Digital Commons Network^™

Illness Terminable And Interminable: A Lacanian Exploration Of Medical Assistance In Dying, Matthew Devine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More and more people worldwide are requesting euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide (PAS), or medical assistance in dying (MAiD). Arguments in favor of expanding access to MAiD tend to prioritize the rational, competent, autonomous subject who has the right to make decisions about their body, including their death. Some have argued that this perspective – common in biomedical and bioethical literature – tends to neglect the fact that requests for assisted dying involve a relational structure: a relationship between the subject who requests an assisted death and the Other to whom this request is addressed. After reviewing relevant psychoanalytic approaches to suicide …

Healthy And Successful Aging Outside The Closet: How Outness And Social Support Relate To Health And Aging Concerns, Jessica Segal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to disclose an LGBTQ+ identity is a significant part of many queer lives. A person’s outness can often be tied into their social support whether through their network or available resources. This study investigated how outness, social network, and access to resources relate to older LGBTQ+ individuals’ concerns regarding their care and their aging. A secondary data analysis was conducted using survey data from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The results showed that an increase in one’s social network indicated a decrease in aging-related care concerns; an increase in access to resources indicated a decrease in …

Under What Conditions? A University Pathway Program Evaluation, Michael Burke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As U.S. universities face a declining domestic applicant pool, commonly referred to as the “enrollment cliff,” international student recruitment provides a practical strategy for offsetting domestic enrollment shortfalls. One such strategy for increasing international student enrollment is through the establishment of university pathway programs that grant conditional admission to international applicants who fail to meet English language proficiency requirements but are otherwise academically admissible. As a baseline program evaluation, this study utilized a quantitative methods approach employing logistical regression analysis to determine if incoming standardized English language proficiency test scores, English as a Second Language (ESL) course GPA, and student …

Estimation Methods For Bayesian Exponential Random Graph Models Under The Horseshoe Prior., Pamela Linares

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Networks are powerful tools for modeling the complexity of social interactions, biological systems, and information spread. A leading statistical frameworks for analyzing network data are Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), which provide a principled approach to capturing structural dependencies. However, ERGMs remain challenging to estimate, especially in sparse or high-dimensional settings where models suffer from degeneracy and unstable parameter inference. This paper proposes a penalized Bayesian approach to ERGMs that utilizes the horseshoe prior, a sparsity-inducing global-local shrinkage prior. This prior offers robust regularization while preserving important signals, improving estimation by shrinking irrelevant parameters and reducing the impact of extreme …

From Afghanistan To Louisville: Changing Face Of Family And Gender Roles In Afghan Immigrants In Louisville, Kentucky., Zohal Ghoura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how Afghan immigrant families navigate gender roles and domestic responsibilities following their migration to the United States. Although current research recognizes the impact of migration on gender norms and labor division in immigrant families, the lived experiences of Afghan families in the United States remain largely unexplored. Based on 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Afghan women, this study explores how cultural expectations, economic constraints, and social context shape the division of domestic responsibilities. Findings reveal that migration opened new opportunities for Afghan women, including sense of freedom, access to education and employment opportunities. Exposure to egalitarian values …

The Substance Of Reality: Moral Perfectionism In Shakespeare's Hamlet., David Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through a selection of and close reading of key passages, I offer an interpretation of Hamlet that seeks to illuminate the play as an important work of moral philosophy, and to situate the play within a strand of moral philosophy named moral perfectionism by Stanley Cavell. Indeed, Hamlet is a masterpiece of Renaissance drama, but when read with attention to moral perfectionism, the play yields additional layers of meaning. Hamlet is a “philosophical drama” that navigates the “moral calling of philosophy”—a text that seems to, almost uncannily, elicit the audience to think reflectively, to ask fundamental human questions along …

Bleeding Out From The Redlining: An Autoethnographic Study Of Racial Equity Policy Enactment In A Large, Urban School District., Anderson Aven Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This autoethnographic study investigates the enactment and impact of racial equity policies within Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), a large urban school district in Louisville, Kentucky. The research is motivated by the ongoing challenges of achieving true educational equity for Black and Brown students, a struggle rooted in historical injustices such as redlining. Despite over seven years of policy implementation aimed at promoting racial equity, academic and behavioral disparities between Black and Brown students and their White counterparts have shown little improvement. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, this study employs autoethnography to intertwine personal narrative with scholarly analysis, exploring the lived …

