Digital Commons Network^™

[Aura], Stephanie Benassi

Theses and Dissertations

[AURA] is a collection of photographs of landscapes and objects that have been implicated in fringe beliefs, alternative narratives and the strange events that reside beyond the scope of our everyday experiences. These photographs represent the symbols used to describe phenomena and also concentrate on the areas surrounding the events. My investigation also examines how the affect of the landscape has contributed to the interpretations by those that witnessed it. As a photographic collection, [AURA] investigates issues related to truth, as well as the role of subjectivity versus objectivity in my photographic practice. By concentrating this discussion on issues of …

Fighting The Blues With Blues:How Indianola, Mississippi Used Delta Blues Tourism To Develop A New Identity, Forrest Ansel Prichard

Theses and Dissertations

In Indianola, Mississippi the past and present remain inextricably linked. Unresolved racial issues proved this point in 1986 as tension exploded within Indianola’s public education and economic sectors. Lingering segregation and socioeconomic inequalities brought outside scrutiny to Indianola’s white elites. To counter this negative image, Indianola leaders turned to Delta Blues tourism. Supported by state and federal agencies, they expanded the blues industry over the next two decades. They promised its institutions would alleviate the problems which caused the 1986 crisis: the economy, education, and racial inequality. Officials structured Indianola’s blues market around native B.B. King. They incorporated King’s rags-to-riches …

Changes In Occupation At Lyon's Bluff (22ok520), Thomas Reuben James

Theses and Dissertations

Lyon’s Bluff is an archaeological site covering approximately 25 hectares in Oktibbeha County, MS. Richard Marshall proposed that the site can be divided into two occupations – the eastern area, occupied during the Mississippian period (A.D. 1000- 1540); and the western area, occupied during the Protohistoric period (A.D. 1540-1750). Starting in 1935 several archaeological excavations have taken place at Lyon’s Bluff, but the work has always focused on the eastern area of the site. To test Marshall’s proposal, a series of shovel tests was dug over the site, and 14 one-m2 excavation units were placed on purported house mounds in …

Abandonment Of Historic Sites In Kemper And Lauderdale Counties, Mississippi, William Langley Macneill

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates historic settlement pattern changes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through shifting scales of selection derived from evolutionary theory. Artifacts from 65 archaeological sites were used to establish mean dates, site function, and duration of occupation. Geographic Information Systems analysis of these data and related historical records was used to investigate success and failure of farmsteads. Settlements in the study area developed over time from a rural, subsistence-based pattern of isolated farmsteads, to one including local communities with specialist professions, to a more specialized, market-driven urban settlement pattern. The results show that market-oriented agricultural strategies, like cotton …

Construction Of Complex A At La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico: A History Of Buildings, Burials, Offerings, And Stone Monuments, Arlene Colman

Theses and Dissertations

In 1969, Paul Tolstoy commented that archaeological investigation at La Venta had become "a fairly long and at times tortuous story of excavation, interpretation, re-interpretation, and depredation at the famous site found by Stirling." This thesis adds to the torture by describing and illustrating the architecture, burials, offerings, and stone sculpture of La Venta Complex A in an effort to reconcile data into an accurate sequence of meaningful cultural events. The details derive from excavation reports, field notes, maps, photographs, and correspondence of the early investigators of the site. This study addressed three myopic perceptions regarding La Venta: (1) the …

Identifying Social Studies Content Embedded Inelementary Basal Readers, Wendy Taylor Workman

Theses and Dissertations

In the current educational climate of federally mandated assessments of student learning, the survival of the elementary social studies curriculum may depend on interdisciplinary instructional methods to link social studies to the accountability-favored discipline of literacy. The purpose of this content analysis study was to examine and identify social studies content embedded within a second grade and a fifth grade basal reader from the 2008 Houghton Mifflin Reading Series. Each of the basals were read and coded using the Utah State Office of Education Social Studies Standards indicators and the National Council for the Social Studies Standards as a priori …

Parent Adolescent Attachment As A Mediator Of Relations Between Parenting And Adolescent Social Behavior And Well Being In China, Mengfei Cai

Theses and Dissertations

Attachment is an important aspect of parent-adolescent relationships, and thus it may play a key role in predicting adolescents' behavioral outcomes and well-being. This study examined how parenting dimensions (authoritative, psychological control, and over-protecting) relate to youth outcomes (self-esteem, autonomy, and friend attachment) by way of parent-adolescent attachment, among Chinese families. The sample included 298 Chinese adolescents ages 15-18 years (M age = 16.36, SD =.678 ; 60% female). A series of structural equation models was estimated to examine the hypothesis that authoritative parenting, psychological control, and over-protecting would predict adolescent outcomes as mediated by attachment. The best fitting model …

