Digital Commons Network^™

The Bridge River Dogs: Interpreting Adna And Stable Isotope Analysis Collected From Dog Remains, Emilia Tifental

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Excavations at the Bridge River site have been on-going since 2003, increasing our understanding of the communities that inhabited the Middle Fraser Canyon, British Columbia over 1,000 years ago. The most recent excavation at Housepit 54 in the summer of 2014 supplied further data regarding relationships between people and their dogs. Dogs are well documented in the Middle Fraser Canyon through both archaeological excavations and traditional knowledge. A household's possession of a dog has been linked to other prestigious materials, and therefore been interpreted as an indicator of wealth and status. The present study was aimed at further investigation of …

Re-Analyzing The Function Of Demonstrative Reference In Tajik, Kelly E. Bowman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a re-analysis of Tajik demonstratives based on an alternative to the widely accepted framework for understanding demonstrative reference. In this framework, demonstrative reference is categorized according to two criteria: the anchor relative to which reference is made, and the number of spatial distinctions the system has for encoding distance from the anchor (Levinson 2004, O’Grady 2010). According to previous literature (Rastorgueva 1963, Perry 2005, Windfuhr & Perry 2009), Tajik has a speaker-anchored, two-way reference system. However, these criteria alone do not account for the data presented in this thesis. I therefore propose the following change to this …

A Brief But Intensive Language-Literacy Intervention For An Adolescent, Minako I. May

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The current service delivery model most frequently used in a school setting involves short, infrequent sessions over a 180-day school year. To date, there is no research that supports the current service delivery model as being the most effective and efficient model of intervention. As students transition from elementary to middle school, this model is particularly problematic for the adolescent student because of a rotating school schedule, increasing language demands of the academic curriculum, and development of self-perception and academic self-concept. A brief but intensive language-literacy intervention that takes place outside of the school year may be an effective and …

Better Talking Heads: Concerning Fuller "Experience" In Environmental Philosophy, Christina Bovinette

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Through this project, I demonstrate how professional environmental ethics is constrained by, what I call, a rationalist bias and I offer a different approach to environmental questions in the face of this observation. Intellectual life depends on material conditions and our necessary physical ties to Earth. I suggest that an emphasis on our physical connections with the planet can benefit professional environmental ethics. I draw from some feminist understandings to discuss the advantages of a professional environmental ethics that respects and integrates experiences outside of rational deliberation. I attempt to bring my discussion of experience, environmental ethics, and some feminist …

Hyperconnected School Leadership: Shared Experiences, Elizabeth Sue Wargo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Leaders remain perpetually connected to their work because of the rapid advancement of information technology. This research, using a qualitative approach, explored how increased connective technology is affecting school leaders with the central question: How is hyperconnectivity experienced by school leaders? Using personal interviews, the lived experiences of fifteen international middle and high school principals with one-to-one student-to-device programs were collected. Raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach as outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed for the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants indicating the essences of …

Old Wet Paint, Michael G. Hansen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Contemporary living can cause stress that is detrimental to creativity. Most of the world’s population has grown dependent on technology to connect us to, and keep track of daily, monthly, and hourly actions. Our plans fill us with the illusion of control over random events. I do not trust technology to help me find my way in the world. I want to find my way in life using limited technology. My art practice is an example of this trajectory and has become my way of embracing random events. The logic I use to employ order in the pandemonium of everyday …

Cold Lapse, Tressa Jones

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

cold lapse addresses the abstract notions of time and loss while conveying the value of observing the present. The postmodern view of time, the grid’s vernacular, and the aesthetics of postminimalism are my foundation for communicating time’s passage and its consequential sensations of absence. The duration of a slow drip, the cycle of breath and the sequential motion of a hand folding paper each mark passing moments. By observing these signs the phenomenon of time may be appreciated. Care and ephemerality in the work require the viewer’s sensitivity when encountering and witnessing it, much like the demands of observing the …

