Digital Commons Network^™

"No Place In American History": Remembering And Forgetting The Sultana Disaster, Elias John Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the historical memory of the Sultana steamboat disaster of April 27, 1865. The Sultana, ferrying recently-released federal prisoners, exploded north of Memphis, killing over 1,700 in the nation’s worst maritime disaster. Contemporaries interpreted the disaster through a variety of lenses, finding evidence of recalcitrant rebels, the heroism of Union soldiers, and critiques of Republican emancipationist wartime policy. Steamboat safety advocates deployed the disaster’s memory to successfully press Radical Republicans for the 1871 Steamboat Act, establishing the nation’s first maritime safety code. The disaster’s survivors gathered at reunions and published personal narratives to secure the Sultana, and the …

Psychometric Evaluation Of Memory And Concentration Sections In The Standardized Assessment Of Concussion, Seungho Ryu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate validate the memory and concentration sections of the Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC) from the SCAT5. Two studies were conducted. The first study examined item difficulty and discrimination using 10 new word lists of 3 versions in the immediate memory section using item analysis based on classical test theory and to equate scores earned on different versions of 10 word lists using test equating methods. The second evaluated the validity of digits backwards in the concentration section, and evaluated current and new scoring methods for the digit backwards. Two hundred young adults …

Chronology Of The Fatherland Site, Daniel Shawl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A recently discovered mound (Mound E) at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians (22AD501, the Fatherland Site) dates to the Foster phase of the Mississippian period (1300-1500 CE). This new chronology is stems from analysis conducted on ceramic assemblages from Robert S. Neitzel’s (1965) excavations and ceramic assemblages from Tony Boudreaux’s (2019) excavations at the site. Frequency seriations, non-metric multidimensional scaling, and radiocarbon dates suggest that Mound E was constructed and in use several hundred years prior to European contact at the site. The results of this body of research brings new insight into a portion of history of …

Nature's Converts: Reading The Land And Nature In The Early American Conversion Narrative, 1727-1831, Cullen Rex Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the connections between cultivating the land and cultivating the soul through select readings of early American conversion narratives composed between 1727-1831. Over a century after British Colonists colonized the shores of New England, members of the United Ministers of Boston championed the efforts of their descendants, who both cultivated the land and the Indigenous and new arrived souls emplaced within the North American landscape. As they told their readers in 1727, their dual cultivating efforts were worthy of universal adulation and imitation. And in 1836, the words of Reverend Nahum Gold echoed those of the United Ministers …

Gestures Of Dissent: Self-Fashioning Performance From Southern Women Writers During The Fin De Siécle, Elisa Fuhrken

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores Southern women writers during the latter half of the nineteenth-century who asserted and crafted a modernized identity by turning to various modes of transgressive performance and performance spaces. For women of the nineteenth-century, this meant extricating themselves from a domestic, sentimental identity and apprehending a more fluid, dynamic type of being. The modes of performance, such as spectatorship, orality, and gesture, allowed these women to express and articulate an alternative feminine identity while also engaging with an embodied epistemology. This thesis looks at three Southern women writers: Sherwood Bonner’s novel Like Unto Like and her travel letters …

Decreasing Discipline Disparities Among African-American Males: An Applied Research Study On The Effects Of Developing Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices Among Teachers And Equipping Students With Added Supports, Reginald Maurice Herrington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Schools and school leaders are charged to provide equitable educational opportunities and ensure the success for all students no matter their scholastic ability giving students access to an education that is culturally responsive. Despite this charge, African-American male students receive exclusionary punishment at disparaging rates which contributes to the widening achievement gap between white and black students. The purpose of this applied research study was to decrease the rate at which African-American males are referred to the office. This study analyzes the implementation of two elements: engaging teachers in a book study on culturally responsive teaching strategies and targeted counseling …

As Close As I Can Get To It, Kathryn Leland Henricks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A collection of poems.

1.5 Generation Korean-American Young Adults' Bilingualism And Their Identity In The U.S., Hanna Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 20th century, particularly post-1965, there has been rapid growth in the Korean-American population in the U.S. The number of 1.5 generation Korean-Americans has also increased. 1.5 generation Korean-Americans can take advantage of learning both languages and cultures in the two countries which can help them become bilingual and bicultural individuals. However, previous studies about the language experience and identity of Korean-Americans have mainly focused on the first or second-generations (Kang, 2013; M. Park, 2005) rather than 1.5 generations. Some of these studies have focused more on children at an early age (E. S. Park, 2005; Zhou, 1997) instead …

