Digital Commons Network^™

(Re) Mapping The Black Atlantic: Abject Blackness And Arabness Across The Atlantic In African-American, French And Maghrebian Literature, Hicham Mazouz

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation draws on a wide range of U.S. and Francophone postcolonial theories and criticism, including that of Omi and Winant on Racial Formation, Julia Kristeva on abjection and Pascal Blanchard on the construction of the "indigène". My research aims at critically envisioning how the "racial formation" of the North African subject within the French colonial (and post/neo-colonial) realm was part of an ideological process of Arabness. This can be also conceived in a structural homology with the notion of Blackness in the U.S., and how this constructed racialization was transferred to and mediated by post-colonial Maghrebian literature. My dissertation …

A Proposed Curriculum For A University Level Performance-Based Seminar Using Works From Selected Caribbean Territories, Harley Robertson

Open Access Dissertations

Considerable work has been geared toward creating music curricula at the university level. A significant number of such courses have often been developed with the intent of providing students with academic and practical knowledge of music. Within these courses, many have focused on European music. However, there are also many institutions that have designed courses in which students can participate in non-European performance seminars. One example of this is the emergence of Contemporary American Music seminars. It is in this context that this paper seeks to similarly contribute to the study of non-European music. This paper will explore the possibility …

Gist Of A Gest: Learning Gestures For The First Time, Maria Eugenia Cabrera Ubaldi

Open Access Dissertations

Humans are able to understand meaning intuitively and generalize from a single observation, as opposed to machines which require several examples to learn and recognize a new physical expression. This trait is one of the main roadblocks in natural human-machine interaction. Particularly, in gestures which are an intrinsic part of human communication. In the aim of natural interaction with machines, a framework must be developed to include the adaptability humans portray to understand gestures from a single observation. This problem is known as one-shot gesture recognition, and it has been researched previously. Nevertheless, most approaches rely heavily on purely numerical …

Pathology Or Neurodiversity?: Cognitive Accessibility And The Rhetorical Construction Of Adhd In Higher Education, Samuel James Dunn

Open Access Dissertations

It is estimated that 2-8% of college students (approximately 1 in 20) report clinically significant diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Typically, those with verifiable diagnoses of ADHD are eligible to receive certain accommodations through the university which, in theory, put them on even footing with their peers; however there has been very little research done to actively address the needs of these students in the context of the composition classroom itself. To address this gap, in this dissertation I discuss the rhetorical positioning and identity construction of ADHD in the contemporary American university and ways in which composition …

Detecting Popularity Of Ideas And Individuals In Online Community, Chien-Yi Hsiang

Open Access Dissertations

Research in the last decade has prioritized the effects of online texts and online behaviors on user information prediction. However, the previous research overlooks the overall meaning of online texts and more detailed features about users’ online behaviors. The purpose of the research is to detect the adopted ideas, the popularity of ideas, and the popularity of individuals by identifying the overall meaning of online texts and the centrality features based on user’s online interactions within an online community.

To gain insights into the research questions, the online discussions on MyStarbucksIdea website is examined in this research. MyStarbucksIdea had launched …

Guided Data Fusion, Romila Pradhan

Open Access Dissertations

While the volume and variety of data furnished by disparate data sources has rocketed over the years, often there is little to no restraint over the quality of data available on the Internet; data sources often provide conflicting information for the same data item (a real-world entity or event).

