Digital Commons Network^™

Does An Adapted Swimming Program Improve Self-Efficacy In Individuals With Intellectual Disability?, Georgia Grace Starr

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Short-term adapted swimming programs may improve self-efficacy in individuals with intellectual disability (ID). PURPOSE: We investigated if self-efficacy was improved from the perspectives of swimmers, their parents, and volunteering staff. METHODS: A 5-day program (60 min∙day-1) focused on swim skill development and independence, with each participant supported by a volunteer without disability. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 swimmers (14–35 years, 4 females), 5 parents (40–70 years, all mothers), and 5 volunteers (17–64 years, 4 females). Analysis, using open, structured, and focused coding, highlighted themes aligning with Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory (SET)—previous experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and feedback—and Self-determination …

“Here For Everyone” (?): How Intimate Partner Violence Service Organizations Address Community Needs And Transgender Inclusion In The Deep South, Brian Tesch

Theses and Dissertations

Transgender individuals face disproportionately high rates of intimate partner violence (also known as IPV) when compared to other sociodemographic groups. Despite this prevalence, IPV service organizations in the Deep South (e.g., Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina), a region of the U.S. encompassing several rural communities and characterized by traditional gender norms and conservative Christian religious values, may have difficulties meeting the unique needs of transgender IPV survivors. This dissertation explores two key areas: (1) the perceptions of IPV service organization staff members in the Deep South concerning how their agencies assist members of the transgender community, and (2) …

The Role Of K-12 Educators In Shaping Stem Pathways: Examining Social Capital And Self-Efficacy In Stem Education, Holly Trisch

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impact of K-12 educators on students’ pathways in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by focusing on two main factors: the social capital of K-12 and elementary school teachers and the self-efficacy of preservice teachers in STEM education instruction. The first study investigates the social capital of first year engineering students, emphasizing the relationships and resources they gained during their K-12 education that influenced their decision to major in engineering. A quantitative study using survey data collected from first-year undergraduate engineering students indicates that K-12 educators play a crucial role by providing mentorship and resources that …

Work-Life Balance And The Impact Of Covid-19 On Faculty At Historically Black Community Colleges (Hbccs), Taneshia Turner Winston

Theses and Dissertations

This research study was conducted to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the work-life balance of faculty at HBCCs based on their race, gender, age, marital status, and tenure status. The study employed a quantitative research design utilizing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to conduct time-based activities separately and group perception-based response variables into meaningful categories to uncover patterns. To analyze the differences in race, gender, age, marital status, and tenure status, Regression and Chi-square test analyses were used to evaluate the collected data. Regression analysis explored relationships between time spent on activities and perceptions of stress, productivity, and satisfaction. Chi-square …

Prosodic Pitch And Intensity Patterns In People With Moderate Broca's Aphasia, Juliana Pickard

Theses and Dissertations

People with aphasia (PWA) experience deficits in utilizing prosody, which drastically impacts their communicative effectiveness. The lack of prosody in people with aphasia may alter their ability to nurture meaningful relationships, advance educational and work opportunities, and participate in community activities. This study acoustically evaluates the prosodic characteristics of speech produced by individuals with non-fluent aphasia to better understand how to accurately assess and more effectively treat communication difficulties in PWA. Recorded speech samples derived from a Cinderella story retell from 16 individuals with moderate Broca's aphasia and 16 age-matched controls were acoustically analyzed in this study. The recordings were …

Decoding Symbolic Influence On Youtube Engagement, Emotion Resonance And Trust In Information Campaigns, Diwash Poudel

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how symbolic images in YouTube videos influences viewers’ emotions, trust, and engagement with political content online. Approximately 2,000 videos were collected and analyzed, with a focus on both thumbnails and standout frames. The findings revealed that cultural symbols were particularly effective at capturing attention and evoking strong emotional reactions—especially anger and disgust. Notably, these same symbols also enhanced viewer trust, making audiences less susceptible to misinformation. Statistical tests confirmed that these effects were consistent and significant. To ensure the validity of these results, additional analyses were conducted to assess potential biases in YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, as well …

Method Development For The Analysis Of Drugs Of Abuse Using Solid Phase Extraction And High Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Sangeeta Kurre

Theses and Dissertations

The accurate detection and quantification of drugs of abuse and their metabolites for HPLC analysis is key in the medical, forensic, and environmental sectors. Additionally, the detection of compounds related to substance use disorders in clinical settings can play a crucial role in effective treatment decisions by healthcare practitioners. The ability to detect these compounds at trace levels in any given sample matrix is a known challenge. Coupling a reliable sample preparation method to HPLC analysis for matrix interference reduction and the preconcentration of species for enhanced detection limits may provide a preferred solution to the analysis of drugs of …

Voices In The Borderlands: Reimagining Identity, Cultural Belonging, And Dystopian Spaces In Anzaldúa’S Borderlands And Viramontes’S “The Cariboo Café”, Oralia G. Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) and Helena María Viramontes’ short story “The Cariboo Café” (1985) portray marginalized individuals navigating liminal spaces of identity, oppression, and survival. Borderlands/La Frontera and “The Cariboo Café” show how systematic violence and displacement shatter the self, pushing characters to navigate trauma in a dystopian space. Sonya, Macky, the café owner, and the grieving mother represent Anzaldúa’s concepts of borderland subjectivity, betrayal, and spectral haunting.

