Digital Commons Network^™

From Mesoamerica To Aleppo And Transylvania: The Global Migration Of The Chile Pepper, Arianne M. Peterson, Arianne Peterson

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the migration of the chile pepper, or capsicum anuum, from Mesoamerica into the Old World after 1500, focusing on two case studies of the Aleppo pepper in Syria and paprika in what was once Hungarian Nagyvarad, and which is now Romanian Oradea. Using foodways as a historical lens, and considering the movement of food as historical, it can be seen that the chile pepper, despite its low profit value, illustrates a globalization that existed well before modern times, and it came to cement itself within many different cultures as a symbol of identity. Despite its far-away …

Bicycling To Level The Field: A Study Of Divvy In Chicago, Bushra Ghaniwala

Master's Theses

With the onset of COVID-19, norms across the world shifted, including the way people moved in major cities. In order to conduct a comparative analysis, understanding transportation habits before COVID-19 hit cities is important. In this paper, I have focused on Divvy bikes in the city of Chicago, which are touted as a means to achieving first- and last-mile transit especially in underserved communities. I am interested in initiating the line of inquiring into who Divvy bikes served during a time when there was major fear around high transmission of COVID-19 on trains and buses due to the close proximity. …

Youth Culture, Organizational Values, And Participatory Politics In The Digital Spaces Of Youth-Led Anti-Gun Violence Movements, Julie M. Szamocki

Master's Theses

As traditional forms of participating in politics are waning in popularity and younger people are becoming more politically aware, new ways to engage in politics are emerging from the intersection of youth culture and digital spaces. One way of understanding this intersection of activism and youth culture is to analyze how youth-led activist organizations engage in participatory politics in the digital space. I analyze how anti-gun violence organizations March for Our Lives and GoodKids MadCity, led by youth activists, reflect a unique and distinct form of digital engagement and organizational culture. Through content analysis, I will be highlighting organizational comparison …

Connecting School Climate And Trust: A Content Analysis Of Elements Of Trust In Student And Staff School Climate Surveys, Katherine Thyen

Master's Theses

This study aims to make a concrete connection between trust in schools and school climate. Research indicates that both trust and school climate can positively impact school experiences and performance for teachers and students, but no formal connection has been made between these two elements of schools. In order to answer this study’s research questions of “What differences in frequency and context of trust dimensions exist between student surveys and teacher surveys?” and “How are survey items related to trust dispersed across school climate domains?”, a directed qualitative content analysis was performed. School climate surveys administered to students and teachers …

Constructing Planetary Citizens Through Ecopedagogy In U.S. Social Studies Standards, Madeline Anne Rainey

Master's Theses

The world is in the age of the Anthropocene, where humans are impacting the environment to disastrous effects. The capitalist economy, promoting neoliberal policies of mass consumption, has exacerbated the world's environmental deterioration and social inequity. The rights and responsibilities people hold have been rapidly changing with the fourth industrial revolution. Globalization and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have further expanded notions of citizenship. While there have been numerous attempts to bring the environment into schools, it has not emphasized what this crisis deserves. Ecopedagogy, as a critical theory, explicitly examines the interplay between environmental and social problems and challenges …

Institutionalism, Peer Culture, And Cultural Reproduction In Active Shooter Drills, Lillian Wynne Platten

Master's Theses

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland: these are words that represent moments in history where schools should have become unprecedented sites of tragedy and isolated events. Except Columbine occurred in 1999, Sandy Hook in 2012, and Parkland in 2016, making them almost commonplace alongside hundreds of other mass shootings in the US. In place of gun regulation, schools are mandated to conduct active shooter drills, which mimic actual shootings through simulated events including the use of rubber bullets and masked actors to produce visceral reactions. Research has shown that these drills have produced trauma and desensitization among teachers, administrators, and counselors; but …

Migration Across Institutions Of Race: How Immigrant Women From Latin America Construct Ethnoracial Self-Identities In Sending And Receiving Societies, Juanita Vivas Bastidas

Master's Theses

How does immigration affect perceptions of self? In this study, I explore the processes by which immigrants construct ethnoracial self-identities in sending societies, an individual’s country of origin, and receiving societies, an individual’s country of destination. For my exploration, I conduct eleven life history and cognitive interviews of immigrant women from Spanish-speaking countries located in Latin America. Mainly, I find that the women in my study construct ethnoracial self-identities throughout their lives informed by their socialization into myths of racial democracy present in both locations and contradicting interactions, which take place in local organizations such as families, schools, and workplaces. …

