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Performance Cultures And Black Atlantic Literature, 1750-1833, Chinaza Amaeze Okoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation approaches performance cultures as integral components of early black Atlantic writing, and considers how meaning is produced at the intersection of writing and vernacular performance. It asserts that black writers, in their portrayal of performance practices, encode avenues and strategies for accessing other black voices in their communities. Pairing writing by black authors and a selection of comparable vernacular practices, my dissertation examines how these forms signify upon each other, offering new contexts for interpreting the black experience in the long eighteenth century. In exploring this thesis, my work approaches Olaudah Equiano’s narrative as illustrative of the ways …

Ceo Personality & Stakeholder Engagement, Kaushik Mukherjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation examines how the chief executive officer (CEO) personality traits have implications for the firm’s strategy. The first chapter discusses the relationship between CEO Big Five personality traits and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The next chapter is on CEO Big Five and equity analyst forecasts. The final chapter deals with how CEO personality traits relate to corporate governance aspects such as board independence and board diversity.

An Intersectional Study Of Perceived Academic Climate And The Imposter Phenomenon In Psychology Students, Kelsey Braun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social exclusion in higher education can occur at multiple levels (e.g., systemic, institutional, interpersonal, individual), and individuals simultaneously hold multiple social identities that could influence their perceptions of academic climate. The current study utilized a mixed-methods convergent parallel design to explore the impact of multiple social identities, perceptions of academic climate, and the imposter phenomenon among psychology students. In the quantitative portion, participants (N = 142) completed an online survey related to gender centrality, academic climate, and imposter phenomenon. Gender group comparisons revealed that cisgender men indicated poorer perceptions of climate than cisgender women and gender minorities, but imposter …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Teachers’ Personal Epistemologies And Their Self-Efficacy About Culturally Responsive Classroom Management, Tahani Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diversity is now an essential matter in US public schools. For the first time in America's history, students of color will constitute a majority of the public school enrollment; on the other hand, most early childhood and elementary teachers remain monolingual, white, middle-class females (Hussar & Bailey, 2019). The demographic mismatch between students and teachers presents a critical concern for teacher preparation programs (Banks et al., 2005; Gay, 2018; Muñiz, 2019). Therefore, this study proposed that understanding the relationship between pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs and their culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy illustrated factors that may improve their teaching concept toward …

Personal Narratives Of English Language Learners With Learning Disabilities: Paving The Way To Success At A Private University In Central Texas, Oralia Guzman-Wheeler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

© Copyright by Oralia Guzmán-Wheeler (2022) All Rights Reserved iv Abstract More than half of English language learners with learning disabilities who enroll in college to obtain an undergraduate degree drop out. This narrative study’s purpose was to examine the ways English language learners with disabilities navigate the system of higher education and overcome challenges along the path toward college graduation. The participants in this qualitative interview study included six undergraduate students attending a 4-year college in central Texas. The narrative design involved participants sharing their lived stories and experiences in semistructured interviews. The data analysis revealed the following four …

Strategies Teachers Implement That Support Mixed-Race Students In Schools In Rural Southeast Texas, Tara Michelle Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe strategies middle-school teachers implement that support mixed-race students in rural southeast Texas schools. This study is framed conceptually utilizing culturally responsive pedagogy and social emotional learning. Seven middle-school teachers were interviewed and provided artifacts to support the interviews. The primary findings identified strategies for teachers to examine their biases, intentionally plan social emotional lessons, remain open-minded and nonjudgmental, and engage in authentic professional development. Using equitable language, learning cultural norms, and being transparent to build trust with students are strategies teachers were implementing regarding equity. Supporting student organizations and identifying …

Differences Between African American And White Males In Grades 6-8: Comparative Evidence From Selected Texas Rural Schools, Sheenah Maria Hopkins-Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The academic achievement gap among Black males in grades 6-8 across Texas is a growing concern. Based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), secondary data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) was used to evaluate scores from a sample of Texas rural schools. In this quantitative, non-experimental methods study, the dependent variable examined was the STAAR reading score at the “meets grade level,” and the independent dichotomous variables examined were: race, whether or not the student was classified in one of the following groups: ECD, at-risk, and special education. Academic trends from the 2017-2019 academic school …

Cultural Beliefs About Healthy And Unhealthy Weight In Children 2 To 11 Years Of Age Among Parents Of Mexican Heritage, Nathalie Confiac

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Despite multisectoral preventive interventions, the obesity prevalence among children of Mexican heritage remains the highest of all ethnic groups in the US. Methodology: Guided by Leininger’s Culture Care Diversity and Universality Theory, this study explored the culture care beliefs and practices of Mexican heritage parents about healthy and unhealthy weight in children 2-11 years of age using the ethnonursing research method. Eight key and 17 general informants were interviewed, and the four phases of ethnonursing data analysis guided analysis. Results: Twenty-six categories were identified which led to seven culture care patterns revealing four themes. Informants shared the …