Sonya and Macky, two undocumented children, represent Anzaldúa’s borderlands subjects and reside in a state of nepantla, an in-between space of cultural dislocation. The café owner …

Redefining Roles In Displacement: The Asylum Journey Of Sudanese Women In Faisal, Cairo, Majeda Abdin Mahasneh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how Sudanese refugee women, who arrived in Faisal, Cairo, after April 2023 experience gender-based violence (GBV). The research investigates the types of GBV these women encountered during their journey from Sudan to Cairo, how their gender roles changed in the asylum context, and their vision for the future regarding safety and support. A qualitative approach was employed, using in-depth interviews with four Sudanese refugee women, complemented by field notes and observations made during visits to the Faisal neighborhood. The analysis focused on the personal stories shared by the women, highlighting the various forms of violence they experienced, …

Fan Art, Jacob Lay

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work of artists like Vincent van Gogh, Donald Baechelor, and Cezanne in their relationship to my work and contemporary painting. Drawing from personal letters, interviews, and essays on these artists, the paper places painting and drawing from the thesis exhibition in a history as well as relates them to current pop culture relics. The paper also includes a process-based analyses of how each painting is made and with what materials.

Garden Of Fragments, Justin Muegge

Theses and Dissertations

Justin Muegge's paintings take the aesthetic experience of garden spaces as a vehicle to explore abstraction. Referencing his research in traditional Chinese Scholar's Gardens, Muegge explores the conceptual premises of their design philosophies, raises questions on the history of abstraction and his own work, and expands upon themes in his painting.

Realistik Heaven, Alexa H. Senan

Theses and Dissertations

“Realistik Heaven” processes the traumas, forced transformations and the cannibalization of womanhood and culture as a result of colonization. Inspired by Oswald de Andrade’s Cannibalist Manifesto, Senan writes to evoke the literal meaning of Andrade’s description of the cannibalization of culture and having to become someone new cannibalizing themselves while still longing for the remains of the past.

All Ego Must Die, Meredith Bakke

Theses and Dissertations

Using plasticity as a central framework, this thesis explores painting as a site for radical transformation of the self. Through symbolic engagement with sadism, ego death, and material play, it investigates how fantasy, fear, and imagination coalesce into a generative force—one that dismantles rigidity and opens space for discovery.

Familiarity And Distance, Marc Ferraro

Theses and Dissertations

This paper places a space of ideas in conversation with a tactile reality. I propose archetypes of modernism as formal outlines and points of familiarity to a general audience. My work seeks to refigure these common formats in painting and sculpture by subjecting them to an unpredictable process of tactile manipulation. Questions of legibility are raised by asking how repeat encounters with forms of visual language shape expectations and understanding.

Card Tables Are A Dime A Dozen, Art Is Rare, Shannon Pritchard

Theses and Dissertations

In this text, through the categories of truth and mimicry, discomfort, repetition, and bureaucracy, Shannon Pritchard dissects her studio practice. With a dedication to high craft, she investigates the world through the lens of the Freudian Uncanny, linking eerie subject matter to conspiracy mindset, mid-century politics, and personal relationships.

Displaced Nostalgia, Nava Derakhshani

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring themes of identity, displacement, gender, and belonging, this paper examines the artist's work and her approach to her art. She covers the many influences that she has access to while unable to visit her ancestral homelands. Acknowledging the translation that comes from this removal, her art is in conversation with other diasporic, exiled, marginalised groups. She makes art with various materials such as clay, shadow, light, and paint, to work on the themes that she is pursuing.

Works On Paper, Xingyun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is about my painting practice and artistic influences.

The Logic Of Car Accidents And Other Digestive Processes, Rosalie G.L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

In this essay the author explores the artistic process via an analogy with digestion. The author goes on to explain their work via components of their practice, described as organs.

The Spirit Of Things Sometimes Or Shrew Gazing, Mariel Rolwing Montes

Theses and Dissertations

Mariel Rolwing Montes’ paintings are viewed as though through a portal. Photography and collected objects are negotiated on the canvas through a collage logic, allowing for distortion through memory. In The Spirit of Things Sometimes or Shrew Gazing, Rolwing Montes contextualizes her work around references related to history, imagination, and mysticism.

The Hand Reaches Out, Martin John Miller Iv

Theses and Dissertations

Through a combination of narrative description and in-depth explication, I will detail the physical experience of navigating the thesis work while tying those motions directly to personal writing. My hope is that, through this installation, I can establish a framework for relating to these systems through the felt and physical, through the suggested and implied, through the appearance of the ordinary, and on through to the interruption of the absurd.

