Digital Commons Network^™

Transformation Of Early Nineteenth Century Chickasaw Leadership Patterns, 1800-1845, Emily Paige Smithey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an examination of the changing leadership patterns of the Chickasaw Nation during the early nineteenth century, and combines the internal function of Chickasaw government with the leaders' responses to overwhelming external factors. This thesis begins in 1800, a time that hinges on the remnant Chickasaw political leadership offices of previous centuries, such as the Minko and Tisho Minko, combined with the formation of newer offices such as district chiefs. It ends in 1845 after the Chickasaws were forced to remove from their Mississippi homelands into the Indian Territory. After removal, the Chickasaws began a more centralized form of …

Understanding Strawberry Plains Through Landscape Archaeology, Leeanne Wendt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strawberry Plains is a site that is located in Marshall County, Mississippi and is comprised of Woodland, Chickasaw, antebellum, and postbellum components. The focus of this thesis was placed on the postbellum time period. The information presented here is intended to give a comprehensive view into the lives of the sharecroppers that resided and worked on Strawberry Plains during the early to mid-twentieth century and also understand the economic relationship between them and the landowner. Also of importance to this project was the placement of the houses and their dispersed pattern across the landscape and comparing this pattern to other …

Transgenerational Transmission Of Trauma In Second Generation Latino Children And Adolescents, Ricardo Phipps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the impact that immigration-related trauma has upon families, particularly second-generation immigrant children in the Latino-American community in the United States, and the possibility that second-generation immigrant Latinos are vulnerable to transgenerational trauma. Transgenerational trauma involves the exhibition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in subsequent generations in families with histories of trauma exposure. Multiple linear regression was conducted to explore the existence of a correlation between PTSD and depression in second-generation Latino immigrant children and adolescents with a myriad of potentially predicting factors. Enhanced understanding of how trauma can affect the children of traumatized immigrants will add …

Uneven Ground: Figurations Of The Rural Modern In The U.S. South, 1890-1945, Benjamin S. Child

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

New modernist studies has opened wide the discussion about what modernism means, when it begins, and, compellingly for the purposes of this project, where it occurs. Exploring intersections between modernization, modernism, labor, and segregation in the agricultural South, this dissertation demonstrates how the effects of nascent industrialization, emergent technologies, and "modern" thought are animated by figures and spaces associated with--or performing--versions of rurality. The project is divided into three major sections. In the first, I suggest that the contradictions of African American life in the post-Reconstruction world are parsed in the period's literature through the presence of a veiled georgic …

Development Of A Physical Activity Intervention Targeted At Middle-Aged Males: A Mixed Methods Research Study, Sheryl L. Chatfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Academic Hazing In Music Education, Cameron Whitworth Jenkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: academic hazing in this context is defined as the academic misuse of new or prospective graduate students in music education. Academic hazing can also refer to senior faculty who haze junior faculty during the years prior to tenure. This study was designed in two parts to examine academic hazing in graduate music education programs. First, twelve (n=12) faculty academic advisors, each serving as director of music education at their respective four-year comprehensive universities, were intervievia electronic mail. Then, fourteen (n=14) current graduate students in music education were intervieto gain the perspectives of their graduate experience. Each student was intervieby …

Conscience And Community: Exploring The Relationship Between Conscience Formation And Systemic Corruption (In Nigeria), Augustine E. Ebido

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the impact of the moral community (or social context) on the formation of conscience and its implication for moral responsibility. It is an interdisciplinary approach to theological reflection that is particularly attentive to psychological, philosophical, sociological, and neurobiological viewpoints showing how these have either distorted or broadened our understanding of conscience in its relation to community and social responsibility, or its formation in relationship to our moral development. It stresses reciprocity of conduct (for we are "responders") and the complementarities of internal and external sanctions. It insists that the influence of conscience on behavior is undermined …

Are You My Brother's Keeper: Challenging The Systemic Racism That Fosters Low Expectations For Black Males In Public Schools, Shana Denise Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation in practice investigates the problem of systemic racism fostering a culture of low expectations for Black males in public schools. This work frames this problem as a matter of social justice and utilizes Critical Race Theory to examine how it robs Black males of their academic potential. This work argues that to address this problem, educators must engage in learning opportunities that help to identify and challenge their race-based assumptions and stereotypes, develop their racial consciousness, cultural competencies, and professional practices, and recognize, interrupt, and address systemic racism. Provided is a working agenda that offers recommendations for how …

