Digital Commons Network^™

Evidence In Online Political Discourse: How Everyday Citizens Argue About Politics On Social Media, Diane Leverich

Honors Theses

This thesis project examines evidence use and participatory dynamics in political conversations on the social networking site Reddit.com. Reddit.com is a network of user-created, interest-based forums in which users, or Redditors, engage in discourse with others about any topic of their interest. I selected the politically-motivated forum, or subreddit, r/PoliticalDiscussion for examination and collected 1,000 of its most recent conversations, or threads, to compose a data corpus. I read, categorized, and analyzed these conversations in terms of how Redditors participated in the subreddit and how they incorporated evidence into their discussions of politics. Two rounds of qualitative data coding revealed …

Re-Painting The Lion: Female Transgression And Authorial Reincarnation In The Works Of Marie De France And Jane Austen, Katherine Rachel Mccaffery

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I argue that Marie de France and Jane Austen transgress social and gender norms in their writings and participate in a process of female authorial reincarnation; through using their voices, these female authors challenge the dominant patriarchal temporal narrative. In Chapter One I explore the Lais of Marie de France, focusing on her anonymity as an author and the implications of her stories as a rejection of the role of women in traditional chivalric romance. Chapter Two deals with Jane Austen’s life, specifically how little we really know about it, and the often overlooked, transgressive aspects of …

Do Normative And Pathological Personality Traits Overlap? Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Neo-Pi-3 And Pid-5, Lisa Eileen Stone

Honors Theses

Historically, personality disorders have been conceptualized as qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes, based on operational criteria. Consistent with this model, ten distinct set personality disorder criteria are outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, debate persists about the clinical utility of this categorical model, with many (Krueger, et al.) researchers supporting a dimensional model that focuses on pathological levels of normative personality traits.

An exploratory factor analysis (De Fruyt et al., 2013) of the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEOPI-3; Costa & McCrae, 2010) and The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5; Krueger, Derringer, …

To “Converse With The Most Excellent Men”: Classical Education, Cultural Capital, And The Formation Of A Ruling Class In The Antebellum South, Katherine E. Aberle

Honors Theses

Caroline Winterer writes in The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in Intellectual Life, 1780-1910that “Next to Christianity, the central intellectual project in American colleges before the nineteenth century was classicism.” Classics had been the heart of education among social elites in Europe and North America at least since the Renaissance, but the tradition would have particular importance in the American South. From such early planters as William Byrd II to such founding fathers as Jefferson and Madison, to planters at the end of the antebellum period, knowledge of classical languages and the history of classical antiquity was a …

A Communibiological Investigation Of Gender Communication Differences During Licensed Professional Counseling Sessions, Kimberly S. Mack

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

African-American Poetry, Music, And Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald

Honors Theses

The 2016 decision to award songwriter and musician Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature sparked a worldwide debate on the relationship between music and poetry and raised many questions about music’s place in literary canon. However, this debate is nothing new. Questions about the relationship between music and poetry have long been debated. Some scholars believe the two disciplines should be studied separately, while others prefer to consider the connections between the two.

My project begins with a question: if Bob Dylan’s songs can be considered poetry, what other forms of music might also be considered poetry? Rap implements …

What The Walls Say: Finding Meaning And Value In Tel Aviv’S Street Art, Rachel R. Bird

Honors Theses

This thesis explores street art in Tel Aviv, Israel through anthropological concepts of value. By defining street art as an interstitial practice—one that exists between permeable, socially defined boundaries and is characterized differently by different power structures—I attempt to define some of the different regimes of value that apply to street art. Using the emerging market of “street art tours” as a fieldwork site, I look at how street art is presented and re-presented to both tourists and locals. By situating my research in a historical and geographic context, I hope to understand the ways different value schema, from economic …

Waters Of Labor, Waters Of Leisure: An Environmental History Of Lake Memphremagog, Katherine Tucker

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the transition from traditional resource extractive industry to seasonal tourism industry around Lake Memphremagog, a mid-sized freshwater lake that is situated across the USA/ Canada border in northern Vermont and southern Quebec. Reading sources primarily from the decades 1860-1890, this research examines changing conceptualizations of nature that link to specific land use trends. Northern Vermont was left with a decimated landscape following the decline of the logging and agricultural industries by the mid-nineteenth century. Meanwhile, nature centered tourism began to emerge in the same area. The new tourism economy catered to the wealthy urban elite, …

