Digital Commons Network^™

¡Bip Bip!, Diego Pablo Málaga Beckhart

Theses and Dissertations

¡Bip Bip! is a body of work that investigates the car as it exists in the American imagination, a metaphorical and physical object where culture, identity, and power intertwine. This work uses painting, printmaking, collage, video, and installation to explore the car as a space of expression, interiority, and understanding the world through a marginalized lens.

Central to my practice is my personal vehicle, Guadalupe, which functions as both muse and metaphor, the main driver of the framework within ¡Bip Bip! My practice examines the different but congruent contexts intersections of this iconic American symbol, the car. In my paintings, …

Inherited Wounds: Navigating Intergenerational Trauma Through Cooperative Play, Ayza Sheikh

Theses and Dissertations

'Strength' for Pakistani women is often defined as compromise, sacrifice, and silence. This definition has shaped intergenerational struggles in which women's self-narratives are constructed through suppression. Inherited Wounds seeks to address the trauma of suppression by creating a safe space for expression that fosters reflective and emotion-driven dialogue between Pakistani mothers and daughters.

Using interactive storytelling and embodied play, I developed a choice-based, narrative-driven video game and accompanying gesture-based controller. The game unfolds across childhood, marriage, and motherhood, mirroring the cycle of intergenerational struggle. Navigating choices in the game requires physical, intimate cooperation. The game uses the protagonist’s life as …

The Page And The Stage: How Comics Perform, Elizabeth Buccella

Theses and Dissertations

Comics and theatre share several, often overlooked similarities, like their unique concept of the gaze, interpretation and execution of a script, and the curation of a distinct visual language. This makes comics a viable candidate for analysis using the field of performance studies and other theatrical forms of analysis. The process of comics and how they are read is discussed before a brief literature review of performance and comics studies scholarship. Two comics, one nonfiction and one fiction, are analyzed using the key concepts from the literature review.

Treatment Resistant Obesity Among Midlife Women Receiving Care From A Specialized Weight Management Clinic, Emily C. Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Obesity is a complex chronic disease that conveys significant health risk. Women with obesity are at greater risk for associated conditions including heart disease, hypertension, ischemic stroke, and sex-specific cancers compared to their male counterparts. Midlife may present unique challenges for women as it is during this life phase that they experience an increase in their overall obesity prevalence and severity. Some midlife women experience treatment resistant obesity (TRO), a phenomenon not previously explored in the research literature, conceptualized as failure to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss of ≥ 5% after having received medically specialized obesity care for one …

A Math Teacher’S Reflexive Journey Into The Opportunity Gap, Richard A. Ball Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This multiple case study sought to determine what educational factors, if any, impacted Black students in a public school located in the South-eastern United States, to enroll in a lower-level math course. The study also aimed to view the mathematical identities of these students and have myself reflect on my practice both locally and globally. This, however, is a result of the Problem of Practice, the opportunity gap. H. Richard Milner’s (2012) opportunity gap framework served as the theoretical framework for this study and for which all findings were situated. The data was analyzed using deductive coding, with the elements …

Instructional Design And Technology Professionals: Why Are Some Laggards?, Hayley Mendelson Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Laggards are often thought of as aloof and uninformed late adopters, as traditionalists living in the past (Rogers,2003). Laggards represent the last 16% of a population to adopt an innovation, and, as a result, they are often depicted for their resistance to adopt an innovation much later than the rest of the population, if ever (Jahanmir et al., 2020; Rogers, 2003). The present study attempted to expand the research on laggards, specifically laggard Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) professionals.

IDT professionals were the target group because of their perceived innovativeness as a result of their high exposure to instructional technology …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Tier 3 Academic Interventions, Dana Esposito

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to discover teachers’ perceptions about the overall effectiveness of Tier 3 RTI services for resolving academic problems and teachers’ perceptions about transitioning students out of RTI. Students receiving services in Tier 3 of the RTI process often spend a considerable amount of time attempting to meet their goals. A search for answers to this problem, combined with a gap in the existing literature regarding time spent in Tier 3, led to the development of this study.

Data collection was acquired through a qualitative collective-case method focused on semi-structured interviews. Participants consisted of general and special …

Teacher Perception On The Implementation Of A Culturally Responsive Ela Curriculum, Erica Tate Dial

Theses and Dissertations

While the principles of culturally responsive and culturally relevant teaching hold transformative potential, they can only be fully realized if educators are genuinely equipped and empowered to implement them. This qualitative study examined teacher perceptions of an English Language Arts curriculum through the lens of culturally relevant and culturally responsive teaching. A diverse group of teachers, varying in experience, age, gender, and race, were interviewed to gather a range of perspectives on the implementation of this curriculum. The study focused on addressing the following research questions: 1. What are teachers’ perceptions of culturally responsive and culturally relevant instruction and academic …

Fans In Ancient Egypt: Iconographic And Contextual Study Of Fans In The Predynastic, Old, And Middle Kingdoms, Nadra Zaki

Theses and Dissertations

A variety of fans existed throughout ancient Egyptian history. They had several forms and were made of different materials. They appear in two- and three-dimensional representations, as well as in texts. They relate to royalty and high officials and also feature in domestic settings, both out- and indoors. Fans were used for creating breeze, and providing shade in real life, and also during the journey to the afterlife, where they combined physical and metaphysical protection. Several names were associated with fans, depending on their functions, both in the secular and sacred world.