Isocrates's Place In Postmodern Advertising, Christopher Barkley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study in communication and rhetoric seeks to ascertain constructive applications for distinct advertising practices by examining Isocrates’s work and place in postmodern advertising. The focus uses 5 principles known to Isocrates which are: 1) commonwealths of households, 2) integration of reputation, elegance, substance and style, 3) education and public discourse, 4) phronesis and praxis, and 5) truth and verisimilitude. These 5 principles can form a constructive and practical advertising approach. This study is important. It examines Isocrates through the lens of advertising and extends the research done about him by leading Isocrates scholars who have looked primarily at his …

Disorienting Object Oriented Ontology: Queer Landscapes And Ecological Bodies In Richard Siken And Harryette Mullen., Andrew N. Hutto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on a recent development within the study of metaphysics, known as object oriented ontology (OOO), and works out questions of being alongside contemporary poetry. Recognizing the post anthropocentric purchase afforded by OOO’s claim that everything is an object and that these objects are impossible to correlate with, this thesis will look at the use of objects in Richard Siken’s War of the Foxes and Harryette Mullen’s Recyclopedia. Drawing heavily from Sara Ahmed’s queer theory of disoriented objects and Timothy Morton’s ecological insights, this thesis will argue that despite OOO’s advancement, there are critical gaps to fill in …

Re-Localizing Writing Assessment: Sites Of Knowledge Mobilization., Charlotte Asmuth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, writing assessment theorists have subscribed to the principle of localism––the belief that assessments should be designed with local contexts in mind and administered by local actors. Although this belief has ensured the validity of assessments in writing programs, it has also led to a tendency to treat assessment as a stable practice that is bound to a particular location, thus ignoring what happens when assessment knowledge and methods developed in one location travel to another distant location (as they do for campus assessment initiatives). To that end, this project traces how assessment knowledge is transformed as it travels …

Effects Of A Mindfulness-Based Intervention On Students' Academic Engagement, Frequency Of Disruptive Behavior, And Overall Mood States., Leah Riggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research into the prevalence of childhood trauma indicates that adverse experiences continue to negatively impact children and youth across the country. Current research is expanding the concept of trauma to include many children’s’ ongoing fear and worry surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and experiencing the death of grandparents or other family and community members due to the virus. Symptoms of trauma may manifest in the classroom as behaviors that are attention seeking, defiant, destructive, hyperactive, disruptive, or all of the above. One emerging practice for meeting the needs of children who have experienced trauma is blending classroom behavior management and academic …

"We Will Work A Lot And You Are So Loved": Teacher Perspectives On Building Positive Relationships With Students., Geena Constantin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This multiple case study using the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach (Alase, 2017) supported a need to understand the specific realities of student-teacher relationship-building. This investigation allowed a deeper look into four teachers’ perceptions of what it means to build positive relationships with students. This research study added to the literature demonstrating the importance of building strong positive relationships with students built on demonstrations of high expectations and care and driven by mutual understandings and celebration of diverse cultures and identities. Supporting this small group of teachers in investigating their personal beliefs about relationship-building was a step forward in defining …

Findings And Understandings Of 'Home': An Ethnographic Study Of How Homeless People And Displaced Persons Negotiate The Word 'Home'., Abby F Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of various meanings of the word ‘home’ and how the word ‘home’ is used by homeless, evicted, and displaced persons, and by the researcher of the study, to negotiate boundaries and relations of power to achieve goals, both moral and material.Scholarly research on home in urban studies and sociology has produced many definitions and meanings of the word ‘home’ and concepts of home, but often neglects to consider the way the word itself is experienced, personally, by individuals and how to make sense of the way these personal experiences relate to official meanings of …

Western Christianity And The Origins Of Antiblackness, Eurocentrism, And White Supremacist Ideology., John Chenault

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigates the cult(ural) and intellectual history of Western Christianity to address a significant gap in the literature pertaining to the origins of whiteness/antiblackness in the West and its subsequent socialization worldwide. Western Christianity’s seminal role in the social construction of the whiteness/antiblackness dichotomy has been undertheorized, neglected, and ignored. This study finds early Christian theologians categorically imposed conceptual metaphors about Blackness on African people that depicted them as the exemplars of evil to teach Christian doctrine about sin and salvation. It connects these original antiblack discourses directly to the theo-political arguments Western European Christians used centuries later …

As Above, So Below: Magical Poetics And Queer Alchemy & A Planetary Spell.., Robert Eric Shoemaker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Words have power": no more obvious statement has perhaps ever been made in an essay. However, the nature of that power is quite complicated, with a long and contentious history. I think of poetry as magic. Poetry is magical in the sense that it has ineffable qualities to it that enable readers to experience new thoughts and feelings when experiencing poetry, but when I say magic I mean that I think of poetry as actual, practical magic. As I will argue, poetry has magical qualities to it regardless of who is weaving the words, while intentional use of a self-aware …

