Digital Commons Network^™

A Lesbian Parented Family's Acceptance And Experiences In Family, Social, And Educational Systems: A Qualitative Case Study, Sarah Dalton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This single case study was created to investigate one lesbian parented family's experiences in family, social, and educational systems to gain perspective on their overall happiness. In depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with two lesbian parents currently raising three children. After data collection and analysis, the researcher constructed six findings based on the primary research questions. The study determined that regardless of minor discrimination in the systems, the parents and their children have positive experiences in their family, social, and educational systems. The parents also offered ideas about political and social changes that would improve their lives. Overall, the study …

Theological And Ecological Foundations For Youth Ministry In Relation To The Archdiocese Of Mbarara, Uganda - East Africa, Leo Tinkatumire

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is titled: Theological and Ecological Foundations for Youth Ministry in Relation to the Archdiocese of Mbarara, Uganda - East Africa. The Archdiocese of Mbarara, located in the traditional kingdom of Nkore in southwestern Uganda, is undergoing societal shift. Due to the pervading influences of Western civilization and technology, the conservative and often static culture of native tribal communities with their adherence to informal education, traditional customs and worship and a predominantly agrarian economy, is undergoing steady but dramatic transformation. Amidst this process of transition, the Church is struggling with the immediate need to adjust the message and methods …

Co-Sleeping With Her Baby: A Qualitive Study Of Adaptive And Prescriptive Voices In Parenting Decision Making, Elizabeth A. Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project presents a qualitative study of how parents described the process of deciding to bed-share with their children. Particular emphasis was placed in understanding how those parents described relationships with advice sources. The Listening Guide feminist discourse analysis method was used to analyze interviews with five mothers who self-identified as having regularly slept with their babies to identify discourses with particular emphasis on references to self and authority. The context of this project is explained in detail with review of socio-political and scientific perspectives on decision-making and co-sleeping. Interview analysis resulted in the identification of two ways of engaging …

Traces Of Otherness In St. Thomas Aquinas' Theology Of Grace, Michael Luiz Fagge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation looks into the work of St. Thomas Aquinas and addresses his theology of grace through the lens of the postmodern concern for the other. The first chapter sets up the postmodern view using Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida to draw out the fundamental grounding for the concern for the other. In chapters two and three, St. Thomas' theology of nature and then grace are examined focusing on his particular focus on the other. In his work we find that there is a concern for the other and a structure to the human person that supports this concern. Using …

What Is The Spirit Saying To The Churches? Toward A Contemporary Ecumenical Pneumatology, Eric Hendry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a clearly articulated body of teachings and similarity of experiences within contemporary ecumenical Pneumatology that has been, to a large degree, neglected within the ongoing renewal of the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. In my research, I have come to explore the role of Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens - a key progressive leader at the Council - and his promotion of both charisms and the charismatic dimensions of contemporary ecclesial life. Suenens surrounded himself with some of the most talented periti at the Council, whom he continually called upon in order to articulate a theology of …

The Lived Experience Of Mental Health Workers In A Residential Treatment Facility Who Work With Multiply Traumatized Children And Self-Identify As Experiencing Vicarious Trauma And Compassion Satisfaction, Debra Hyatt-Burkhart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Examination of the work of providing trauma-focused treatment has been, heretofore, accomplished primarily through a lens of pathology. It cannot be ignored that many professionals who work with traumatized individuals suffer negative effects. What has been discounted is the experience of individuals who experience negative effects and also experience psychological benefit and personal growth from their work with trauma survivors. Literature regarding vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress is abundant, but few studies have been conducted that have been specifically designed to explore the experience of vicarious posttraumatic growth in providers of psychotraumatology.

In order to add to the insubstantial …

Gay Identity Formation: An (Auto)Ethnographic Look At Gay Volleyball, G. Keilan Rickard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From September of 2004 until May of 2010, I was part of the SCVL, a gay volleyball league in Pittsburgh, PA. At the same time, I was a graduate student, working to advance my status within the Academy. In this study, I use autoethnography to talk about my experiences at the nexus of these two institutions: the SCVL and the Academy. I take the reader through a year in the life of the SCVL (2008-2009) and discuss ways in which its perennial practices contributed to my gay identity development. Well, sort of. It hasn't always been clear to me the …

