Digital Commons Network^™

Nooses & Balancing Acts: Reflections And Advice On Racism And Antiracism From Black Writing Tutors At Predominantly White Institutions, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison

Open Access Dissertations

Over the past 10-15 years, writing center scholars have acknowledged the significance of race to writing center work and examined the ways racism manifests within writing center spaces and practices. More recently, conversations have shifted from acknowledging racism to how to combat it through antiracist activism. However, due to the demographics of the field, the voices most often contributing to these conversations are white scholars, many of them directors at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). This study positions Black writing tutors as individuals with expertise to share on how to engage in antiracism through writing center work that stems from their …

The Federal Reserve As A Social Actor: On The Intersection Of Communication And Investor Expectations, Lauren Berkshire Hearit

Open Access Dissertations

As the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve sets U.S. monetary policy (i.e., control of the money supply and management of the inflation rate, economic growth, and price stability) through the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and serves as a lender of last resort. A major actor in the U.S. economic system, it is dispersed geographically across the United States and contains many branches. The chairman of the Federal Reserve communicates on behalf of the entire system before Congress, makes a statement after FOMC meetings, and gives speeches and lectures on economic status and related economic topics.

Yet there is …

Analysis And Automated Discovery Of Attacks In Transport Protocols, Samuel C. Jero

Open Access Dissertations

Transport protocols like TCP and QUIC are a crucial component of today’s Internet, underlying services as diverse as email, file transfer, web browsing, video conferencing, and instant messaging as well as infrastructure protocols like BGP and secure network protocols like TLS. Transport protocols provide a variety of important guarantees like reliability, in-order delivery, and congestion control to applications. As a result, the design and implementation of transport protocols is complex, with many components, special cases, interacting features, and efficiency considerations, leading to a high probability of bugs. Unfortunately, today the testing of transport protocols is mainly a manual, ad-hoc process. …

British Essentialism In Eighteenth-Century British Travel Literature Of The West Indies And North America, Stephanie Matos-Ayala

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores issues of representation and cultural negotiation by examining how the white colonial other was depicted in eighteenth-century travel literature, specifically Janet Schaw’s Journal of a Lady of Quality written during the years 1774 to 1776. Travel narratives and histories speak to many different topics, yet they reveal the most about eighteenth-century British ways of thinking about race and national identity, more so than about the various peoples and cultures they seek to describe. I argue that this literature reveals a hierarchy based on the absorption and consumption of British practices and goods by the colonial subject. Neither …

The Effectiveness Of Visual Input Enhancement Across Multiple Proficiency Levels On The Noticing And L2 Development Of German Vocabulary And Reading, Christopher La Cross

Open Access Dissertations

The present study investigates the effectiveness of visual input enhancement across multiple proficiency levels on the noticing and L2 development of German vocabulary and reading. The study addresses several methodological issues in the extant literature and uses a complex organization to investigate possible differences in the effectiveness of visual input enhancement, a frequently used technique in L2 reading, across multiple proficiency levels in a typical L2 classroom setting at the university level. The study reveals that little to no differences exist across proficiency level and text level and that visual input enhancement, as is so often employed, has extremely limited …

Calderón's Musical Message: The Importance Of The Auditory Over The Visual, Laura Ramiro Moreno

Open Access Dissertations

Calderón de la Barca, a highly philosophical and religious playwright, focused the final part of his career on experimenting with musical court theater. My dissertation explains the motivation behind Calderón’s implementation of music in his theatrical productions and the situation that led him to create the new dramatic genre of zarzuela. This project analyzes the evolution of early modern musical theater in Spain by observing musical elements that are reflected in the text and related to characters and themes in the plays. A reflection on musical conventions in European theater, through the use of cognitive theories, studies on music and …

Latent Representation And Sampling In Network: Application In Text Mining And Biology., Tanay Kumar Saha