Earlier studies have either generally examined fans …

Effects Of A Snap-Ed Social Marketing Campaign On Behavior Change, Andrew Beall Cole

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: This research studied the use of a social marketing campaign to address chronic diseases in the U.S., such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases by assessing audience self-reported actions and evaluating message framing effects on participant intentions to change nutrition behavior and daily physical activity. Approach: Evaluate a social marketing campaign for effects on SNAP-Ed eligible clients and research message framing effects on audience’s intention to change health behaviors. Discussion: The HappyHealthy social marketing campaign launched in 2018 by Mississippi State University Extension. Outcome evaluation data (collected 2023) reported multiple correlations between core messages recalled and increased …

It’S About Time: Early Bronze Age Chronology Further Refined With 14c Testing At Tell El-Hesi, Erika Marie Niemann

Theses and Dissertations

In 2019, the author re-presented two 14C dates for Tell el-Hesi in the northern Negev desert of modern-day Israel that were originally published in 2006 by Anderson. Here, 10 additional samples out of the total recovered corpus by The Joint Archaeological Expedition to Tell el-Hesi in 1979 from the EB III occupation in Field VI, were 14C tested to refine further the EB III absolute dates for the site. The samples come from two main contexts along the EB III city wall, representing both the interior occupational debris and an ash dump feature found along the exterior of the city …

Applied Behavior Analysis: Perspectives Of Mississippi Students Before They Enter The Educational Behavioral Consulting Field, Lauren Ashley Besong

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes how prospective Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) professionals are enculturated through their educational pathways at one public university in Mississippi. I surveyed 24 current and prior students of the ABA program, as well as interviewed 1 prior and 10 current ABA students. Findings captured their perceptions of the field they are entering, through their experiences within the program. Results found that the ABA field appears to be split in a dual identity, existing in both educational and clinical spaces. Results showed that external perceptions of the institution viewed the ABA program as more clinical, while the students were …

Greener On The Other Side: Latinx Migrants’ Perspectives On The Importance Of Climate Change On Their Decisions To Relocate To Mississippi, Maria Claire Regalado Schrupp

Theses and Dissertations

As climate change continues to progress and impact people around the world, its impact on human migration has become a topic of increasing study and discussion. Debates over climate migration terminology and the extent to which it is a useful area of study have emerged in recent years. Yet, the opinions of migrants themselves are often missing from these conversations. Using mixed methods, this study uncovers the extent to which migrants from Latin America view climate change as relevant to their own migrations and, which factors, if not climate change, are most prevalent in inducing international migration to the United …

Understanding The Transitional Needs Of Servicemembers To Veterans: A Focus On Mental, Social, And Behavioral Health, Marieann C. Raguso

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to fill the gaps on the transitional American veterans’ lived experience using their own voice. The reconstruction of an American Veteran’s identity after transitioning back into civilian life is a process with many challenges. Transitional practices often fail to help veterans to acculturate back into the civilian world. This includes the formulation of identities and associations. There is a lack of consistency in military transitional practices leading to identity loss and the formulation of mental and behavioral disorders. The aim of this study is to examine the lived experiences of veterans who have transitioned back …

Thank You For Your Service, Dwayne Vega

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers an intimate exploration of my experiences as a soldier during two deployments to Iraq, describing everyday realities of military life. Rather than glorifying the battlefield with warrior myths, I focus on the emotional toll, survival, and the complex relationships among soldiers. My narrative traces the gradual development of PTSD and my eventual reliance on drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. Through this personal lens, the thesis seeks to challenge common misconceptions about the soldier's life, offering a raw and authentic portrayal of service, trauma, and the lasting effects it had on my life.

