Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Prenatal Substance Use Policies On Women's Well-Being, Zukruf Alam

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effects of punitive and priority treatment policies relating to the use of illicit substances during pregnancy on women's health and health-related behavior. Punitive interventions criminalize substance use during pregnancy, which can even lead to termination of parental rights. In contrast, priority treatment policies support pregnant women and grant them priority access to substance use disorder treatment programs. I use staggered difference-in-differences methods and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2004 to 2018 to estimate the impact of prenatal substance use policies on women's mental health, physical health, self-reported poor health, and cigarette …

A Special Place In Hell: The Iconography Of Judgment In Twelfth-Century Sculpture And Manuscript Illumination, Nina Piper

Theses and Dissertations

While art historians have focused on the meaning of individual scenes of the Last Judgment and collections of “monstrous” images, this thesis considers images of Hell and its inhabitants as a single subject. It investigates the space of Hell itself and the beings most closely associated with it—whether or not they are depicted within the space of Hell—to identify iconographical consistencies across those images. In addition, this thesis draws upon material evidence from the medieval world to interpret images of Hell, the Devil, demons, and the damned in new ways, identifying connections between the imagery and what artists and other …

Private Equity, State Enforcement, And Arbitration Outcomes Under The No Surprises Act: Evidence From Air Ambulance Disputes, Peter Readman

Theses and Dissertations

The No Surprises Act (NSA) removed patients from responsibility for out-of-network surprise medical bills. In its place, the NSA established an independent dispute resolution (IDR) process through which providers and insurers submit competing payment offers to an arbitrator, who selects one offer in full. Using the universe of federal air ambulance IDR disputes from Q1 2023 through Q2 2025 (57,368 dispute line items), I examine whether provider ownership structure and enforcement jurisdiction jointly predict arbitration outcomes. The two outcomes, whether the provider offer prevails, and how large that prevailing offer is relative to the benchmark payment rate, the Qualifying Payment …

Congestion Pricing And Traffic Safety: Evidence From New York City, Mirella Charros

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the impact of congestion pricing on motor vehicle collisions in New York City. Using a spatial difference-in-differences approach, the study finds evidence of increased collisions near the congestion boundary, suggesting potential spillover effects and changes in traffic patterns following policy implementation.

Heirloomed: An Italian-American Daughter Weaving Past And Present, Catherine Santino

Theses and Dissertations

Amid a string of family deaths, writer and journalist Catherine Santino found herself preoccupied by the idea of lineage and inheritance. As she digs into her Sicilian heritage, she explores how the traditions and values set forth by her family’s matriarchs have shaped the woman she’s still becoming. From grappling with the shame caused by the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings of purity to examining how Italian food customs impacted her body image, Santino interrogates the complicated truth that the belief systems she was raised with offer both comfort and torment.

Science, Fiction, James Nick Peelor

Theses and Dissertations

Science, Fiction is about death, mental health, UFOs, and having a mutifaceted art practice rooted in a DIY ethos.

Sonic Rupture And Embodied Politics:
Reconfiguring The Aesthetic Regime In The Syrian Uprising, Lynn Shabani

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the Syrian uprising of 2011 emerged as a sonic and embodied rupture within an authoritarian aesthetic regime that had long governed public sensibility. Through chants, song, and coordinated movement, political agency took form as collective, affective practice, transforming vernacular repertoires into infrastructures of mobilization, audibility, and resistance.

On A Small Strip Of Land On The Great South Bay: A Vaudeville, Kev Berry

Theses and Dissertations

In this epic, genre-exploding tragedy about the Long Island Serial Killer case, On a Small Strip of Land on the Great South Bay unearths the complex story of police corruption, sensationalized violence, and the broken dreams of the women discarded along Ocean Parkway.

Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds, Anna Luise Kaunert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how contemporary artists Rubén Ortiz Torres, Chico MacMurtrie, rafa esparza, and Cassils transformed military technologies into powerful artworks that interrogate the Mexico-U.S. border as a battlefield. Together, their works illuminate militarization and surveillance technologies at the border and the violent enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.