Open Access Dissertations

In classical machine learning, hand-designed features are used for learning a mapping from raw data. However, human involvement in feature design makes the process expensive. Representation learning aims to learn abstract features directly from data without direct human involvement. Raw data can be of various forms. Network is one form of data that encodes relational structure in many real-world domains. Therefore, learning abstract features for network units is an important task. In this dissertation, we propose models for incorporating temporal information given as a collection of networks from subsequent time-stamps. The primary objective of our models is to learn a …

Revisiting Rustow: An Empirical Assessment Of The Relationship Between National Identity And Attitudes Towards Democracy In Post-Soviet Russia, John P. Schultz

Open Access Dissertations

Does national identity influence a country’s prospects for democratization? Brudny and Finkel (2011) contend that national identity explains variation in the political developments among former Soviet states. In considering this argument, this effort examines the empirical evidence to determine 1) whether a measurable model of national identity has developed within Russia, 2) how this national identity has developed over time, and 3) whether a relationship exists between this intersubjectively held conception of national identity and attitudes towards democracy. Findings suggest the development and ongoing contestation of two competing conceptions of national identity that covary with changing attitudes towards democracy over …

A Pragmatic Methodology For The (Queer) Self, Elaine M. Blum

Open Access Dissertations

Taking LGBTIA+ experiences as the starting point for theorizing, I propose that pragmatic methodologies ameliorate several problems that queer theory encounters in defining queer subjectivity. The challenge is that any definition of queer selfhood must simultaneously (i) elude essential or fixed definitions of the subject, gender, and the relationship between them, and nonetheless (ii) enable efficacious political action and recognition. Utilizing the work of John Dewey and Jane Addams, I argue that the social self provides a beneficial framework for accommodating and celebrating queer lives. Adopting a pragmatic methodology emphasizes the irreducible plurality of perspectives and develops theory out of …

Using Tangible Interaction And Virtual Reality To Support Spatial Perspective Taking Ability, Shen-Kuen Chang

Open Access Dissertations

According to several large-scale and longitudinal studies, spatial ability, one of the primary mental abilities, has been shown as a significant predictor for STEM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and career success. Frameworks in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and TEI (Tangible and Embodied Interaction) also indicated how the spatial-related aspects of interaction are a common design theme for interfaces using emerging technologies. However, currently only very few interactive systems (using TEI) are designed around a target spatial ability. TEI’s direct effects on spatial ability are also not well-investigated. Meanwhile, a growing body of research from cognitive sciences, such as embodied …

Phantom Arabic, Dislocated French: Auto-Anthropological Imaginaries:Jean Genet, Abdellah Taia,Leila Sebbar, Nabil Ayouch, Amine Zidouh

Open Access Dissertations

This study combines sociolinguistics with literary, cultural and cinematographic studies in the analysis of works by Jean Genet, Abdellah Taia, Leila Sebbar and Nabil Ayouch. This dissertation’s main argument is that an understanding of the relationship between what is to be conceived as Phantom Arabic and Dislocated French is crucial to the critical repositioning and re-questioning of a significant part of postcolonial cultural production emanating from North Africa and/or the North African diaspora. This thesis intervenes in current debates in French and Francophone Studies, in Arabic and Comparative Studies, but also in Sociolinguistics (particularly as related to North Africa, the …

Defying The Statistics: Latinx Students' Journeys From Esl To The Honors College At The Community College, Juan Carlos Morales

Open Access Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the factors that contributed to community colleges students’ successful completion of the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program for English Language Learners (ELLs) and entrance into the Honors College at Miami Dade College. The purpose of this study was to develop a mid-level theory about the factors and processes that facilitate this success for these students. A phenomenological and grounded theory approach and analysis was used to discover the lived experiences of these students and to construct a mid-level theory that helps capture their experiences. The study was conducted at a mid-size campus of a large, …