An Ivory Tower On The Outskirts Of Town: The Othered Intellectual In Joyce And Ellison, Will Simonson

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine a pairing of protagonists and texts, Stephen Dedalus of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and the unnamed protagonist-narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1953), to explore the ways in which these protagonists are Othered as a result of their unconventional intellectualism, and how that Othering impacts their progress towards self-actualization. Making use of writings by Jacques Lacan, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward Said, Hélène Cixous, Louis Althusser, and Richard Rorty, among others, I engage with theories of language, intellect, intellectualism, and the role of the intellectual, especially when he/she is …

Virunga: Guns, Gorillas, And The Construction Of Transnational Natures, Adriana Disilvestro

Honors Theses

The recent western media attention surrounding Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has brought up significant scholarly questions about the discursive portrayal of “ideal” Natures. In this thesis, I undertake a discursive analysis of western media materials about Virunga National Park in order to understand how ideas of Nature are transnationally constructed. In order to do this, undertake an analysis of the western oriented discursive material associated with three socio-political processes within the park: green militarization, gorilla trekking, and the ecotourist industry. Ultimately, I conclude that the discursive material portrays a highly spectacularized and commodified “ideal” nature, …

Out Of The Margins: Mississippi English Language Learner Curriculum Practices And Their Implications, Alexis Smith

Honors Theses

This thesis concerns itself with Mississippi school's effectiveness in educating the state's budding, primarily Spanish-speaking, immigrant population. I answer three questions: 1) How does Mississippi English language curriculum require state socialization of its students? 2) How does its curriculum provide for effective language learning practices? And 3) Does Mississippi EL curriculum provide for the magnified existence of immigrant students, or does, and how does, state curriculum continue to push immigrant students into the margins? Using inductive qualitative analysis, I explore both Mississippi Department of Education's ELL program guidelines and individual district plans.

Measuring The Effects Of Prosthetic Tactile Pacing On Overt Stuttering Frequency In Adults Who Stutter, Sydney Elizabeth Gully

Honors Theses

While the cause has been historically enigmatic, persistent stuttering exhibits distinct behavioral, neural and genetic characteristics. Throughout many years, a variety of motoric treatments have attempted to ameliorate overt stuttering behaviors; however, most therapeutic options provide unstable, effortful, and/or unnatural sounding results with high relapse rates. Conversely, research documents natural sounding speech coupled with stable and effortless reductions in overt stuttering frequency when a person who stutters is exposed to speech feedback of a second speech signal (i.e. choral speech). The most prolific clinical use of this technology is a prosthetically introduced auditory second speech signal; yet its current application …

Growth Mindset And Persistence In Children's Creative Performance, Tiffany Gerlinger

Honors Theses

Motivation literature regarding children's academic achievement is quite extensive and can typically be separated into two mindsets: growth mindset and fixed mindset, which vary on their level of persistence (i.e., effort toward a task, Dweck, 2006). Individuals with a growth mindset find persistence is useful because they believe their abilities can change through hard work. Individuals with a fixed mindset find persistence is not useful because they believe their abilities cannot change with hard work. In the domain of creative achievement there is a lack of research on mindset and persistence during creative performance. Research shows that adults underestimate the …

The Effects Of Prosthetic Tactile Feedback On Persons Who Stutter, Meliah Kayla Grant

Honors Theses

Vibrotactile speech feedback has been documented to enhance fluency in adults who stutter. Based on these data, researchers at the University of Mississippi have developed a prosthetic device that captures the speech signal of the speaker, converts this signal into tactile stimulation, and administers vibratory speech feedback to the speaker through a handheld stimulator. This patented device, as tested with a handheld tactile stimulator, has been documented as producing significant fluency enhancement comparable to that of other auditory speech feedback prosthetic devices. The purpose of this present study is to collect data measuring the effects of tactile speech feedback on …

Racial Ideologies And Ethnoracial Social Inclusion Policy In Mexico And Peru, Bruce Abby

Honors Theses

My study examines the covariation of racial ideologies and ethnoracial social inclusion policies with ethnoracial identity in Peru and Mexico. I begin by studying the history and evolution of racial ideologies in Latin America generally and then in Mexico and Peru more specifically. I use this research to help guide and inform my bivariate tabular analysis of data collected by the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA). From the PERLA survey questionnaires for Mexico and Peru, I choose questions pertaining to ethnoracial identity and attitudes towards specific social inclusion policies and racial ideologies. I measure the covariation …

