Digital Commons Network^™

Rape: A Settler-Colonial And Anti-Black Project, Cristy A. Dougherty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

White feminist theorizations of rape privilege patriarchy as the main source of gender violence, ultimately centering white cisgender women. In doing so, white women are treated as subject in anti-rape discourse while the violence inflicted on women of color is rendered as secondary and insignificant. Conversely, Indigenous and Black feminist analytics center Indigenous and Black women’s experiences with sexual violence, ultimately pointing to the ways in which rape has been used as a tool to perpetuate heteropatriarchy, settler-colonialism, and anti- Black racism. For instance, Deer (2015) explains that Indigenous women experience disproportionately high rates of sexual violence that spans generations. …

Statistical Modeling Of Positive Peer Support On Longitudinal Adolescent Substance Use, Kady Rost

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To evaluate this study’s research question of ”Does the latent construct of Positive Peer Support (PPS) relate to the construct of Adolescent Substance Use (ASU) over time, controlling for neighborhood safety, race, and sex?”, Structural Equation (SEM) and Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) were used to investigate trajectories. Secondary longitudinal data from Zimmerman (2014) of 604 students enrolled for four consecutive years in public schools located in Flint, Michigan. In the secondary data resource, students who participated were declared “at risk” by GPA. Significant relationships were found in SEM: Positive Peer Support to Adolescent Substance Use, All Control Variables to …

Corporate Ventures: Relational Microfoundations Of Innovation Performance, Burak Malkoc

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large, established companies invest in innovation to sustain and improve their competitiveness. In addition to in-house R&D departments, they acquire startup companies and operate them under a separate organizational structure. Corporate ventures’ success depends on many factors, such as available resources, compensation schemes, and acquisition strategies, which have been explored in the extant literature. This study explores the antecedents of corporate venture innovation performance through the lens of dynamic capabilities and social capital theories. Existing research on dynamic capabilities has explored its microfoundations of managerial cognition and top management initiatives. However, the development of dynamic capabilities requires actors’ level interactions …

Luke Was Not A Christian: Interdisciplinary Perspectives On The Jewish Authorship Of Luke And Acts, Joshua Paul Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation challenges the long-held assumption that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written by a gentile Christian, arguing instead that the author of these texts was an educated follower of “the Way” who was raised and enculturated within a Hellenistic Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, it probes the question of Lukan authorship variously from reception history and social memory theory, intertextuality studies, thematic analysis informed by historical and literary criticism, and incorporates emerging insights from the field of cognitive linguistics. It concludes with a reflection upon some of the potential ethical …

Community Unclaimed: Plurality And The Problem Of Sovereignty In Bataille, Nancy, And Blanchot, Gregory J. Grobmeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes up the exchange between three prominent French thinkers on the question of “community”: Georges Bataille, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Maurice Blanchot. Taken together, and starting with Bataille’s prewar writings and communitarian activism in the 1930s, the exchange between them now spans nearly a century. Georges Bataille’s importance as a political thinker and writer was brought out of relative obscurity with the publication of Jean-Luc Nancy’s “La Communauté désoeuvrée” in 1983. Less than a year after the appearance of Nancy’s inaugural essay, Maurice Blanchot, a close friend of the late Bataille, published La Communauté inavouable. Blanchot’s text was …

Assessing The Variations Of Educational Attainment At National And Subnational Levels Using Hierarchical Linear Models, Bingxin Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education is a human right, and equal access to education is not only crucial for an individual’s well-being, but also essential for eradicating poverty, ensuring long-term prosperity for all, transforming the society, and achieving sustainable development. Measuring education development, especially the variations of educational attainment, in a timely and accurate manner can help educators, practitioners, scientists, and policymakers compare and evaluate various education indicators at both subnational and national levels. This research presents an approach that combines multi-source and multidimensional data including population distribution, human settlement, and education data to assess and explore educational attainment trajectories at both national and …

Plantation Economy Model As Developed By Lloyd Best And Kari Polanyi Levitt: The Case Of Jamaica, Paula-Leone Samuda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lloyd Best and Kari Polanyi Levitt created the Theory of the Plantation Economy as an analytical tool for understanding the causes of underdevelopment in the Caribbean region. The theory provides a break from the classical understanding of developing economies as simply pre-industrialized societies. Instead, the theory tracks uneven development through analysis of metropole-hinterland relations, which account for the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and mercantilism on the structure of the global economy. In doing so, Plantation Theory is able to draw a clear link between underdevelopment in the hinterland and development in the metropole. Examining the usefulness of the Theory of …