Understanding Social Media As A Communicative Tool To Facilitate Critical Discourse: Using #Blackgirlmagic To Explore How Black Women In Higher Education “Talk Back", Crystal Spruill Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Black women have engaged through social media platforms, as a mechanism to uplift their embodiment, despite being relegated to the margins. The hashtag #BlackGirlMagic (BGM) is linked to narratives of Black women in higher education that are empowering and problematic. The development of the popular social media movement during a time when Black women were being portrayed negatively made engaging in the discourse "talking back" possible. This study explores the lived experiences of Black women college students and recent graduates, using currere as an analytical tool for my own communication journals entries as a data source to structure my reflections …

Cyclical Musicians: Collegiate Music Students’ Experiences Of Instrumental Musicking Processes Across The Menstrual Cycle, Anne Marques Catarin

Theses and Dissertations

Instrumental music researchers tend to focus on non-sex-specific health topics, such as posture (e.g., Garnett et al., 2022; Rousseau et al., 2023), musculoskeletal health (e.g., Mizrahi, 2020; Pratt et al., 2020), or neurological movement disorders (e.g., Altenmüller & Jabusch, 2010; Frucht, 2009). Despite the considerable extent of topics covered in musician health, the role of menstrual health in instrumentalists is currently underdeveloped. Using a case study design (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2014), I explored the unspoken experiences of collegiate instrumental music majors who menstruate, in an investigation to better understand the role of menstrual cycles in their musicking. For four months, …

Utilizing Cultural Responsive Literacy Practices In Order To Increase Reading Engagement In Primary Aged Readers, Molly E. Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this conceptual research was to explore how culturally responsive literacy practices and various theoretical frameworks can be integrated to enhance reading engagement among primary-aged readers. This study examines the connections among several relevant theoretical frameworks and identifies common themes related to reading engagement. The theories that guided this research include Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), Funds of Knowledge (FoK), Self-Efficacy, and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). The conceptual framework highlights common themes across these frameworks, such as the importance of professional development and pre-service teacher programs, the significance of recognizing student strengths and backgrounds, and the …

Assessing The Accuracy, Validity, And Application Of A New Method For Sex Estimation Using Isotopic Ratios Of Fe, Cu, And Zn In Human Bone, Elizabeth Anne Wakefield

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the accuracy, validity, and application of a novel sex determination method based on isotopic variations in copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) within human bone, initially developed by Jaouen et al. (2012). The primary aim of this research was to test the reproducibility of the method, expand the sample to include a broader age range and ethnically diverse groups, and assess its applicability in forensic contexts using contemporary skeletal samples. Bone samples were collected from 60 individuals across two curated skeletal collections: the George S. Huntington Skeletal Collection and the Texas State Forensic Anthropology Donated Skeletal Collection. The …

Impact Of A Mathematics Review On Students' Chemistry Self-Efficacy And Problem-Solving Skills In An Undergraduate Chemistry Course, Antoinette Marie Gayle

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics is an integral part of chemistry courses, and the application of arithmetic and algebraic knowledge is important for solving calculation-based problems in undergraduate general chemistry. Students begin undergraduate chemistry with varying levels of mathematics skills and experience which may impact their ability to solve problems and understand the content in chemistry courses. Utilizing a convergent mixed methodology, this action research study evaluated the impact of an in-class mathematics review intervention on students’ chemistry self-efficacy and problem-solving abilities in general chemistry. Mathematics review sessions were conducted in undergraduate general chemistry classes with 40 first-year students at a small university college …

Remote Sensing Assessment Of Ionospheric Total Electron Content Over Thanjavur Gps Station Geomagnetic 2.91 N 152.22 E, Veera Kumar Maheswaran

Theses and Dissertations

A Global Positioning System (GPS) station for ionosphere studies was established during December 2019 in Thanjavur (Geographic 10.72◦ E, 79.01◦ N, Geomagnetic 2.91◦ N, 152.22◦ E). The study involved analysing Total Electron Content (TEC) data and correcting biases to estimate Slant Total Electron Content (STEC). STEC was then converted to Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC), useful for space weather, navigation, surveying, and environmental monitoring.

During the course of our study, this Thanjavur station witnessed a Annular Solar eclipse of Dec-26, 2019. The Solar eclipses can impact ionospheric conditions, causing VTEC depletion. This study shows how the near-earth environment changes during …

Analysis Of Networks Using Hypergraph Centrality Measures And Other Properties, Sathyanarayanan G

Theses and Dissertations

Network analysis explores the connections between nodes and evaluates their characteristics across diverse fields such as biological, chemical, social networks and so on. Identifying key nodes within a network is crucial for grasping how information spreads, which has significant applications across multiple fields. This includes studying disease transmission, managing rumours, understanding social leadership, enhancing viral marketing strategies, and monitoring public opinion. Influential nodes play a pivotal role in effectively distributing information throughout the network. The centrality measures are paramount in network analysis that uses various metrics to evaluate the importance of the node. The centrality predicts the characteristics and significance …

Enhancing The Efficacy Of Task-Based Grammar Teaching: A Study Through Error Analysis Of Esl Learners At The Tertiary Level, Dhivya P

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of modern methods of teaching grammar and to test the student's learning through activities and games. The objective is to identify the students' grammatical errors regarding prepositions, articles, concord, tenses, and redundancy by practical methods and task-based activities. The study employed Corder’s Error Analysis method to understand the students' language learning process, indicate errors, and identify opportunities to develop learners' language awareness.

