Digital Commons Network^™

A Different Kind Of Vision: The Critique Of Consumerism In Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood, Nicholas L. Eilts

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the tradition of Jon Lance Bacon and Steve Pinkerton, this work endeavors to show how Flannery O’Connor, along with her secular humanist contemporaries, voices a critique of modern American culture that depicts the conflicting elements of consumerism as detrimental to an individual’s personal and social well-being. This study will focus on Wise Blood, in particular, as it represents a consumerist way of life as antithetical to a religious way of life. By illustrating the emptiness of materialism and the nihilism of consumerism, O’Connor hopes to persuade her readers that Christianity is a preferable alternative. The body of this study …

An Assessment Of The Health Needs Of The Transgender Community In Montana, Anna Grace Von Gohren

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The transgender community has been identified as a group at high risk for HIV transmission and increased possibility for poor quality of life. This paper represents the results of a qualitative research study using interviews and Photovoice as methodologies to explore the contextual factors that define and shape the lives of people in Montana who identify as transgender, and specifically to explore factors that influence their risk of infection with HIV/AIDS. Ten major themes emerged from the interviews as well as the discussions surrounding the photographs. Sense of self was identified as a core category related to the overall health …

Relactation: A Phenomenological Study, Amy Nicole Lommen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of women in Montana who chose to attempt relactation. A phenomenological approach was utilized to understand the lived experiences of the 10 participants. In depth interviews were conducted and a 21 item, categorical and open-ended survey was administered seeking demographic and experiential data. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to organize and analyze the data. Most participants reported having good support from family, friends, lactation specialists, and/or physicians. Despite this support, the participants experienced breastfeeding difficulty. An overarching theme was having a difficult baby; whether it was colic, latching difficulties, …

Commodity Or Dignity? Nurturing Managers' Courtesy Nurtures Workers' Productivity, Montana Rafferty Moss

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dignity is the measure of people's worth determined through social interactions (Neal, 2012). As people must enjoy core capabilities to possess dignity (Ward & Syversen, 2009), work is one activity through which core capabilities provide a sense of worth (Venkatapuram, 2013). Workplace managers must enact dignity affirming discourse so their workers perceive ownership of core capabilities that afford a sense of worth and fulfillment. Dignity disaffirming (or violating) discourse obstructs core capabilities, leaving work unsatisfying and workers physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally damaged. Not only do such people suffer, but so do their organizations (Ghoshal, 2005). This study reveals that women …

The Causes And Consequences Of Migration: How Displacement And Change Affect The Well-Being Of Humli Tibetans In Katmandu, Ruth Ann Guthrie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Humla, one of the most remote regions in the Himalayan nation of Nepal, has undergone tremendous upheaval due to the Maoist insurgency of 1996-2006. As a result, numerous groups from rural Nepal such as those from Humla, have been displaced or chosen to migrate to urban areas, seeking to improve their lives or simply to survive. Pressure from Maoists has caused the displacement of many individuals who make up the community of Humlis now living in Kathmandu. This study aims to understand these causes of displacement and migration, as well as its consequences for Humlis. As a consequence of displacement …

Ecology And Engagement: The Importance Of Direct Experience Of Nature In Culture And Scholarship, Chris Baldwin Humm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Our culture is becoming increasingly detached from nature. We spend more of our time indoors than ever. While the indoors may offer certain benefits, it’s becoming increasingly clear that our alienation from nature has serious downsides. We depend upon nature for our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being and without it. The opposite of detachment is engagement. Engagement involves direct experience of nature, whether in national parks, wilderness, backyard woods, or unkempt vacant lots. If we want to reverse the problems associated with detachment, we need to encourage engaged alternatives. Only through a culture of engagement, one that recognizes and values …

A Treatise On The Assault On Language Sovereignty In The United States: History, Education, And Implications For Policy, Annie Thornburg Oakes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation examines the revitalization of endangered Indigenous languages in the United States in relation to the concept of sovereignty. I investigate historical reasons for language destruction in the United States as a means of understanding the mechanism used in conquest and the long-range effects on the educational system. I use the term "language sovereignty" to reflect the right of tribal organizations in the US to assert the use of traditional languages as a means of self-identifying as distinct sovereign nations. I draw from initiatives in Hawaii and Europe to demonstrate how regional and linguistic minority languages have been revitalized …

A Quantitative Study With Online Collaborative Learning In A Computer Literacy Course, Kevin Engellant

