Digital Commons Network^™

Mapping The Mess: A Literate Activity Method For Teacher Research On Civic Literacies In Writing Classrooms, Brittany Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

Faced with an increasing need in higher education to address civic issues and prepare students for participation in democratic discussion, rhetoric and writing classrooms have become one space for including civic literacies, and meeting institutional demand for civic engagement. However, the complexities of changing tools, platforms, and means of civic participation require a similarly complex method for investigating teacher and student work and how to approach incorporating civic literacies into the writing and rhetoric classroom. Using a literate activity research method, teachers can incorporate concepts such as divergent uptake to guide their approaches for putting teacher and student materials in …

Repetitive Thinking, Social Connectedness, And Distressing Sexual Experiences In Autistic And Non-Autistic Students: Examining Social-Cognitive Risk Factors And Mental Health During The College Transition, Erin Elizabeth Mckenney

Theses and Dissertations

The prevention and treatment of mental health concerns are consistently named among autistic adults’ highest clinical and research priorities. While several theories have been proposed to explain the high prevalence of depression and anxiety in autistic populations, virtually no longitudinal research has evaluated causal mechanisms. The first study in this dissertation aims to explore how known contributors to depression and anxiety identified by general population research – namely, rumination, dissatisfaction with social connectedness, and distressing sexual experiences – relate to the development of internalizing symptoms in autistic individuals during the transition to college. The second study explores potential contributors to …

Knowledge Of Breast Cancer Risk Factors And Willingness To Undergo Screening Among Female Faculty, Staff, And Graduate Students Of Illinois State University, Esther Oshaji

Theses and Dissertations

Breast Cancer (BC) is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Early detection is key to combating the disease. Despite the U.S. having one of the highest BC rates globally, there is limited research on awareness of BC risk factors and willingness to undergo screening among university students, faculty, and staff. Drawing on the constructs of the Health Belief Model, this study assesses the knowledge and predictors of BC screening behaviors among female graduate students, faculty, and staff at a U.S. Midwestern University. This group is particularly important as BC risks increase with age. Understanding their perceptions of …

An Exploration Of Power Relations In Select Plays Of Girish Karnad A Foucauldian Perspective, Srinivasa Yogananda Rao Netrakanti

Theses and Dissertations

The present study, ‘An Exploration of Power Relations in Select Plays of Girish Karnad: A Foucauldian Perspective‘ aims to study power relations among the different characters in the three plays of Girish Karnad viz., Tughlaq, Naga-Mandala and Tale- Danda through Foucault's three modalities of power viz., bio-power, disciplinary power and sovereign power.

Chapter 1, Introduction gives a bird-eye view of Foucauldian concepts of power followed by the three modes of objectification and dividing practices, subjects and power relations, inter-connectedness between power and knowledge, panopticism, bio-power and discourses, the application of Foucauldian theories of the three major powers. Next, a Girish …

Intervening For A Better Social Life? A Comparative Analysis Of Psychological Egoism And Aristotle As Alternate Foundations For Applied Social Psychology's Aims, Samuel D. Major

Theses and Dissertations

The scientific aim which distinguishes applied social psychological research from basic social psychological research is that of using social psychological theory to develop interventions meant to rectify social and practical problems in hopes of fostering a flourishing or thriving social sphere. In developing their interventions, however, many applied social psychologists have failed to consider their pre-investigatory philosophical commitments, commitments which imply the kind of flourishing social life that may come as a result of interventions rooted in them. The aim of this dissertation is to invite applied social psychologists to consider if their frequently noted, yet often unexamined, commitment to …

Intergenerational Transmissions Of Body Image And Eating Issues: An Analysis Of Maternal And Interpersonal Socialization From College-Age Women, Elena Kae Cotter

Theses and Dissertations

Negative body image affects countless young American women and can lead to serious eating concerns if overlooked. A young girl may develop negative body image if she is pressured to fit into dominant social appearance standards perpetuated by the media and social groups such as her friends, peers, and family, especially her mother. One relationship that remains underexplored is that between mothers and daughters, specifically regarding young adult women and their retrospective thoughts on their mothers’ influence on their self-presentation at a young age. This study uses qualitative interviews and content analysis of transcribed interview texts, focusing on maternal influence …

Collective Bodies And Individual Experiences: The Case Of Chamber Tomb Four At Nikoleika Aigio, Achaea, Greece​, Daniel David Dillon

