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The Mutant Factor. Transformations And Mutations Of The Monstrous In Contemporary Ibero-American Texts, Salvador Luis Raggio

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores recent changes in the category of the monstrous by extrapolating the biological notion of mutation into the context of Ibero-American novels, comic books, and films. By analyzing late twentieth century and early twenty-first century textual and visual narratives from Spain and Latin America, this study proposes a reformulation of the monster paradigm and signals specific contemporary representations that move away from a monolithic and fixed category to a more relative one. Consequently, this dissertation suggests a new sensibility towards grand narratives in the figure of the mutant, a symptom of imminent change, heterogeneity, and variety. Conceived as …

The Candombe Drumming Of Uruguay: Contextualizing Uruguayan Identity Through Afro-Uruguayan Rhythm, Clifford Todd Sutton

Open Access Dissertations

This essay examines the drum rhythms associated with Uruguayan candombe, and Afro-Uruguayan music and dance promoted nationally and internationally as Uruguayan cultural heritage. At the heart of this cultural form, both musically and symbolically, is the drum (commonly referred to in Uruguay as tambor), along with collective drumming performances known as llamadas. Scholars of Afro-Uruguayan history, culture, and music are quick to acknowledge the significance of the drum to candombe, linking it to Afro-Uruguayan discourses and the politics of national identity. However, many of the resources that would assist musicians who are interested in learning and understanding these rhythms and …

Digital Zoom On The Video Boom: Close Readings Of Nigerian Films, Michael J. Laramee

Open Access Dissertations

Focusing on a selection of Nigerian video films— Living in Bondage (1992), Osuofia in London (2003), Saworoide (1999), Arugba (2010), Sitanda (2006), and Slave Warrior (2006)—and informed by in-depth interviews with four producer-directors, this dissertation establishes a model for combining industry contextualization with close shot by shot critical textual analysis in order to study products of Nollywood as individual films or works of art rather than solely as part of a phenomenon. After identifying an “arm’s length approach” in scholarship about Nollywood, a trend which identifies the video film revolution’s importance but does not incorporate close analysis of the films …

Fate Of 17Α-Estradiol, 17Β-Estradiol, And Estrone In Agricultural Soils And Sediments, Michael L. Mashtare Jr

Open Access Dissertations

The shift to concentrated animal production facilities and increasing rural-urban migration has increased the localized land application of nearly 1 billion tons of manure and biosolids annually. Although these applications provide nutrients and contribute to soil tilth, they also serve as a source for an estimated 49 tons of the natural manure-borne estrogens, 17α-estradiol (17α-E2), 17β-estradiol (17β-E2), and estrone (E1). While these estrogens are critical to endocrine systems, the low concentrations observed in the environment can disrupt endocrine function in non-target organisms, e.g., altering secondary sex characteristics which can lead to changes in wildlife communities.

Research presented here focuses on …

Girl Talk: Analyzing Discourse Among Urban Middle School Girls, Carey Delauder Bledsoe

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study of an all-girls’ advisory in a coeducational, urban middle school located in a mid-sized city in the northeast. The advisory group met daily over the course of the 2010-2011 academic year. Drawing from data collected over one year of fieldwork--including participant observation, analysis of discourse, dynamic interviews, and the analysis of social constructs --this study explores how a group of mostly African American and Latina students created a caring community in order to increase their academic and social success.

Each chapter of the dissertation examines the challenges and obstacles the girls in the advisory …

Gender-Twisting And Bros Talking: Discursive Performance Of Gender, Power, And Recognition In The Sex Ed. Class, Odile Mattiauda

Open Access Dissertations

In American Schools, students are rarely offered educational experiences about gender and sexuality. Programs that do address sexuality are rarely based on moral beliefs and democratic values of tolerance and inclusivity. Sexuality education is predominantly taught by health teachers, rather than human sexuality educators, and their focus is on facts, statistics, and controversial issues such as the prevention of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. This limited perspective on sexuality neglects the important role of gender identity and sexual orientation (Donovan, 1989; Haffner & De Mauro, 1991; Nelson Trudell, 1993)