Women And The American Wilderness: Responses To Landscape And Myth, Gina Bessetti-Reyes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women and the American Wilderness: Responses to Landscape and Myth" explores three, middle to upper-class white women's responses to wilderness from texts published between 1823 and 1939. Through an exploration of James Fenimore Cooper's heroine Elizabeth Temple in the novel The Pioneers (1823), Isabella Bird's published letters entitled A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1873), and Muriel Rukeyser's reaction to the Gauley Bridge Tragedy of the 1930s in her book of poems The Book of the Dead (1939), I show that women's responses to the American wilderness not only included a reaction to the physical terrain but also to …

Childhood Growth In An Oneota Community: Examining Long Bone Growth Differences In The The Juveniles At Norris Farms 36, Whitney Broughton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oneota migration into the central Illinois River valley around ad 1300 resulted in a number of different interactions with Mississippian groups. Milner and colleagues (1991) identified significant numbers of perimortem injuries at the Norris farms 36 cemetery, along with biological markers for poor health, such as cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. They suggested that the threat of violence may have forced the Oneonta at Morton village to limit subsistence activities to circumscribed areas close to the settlement, thereby reducing the resource base and negatively impacting the health of the community. However, recent research (Bengtson et al. 2012; Bengtson and O'Gorman …

Cohonina Social Organization And The Role Of Forts In Integration And Interaction: A View From The Pittsberg Community., Travis Brent Cureton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the role of "forts" in the sociopolitical organization of a prehistoric people known as the Cohonina through the application of settlement systems analysis and functional studies. The primary objective of this thesis is to test ideas of Cohonina sociopolitical organization through an examination of the functional characteristics of forts and their positions on the landscape using a combination of theory derived from settlement and landscape archaeology, deployed in a geographic information system work environment. A Cohonina fort site known as the Pittsberg Fort Complex, was placed in its community context through broad scale survey. Artifact, architectural, and …

Creating Constructs Through Categorization: Gender And Race, Joshua Simpkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In U.S. society, the systems of gender and race operate to privilege and oppress individuals based on their location within these systems. All of the interactions an individual experiences as they go about their day-to-day lives are shaped by these interlocking systems. As a result, there is an extensive body of sociological literature addressing how individuals in U.S. society are privileged and oppressed on the basis of their perceived membership in gender and race categories; however, relatively little research exists examining how individuals come to be seen by others as members of gender and race categories in the first place. …

Reconciling Order And Progress: Auguste Comte, Gustave Le Bon, Emile Durkheim, And The Development Of Positivism In France, 1820-1914, Khali Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the philosophy of positivism in nineteenth century France. Based on an empirical vision of society, positivism advocated values of rationality, progress, and secularization. In that way, it stood as one of the defining systems of thought of the modern era. I discuss, however, an undercurrent of anxiety about those same values. Positivism's founder, Auguste Comte, argued that all sciences would become unified and organized under universal principles and empirical standards. He viewed the human mind as becoming more rationalized throughout history. In his later career, however, he argued that rationalism was a destructive force and that a …

'Til Death Do I Wait: Experiences Of Food Insecurity Among Elders On The Meals On Wheels Waiting List, Marie Gualtieri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity is not a new phenomenon experienced by elderly persons living in the United States. In a recent report by Feeding America, approximately 4.8 million Americans over the age of 60 are food insecure, which has doubled since 2001, and is 50% higher than in 2007. Due to lack of funding to the program, Meals on Wheels by Seniors First is unable to give meals to seniors in the Central Florida area who are food insecure. Through structured face-to-face interviews, this study examines elders on the program's waiting list and explores how this population obtains food if they are …

The Social Function Of For-Profit Higher Education In The United States, Andrew Baird

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the competing Burton Clark's "Cooling Out Theory" and Daniel Bell's "Theory of the Postindustrial Economy" to examine the function that for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) play in American higher education and how it is different from non-profit traditional colleges and universities (TCUs). This was done through three sections of analysis. The first examined if students who enroll at these FPCUs are less academically prepared than those attending non-profit traditional colleges or universities. The second tested if academic preparedness is associated with postsecondary performance at FPCUs to the same degree it is at TCUs. The final section of …