Counterpossibles For Modal Normativists, Theodore D. Locke

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I develop an account of non-vacuous counterpossibles—counterfactuals involving metaphysical impossibilities—and related notions, e.g. metaphysical similarity between impossible worlds, that does not require us to take on questionable ontological commitments and that gives us a clear epistemological story about how we know counterpossible claims. My account of counterpossibles builds on a non-descriptivist account of metaphysical modality called modal normativism, which has been developed by Amie Thomasson. According to modal normativism, claims of metaphysical necessity and possibility are not descriptive claims in need of modal truthmakers, but instead serve the normative function of enabling language users to illustrate or …

Bright Bass Timbres In The "Dark Age" Of Jazz: Eddie Gomez, Three Quartets, Transgression, And Transcendence, Tianyuan (Ken) Ge

Open Access Dissertations

This paper offers a case study of the iconic jazz bassist Eddie Gomez. By locating his negotiations of timbre within historical and social contexts, and examining how others have interpreted his sound, I show that jazz bass timbre can communicate meanings and facilitate discourses of identity, authenticity, gender, and race. Specifically, I rely on a close hearing of Gomez’s tone on the 1981 recording Three Quartets, framing my analysis in research from the fields of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, African American studies, gender studies, timbral and sound studies, and music phenomenology. In doing so, I portray timbre as a common thread …

"It's Kind Of A Balancing Act": Scaffolding Collaborative Writing Activities In A Diverse First-Grade Classroom, Loren Jones

Open Access Dissertations

This design-based research study explored how collaborative writing activities can be used in support of ELLs’ writing development in the context of a culturally and linguistically diverse first-grade classroom. Using qualitative methods, I examined two focal ELL students’ participation across four iterations of collaborative writing activities, analyzing their interactions and collaboratively written texts. Additionally, I explored the context in which each iteration of collaborative writing activities was implemented, focusing specifically on the teaching and learning activities surrounding the collaborative activities and the interactions between the teacher and her students. By analyzing audio recordings, field notes, classroom artifacts, students’ written texts, …

Illustrated Libros For Niños: The Interplay Of Translanguaging And Multimodality In Polycultural Picturebooks, Carolina Rossato De Almeida

Open Access Dissertations

The interplay of translanguaging and multimodality was analyzed across 15 English-based polycultural picturebooks with Spanish insertions. The way in which translanguaging is used across the verbal features of these texts and how it is intrinsically related to multimodal elements was critically analyzed. An eclectic coding method (Saldaña, 2016) was employed in order to uncover the nature of these picturebooks while answering the research questions. Five main categories emerged from the analysis, namely: (1) picturebooks provide context clues to understand translanguaging; (2) translanguaging demonstrates the grammar of an additional language; (3) translanguaging is used to represent specific semantic fields; (4) translanguaging …

Understanding Reading Sponsorship Through Analysis Of First-Year Composition Students’ Literacy Narratives, Nancy A. Benson

Open Access Dissertations

Through qualitative coding and analysis of 121 literacy narratives, this study examines first-year college students’ references to former reading sponsors, defined as the people, institutions, and entities that played a role in their reading development. The study was designed to locate the sponsors present in the narratives, to determine patterns that emerged in their experiences, and to examine factors that were formative to the participants’ reading identities.

The study reveals the highly social nature of reading development, providing evidence that the participants’ perceptions of themselves as readers are shaped by the individuals, institutions, and entities who sponsor them including parents, …

Integrated Clinical Experiences (Ices) In Physical Therapy: Impact On Communication Skills And Professionalism Prior To First Full-Time Clinical Internship, John Mclinden

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate student and programmatic factors that may influence doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students’ communication skills and professionalism before and after participating in a first time integrated clinical experience (ICE). Clinical education is an important component in healthcare education, including physical therapy (PT) education. It can take many forms including internships, co-ops, clerkships, and integrated clinical experiences (ICEs). The ICEs have been given specific attention in physical therapy because the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) has mandated their inclusion in DPT curricula. Best practices for ICEs, however, have not been …

Does Being An Expert Make You More Negative? An Investigation Of Subjective Expertise And Electronic Word-Of-Mouth Communication, Jiangmeng Liu