Recent years have witnessed a number of data fusion systems that propose solutions to consolidate multiple instances of a data item, distinguish correct from incorrect information and present a unified, consistent and meaningful record to users. Most of these fusion systems are focused on automatically identifying correct information for data items. …

On The Front Line: Locating Mentorship In The Composition Practicum, Sherri Elaine Craig

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study of fifteen WPA instructors of the composition practicum. Driven by the primary research question, how do WPAs enact mentorship within composition practicum?, the study sought to better identify how WPAs enact and perceive mentorship within the composition practicum through an activity-theory framework in three distinct phases: a collection and analysis of twenty-six pedagogical materials, twelve structured interviews, and one case study. Through these phases, it was determined the difficulty of locating mentorship of TAs required distinguishing between performing mentoring acts and establishing mentoring relationships first, and second, a construction of the practicum course materials …

Baroque Modes Of Seeing: Reinventing Neo-Baroque In Contemporary Latin American Cinema, Liana Hakobyan

Open Access Dissertations

While the Latin American literary neo-baroque garnered significant attention, scholarship on its cinematic counterpart has been relatively scarce. What is more, existing studies situate this aesthetics within the anti-dictatorship contexts of the 1970s-80s, which contradicts major neo-baroque theories that view it as an ahistorical aesthetics relevant to Latin American modernities. “Baroque Modes of Seeing: Reinventing Neo-baroque in Contemporary Latin American Cinema” is a dissertation that addresses this gap in research and argues for the relevance of the neo-baroque in contemporary Latin American cinema. I engage texts by Severo Sarduy, José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier, Serge Gruzinski, Irlemar Chiampi and others …

An Examination Of Underrepresentation In Florida, Indiana, And Washington, Jaret Hodges

Open Access Dissertations

Black, Latinx, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education programs across the United States. This underrepresentation is one way in which the excellence gap manifests in gifted education. In turn, the underlying causes for underrepresentation are debated by scholars. This dissertation examines the issue of underrepresentation through three case studies. In all case studies, a generalized linear mixed model is used as the framework to analyze publicly available data acquired from the associated state departments of education.

The first case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Florida. In this study, the influence of socioeconomic status on rates …

The Alien Eye: Chinese Self-Images And The External Observer, 1874–1911, Yingying Huang

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a literary study of how and why late Qing Chinese self-image formation involved the “alien eye,” by which I mean the view of the foreigner observing and writing about China. I investigate writings and occasionally images produced within the period from 1874 to 1911, framed by the founding of the first Chinese-owned modern newspaper and the overthrow of the Qing empire. The literary genres I address include essays, short stories, novels, and plays. While effects of foreign views of China on the Chinese varied from positive stimulation to psychological damage, I argue that Chinese’ appropriation of the …

I Just Don't Feel Like I Am The Authentic Me: Navigating Identity And Organizational Identification Through Experiences Of Workplace Incivility, Jennifer S. Linvill

Open Access Dissertations

Workplace incivility is a pervasive problem in organizations worldwide. Given the current political and social climates in the United States, it is a relevant and timely topic that requires further understanding. The current study contributes to this growing body of empirical research by examining how individuals’ multiple identities (i.e., age, gender, national origin, race, sexual orientation) and organizational identification relate to their experiences with workplace incivility. Additionally, this project explores how targets’ experiences with workplace incivility relate to power and control. Through in-depth interviews with individuals who have experienced workplace incivility, the study makes several important contributions.

This study provides …

Towards Ontology-Based Phishing Detection, Gilchan Park

Open Access Dissertations

Detection of phishing emails is a topic that has received a lot of attention both from academia and industry due to the devastating effects that phishing enabled data breaches have had on private individual and companies. Notwithstanding enormous efforts to detect phishing attacks, phishing still remains a major threat in information security, and the damages from it are not forecasted to disappear in the near future. One of the reasons is the diversity of attacks, especially within spear phishing and whaling. Another reason is that the natural language part of the detectors is usually devoid of semantics. Many of the …

Hispanic Children Thrown Into Limbo: Language Ideologies Of Spanish Heritage Speakers And Their English Peers In A Monolingual And A Bilingual School In Indiana, Carmen Octavio

Open Access Dissertations

Spanish heritage speakers are a growing and heterogeneous population that shares a status of inequality within society regarding their language and culture. This study explored the language ideologies of Spanish heritage speakers and their English peers in two different settings: an urban monolingual school and a sub-urban bilingual school with a Dual-Immersion language program in Indiana.