To Be Fair: Colorism And Online Dating Among Young South Asians, Kajal S. Patel

Master's Theses

Online dating is rooted in first impressions through images. Because of this, users of these apps tend to alter their profile pictures to fit a certain criteria that they believe will attract more matches. For people of color, this benchmark is based upon fair skin and European facial features. This has led me to ask, how is colorism reinforced in online dating apps for Indian Americans, and more specifically though, how are the users of these apps portraying themselves in their own profiles as it relates to colorism? Due to various factors Indians with darker skin tend to feel pressure …

Psychosocial Maturity And Alcohol Outcomes: The Mediating Role Of Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies, Skyler Hoover

Master's Theses

The present study evaluated the mediating role of alcohol protective behavioral strategies on the relationship between temperance, responsibility, perspective (i.e., the facets of psychosocial maturity) and alcohol use outcomes. Potential invariant paths among graduate and undergraduate students were also explored. All participants were undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Southern Mississippi aged 18 to 25. Participants reported demographic information and completed measures of temperance, responsibility, perspective, alcohol use, and alcohol consequences. Results indicated the full mediation model showed poor fit the data; greater temperance predicted greater alcohol protective behavioral strategy use, greater responsibility and perspective predicted less alcohol …

Impact Of Incorporating Intuitive Eating Principles Into A College Nutrition Course On Eating Behaviors, Kira L. Minot

Master's Theses

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of an online introductory college nutrition course that implements evidence-based intuitive eating (IE) concepts and principles on students’ application of IE behaviors. A secondary outcome explored the relationship between student grades and changes in IE behavior implementation. Researchers hypothesized an increase in the average use of IE practices post-intervention.

Methods: This study was a non-randomized pilot intervention using pre- and post-test surveys. Enrolled students completed the intuitive eating scale-2 (IES-2) survey on the first and last days of the 16-week course. Students participated in typical nutrition coursework throughout the semester with the …

A Network Analysis Of Covid-19 In The United States, Joseph C. Mcguire

Master's Theses

Through methods in network theory and time-series analysis, we will analyze the spread of COVID-19 in the United States by determining trends in state-by-state daily cases through a network construction. Previous researchers have found frameworks for approximating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and identifying potential rises in cases by a network construction based on correlation of cases between regions [1]. Applying this network construction we determine how this network and its structure act as a predictor for overall COVID-19 cases in the United States by preforming a trend analysis on a variety of network statistics and US COVID-19 cases.

Buried Treasure In San Francisco’S Golden Gate Park: Changing Tastes In The Twentieth Century As Seen Through The Music Of The Golden Gate Park Concert Band, Nathaniel L. Pergamit

Master's Theses

Buried deep under the Spreckels Temple of music, the bandstand In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, lay a treasure trove of sheet music and concert programs belonging to the Golden Gate Park Concert Band. This band, which has delighted audiences and park-goers in San Francisco for 140 years, had over a thousand scores and programs each waiting to be archived and preserved. From documents marked “Property of the WPA,” to handwritten letters from composers, to photographs of since forgotten events, these newly archived materials detail historic trends that shed light on San Francisco’s unique civic culture. Along with conventional critical …

Formal And Informal Styles Of Clothing In The Assessment Of Female Political Candidates, Erma Kurtovic

Master's Theses

Abstract: This study will research the importance of dress code of female candidates on the confidence in leadership.The research question is: How Important is the Formality of Dress Code in the Assessment of Leadership of Female Political Candidates? It is addressed by using an experimental design carried out in India and the United States, using Qualtrics and Amazon Mechanical Turk. This research gathered 400 responses, 200 from each country. Primary data collection was used, with the implementation of two experiments. The experimental design of the two experiments consisted of two conditions, one in which the main political candidate is dressed …

Women's Rights As Human Rights: A Spotlight On Women's Reproductive Rights And Structural Violence In Nigeria, Dominique C. Blakely

Master's Theses

My research aims to shed light on the injustices that women and girls are facing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Furthermore, my research intends to reveal how international human rights law and human rights law are confronting these violations and show the shortcomings of these laws. Women in SSA have continued to be at the forefront of devastation due to their exposure to gender-based violence (GBV) such as rape (including marital rape), domestic violence, femicide, “feminization” of HIV/AIDS, early/child marriage, and maternal mortality, in addition to lack of access to proper and sufficient reproductive health care. I will use women’s rights …

Inaccessible Interpolated Imagery: How Coffee Farmers In The State Of Chiapas Might Access Political Economic Opportunity Through Representation, Paolo Fiann Bicchieri