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is aimed at filling a gap in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature by examining how communicator’s subjective expertise impacts generation of eWOM. Based on a review of literature in psychology, marketing, consumer research, and communication, four underlying mechanisms (sense of power, dogmatic cognition style, hubristic pride, and emotions) were proposed to explain the effect of subjective expertise. Two distinctive features of eWOM platforms were incorporated into the study as potential moderators: anonymity and audience size of the review platform. Based on prior literature, this study proposed 14 hypotheses in total and 2 research questions. Two empirical studies were conducted. …

How Regimes Shape Organized Crime: Mexico And Russia During Political Transitions, Yulia Vorobyeva

Open Access Dissertations

The cases of Russia and Mexico, where deadly and violent organized crime erupted during transitions from authoritarian rule, suggest that political regimes may determine the type of organized crime in a society. This assertion runs counter to the common view of organized crime as a powerful corrosive force that undermines the vitality of democratizing regimes. Why did not democratization strengthen the rule of law in Mexico and Russia, two countries where concurrent processes of economic and political liberalization occurred in the last decade of the 20th century? Why did Russian organized crime become less violent and more controllable after Russia …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Acoustic Measures Of English Prosody And Holistic Measures Of English Proficiency In Extemporaneous Speech Of Native Chinese Speakers Of English As A Second Language, Carl Tyler Johnson

Open Access Dissertations

English prosody works as a structural and semantic glue that establishes relationships among words and phrases within a sentence, and among sentences within a larger discourse. This dissertation hypothesizes and demonstrates an association between acoustic measurements of English prosody and holistic measures of English proficiency. To test this hypothesis, acoustic data was used from 10 examinees each of low, medium, and high oral English proficiency groups of L1 Chinese speakers who took Purdue’s Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT). Prosodic measurements of duration, F0, and intensity were gathered from adjacent function and content words in the OEPT audio data and compared …

Mis Familias, Mis Maestros/As Y Yo: A Transformative Research Approach To Latino/A Family Engagement, Literacies In The Community, And Advocacy, Ileana Cortes Santiago

Open Access Dissertations

This qualitative study follows a transformative research approach, which intends to shift dominant paradigms and honor the culture and voices of marginalized peoples through collaborative needs-assessment, goal setting, and intervention/initiative development that brings about change (Mertens, 2007, 2009). Five Latina mothers and two literacy teachers living in a Midwest state partook in a six-month project where they identified a need within their community, met, engaged, and partnered with local organizations while working on the social media platform that would address that need [i.e., the provision of a bilingual (Spanish/English) network/space to connect educators and Latino/a families]. Written as three different …

Turning A Multivalent Lens Toward Depictions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Film, Ashley Ann Albrecht

Open Access Dissertations

With innovations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) advancing at an exponential rate, it is ever the more pertinent to interrogate the ramifications and potentialities of these developments. Luciano Floridi, known as “the Google philosopher,” considers this phenomenon an integral part of the digital information age or the “Fourth Revolution.” We are now forced to confront the following problems: What is the relationship between humans and AI? What does it mean to be “human”? What futures are possible given our current coevolution with AI? Such questions motivate close philosophical consideration. Here, the theoretical polarization of the doomsday neo-Luddite versus …

Game On: Massively Multiplayer Online Games (Mmog) As Tools To Augment Teaching And Learning, Papia Bawa

Open Access Dissertations

The study investigated the use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) in English and Business classrooms in Higher Education from the context of learners’ performance outcomes, as well as stakeholders’ (learners, administrators, and faculty) perceptions pertaining to their experiences when using an MMOG based curriculum. The findings strongly suggest that MMOGs helped enhance learner performances in statistically significant ways, and provided valuable insights into elements of interest and concerns of stakeholders about MMOG usage in classrooms. Based on these insights, I designed a practitioners’ guide to assist future scholars interested in this curricular approach. This guide provides innovative tips on …

Cultivating Asian Students' Willingness To Communicate In American Classrooms Using An Online Video-Based Pre-Arrival Course, Hui-Ching Kayla Hsu

