Digital Commons Network^™

Characteristics And Spatial Heterogeneity Of Prescribed Fire Behavior In North Dakota Grasslands, Megan Elizabeth Zopfi

Theses and Dissertations

Fire is a critical physical and chemical process required to sustain many grassland ecosystems. In North America, observations of grassland fire behavior in warm-season, southern grasslands are commonly used in fire behavior modeling efforts across the Great Plains. However, grasslands of the northern Great Plains contain a greater component of cool-season vegetation that may generate different fire behavior. To further our understanding of prescribed fire behavior in North Dakota grasslands, we quantified fuel, weather, and fire behavior characteristics associated with 27 prescribed fires conducted across three sites in North Dakota. We sampled 27 points on each fire arranged into a …

The Romantic Cyclic Sonata As A Hidden Counterculture : Rethinking The Subdominant Through A Structural-Hermeneutic Approach, Marcelo Gabriel Rebuffi

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Spherical Objects Among The Fremont, Emily Crump

Theses and Dissertations

Rounded objects, such as spheroids, are frequently found throughout the Fremont region. Because little information is known about these spheroids, this comprehensive analysis of spheroids contributes to definitions of and variation among Fremont spherical objects. I analyzed over 400 Fremont spheroids recording the size, weight, stone type, and other quantifiable aspects for each spheroid. The provenience of spheroids highlights some of the patterns and variability within the Fremont world. I also compare ethnographic accounts of purposes of spheroids in hopes to develop a better understanding of the function of these objects.

International Marriages: Culture, Identity Formation, Social And Historical Context, Alec Bryan Schaer

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to examine how changes in sociopolitical and cultural landscapes affect the cultural and personal identities of individuals engaged in mixed heritage relationships. I examine relationships between Japanese women and American men to illustrate that the wider socio-political contexts of these individuals play key roles in how they view and portray themselves in relation to others; as Japanese, American, both, or neither.

This research is divided into two distinct periods, one before WWII and a second after WWII. For each of these periods, I examined the relevant socio-political and cultural circumstances which affected Japanese and …

Qualitative Study Investigating Western Student Affairs Practices In Qatar, Amjad Omar Abdo

Theses and Dissertations

The internationalization movement in higher education expanded quickly in the past two decades. While efforts varied among institutions, the common and preferred approach has been creation of International Branch Campuses (IBC). Currently, there are 283 IBCs, 30% of which are located in the Middle East region.

This study explored the role of local culture context in shaping Western student affairs practices implemented at the American IBCs in the State of Qatar. A qualitative single-case study included interviews with 14 Western expatriates who were re-cited from the United States to work in the Student Affairs departments in Education City, Qatar. The …

Social Networks, The Local Food Environment, And Maternal Food Choice For Children Ages 1 To 5 Years Old In Rural Mexico, Ligia Ivette Reyes

Theses and Dissertations

Children’s nutrition is largely determined by the food choices their primary caregivers make. Food choice for children has important implications for nutrition, development, and the dietary habits and preferences that are formed during early life food exposure. Little is known about the food environments in which food choices are made and the role of social networks in maternal food choice during habit- and preference-forming years in contexts undergoing nutrition transitions and facing the double burden of malnutrition. The overall objective of this study was to gain an indepth understanding about how mothers, as primary caregivers, make food choices for their …

Shaftesbury's Atlantis, Andrew Agha

Theses and Dissertations

This research posits that seventeenth century natural philosophy as purported by the Royal Society of London had a major impact on the way the First Earl of Shaftesbury directed the settlement of the English colony Carolina. When Carolina was first settled in 1670, the colonists were ordered by Shaftesbury and his Lords Proprietors of Carolina cohort to test experimental exotic crops like cotton, sugarcane, grapes, olive trees, and indigo, but since those crops did not produce exportable surpluses, they have been labeled as failures. Instead, this study recognizes those failures as integral components to the scientific process of experimentation. That …

Puruhá Fashion As Aesthetic Sovereignty: Identity Making And Indigenous Dress In Ecuador, Anaïs M. Parada

Theses and Dissertations

Puruhá fashion designers, vendors, and sellers have used their cultural heritage to create an emerging dress market that is both locally productive and nationally disruptive. These entrepreneurs have combined traditional dress with contemporary elements to create a new style that is distinctly recognizable as Puruhá, and thus acts as both a cultural and an individual brand. In a nation-state that offers its Indigenous people tokenism and concessions that don’t otherwise challenge the status of existing governmental and legal systems, having control over one’s own narrative through branding is a revolutionary act. In fact, the fight for economic autonomy against state …