Homosexuality And The Formation Of Conscience: An Examination Of Traditional Catholic Anthropological, Theological, And Ethical Evaluations In Light Of Contemporary Moral Markers, John Slovikovski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The question of homosexuality remains a daunting task to be addressed by the Church as well as theological ethicists. Lively, and often biased opinions have been presented in the last two centuries; however, use of traditional sources, such a Scripture, Natural Law, empirical data, and Tradition result in a doubt of fact, which, according to the established tradition of the Catholicism, requires the Church to follow the safest course of action, i.e., upholding the traditional heterosexual norm. Given that some individuals experience an irreversible homosexual orientation coupled by a lack of a vocation to a celibate lifestyle, which in turn …

From Student To Sorority Girl: Gender, Class, And Presentation Of Self In Formal Sorority Recruitment, Cheryl Rose Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I discuss how women prepare for the formal sorority recruitment process associated with National Panhellenic Conference chapters at Southern State University, a large public university in the Southeastern United States. I first examine their experiences before arriving on campus, focusing primarily on how potential new members (PNMs) use social capital to obtain necessary recommendations from sorority alumnae prior to recruitment and learn about the expectations about the sorority recruitment process at Southern State University. I then describe the bodily practices and behavioral choices of PNMs as they enter the week of formal recruitment, analyzing their interpretations of …

A Place Of Happy Retreat: Benefiting Locals And Visitors Through Sustainable Tourism Practices At Beale Street, Graceland And The National Civil Rights Museum, Cathryn Stout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interdisciplinary work examines Beale Street, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum through the lens of sustainable tourism. It specifically examines the value of integrating the culture and history of the host community into the attraction, and using tourist attractions to provide personal and economic development for locals. Chapter One is titled "'Can I Live' on Beale Street," Chapter Two is titled "Opening the Gates of Graceland," and Chapter Three is titled "Creating a Public Forum at the National Civil Rights Museum." Memphis has been predominantly African American since 1986, and African American history was significant in the creation …

New Perspectives On The Quatrefoil In Classic Maya Iconography The Center And The Portal, Rachel K. Egan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The quatrefoil is a pan-Mesoamerican symbol with considerable time-depth. For the Maya, use of the symbol peaked during the Classic Period, reaching its highest frequency and largest geographical spread. Consequently, understanding its meaning has the potential to illuminate information about Precolumbian Maya worldview. While there have been several studies that focus on Preclassic Period quatrefoils, a similar study is lacking for Classic Period. Furthermore, the evaluations of the quatrefoil that do exist for the Classic Period are limited, often focusing on a select few examples. This thesis attempts to rectify the gap in extant research through an examination of the …

The Relationship Between Number Of Toys, Infant Distractibility, And Mothers' Teaching Utterances, Lap Van Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among the number of toys in an infant’s play environment, infant’s distractibility, and how often a mother teaches her infant during a play session. This study takes samples from videotapes of 12-month old children playing with their mothers during a 5 minute free-play situation. Twenty-two mother and infant pairs were selected for this study based on their previous participation in a language study. The measures used in this study were: (1) the number of maternal teaching utterances to her infant; (2) the total number of utterances that mother used during …

Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotope Analyses Of Subfossil Rats From Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia), Kelly C. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigated the level of bone collagen preservation of rat femora from Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, as well as conducted carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic analyses on well preserved samples. Although Flores is located in a hot intermediate tropical zone and the burial environment of the bone samples within the cave is considered less than optimal for collagen preservation, significant preservation of the bone collagen was found. Collagen yields, C:N ratio and carbon and nitrogen concentrations were investigated. However, this research study argues that carbon and nitrogen concentrations are an appropriate means to …

Birth Of A Mother, Ashley Rae Curran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Birth of a Mother is a memoir that tells the story of how my unplanned pregnancy helps me to transform from a damaged adolescent into an empowered mother. Using a first person, present tense narrative, I relive the nine months leading up to the unmedicated home birth of my first child, exploring the conflicts I faced over my obesity, over having no job and no place to call home, and over developing a relationship with a man who was not the baby's father. Weaving in past tense vignettes, I attempt to show how I prepared myself for impending motherhood by …

A Paleopathological Assessment Of Osteoarthritis In The Lower Appendicular Joints Of Individuals From The Kellis 2 Cemetery In The Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Joshua B. Robin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative pathological condition of the appendicular joints which affects the cartilage and underlying bone. OA is relatively common in both the archaeological and clinical context, and a significant amount of research has been conducted on this osteological condition. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the incidence, demographic prevalence, and general severity of hip and knee OA in a Roman-Christian period (50 A.D – 450 A.D) population sample from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The bioarchaeological sample originates from the Kellis 2 cemetery which is associated with the ancient town of Kellis. The town of Kellis …