On The Road To Better Health? Impacts Of New Market Access On Food Security, Nutrition, And Well-Being In Nepal, Himalaya, Michelle Ursula Grocke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The first road to be built into Humla, Nepal has connected this once-remote Himalayan region to a market in China. This dissertation research assesses the impacts of this road on villagers’ food security, diet and nutrition, and subjective well-being, and investigates the link between objective and subjective health outcomes. The primary aim of this study is to decipher whether villagers’ ‘proximity to road’ is the strongest predictor of the aforementioned health outcomes, or whether other sociocultural and economic variables play a more significant role. A mixedmethods approach and a case-control ethnographic research design were implemented in order to investigate this …

What Do You Think I Am?: On Perceiving Unintelligibility In The Nonbinary Gender Experience, James Warwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

What does it mean to be “retired from gender,” and what role does such an identity play in daily life? Engaging with the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Judith Butler, this project attempts to elucidate the experience of nonbinary – that is, external to the male/female gender binary – gendered individuals, and the ultimate unintelligibility of that experience. Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological approach to perception allows for an exploration of the social norms and regulations that determine how gender is defined in Western culture; combined with Butler’s significant work on gender and its performativity, phenomenology proves a useful tool for revealing the …

From Existentialism To Ecology: A Phlosophical Analysis Of Crisis In Samuel Beckett, Sean P. Collins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Knowledge And Resistance: Feminine Style And Signifyin[G] In Michelle Obama’S Public Address, Tracy Valgento

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the public discourse of the first African American first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. I argue that Michelle Obama uses the double-voiced discourses of feminine style and African American Signifyin[g] to negate post-race and post-gender mythologies that suggest that American society is “beyond identity”. Looking at three of Obama’s speeches: Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention Speech, The Remarks by the First Lady at Memorial Service for Dr. Maya Angelou, and Remarks by the First Lady at Tuskegee University Commencement Address this thesis argues that Michelle Obama performativity interrogates and questions gender and race relations …

Preschool Writing Instruction: Modeling The Writing Stages, Shelby Swant

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Writing is an essential component of language development and early literacy. With the growing focus on national and state education standards, the early foundation of writing and literacy skills proves to be an area of importance and concern; however, limited research has been conducted in the area of preschool writing instruction. This study investigated writing and other foundational literacy skills in preschoolers following three different instructional conditions. Preschoolers (n=85), who attended a preschool educational setting serving low-income families, were randomly assigned to classrooms in three research groups: control, comparison, and treatment. The control group participated in implicit writing …

The Western Stemmed Point Tradition: Evolutionary Perspectives On Cultural Change In Projectile Points During The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition, Lindsay D. Scott

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis I analyze the cultural techniques of Paleoindians in North America by examining the diversification and fusion of stemmed projectile point traditions using an evolutionary analysis. The Western Stemmed Point tradition has an extensive regional and temporal distribution throughout the Intermountain West and High Plains during the Paleoindian period. In an effort to determine how stemmed projectile point technologies relate to each other, I applied a phylogenetic approach to construct heritable patterns of projectile point histories. By measuring the physical traits of those points and using a macro-evolutionary theoretical approach, changes in artifact form can be acquired and …

Purposefully Planning For Mathematics Discourse: A Study Of Teacher Learning And Lesson Enactment, Andria Rae Disney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mathematics discourse plays a crucial role in students’ learning of mathematics, yet facilitating productive mathematics discourse is a complex task for teachers. This embedded single-case study sought to explore teacher learning around planning for and facilitating mathematics discourse and capture any changes in the nature of classroom discourse as a result of teacher learning. Teacher learning was facilitated through a professional learning community (PLC). The PLC was designed to honor, build upon, and develop teachers’ expertise in purposefully planning opportunities for student talk during mathematics instruction. It also attended to the teachers’ contexts by asking teachers to incorporate math talk …

Morphing Myths And Shedding Skins: Interconnectivity And The Subversion Of The Isolated Female Self In Angela Carter’S “The Tiger’S Bride” And Margaret Atwood’S Surfacing, Sara M. Laskoski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project is an analysis of the utilization of mythmaking and human-animal relationships reflected in Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing. Carter and Atwood show how societal restrictions can devalue the connections between the body, the mind, and the natural world. Through the theoretical lenses of primarily post-structuralism and ecofeminism, this project seeks to show how these two authors subvert isolated female identities through the use of the fairy tale element of the human-animal transformation. This subversion rejects dualistic tendencies of the dominant, patriarchal society, opening new ways of identifying the self through interconnections otherwise rejected or …