A. B.A.L.A.N.C.E.: A Well-Being Research Study, Reggie Gwinn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the impact of a well-being intervention, using a well-being curriculum, known as A. B.A.L.A.N.C.E.. The method of educational criticism and connoisseurship was used as the qualitative method. Educational criticism is rooted in the process of expressing the specific qualities of one’s observations, while educational connoisseurship is rooted in the process of appreciation. The intervention will be conducted by an interventionist, myself, who gave the 10-lesson intervention to six 6th grade (11 – 12 years old) participants over a two-week period. This was orchestrated over a technological platform known as Zoom. It …

Resentenced And Released: Re-Entry Needs Following Release From Juvenile Life Without Parole, Daphne M. Brydon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over 2,100 individuals serving juvenile life without paroles (JLWOP) sentences in the U.S. became eligible for resentencing following the 2016 Montgomery v. Louisiana Supreme Court ruling. Michigan housed an estimated 370 juvenile lifers at that time, the second largest JLWOP community in the country and has since resentenced and released approximately 120 juvenile lifers. Folx released from prison encounter many barriers to successful re-entry. Barriers are often amplified for those incarcerated as adolescents. Further, services are de-prioritized for folx serving JLWOP sentences, which can be especially damaging for this community whose life experiences are marked by high rates of trauma, …

Examining Experience, Role, And Lgbtq Identity In Department Chairs, Ashton B. Clouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

LGBTQ rights have progressed tremendously in recent times, not long ago LGBTQ individuals could be arrested simply for being themselves. Though many rights have been won, the fight for equity continues. This is especially true in the field of education, many think of higher education as a pathway to equity, but in reality it can serve to solidify societal inequities. Campus climate studies of LGBTQ faculty members in higher education show that climate is most impactful at the departmental level (Nichols & Scott, 2005), others highlight the importance of department chairs in fostering climate within their departments (Bystydzienski et al., …

Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Through The Aesthetic Lens Of Crispa, Paula Adamo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In times where only 60% of college students are graduating (NECS, 2018), the need to help undergraduates thrive in college is vital. Because faculty have a crucial role in this profound endeavor, this study examines the intentions (intentional curriculum) of four undergraduate instructors identified by colleagues and students as good teachers. The study also examines what students take away from their instructors and classes (received curriculum) and looks at how elements of the aesthetic approach to teaching and learning known as CRISPA emerge naturally in the curricula in order to demonstrate the proposition that good teachers, at any level, implement …

Demystifying School Resource Officers: A Case Study, Alexis Sliva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a dramatic spike in student arrests for behaviors that previously fell under the auspices of suspensions, expulsions, or family consultations. Black and Latinx students receive discipline and law enforcement referrals at superfluous levels compared to White peers. Additionally, the disproportionate and aggressive referral of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students for disciplinary action are often for infractions that are considered less severe than the actions of their White counterparts. Punitive discipline advances school-based pathways to the juvenile justice system (SPJJ), formerly known as the school to prison pipeline (STPP). School psychologists are …

A Grounded Theory Inquiry Into The Pedagogical Socialization Of Graduate Students Within Graduate Quantitative Methods Courses, Amanda Kay Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative methods are one of the most highly technical fields of study within social sciences graduate programs. Although classroom pedagogy is an important factor connected to student success within graduate quantitative methods courses little is known on the pedagogical socialization experiences of masters and doctoral students. The purpose of this grounded theory inquiry was to discover graduate students perspectives on their pedagogical socialization experiences and the norms, values and role expectations transmitted during the teaching and learning of quantitative methods. Narrative data was collected from in-depth interviews among a theoretical sample of 31 masters and doctoral students enrolled in introductory, …

Operationalizing A New Method For Defining And Scaling Social Innovations Using Tiny Home Communities As A Case Study, Jennifer H. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social innovations are new approaches to addressing unmet need. In an increasingly globalized and interconnected world, social innovations propagate rapidly in response to the dynamic conditions of our modern world. An example of an emergent social innovation, tiny home communities are gaining traction as a more economically, socially, and environmentally favorable response to homelessness and inadequacies in the current shelter and housing system. The use of tiny homes communities (that is, intentional clusters of small-scale structures) as an innovative response to homelessness is relatively new. As such, there is limited empirical evidence on the topic. Lack of research and defined …