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was: 1) to document the design and implementation process of an online video-based pre-arrival course that was intended to cultivate Asian students’ willingness to communicate in American Classrooms; 2) to assess the effectiveness of the course by measuring students’ oral proficiency and willingness to communicate; and 3) to investigate their first-year classroom participation as well as their experiences with the pre-arrival course. This research inquiry was guided by two research questions: 1) How does completing an online pre-arrival course influence Asian students’ speaking abilities, willingness to communicate, and verbal participation in their first-year …

Teachers' Perceptions Of The Impact Of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy On The Student Learning Outcomes Of African American Male Students., Dennisha M. Murff

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of the impact of implementing culturally responsive pedagogical practices on the student learning outcomes of African-American male students. The secondary purpose was to identify teachers’ perceptions of the culturally responsive pedagogy strategies needed in the classroom to address the diverse needs of African-American male students. The case study approach allowed for additional insight into the potential impact of culturally responsive pedagogical practices on the student learning outcomes of African-American male students in the elementary school setting. Data were collected from a large, diverse elementary school in an urban school …

Narrative Inquiry Into Understanding Chinese Teachers' Lived Experiences: Interculturalism, Intercultural Education, And Teacher Identity Development, Qing Wang

Open Access Dissertations

Globalization brings the trend that intercultural teacher recruitment and migration become more prominent, and teaching internationally is a worldwide phenomenon. My research is aimed at examining Chinese intercultural teachers’ lived experiences and identity development from a theoretical perspective of interculturalism. I employed narrative inquiry as the research methodology to explore the experiences of five Chinese teachers who have teaching experiences in China and in the U.S. To understand the Chinese teachers’ lived experiences and to explore their identity development, I examined the personal disposition and social contexts in which these teachers lived and worked, teaching practices in different cultures, and …

Using Multiple Ways To Investigate Cognitive Load Theory In The Context Of Physics Instruction, Tianlong Zu

Open Access Dissertations

Cognitive load theory (CLT) (Sweller 1988, 1998, 2010) provides us a guiding framework for designing instructional materials. CLT differentiates three subtypes of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. The three cognitive loads are theorized based on the number of simultaneously processed elements in working memory. Intrinsic cognitive load depends upon the number of interacting elements in the instructional material that are related to the learning objective. Extraneous cognitive load is the mental resources allocated to processing unnecessary information which does not contribute to learning as caused by non-optimal instructional procedure. It is determined by the number of interacting …

Treatment And Moderator Effects In A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Culturally Informed And Flexible Family Treatment For Adolescents (Ciffta): An Investigation Of The Relationships Between Stress, Acculturation, And Parenting Practices, Marc Puccinelli

Open Access Dissertations

The present study investigated how acculturation, acculturative stress, and change in acculturative stress impact parenting practices among 141 Hispanic families randomly assigned to either Culturally Informed and Flexible Family Treatment for Adolescents (CIFFTA) or Individual Treatment As Usual (ITAU). Data were obtained from a parent study investigating the efficacy of CIFFTA vs. ITAU in addressing internalizing and externalizing disorders, and preventing future drug use and risky sexual behavior among 200 at-risk adolescents 11-14 years of age. A series of mixed model ANOVAs were conducted to investigate how Hispanic stress and parenting practices change pre to post-treatment (four months post-baseline), and …

The Children Of The Cuban Revolution In The Diaspora: From Internationalism To Transnational And Cosmopolitan Imaginaries, Marelys Valencia

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation investigates the intermingling of discourses of migration and aesthetics within global market dynamics in the cultural production of late Cuban émigrés in the U.S. and Europe, to whom I refer as “the children of the revolution” —following Mette Louise Berg. I argue that this understudied migratory generation has replaced the diasporic teleology of return of the exile community with other imaginaries. As such, my dissertation sheds light not only on the varying ways of being Cuban in today’s world, but also on the different routes of the children of the revolution in the diaspora. By engaging in a …