Using teacher-researcher-participant-observer qualitative methodology, I examined the discourse …

Caribbean Bodyscapes: The Politics Of Sacred Citizenship And The Transpersonal Body, Josune Urbistondo

Open Access Dissertations

In this project I explore the relationship of sacred citizenship as an alternative and at times overlapping form of politics to national citizenship. Sacred citizenship creates a possibility of belonging for marginalized identities in Caribbean and Caribbean diasporic women’s writing. All the novels examined in this project, Cristina García’s Monkey Hunting (2004), Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night (2001), Patricia Powell’s The Pagoda (1998), Mayra Montero’s The Red of His Shadow (2001), Ana-Maurine Lara’s Erzulie’s Skirt (2006), and Daína Chaviano’s The Island of Eternal Love (2008), depict protagonists that practice restricted versions of national citizenship. Due to varying degrees of …

The Baroque Imagination Of Alejo Carpentier, Derek Walcott, And Seamus Heaney: Folding The Periphery Into A Center, Carmen Chiappetta

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I define the baroque imagination as the mindset of an intellectual in the postcolonial world, grappling creatively with multiple cultural inheritances and attempting to fashion a literary oeuvre that will redefine the individual’s relationship to the center and to the island culture from which he comes. Gottfried Leibniz’s theories of the monad and the baroque, as interpreted by Gilles Deleuze in The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, provide the theoretical grounding for my concept of the baroque imagination as do Edouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation and Wilson Harris’ concept of the cross-cultural imagination. In the works of …

Ecowomanist Endeavors: Race, Gender, And Environmental Ethics In Contemporary Caribbean Women's Literature, Debbie-Ann C. Morrison

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the intersections of gender, sexuality, community, landscape, ecology, and social justice as they appear in selected literary texts by contemporary Caribbean women writers. Beginning with an awareness of the various ecological crises enveloping the Caribbean as well as a firm belief that an analysis of literature might reveal inherent values regarding ecological sustainability and the need for propagating environmentally ethical practices throughout the region, the project uses Alice Walker’s notion of womanism to craft what it calls an “ecologically womanist” reading of texts by Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior, Jamaica Kincaid, Mayra Montero, Dionne Brand, and Pauline Melville. …

Communication Deviance, Expressed Emotion, And Family Cohesion In Schizophrenia, Radha G. Carlson

Open Access Dissertations

Although schizophrenia is a biologically-based disorder, environmental stress (including stress within familial relationships) plays a major role in the onset and maintenance of symptoms. This study examined family variables that have implications for psychotherapeutic treatment of schizophrenia. Previous research has found Communication Deviance (CD), Expressed Emotion (EE), and family cohesion (FC) to be related to symptom severity. However, the exact nature of the relationship between these constructs is unclear. The current study tested a model whereby the tone and content of family member’s communication (EE) and the sense of family unity (FC) are hypothesized to mediate the relationship between CD …

The Word And The World: Exploring World Views Of Monolingual And Bilingual Chinese Through The Use Of Proverbs, Li Ma

Open Access Dissertations

Many thinkers argue that major differences among languages lead to major differences in experience and thought. Each speech community possibly embodies a distinct world view. The purpose of this study was to explore, through the use of proverbs, the relationship between acculturation and world views among monolingual and bilingual Chinese, with proficiency in Chinese and/or English used a proxy for level of acculturation. Data were collected through questionnaires and qualitative interviews regarding attitudes to English and Chinese proverbs. Data were analyzed by means of SPSS and modified grounded theory methodology. The statistical and qualitative findings contradicted each other: the former …

Counterpublics And Aesthetics: Afro-Hispanic And Belizean Women Writers., Melva Marguerite Persico

