study had two parallel arms: five focus groups (n=17) with residents of the USVI and key informant interviews with community leaders (n=10). Participants witnessed a wide …

Does Political Advertising Persuade? A Quantitative Assessment Of The Effects Of Campaign Contact In The Context Of Race, Ethnicity, And Immigrant Origin In New York City Council Primary Elections From 2001 Through 2017, Laura M. Tamman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Through a quantitative analysis of the relationship between New York city council campaigns’ spending and election results between 2001 and 2017, controlling for key factors such as incumbency, I find substantial and statistically significant positive effects for radio advertising on election outcomes. I find small but significant effects for mail, and smaller sized effects for canvassing. My findings underscore the need for further study of the role of ethnic and community media outlets, such as radio, in shaping voter behavior. Moreover, I argue that the fixation of the current persuasion literature on television ads in presidential general elections misses critical …

Public Privacy And Info-Liberal Authoritarianism, Christopher Hongach

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neoliberalism’s promise of economic prosperity has proven itself futile, as growing disparities in inequality have resulted in both developing and developed countries. As neoliberalism has become a major influence in international relations and the global economy, its adaptive capacity has led to the emergence of new forms and functions of capital, especially through commodification and abstract labor. With the rise of information capitalism, neoliberalism has incorporated information of all sorts into the nexus of capitalism. Most especially through the advancement of the Internet and social media platforms, information capitalism reaches its highest form through developing surveillance technology and the brokerage …

Caring For Children With Mental Health Concerns: The Experience Of Being A School Nurse, Jeannine Kaskoun

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mental health issues have for years been on the rise among our nation’s schoolchildren, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only served to aggravate what can now be called a crisis. Researchers agree that timely assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health concerns in children are critical to maintaining their growth and development and could potentially aid in decreasing serious mental health events as they move into adulthood. While in an ideal world, each child would have a family medical provider, the fact is that for many children, the school nurse is the child’s sole provider of health care. Many times, …

Wild Women Of Anatolia: The Critical Construct Validity Of The Liberation Of Women In Turkey, Sedef Ozoguz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Feminist, sexuality and social psychology researchers studying women’s liberation in Turkey have solely focused on freedoms denied, outlining freedoms from gendered political, institutional and intimate constraints such as domestic violence, without much attention to freedoms desired, such as freedom to dream. Following Fromm’s (1941) conceptualization of freedom as freedom from restrictions placed on one and freedom to do what one wants to do authentically, my work engages in the critical construct validity (Fine & Torre, 2019) of the liberation of Turkish women, troubling, questioning and critiquing the assumptions typically made about the construct and offering an alternative way of studying …

Coloniality, Western Science, And Critical Ethnic Studies In Stem Education, Latoya M. Strong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I use a critical transdisciplinary approach to examine how the coloniality of Western Science impacts science education teaching, learning, and research. Weaving together Black geographies, settler colonialism, and decolonial theory, I illustrate how the historical, symbiotic relationship between colonization and Western Science created a culture that continues to shape modern science practices and science education. The coloniality of Western Science was codified into science education, resulting in three approaches to teaching, learning and research—the assimilationist model, the capitalist model, and the imperialist model. Moving from theory to research, I collaborated with STEM educators over six weeks to …

A Novel Measure Of Narrative Self-Functioning And Its Role In The Transformative Potential Of Psychedelic Experience Across Clinical And Non-Clinical Participants, Nicole M. Amada

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The eudaimonic field of well-being is founded on the idea that self-knowledge and the realization of one’s potential is at the heart of what it means to strive for well-being. While the “self” is at the core of this perspective, theories derived from this field have yet to incorporate neurocognitive conceptualizations of the self, and account for the collection of self-referential cognitions that influence striving for well-being. Such a theory and measure could fill this theoretical gap and be applied in person centered interventions to capture change in these processes over time. One such intervention utilizes psychedelic experience as a …

“Tell Them About The Dream Martin!”: The Retelling, Reframing, And Re-Examination Of The Civil Rights Movement Through A Black Feminist And Postmodern Lens, Damele Elliott-Hubbard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research seeks to explore the intersectionality of race, gender, and class that existed during the Civil Rights Movement, and the tensions that were a result of that intersectionality. This is accomplished through a re-examination of The Movement through a post-modern and Black feminist lens. Post-modern theorist Jean Francois Lyotard proposes the necessity of throwing off the grand narratives or metanarratives of well-known historical events, with the intention of creating micronarratives that depend heavily on the experiences of those who lived during those times. The aim of this research is to conduct a gendered study of the CRM, while investigating …

Agreement In Languages That Do Not Agree: The Processing Of Accented Speech In Chinese-English Bilinguals, Stanley Chen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Speech produced with an unfamiliar accent is quite commonly encountered, especially in higher education settings, in which a large number of international students are found. As a result, it is inevitable for students and teachers alike to be exposed to different varieties of English across multiple settings. The current study examines the effects of such accents on grammatical processing in bilinguals.

