Digital Commons Network^™

Lipan Apache Tribe Of Texas: Ethnic And Racial Identity, Ashley S. Leal

Theses and Dissertations

The findings presented in this study are based on a series of semi-structured interviews, focused on racial, ethnic and cultural identity, with 20 registered members of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Analysis of the interviews show that while members are spread across the country the basic cultural identity still remains the same: they are all cultural and tribal ambassadors to future generations and the world around them. Results indicate that interviewed members share the same aspirations of becoming federally recognized by the United States government, not for any type of benefits but to be seen as real Indians through …

The Tolerance Of Benthic Infauna To Fine-Grained Organic Rich Sediments In A Shallow Subtropical Estuary, Daniel Christopher Hope

Theses and Dissertations

Fine-grained organic-rich sediments (FGORS) from anthropogenic impacts are a growing concern for bays and estuaries around the world. This study explores the relationships between infaunal community diversity and species’ abundances with FGORS in the Indian River Lagoon and its tributaries. To examine these potential relationships, infauna were collected monthly using a Petit Ponar grab at 16 stations in the central Indian River Lagoon from October 2015 to August 2016. Abundant taxa in these sediments include polychaete worms (e.g., the polychaete Nereis succinea), molluscs (e.g., clam Parastarte triquetra), and arthropods (e.g., the tanaid Leptochelia dubia) with densities as high as 5.3x10⁴ …

Attitudes Of Advanced Placement Teachers Toward Debate: Meeting The 21st Century Critical-Thinking Needs Of Gifted Secondary Students, Allison Mcmath Mcmath

Theses and Dissertations

Young Americans must be equipped, both individually and collectively, with the 21st century skills, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, in order to thrive in the global landscape which lies before them. Little political or economic capital is devoted to maximizing academic opportunities for gifted secondary learners. Limiting opportunities for children and youth with the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment, deprives them of their right to an appropriate education and wastes a national resource. Recognizing that limited capital often circumscribes schools in their ability to provide special programs, the researcher proffers debate, a course within the …

“Sparks Fly ”: Connecting Midwestern Historic Forts Through A Comparative Study Of Gunflints, Jeffrey A. Spanbauer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will outline the temporal changes and choices of colonial powers and individuals as expressed at historic frontier posts in the Midwest between 1683 and 1779 as expressed through their supply and usage of gunflints. Gunflints exist as persistent artifacts at historic sites, and especially so at fortifications like Fort de Chartres, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Michilimackinac and Fort Ouiatenon. These sites exist within the same chronological timeframe, from 1690-1780, and saw occupation by both the French and British, with nearby indigenous groups, and should serve as instructive means to investigate the factors involved in the supply, selection, and …

Assessing Diversity Among Corporations In Brazil: An Exploratory Study, Helga Sheyla Pereira

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore what corporations in Brazil, whether with Brazilian headquarters or not, are doing in regards to communicating their diversity practices and initiatives to the public. Understanding these companies' positions on diversity can paint a better picture of how much Brazil has advanced on diversity in the workplace matters, since the topic started coming about in discussions in the 1990s (Fleury, 2000). A sample of 15 companies was selected from Exame magazine "Melhores e Maiores Ranking 2014" (2015), and a content analysis of each company's website was performed during the summer of 2016, based …

Finding Chinese Jesus: Chinese Christians And American Missionaries In The Republic Of China (1912-1949), Matthew Joseph Douthitt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the beliefs and practices of Chinese Christians and their American missionary counterparts in the Republic of China (1912-1949). Between the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of the People's Republic, the Chinese people seriously reexamined politics, religion, and their relationship with the West. Many scholars claim that Chinese people could not completely understand and accept Christianity due to insurmountable cultural differences. I would argue religious misunderstanding did not befall our historical subjects the Chinese Christians; rather misunderstanding has plagued the modern scholar. Misunderstanding did not arise from a centuries old cultural mindset. Instead, Sino-Christianity conformed …