Open Access Dissertations

My project explores ways in which legitimacy is granted within the literary field. This is done through an analysis of literary anthologies, university course syllabi, publishing trends, literary prizes, and levels and sources of critical attention. The project seeks to determine the extent to which the works of Afro-descendant Spanish American and Belizean writers are reflected in the hegemonic Spanish American and Anglophone Caribbean literary canons. I examine the works of Cristina Rodríguez Cabral (Uruguay), Shirley Campbell Barr, and Delia McDonald Woolery (Costa Rica), and Zee Edgell, and Zoila Ellis (Belize). The project records the varying degrees of legitimation these …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Barriers And Facilitators Of Family Centered Care And Service Provision In The Natural Environment., Rachel M. Fults

Open Access Dissertations

Although family centered care and natural environment services have been heralded as the ideal model in early childhood intervention and have been mandated by Part C of IDEA, research demonstrates that family centered principles are still not adhered to in many early childhood programs. Previous research in this area is lacking with regard to the limited diversity of participants (i.e., white, middle-class woman) and perspectives (i.e., childcare providers). This dissertation reports the results of a study that took into account perspectives of multiple stakeholders in early intervention including families, service providers, and program directors in order to understand the full …

American Women And The Modern Summer Olympic Games: A Story Of Obstacles And Struggles For Participation And Equality, Cecile Houry

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on American women and the modern summer Olympic Games. It retraces the history of women's participation in this significant and global sporting event to study the obstacles generated by social, economic, political, and cultural gender patterns while providing a forum for female Olympians to give voice to their journeys and how they dealt with and eventually overcame some of these obstacles. The findings herein support other scholarly works, arguing that despite progress, the Olympic Games, and by extension the institution of sport in general, is and will remain a hegemonic space that allows men to maintain and …

Theatre Of The Arts: Caribbean Intertextuality And The Muse Of Place, Lara B. Cahill-Booth

Open Access Dissertations

Theatre of the Arts: Caribbean Intertextuality and the Muse of Place is a literary geography that explores how specific environments shape imaginative interventions into history and language. I begin by examining the unity of Derek Walcott's vision of the sea, tracing its ties to oral history, literary canon, and personal reveries of emplacement in Omeros and other epic-minded poems. I follow the sea to its continental origins, examining the Guyanas, an Amazonian bioregion on the borderlands of Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela, as a place imaginatively remapped by twentieth-century novelists Alejo Carpentier, Wilson Harris, Mario de Andrade, and Pauline Melville. I …

Caregiver Behaviors As Moderators Of The Relation Between Children's Joint Attention Skills And Subsequent Language In An At-Risk Sample, Dolores Farhat

Open Access Dissertations

The positive link between children's joint attention skills and subsequent language outcomes is well established. There is also abundant evidence that responsive caregiver behaviors lead to optimal language outcomes. Though directive behaviors are generally considered detrimental to children's growth, specific types of directive behaviors which extend or build upon a child's behavior are thought to promote children's learning. No study has examined how caregiver behaviors interact with children's joint attention skills to affect subsequent language. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine how three different caregiver behaviors (Responsiveness, Supportiveness, and Intrusiveness) measured at 18 months moderated the …

Building Transnational Media Spaces: Immigrant Journalism In South Florida, Moses A. Shumow

Open Access Dissertations

Since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1999 and the subsequent rapid growth of Venezuelan immigration to the United States, there has been an explosion of Venezuelan community media in South Florida. While focused on local issues, the mediated communication being produced and distributed among members of this community remains distinctly transnational in scope, informed primarily by events taking place in Venezuela as the country is being transformed politically, socially, and economically under the controversial leadership of President Hugo Chávez. This study presents an empirical, qualitative investigation into the practices of Venezuelan media producers in South Florida through a series …

Queering Latin American Theater: A Panoramic Study And Its Performative Implications., Joanne Pol

Open Access Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze Latin American play texts (1970-2006), within their historical and geographical framework, under a queer theoretical lens. What I specifically focus my analysis on are destabilized identities through the play text's performative construction of gender as well as the theatricality. A queer theoretical dialogue not only breaks with the compulsory gay and feminist criticism, under which these plays have been categorized, but also allows for a (re)conceptualization of queer performativities in Latin American Theatre.