Incarcerated Women: Gendered Rhetoric From The Outside And Reality Inside Prison Walls., Taylor Riley Geiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how formerly incarcerated women navigate and resist gendered media portrayals through digital platforms, focusing on the “mad” and “bad” woman tropes that shape public perceptions. Drawing on feminist rhetorical theory—particularly Royster and Kirsch’s methodological practices and Ratcliffe’s concept of rhetorical listening—this study combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of mainstream headlines with Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) of TikTok content. CDA of media coverage surrounding Lori Vallow Daybell, Casey Anthony, and Andrea Yates reveals how language, imagery, and cultural logics sustain harmful binaries that portray women who commit crimes either as depraved or as excused by madness, obscuring the …

Why Are Parents Choosing Forest Preschool? A Look Into Parent Choice And Outcome Expectations In A Forest Preschool Setting., Victoria M. Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As interest in alternative early childhood education settings continues to grow, Forest Preschools—programs emphasizing immersive outdoor, nature-based learning—have gained increasing attention from parents across the United States. This qualitative research study explores the underlying motivations and decision-making processes that lead families to choose Forest Preschool settings. Guided by Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory, which examines behavior as a function of person and environment, the study investigates the dynamic interplay of personal beliefs, social influences, and contextual factors that shape parental choice. Specifically, this study addresses four key research questions: (1) How do families who choose Forest Preschools gain information about preschool …

Empowerment Through The Sisters Lifting As We Climb Network: Examining The Organization’S Impact On Black Women, Sharnay Hearn Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological case study examines the role of empowerment within the “Sisters Lifting as We Climb Network” through the experiences of Black women participants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews, the research investigates the organization's origins, evolution, and social support mechanisms that foster empowerment, as well as participants' experiences with programs and activities over the past nine years. Additionally, the study identifies areas for organizational improvement to further enhance participant empowerment.

The findings of this research support the empowerment theory framework by clarifying the preconditions, processes, and outcomes of empowerment within the Network, which fosters sisterhood and enhances participants' …

Perceptions Of First-Year College Students On Respect In The Classroom During Their High School Career, Jane Adele Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the influence of teacher respect on classroom climate, student- teacher relationships, and academic performance. Through interviews with college students reflecting on their high school experiences, this research identifies specific teacher actions and communication that foster respect in the classroom. By identifying what respectful communication and actions are through the interviews, teachers will be able to use these in their classrooms.

Six themes were identified by the participants lived experiences. They are: teacher demeanor, social interaction, attitude, emotional support, instructional management and facilitation, and listening. The results gave specific actions and communication, in the eyes of the participants, …

Reclaiming Space: Unhoused Population And Their Use Of Public Libraries., Marcellos Desmond Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how unhoused individuals navigate and utilize the spatial dynamics of public libraries, with a specific focus on how they assert agency into the public space. Public space is examined at the institutional level and through the influential roles of individual workers. Public libraries serve as both refuge and resources for unhoused individuals, and this study highlights the complex dynamics that arise within them. Drawing on observations and informational informal interviews, I examine how unhoused people utilize and navigate the physical space of a public library in a large metropolitan area. I find that unhoused people adapt to …

Examining The Lived Experiences Of International Students At East Tennessee State University, John The Baptist Anodjo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the lived experiences of international students at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), specifically examining how they navigate social, academic, and structural challenges. Through in-depth interviews with 20 international students from a variety of nationalities, I analyzed issues related to legal status, housing, food insecurity, healthcare, and social integration. I found that students encounter barriers due to immigration policies, financial constraints, and limited access to essential resources. Additionally, international students benefit significantly from support provided by campus services, community organizations, and their social networks, which play a vital role in their adjustment process. While institutional resources are beneficial …

"No One Leaves For Free": A Media Analysis Of The Lived Experiences And Cumulative Impacts Of The Flint Water Crisis., Jordan Leigh Gatewood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In April 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan changed their municipal water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The effects of this change have been felt far and wide as news broke across the nation that this water was contaminated with lead and residents of Flint were getting sick. This research analyzes 170 news articles from three local and three national news outlets over a 10-year span, 2014 to 2024, to determine how community voice is presented in news media to portray the lived experiences and cumulative impacts of the Flint Water Crisis. Applying a Critical Environmental Justice …

Electronic Health Record Downtime, Grace R. Baldauf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electronic health record (EHR) downtime presents significant challenges to patient safety and care quality in acute care settings, particularly regarding timely medication administration. This project addressed the problem of late or absent medication doses during planned or unplanned EHR downtime. The investigator aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured downtime plan in improving nurses’ ability to administer medications on time during periods of EHR unavailability. The investigator used a quantitative design to implement a downtime plan evaluation paradigm. Data were collected using retrospective chart reviews of medication administration records pre-implementation and postimplementation of the downtime plan. The sample included …