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Collaboration, along with critical thinking, communication and creativity, is one of the four C's identified in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework. The word collaboration is becoming a common part of many conversations. This study explored which type of learning instruction, collaborative learning in an online environment or individual learning in an online environment, is the most effective in a beginning online computer literacy course. The problem underlying this study was that despite the popularity of collaboration in education, many educators are not properly implementing an environment that encourages and supports effective collaboration. The purpose of this quantitative study …

Spiritual Practices Among Northern Plains Tribal Members As A Protective Factor In The Relationship Between Unexpected Deaths And Traumatic Grief, Ciara D. Hansen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: Grief is an important and potentially misunderstood construct in Indian country. Past research has shown that the experience of unexpected deaths has been associated with intense and maladaptive grief responses. Active participation in religion or spirituality has been shown to buffer against the negative effects of bereavement. Given the well-documented premature mortality rates and generally lowered life expectancy in American Indian communities, this study examined the relationships between spirituality, unexpected deaths, and traumatic grief, as measured by the Inventory of Traumatic Grief – Revised (ITG-R). Method: A secondary multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis that …

The Effect Of Health And Human Performance Department (Hhp) Activity Classes At The University Of Montana On Students’ Levels Of Mindfulness, Perceived Stress, Self-Compassion, And Attention, Anna Russell Zielaski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined the effect of University of Montana, Health and Human Performance (HHP) Department sponsored activity classes on college students’ levels of mindfulness, perceived stress, self-compassion, and attention. Participants: 96 college students enrolled in a spring 2013 activity class started the study, however only 41 completed the post-test survey. Methods: At the beginning and end of the semester, participants completed an online survey through SurveyMonkey, which assessed students’ levels of mindfulness, perceived stress, self-compassion and attention. Results: Students who participated in the mindfulness based activity class, Yoga and Meditation experienced the greatest increases in overall mindfulness levels over the …

Orphic Ecology: Melancholy And The Poetics Of Robert Duncan, Robert Nolan Knapp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the poetry of Robert Duncan and the political potential of melancholy. Relying on Judith Butler’s examination of the difference between “mourning” and “melancholy” in Precarious Lives, I argue that Robert Duncan enacts a condition of melancholia that he might respond to what Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands identifies in Queer Ecologies as “the psychically ungrievable”: homosexual desire and the environment. I contend in this thesis that one might enact an active experience of melancholy as both a preservative and rejuvenative force. In the first chapter of the thesis I explore Robert Duncan’s revisitation of a passage from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in …

"What Is Peoria For?": Reading As Spiritual Practice In David Foster Wallace's The Pale King, Jeremy Reed

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since its publication in 2011, critics have written about David Foster Wallace’s final, unfinished novel, The Pale King, by looking for resonances with his career-long interests of irony, alienation, and the text’s relation to the reader, but few have written of his final fiction as exhibiting a new approach to these topics. To further such criticism, I argue that in The Pale King Wallace uses new means – religious, and specifically mystic, vocabularies of experience – to seek ethical practices for living in a period heavily influenced by Postmodern irony. In the process, Wallace’s characters end up advocating a mystical …

The Politics Of Melancholy In Alfonso Cuarón’S Y Tu Mamá También, Children Of Men And The Possibility Of Hope, Jessica Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines how three films directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, and The Possibility of Hope, represent the impact of globalization on society and the environment. These films are thematically related, and intended to be considered in connection with one another, as indicated by both interviews with Cuarón, and by critical commentary informing audience reception of these works. Each film uses melancholy as a plot device, and as an ambient presence to elucidate Cuarón’s underlying message that we must re-examine the problematic social, economic and environmental consequences of neo-liberal capitalist models of globalization. Melancholy …

Neuroplasticity, Dosage, And Repetition Priming Effects In Individuals With Stroke-Induced Aphasia, Jenna Ray Griffin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Intensity significantly impacts aphasia treatment efficacy, yet research protocols have not answered questions about optimal intensity and/or dosage. A single-subject ABA design investigated the influence of repetition priming on naming performance for four individuals with stroke-induced aphasia. The participants completed an intensive training protocol with repeated attempts to name pictures. Independent variables included training status and stimulus dosage. The dependent variable was response accuracy. Response accuracy increased for all participants during the training phase, and training effects persisted through the maintenance phase for all participants. Stimulus dosage did not consistently influence response accuracy for the participants.

Teachers As Writers: Opening The Door To Dialogism, Eric Mark Lynn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an attempt to put better writing instruction into practice by learning from past mistakes, the author explores the potential benefits and perils that teachers who regularly write bring to their instruction and the promise and enactment of dialogical writing.