Politicized Climate Change Communication: An Integrative Complexity Analysis, Meredith A. Repke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The vast majority of scientists agree that anthropogenic activities have caused the level of CO₂ in the atmosphere to rise at an unprecedented rate, and that the consequences of such a rise may very well be extreme. Despite these warnings, the American people do not possess, on average, the same level of concern towards climate change as scientists. The polarization of media in recent decades, the prevalence of selective exposure, and the general position on climate change of the two major political parties have led to liberals and conservatives consuming different information relevant to climate science. While evidence exists …

The Millennial Who Planted Trees, Trevien Stanger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this work of creative non-fiction essays and stories, the author explores ecological restoration through a variety of contexts, settings, and conditions.

The Occurrence Of Place-Based Narrative In U.S. Senatorial Campaign Advertisements, Brian K. Munis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Narratives have been increasingly subject to study within social science disciplines. However, research pertaining to narrative within political campaigns is incomplete. For example, there has been a relative lack of attention in the literature to the symbolic discourse and imagery in many political campaign advertisements that—seemingly—exists in order to link candidates to specific geographic “places” within their constituencies. A more complete understanding of the association between narratives of place and political campaigns will allow us to more effective and accurately gauge how, when, and why candidates use this potential strategy; as well as its possible effectiveness in election outcomes. This …

The Power Of Critical Reflection: Exploring The Impact Of Rhetorical Stories On Metacognition In First-Year Composition Courses, Amy Elizabeth Ratto Parks

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

The Piegan View Of The Natural World, 1880-1920, Rosalyn R. Lapier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation is a new interpretation of the stories told by the Piegan people (now known as the Blackfeet) from 1880-1920, about their relationship with the natural world. It is a history of the transition to reservation life, the economy of the reservation, individual Piegan who told stories, the ethnographers who recorded the stories and what those stories tell us about Piegan views of the natural world. It is a blend of different methodologies within history: archival research, ethnohistory, oral history and first-person narrative. This new interpretation argues that although the transition to reservation life was difficult, the Piegan worked …

Stages Of Change Theory Applied To Self-Critical Thinking And Fear Of Compassion: A Brief Psycho-Educational Intervention, Meghan Theresa Gill

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Self-critical thinking has been identified as a trans-diagnostic feature of several forms of psychopathology, including depression, and anxiety (Gilbert & Proctor 2006). Recent research has found that developing self-compassion skills reduces symptoms of distress and correlates with beneficial outcomes (Barnard & Curry, 2011). Unfortunately, it also appears that some who experience high levels of self-criticism also experience a fear of compassion (i.e., a resistance to soothing and care when directed toward the self or when received from others). Fear of compassion has been identified as a barrier to engagement in, and efficacy of psychological treatment (Gilbert, McEwan, Matos, & Rivis, …

Stories Of Contaminated Waste Dump Sites In Amskapi Pikuni Blackfeet Country, Kimberly L. Paul

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract:

Significant health disparities affect much of the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Native Hawaiian (NH) populations of America_.^3,6,10,11,14 Inequalities in health care and delivery of services for these populations are a contributing factor to disparate health conditions.² Lack of equity in areas such as social services¹⁸, education, environmental contaminants^5,7,8,17, historical trauma¹ and acute poverty[a1] [KP2] ^{16, 19} strongly influence health conditions⁴. People residing within the remaining tribal lands of the Northern Plains experience markedly higher incidence of disease than other ethnicities within this nation¹⁰, ultimately …

The Ethics Of Mourning: The Role Of Material Culture And Public Politics In The 'Book Of The Duchess' And The 'Pearl' Poem, Tarren Andrews