English requires grammatical agreement between the subject and the verb (e.g., the 3rd person singular “s” on the verb in The dog jumps); that is, subject-verb (S-V) agreement is obligatory. S-V agreement must hold even in …

Essays On Entrepreneurship, Yoshiko Oka

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the determinants of successful entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial entry. It consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1 estimates the effect of regional concentrations of related industrial firms and business owners' cognitive and non-cognitive traits on their business survival. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the County Business Patterns, I find that incorporated businesses that operate in a location where similar businesses are clustered together have a significantly higher chance of survival. However, the effect of location appears to be insignificant for unincorporated businesses. On the other hand, the results show that businesses that are …

Investigating Key Risk Factors Across Violent And Non-Violent Extremists In The United States, Leevia Dillon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Problem Statement: This study investigated risk factors commonly highlighted by prior studies and risk assessment tools (e.g., Violent Extremism Risk Assessment Version 2 (VERA-2) and Extremism Risk Guidance 22+ (ERG22+)). It compared the risk factors across and within two groups – violent extremists (i.e., jihadists and far-right extremists) and non-violent extremists (i.e., jihadists and far-right financial/material support crime extremists) in the U.S. Jihadists and far-rightists are the two greatest security threats facing the U.S., and the findings can aid counterterrorism efforts on assessment development, identifying effective risk factors across varying groups, and assessing violence risk. Research Questions/Objectives: This study aimed …

Defining Twice Exceptional Learners: A Study Of Self-Concept, Alyssa D. Landau

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 2014, the first operational definition of twice exceptional (2e) learners was published in Gifted Child Quarterly to provide a clear and identifiable profile of the population (Reis, Baum, & Burke, 2014). The article defines 2e learners as, “students who demonstrate the potential for high achievement or creative productivity in one or more domains such as math, science, technology, the social arts, the visual, spatial, or performing arts or other areas of human productivity AND who manifest one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria” (Reis et al., 2014, p. 222-223). Publishing an operational definition of …

Neo-Nazi Postmodern: Right-Wing Terror Tactics, The Intellectual Neue Rechte, And The Destabilization Of Memory In Germany Since 1989, Esther E. Adaire

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that from 1989 onwards an increasingly terroristic neo-Nazi underground in Germany became gradually entangled with the reactionary Neue Rechte, whose crusade against the German culture of remembrance is also a crusade against European integration, increased migration, and the conceits of liberal democracy. This entanglement produced an ideologically coherent extreme-right political movement with a heavily armed and tactical paramilitary faction that has, contrary to what various governments of the Federal Republic have wanted to believe, been developing in Germany since the early 1990s. Moreover, tactics of information warfare initiated by so-called “postmodern” terrorists of the 1990s would, by …

David Versus Goliath: The Power Of Weakness In Asymmetric Warfare—Lessons From History, Nicholas K. Petaludis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under what conditions do violent nonstate actors (VNA) succeed against states? Why does David sometimes beat Goliath? Since at least the time of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian Wars, the realist narrative in international relations measures power primarily in relative, coercive, and deterrent terms. Strong states should accordingly face fewer constraints and enjoy more options while pursuing their national interests. Unconventional warfare, and its subsets of terrorism and insurgency, should—given these circumstances, end in VNA failure. Sometimes, however, VNAs find success. By comparing the literature on historical and current case studies, I propose that a set of preconditions and two mechanisms …

Social Identity, Scientific Practice, And The Production Of Social Knowledge: An Ethnographic Investigation Of American Social Psychology Laboratories, Donald V. Brown Jr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Social identity has the ability to permeate a multitude of domains in everyday life. Therefore, the science of social psychology—influential due to its impact in education, social and public policy, and the law—rightfully foregrounds the presence of social identity categories in the theorizing and empirical work of the discipline. Many researchers consider social identities such as race and gender to be socially constructed categories. This allows researchers to understand these identities in light of their history, complexity, and relationships to each other. However, the practical application and use of social identities as socially constructed “objects of study” is uncommon in …

How The U.S. Mainstream Media Perpetuates Cis White Masculine Hegemony, Yelena Dzhanova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The news is important because it helps individuals understand their place in the world and make the best decisions for themselves. Throughout its strong history and presence in the United States, the journalism industry has prided itself on delivering fact-based news using an objective framework, meaning that there is an expectation that journalists communicate the news impartially and without bias. Through an examination of gendered language and visual representations published in and by recent mainstream U.S. digital and print media outlets, this paper explains how the media plays a major role in the perpetuation of cis white masculinity. This paper …

Literature, Development, And The Reaches Of Literacy, 1979 To The Present, Stephen Tremaine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I examine the twentieth century’s vast history of large-scale literacy campaigns and the imprints and legacies of those campaigns in literary texts from the global South. Literary texts by Mahasweta Devi, Nuruddin Farah, J. M. Coetzee, M. G. Vassanji, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and others provide compelling examples of narratives that foreground literacy - particularly its acquisition, loss, or redistribution in the lives, communities, and emerging independent nations in which these narratives take place. The second half of the twentieth century represents a global effort at the realignment of reading, writing, and power. In this moment, the authors at …