Master's Theses

Here is a useful parable to boil down the idea of this project and set the tone: when one goes to the bar to tell a story about a fight at the bar, they would never venture to place themselves as the hero of the brawl, taking out three drunkards in a single punch, unless they were really in the bar, at that time, fighting a good fight. One would never do this as the bartender, locals, and regulars would all know if this were the case or not. Yet transnational corporations, governments, and even consumers do this all the …

Reproductive Health In Rural Guatemala: Finding A Medium Between State And Ngo Policies, Zayra Rivera

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand and evaluate the manner in which the NGO sector surpasses state led efforts related to improving knowledge about reproductive health within rural areas in Guatemala. This research focuses on using methodologies from four Adolescent Youth Health Programs within the region of Lake Atitlan as well as state run institutions such as schools and health centers.

More specifically, this case study seeks to analyze the current gaps sexual and reproductive health programming in rural indigenous towns in the Sololá department of Guatemala. It compares four private NGO institutions with two public organizations, specifically …

Mahalaya: Building Community In The Filipinx Diaspora Through Solidarity Journalism, Casey Ticsay

Master's Theses

Unethical approaches to storytelling in professional journalism continue to shape public discourse around the diverse experiences of Asians and Asian Americans. This paper analyzes the origins and impact of ethnic news media, specifically the rise of Filipino and Filipino American press in the United States, and the ways journalists of color continue to challenge traditional practices of professional journalism that perpetuate anti-Blackness and maintain white supremacy. Filipino and Filipino American newspapers in the early twentieth century provide historical insight into the issues, debates, and conversations transpiring at the time and highlight the community’s ongoing response to the misrepresentations of their …

Heterogeneous Effects In Matching Grants, Kaustri Bhattacharyya

Master's Theses

The main objective of this thesis is to apply causal forest to identify the variables responsible for the treatment of heterogeneity without making any prior assumptions. This research is based on a paper based on a natural field experiment and explored how matching grants affect charitable giving.

The Experiences Of International Graduate Students From Latin America In Their Transition Of Graduating And Finding A Job In The United States, Natalia Hernandez

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to conduct a qualitative phenomenological study to understand the lived experiences of international graduate students from Latin America in the United States as they transition from their studies to finding a full-time job in the United States. The most common themes mentioned in the different sections of the interviews were: the different dynamics in their identity, the benefits, and limitations of their status in the American context, and how their professional development and economy are impacted while being international graduate students from Latin America. Student service departments such as the Career Service department, …

Let’S Bring Intersectional Environmentalism To The Classroom: A Qualitative Study Upon Voices Of Intergenerational Asian American Activists, Michelle P. Sun

Master's Theses

Climate change and environmental pollution have been threatening people’s lives in recent years. Many educators and environmentalists have called for environmental justice education. However, most of the dominant mainstream forms of environmental education perpetuate environmental injustice, continue systemic oppression of marginalized communities, and do not lead to the needed transformation. Neoliberalism makes environmental education individualistic, and education for environmental justice requires cultural recognition. Additionally, the environmental contribution from Asian American communities is always marginalized. My paper conducted semi-structured interviews with three Asian American environmental activists. Based on the qualitative interviews, we are able to see Asian American activists’ experience in …

The Gallery As A Site Of Convergence: The Role Of Creative Environments At Postsecondary Institutions, Jordán Francisco Sandoval

Master's Theses

Not enough research explores the role of creative environments at postsecondary institutions. In response, this qualitative research study focuses upon university galleries believing them to be exemplary artistic spaces within college campuses. Using a theoretical framework of place-consciousness, the researcher examined the functions of the Mary and Carter Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco (USF), paying close attention to the ways it engaged the academic community in terms of scholarship and instruction. Informed by grounded theory and phenomenology, this study interviewed five professors who integrated a gallery visit into their curriculum during the 2021-2022 academic year. Collecting these …

My Generation Will Never Forget: Oral Histories Of Chinese American Students In “Separate But Equal” Oriental Schools, Kelsey Owyang

Master's Theses

Asian Americans occupy a contradictory position in the American educational landscape, at once glorified for their academic success and vilified for their “invasion” of White academic spaces. This narrative first took root in the 19^th century, when the California Supreme Court ruled in the 1885 case Tape v. Hurley that Chinese American youth had a right to public education. Simultaneously, the state legislature declared that Chinese Americans must be educated in separate facilities from Whites. The first segregated “Oriental school” opened in San Francisco Chinatown that year. This study explores the oft-erased history of Asian American school segregation in …