The focus for heritage language students in US schools is usually on the linguistic components of bilingual or English monolingual development and does not focus on ideologies or climate within classrooms where heritage students are taught. With little to no focus on ideologies or …

Cognitive Poetics, Conceptual Metaphors And Blending In German Travel Literature On India, Aditi S. Rayarikar

Open Access Dissertations

In recent years there has been a growth in travel writing and its reception despite the effects of globalization that has brought the world closer than previous centuries. This trend can be further supported with the publication of recent anthologies and theoretical works that explore multi-dimensional approaches to travel writing, especially in the Anglo-American Literature and Cultural Studies.1 But this trend is not just limited to Anglo-American Studies and is equally present in German literature where travel literature also encompasses what is termed as “literature of movement” highlighting migrant literature, transnational and transcultural literature.2 The recently published Reiseliteratur der Moderne …

Contested “Chineseness” In Transnational Narratives: Works By Post-1979 Chinese/American Immigrant Writers Ha Jin And Geling Yan, Ping Qiu

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation aims to claim immigrant literature as an essential part of Chinese American studies. It responds to the challenge by considering how “Chineseness” is negotiated, challenged, and transformed in the literary texts produced by both writers. I argue that “Chineseness” as presented by post-1979 immigrant writers Ha Jin and Geling Yan is a transnational process of defamiliarization, radicalization, and transformation. In their work, new immigrant writers are self-consciously and strategically positioning themselves as both insider and outsider. They engage in, negotiate, and challenge the troubling term “Chineseness” as defined in either U.S-centric/Eurocentric or Sinocentric points of view. For writers, …

Exploring The Role Of Reflexivity In Supporting Preservice Elementary Teachers' Conceptions Of Science As Socially And Culturally Embedded, Jeffrey Radloff

Open Access Dissertations

Achieving widespread scientific literacy has been a longstanding goal of US science standards, requiring that students and teachers possess contemporary nature of science (NOS) conceptions. However, NOS conceptions are repeatedly found to be wide-ranging or ‘naïve’, resulting in regular efforts by science education researchers to hone, or standardize them. While this has improved some aspects of NOS conceptions, others remain relatively unchanged, specifically within prospective, or preservice elementary teacher populations.

One unaffected aspect concerns preservice science teachers’ views of science as socially and culturally embedded, or mutually connected with changes in society and culture. However, understanding this facet of NOS …

Electrophysiological And Spatial Orientation Ability Differences In Expert And Novice Aircraft Pilots, Karthik Sukumar

Open Access Dissertations

Exploring differences between experts and novices by observing task-specific performance has been an important area of research in several domains. This study examined differences in expert and novice aircraft pilots based on their cortical activity and spatial orientation ability. Twenty-eight aircraft pilots (eight experts, 20 novices) performed 23 in-flight sequences inside a flight simulator while their cortical activity was recorded using an electroencephalographic (EEG) device. Thirty-two aircraft pilots (11 experts, 21 novices) attempted a 30-question multiple-choice spatial orientation ability test. Outcomes of the study revealed significant differences in cortical activity between expert and novice groups. Novice pilots projected higher mental …

Early Turn-Taking Prediction For Human Robot Collaboration, Tian Zhou

Open Access Dissertations

To enable natural and fluent human robot collaboration, it is critical for a robot to comprehend their human partners’ on-going actions, predict their behaviors in the near future, and plan its actions accordingly. Specifically, the capability of making early predictions can allow robots to determine the precise timing of turn-taking events and start planning and executing preparative tasks to take the turn. Such proactive behavior would save waiting time and increase efficiency and naturalness in collaborative tasks.