All Hands Bury The Dead, Summer Qabazard

Theses and Dissertations

All Hands Bury the Dead is a collection of poetry, salted with creative non-fiction, and images, exploring trauma, memory, time, nostalgia, mental health, and love in the backgrounds of the Gulf War in Kuwait (1990-1991), domestic violence, relationships, and academia. The dissertation includes a critical preface that theorizes how racist, sexist, and colonialist ideologies can be reproduced in and supported through the uncritical application of theory to practice. The dissertation also includes an exploration of the assumptions about the innateness of creative writing ability that utilizes psychological theories of creativity to build a pedagogy to support the creative potential of …

On Becoming Citizens Of The 'Non-Existent': Violence, Document-Production And Syrian War-Time Migration In Abkhazia, Jihad Abaza

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I look at the ways in which statehood comes to be defined, practiced, and performed through Syrian war-time migrants’ “repatriation” in Abkhazia, a small breakaway self-proclaimed state squeezed between Russia and Georgia.1I argue that while separatist states’ desires and aspirations towards statehood grant legitimacy to the modern nation-state system, they at once expose the fragility of its very order. An unrecognized state like Abkhazia still maneuvers within the system that it is locked out of, but the way that Abkhazia, like other unrecognized states, is shunned from the ‘family of nations’ could reveal how constructed and hallucinatory …

Drivers Of Sustainable Agriculture In A Southern State, Casey William Odom

Theses and Dissertations

This Master’s Thesis establishes what motivates a group of Mississippi farmers to participate in sustainable agriculture instead of industrial agriculture. A database of sustainable farmers was constructed in collaboration with the Gaining Ground Sustainability Institute of Mississippi. This research project used social network analysis with 28 farmers and participant observation and semi-structured interviewing with a purposively selected sample of 14 farmers. This project also explores the sustainable agricultural practices of participants. A map of the social network of sustainable agriculturalists in Mississippi is presented and shows that some farmers are well connected, some moderately connected, and others are isolated. As …

Cultural Ambassadors: American Academics In The Soviet Union, 1958-1991, Kayla Brooke Hester

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the emerging Cold War conflict, American policymakers adopted cultural diplomacy as a permanent component of US foreign policy for the first time. In an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the worlds’ people, American leaders utilized international cultural outreach, through methods such as exchanges of students, teachers, and scientists, traveling exhibitions, radio and television broadcasts, publications, and tourism, among others. In recent decades, many historians have begun to explore the significance of these efforts. However, none of these works have examined the experience of those individuals who actually participated in the exchanges. This work begins …

The Reconstruction And Analysis Of Oral Microbiome Composition Using Dental Calculus From The Mississippi State Asylum (1855-1935), Jackson, Ms, Jonathan Robert Belanich

Theses and Dissertations

The human oral microbiome is the total amount of microbial biodiversity present in the oral cavity and, given its relevance to human health and disease, has recently become a foci for study. By analyzing dental calculus, and sequencing the bacterial DNA, it is possible to reconstruct and examine the oral microbiomes of past individuals. In this study, dental calculus was sampled from (N=4) skeletons recovered from the cemetery of the mid 19th- 20th, century Mississippi State Asylum in Jackson, MS. Bacterial DNA isolation and shotgun sequencing were successful, with 16S analyses yielding an average of 96 identified species. All samples …

The Syrian Puzzle: The Syrian Conflict: Explaining Main Causes Of The Conflict, Mustafa Sen

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine how sectarian and ethnic fragmentations along with the economic disparity have different deteriorating effects on the stability of the bloody conflict in Syria, and how these effects make it difficult for society to build a consensus that would end the conflict. Politicized Ethnic fragmentation and mobilized sectarianism fueled opposition that destabilized Syria; the government’s violent repression of opposition groups exacerbated the conflict that led to virtual civil war; the armed conflict precipitated a crisis of confidence that spawned mass migration; the economic disparity in the country caused more divided society, and it made society vulnerable …