Can Social Support Ameliorate Burnout?, Timothy Finney

Master's Theses

Mental health provides different areas of interest compared to physical health when looking at general health. Social support decreases the negative impacts of burnout while positively influencing productive components of the economy. Social sciences other than economics such as sociology and psychology take notice of the impact of social support on burnout. Pronto Soccorso e Medicina d’ Urgenza Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria in Parma, Italy provides high quality health care services before and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while anticipating continuing to administer care well into the future. Here we show social support effecting workers in the health care industry. Work colleagues influencing …

The Politicization Of School Reopenings: Media Coverage Of Teachers Unions, Sarah King

Master's Theses

The process of school reopenings during the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered a significant amount of attention from various stakeholders including parents, school administrators, teachers, teachers’ unions, and the media. Negotiations over elements of school reopening policies, such as mask mandates and remote-learning options have, in certain school districts, been fraught with contention. The politicization of school reopening policies has been the source of a growing body of research, which tends to analyze policy decisions in conjunction with COVID data. However, a large gap in the literature has appeared concerning the politicization of school reopenings and the impact of the media, …

Predictors Of Intensive Supervision Placement Among Committed Youths Within A Maximum-Security Residential Facility, Tiffany Harris

Master's Theses

Some youths committed to juvenile justice residential facilities struggle to adjust and may exhibit institutional rule violations that necessitate an intensive supervision placement (ISP). ISPs require substantial institutional resources and may result in additional negative outcomes for these committed youths (e.g., additional charges, longer commitment). To date, only two studies have examined factors that place committed youths at greater risk of ISPs, and it was found that commitment length, number of arrests, age at admission, impulsive/reactive and psychopathic traits, and anger-irritability were predictive of ISPs (Taylor et al., 2007; Butler et al., 2007). The present study considered additional predictors that …

Use Of Encouragement In The Classroom To Help Students Succeed [2022], Erin Fieldhouse

Master's Theses

This case study is based on a one student study that used a mixed methods approach seeing the effects of encouragement in the classroom and how it might help a student socially and emotionally. Data was collected throughout a 12-week period based around the findings of field notes and a survey that was implemented into the classroom. Preliminary findings are inconclusive based on students having more difficulties that affect them in different ways. This paper will provided [sic] information about how to use encouragement in the classroom.

Teachers are always trying to find new methods to help their students. …

Morning Meeting And Closing Circles: A Sense Of Community, Positive Learning Environment, And Increased Social Interactions In An Elementary Classroom, Samantha Ryan

Master's Theses

This action research study was implemented over a three-week period in a first-grade classroom, collecting qualitative and quantitative data. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of Morning Meetings and Closing Circles on a sense of community in an elementary classroom. Preliminary findings show an increase in student social interactions, positive learning environment, and a climate of belonging. This presentation will also provide information on Morning Meetings and Closing Circles as an intervention to combat social and emotional competencies lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Mythos Of Lilith: A Collection Of Madwomen, Megan Mau

Master's Theses

For too long, women’s stories have been mitigated, translated, truncated, and censored, if they were even recorded at all before the world could hear them. What could women be writing that would be so threatening to incite such censorship? To a male-dominated world, anything that could disrupt their illusions of power is a threat. If a woman penned a narrative of her experiences in this world, or if she were to begin speaking on a new way of thinking that called for change, that must be stopped. The ultimate goal is to prevent women from writing or stepping out of …

F. Scott Fitzgerald’S Homme Épuisé: Usurping The “Madwoman” In Tender Is The Night (1934) [2022], Emma Hill

Master's Theses

Nineteenth-century women writers commonly use themes of entrapment and madness in what are now classified as gothic novels. In texts such as Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and The Yellow Wallpaper, confinement and madness are synchronous in developing the figure of “the madwoman.” These texts were written during a time when it was uncommon for female writers to seek publication, and many used pseudonyms to get their works published or to be taken seriously by critics. The “madwoman” emerged as a powerful trope to articulate what writing under a patriarchal system feels like. That is to say, confinement scenarios resulting from female …

Familial Weight And Diet Talk's Relationship To Weight Satisfaction And Life Satisfaction, Jasmine Gilbert

Master's Theses

Today, body weight can be a sensitive topic, and a person’s insecurities and sensitivity to this topic may be rooted in their childhood experiences. Because of the sensitive nature of the weight issue, investigating early life experiences around familial weight and diet talk of young adults will provide information about their current feelings regarding weight satisfaction. Establishing the sources of this talk beyond that of parents and whether they affect later life and weight satisfaction has yet to be determined.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is an association between familial weight and diet talk, its …