The Dirt On The Ancient Maya: Soil Chemical Investigations Of Ancient Maya Marketplaces, Daniel Aaron Bair

Theses and Dissertations

Various criteria or lines of evidence have been used to identify ancient Maya marketplaces, including location near trade routes, artifactual evidence of trade, open space adjacent to transportation routes, proximity to public structures, low platforms and rock alignments to denote market spaces, and regular patterns in soil and floor chemical concentrations. Seibal and Mayapán were important economic Maya polities controlling the trade routes at the apex of their civilizations. The objectives of these studies were to apply geochemical and geospatial analyses of the soils and floors from public plazas and household patios, to discover the anthropogenic chemical residues of phosphorus …

Multidisciplinary Assessment And Documentation Of Past And Present Human Impacts On The Neotropical Forests Of Petén, Guatemala, Christopher Stephen Balzotti

Theses and Dissertations

Tropical forests provide important habitat for a tremendous diversity of plant and animal species. However, limitations in measuring and monitoring the structure and function of tropical forests has caused these systems to remain poorly understood. Remote-sensing technology has provided a powerful tool for quantification of structural patterns and associating these with resource use. Satellite and aerial platforms can be used to collect remotely sensed images of tropical forests that can be applied to ecological research and management. Chapter 1 of this article highlights the resources available for tropical forest remote sensing and presents a case-study that demonstrates its application to …

Contested Space: Mormons, Navajos, And Hopis In The Colonization Of Tuba City, Corey Smallcanyon

Theses and Dissertations

When Mormons arrived in northern Arizona among the Navajo and Hopi Indians in the late 1850s, Mormon-Indian relations were initially friendly. It was not too long, however, before trouble began in conflicts over water use and land rights. Federal agents would soon consider Mormons a threat to the peaceful Hopis because both the Navajo and Mormons were expanding their land claims. Indian agents relentlessly pleaded with Washington to establish a separate Indian reservation. They anticipated this reservation would satisfy all three parties, but its creation in 1882 only created more problems, climaxing in the 1892 death of Lot Smith at …

Evaluating The Usefulness Of An Aural Gapped Listening Summary As A Measure Of Academic Listening Proficiency, Sarah Elizabeth Mottaghinejad

Theses and Dissertations

For this project I sought to find a more effective means of evaluating academic listening comprehension. This involved doing an in-depth investigation of academic listening, the constructs involved in listening comprehension, and of methods of assessing listening comprehension. It also included a study of the concept of test usefulness (Bachman and Palmer, 1996), which consists of reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, and practicality, and is used to help select the most effective methods of assessing language abilities. Based on my review of listening comprehension testing methods, I created a method of assessing academic listening comprehension, Aural Gapped Listening Summaries …

Alexander Korda And His "Foreignized Translation" Of The Thief Of Bagdad (1940), Jessica Caroline Alder Wiest

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptation studies has recently turned an eye towards translation theory for valuable discussion on the role of movie makers as translators. Such discussion notes the difficulties inherent in adapting a medium such as a book, a play, or even a theme park ride into film. These difficulties have interesting parallels to the translation of one language into another. Translation theory, in fact, can shed important light on the adaptation process. Intrinsic to translation theory is the dichotomy between domesticating translation and foreignizing translation, the two major styles of translation. Translation scholar Lawrence Venuti, the author of these two terms, argues …

Knowing The Ropes: Autonomy In The Everyday Life Of Egyptian Married Women, Neveen Bashier

Theses and Dissertations

The rationale behind this thesis has been to construct different frames of married women's autonomy in Egypt. Such frames are meant to describe different patterns of behavior in the everyday life of Egyptian married women. In order to construct such frames, a research has been conducted and twenty five in-depth interviews alongside a discussion group with five participants were held with self identified Egyptian married women. The research sought answers to questions on married women's definition of autonomy, how it is expressed in the various roles they play in their everyday lives, the constraints facing such autonomy in married women's …

Tomorrow's Doctors And Today's Changes: Neo-Liberal Discourses And The Daily Practices Of Medical Interns At A State University Hospital In Cairo, Salma Shokralla