Account Planning In The Mexican Advertising Industry: A Snapshot Of A Discipline In Growth, Luis E. Lopez-Preciado

Open Access Dissertations

A study of the adoption and adaptation of the discipline of Account Planning in the Mexican advertising industry. In the last 20 years, the advertising industry has transformed around the world as large conglomerates have formed and consolidated in the largest advertising markets. The Mexican industry was ranked 12th in 2006 and 14th in 2008 based on advertising expenditure. However, little is known about the practices of local advertising agencies, and the way these practices were adopted. This study seeks to address this dearth in the literature by looking specifically at the discipline of Account Planning. Using a Grounded Theory …

Betrayals, Secrets, And Lies: Unfaithful Reading In Modernist Undecidability, Lucas H. Harriman

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents an argument for the ethical value of a reader's inability to fully comprehend works by Jorge Luis Borges, G.K. Chesterton, William Faulkner, and Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien). Such texts demand creative engagement by the reader which could be described as a necessary betrayal of the text. Viewed in the context of the so-called "ethical turn" in literary theory, the revaluation of infidelity accomplished by such unfaithful reading can foster a greater openness toward the unknown, and ultimately unknowable, other. Similarly, by juxtaposing the work of Faulkner, a canonical modernist writer, with more nontraditional writers such as …

A Transdiagnostic Model Of Suicidal Ideation And Suicide Attempts, Lori R. Eisner

Open Access Dissertations

Suicide is one of the most tragic issues in mental health. Suicide has traditionally been studied as an outcome of specific psychiatric disorders. The goal of this study was to consider whether there might be underlying dimensions across psychiatric disorders that are related to suicidality. This study proposed a transdiagnostic model of suicidality. Psychiatric symptoms were hypothesized to load onto three factors: Negative Mood, Impulsivity, and Arousal. Factors were then examined as predictors of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication Study (NCS-R). Structured interviews were conducted in two parts using the Composite International …

Bodies Of Evidence: Critical Theory And Audience Response To American Gothic Narratives, Bruce G. Johnson

Open Access Dissertations

Some academic critics are making claims about audience reactions and responses to American Gothic literature and film in order to provide arguments about this particular genre. In presenting their predictions about audience behaviors, however, these critics typically fail to test the accuracy of their theories by providing any empirical evidence regarding the ways in which actual readers and viewers are impacted by these texts. This exploratory study, then, offers a preliminary method for measuring demonstrable audience responses to American Gothic literature and film in order to illuminate whether or not some of these critical theories about audience reactions are verifiable. …

Trophoblasts And Endothelial Cells In Pregnancy-Associated Vascularization, Satyan Kalkunte

Open Access Dissertations

Dysregulated uteroplacental interaction and vascular remodeling are thought to be associated with the molecular events in preeclampsia. Due to the co-onset of maternal symptoms and placental pathology, we hypothesize that serum from preeclampsia patients could provide a "blueprint" of etiologic factors. To substantiate the hypothesis, a novel three dimensional dual cell culture in vitro model, a mimic of the vascular remodeling events during pregnancy, was established. In this model, unlike term trophoblasts, first trimester trophoblasts engage in a dynamic cross-talk and synchronize with the endothelial cells in a capillary network. Mechanistic studies indicate that poor expression of VEGF C and …

Mitigations Of Shame: Represented And Elicited Affect In Vietnam War Films Of The Late 1980s, Bryan D. Marinelli

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the extent to which select Vietnam War films of the late 1980s can be properly labeled as "shame-inducing texts." Beginning with an analysis of the ways in which shame has been represented and mitigated, the project then seeks to understand the degree to which these films elicited shame in viewing audiences. Chapter One delineates the properties of shame that are foundational to the study and offers a rationale for selecting Vietnam films of the late 1980s as focal texts. Chapter Two examines Full Metal Jacket's (1987) rendering of the methods used to neutralize shame in Marine recruits, …