Theses and Dissertations

The end of the Bronze Age was a tumultuous period throughout the Mediterranean, seeing the fall of the major palatial economy in Greece. This project seeks to reconstruct the lived experiences of individuals interred at the Nikoleika cemetery in eastern Achaea, utilizing a variety of methods to analyze biological profiles and pathological conditions. Through the analysis of the 55 burials of Chamber Tomb Four, it was found that low levels of pathology and the presence of locally-produced goods may emphasize the self-sufficient nature of Achaea during the Bronze Age. The osteobiographies of three primary burials also revealed a great deal …

The J In Danger, Zachary Delamater

Theses and Dissertations

“The J in Danger” merges autobiographic and formal concerns in sculpture and installation to describe the existential hazards contemporary life poses to Queer and Disabled individuals. The paper utilizes silent letters as thematic device to connect notions of precarity to a broader sense of contemporary “doomerism.”

Archaeomalacological Studies In The North Atlantic Islands, Kelly A. Mclafferty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis expands upon the archaeomalacological narrative of the North Atlantic islands (the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Orkney) from the mid-8^th through the 20^th century. The main objectives are to identify exploited mollusk populations and ecological zones; investigate the roles of mollusk exploitation; contribute to laboratory methods of marine shell.

Rebetiko In Nyc: New Ideas Of Greek Diaspora, Mihalis Alisandratos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores ideas of Greekness within the modern rebetiko space of New York City through the use of both ethnographic and reflexive techniques. Combining thick description, interview analysis, and extensive self reflection, this thesis endeavors to better understand how Greek American rebetiko musicians in NY today conceive of their experience in diaspora.

Human Experience In The Immersive Experience Economy, Beliz Yuksel Inal

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the growing trend of immersive experiences, examining how they are designed and experienced. It compares the artistic Machine Hallucination and the commercial Van Gogh Immersive Experience examples. Analyzing audience engagement and social contexts, the research aims to understand the impact of immersive experiences on individuals and society.

Bringing Recess Music Indoors: How Attention To Musical Play In The Classroom Impacts A School Community, Angelina B. Scolari

Theses and Dissertations

Why should elementary music teachers learn about the games their students play at recess? This paper discusses the process of recovering children’s folklore at a Bronx elementary school, what findings can teach us about the children in our lives, and how music teachers can use “kid culture” in the classroom.

Southern And Caribbean Transnational Black Feminist Dialogues In Contemporary Art, Adria Gunter

Theses and Dissertations

“Southern and Caribbean Black Feminist Transnational Dialogues in Contemporary Art” presents a Black feminist reading of the transnational cultural forms, as well as the political and social histories between the Southern United States and the Caribbean through the works of Andrea Chung, Allison Janae Hamilton, and Tamika Galanis.

Picturing Consumer Culture, Cultural Hybridity, And Womanhood: Farah Al Qasimi’S Photographs From 2012 To 2020, Minji Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Farah Al Qasimi’s 2012-2020 color photographs, arguing that this work presents a distinctive and salient critique of domesticity, material culture, and womanhood in the UAE. Through her lens as a woman and a culturally hybrid subject, Al Qasimi explores the tensions of modernization, globalization, consumerism, and gender.

Container Film, Dena Kopolovich

Theses and Dissertations

Container Film is an experimental nonfiction short film that explores the theme of carrying. Drawing inspiration from a blend of anthropological, religious, and artistic sources, the film is guided by an unknown narrator who contemplates the origins of humanity. Unlike conventional storytelling, the narrator’s uncertainty and inner dialogue punctuate the narrative, challenging a traditional linear structure. Jumping between diverse thoughts, she resists depicting human history with a singular hero or linear trajectory. Visually, the film unfolds through vivid tableaux vivants, dance sequences, and curious object arrangements, illustrating the subtle relationship between human cognition and materiality. Through its nuanced, tactile approach, …

Reflections Of Little Red Dot: An Interactive Mixed Reality Archival Experience, Chloé Lee

Theses and Dissertations

It has been nearly a decade since I last visited Singapore, a place I am connected to yet an outsider. Reflections of Little Red Dot is a mixed-reality experience that animates my archive of drawings, videos, and 3D imagery from everyday Singaporeans in 2015, the year their country celebrated its 50th birthday.