Air Pollution And Self-Reported Health Outcomes In The United States, Alina Dervisevic

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between short-term PM2.5 exposure and self-reported health outcomes among U.S. adults using BRFSS data from 2000 to 2012 linked to county-level pollution and weather data. Results show that PM2.5 exposure is associated with worse mental health and gender specific behavioral responses.

A Fine Arts Program For No. 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, Paul Richert-Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reads Chase Manhattan's 1959 art program as a reconstitution of ornament. The spatial and affective work historically performed by murals, carved stone, and mosaic was now performed by collecting—contemporary art, ethnographic holdings, folk art—deployed by committee across a corporate modernist master plan stripped of the handcraft tradition.

Medusa, Myths And Mascarons, Claire Weaver-Zeman

Theses and Dissertations

Claire Weaver-Zeman’s work constructs an alternate mythology and decorative language based on classical mythology, biblical characters, and paganism. Paintings, dolls, frames, and other sculptural objects populate this imagined realm. This paper outlines how this reality and its inhabitants question the traditional limited roles assigned to women and children.

Carved In Grief, Crafted In Power: The Alabaster Mourner Of Fernando De Antequera And Late-Medieval Royal Propaganda, Teresa D. Kinley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the alabaster mourning sculptures from the tomb of King Fernando I de Aragón at the Monastery of Santa María de Poblet.  Through formal analysis, material culture, and political theology, I argue that the ensemble functioned as a coordinated instrument of dynastic legitimacy, translating ritual grief into a durable technology of royal memory.

Landscaping The Exotic And The Ancient Through Picturesque: Reconsidering The Impact Of David Roberts’S Egypt And Nubia, Sophie Cooke

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers David Roberts’s use of picturesque art for imperial Britain and analyzes the ways Egypt and Nubia played an influential role in the cultural transmission of ancient Egypt. By confronting both antiquity and modernity, his Egyptian landscapes are evidence of how Western picturesque artworks influence historical narratives.

Real Mom Fake Mom, Marisa Kriangwiwat

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis exhibition examines how contemporary photographic perception is conditioned by digital interfaces and attention economies. The thesis artwork I make tries to trace an understand the bodily affects of looking at mass images online.

Building Artistic Identity, Visual Heritage, And Contemporaneity Of The Arab World: Case Studies Of The 1974 Arab Art Biennale And 'Calligraphy In Contemporary Arab Painting' At The 1989 Havana Biennial, Amanda Msallem

Theses and Dissertations

The 1974 Arab Art Biennale held in Baghdad, Iraq, and the exhibition Calligraphy in Contemporary Arab Painting of the 1989 Havana Biennial in Cuba are unique biennial initiatives that represent a decisive transitional period of modern art of the Arab world, during which Arab artists moved from the aspirations of the Pan-Arab collective and toward increasingly individualized, experimental practices with local cultural specificity.

From Guyana To Queens: The Formation Of The Indo-Guyanese Ethnoburb In New York City, 1970-1990, Lianne R. Persaud

Theses and Dissertations

Expanding on Li’s concept of ethnoburbs, this study examines Indo-Guyanese settlement in Little Guyana, Queens (1970–1990). I propose the Vertical Enclave Model, which suggests that multi-family homeownership and internal rental markets facilitated the residential permanence of working-class individuals. The IPUMS Census microdata corroborates this community’s reliance on metropolitan integration, thereby refuting traditional self-sufficient ethnic enclave theories.

Isabel I Of Castile And Her Portapaz: A Queenly Expression Of Sovereignty, Legacy, And Piety, Alina Cui

Theses and Dissertations

What is a pax, and why does it matter to a queen? I argue that in the Portapaz Gótico at the Royal Chapel of Granada, Queen Isabel I of Castile drew from Rogier van der Weyden’s Miraflores Altarpiece to craft a new iconography, reflecting her unique political and devotional interests.