Predictors Of Faculty Retention And Turnover Intent In State System Institutions: An Institution's Work Environment (Organizational Structure) Impacts On Faculty Gender Composition And Intention To Leave Or Stay, Joyce Eduful

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Retaining high-quality and competent faculty members requires academic institutions authorities to understand the institutional factors that determine faculty retention and turnover intent to help implement sound policies and practices to maintain these faculty members in academia. This research examined the institutional work dimensions related to faculty job satisfaction and intention to leave or stay, particularly in state system institutions. Survey data were garnered as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE PLAN-IHE grant project and were administered through various institutions' representatives of the NSF ADVANCE PLAN-IHE grant program and were commissioned to work with their provosts to distribute the …

Interrogating The Socio-Ethical Dilemmas Of Precision Agriculture Technologies, Ayorinde Ogunyiola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Farming has moved into a digital age where data and information are available to farmers to make informed agronomic and financial on-farm decisions. The development of precision agriculture (PA), such as big data technologies and machine learning algorithms is transforming the agricultural food production system in diverse ways, economically, environmentally, and socially. Despite benefits afforded by PA to agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability, these technologies can raise unintended societal challenges that can also limit their adoption among farmers. PA is changing how farming is done, reconstructing farmers’ social identities, and influencing relationships between farmers, agronomists, and technology developers. This dissertation …

First Generation Law Students: Barriers To Success, Melissa Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A significant population of higher education students are first generation students; students who come from a home where neither parent has completed a bachelor’s degree (Vasil & McCall, 2018). These first generation students experience a gap of education, knowledge, and support which creates a persistent problem of unequal access to higher education for first generation students (MacLachlan, 2017). This unequal access shows itself in barriers faced by the students coming from these first generation backgrounds of interconnected, heightened risk factors (Gardner, 2013).

This dissertation was completed using qualitative analysis to interview six first generation college graduates in the juris doctor …

Serving Motherhood: Analyzing The Balance And Justice Of Foodwork In The Lives Of Working Moms, Kaitlyn Paige Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the foodwork that working mothers do at work and at home in order to support and provide for their families. It explores how women in low-paid food service jobs talk about and manage the work of feeding their families at home and customers at work in order to better understand the gender dynamics of this work and the conditions necessary to achieve “work-family justice”—structural solutions to work/family conflict. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 12 mothers who are between the ages of 24 and 43 from Mississippi and Arkansas. While some held …

Revitalization In The Alabama Black Belt: Cultivation Of A New Civic Hegemony In Rural Main Street America, Martha Grace Lowry Mize

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One Alabama Black Belt community has sought to re-imagine itself as a future affluent space for new families, tourists, and diasporic communities—despite regional challenges—by supplanting traditional discourses and centering a new civic hegemony within local revitalization efforts. This research and thesis draws upon qualitative ethnographic methods: participant observation and interviews conducted in Marion, Alabama. Located in Perry County, Marion has approximately 3,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are African-American. Marion was designated as a Main Street Community (June 2017) and began a series of revitalization initiatives to increase community pride and project confidence about future growth. The National Main Street …

What Am I?": Navigating Running Identity During Covid-19, Joshua Yeager

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempted to answer how collegiate student-athlete runners navigated their running identity through the COVID-19 pandemic. This international health crisis served as an identity threat to the participants in this study as it cancelled outdoor track and field season in the spring of 2020. The main goal was to investigate how student-athlete runners navigated their athletic identity during COVID-19 and the social and psychological costs associated with said navigation. Utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews, I collected data from five male and five female collegiate distance runners, from the same university. With grounded theory approach and identity theory as a theoretical …

Opening The American University: African American, Latino/A, And Women's Activism In Higher Education And Postwar Politics, 1964-1985, Jillian Elizabeth Mcclure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, student and faculty activists at public, flagship universities used existing civil rights organizations and founded new activist groups to bring attention to barriers that hindered their equal power and participation within higher education. African Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and women created grassroots campaigns and worked within institutional structures to reform universities between 1964 and 1985. Activists worked separately and across gender, racial, and ethnic lines in attempts to gain authority, power, and self-determination within the university system. Students and faculty asserted that flagship universities needed to serve the needs …