A Narrative Inquiry Into The Lived Experiences Of Early Childhood Teachers Who Implemented Garden-Based Learning, Jamison Keith Browder

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this narrative study was to investigate the lived experiences of early childhood teachers working in preschool settings who have implemented gardenbased learning for more than one year. The seven preschool teachers who agreed to participate in the study were asked to describe significant life experiences that influenced them to implement gardening into their curriculum. Additionally, the teachers were asked to describe the bridges and barriers to implementing garden-based learning and how school gardening has impacted their students’ learning and development. The data collection process included semi-structured interviews and teacher journal entries over a two-month period. The interviews …

The Effects Of Racialization On Skeletal Manifestations Of Disease Among Migrants In Historic St. Louis, Missouri, Kristina M. Zarenko

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the biological effects of racialization on migrants in late nineteenth and early twentieth century St. Louis, Missouri. Racialization is a form of structural violence in which real or perceived physical differences contribute to the creation of hierarchical racial categories along a continuum of whiteness. German and Irish immigrants and African American migrants from the South came to St. Louis in search of economic prosperity and in an attempt to escape poverty, famine, or conflict in their places of origin. However, racialization affected each migrant group’s access to housing and employment as well as their exposure to violence. …

Freedom And Food: Transformations And Continuities In Foodways Among The People Who Labored At Stono Plantation, James Island, South Carolina During The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, And Twentieth Centuries, Brandy Kristin Joy

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation compares archaeological assemblages from the Stono Plantation/Dill Farm, James Island, South Carolina between the periods of enslavement and Emancipation. Further comparisons are made with the neighboring Ferguson Road archaeological site and the Smith Plantation archaeological site, Port Royal, South Carolina. These comparisons are made in order to understand how Emancipation impacted the foodways including diet, vessel type and use, and cuisine of Lowcountry residents. Results suggest that while technological innovation and increased globalization enabled a shift in material culture, the overall foodways of the region remained relatively unchanged through time.

The Investigation Of Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes For The Carbon Dioxide Capture And Ethane Oxidative Dehyrogenation Catalysts, Zheng Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have gained interest for wide use as both support and catalyst due to the ease of uniquely tunable surface chemistry. Increasingly severe greenhouse effects have attracted attention to novel materials and technologies capable of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2). In this context, we develop a CNT based solid state amine for the CO2 capture. CNT are functionalized under various methods as a support for polymeric amines. Polyethyleneimine are physically adsorbed on CNT and are further characterized and studied for reversible CO2 capture. We obtain a high CO2 capture capacity (6.78 mmol∙g-1) for linear polyethyleneimine (LPEI) and 6.18 mmol∙g-1 …

Examining Career And Technical Education Practitioner Preparation And Professional Development Needs, Shane Wilson Lange

Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study was used to investigate Illinois automotive educator professional development needs and to identify the demographic landscape of Illinois secondary and post-secondary automotive teachers. The study should bring a greater understanding of what automotive teachers feel they need to learn in order to continue as successful educators. A modified Borich (1980) needs assessment model was used to identify the perceived importance and ability levels for 32 professional competencies. Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores (MWDS) were calculated using the importance and ability scores in order to report the professional development need. The administered survey was also utilized to examine their …

A Grounded Theory Of Professional Development Preferences Of Millennial Educational Professionals, Bobbie M. Downs

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this grounded research study is to answer the question: How should professional development be designed to best meet the preferences of educational professionals of the millennial generation? As the workplace, including the field of education, becomes more generationally diverse, it is education leaders who must learn the unique needs of their staff members and develop meaningful professional development opportunities that meet these requirements. Both generational cohort theory and transformative learning theory became the underpinnings of the research. The research was conducted primarily through qualitative interviews at an educational services commission in New Jersey. A theory about millennial …

Using Families' Funds Of Knowledge Literacy To Enhance Family-School Relationships, Kaitlyn Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the initial findings from an ethnographic case study, in a small South Jersey town. Using a socio-cultural framework and drawing from Moll and Gonzalez's funds of knowledge study, the specific aim of the study was to investigate the literacy practices students bring to the classroom, families' views of home to school connection, educators' impression of the family school partnership, and the role of student's funds of knowledge in the classroom. Three second grade families participated in home visits which involved in-depth interviews detailing family literacies including culture, traditions, family background, early literacy practices, and value of education. …