The Influence Of Emotion Regulation And Family Involvement On Diabetes Distress Among Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Patric Justin Leukel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adults with diabetes frequently experience diabetes related distress which is associated with negative health outcomes. Family members are commonly involved in patients’ diabetes self-management. However, family involvement can have harmful and/or helpful effects on patients’ diabetes outcomes. Difficulties in regulating emotions may play a role in patients’ interactions with family members and experience of diabetes distress. This study examined the role of emotion regulation and type of family involvement in diabetes distress among 370 adults with type 2 diabetes. Two separate three-step sequential linear regression models were used to test the main and interactive effects of harmful and helpful family …

Increasing Reading Achievement: An Applied Research Study On The Effects Of Implementing An Independent Reading Time At Lester Elementary School, Sherna Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reading proficiency is an important skill and demonstrated proficiency is required by the Mississippi’s Literacy Based Promotion Act of 2013 for third graders to be promoted to fourth grade. Reading proficiency at third grade also has serious implications for lifelong outcomes. The purpose of this applied research project was to increase reading achievement for the second and third grade students of Lester Elementary, specifically by exploring the effects of increased time spent reading, access and self-selection of books, and motivation to read on reading proficiency. The analysis of pre- and post- STAR data was used to determine if proficiency rates …

Academic Support Systems And College Readiness For Black Male Student Athletes, Derek Lovell King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High school athletics is a major aspect of today’s educational landscape. Sports generate revenue, galvanize communities, and provide opportunities for widespread exposure. For the black athlete, sports generally represent an opportunity to go to college. With the pressure of academic accountability, increased athletic competitiveness, and the impact of future prospects, high schools have to be innovative in order to optimize the academic experience, particularly for Black male athletes.

The impact of high school academic support systems, particularly their capacity to increase the college readiness of Black male athletes, has not been adequately examined. College GPA, college persistence rate, and college …

Building Teacher Capacity As A Pathway To Equity For First-Grade Spanish-Speaking English Learners: An Applied Research Study, Mary Greenlee Moak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT The teaching of English Learners, one of the fastest-growing subgroups in American Public schools, is a task American classroom teachers are ill-equipped to handle. As students from a variety of language backgrounds move from metropolitan areas of the country to more rural locales educational leaders must equip teachers to integrate language acquisition with content instruction. Failure to do so will result in compounding learning gaps among English Learners as the language barrier prevents them from gaining content knowledge. Based in a Mississippi school with a growing population of English Learners comprising over a quarter of the school’s population, this …

Effects Of Nonnative Phonotactic Constraints On The Perception Of Nasal-Initial Consonant Clusters, Msafiri Otonya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of non-native phonotactic constraints on the perception of nasal-initial consonant clusters (NICC), specifically whether native English speakers can perceive NICC as accurately as native Swahili speakers. The ABX task was conducted over Zoom to test L1 English speakers (N=12) and L1 Swahili speakers (N=12). Stimuli with four conditions were used: 1) The stimuli had one of the three nasal sounds (/m/, /n/, and /?/) in word-initial consonant clusters; 2) The stimuli had NICC composed of a nasal sound followed by either a voiced or voiceless consonant; 3) The consonant clusters were composed of sounds that …

The Bake Sale: Fundraising And Social Justice In The 21st Century, Kelly E. Spivey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bake sales have recently come to the forefront of our consciousness as a method of fundraising for social justice but the practice’s history reaches back to the 18th century. A readily available tool for women, baking was put to work to raise money for voting rights in the early 20th century. Less than fifty years later, bake sales appeared as a key fundraising tool for the civil rights movement. The reappearance of bake sales today stems from several factors, including the presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016, the appearance of COVID-19 in the United States in early 2020, and …

Lining-Out And Performance Practice Of The Dr. Watts Hymn- Lining Tradition In Three Selected African American Missionary Baptist Churches In The Northern Mississippi Delta Region, Kelvin K. Towers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive study is to analyze the performance practice of lined-hymns that are sung in three selected African American Missionary Baptist churches located in the Northern Mississippi Delta region. ‘Dr. Watts’ lined-hymn singing has survived in some African American church denominations for approximately 150 years without the availability of a standardized printed musical notation source. Focus of the investigation is guided by five questions exploring the historical context, liturgical function, musical characteristics, performance practice, and method of learning of this musical tradition. Further examined are the role of the song leader, and cultural beliefs and philosophical differences …