The Unmet Needs Of Academic Support Services For Students At Holmes Community College On The Goodman Campus, Karen Ray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents a three-manuscript dissertation exploring the unmet needs for academic support of TRIO-eligible college students on the Goodman Campus of Holmes Community College (HCC) in Mississippi. The quantitative study uses descriptive and comparative statistic techniques to analyze two data sets, including the academic success of students who are qualified, applied for, and were selected for HCC TRIO SSS in 2017-18 and the success of students who are qualified, applied for, but were not selected for 2017-18 federal program. The aggregate academic successes, as measured by grade-point average (GPA), was the first comparison of the two groups. This study …

Roll Down Like Water: Photography, Social Movements, And Surveillance In Memphis, Tenneessee, Andrea Morales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless,’” Arundhati Roy said during a speech after earning her 2004 Sydney Peace Prize for literature. “There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” These words help illuminate the tensions between dominant narrative and power, as well as photography’s role arbitrating both. This paper will explore those relationships and their impacts through existing documentary and sociological studies, but more pointedly will use the experience of making a body of work about social movements in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the last seven years, I’ve used critical race theory framework to make photographs rooting …

Exploring Current Community College Transfer Students’ Perceptions Of The University Of Mississippi Brand And Potential Connections To College Choice, Sarah Sapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions of higher learning today rely on tuition dollars to function. During a time when the pool of high school graduates is shrinking, colleges and universities must look to alternative target markets to meet enrollment goals, including those transferring from community college. Community college transfers have unique attributes that contribute to their brand perception of colleges and universities and their overall college choice process. This dissertation suggests a need to study the college decision-making process for community college students and their perception of brand identity, specifically at the University of Mississippi. As the Flagship university in Mississippi, UM has a …

Reducing Disparites In Act Results According To Racial Identity: An Applied Research Study Into The Weact Program In Tinlake High School, Marcus Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT The ACT provides opportunities for students of various socioeconomic backgrounds, racial identities, and family structures. Throughout the nation, there is a disparity that involves Black students scoring less than White students on the test by a margin of five points. The applied mixed methods research aimed to identify elements to help decrease the gap in student scores. The combined efforts of all the elements, tutorials, boot camps, ACT prep classes, and providing ACT resources in daily instruction formed the WeACT program. The students of Tinlake High School were exposed to this pilot program to assist in their ACT growth. …

Just Southern Food: Food Justice For The Mississippi Delta, Christian Tabor Owen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this research is to promote food justice for the Mississippi Delta by investigating facts about the intersections of extreme poverty, food insecurity, and chronic illness in the Mississippi Delta. By exploring relevant literature and highlighting current initiatives, this work looks at the semantics of food justice and related terms, discusses challenges unique to the Mississippi Delta, and broadly characterizes public health models with the greatest potential for food justice advancement in this region. Pivotal to interpreting food justice not only for the Mississippi Delta or the Global South, but for any community, is a clear understanding …

Executive Coaching: A Cohesive Conceptual Model And The Qualitative Investigation Of Executive Coaching Styles, David Morelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Executive coaching is a field in search of a conceptual model to tie together disparate studies and theories. While several decades of research validate ‘that’ coaching works (Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2018), it’s been unclear is to ‘how’ coaching works. For over two decades, the field has been calling out for a conceptual model (Kilburg, 1996; Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2018) and hasn’t known where to turn. While several attempts have been made, each of them suffered from conflation and lack of specificity, perhaps due to the lack of theoretical grounding amidst coaching’s nascence as a field. Answering this call is important …

Turnover Intentions Of Self-Initiated Expatriates: The Role Of Servant Leadership And Organizational Embeddedness, Caleb W. Lugar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The topic of this dissertation is turnover of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). The significance of the SIE domain is evidenced by the exponential growth in SIE literature since the publication of the seminal research article authored by Inkson, Arthur, Pringle, and Barry (1997). Research in the SIE domain is also of interest to practitioners employed in multinational organizations who increasingly recognize that SIEs are an untapped source of global talent. To contribute to the SIE literature, in Essay One, of my three-essay dissertation, I first provide a systematic SIE literature review. Second, my unique contribution is a systematic review of the …

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 …

Equity, Social Justice, And Ethical Responsibility In Higher Education: Voices Of Business Students At A Pervasivley Sectarian University, Van Brooks Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This proposed study explores the perceptions and experiences of business students who attend a pervasively sectarian university in the South (MPSU) regarding their perceptions of equity, social justice, and ethical responsibility through their experiences on campus and in their academic program. This study will discuss socio-political influences at the national, state, and local levels and examine existing university policies and practices to identify recommendations for organizational change using Lewin’s unfreezing model as a theoretical framework.