The People And Place Of Al-Hattaba: A Socio-Temporal Juncture, Heba El-Sawy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on a neighborhood located in Historic Cairo called al-Hattaba. It is a neighborhood that is located on the citadel wall, houses over 500 families, and is considered a buffer zone to the citadel with an urban fabric that speaks to a different time and place that has managed to survive, rupture and challenge our own perceptions of mainstream urban planning trends. I focus on rhythms of change and the experiences of temporality in the everyday as entry points into al-Hattaba and its people. The times of al-Hattaba cannot be reduced nor contained into a linear progression of …

Created Vulnerabilities: Political Economy Of Tourism Development In Sharm El Sheikh, Catherine Meaghan Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Sharm El Sheikh represents the typical tourism enclave: removed from the local culture and environment, homogenous with other destinations in the global south, and designed to serve the vacationing needs of mass tourism. This form of tourism development is dated and set to fail, particularly when challenged with political instability and violence. Literature on mass tourism to the global south focuses on structural dependency of resorts, but often fail to complicate this relationship with internal political decision making. This qualitative case study examines the development of the resort to cater to the desires of the mass tourism model. The socio-economic …

Caregivers And People With Disabilities: Relational Embodiment Of Stigma And Concern In Egypt, Nahla Omarah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores disability as a relational model and how stigma is produced within an Egyptian domain. This study focuses not only on People with Disabilities (PWDs) but rather on their primary caregivers i.e. parents and siblings. I examine how stigma affects the relationship between caregivers and their disabled family members. I also explore how some relatives run the risk of being stigmatized themselves by association develop a "stigmaphile response". Thus, exploring the notion of concern that is inevitable in caregiver-PWD relationship and how this embodies individuals into new subjectivities under society's control. Furthermore, this thesis aims at finding a …

"Maintaining Order Over Chaos": A Study Of The Ba And Baw Concepts In The Predynastic Period, Early Dynastic Period, And Old Kingdom, Bianca Van Sittert

Theses and Dissertations

Among the corpus of ancient Egyptian religious terminology, bA and bAw stand out as two of the oldest, most wide-spread, and enduringly used terms. From the 1st Dynasty until the very end of ancient Egyptian history, these terms were utilized in a wide variety of contexts, including divine, royal, and non-royal names, titles, and epithets, didactic literature, and mortuary, administrative, temple, and royal propagandistic texts. However, despite their prominence and significance in the ancient Egyptian textual record, the function and meaning of these terms are still imperfectly understood, as evidenced by the multiple and varying translations within the Egyptological literature. …

The Reproduction Of Privilege: Education, Jobs And Precarity In Rural Upper Egypt, Ghosoun Tawfik

Theses and Dissertations

In modern imaginaries, social advantage and mobility are rooted in and linked to the educational achievements and the type of jobs acquired by individuals. In fact, these two factors have long been connected, and have been considered as a stepping stone to a stable and secure livelihood (Assaad & Krafft, 2014). However, with neoliberal policies and the ongoing restructuring of the Egyptian economy and society, as well as around the world, the links between acquiring a formal academic certificate and obtaining a job requires new and more nuanced examination. Other factors, such as social networks, now determine the scale and …

The Matrimonial Culture In Cairo's Upper Middle Class: Capital, Collective And Consumption, Mariam Al-Mokadem

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on discourses and practices relating to the journey to matrimony in Cairo's upper middle class. In other words, I will focus on how members of this social class communicate and perform their beliefs about matrimony. It is a journey to matrimony in Cairo's upper-middle class, with reference to the temporalities a bride undergoes in order to actualize the new ordinary of marriage through suitor selection, matrimonial practices, and consumption patterns. I will investigate the basis on which a bride selects her suitor and the extent to which a bride and groom involve their parents (and in-group members) …

Accountability In School Governance In Egypt, Nadeen Baraka

Theses and Dissertations

The educational system in Egypt is struggling in between challenges and reforms. The low quality of the educational service provided is, ultimately, negatively impacting students' learning. This thesis deliberates how poor accountability in school governance is a major hinder in the improvement process, where the system lacks key practices, and standards, that are essential to enforce accountability measures and attain good governance. This study is a build up of three junctures; the first is the current state of knowledge in literature that discusses the effective accountability on quality of education in schools, and the linkages of enhanced comprehensive school accountability …