Containment, Quin Mittelstead

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores “containment" (the act of keeping something within limits) as both oppressive control and a mode of self-regulation, grounded in the author’s experience with epilepsy. Paintings deploy grayscale grounds, restrained palettes, and contrasting rapid/slow gestures; emergent color, texture, and altered substrates map psychological states, bodily impulses, and reactive processes. Research into witchcraft, remedial items, and eugenics (notably Buck v. Bell) informs works that link historical censorship and institutional violence to contemporary stigma. Sculptural installations (nets, jute, flawed Faraday-like enclosures) and cannibalized studio materials probe systems that restrain thought, media, and bodies. By introducing unpredictable variables with found supports, …

Empowering Latinas In Computer Science: Success Stories And Challenges, Martin Jalomo

Theses and Dissertations

Latina women remain significantly underrepresented in computer science, and limited research centers their lived experiences within the field. This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how Latina women who completed computer science degrees and secured employment persisted in predominantly male and non-Latina environments. Guided by Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework, the study explored how participants leveraged forms of capital to navigate structural, relational, and psychological barriers. Data were collected through narrative interviews with five Latina graduates and analyzed using thematic and cross-case analysis. Findings indicate that underrepresentation shaped participants’ sense of belonging while persistence was supported through aspirational, familial, social, navigational, …

“Sometimes I Feel That Going To College Was A Waste Of Time”: Latinas’ Lived Experiences Navigating Culture, Gender, And Marriage Post-College Degree, Nancy Peña

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative critical narrative study explores how Latinas navigate and make meaning of gender roles within their heterosexual marriages post-college graduation. Data are collected via semi-structured interviews with 10 Latina participants: an initial plática focus group, followed by individual interviews, and a final plática focus group for member checking. Key findings reveal that despite Latinas acquiring autonomy, stability, negotiated power, personal growth, and social development as a result of attaining a degree in higher education, overall development is limited due to heightened responsibilities, persistent gender hierarchies, continuous religious norms, and constant gender role guilt. The evidence suggests that although attaining …

The Relationship Between Secondary School Principals’ Ethical Leadership Behaviors And School Climate, Ericka Julie Carranza

Theses and Dissertations

Limited research explains how teachers in culturally and socioeconomically diverse secondary school settings experience principals’ ethical leadership behaviors and how those behaviors are perceived as shaping school climate. This qualitative study examined teachers’ perceptions of secondary school principals’ ethical leadership behaviors and the ways in which those behaviors were experienced as influencing relational, emotional, and professional dimensions of school climate.

Grounded in Social Learning Theory, the study employed a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with secondary school teachers from diverse educational contexts. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns related to ethical leadership behaviors, …

Data Driven Monitoring And Control Of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process, Jose De Jesus Galarza

Theses and Dissertations

The Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process (LPBF) has been one of the main processes of additive manufacturing, enabling the manufacturing of complex geometries, customization, and lightweight parts. Modern LPBF processes have integrated monitoring systems that capture the light emissions per layer for quality assurance. However, standard defect detection algorithms have not yet achieved the high precision required due to the inherently variable nature of the signal, insufficient data for model training, and the confounding effects of the print.

The processes still have some challenges, such as characterizing the roughness from the build parameters alone, improving the pore detection using the …

Typing Proficiency And Its Relationship To Outcomes In Online Writing Assessments, Agustin J. Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

As writing assessment increasingly occurs in digital environments, students must demonstrate not only composition skills but also sufficient transcription fluency to produce responses under timed conditions. This quantitative study examined the relationship among structured typing practice, transcription fluency, and writing performance among students in Grades 3 and 4 at IDEA Public Schools. Specifically, the study investigated whether engagement with Typing.com was associated with improvements in words per minute (WPM) and accuracy, and whether transcription fluency was associated with performance on Internal Assessment (IA) Writing Percent Correct.