Theses and Dissertations

As the State shifts towards liberalization policies in the health sector, debates surrounding the outcomes of medical encounters came to the core of public debate. To understand changes that are influencing medical encounters and their outcomes, this study focused on the socialization process medical students go through to become practicing physicians. A public university hospital (Al Kasr Al Ainy) where medical students get their practical training was the focus of this study. Courses on physician-patient encounters, newly implemented under the government's education reform plan, were analyzed as an example of how discourses are produced to shift the responsibility of public …

Coptic Orthodox Christianity: Religious Transformation In The Time Of Neoliberalism, Marsil Kalliney

Theses and Dissertations

While the Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates a unique historical trajectory, contemporary Copts' conceptualization of religious discourses reflects a transformation impacted by political and economic global forces. The international prevailing ideological paradigm of neoliberalism is highlighted by the shift from governments into individuals through economic and political practices. This thesis illustrates the transformation using an example of a Coptic charity organization redefining itself to be a non-governmental organization (NGO) in response to the dominant paradigm of neoliberalism. The organization is a microcosm reflecting global financial and political forces as well as members' religious beliefs as they relate to these global forces. …

Women, Regional Radio And Development: The Role Of North Upper Egypt Radio In The Struggle Of Females Towards Development In North Upper Egypt, Haidi M. K. Abdel Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of regional media in development. Using North Upper Egypt as an example, the thesis illustrates how a regional medium with a development mission might be able to contribute to the development of women in North Upper Egypt. The thesis inquiry required the search for more information than published about Egyptian radio stations. It also surveys the role of North Upper Egypt Radio Station in developing rural and urban female listeners at all levels.

The Uses Of Applied Theatre, Matthew Mckay

Theses and Dissertations

Applied theatre is an umbrella term describing the practice of borrowing concepts from the conventional theatre and applying them to different disciplines. This thesis focuses on the use of applied theatre in teaching effective communication skills. Using the work of the Ariel Group and personal experiences working with the VCU da Vinci Center as examples, this paper demonstrates ways that underlying theatre concepts are used to teach communication skills. Additionally, this paper argues that there are many advantages for using theatre professors to teach communication skills to non-theatre students in other disciplines through the use of applied theatre methods. To …

Graphic Design As Projection, Bret Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

I imagined a world where designing is projecting and where the entire design field is called projection. My research into what it means to be a projector culminates in a participatory creative project that embodies concepts of projection taken from a range of disparate subjects.

Sweet Briar, 1800-1900: Palladian Plantation House, Italianate Villa, Aesthetic Retreat, Harriet Christian Carr

Theses and Dissertations

Sweet Briar House is one of the best documented sites in Virginia, with sources ranging from architectural drawings and extensive archives to original furnishings. Sweet Briar House was purchased by Elijah Fletcher, a prominent figure in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1830. Thirty years later it passed into the possession of his daughter Indiana Fletcher Williams, and remained her home until her death in 1900. In her will, Williams left instructions for the founding of Sweet Briar Institute, an educational institution for women that exists today as Sweet Briar College. This dissertation examines Sweet Briar House in three distinct phases, while advancing …

Normalizing The Immediate And Early Postpartum Period: A Teaching Module For Nursing Students, Cate Edlebeck

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Differential Use Of Language By Adolescents Across Modes Of Written Communication, Kris A. Vossler

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how adolescents in a small urban setting in the upper Midwest use alternative modes of written communication (i.e., text messaging, email, instant messaging, and social networking) for discourse purposes in order to identify ways in which these modes could be utilized by non speaking individuals. This study explored the factors related to choice of mode, including identity of the communication partner, number of communication partners, purpose of the communication, and personal preferences of the individual.

This qualitative study followed grounded theory methodology and used interviews as the primary means of data collection. …

Three Essays On Customer Chemistry, Michael Breazeale

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of much marketing research for the past two decades has been on the role of consumption in consumers’ lives. Relationships with products, brands, and favorite possessions have captured the interest of researchers and practitioners. More recently the concept of brand love has emerged to describe the lengths to which some consumers will go to maintain relationships with certain consumed objects. But is consumer love contained only to favorite brands or might there be different types of love as in interpersonal relationships? This dissertation presents a case for the development of one type of consumer love – customer chemistry, …

We Are Clay People: The Struggle Against Choctaw Communal Dissolution, 1801-1861, Gary Coleman Cheek

Theses and Dissertations

Acculturation has become an integral part of scholarship about Native Americans in the Southeast. Recent studies have focused on trade the eighteenth century and Choctaw entry into the American market economy during the beginning of the nineteenth century. This study analyzes acculturation from 1801 to 1861, carrying the story about cultural change and persistence through the Removal era and to the American Civil War. It argues that while Choctaws acculturated to survive, prosper, and protect autonomy in a changing world, they continuously battled communal dissolution, which threatened to destroy their nation. Some individuals attempted to promote new methods of subsistence, …

You're Gonna Be Ok: A System To Control The Uncontrollable, John Hendershot

Theses and Dissertations

This is a written defense to accompany the MFA Thesis Exhibition You’re Gonna Be Ok, an installation encompassing video, and other sensory components. This defense provides background for the artist’s motivation to make this work, along with a theoretical framework used to construct the installation. Accompanying photos, video, and PowerPoint are also included to give reference and documentation of the installation event.