Managerial Process Of Discount Decision-Making In The Lodging Industry: The Role Of Human Agency, Seung Hyun Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management faces a paradox in managing discrepancies between actual demand and expected demand in daily operations, thereby requiring constant adjustments in pricing under the supervision of management in the short term. The purpose of this study is to determine how discount choices are created and to understand information processing related to the pricing and discounting decision-making process as well as narrating the events, stages, and cycles of choices made by hotel managers. This study also determines the role of human judgment based on contextual factors in the decision-making process. This mixed methods research design consists of three steps: observation, classification, …

Transforming A University? A Qualitative Analysis Of The Grantee-Grantor Relationship Between Florida Institute Of Technology And The F. W. Olin Foundation, Matthew Ruane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to discuss and examine the nature of the grantor-grantee relationship between the F. W. Olin Foundation and Florida Institute of Technology in the larger context of grants by foundations and philanthropies to higher education. At the center of the research is a $50-million-dollar grant that "transformed" Florida Institute of Technology in ways that were perhaps unforeseen by either the grant-issuing foundation or the higher-education institution itself. This research will include a brief history of the two institutions involved and the circumstances that led to this grant proposal and its eventual implementation by the university, …

Ethical Decision-Making In Higher Education: A Sociological Examination Of Graduate Students' Understanding Of Appropriate Academic Sharing, Jennifer Parham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Most prior research and scholarship views cheating as an individual failing rather than a sociological or organizational phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges students face in graduate education and the factors that affect ethical beliefs towards academic dishonesty. This study used a mixed method research approach including an online survey with approximately 1,250 responses from graduate students representing each of UCF's colleges and fifteen interviews with students in fourteen different disciplines. Results of the online survey indicated no significant differences between international and domestic students. Survey and interview data indicate that graduate students' perceptions of …

Analysis Of The Congruency Between Educational Choices And Community College Student Degree Aspirations, Mark Quathamer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explored variables that influence community college student degree aspirations and students purpose for enrolling and pursuing specific degree types. The study was conducted using secondary data for students pursuing Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Bachelor of Applied Science degrees at a single community college. A logistic regression test was used to test graduate and baccalaureate degree aspirations of the entire sample of students and separately by degree type. Significant predictors of degree aspirations included age, gender, credits enrolled in, participation in student groups, academic course planning, receipt of scholarship, and college GPA. In general, community college …

Performing On The Screen: An Exploration Of Gender Representation In Technology Video Advertisements, Subriena Persaud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the representation of gender in technology-related video advertisements. This thesis quantitatively and qualitatively examined 54 of the most recent commercials by the top nine Fortune 500 technology companies. A total of 407 characters were coded and quantitatively analyzed while the videos themselves were qualitatively assessed with particular attention given to the videos' themes and the interactions between the characters and the technology products and services. Results of the analyses showed that there were more male, Caucasian characters than any other character type based on gender and race/ethnicity. Females were mainly characterized according to traditional stereotypes, such as …

How Do Teams Become Cohesive? A Meta-Analysis Of Cohesion's Antecedents, Rebecca Grossman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While a wealth of research has deemed cohesion critical for team effectiveness (e.g., Mullen and Copper, 1994; Beal, et al., 2003), less emphasis has been placed on understanding how to get it. Multiple studies do examine cohesion antecedents, but these studies have not yet been integrated in either theoretical or empirical manners. The purpose of this study was thus to begin addressing this gap in the literature. I conducted a series of meta-analyses to identify and explore various antecedents of cohesion, as well as moderators of antecedent-cohesion relationships. Findings revealed a variety of cohesion antecedents. Specifically, team behaviors, emergent states, …

Glorious Adornment: The Social Function Of Cloth And Clothing In Israel's Tabernacle, Selena Billington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the tabernacle narratives of Exodus, the LORD instructs the Israelites to build a tabernacle and to make special garments in which to consecrate Aaron (proto-type high priest) and his sons (proto-type priests). The garments are to be for Aaron's and his sons' "glorious adornment." Detailed descriptions of the special garments are provided, and the description shares much in common with the descriptions of the cloths which comprise the tabernacle complex. What is there about the unique clothing of Aaron and the cloth of the tabernacle that causes Aaron and the tabernacle to be glorified? What is being said about …