Institutional Betrayal And Military Vaccine Mandates: An Inquiry Into Loss Of Health Autonomy Concerning Unlimited Liability Contractual Employment In The Covid-19 Era, Aaron G. Dehaven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The balance between government control and personal liberty is a growing concern in the modern world. Nowhere is this more evident than in discussions surrounding government policy in public health and individual health autonomy. The Covid-19 pandemic forced many institutions to change their standard operating procedures by adapting to rapidly changing health guidance instituted to protect public health. These changes highlighted the role of health autonomy and individuals’ rights to refuse medical treatments. The Department of Defense changed many aspects of how it operated during the pandemic, including the mandate of the Covid-19 vaccine for all service members. For various …

Evaluating The Predictive Value Of Basc-3 Anxiety Scale And Working Memory Index Scores For Clinically Significant Test Anxiety: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Non-Classifiable Cases, Des'tiana S. Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will explore how test anxiety (TA) affects working memory (WM) and whether certain factors can help predict higher levels of test anxiety. Anxiety has been defined as a common experience that can show up in various forms—like general worry, social fears, panic attacks, and specific phobias (APA, 2022). It was described as often triggering our natural “fight-or-flight” response, which can impact our ability to focus, think clearly, and remember things. For students, test anxiety has been especially challenging, affecting how they perform in high-stakes academic settings. Using data from a university based psychological assessment center, this study will …

Evaluating The Predictive Value Of Basc-3 Anxiety Scale And Working Memory Index Scores For Clinically Significant Test Anxiety: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Non-Classifiable Cases, Des'tiana S. Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will explore how test anxiety (TA) affects working memory (WM) and whether certain factors can help predict higher levels of test anxiety. Anxiety has been defined as a common experience that can show up in various forms—like general worry, social fears, panic attacks, and specific phobias (APA, 2022). It was described as often triggering our natural “fight-or-flight” response, which can impact our ability to focus, think clearly, and remember things. For students, test anxiety has been especially challenging, affecting how they perform in high-stakes academic settings. Using data from a university based psychological assessment center, this study will …

Who Gets To Be A Child And When? The Pervasive Yet Contextually Shaped Nature Of Racialized Adultification Across Perceivers And Contexts, Kevin M. Summers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racialized adultification is a pervasive bias in which individuals tend to judge Black children as older and more adult-like than White children of the same age. This racial bias is discussed across many scientific domains in addition to popular media, yet there is relatively little empirical work documenting its existence, consequences, and boundary conditions. In the current work, I aim to develop an empirical foundation that advances scientific understanding of racialized adultification and in turn contributes to a growing model that elucidates the conditions under which individuals are disproportionately likely to express this pernicious bias. In the current work, I …

Artists In The Alternative Genre: Communication Through Music, C. L. Noë

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Musicians throughout time and genre have strived to connect with their audience through music, whether they are trying to communicate a story or their own unique style. Musicians in alternative rock genres are no different, and therefore, this thesis looks at three different bands and analyzes the ways they convey meaning through their music for their audiences. Starting with Green Day, in the American Idiot album, they communicate the inner turmoil of the characters through a rhythmic motif and the different ways it presents in the music. Next, Fall Out Boy communicates authenticity to their fans through lyrics, vocal style, …

A Ritual Of Institutions: The State Industrial School In Golden, Colorado And The Shaping Of American Youth, Cyndal Groskopf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the Colorado State Industrial School as a ritualistic institution that influenced boys aged 7 to 19 through Americanization practices between 1881 and 1930. By employing primary documentation, drone imagery, and LiDAR technology, the study examines how cultural and physical activities, along with personal statements, described and maintained the ritualized nature among these incarcerated youth. The findings reveal how institutional routines and activities reinforced narratives of American identity, particularly in relation to themes of personal identity, conformity, and agency. These rituals played a crucial role in institutionalizing cultural ideals and shaping the identities of marginalized youth. The research …

An Auto-Criticism Exploration Of An International Transracial Adoption, Jessica M. Morganfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation explores the lived experience of international transracial adoption through the combined methodologies of auto-criticism and journaling. Using a first-person, insider-led approach, this study addresses four central research questions: (1) What experiences emerge when an adult adoptee reflects on their childhood as an international transracial adoptee? (2) How do identity development, cultural socialization, and experiences of racial and adoptive microaggressions intersect and influence an individual? (3) How does auto-criticism uniquely describe the international transracial adoptee experience? and (4) How might journaling serve as a research tool for data collection and analysis?