Walking through this liminal mixed reality space, we hear how citizens are personally affected by the rapidly developing landscape and erasure of personal and historical sites of significance while reflecting on our collective agency to shape the future of our environments. We are invited into homes where loved …

間, Lele Dai

Theses and Dissertations

LeLe Dai makes contingent participatory public interventions using sensory materials such as sound, flickering light, and water. This paper examines their works through the lens of Chinese character Jian (間), meaning “gap/slit/incision,” to investigate the concept of “in-betweenness.”

Ai-Powered Information Retrieval In Meeting Records And Transcripts Enhancing Efficiency And User Experience, Srushti Nitin Ghadge

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares the traditional search methods, which is to search from video recordings of the meetings by moving the slider back and forth or by keyword search in transcripts versus integrated AI video plus transcript search. Based on the previous test results, we introduced some human-centric design features to the AI and built a new enhanced AI search tool for information retrieval. For search technique efficiency testing, the method had two set of experiments. The first results of the experiment showed that AI-based search algorithms were more accurate and faster than conventional search approaches. Participants were also happier with …

"I'Ll Stay Where You Want Me To Stay": How Latter-Day Saints Navigate Conflicting Social Values While Remaining Committed To Their Faith, Venice Jardine

Theses and Dissertations

While recent efforts in religious studies have focused on why many Americans seem to be leaving religion entirely, much less is understood about why many others choose to remain committed to their faith--especially when they hold many of the same social values, doubts, or divergent opinions that others cite for leaving. Within a Latter-day Saint context especially, very little research has been done to explore the experiences of those navigating the complexities of competing ethical affordances while remaining committed to their faith. Through ethnographic research in both Salt Lake County and New York City, I document the patterns and processes …

The Materiality Of The Soul In Plutarch's Moralia, Caleb Cole Deppermann

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Plutarch's vague comments about the materiality of the soul in Moralia. My contention is that, despite suggestions to the contrary, Plutarch aligned with Plato in thinking about the soul as immaterial. I argue that a deeper understanding of Plutarch's relationship to Plato as well as the Stoics and Epicureans of his time shed light on his otherwise ambiguous passages. The end result will be (1) a more secure understanding of Plutarch's position on the materiality of the soul and (2) an improved ability to appreciate Plutarch's playful and vivid language as he describes immaterial souls with material …

Catchment Water Storage Mediates River Flow Sensitivity To Climate Change, Brian Charles Brown

Theses and Dissertations

As patterns of precipitation and evapotranspiration change, human water security and aquatic ecosystem health depend on understanding how catchment characteristics interact with climate to control river flow. We tested factors that mediate sensitivity of river flow to fluctuations in climate using a set of 1,148 data-rich, climate diverse catchments in various parts of the world from 2001-2020. We extrapolated these results to an additional 2,012 catchments with sparser data. Using features such as vegetation, land use, hydrology, and local climate, we found that catchments with high aridity to runoff ratios (Fuh's parameter) had 380% higher runoff sensitivity to fluctuations in …

Imperial Anarchy, Cultural Exchange And Cultural Sabotage In Amitav Ghosh’S Ibis Trilogy, Siva Vidhya M

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aims at analysing three sequential novels written by Amitav Ghosh. The novels are set in the backdrop of colonized India, so the research begins by examining the imperial anarchy that leads to cultural exchange and cultural sabotage. Amitav Ghosh is an Indian born writer, famous for both his fictions and non-fictions.

Most of his works are based on colonization and its aftermath. The major focus of the novels selected for the research is also colonization especially the opium production in India. The author portrays the opium production and its evil effects on people and environment. The three …

Civil War In Ancient Egypt? A Case Study Of The First Intermediate Period (Ca. 2120-1970 Bc), Marco Pinfari

Theses and Dissertations

The First Intermediate Period (FIP – ca. 2120-1970 BCE) is often described by Egyptologists as a period of “civil war.” In the Egyptological literature, however, little attention is paid to defining this notion (which was first introduced only in the Late Roman Republic, almost 2,000 years later) and to explaining how it could be applicable to ancient Egyptian history.