A pilot study was conducted involving both pre test and posttest for the students. The primary research involved pre test, posttest and retention tests for the students to evaluate the error …

Unleashing Hegemonic Horizons In Kavita Kane’S Cultural Literary Landscape, Durga R

Theses and Dissertations

Mythology cannot be defined as a set of stories but these stories culturally bind, and make people understand their tradition. It also serves as a conduit of worldview and makes people realise their position in the cosmos. Mythopoeia is the art of myth-making that either a new myth is created or some alterations are made in the point of view or identity of the characters after adapting the framework from the original. The present research aims to explore the presence of cultural hegemony in the select works of the Indian mythopoeic writer Kavita Kane.

Kavita Kane (1966) is a former …

Using Landscape Archaeology To Gain Insight Into The Human Experience During The Late Woodland And Mississippian Periods In South Carolina’S Pee Dee River Basin, Noah Safari

Theses and Dissertations

People move through and use the landscape in the ways they do for myriad reasons. The goal of this thesis was to elucidate how people viewed and settled in the Pee Dee River Basin area during the Late Woodland and Mississippian Periods in South Carolina. Framing my research with a landscape archaeology focus, by considering sites within a larger region or landscape, we can inhabit the “taskscapes” of the past and gain an understanding of the past (Ingold 1993).

To do this, I used the methodological lens of settlement ecology “to build a balance sheet of varying priorities (Stone 1996:8) …

Histories Of Stress: A Life Course Approach To Population Health In Late Medieval And Early Modern Berlin, Emily Brennan

Theses and Dissertations

Given our current climate crisis and urban population increases, researchers are increasingly interested in the health outcomes at the intersection of climate change and urbanization. Since climate change and urbanization affects human health in a variety of ways, more work is needed in diverse cultural contexts to understand temporal and geographic variations of such phenomena more fully. Using skeletal individuals from 13^th – 18^th century Berlin (n = 387), this project analyses demographic and health trends from the founding of the city in the late medieval period (c. 1200 – 1500) to the early modern period, when the …

The Northern View Of The Southern Shore: Experience, Reconciliation, And Commemoration In Postbellum Charleston, South Carolina, Michael Edward Scott Emett

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the experiences and commemorative practices of nearly 200 northern passengers in Charleston, South Carolina, as they attended the flag reraising ceremony at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865, and then organized the Sumter Club to celebrate that event annually. While some has been written about postwar Charleston during the first half of 1865, and a little more has been published covering this flag ceremony, the Northern view and their experiences with each have not been investigated, nor has anyone written an account of this club. This dissertation utilizes the theory and methodology of the history of experience, …

Black Mph Internship Experiences In Racialized Organizations: Critical Counter-Narratives For A More Racially Just Public Health Workforce, Zach Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

Internships are a vital component of Master of Public Health (MPH) programs. Despite 14% of MPH students identifying as Black, limited research has examined their internship experiences. This is particularly troubling given the racial demographics of the public health workforce and the racialized nature of most public health organizations. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework and critical counter-narrative as a methodology, this study sought to answer the following research questions: 1) How do Black MPH students describe their racialized experiences in their internships? and 2) What are the implications of Black MPH students’ narratives for policies and …

Therapy Use And Self-Stigma Of Seeking Help Among College Students Of Color, Rawle David Sookwah Ragoonath

Theses and Dissertations

Amidst rapid diversification of higher education student bodies, discrepancies in help-seeking relative to endorsed psychological distress have been noted among college students of color. The treatment utilization disparity exhibited by minoritized racial and ethnic groups attending college necessitates analysis of factors that impact help-seeking. Colleges have increasingly implemented multi-systemic interventions to address rising mental illness prevalence rates across college student demographics. Addressing treatment use disparities and implementing culturally competent services are foci of updated college mental health models. Empowering help-seeking is vital to promoting campus community health. Saint Arnault’s (2009) cultural determinants of help-seeking model (CDHS) posits the interplay of …

British Fortification Strategy In The South Carolina Backcountry During The Southern Campaign Of The American Revolution: Archaeological And Historical Perspectives On Infrastructure And Landscape, Charles Brian Mabelitini

Theses and Dissertations

During the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, the British military established a series of fortified posts to secure the South Carolina backcountry. This chain of posts was comprised of at least 25 fortified positions that extended in an east-west arc from Georgetown, South Carolina, at the mouth of the Pee Dee River to the village of Augusta, Georgia, on the Savannah River. This dissertation examines the British fortification strategy in the South Carolina backcountry during the Southern Campaign from the anthropological perspective of infrastructure theory. It also examines the archaeological landscape of these positions to better understand their strategic …