Examining Components Of The Interpersonal Psychological Theory Of Suicide In A Clinical Sample Of Children With Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviors, Alana Brixner Nunes

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds. Despite a need to identify risk factors for suicide among children, there is limited research on suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in childhood. The interpersonal psychological theory of suicide (IPTS) suggests that the desire for suicide emerges from perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness and that the transition from suicide ideation (SI) to a suicide attempt (SA) results from an acquired capability for suicide. However, no research has examined whether the IPTS applies to suicidal thoughts and behaviors among children. The present research examined components of the IPTS in …

Inherited Fervor: Maternal Archive, Maria Angela Talavera Tejeda

Theses and Dissertations

Inherited Fervor: Maternal Archive investigates the deconstruction of the non-verbal language of Catholic ecstasy rituals to develop a choreographic language. Through the piece Doves Don’t Fly at Night, it explores the expansion of dancers’ physical range, positioning the body as an archive that embodies memories and mirrors the audience’s humanity.

Searching For Enslavement In Viking Age Iceland: An Exploration Of Making The “Invisible” Visible, Caitlin Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Enslavement was almost certainly a reality in Viking Age Iceland. However, the fields of Norse Studies and archaeology have traditionally used different lines of evidence to explore enslavement, and for archaeologists, the phenomenon has been left underexplored, and sometimes considered "invisible." While Norse Studies relies primarily on written texts, such as sagas and poems, archaeology focuses more on material remains, including burials and shackles. In Iceland, the archaeological evidence is more subtle - houses with annexes or pit houses, as well as signs of intensive farming and weaving, for example. The presence of any one of these could be otherwise …

Raised Spirits The Visceral Journey Of Black Generational Female Trauma And The Transcendent Healing Power Of Spiritual Dance, Wendy Ann Powell

Theses and Dissertations

Black female bodies have endured sustained trauma globally since the transatlantic slave trade, and it continues into 2025. The collective consciousness has carried the generational burden and mobilized it within the womb. Powell uses this intergenerational knowledge to frame the basis for spiritual dance practices as a healing praxis.

Tears, Blood, And Milk: Frida Kahlo's Depictions Of Maternity, Jenny Mushkin Goldman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Frida Kahlo’s representations of miscarriage, childbirth, and breastfeeding as departures from idealized portrayals of womanhood in post-revolutionary Mexico. Drawing on Catholic and Mesoamerican imagery, Kahlo reframes the maternal body as a site of resistance, engaging mexicanidad (Mexicanness) to counter its patriarchal constructions of national identity and gender.

Island Child: Sound, Memory, And The Diasporic Imagination, Rachel J. Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Island Child is an immersive audiovisual installation that explores how sound-based memory sustains personal and cultural identity. At its core, the piece reflects on the quiet yet shared emotion among those who have left home—the inevitability of departure, and the complex act of holding both loss and love. For many, leaving is not a choice, but a necessity. Yet the act of leaving leaves a permanent mark, etched in memory, time, and body.

This project creates a contemplative space for those silent truths, using sound and image to express the tension between separation and continuity. Traditional Korean lullabies, my grandmother’s …

One Can Only Dream, Sophia V. Yacca

Theses and Dissertations

One Can Only Dream is an interactive installation in which players are invited to navigate a liminal, dream-like game, engage with a branching series of questions, and introspect upon the relationships between unconscious expression, conscious self-perception, and the inherent difficulty of depicting, sharing, and understanding subconscious thought.

Rooted in both my personal experience with a rare neurophysiological condition and in my desire to create, this project examines dreams not only as a medical and cultural phenomenon, but also as a means to form identity, reflect trauma, and inspire creativity. Drawing from modern interactive storytelling and my lived experiences, this work …

Black America, Ethiopianism And Ethiopians: Tizita (ትዝታ), And The Longing That Binds, David Brunberg

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis maps the concept of Ethiopia within the development of Black American peoplehood and Pan-Africanist thought, while shedding light on the deep influence of an American-inspired Pan-Africanist ethos on the works of two Ethiopian-American bridge artists, Julie Mehretu and Aïda Muluneh specifically, and on art production more generally as expressed within contemporary Ethiopia. They are “bridge” artists because they straddle an international space between Black American and Ethiopian identities. It explores the following questions: How did an American Ethiopianism morph into or become synonymous with Afrocentrism? What crosscurrents can one see in contemporary art production in Ethiopia, and its …

“Bottom Nature”: Embodying History In Gertrude Stein’S The Making Of Americans, Yasmin Tehrani

Theses and Dissertations

This paper attempts to connect Gertrude Stein’s conception of being in The Making of Americans with her vision of the production of history. This paper then concludes that for Stein, historical subjects themselves, both individually and collectively, and the imbued qualities in their being, shape history.

Intuiting Interaction: Meta-Reasoning And Meta-Learning As Foundations For Intelligent User Interfaces, Jeffrey Hsu

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents MARCO—a cognitive framework for Intelligent User Interfaces that uses meta-reasoning for context-aware adaptation across diverse tasks. It integrates multiple reasoning modules coordinated by a Meta-Cognitive Unit that selects strategies based on evolving demands. Evaluations show MARCO outperforms baselines in reasoning accuracy and computational efficiency.