Daily journaling over a 30-day period functioned …

Culture And Environment: The Calling Lakes Ecomuseum As A Community Sustainability Initiative, Kace N. Anders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Located in Saskatchewan, Canada, the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum, CLEM, is a community-based organization focused on water management and sustainability. Ecomuseums are holistic organizations that occupy landscapes, are responsive to community needs, conserve in situ heritage, and incorporate sustainability along with community development. The ecomuseum movement came from a need for holistic heritage management that disengaged with conventional museology and created space for communities to engage with their heritage in ways that promote community identity. This thesis analyzes the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum and how it utilizes the ecomuseum concept alongside environmental sustainability. Both semi-structured interviews and place-based field observations were used …

The Islamic Orient In Antebellum America: The Influence Of Edgar Allan Poe In Contemporary Arabic Literature, Sohaib Alkamal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation posits a comprehensive overview of the debate about Orientalism, particularly early American depictions of the Islamic Orient. The study investigates the antebellum American portrayal of the Islamic Orient, focusing on Edgar Allan Poe’s Orientalist readings. While Said’s Orientalism concentrates heavily on aspects of power in West-East relations throughout history, this study expands on several aspects of Said’s book. This study provides a new approach to exploring the field of Orientalism by giving a voice to Arabic sources that are absent in Said’s Orientalism and rarely known to Western audiences. Such sources are medieval Islamic sources, which include phantasies …

Political Ecologies Of The Livestock Industry, Jecca Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States today, livestock production is dominated by an intensified, industrialized production paradigm whose growth in recent decades has utterly transformed the logistical realities and community impacts of animal agriculture. This dissertation investigates the effects of this production paradigm on livestock producers—whose decision-making is shaped by multi-scalar and often contradictory forces—as well as residents living near these large operations. To do so, I draw upon mixed-methods fieldwork, including in-depth interviews, spatial analysis, and field odor measurements in Weld and Morgan Counties in northern Colorado. I also use political ecologies of emotion, embodiment, and health to examine the complex …

Exploring The Effects Of Africana Studies On Black Undergraduate Students: A Qualitative Case Study, Lanaya M. Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Particularly in the context of American K-12 schools, education has been manipulated to control—rather than liberate—students through the erasure and distortion of Black history, experiences, perspectives, and capabilities. Additionally, American schools prioritize memorization and obedience while failing to equip students with critical thinking skills. As a result, students are trained to become workers rather than innovators, worldbuilders, and change-makers. For nearly a century, Black educational critics have stated that these systems were designed to subjugate Black community members through dehumanization and enslavement of the mind. These critiques are foundational to the aims of Afrocentric education which posits the life experiences …

Conceptualizing The Explanatory Fully Longitudinal Mixed Methods Case Study Design: A Demonstration With An Arithmetic Education Trial With Kindergarten Children, Menglong Cong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In employing longitudinal mixed methods designs, researchers have commonly used the fully longitudinal mixed methods design. This has occurred mostly in the health sciences but less in education. The current investigation proposes a novel longitudinal mixed methods research design, explanatory fully longitudinal mixed methods case study design. It demonstrates its potential for addressing research inquiries in educational research using the arithmetic learning trajectories datasets. This study is presented in three components. The first is a quantitative phase, selecting an exploratory case from a previous arithmetic learning trajectories study (Clements et al., 2021) for qualitative analyses based on maximizing the …

The Embodiment And Experiences Of Gender Euphoria Among Transgender And Nonbinary Communities: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Brendon T. Holloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender euphoria is a critical aspect of embodiment for transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people that has long been overshadowed in academic research by deficit narratives and gender dysphoria. While gender dysphoria is the distress an individual may experience related to their gender, gender euphoria encapsulates the positive emotions a TNB person may experience because of positive gendered experiences. Despite community documentations of gender euphoria since the 1970s, academic research on gender euphoria has only recently begun to emerge. This three-paper dissertation advances this body of scholarship by exploring how gender euphoria is conceptualized, experienced, and embodied in TNB communities. Utilizing …

The Narratological Maus, Isla Lader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Complete Maus, a memoir graphic novel surrounding the events of character Art Spiegelman as he collects, records, and illustrates his father’s life pre-the Holocaust in Europe, his time in Auschwitz, and then life in the United States has been one of the focal Holocaust survivor testimonies and has redefined the genre it exists in as both a graphic novel, but also as a form of testimony. Like many popularized works dealing with the Holocaust, though, cultural preconceptions of Jewish people, genocide, and audiences’ desire to find morals within the work have made it so often audiences come to …

How Executive Leaders Build Trust: Navigating Organizational Disruption During The Covid-19 Mega-Crisis, Marji Karish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global health crisis by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, created a “mega-crisis” characterized by intersecting physiological, economic, political, social, and cultural disruptions. This study examines how senior organizational executives narrate their response to the crisis, focusing on their engagement with organizational stakeholders. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, I conducted in-depth interviews with 12 organizational leaders to construct the Theory of Social Crisis Leadership Communication (SCLC).

Findings highlight the centrality of trust as an interdependent relationship in which executive leaders and organizational stakeholders rely on each other to navigate crises successfully. …