Isotopic Study Of Diet During The Bronze And Early Iron Ages At Mitrou And Tragana Agia Triada, Greece, Stephanie Fuehr

Theses and Dissertations

The stable isotopes carbon and nitrogen from 18 skeletal and 51 dental samples from various burial contexts at the Bronze and Iron Age sites of Mitrou and Tragana Agia Triada are examined to understand diet in prehistoric central Greece. The samples are compared by cultural period, site, and burial type in order to determine if diet was affected by changes in society or by social status as determined by burial form. In addition, isotopic data from across Greece is compared to understand diet from the Neolithic to Iron Age and in different regions of the country. The results of the …

Addressing Questions Of Prehistoric Occupation Seasonality At Freshwater Mussel Shell Ring Sites In The Mississippi Delta: Applications In Carbonate Geochemistry And Zooarchaeology, Joseph Alan Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

Seasonality estimates based on archaeological shellfish remains have been an important component of settlement pattern reconstruction. Investigations of this nature allow researchers to place prehistoric people on the landscape at points in space at different times of the year. Many of the previous seasonality studies, however, have focused on marine species from coastal sites, with little attention given to freshwater locales, especially ones in the Mississippi Delta. To address that disparity, this study examines freshwater mussel “season of capture” via analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios in specimens recovered from two Late Woodland sites located along the Yazoo River, Mississippi. …

Testing For A Functional Relationship Between Shell Rings And Flood-Prone Environments In The Yazoo Basin Of The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Tiffany Renee Raymond

Theses and Dissertations

The form and function of freshwater mussel shell rings in the Yazoo Basin was examined in this thesis. General and controlled surface collections, excavations, a seriation, and documentary research on flooding in the Yazoo Basin were completed. Four sites were investigated, including 22YZ513 (Rugby Farm), 22YZ605 (Light Capp), 22QU562 (Devil’s Race Track), and 22QU569 (Drew Smith), in an attempt to address whether shell rings were a functional byproduct of flood-prone environments. Results indicated that the two Quitman County sites were not shell rings, even though they appeared as such from aerial photographs, and that they represent a different ceramic cultural …

Investigating Late Woodland-Period Aquatic Catchments Through Freshwater Mussel Assemblage Composition, Sarah K. Gilleland

Theses and Dissertations

During the Late Woodland Period in the American Southeast, the amount of space that any individual group could exploit began to shrink, due to the presence of other groups on the landscape. Resource expansion occurred to augment food supplies, resulting in increased exploitation of mussel beds. Because mussels can be extremely sensitive to the characteristics of the waterways they live in, the specific habitat requirements of these animals can be used to reconstruct the environments they were recovered from. In this thesis I use freshwater mussel assemblages to reconstruct hypothetical aquatic catchments and map them onto modern rivers in the …

From Cow Pasture To Cul-De-Sac: The Intersection Of Rural Values, Memory, And Nostalgia Amidst Suburban Development In The American South, Emily F. Ramsey

Theses and Dissertations

How do residents of a once small farming community react to rapid suburbanization? By examining rhetoric on growth, progress, and rurality, this thesis argues a complex landscape forms where longtime residents weave among pragmatism, disaffection, and nostalgia, with efforts to preserve memories of the past for themselves and future generations.