Sentiment Of The Union: Analyzing Tone In Presidential State Of The Union Addresses, Chase Rydeen

Honors Theses

As the machine learning and data science craze sweeps the nation, the implications and implementations are vast. This paper takes a look at both of them through the lens of a topic of national importance, at the very least for the United States. This topic is the words used by past Presidents of the United States, which are being pulled from their State of the Union Addresses. The focus of this research is on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and it's applied processes. Natural Language Processing allows for effective analysis of text-based data. Using NLP, a sentiment analysis was conducted on …

Speech Language Pathologists And Prosody: Knowledge And Clinical Practices, Sarah Elizabeth Fischer

Honors Theses

Prosody is an important aspect of language as it signals linguistic contrasts, conveys pragmatic distinctions, and expresses emotional affect. However, prosody is impaired in several populations, and such impairments can negatively affect intelligibility and the social perception of the speaker. Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) are the professionals responsible for treating such impairments, yet the knowledge base of SLPs regarding prosody is unknown. The purpose of this study is to evaluate SLPs' knowledge of assessing, treating, and diagnosing prosodic impairments by using a survey (n=269). While a majority of SLPs surveyed agreed that prosody is within their scope of practice, they …

Social Evils + Stigma: A Cumulative Study Of Hiv And The Moral Model Of Disease In Vietnam, Argentina And Mississippi, Sarah Thornby Stroup

Honors Theses

How can studying such diverse contexts as Vietnam, Argentina, and Mississippi—three cases from opposite corners of the world — provide remediation for the global HIV epidemic? By targeting specific populations of high-risk groups (e.g. injection drug users, females sex workers, and men who have sex with men), analysis of my ethnographic fieldwork in Vietnam, Argentina, and Mississippi, revealed a common denominator of stigma, though manifesting in varying ways, which laid the foundation for this thesis. Building from Erving Goffman's (1993) foundational text on stigma in collaboration with Link and Phelan's (2001) expansion thereof, I define stigma as the differentiation and …

Using Their Own Voices: Exploring The Writing Of English Language Learners In A Mississippi Middle School, Gabrielle Lynn Vogt

Honors Theses

In the United States, and particularly Mississippi, the number of K-12 English Language Learners is growing rapidly. Writing scores are on a national decline, and ELLs are struggling to acquire the language and literacy skills to become proficient writers in English. However, there are various instructional approaches that provide ELLs the opportunity to use and expand their writing skills beyond a basic ability. Despite this, little is being done to give ELLs the opportunity to express themselves and their identities while also acquiring stronger writing skills. As a preservice teacher, I developed a mixed methods research study that explored the …

Gender Bias And Sex Trafficking In China, Avery Kennedy

Honors Theses

China's history shows a pattern of preference for sons over daughters. Chinese language and policies show evidence of this bias. This penchant has created a sizable gender disparity within China's population. The implementation of the One-Child Policy only exacerbated the gap between males and females. China's age-old preference for sons has negatively impacted modern-day China. The gender disparity generated a demand for women, which has been answered by sex trafficking women in China to be sold as brides and sex workers.

The Yasuní Itt Initiative And The Creation Of Global Green Sovereignty, Marlarose Gridley

Honors Theses

The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was an international financing scheme in which the Ecuadorian government agreed to forgo drilling in the Yasuní National Park in exchange for foreign compensation in the amount of $3.6 billion USD over 12 years. Embedded in a global framework of revenue redistribution for development, the Yasuní-ITT Initiative established a model of global environmental care based on global North-South difference and historical ecological debt. In doing so, it impacted, through prospective flows of aid, the conceptualization of Ecuadorian sovereignty.