Balancing Inference And Prediction In Institutional Research: A Practical Comparison Of Logistic Regression With Machine Learning Techniques In Modeling Student Persistence, Alison Weingarten

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In higher education research, causal inference has traditionally been the focus over predictive power, with statistical models designed to understand and explain the relationships between variables. In the field of institutional research in particular, there is a growing need to not only understand these causal relationships, but also predict what is likely to occur in the future (Which students are most likely to succeed at our college, and who should we admit? Which students are we most likely to lose to attrition, and how can we engage them? Which students are most likely to struggle academically, and what interventions can …

Examining Factors Related To Tobacco Treatment Engagement Among Tobacco Dependent Black/African American; Hispanic/Latino Cancer Patients: An Analysis Of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’S Tobacco Treatment Program, Gleneara E. Bates-Pappas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Among patients diagnosed with cancer, persistent tobacco use is associated with adverse clinical outcomes such as worse treatment side effects, decreased effectiveness of cancer treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery), all increasing risk of recurrence, second primary cancers, and poor survival. Despite the clinical importance of tobacco cessation in the context of high quality cancer care, engaging Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino cancer patients in tobacco treatment programs can be challenging. Prior studies with the general adult population demonstrate that Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino smokers are referred to and accept tobacco cessation treatment at lower rates compared to non-Hispanic White smokers. This …

Type Of Glossing Affects Cognitive Load And Retrieval Of Meaning During L2 Reading, Camilo Andrés Bonilla Carvajal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The use of translation in language teaching has been a source of controversial debate, nevertheless, glossing—and, specifically, interlinear glossing—remains an understudied type of materials, despite having been used by learners and teachers of foreign languages since at least 1000 C.E. (Bata, Gwara & Porter, 1997). In the absence of a comprehensive literature review tracing the history of interlinear glossing, as well as the absence of enough empirical studies addressing the effect of glossing on cognitive effort in language learning, the present work aims at exploring the role of first language glossing in facilitating reading by describing the results of an …

Deconstructing Biopolitical And Performative Modes Of Gender In Spanish Science Fiction, Emma Navarro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the distinctly Spanish works of science fiction created by Pedro Almodóvar and Elia Barceló through biopolitical and feminist frameworks. Utilizing the theories of feminist philosopher Judith Butler and sociologist Jemima Repo, we uncover associations between the fictional and theoretical that have seldom been studied in conjunction. The paper aims to demonstrate Almodóvar and Barceló’s unique narratives free from the confines of an unwavering gender stratum while simultaneously revealing the deteriorative effects of gender as a control apparatus. Deeply influenced by the post-Franco Madrid Movida movement, these creators exemplify the feminist ideals emerging from that progressive time, rejecting …

The Numbers Don’T Lie: A Quantitative Examination Of Trauma Outcomes Among Black Homeless Women, Lisa Marie Persad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based on the extensive levels of trauma exposure and the need to provide effective mental health treatment for homeless women and their families, this dissertation was conducted to better understand trauma-related psychological distress and associated mental health outcomes among Black homeless women. More specifically, this study’s researcher examined a national sample of homeless women using three theoretical frameworks (Social Determinants of Health, Critical Race Theory, and Intersectionality), conducting a secondary analysis of the Mental Health Client Level-2018 dataset from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and employing hierarchical logistic regression modeling to examine the relative impact of …

Unlocking Potential: The School-To-Prison Pipeline For Students With Disabilities, Navena F. Chaitoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research uses quasi-experimental, matched sampling to examine the school-to-prison pipeline for students with disabilities using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This study presents novel insights into an at-risk group that has faced disproportionate rates of school discipline and incarceration. The study finds school suspension to be associated with future involvement in the criminal legal system and lower educational attainment. Disability was not found to mediate the relationship between suspension and future involvement in the criminal legal system or the relationship between suspension and academic outcomes. However, disability was found to be a statistically …

Navigating Families, Negotiating Identities: Asian-White Mixed Family Experiences, Hayden Daeshin Ju

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how White and second-generation Asian American heterosexual couples negotiate race, ethnicity, and gender as they come together and form families. While Asian-White intermarriage is often theorized as an endpoint of assimilation, this research concerns itself with the ways in which race plays a central role in shaping various domains of family life among mixed couples. Drawing on 62 semi-structured interviews with White and second-generation Asian American individuals, I find that race and gender jointly shape how the couples navigate household divisions of labor, in-law relationships, naming decisions, and transmitting ethnicity to children. By revealing the ongoing processes …

Speakers And Addressees As Creative Interpreters, Svitlana Novikova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Philosophers in the past have argued that the way the word “interpret” is used within creative fields unhelpfully conflates the notions of deriving and creating content. Arguing against this, I propose that the blurring of these two notions accurately describes how addressees interpret speakers, performers interpret scores, and audiences interpret art and music. Even speakers can be described as creative interpreters in this sense, as articulating a thought into an utterance requires an interpretive effort. I develop the idea that interpreting straddles the divide between deriving and creating content within the framework of the ostensive-inferential communication proposed by Sperber and …