When Winter Causes Loss: Surviving A Decade Of Pain, Sharon Vanice Bealer

Theses and Dissertations

I struggled with pain and depression for approximately ten years after my mother’s death from cervical cancer at age forty-three. I felt anxious, hopeless, and pessimistic, along with guilt, shame, and overall worthlessness. I endured these maladies for almost ten years—until Bethany, Ingrid, Liza, and Pam helped me to overcome them through experiential role modeling and loving kindness. While all the stories in this book are true, names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved. In some cases, events have been compressed and occasionally embroidered. Some parts have also been changed to varying …

The Effects Of Laughter Yoga On Second Grade Math Achievement, Deborah Lezanic Nagy

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of laughter yoga on the mathematic achievement of second grade students as measured by the math Mock Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT). According to Hoffman (2008), laughter can provide positive benefits to children and adults impacted by autism, epilepsy, and even diabetes. Hoffman (2008) conducted research on humor in early childhood education settings and found little research on laughter and the benefits to young children in the academic setting. Most humor research deals with how humor progresses through the developmental stages of children (Hoffman, 2008). In the last ten years, …

Integrators Of Design: Parsi Patronage Of Bombay's Architectural Ornament, Nicole Ashley Vance

Theses and Dissertations

The seaport of Bombay is often referred to as India's "Gothic City." Reminders of British colonial rule are seen throughout South Bombay in its Victorian architecture and sculpture. In the heart of Bombay lies the Victoria Terminus, a towering, hybrid railway station blending gothic and vernacular architectures. Built at the height of the British Empire, the terminus is evidence of the rapid modernization of Bombay through the philanthropy of the Parsis. This religious and ethnic minority became quick allies to the British Raj; their generous donations funded the construction of the "Gothic City." The British viewed the Parsis as their …

Interconnectedness, Complicity And Ambiguity: Reading With Dark Ecology, Rachel Dene Whipple

Theses and Dissertations

There are many aspects of ecological thinking. When reading texts through a lens of dark ecology, certain conflicts that arise from the imposition of human expectations on natural systems are revealed. These include interconnectedness, complicity, and ambiguities. Within a system, boundaries are contingent and transitory. Beginnings and ends are gradual, not definite. Ecological systems change over time, but it is a category error to imagine that change represents progress or to assume a teleological purpose. While there are hierarchies of power, and different roles, no species is, ecologically speaking, more advanced than another. Ecological criticism focuses on interconnectedness, complicity, and …

The Last Gentlemen: Southern Conservative Superfluity And The Work Of William Alexander Percy, Walker Percy, And Peter Taylor, William Matthew Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes that a robust, serious treatment of Southern conservatism can provide readers with effective ways to interpret works of Southern literature. Southern writers have always dealt with issues we might identify as “conservative,” and scholars have shown us three typical ways of Southern writers approaching conservatism. First, some writers have treated conservatism as one of many characteristics of the South; their treatments of conservatism have been part of their descriptive project. Other writers have used conservatism for more didactic, political purposes, whether that be showing the South’s sins or arguing that the South’s conservative character makes it a …

Sifting Through The Sand: Adaptive Flexibility In The Middle Archaic Occupations Of The Sandhills Province Of South Carolina, Audrey Rachel Dawson

Theses and Dissertations

Based on a sample of Coastal Plain Middle Archaic sites in addition to lithic debitage data from three Morrow Mountain (7,500-5,500 BP) occupation clusters at the Three Springs site (38RD837/841/842/844), Richland County, South Carolina, this dissertation explores the applicability of a model of Adaptive Flexibility to the Morrow Mountain occupations of the South Carolina Sandhills Province. The model of Adaptive Flexibility was developed to explain the redundant, low-density scatters of lithic debitage and generalized, expedient tools made of locally available raw materials that characterize the Middle Archaic, specifically Morrow Mountain, archaeological record of the South Carolina Piedmont. Multiple lines of …

A Study Of Material Diversity In The Carolina Colony: Silver Bluff, Yaughan, Curriboo, And Middleburg Plantations, Brandy Joy

Theses and Dissertations

The Carolina Backcountry is a temporally and geographically defined area reaching westward from the Carolina Lowcountry and its center, Charleston. For roughly a one hundred year span between the late seventeenth century and late eighteenth century it was a frontier and contact zone for colonists and indigenous groups. The Backcountry has sometimes been considered culturally and socially retarded, lacking the material refinement found in the colonial center of Lowcountry Charleston, South Carolina. Often landed estates in the eighteenth century Carolina Backcountry have been portrayed as one side of a dichotomy between refinement and local, rural folk craft traditions. I propose …