Definitions And Depictions Of Rhetorical Practice In Medieval English Fürstenspiegel., Joseph Ethan Blaine Sharp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how medieval authors defined rhetoric and depicted rhetorical practice in medieval English Fürstenspiegel. It begins by analyzing how the field of medieval rhetorical historiography has overlooked the Fürstenspiegel as a rhetorical genre due to its overt reliance on meta-rhetorical handbook genres as the objects of its analysis. This dissertation challenges traditional narratives that positions medieval rhetoric as a primarily academic discipline divorced from political practice by engaging in horizontal reading practices that examine the broader culture of medieval rhetorical practice alongside the definitions of rhetoric found in medieval English Fürstenspiegel. In so doing, this dissertation …

The Experience Of Scanxiety In Survivors Of Pancreatic Cancer: A Phenomenological Study., Susan Winebrenner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Surveillance scans can signify a crisis point in a cancer patient’s life, provoking fear and anxiety that negatively impact quality of life. Scan-related anxiety or scanxiety has been briefly discussed in the literature among lung cancer and lymphoma populations, but relatively few investigations have studied the psychological impact of routine surveillance scans during cancer survivorship. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the lived experience of scanxiety in survivors of pancreatic cancer who have undergone curative surgical resection. Hermeneutic phenomenology as applied by Heidegger provided the philosophical underpinnings for this study and van Manen’s methodological approach was used to …

The Effect Of Telepractice On Vocal Interaction Between Provider, Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Pediatric Patients, And Caregivers., Abigail Betts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how telepractice affects a vocal interaction between a speech-language pathologist (SLP), deaf and hard-of-hearing children who received cochlear implants (n = 7), and caregivers as they engage in speech-language interventions conducted in-person and via telepractice (tele). Frequency of vocalizations, vocal turns, pause duration, fundamental frequency (F0) mean and range, utterance duration, syllable rate per utterance duration, and mean length of utterance (MLU) were examined. The SLP vocalized more during in-person than tele-sessions, opposite result for the mother. There were more SLP-child turns during in-person sessions than tele-sessions; opposite result for mother-child turns. …

The Impact Of Volume Of Tissue Activation On Cortical-Striatal Networks And Verbal Fluency Declines In Post-Deep Brain Stimulation Parkinson's Disease Patients., Alexander Luke Alley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the cortical-striatal networks of verbal fluency declines in 6-month, post-operative, deep brain stimulation Parkinson’s Disease patients. Nine Parkinson’s disease participants with implanted STN or GPi DBS systems were recruited for this study. Verbal fluency data was obtained from each patient preoperatively and 6- months post implantation. The stimulation-based volume of tissue activated area (VTA) of each target site (STN or GPi) was analyzed using Lead-DBS and Lead-Group. The white matter tracks intersecting each patient’s VTA, terminating in the pre-SMA, SMA, caudate nucleus, and anterior cingulate were investigated and correlated with verbal fluency declines. We found statistically significant …

Public Health Contagion Of White Supremacy: Examining The Pipeline Of Attitudes About Racism And Racial History Education Among High School Students., Trinidad Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We are living in compounded states of upheaval. Violence and exemption from it across socioecological levels have shaped how humans survive, thrive, and die. While different violence typologies exist, the U.S., prioritizes interpersonal violence as its primary target of intervention, often through structural means that foster and reinforce interpersonal violence. The omission of structural and cultural agents and outcomes of violence allows perpetrators to infiltrate and reproduce savage, dehumanizing ideologies in perpetuity. Instead of sustaining societal pillars that oppress and destroy, we must fertilize public health research, practice, and sociopolitical activism with pillars that both inform and activate liberatory consciousness …

Authentically (Un)Real Assessing Vh!'S Basketball Wives And Its Violent & Colorist Portrayals Of Black Women., Wilma Denae Powell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does reality television serve as solely a form of entertainment, or could reality television also be maintaining hegemonic beliefs and reinforcing biased views of Black women? Since 2010, Vh1’s Basketball Wives has given audiences the opportunities to entertain themselves by watching women who are/were married to, dating, or are the mothers of children fathered by professional basketball players. Despite the show’s name, few members of the cast are currently married and audiences only get mere glimpses of the cast in motherly or marital interactions. So, what does Basketball Wives offer audiences who tune in to watch Black women for entertainment? …