A Bitten Apple And A Bloody Key: Feminist Revisionism At The Intersection Of The Eden Myth And The Bluebeard Tale, Jacob Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the feminist revisionism of the Bluebeard fairy tale through a focus on its relationship with the Eden myth. Past studies have examined the remarkable feminism of Bluebeardian literature and history, but this thesis is the first to interrogate the tale’s evolution from and alongside the Eden myth and to argue that the Bluebeard tale’s feminism is exceptional because of its ties to the Eden myth. I argue that the evolution of the intersecting revisionism of the Eden myth and the Bluebeard tale is characterized by the changing morals of the two myths—morals that, depending on the author’s …

Effect Of Chronic Pain On Prospective Memory Performance, Alexander Joseph Kuka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic pain is among the most widespread and disabling conditions worldwide. In the United States, approximately 50 million people suffer from chronic pain, and nearly half that number experience daily chronic pain. Diagnostic testing, treatments, and operations related to chronic pain cost Americans over $600 billion annually. Prospective memory, the process by which people remember to perform an action in the future after a delay, appears to be affected by the experience of pain, especially when a prospective memory task is more cognitively demanding. While self-report studies of individuals with chronic pain suggest that pain adversely affects both their retrospective …

Uncovering An Alternative Social Structure To Social Dominance: A Blend Of Ethnography And Community Based Participatory Research, Andrew A. Fox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated social structures that are alternative to the prevailing assumption of Social Dominance Theory (SDT), which is that all human interaction is based on social hierarchies. The implications of social dominance impact health at an institutional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal level. The intersection of these levels of social dominance cause health disparities that perpetuate gaps between populations. This study explored one community organizing group who is challenging social dominance by creating alternative social structures. The methods of this study included Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Arts Based Research (ABR) as ways to generate middle-range theorizing and attempt to …

Black Grocers, Black Activism, And The Spaces In Between: Black Grocery Stores During The Mississippi Freedom Struggle Movement, Keon Ahmad Burns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the role of Black-owned grocery stores and their owners during the Mississippi Freedom Struggle Movement. The thesis highlights four Black grocery store owners, and the impact they had on the movement. Grocery stores played a vital role and were often sites of contestants. Black-owned grocery stores served as meeting spaces for Black activism, targets of White domestic terrorism, and safe havens for Black Mississippians. These spaces provided a space for political agency, leisure, and safety. Likewise, this thesis centers Black grocery store owners as fundamental to the progress of the movement. It explores an array of ways …

Sleep And Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Persons With Parkinson’S Disease And Their Caregiverssleep And Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Persons With Parkinson’S Disease And Their Caregivers, Sushmitha Inguva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aimed at filling gaps in the body of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and sleep literature by synthesizing and appraising current knowledge on the influence of sleep on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in persons with Parkinson’s (PWP) and their caregivers, conducting a psychometric evaluation of a HRQoL instrument among PWP, and applying a novel method to assess the dyadic relationship between sleep and HRQoL in PWP and their caregivers. First, the systematic literature review results showed that nocturnal and diurnal sleep problems among PWP are strong predictors of their HRQoL. Additionally, studies that focused on caregiver outcomes showed that …

The Plight Of Valinor: A Historically Informed Perspective On The Future Development Of Space Law And Potential Exercise Of Self-Determination By Human Settlements On Mars, Marshall David Mckellar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breathable air, water, food, shelter, sleep: these are the five basic requirements for human survival. Providing these basics to a single person living on Earth is a challenge; providing them to 1,200 people living in the harsh Martian environment is a different matter entirely. Nonetheless, in 2047, SpaceX successfully constructed Valinor—the first human inhabited scientific settlement on Mars—by transporting hundreds of scientists and engineers, along with countless scientific experiments and technologically advanced survival equipment, to the red planet. Each year saw more successful missions to Valinor and the world community grew more excited about the reali-zation of humanity’s expansion into …

Absurdity Is A Distinct Aesthetic Category, Sarah Jean Szopinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Absurdity is the sudden discomfort caused by direct awareness of your being consciousand your relation to reality. Camus’ absurdist philosophy refers to the conflict between the human desire for inherent meaning in reality and the incomprehensible and irrational nature of the universe. Facing absurdity requires confronting the absurd feeling through introspective awareness of this tension. Otherwise, you are overcome by it, succumbing to a lack of mindfulness and avoidance of the confrontation. Absurdity, especially in its aesthetic dimension, has not received the sustained attention it deserves. In this paper, I argue that due to the sustained relevance of the absurd …

Student Perceptions Of Their Academic Success At Higher Education, Faith-Based Institutions, Amber Nicole Grady

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this manuscript is to examine any existence between student academic success and faith-based engagement experiences in higher education.Higher education, faith-based institutions provide spiritual support to help ensure students’ academic success. Student fit, especially for faith-based institutions, is critical to student persistence and involvement. As faith-based institutions and practitioners explore these student experiences, they can maximize their resources to provide substantial and quality programming to engage all students. Religiously focused programming at these faith-based institutions is intended to support students’ academic relationships and success.