The Collector As Arbiter Of Art A Phenomenological Investigation Of Collectors' Critical Judgment Development And Their Understanding Of Art Toward A Theoretical Model For Appreciation And Criticism In Art Education, Anne C. Grey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate art collectors’ specific method of developing and making critical judgments in the context of their understanding of art. Phenomenological research methods were employed to obtain data through interviews with collectors of Contemporary African American art, Latin American art, and Minimalist and Conceptual art. Based on the findings, collectors’ approaches to critical judgment can be categorized into three areas. First, critical skills are both intuitive and developed over time, through a holistic and aesthetic process set in the art world. Collectors’ edification requires commitment, and intense looking enabling them to see how works …

Monitoring Long-Term Controlled Grave Scenarios Using Ground Penetrating Radar, William T. Hawkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geophysical techniques, such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR), have been successfully used by law enforcement agencies to locate graves and forensic evidence. However, more controlled research is needed to better understand the potential and limitations of this technology in the forensic context. The goal of this study was to determine the potential of GPR using both a 250 MHz and 500 MHz antennae to monitor eight controlled graves with six different burial scenarios using pig carcasses as human proxy cadavers. In addition, a conductivity meter was employed to determine the applicability of using this technology to locate unmarked graves. For the …

Exploring Women's Life Course Experiences With Weight Using Story Theory, Poff Allison Edmonds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study included women who had gone through the menopausal transition and had experienced obesity, and it focused on their weight histories and experiences across the life course. The goal of this research was to add to the body of knowledge concerning weight gain by applying a novel middle range theory (story theory). Story theory was used to collect and interpret from women’s life course stories the critical themes and patterns of their weight gain. Oral accounts were elicited during personal interviews from a convenience sample of ten women recruited from a weight loss and exercise program in Central …

A Proposed Methodology For Predicting The Carbon And Nitrogen Stable Isotope Measures Of K'Inich Yax K'Uk Mo', Copan Dynastic Founder, Keith Edwards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to show that stable isotope analysis can be used to predict K’inich Yax K’uk Mo’s stable isotope measures based on Stuart’s (2007) hypothesis that K’inich Yax K’uk Mo’, the dynastic founder of the Copan royal lineage, was a Caracol lord. There is significant and convincing evidence that K’inich Yak K’uk Mo’ had a non-Copanec origin. Stable isotope analysis is a tested and reliable method for detailing diets and migratory paths of ancient humans and this theory is applied as a predictor of the stable isotope measures of K’inich Yax K’uk Mo’, if he did …

The Tyler Perry Effect Examining The Influence Of Black Media Images On The Black Identity, Nicole E. Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the influence of Tyler Perry‟s House of Payne and Meet the Browns on black viewers‟ racial identity, based on a survey of 145 members of four predominantly African American churches in the Central Florida area. Mirroring Allen, Dawson, and Brown‟s (1989) model of an African American racial belief system, this study proposed that both shows would positively influence three dimensions of the black identity including closeness to blacks, black separatism, and the belief in positive stereotypes about blacks, while negatively influencing the dimension that emphasizes negative stereotypes about blacks. Socioeconomic status and religiosity were also hypothesized to …

Yogic Diffusion The Effects Of Yogic Practice And Philosophy On Beliefs About Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Jacqueline Marie Siven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is a qualitative study that aimed to anthropologically explore the effects of consistent long-term yogic practice on the acceptance and practice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among yoga practitioners at a South Florida yoga center. I wished to determine, through in-depth interviews, whether or not yogic practice affects acceptance of CAM. The main objective was to interview individuals from a single yoga center that have practiced yoga at least once per week for at least one year concerning their beliefs about CAM, yoga, and health. This project will begin to fill the gap in social science, in …

Using Geographic Information Systems (Gis) In Spatial Analysis Of Mortuary Practices In The Kellis 2 Cemetery, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Elsalam, Heba Abd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to examine mortuary practices in the Romano-Byzantine period Kellis 2 cemetery located in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The first research objective examines the relationship between age, sex and grave substructures of 701 burials in Kellis 2 cemetery. The aim of this research objective was to determine if the presence and style of grave substructures were influenced by sex or age. Although not statistically significant, GIS analysis revealed that most of the graves in the Kellis 2 cemetery have no associated substructures, but of those that did have associated substructures, …