From Communities Of Practice To Classroom Communities Of Inquiry: Engaging Students In Meaning Construction, Scott Gregory Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Gordon Wells (2001) stated that policy makers and educational planners believe there is a crisis in public education. These individuals talk about improving the “delivery of a standardized education” (p. 172) and creating nation-wide assessments that ensure particular outcomes. On the other hand, Wells (2001) discussed academic researchers who are interested in students achieving “depth of understanding” by emphasizing the importance of inquiry, construction of knowledge, and collaboration. Unfortunately, Wells (2001) also believed that the daily practice of classroom teachers lies somewhere between these two perspectives, meaning their teaching practices may not always align with their teaching philosophy. This research …

Lebanon's Shouf Biosphere Reserve: A Protected Area And Sport Hunting, Robert Watkins Bowdoin Greeley

Theses and Dissertations

Fortress conservation, the act of setting aside for conservation goals and protecting them through sanction, coercion, and violence, towards local users has became the paradigmatic understanding of how protected areas are created and maintained. The fortress conservation critique is marked by a preoccupation with the negative livelihood impacts of these areas, portrays animosity and social conflict between local users and the protected areas, is primarily concerned with national parks and clearly defined protected areas, and places state power at the center of the creation and maintenance of protected areas. This dissertation takes the tenants of fortress conservation to task by …

Defining And Displaying Gallo: Language And Ideology In Upper Brittany, France, Sandra Keller

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines discourse practices in and about Gallo, a marginalized Romance language of Upper Brittany, France. Specifically, it explores how various Gallo social actors (advocates, performers, teachers and students) defined, labeled and displayed Gallo, as they constructed it as a language capable of participating in modernity, producing local authority, and forging links with loved people and places.

Gallo was popularly imagined as part of a rural past and dismissed as a “deformation” of French, unlike the Breton language, which stood as a salient emblem of Brittany’s cultural distinctiveness. This dissertation elucidates the ideological and everyday consequences of using this …

Changing The Conversation: Diversity At Living History Museums, Sarah M. Lerch

Theses and Dissertations

"Changing the Conversation: Diversity at Living History Museums" explores the lack of diversity among costumed historians at living history sites. Using Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts as a case study, this paper traces the history of diversity among costumed staff and the interpretation at the site. I suggest solutions and ideas for interpretative planning to increase the representation of minority perspectives into the historical narrative of the site and include more ethnic and racial diversity among the employed costumed staff.

Cultural Perceptions Of Chikungunya In The Dominican Republic, James Preston Kerns

Theses and Dissertations

Chikungunya (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus that recently (2013) entered the Western hemisphere and tore through the Caribbean and most of Latin America. The symptoms include rash, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and fever. In many cases, sufferers report persistent arthralgia long after the actual viral infection has subsided. There are a variety of misperceptions about CHIKV, which directly impact public health efforts aimed at reducing the prevalence of the disease. Understanding the epidemic spread of CHIKV in the DR and the growth of misconceptions about the origin, severity, cause, and treatment of the disease requires a perspective that encompasses …

Enslaved Labor In The Gang And Task Systems: A Case Study In Comparative Bioarchaeology Of Commingled Remains, William D. Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

This study designs and tests an approach intended to confront one of the major problems faced within biological anthropology, the commingling or mixing of human skeletal remains. The first goal of the study is to implement an approach to sorting mixed human remains in order that they can be made amenable to comparative study. Bioarchaeologists depend on an array of measures, preserved in the human skeleton, to assess the lifestyles and identity of past human groups. As many of these measures are preserved within the morphology of different bones, it is imperative that the association and context of remains are …