To that end, this dissertation presents the design and implementation of an early turn-taking prediction framework, centered around physical human robot collaboration tasks. …

Effects Of Cognitively Guided Instruction On Teacher Created Opportunities To Engage Students In Problem-Solving, Uma Gadge

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of a two-year long professional development (PD) program called Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) on teachers’ instructional practices for engaging students in problem-solving in elementary mathematics classrooms. The treatment involved sixteen days of CGI PD across two years. Forty-two and forty-seven teachers’ classrooms were observed and videotaped during first- and second-years, respectively. Videotaped classroom instruction was coded, and the resulting data were analyzed to compare students’ problem-solving opportunities between CGI and non-CGI classrooms. This study found that CGI teachers were more likely (than not), in comparison to non-CGI teachers to provide their students with various problem-solving …

Neural Basis Of Repetitive Negative Thinking In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Catherine Ann Burrows

Open Access Dissertations

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience co-occurring internalizing problems, yet little is known about cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this comorbidity. Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) about self-referential information is a cognitive vulnerability factor across multiple diagnostic groups with well-characterized neurobiological underpinnings. Youth with ASD may be at heightened risk for RNT due to their perseverative cognitive style, which could account for the relationship between ASD and internalizing problems. This study investigates the interaction of brain networks involved in self-referential processing (i.e., the default mode network, DMN) and cognitive inflexibility (i.e., the salience network, SN) to confer increased risk …

Haiti's Resistant Press In The Age Of Jean-Claude Duvalier, 1971-1986., Jennifer Garcon

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the consolidation and overthrow of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s regime by tracing the resurgence of independent and increasingly oppositional Haitian print and radio media after 1971 and its growing role in national politics. Challenging interpretations that stress the suddenness of the political transformation of civil society leading to Duvalier’s ouster in 1986, I analyze a longer history of unrest and discontent as expressed in the pages of newspapers and weekly journals, as well as in radio broadcasts. I argue that the devolution of the Duvalier dictatorship can be traced back to the opening of limited press freedom in 1971. …

Exploring College Readiness For Hispanic Middle School Students: Relationship Between Cognitive And Non-Cognitive Facets., Christina R. Barcinas

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to seek the potential factors affecting Hispanic middle school students’ college readiness. Although it is important that students begin preparing for college as early as middle school, Hispanic students often fall behind in their readiness for college. The current study examined whether Hispanic middle school students’ college readiness is related to students’ perceived family engagement and college awareness. Research questions examined in the study were: (1) How does college awareness relate to college readiness of middle school Hispanic students? and (2) How do students’ perceptions of family engagement relate to college readiness of middle …

Health-Related Quality Of Life Instruments For Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants: Development Of Child And Parent-Proxy Measures, Michael Farrell Hoffman

Open Access Dissertations

Severe to profound hearing loss is associated with measurable deficits in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), reflecting its concomitant effects on oral language, social and emotional functioning, and academic performance. HRQoL is a multidimensional construct that encompasses four core domains: 1) disease severity and physical symptoms, 2) functional status, 3) emotional/cognitive functioning, and 4) social skills (Aaronson, 1989; Palermo et al., 2008). However, studies of cochlear implantation (CI) have focused on clinical measures of efficacy related to language and communication (e.g., auditory, speech, language skills), and have not captured the implant’s effects on daily functioning. HRQoL measures provide a unique …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Concept-Based And Grammar-Based Methods Of Instruction On The Acquisition Of The Subjunctive Among Heritage And Second Language Learners Of Spanish, Antoni Fernandez Parera

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the outcomes of two different types of instructional approaches on advanced second language (L2) learners and intermediate heritage language (HL) learners of Spanish. Two methodologically distinct pedagogical interventions were conducted: 1) MCE (Mindful Conceptual Engagement), derived from the principles set in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind (SCT); and 2) Grammar-Based Instruction, which is based upon more traditional methods of instruction involving the description and practice of grammatical content (e.g., fill-in-the blank exercises). Both interventions focused on usage of the subjunctive in variable contexts where the indicative was possible, but with a subsequent change in meaning (e.g., Busco …