An Emprirical Test Of The Effectiveness Of An Indirect Management Tool In Increasing Optional Shuttle Use At Glacier National Park, Alex Benjamin Weinberg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Glacier National Park instituted an optional, free shuttle system on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in 2007.It was recently discovered that the shuttle system was having an adverse impact on parking congestion at the Logan Pass parking lot. This was occurring because visitors were able to park at Logan Pass all day while they performed a looped hike from the Highline trailhead to the Loop trailhead. Upon completion of their hike, visitors would take the shuttle back to their vehicles. A variety of data suggests that the shuttle system may be inadvertently adding 40-60 day-long passenger vehicles to the Logan Pass parking …

Pet Advocate Program For The Homeless In Missoula, Mt, Lisa Jane Bruce

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies have shown the importance of the relationship that homeless individuals, including victims of domestic violence, have with their pets. This relationship can often create a barrier to accessing emergency shelters since not many shelters accept pets. This paper examines the need to create a community-wide program in Missoula, MT which provides a way to house pets while their owners access emergency shelters. The final section of this paper proposes a “Pet Advocate Program” that could be adopted by the Humane Society of Western Montana.

Just Leftovers, Sarah Elizabeth Tancred

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Just Leftovers is intended to offer an understanding of the woman’s role within the domestic realm and its evolution over time in American society. My ultimate goal is to create an awareness of women’s inequality historically, but also to expose the inequality, biases, and double standards that continue to exist in our contemporary society. I choose to create this awareness through visual art with the manipulation of recognizable objects that the general public, stereotypically speaking, would associate with femininity and domesticity. I am fascinated by how these “feminine” objects and their historical content [e.g. bread pan] have been socially constructed …

Prophylactic-Dysphagia Intervention For Patients With Head And Neck Cancer Receiving Chemoradiation Therapy, Shanna Lee Stack

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many patients with head and neck cancer suffer from dysphagia caused by organ preserving regimens of chemoradiation therapy. However, intervention for this population varies in terms of timing, intensity, and types of treatments prescribed. This prospective study investigated swallowing-related quality of life, functional oral intake, and swallowing-related pain for patients who received two different types of preventative swallowing intervention before and during chemoradiation therapy. A total of eight participants who had undergone chemoradiation therapy participated in the study. Four participants completed direct swallowing exercises (exercises that require swallowing). The remaining four completed indirect swallowing exercises (exercises that do not require …

Impacts Of Montana Public Wolf Hunting And Trapping On Tolerance And Acceptance Of Gray Wolves Among Rural Resident Ranchers, Trappers, And Big Game Hunters, Alia Winn Mulder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Public Trust Doctrine placed wildlife in trust, via state control and regulation, for the benefit of the people. Managing agencies that lose sight of the importance of public acceptance of predator policies and management actions may find themselves legislatively or judicially subverted. This study examines how the Montana public wolf hunting and trapping seasons have affected tolerance and acceptance of gray wolves (Canis lupus) among rural resident ranchers, hunters, and trappers. Twenty residents from the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and Ninemile Valleys were qualitatively interviewed over the summer and fall of 2013. Potential participants were initially identified using purposive sampling, with …

Cardiac Rehabilitation Enrollment Rates And Different Referral Strategies, Whitney Tameler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Although cardiac rehabilitation is recognized as a standard element of continuum of cardiac care only 10-60% of eligible patients participate. Various barriers exist preventing cardiac patients to enroll in cardiac rehabilitation. These barriers are categorized into three different levels: 1) patient barriers, 2) physician barriers and 3) healthcare system barriers. Patient barriers can include lack of insurance, transportation, need to return to work, family issues and the perception cardiac rehabilitation is not needed but lack of physician referral is the leading deterrent for patients not enrolling …

Emerging Models In Environmental Volunteerism: The Domestic Volunteer Vacation, John Andrew Stegmaier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

For well over two decades, land management agencies in the U.S. have experienced trends of flat if not otherwise declining budgets with which to fulfill their respective missions. Consequently, public land management agencies at various levels have sought creative strategies such as using volunteers to extend quality services without incurring added expense. An increasingly popular form of multi-day volunteer engagements, often referred to as a ‘volunteer vacation,’ is nearly absent from the literature when it comes to domestic project settings as opposed to international and often exotic locales.