This thesis contributes to this debate by analyzing the FIP through the lenses of contemporary approaches to civil war, drawn from political science and other cognate disciplines. It first discusses how if the events of the FIP comply with contemporary definitions …

The Epistemological Politics Of"False Memory Syndrome", Michele Blatzheim

Theses and Dissertations

In the 1990s the psy-disciplines found themselves embroiled in one of the most acrimonious conflicts these fields have ever experienced. Often called the “Memory Wars”, this conflict emerged from the growing number of people, overwhelmingly women, alleging that a parent, overwhelmingly fathers, had sexually abused them in childhood based on previously inaccessible memories. The conflict was roughly split between clinicians who saw such delayed recall as relatively common among trauma survivors and a group of experimental psychologists who were skeptical of the veracity of such memories. The latter group would eventually ally themselves to an advocacy organization, the False Memory …

From Eighty Acres And A Mule To Two Thousand Acres And Twenty-Four Row Planters: Anxieties Of Growth In The Agriculture Sector From Family Farms, Riley Marie Francis

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the evolution of the family farm between the 1940s until the 2020s, and how the family farm may continue to evolve in future generations. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the changing reality of agriculture and how farmers think about themselves. In the early days of the United States republic, farms were a means of providing a family or localized community with food and resources. These farms participated in an economic exchange that was an early form of capitalism, characterized by meeting needs but not accruing egregious excess. Today’s agricultural system is …

S ( M ) Othering: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Republican Motherhood, Caroline King

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines seven Republican rhetors who utilize motherhood as a rhetorical strategy in speeches between the years of 1972 and 2020. Specifically, speeches, newsletters, and debate transcripts are analyzed using four theoretical lenses to curate an archetype of the “Republican Mother” – a concept constructed of an amalgamation of the historic “mother of the republic” from the nation’s conception and the ideological values assigned to women within the Republican party, such as traditional gender and spousal roles. I argue that it is the unique combination of womanhood, motherhood, and Republicanism that creates a unique rhetorical strategy seen in these …

Digital Safe Spaces: Nonbinary Community Building On Tiktok, Xan Daggett

Theses and Dissertations

Queer and trans individuals have long relied on the Internet for community building and support; however, with the introduction of more than 700 anti-trans bills since the beginning of 2023 (Trans Legislation Tracker, 2024), conservatives’ consistent mocking and dehumanization of gender nonconforming people (ADL, 2023; Berg-Brousseau, 2022), and a record increase in violence specifically against nonbinary individuals (Astor, 2023), trans and nonbinary people are turning to online spaces more than ever as they endure this hostile social and political climate. While nonbinary people make up over 60% of trans adults in the U.S. (Kirzinger et al., 2023), there is very …

Building Community Support: A Multi-Scalar Archaeological Analysis Of Sewage Infrastructure In Central Illinois, Anastasia Leigh Ervin

Theses and Dissertations

In the 1920s and 1930s in Central Illinois, urban areas implemented sewage infrastructure consisting of underground sewers and sanitation plants. These sanitary districts soon became an essential service provided within the community and the established infrastructure has undergone expansion and technological updates in the decades since. I use methods and concepts of landscape archaeology in combination with 1940 Census socio-economic demographics, GIS viewshed and smellshed (buffer) analysis, and visual spatial analysis to examine the case studies of three sanitary districts in Central Illinois: Bloomington-Normal, Urbana-Champaign, and Sangamon County to evaluate how these infrastructures shaped their landscapes, or sewagescapes. Sewagescapes have …

Migration And The Life Course: A Case Study Of African Female International Graduate Students At Illinois State University., Vivian Yawson

Theses and Dissertations

The number of graduate and undergraduate students from Africa in the United States (US) is rapidly increasing as Sub-Saharan Africans are among the fastest-growing foreign-born population in the US. Migration represents a significant turning point in individuals’ lives. Despite the growing body of research on international students in the US, there remains a gap in understanding the educational experiences of African students from a life course perspective. This study seeks to address this gap by examining student migration through the lens of the life course framework, leveraging current trends and patterns in international migration. Drawing on qualitative techniques, specifically narrative …

Polyphony: Multitudes Of Vietnamese National Identity Through Experiential Documentation Of Marketplaces, Jade Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

The exhibition Polyphony brings together photographs from Trades of the Street and Commere(d) Culture, two documentary series portraying Vietnamese marketplaces and businesses across multiple cities in Việt Nam and the United States respectively to provide a cross-cultural and multisensorial perspective on how commercial practices and establishments represent Vietnamese culture and national identity. The market provides insights into Việt Nam’s multilayered history, struggles, ways of living, sense of community, and its vibrant soul and culture. The combination of these two series and the sequencing of the exhibition utilizes the relational nature of photography, which allows new meaning to emerge from a …