An Exploration Of The Influences Of Race, Class And Gender Identity On The Help-Seeking Behavior Of Lgbtq Survivors Of Violence, Xavier Guadalupe

Theses and Dissertations

Without a doubt, violence continues to be a brutal reality in our society. It reaches and affects millions across our nation and around the world. For centuries, scholars, researchers and academics have studied and analyzed the existence of violence in many capacities. While violence affects every individual, group, and community the dynamics and the realties that are carried out vary tremendously across race, income levels, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation and national origin to name a few. The existence, impact and repercussions of violence in different communities carry varying meanings, perceptions and significance. This paper explores the influences …

Lilian Westcott Hale And Nancy Hale: From Victorian To Modern In Art And Text, Norah Hardin Lind

Theses and Dissertations

Lilian Westcott Hale (1880-1963) and her daughter Nancy Hale (1908-1988) built successful careers during a period of transition in America, as Victorian mores were replaced by new modern freedoms. Greater independence for women had evolved during the preceding century, before the influential cultural factors which occurred during the early twentieth century like urbanization and world war. This interdisciplinary analysis of Lilian Hale‘s artwork and Nancy Hale‘s writings demonstrates the imprint of the surrounding world on their work. Lilian Hale‘s art is influenced by her Victorian childhood, and Nancy Hale‘s fiction reveals many conflicts of the modern era. The study of …

Research And Interpretive Plan For The First Permanent Exhibition Of Ancient American Art At The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts, Amy Lenhardt

Theses and Dissertations

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) of Richmond, Virginia, is completing its largest expansion and reinstalling over 6000 artworks, including the Ancient American art collection, to be displayed in the museum’s first permanent gallery space for Ancient American art. In preparation for expansion, the VMFA issued its “Interpretive Plan Guiding Principles,” identifying visitor motivations for viewing the collections. As collection accessibility is central to the museum’s mission statement, all galleries are to provide visitors with the tools to engage with artworks. This thesis project presents a comprehensive history of Pre-Columbian collecting in museums and the history of the VMFA …

Utilizing Pre -Entry Attributes And Academic Integration To Predict Student Academic Success And Persistence To The Second Year For Students In A Collegiate Aviation Program, Elizabeth Bjerke

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine student persistence in professional programs by expanding the definition of academic integration as defined in the current literature using both traditional and professional variables. The professional academic integration variables were identified for aviation education. Due to the impending pilot shortage for the aviation industry, this particular study focused on students enrolled in a professional flight program. The primary focus of this research was to examine pre-entry attributes and academic integration variables in order to predict student persistence and academic success in a professional flight program. The data set constructed for this study …

Even Satan Spoke Hebrew, Gilad Elbom

Theses and Dissertations

A novel preceded by a scholarly introduction, EVEN SATAN SPOKE HEBREW employs a variety of metafictional devices—collage, appropriation, borrowing, minoring, framing, indeterminacy, textual parody, obtrusive narration, structural constraints—in an attempt to propose a deliberate departure from the concepts of mimetic art, verisimilitude, and believability. Set in Jerusalem and Los Angeles, it revolves around an aspiring writer who insists on working in a foreign language, a self-professed exile accused of betraying her homeland, national identity, and mother tongue. When her first novel disappears—somehow she manages to misplace the only copy of her manuscript—she embarks on an intertextual journey in search of …

The Meaning Of Development Of Filipinos By Filipinos In Diaspora: Rhetorical Vision In Participatory Communication, Louella Lim Lofranco

Theses and Dissertations

Development is currently one of the drivers of international migration resulting in south-to-north or third-to-first world movements of immigrants seeking for a better life in more developed countries. Consequently, new economic diaspora communities are being formed, most of which help alleviate poverty of relatives back home through regular remittances, now considered an important source of foreign capital in many developing economies. Amidst new challenges for the field of development is the question of the relevance of development communication in migration and diaspora. This exploratory study investigates the role of participatory development communication in expanding diaspora contributions to their home countries. …