Contemporary Blackface Theatre: Exploring Split Second From An Authentic Black Lens To Combat White Stereotypes., Lamar Alonzo Hardy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This MFA thesis defines Contemporary Blackface Theatre as exemplified in Dennis McIntyre’s Split Second, which was produced in Fall 2021 by the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Louisville. Cast as Val Johnson, I aimed to find the truth within a Black character created from the white playwright’s limited perspective. In addition to an analysis of Split Second, my study of Contemporary Blackface Theatre examines the racist ideologies from F.M. Alexander’s point of view on black people and how I create truthfulness in my own black body. I detail how I used the Black Acting Methods: …

It's All Fun And—: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Space In The Pandemic., Erica Von Proctor Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exhibition and document explore spatial rhetoric during the pandemic, utilizing materiality and relational aesthetics to reflect on the different ways in which the public and private are made distinct from one another. In doing so, Lewis addresses new cultural navigations of shared spaces, both digital and corporeal, public and private. In addition, the artist also examines the faulty social and institutional systems that the pandemic brought to light, such as socioeconomic dynamics and voter suppression, while utilizing Kenneth Burke’s concept of the terministic screen. Games are a central theme throughout the exhibition, as they are often coded as “home” …

The Whale-Road To Road House: A Study Of The Contemporary Transmission Of Beowulf, Haley Grindstaff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores three versions of Beowulf: Gareth Hinds’s graphic novel Beowulf (2007), Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation Beowulf (2020), and Rowdy Herrington’s film Road House (1989). While Hinds and Headley fail to convey Beowulf as a cultural elegy by subtracting or misrepresenting significant scenes and characters, Road House superimposes the story of Beowulf onto 1980s America. Parallels between the plots of Beowulf and Road House and Road House’s interaction with the political underpinnings of the 80s (such as Reaganomics and the AIDS epidemic) make the film one of the best at capturing the elements of cultural elegy in the …

The Effects Of Schema-Based Instruction On Students At Risk For Or With Learning Disabilities, Molly Daniels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of schema-based instruction (SBI) on the correct response of 2 second-grade students at risk for or already determined to have a learning disability (LD) of comparison difference word problems. The study was a multiple probe across participants. Although the students did not use the RUN Strategy, one student’s ability to solve the word problems improved significantly after learning the strategy. Even though time was a factor in completing everything, the other student’s score did begin to improve after learning the RUN Strategy.

Virginia High Schools: Academic And Social Climate Performance Measures And Black Public Secondary School Administrators, Tim Duncan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Data have consistently revealed a major problem with disproportionality in several academic and social climate measures for African American students compared to their White counterparts. Black students tend to have lower end-of-course (EOC) testing scores in mathematics and reading, a greater tendency to be suspended from school, lower average on-time graduation rates, and higher rates of absenteeism. The current investigative study examined the role of same race administrators and performance indicators among African American students.

The findings demonstrated that significant differences between Black and White students existed in end-of-course testing in reading and math. The research also indicated significant relationships …

“We Do Not Know Which Path To Take” Mahieddine Bachetarzi, Music, Theater, And Salafist Nationalism In Interwar Algeria (1919 – 1939), Philip Devries

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Algerian nationalism in the interwar period did not emerge via a simple progression, nor as a unitary awakening; it was a polyvocal and multivalent movement comprised of disparate Muslim Algerian, Jewish Algerian, and European voices. The outward appearance of a singular movement is due in no small part to the cooption and monopolization of nationalist discourse by the Islamic reformist organization, the Association des oulémas musulmans algériens (AOMA), and their followers, including the Muslim musician and playwright, Mahieddine Bachetarzi. Indeed, while AOMA clerics and affiliated historians created the exclusively Arab-Muslim story of Algerian history that prevails today, cultural figures like …

Digital Manipulation Of Human Faces: Effects On Emotional Perception And Brain Activity, Martin Knoll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of human face-processing has granted insight into key adaptions across various social and biological functions. However, there is an overall lack of consistency regarding digital alteration styles of human-face stimuli. In order to investigate this, two independent studies were conducted examining unique effects of image construction and presentation. In the first study, three primary forms of stimuli presentation styles (color, black and white, cutout) were used across iterations of non-thatcherized/thatcherized and non-inverted/inverted presentations. Outcome measures included subjective reactions measured via ratings of perceived “grotesqueness,” and objective outcomes of N170 event-related potentials (ERPs) measured via encephalography. Results of subjective …

“It Is Not Enough To Be In One Cage With One Self”: The Poetic Subject, Incarceration, And Envisioning Abolition, Emily Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Beat poet Bob Kaufman was in many ways nearly destroyed by the state. Forcible electroshock therapy, repeated targeting by police, repeated brutalization by police, and frequent homelessness all threatened to snuff him out, but Kaufman refused to give in. He remained a political beacon of hope for his community throughout his life, asking those around him to envision a world where he could be free. Through his poems, through the poems of Etheridge Knight and Jimmy Santiago Baca, and through contemporary visions of abolition from Angela Davis and community organizers that become ever more relevant as the prison system …