Archival district data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational analyses, hierarchical regression, moderation analyses, …

Analytically Evaluating The Efficacy Of Work-Based Learning And Classroom Based Learning In Workforce Development Programs, Melissa Anne Sadler-Nitu

Theses and Dissertations

Workforce development systems in the United States provide occupational training to improve employment outcomes for individuals facing barriers to employment. Training is commonly delivered through classroom-based training (CBT) offered by educational institutions or through work-based learning (WBL) delivered in partnership with employers. Although both approaches are widely used within workforce development programs, limited empirical research has examined whether occupational training prior to employment improves employment retention or whether WBL produces stronger employment outcomes than CBT.

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative ex post facto study was to examine the relationship between occupational training and short-term employment outcomes among workforce participants …

My Journey As A Migrant Bilingual Learner From Student To Teacher: Lessons Learned, Sylvia Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

These reflections in this thesis are an analysis of narratives based on my lived experiences as an immigrant, migrant student who is now a certified Bilingual & Special Education teacher servicing students, many of whom are bilingual, in public school classrooms. My goal is to connect my life experiences to teaching practices and thus embrace and celebrate my linguistic identity. Bilingual educators have a language learning journey that drives their classroom practices. When bilingual teachers reflect on their bilingual trajectory and connect their life experiences to research, they may provide spaces for stronger positive impacts on bilingual students, and their …

Using Behavioral Monitoring To Assess Activity Patterns And Welfare Indicators In Captive Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta Caraya), Ramiro Gomez Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined activity patterns and potential welfare indicators in captive black howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) using behavioral monitoring techniques. A monogamous pair housed indoors at Gladys Porter Zoo was observed using focal sampling methods, and a species specific ethogram was developed to systematically record behavior. A total of 1,750 minutes of data were collected over one year. Observed behaviors were categorized into five groups: affiliative, agonistic, stationary, locomotion, and stereotypic behaviors. Activity budgets were calculated to determine the proportion of time allocated to each behavioral category. Results indicated that affiliative behaviors, particularly physical contact, dominated the activity budget, while …

Authoritarian Bidding: Domestic Institutions And The Domestic Politics Of Mega-Sporting Event Campaigns, Zanela Denise Sygaco Bajarias

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines why some authoritarian regimes bid for mega sporting events while others do not. While existing research focuses primarily on the impacts of hosting, this paper shifts attention to the political logic of bidding itself. It argues that bidding is not merely a preparatory step but a strategic political act. Drawing on selectorate theory, audience cost theory, and research on authoritarian institutions, the study proposes that variation in bidding behavior is driven by differences in institutionalization. Authoritarian regimes with nominally democratic institutions, such as legislatures, parties, and controlled media, face broader domestic audiences and stronger incentives to demonstrate …

I Am Still Learning, Too!: Pre-Service Teachers' Experiences Of Mathematics Anxiety In An Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education Course At Utrgv, Jeremiah James Adriano Dela Rosa

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics anxiety is a prevalent issue in mathematics education that negatively impacts students’ learning, performance, and engagement in mathematics. Prior research suggests that mathematics anxiety is often shaped by students’ experiences and emotional responses within the classroom environment.

The purpose of this study is to explore how Pre-Service Teachers experience mathematics anxiety in an Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education (IBME) classroom. This study employed a qualitative research design supported by descriptive survey data collected through the Abbreviated Mathematics Anxiety Scale (AMAS), selected components of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Anxiety Scale (FSMAS), and semi-structured interviews. The survey instruments were used to provide descriptive background …

An Exploratory Study On Perceptions Of Climate Change And Mental Health Among Alaskans, Emily Miranda Cohen

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a pressing global issue with diverse mental health impacts. However, the relationship between climate change perceptions and mental health remains poorly explored. Rapid climate change in Alaska makes it an ideal setting to explore these relationships. Thus, 204 Alaskan adults were surveyed to assess their perceptions of climate change and explore the relationships between climate change perceptions, exposure to adverse climate impacts, and psychological distress (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety, and climate-related post-traumatic stress). Results suggest that participants agree that climate change is real, human-caused, negative, and impacts areas both close to and far from where they …