Modeling Human Group Behavior In Virtual Worlds, Fahad Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual worlds and massively-multiplayer online games are rich sources of information about large-scale teams and groups, offering the tantalizing possibility of harvesting data about group formation, social networks, and network evolution. They provide new outlets for human social interaction that differ from both face-to-face interactions and non-physically-embodied social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. We aim to study group dynamics in these virtual worlds by collecting and analyzing public conversational patterns of users grouped in close physical proximity. To do this, we created a set of tools for monitoring, partitioning, and analyzing unstructured conversations between changing groups of participants …

Postglacial Sandy Hill: A Regional Manifestation Of The Gulf Of Maine Archaic Tradition, Benjamin Russell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over twenty years of archaeological excavations at Sandy Hill, in Mashantucket, CT, have provided an incredibly rich assemblage of artifacts. Yet some of the most basic questions about Sandy Hill's Early Archaic inhabitants remain unanswered. This thesis will synthesize the results of major excavations at Sandy Hill by analyzing site morphology, lithics, and hard tissue macrobotanical remains from several radiocarbon dated contexts. Macrobotanical artifacts recovered from Sandy Hill indicate a preference for hazelnut as well as wetland roots and tubers. The lithic assemblage is related to the Gulf of Maine Archaic Tradition and the predominance of quartz flakes technology and …

Balancing Two Worlds: Female Indo-Fijian Immigrant Youth In Their Public And Private Domains And The Emergence Of The New Hybridity, Nitasha Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last 20 years immigration in Canada has increased due to the relaxed immigration laws. With such an increase it is vital to understand immigrant youth experiences in terms of how they express their national and cultural identity, how they negotiate different expectations of their host and homeland cultures, and how they identify themselves at a personal level. Many immigrant youths are faced with conflict, deriving from pressures of living in a new society and culture as well as pressure from their family and the homeland culture. These conflicts and expectations also have a gendered layer in that female …

Running Identities And Interaction Ritual Chains, Jonathan Malonzo Dial

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis links two theories, Interaction Ritual Chains (IRC) with Identity Control Theory (ICT), through a multi-method study of group training programs for beginning runners. First, group training programs are identified as IRCs. Second, we see that IRCs produce identities within individuals which reflect the IRC's activities and its group members. Third, we look at how IRCs of varied strengths produce identities of varied strengths. Fourth, we compare different types of group training programs and their abilities to develop identities. Finally, we conclude that IRCs are mechanisms which individuals are able to use as part of the self-verification process.

Swinburne's "The Tale Of Balen": An Edition With Critical Commentary, Warren Hill Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Warren Hill Kelly's Swinburne's The Tale of Balen: an Edition with Critical Commentary comprises a variorum-like edition of the poem that records all variances of the poem evident in its manuscript through its first and second editions, Chatto & Windus 1896 and 1904, or those editions produced during the poet's lifetime and therefore potentially bearing evidence of his editorial input. The edition forms as its basis the poet's final intention expressed in the manuscript, and notes all alterations within the manuscript and the first two published editions, and by coupling the edition's text with the notations pertaining to the manuscript, …

Differential Diagnoses Of Temporal Bone Defects And Zygomatic Bone Lesions Found In Fetal And Infant Individuals From The Kellis 2 Cemetery, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Brittany A. Jardine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Kellis 2 cemetery site within the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt provides a unique study opportunity due to the large number of infant, perinatal, and fetal individuals that have been recovered. Several of the infant and fetal remains have undiagnosed circular defects on the temporal bone, and others have undiagnosed lesions on the zygomatic bone. Of the 268 individuals under one year of age that have been analyzed from the Kellis 2 cemetery, twentysix individuals have the temporal bone defect and six have the zygomatic bone lesions. A survey of clinical and paleopathological research provided possible pathological conditions that could cause …

The Visual Divide Islam Vs. The West, Image Peception In Cross-Cultural Contexts, Hatem Nazir Akil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we‘re always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socioideological frames that can only be liberated through an active and critical relationship with the image. The image itself, albeit ubiquitous, is never unimplicated - …

The American School Discipline Debate And The Persistence Of Corporal Punishment In Southern Public Schools, David M. Hargrove

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation examines the history of American school discipline and corporal punishment in southern public schools. Pedagogical literature, court reports, and popular fiction show that school discipline was a controversial topic throughout American history. The conflict over corporal punishment in schools led to a 1976 Supreme Court decision, Ingraham v. Wright, affirming the power of educators to use corporal punishment. When the school discipline debate peaked late in the twentieth century, most American schools no longer used corporal punishment but southern educators continued to paddle students, especially African American school children. By the twenty-first century, southern city schools adopted non-violent …