Subjectivities And Counterpublics In 20th-Century Christian Leftist Texts, Robert Leblanc

Open Access Dissertations

Subjectivities and Counterpublics in 20th-Century Christian Leftist Texts responds to the following question: How have recent film and literary voices of the Christian left addressed counterpublics suited to their emergent and pressing needs? In exploring answers to this question, the project considers the role of radical artistic expressions in addressing a politically motivated public sphere. The three core chapters provide close readings of literary texts and films from the second half of the 20th Century that seek to tie themselves to markers of Christian tradition while still operating in a radicalizing way on reading and viewing audiences. In these three …

Making Waves With Critical Literacy: A Teacher Researcher Study Around The Texts, Contexts, And Recontextualizations Of An Upper Middle Class Public High School, Carolyn Fortuna

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a teacher researcher qualitative study that explores the work of critical literacy in an upper middle class public high school. As a participant and an observer, I studied how a confluence of authority, privilege, curriculum, and pedagogy created context and shaped the meaning and quality of our collective literacy learning experiences. Using the tools of teacher research through narrative inquiry, my study traces school authority figures' reproduction of dominant ideologies, my struggles as a social justice educator to break through those definitions of "normal" with a privileged student population, and the hope that resulted when my students …

Homeless Chic: Cultural Contradictions In Contemporary American Literature, Jennifer Joyce Kissko

Open Access Dissertations

The dissertation, "Homeless Chic: Cultural Contradictions in Contemporary American Literature," explores and responds to certain problems and questions that matter with regards to the ways in which homelessness gets represented in literature. It considers the problems United States culture faces in its attempts to think differently about homelessness -- at the ways it appropriates or makes use of figures of homelessness, and the ways literature markets, thematizes, racializes, and symbolizes homelessness. Using contemporary American literature, the dissertation examines how U.S. culture likes certain narratives that challenge the ability to think differently. The readings model how conflicted American readers are on …

An Empathetic Approach To Physical Education Teacher Education, Tony Monahan

Open Access Dissertations

The current crisis in societal obesity and other inactivity-related chronic health disorders has become a widespread concern in the United States. Physical Education (PE) with its propensity for physical activity has the potential to provide solutions to many chronic health issues. However, a large body of literature suggests that generations of students have been "turned off' to lifelong physical activity because of negative experiences in traditional PE classes. A more student-centered approach may be needed to ensure that all students have an opportunity to lead a healthy, physical life. The purpose of this research study was to determine the effect …

The Effects Of A Chinese Music Curriculum On Cultural Attitudes, Tonal Discrimination, Singing Accuracy, And Acquisition Of Chinese Lyrics For Third-, Fourth-, And Fifth-Grade Students., Ming Tu

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of 10 minutes of daily exposure for 10 weeks to a Chinese Music Curriculum and its effect on generating positive cultural attitudes towards the Chinese people, improving tonal discrimination skills, singing accuracy of tonal patterns, and accuracy of singing Chinese lyrics for third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students, compared to a comparison group not receiving the Chinese Music Curriculum. In an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 6 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classes were chosen and randomly assigned to either an intervention or a comparison group. A Chinese Music Curriculum was …

Acculturation, Enculturation, And Symptoms Of Schizophrenia In Ethnic Minority Patients: An Examination Of Sociocultural Mediators Underlying These Relationships, Vamsi K. Koneru

Open Access Dissertations

The preponderance of evidence from large-scale studies shows a detrimental association between greater acculturation (to mainstream U.S. values and beliefs) and mental health. Prior research also suggests that greater acculturation may be associated with a breakdown of adaptive behaviors and values (e.g., religiosity/spirituality) thereby negatively impacting mental health. In addition, literature generally suggests that enculturation (retention of culture of origin customs and values) is associated with better mental health. However, few studies have examined potential mediators between acculturation/enculturation and mental health; and research on this topic with patients with schizophrenia is particularly scarce. Using a sample of 44 Hispanic and …