Closing The Achievement Gap: Analysis Of A Reading Academic Intervention In Conjunction With Integrated Social Services., Alejandra E. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

Educators, legislators, and social activists have long debated the most efficient way to address the high needs of students in Title I middle schools that stem from persistent inequalities in education due to generational poverty and racism. Social activists have proposed integrated social services as a means to remove barriers that prevent students from learning. Providing integrated social services in conjunction with academic reading interventions should efficiently aid in closing the achievement gap that exists from the inequalities in education. This study examines the effectiveness of implementing the Middle School Quality Initiative, a reading and literacy program, in conjunction with …

The Sound Of Bone: The Initial Testing And Analysis Of Sound As A Species Identification Method For Osteological Remains, Emily J. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

This paper represents a preliminary test to an alternative method of species remains identification, namely bone acoustics. It is hypothesized that human and non-human long bone remains of similar diameter produce different amplitudes of sound from one another, resulting in the ability to distinguish human remains from non-human remains.

The Whelming Sea, Sean Hanley

Theses and Dissertations

The Whelming Sea is a thirty-minute experimental documentary that reveals the moments of entanglement between three animals living along the Mid-Atlantic shoreline; curious humans, spawning horseshoe crabs, and migratory shorebirds. Working from the realm of multispecies ethnography, the film shifts the subjective positioning of the viewer between the human and nonhuman to suggest the complexity of our enmeshed experience. In the face of this current era of mass extinction, the film explores the limitations and poetic possibilities of scientific encounters with the lives of others.

The Chôra Of Dionisy’S Wall-Painting (1500-1502) At The Nativity Of The Mother Of God Sobor, Ferapontovo Monastery, Maria M. Shevelkina

Theses and Dissertations

The structure, spatiality, and wall-paintings of the Nativity church together emulated the Platonist Chôra through transparency, fluidity, circular movement, veils, and Marian imagery. Dionisy’s wall-paintings are studied through a phenomenological lens, considering the process as a reflection of hesychast thought in the post-Byzantine Russian north.

Perceptions Of Implementation Of Civic Education Curriculum In A Suburban School District, Sheena Jacob

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore and develop an understanding of teachers and coordinator perceptions of a civic education and to analyze how the program was implemented in a suburban school district. This qualitative case study explored the experiences of one school district’s civic education program. and was informed by interviews, observations and documents. The researcher interviewed a K-12 social studies coordinator and two teachers. The researcher also observed four civic education classes within the school district. Finally, the researcher analyzed documents that comprised the syllabus for the 12th grade Civic courses, student work from 12th …

Analyzing Teachers’ Perceptions On Principal Effectiveness Through Leadership Style, Gender, And Educational Level Of A School Building, Marie Antonette Netto

Theses and Dissertations

Since a building principal is the most important employee in a school building with regards to setting educational standards and creating culture, it is important for this leader to consider leadership style and to recognize the importance of teachers’ perceptions on effectiveness. The purpose of this ex post facto study was to explore the relationship between the leadership style of building principals and perceived effectiveness of those leaders. Subtopics of this study considered the relationship that gender, leadership style, and educational level of the school building (elementary vs. secondary) have on perceived effectiveness of leaders. Data were collected via Bass …

Connections Between Parental Marital Status, Parental Involvement And Literacy Achievement Of Kindergarten Children, Saumendra Nath De

Theses and Dissertations

Marital relations and family structure have evolved over the years. Transformations in marriage, divorce, and cohabitation have altered family life in many parts of the world including the United States. Single-parent families are on the rise. Social scientists are concerned with the diminishing role of family and imminent decline in parental involvement in child’s education. This demands a closer look into the effects of parental marital relationships on parents’ involvement and children’s literacy outcomes. The current study examined the connections between parental marital status, parental involvement, and literacy outcomes of kindergarten children by using the nationally representative, Early Childhood Longitudinal …

Culturally Responsive Teaching For Asian Learners: A Micro-Ethnographic Case Study Of Ela Teachers Within A School Culture, Andy Yen

Theses and Dissertations

As student demographics across schools in the United States continue to become increasingly diverse, culture becomes a significant factor for educators. It is inextricably linked to the very fabric of identity in every individual and cannot be overlooked when it comes to student learning. Research into implementation of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in schools proposes a viable solution and yet, much of the literature has been centered on African American and Hispanic populations, neglecting Asian learners. The purpose of this micro-ethnographic case study was to explore the relationship between school culture and student culture for Asian learners in a suburban …