A qualitative research study was conducted in the summer of 2013 on …

Once Achieved, What Is It Worth?, James Paul Louks

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Once Achieved, What is it Worth? examines the contemporary social, political and physical landscape of the American West. My research for the past three years has been exploring the myths and misconceptions associated with this region and how these illusions inform, misinform, distort and taint the cultural norms of the region. My intention is to create a more factual representation of the American West relative to my own experience. The American West is a region that has been marauded for its resources, historically to the present day. There is little difference between the fracking boom that North Dakota is currently …

An Anxious State: The Search For Identity And The Struggle For Peace In Irish And Palestinian Literature, Benjamin Patrick Sweeney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis works to connect the literature of two geographically and historically disparate people – the Irish and the Palestinians. One can observe patterns of disjuncture, identity crisis, and identity formation in the history of one people; one can then apply the principles learned to analogous historical situations. I argue that the Irish and the Palestinians share a kind of communal psychological trauma brought about by the experience of imperial/colonial domination, violence, and especially diaspora. Because of this shared trauma, Ireland’s historical experience can offer insight into that of Palestine. The situations are unique, but at certain human levels they …

Coordinate Systems In Gã, Kurt Erbach

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a comprehensive description and analysis of Gã coordinate systems. Gã is spoken primarily in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and no previous research on Gã has addressed the specific type of locative language described as coordinate systems (Lewis, Simmons, & Fennig, 2013). The current study is based on a corpus of Gã locative descriptions collected through interview-style elicitation sessions with a Gã speaker. Analysis of this corpus has revealed coordinate system morphemes ŋwɛ͂ı͂ ‘up’, shĩshĩ ‘down’, hı͂ɛ͂ ‘front’, sɛ̀ɛ̀ ‘back’, nı͂nè-jwurɔ͂ ‘right’, and àbɛ̀kú ‘left’. In describing the use of these morphemes I use Levinson’s (2003) framework …

Consequences Of Color Vision Variation On Performance And Fitness In Capuchin Monkeys, Andrea Theresa Green

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The origin and maintenance of variation in natural populations are central to the study of evolution. When alternative alleles have obvious effects on phenotype and are common in a population, the maintenance of these alleles requires some form of balancing selection. Understanding how selection maintains multiple phenotypes in a population requires integration of genetic analyses of phenotypic differences with field studies on the performance consequences of these differences within an ecological context.

The color vision polymorphism characterizing most diurnal platyrrhine and strepsirrhine primates provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the maintenance of variation in natural populations. The polymorphism leads to …

Virtual Collaboration: A Phenomenological Study Of Remote Online Adjuncts Virtual Collaboration Lived Experiences, Lori Schieffer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Online education is rapidly growing in higher education. To stay competitive, many colleges and universities have begun to offer online classes. Some institutions even offer complete degree programs online. This has left colleges needing to hire more part-time remote adjuncts to fill the fluctuating number of available courses. Because remote online adjuncts are susceptible to isolation, the need has arisen to study the benefits and barriers of virtual collaboration. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the virtual collaboration lived experiences of remote online adjuncts. The study helped unveil the motives and lived experiences of virtual collaboration …

The Identity Of Upholding Indigenous Lifeways, Sean Falcon Chandler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This qualitative study examined the role of Native Lifeways in tribal colleges as perceived by their presidents and other influential leaders on the campuses of three tribal colleges. Tribal colleges were founded in part to support and promote Native Lifeways, as demonstrated within their respective mission statements. Given the fact that TCUs are at the forefront of the defense of Native Lifeways, they continue to be in a state of endangerment as a result of the history of U.S. Indian Policy.

Data was acquired from the face-to-face interviews of 15 leaders within the three tribal colleges located in northwest United …

The Effect Of Fluoxetine On Self-Control In Betta Splendens, Kathryn Gwen Lamp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The present study examined the effect of fluoxetine on self-control in Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). The subjects included 17 male Betta splendens that were exposed to varying levels of fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that increases levels of serotonin, and instrumental choice trials were run. A subject began each trial in the start box and, when a guillotine divider door was lifted, entered one side of a divided goal box. The checkerboard side of the choice door represented either the smaller-sooner choice (SS) or the larger-later choice (LL). When the subject had entered one side of the goal …

Examining The Effectiveness Of The Circle Of Security Parenting Dvd Program, Whitney Rostad

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Child maltreatment continues to occur at alarming rates, and while several interventions currently exist for use with parents to minimize the incidence of child maltreatment (Daro & McCurdy, 2007), many can be time consuming for service providers and consumers. One program, the Circle of Security (COS), lasts 20 weeks with weekly sessions lasting approximately 2 hours each (Marvin, Cooper, Hoffman, & Powell, 2002). To make the program more accessible, the program’s originators modified it into a DVD protocol comprising only 8- weeks (Cooper, Hoffman, & Powell, 2009). The current study evaluated the effectiveness of the COS DVD program in improving …