The Israeli Druze: Neither Here Nor There, Sydney Green

Honors Theses

Druze scholar Rabah Halabi describes the Druze standing in Israel as neither here nor there. This thesis asks the question: How do the Druze fit into a society created to house and defend the Jewish people? To answer this question, Druze identity is examined from the Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli perspectives regarding the Druze community based on their service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) through a case study of media reactions to the July 2017 fatal shooting of two on-duty Druze policemen by three Arab-Israeli shooters at Islamic holy site al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City in Jerusalem. Three preliminary …

The Holy Trinity: Religion, Identity, And International Law In Egypt, Henry Owen Stonnington

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the contradiction between Egypt's international legal obligations to protect religious freedom and its state practice. Chapter 1 gives a brief history of the relationship between religious freedom and state authority in the Roman, Islamic, and Holy Roman Empires and the early formations of international legal protections of freedom of religion in the wake of the Thirty Years War and then WWI centuries later. Chapter 2 looks at the formation and content of the current international standards of religious freedom, focusing on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political …

The Effects Of Hearing Loss On Literacy Skills In Down Syndrome: Assessing Parents' Knowledge, Annalise Claire Valle

Honors Theses

Purpose: Although hearing loss (HL) is prevalent in individuals with Down syndrome (DS), there has been little research investigating the effects of HL on language and literacy skills in this population. The purpose of this study is to document the frequency of HL in DS, as well as language and literacy outcomes, and to determine if there is a difference in language and literacy outcomes for children with DS with HL and those without HL. Parental knowledge of HL and language development was also measured. Method: A five-part survey was distributed to 77 members of DS-Connect, a National Institute of …

Analyzing The Use Of Expressive Writing Among College Students, Grace Ann Wilbanks

Honors Theses

This is among the first studies to investigate the naturalistic use of expressive writing in college students. To do so, 255 undergraduate students from the University of Mississippi anonymously completed an online survey. Participants first answered basic demographic questions followed by questions assessing their sadness or depression, happiness, and overall adjustment in college. Next, participants responded to questions concerning expressive writing and ways in which they handled demands of college. Finally, respondents then completed a well-researched, standardized measure of depression, anxiety, and stress. Independent-samples t tests revealed that students who engaged in expressive writing demonstrated lower mean levels of sadness …

Substitute Salvation: An Online Classroom Resource, Rachel Callaly

Honors Theses

As a teacher, not having a plan for days when you are not in the classroom is not an option. Usually, a teacher can plan a few days in advance and be prepared for a substitute teacher to come in. However, more often than not, the substitute is not certified to teach in the subject they are covering, which becomes particularly difficult in a World Language class, such as Spanish. Additionally, some days there is no advanced notice for an absence, and a last-minute plan has to be made. That is where Substitute Salvation comes in. Substitute Salvation is a …

The Benefits Of Immersion In Learning A Foreign Language, Cassidy Crouch

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to measure the linguistic benefits of learning a foreign language in a study abroad immersion program through Western Michigan University’s (WMU) Spanish department. The participants in this study were all participants of the Santander, Spain program of the Summer II semester of 2017. Nineteen students in total went to Spain and eleven of them agreed to participate in this study. During the Spring 2017 semester the eleven participants were given a pre-departure questionnaire and oral interview where they were asked demographic questions as well as program-specific information. During the last week in Santander, Spain …

Going Beyond The Textbook: Revitalizing Culture In The Spanish Classroom, Sarah Basar

Honors Theses

Effectively teaching the culture of a target language in foreign language classrooms can be a rather difficult and time-consuming task. Most often, culture is placed somewhere on a spectrum of either being a minor supplement to acquiring and learning the target language or utilizing culture as the direction through which grammar, vocabulary, and conversational practice are attained. Teachers’ beliefs, experiences, and resources all play a significant role in how culture is defined and taught in the schools of a country where globalization and immigration are quickly beginning to change the sociopolitical and demographic dynamics of our society. Thus, it is …

Predicting The Author Of Twitter Posts With Markov Chain Analysis, Daniel Freeman

Honors Theses

Given a set of text with known authors, is it possible to take new text, not knowing who wrote it, and correctly identify the author? One way to do this is to analyze the text using Markov chains. This research project will first attempt to answer this question using books available in the public domain. Using what is learned from trying to identify authors of books, the primary goal of this project is to identify the best way to guess the author of a post on the social media network Twitter using Markov chains.

Public Opinion Of Violence In The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Michael R. Smith

Honors Theses

Currently, there is an outcry to Mississippi legislators from law enforcement professionals and citizens to address the spike in violent crime levels observed since 2015. The Great Recession of 2008 reduced community policing programs in the United States, resulting in fewer police officers patrolling the residential communities and minor criminal offenses going unreported. This effect has been especially prevalent in the “South Region” of the United States. In 2014, this region reported the largest increase of all regions at 1.9%. Because the public act on their perceptions and legislators react to strong public opinion by creating or changing policies, one …