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project is a socio-historic analysis of two late 14^th century dream visions: Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess and the Pearl poem. Utilizing Robert Pogue Harrison’s concept of objectifying grief through ritualized communal mourning, this thesis examines the ways in which mourning literature functioned as consolatory device, and a form of public performance for the powerful patrons who commissioned the pieces. By engaging with pre-existing communities of grief, material culture, and courtly discourse these poems perform the work of mourning while simultaneously enacting modes of public performativity that stress the ethics of grieving, and suggest that, for royal patrons, …

What Is A Hole Made Of: Queer Identity And Grief In Autobiography Of Red And Red Doc>, Rachel Mindell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Into The Wild: A Case Study Of The Intersection Of Archaeology And Federal Wilderness Policy, Erika S. Blecha

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cultural resource specialists working with and for Federal land management agencies have voiced their concern about the perception of cultural sites within federally recognized wilderness areas. However, as a whole, professionals working within the discipline of archaeology have remained relatively absent in the debates on wilderness with regards to human occupation in these designated areas. This thesis introduces the concept of wilderness, its history, perceptions, management, laws, and issues relevant to archaeology. It also draws attention to the paucity of archaeological research and the relaxed nature of cultural resource compliance mandates [National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Sections 106 and 110] …

Engendering The Past: An Archaeological Examination Of The Precontact Lifeways Of Women At Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Cathy J. Beecher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines three lines of evidence within the precontact archaeological record around Yellowstone Lake, focusing on elucidating female-specific lifeways. This work is undertaken as a means to explore concepts of gender within precontact archaeological contexts. This aim is accomplished using statistical analysis of lithic tool distribution patterns, ethnohistoric information on plants found through archaeobotanical assays and the microspatial examination of cultural fire features.

Variation in the use of obsidian and chert for unifacial tool manufacture indicates potential restrictions on the manufacture of gender specific tools as these stone resources become less available. In addition, a frame-of-reference is built by …

Classroom Modifications With Improved Acoustics Modeled For Cehic, A School For The Deaf, In Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, Polwatte Krishantha Silva

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to model a typical classroom in a school for the Deaf inKelaniya,Sri Lanka. Intense effort by teachers provides intervention for students with significant hearing impairment. The school is an oral school, and the philosophy is to utilize the residual hearing of each student through the use of high-powered hearing aids. Like many schools inSri Lanka, the Centre for Education of Hearing-Impaired Children (CEHIC) has many classrooms that have both high ambient noise with long reverberation times. Both noise and reverberation interfere with the sound signal, the teacher’s voice, and provide a poor learning environment …

July 4, 1865: A Nation In Search Of Itself, Sorn A. Jessen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The eighty-ninth anniversary of the declaration of American independence from Britain, on July 4, 1865, caught the nation at a critical time in its history. The great national crisis of civil war was over, but the nation had not yet re-united. The thesis argues that in the aftermath of the Civil War, American nationalism could not be reconstituted on neither an ethnic nor a civic model. Rather, on the eighty-ninth anniversary of Independence, the course of American Nationalism fell out along lines decreed by historical memory. The narrative construction of the past in the present constituted the only common thread …

Comparative Analysis Of Email Request Strategies Used By Native And Non-Native Speakers Of English In Academic Settings, Karyna Tytar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents an analysis of pragmatic features of email request composite parts: email openings and closings, request Head Acts, and supportive moves elicited from native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (Non-NSs) of English, in two different email request situations. The two email request situations in this study have different levels of imposition, where the email request in situation 1 is considered more of an imposition than the email request in situation 2. It is thus expected that email requests in situation 1 would exhibit more politeness features than email requests in situation 2.

Analysis of the email request composite …

Indigenous Feminist Approaches To Archaeology: Building A Framework For Indigenous Research In Pre-Colonial Archaeology, Kristen D. Barnett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This PhD focuses on several interrelated archaeological problems in identification of individuals, agency, and understanding the indigenous past as it was lived; through an indigenous and feminist perspective. The dissertation is comprised of three articles that have either been accepted in peer-review publications or are in the process of being reviewed for publication. The articles focus on the following subjects: 1) an indigenous spatial analysis of a Fur Trade era semi-subterranean pithouse within a larger village context; 2) reanalysis of the three small peripheral houses located in the village of Keatley Creek in the Mid-Fraser region of British Columbia; and …