Prospects For A Data-Driven Task-Fmri Ontology, Taylor Sullivan Bolt

Open Access Dissertations

The growing literature of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (task-fMRI) has increased calls for an adequate organizing ontology, or taxonomy, of task fMRI experiments. Researchers differ over what should be the dominant features of such an ontology: should it be concrete/observable dimensions, such as task paradigm (e.g. n-back vs. flanker task), or latent/theoretical dimensions, such as cognitive domains (e.g. working-memory vs. bottom-up attention)? This dissertation attempts to address what is important for a task-fMRI ontology in a quantifiable manner. We use a simple quantitative criterion for categories/dimensions of a task-fMRI ontology: the ability to explain observed variations in task-fMRI activation …

Inharmonic Resonance: Music And Temporality In Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Sarah Elizabeth Cash

Open Access Dissertations

This project examines the way nineteenth century authors use music in their work to complicate social expectations and hierarchies. These authors use music as a fluid metaphor for subversive possibilities that work against hegemonic readings of the text. By “music” I mean representations of people playing and listening to music, discussions of music in text, and the production of musicality through language. I posit that music confounds its own seemingly measured structure through the nature and movement of sound. Thus, “music” can operate in written text as a non-linear and non-cyclical temporal sound space, revealing cracks or ruptures in dominant …

Towards The Development Of An Integrated Theory Of Macro-Level Crime: A Multilevel And Geospatial Analysis Of Anomic Disorganization Theory, Eric Ramsey Louderback

Open Access Dissertations

In recent years, the United States has experienced increasing structural trends of steeply increasing crime rates in some urban neighborhoods and a widening gap in wealth and income inequality between social classes. The primary criminological theory applied to explain neighborhood crime rates is social disorganization theory, while the primary theory linking economic inequality to crime outcomes is institutional anomie theory. However, while there is an increasing trend in the literature towards integrating current theoretical perspectives to better explain macro-level crime, no integrated theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain neighborhood crime patterns applying social disorganization theory at the neighborhood-level and …

Imminent Communities: Transpacific Literary Form And Racialization, 1847-1920, Spencer Tricker

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines literary contestations of an imperial discourse I call Pacific Imminence, a ruse of American exceptionalism that framed U.S. Pacific ascendancy as an impending development inaugurating global economic prosperity and a harmonious community of humankind. Through the continental imaginary of Manifest Destiny, most Americanist scholarship has viewed the Pacific as a peripheral site of empire-building in the long nineteenth century. By contrast, I argue that the Pacific uniquely catalyzed a globalist re-branding of U.S. imperialism that American and East Asian writers resisted through fictional forms. Such works undercut Pacific imminence by narrativizing the persistence of colonial antagonisms. In …

Lexical Access And Cross-Linguistic Influence In Trilingual Language Switching, Boris Yelin

Open Access Dissertations

Recent psycholinguistic research has explored language switching in bilingual populations to understand how language is stored in the mind. Whereas the bilingual analysis has been useful, multilingual switching may provide more nuanced details about how the multilingual lexicon (vocabulary) is cognitively organized and how languages interact during speech. This dissertation examines the structure of the multilingual lexicon in two ways: (1) reaction time and carrier phrase duration measures are examined to provide evidence of trilingual lexical access when language switching in connected speech; (2) cross-linguistic influence in trilingual production is examined as evidence of the organization of the lexicon. The …

Teacher Identity And The Role Of Relational Coaching, Melinda R. Ehmer

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify specific strategies that principals use when coaching teachers who struggle to develop positive relationships with students. Using a qualitative case study design, six principals were identified through the use of a demographic survey. The principals were interviewed about their experiences. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and coded for data analysis. The principals’ narratives, emerging themes and sub themes provide insight into their experiences with both relational and non-relational teachers. The emerging themes are: (a) relationship building for teachers and students; (b) coaching strategies; (c) roadblocks and deficiencies; and (d) identity and belief …