The Meat Of The Gothic: Animality And Social Justice In United States Fiction And Film Of The Twenty-First Century, Amber Hodge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Meat of the Gothic: Animality and Social Justice in United States Fiction and Film of the Twenty-First Century— situates twenty-first century US gothic narratives in relation to animal studies, even as it illuminates how these narratives interrogate the effects of historic and ongoing global systems of human oppression: slavery, imperialism, and capitalism. Instead of reacting to bias by asserting a claim to a humanity perpetually imbricated in divisions of class, race, and gender, present-day authors and filmmakers create characters who form communities that include nonhuman actors as a means of generating empowerment and critique. My approach to these narratives …

"Between The Two Great Battlefields:" Scottish Medical Women's Encounters With The Eastern Front, Fiona Gale Holter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discusses the role of medical women on the battlefront during the First World War. Using the Scottish Women’s Hospitals as a case study, it argues that frontline medical women occupied a liminal space on the fronts. As both witnesses and participants, they confronted wounds, trauma, and violence wrought by total war. Since this was typically reserved for the combatant, contemporary notions of gender refused to acknowledge medical women’s authority within the war story. This dissertation employs medical women’s wartime experiences to argue that their war story redefines our understandings of combatancy, allowing us to see it as a …

Nmr-Based Characterization Of A Glucan Isolated From Ganoderma Lucidum, Alysia Gonzales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ganoderma lucidum is a polypore fungus commonly known as Lingzhi, Youngji or Reishi mushroom in East Asia. It is frequently marketed as an herbal supplement and often utilized as traditional Chinese medicine. Our research comprises the structural investigation of the principal polysaccharide from this fungus. After proper purification, the fungal glucan was subjected to multiple experiments of NMR spectroscopy, including 1D 1H and 13C, 2D; 1H-1H COSY, 1H-1H TOCSY, 1H-1H NOESY, 1H-13C HSQC, 1H-1H Phase Sensitive-TOCSY, and 1H-13C TOCSY-HSQC NMR spectra. Data has confirmed that this fungal polysaccharide contains residues of glucose (91.31%) as major, galactose (4.99%), and mannose (3.69%) …

Teachers Perceptions Of Using Young Adult Literature As A Catalyst To Discuss Social Justice In Mississippi Classrooms, Shimikqua Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT Educational inequality and racial injustice are serious challenges that educators continue to face. More educators are seeking social justice teaching practices and implementing culturally responsive pedagogies to address systemic inequities in schools. Literary scholars suggest that books should serve as mirrors and windows for readers. Diverse young adult literature is a powerful medium through which social injustices, racial inequities, and social problems can be addressed in the classroom. This study is designed to help teachers create a more inclusive classroom through using adolescent literature. Four teachers in diverse schools throughout Mississippi used The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas …

Dragon On A Dog Chain, Stephen M. Hundley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fish lives on a barrier island of Georgia made locally famous by the atomic bomb that was dropped there by accident. He is in the care of two men, Reef and Nutzo, and the matriarch of the group, Whistle, who leads glass-bottom boat tours of the bomb and has also raised a tiger, Sugar.

An Applied Research On Promoting Proficiency In Fourth-Grade Reading, Deirdre Huntley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This applied research study was conducted to promote proficiency in fourth-grade reading. There was a need for improvement in fourth-grade reading after receiving data from the school and state assessments. The study examined the implementation of specific reading and vocabulary strategies, student interventions, strengthening of teacher-student relationships, and encouraging student motivation to help students become proficient in understanding what the students were reading. Student diagnostic results and teacher interviews were utilized in this study. The findings revealed students were demonstrating advancement in reading comprehension. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school building was closed in March of 2020 which impacted …

Opinions, Attitudes, And Self-Efficacy Of Secondary School Counselors In Ramp And Non-Ramp Designated Schools And Their Work With Students With Disabilities, Christine Denise Lewis Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) implemented standards that aid the professional school counselor via a comprehensive program to serve all students (ASCA, 2019). This study examines secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools. The designation of recognized ASCA model programs (RAMP), which awards schools when they successfully implement comprehensive programs, leads one to believe that RAMP programs exhibit effectiveness, while understanding that lacking RAMP certification does not mean a comprehensive school counseling program does not exist. The current study surveyed secondary school counselors’ attitude, self-efficacy, and opinions toward work with students with disabilities. An independent samples …