From Segregation To Integration: A Historical Study Of Music Education In The Colored School In Louisville, Mississippi Through 1970, Jeremy S. Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What was music like, if it existed, in black schools before integration, and what happened to black music educators after integration? To properly address this, the history of segregation, major court rulings and other noteworthy attempts at integration, must be mentioned. This study reveals the untold history of the music department of Louisville Colored School in Louisville, Mississippi. This study will open the door for further, in-depth dialogue on the subject of music education in black schools before integration. Five years before the 1970 integration of public schools in Louisville, MS, Louisville Colored School, sometimes referred to as Camile Street …

Mr Hyde Or Dr. Jekyll? Characteristics Of The Information Systems Security Mindset, David Pumphrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information security professionals have a unique challenge in today's connected world. They are charged with protecting digital assets from individuals, groups, and even foreign governments with little or no restrictions limiting their behavior. To be successful, security experts must have the mindset and skills of those who seek to harm their organization, but most are not alloto retaliate, in kind. Instead, they must use these skills only to predict and to prevent future attacks; thus using their technical prowess for good and not for evil. In a survey of 330 information security professionals, the data reveals six mindsets of security …

Improbable Dreams: A Qualitative Case Study Of Elite High School Football Players, Noah Stephen Webb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a qualitative case study of an elite high school football program in the American Southeast. I conducted twelve interviews with former players from Lake Kolofa High School to better understand how young men are socialized into pursuing elite levels of sport. Using the society spectacle framework, this thesis extends current debates about primary sources of encouragement for participation to include the collective spectacle of sport. Here, the sporting spectacle acts as a major contributing factor in how young men come to view their chances of achieving upward social mobility through football. Other primary findings focus on the …

Maintaining Community On Hardship Island: A Case Study Of Demographic Change And Community Agency, Jamiko Vandez Deleveaux

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to address how a community survives in the context of sustained population loss in an international context. Crooked Island, located in The Bahamas, has experienced a steady population decline over the last several decades. This research focused on how family networks and communication technology are used by Crooked Island residents to develop relationships and build community in the face of population loss from out-migration. The causes and effects of population loss are examined, and then community field theory and the interactional approach are used to understand the processes residents engage in to address place-relevant problems such …

Exploring Acculturation And Intercultural Identity Building Of International Students At The University Of Mississippi, Rachael Clare Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Italian Immigration In The United States, Giuseppe Piccoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a historical research that used content analysis of secondary sources (newspapers, magazines, literature, movies and sociological studies) in order to describe Italian immigration in America. The research is focused on Italian-American communities in the areas of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

Between 1880 and 1920, Italian-Americans became one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. For a long period, they faced discrimination and lived at the edge of the American society. Education, immigration and urban policies influenced the social structure of the Italian communities. Later, second generation immigrants started writing books and making …

Examination Of The Influence Of Instructional Coaching On Teacher And Principal Behavior, Attitudes, And The Resultant Learning Environment, Cynthia Pulkowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, stakeholders in education have placed significant emphasis on student achievement. Educational reform in the United States and internationally has set ambitious goals for student learning. Additionally, educational reform demands transformations in classroom practices for teachers to become agents of change. As such, teacher professionalism is at a threshold; moral purpose and change agentry are implicit in good teaching and effective change (Fullan, 1993). Systems do not change themselves; rather, they change through the actions of individuals and small groups (Fullan, 1993). In light of this notion, and in the face of educational reform and accountability, …

Embracing Commonplace: Creating Ground For A Life Of Rhetorically Engaged Civic Action, Jill K. Burk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project responds to the question: How do communication educators encourage students to enact the communicative practices necessary for a life of rhetorically engaged civic action? In responding to this question, the academic field of communication studies is recognized as a site for implementing the lessons of rhetoric, democracy, and civic engagement. This project contributes to the civic engagement scholarship from a communication studies perspective by foregrounding human communication as an essential component of the civic engagement process. As an interpretive inquiry, the philosophical thought and the pragmatic action of twentieth-century rhetorician and social activist Jane Addams (1860-1935) provides a …