Digital Commons Network^™

Weaponized Nostalgia And The Modern Woman: Patriarchal Insecurity In A Lost Lady And The Sound And The Fury, Grace Nicole Becker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the patriarchal nostalgia that resulted from men’s perceived feminization in modernity and how it manifests in the narrative framing of modern women in modernist literature. Niel Herbert from Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady and Jason Compson from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury each embody contrasting masculine responses to the feminization of white manhood. Niel exemplifies the mourning of white masculinity that does not hinge on being antithetical to femininity, a sentiment which Greg Forter similarly identifies in Cather. Jason personifies an aggressive masculinity and repudiates women, blaming them, and other minority groups, for his own …

Understanding Contemporary Declines In Psychological Well-Being Among Youth: A Self-Determination Theory Approach, Shawn Stewart Mcnally

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines contemporary declines in psychological well-being among older adolescents and emerging adults through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Across three interrelated papers, it explores how changing social conditions may shape experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, SDT’s basic psychological needs, and how these processes may be especially consequential during adjustment to and navigation of college. The first paper is conceptual in nature and argues that contemporary societal pressures, parenting practices, and technology-related contexts may operate together to undermine basic psychological needs. The second paper is qualitative in nature and uses interviews with undergraduate students to examine how …

Quantum Spin-Like Behavior Of Elastic Guided Waves: Quantized Geometric Phase For Nde And Shm, Md Ebrahim Khalil Bhuiyan

Theses and Dissertations

Ultrasonic guided waves are widely used in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) for detecting defects and damage in engineering materials and structures. Conventional diagnostic features, such as attenuation of wave amplitude, shifts in time-of-flight, and frequency variations are widely used for damage identification. However, these metrics are inherently sensitive to environmental and operational variations, including temperature, pressure, humidity, sensor coupling conditions, boundary constraints, and external loading. Such sensitivities introduce significant uncertainty in signal interpretation, often obscuring damage-related signatures. Recent advances in wave physics have revealed that elastic guided waves exhibit intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM), arising from …

Targeting Endothelial Dysfunction In Capillary Malformations: Mechanistic Insights And Adjunct Therapeutic Strategies, Mackenzie Azuero

Theses and Dissertations

Port-wine stains (PWS), clinically classified as capillary malformations (CM), are congenital vascular anomalies characterized by abnormally dilated dermal capillaries that persist throughout life and may progressively darken and thicken with age. Pulsed dye laser (PDL) therapy remains the clinical standard of care for PWS; however, complete lesion clearance is uncommon and many patients experience incomplete or temporary responses. Increasing evidence suggests that endothelial survival and vascular remodeling following laser exposure may contribute to lesion persistence and recurrence, highlighting the need for adjunct therapeutic strategies that target the underlying cellular mechanisms of vascular recovery. This thesis investigates endothelial dysfunction and therapeutic …

Recollection Of The Archaic Psyche: A Comparative Study Of Viacheslav Ivanov’S Realistic Symbolism And Carl Gustav Jung’S Analytical Psychology, Jack Wilson Dedmondt

Theses and Dissertations

While nominally appearing disparate in their construction, the theoretical systems pioneered by Russian Symbolist poet Viacheslav Ivanov and Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung operate under parallel hermeneutics of inference concerning the symbolic comprehension of reality. This dichotomy is drawn between an immediate (conscious) stratum of sensible reality of Apollonian, concrete, individual, and intelligible forms, and a transcendent (unconscious) stratum of Dionysian, associative, collective, and nominally unintelligible forms. In the present investigation, we aim to identify the proximity between Jungian analytical psychology and Ivanov’s “Realistic Symbolism” in order to provide the groundwork for future application of Jungian methodologies as an interpretive …

Beyond The Binary: Examining The Impact Of A Restorative Justice Intervention On Administrator Perceptions And Disciplinary Disparities For Black Male Students, Arianne A. Booker

Theses and Dissertations

For decades, black students have experienced educational inequalities, particularly when it comes to academic achievement and school discipline. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the factors leading to the racial discipline gap among Black male students in middle schools. Black males face more punitive consequences that often result in exclusionary practices than their peers. This problem is due to cultural differences between teachers and students, where teachers’ subjective interpretations of behavior—such as disrespect or defiance—lead to removal from the general education classroom. The theoretical framework that guided this study was Critical Race Theory and Culturally Responsive Teaching. …

Caribbean Movements In Alejo Carpentier’S Écue-Yamba-Ó And Maryse Condé’S Traversée De La Mangrove, Gisselle Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

One of the broad questions this essay examines is how literature represents Caribbean cultural identity. This essay continues the conversation of how Caribbean cultures are formed, depicted, and defined in twentieth-century literature, specifically, in Alejo Carpentier’s Écue-Yamba-Ó and Maryse Condé’s Traversée de la mangrove. Although the novels are published within about fifty years from one another, both writers consider the question of what Caribbean cultural identity may look like. Carpentier’s Écue-Yamba-Ó follows the life of Menegildo, an Afro-Cuban man who works in the sugar plantations, who ends up killing a Haitian man. In his first novel, Carpentier writes from a …

Intimate Networks: Sapphic Women’S Activism In Revolutionary Dublin 1916, Justine Nicole Rennekamp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the often-overlooked role of sapphic women in the Easter Rising of 1916, arguing that queer intimacy and political activism were deeply intertwined within Irish revolutionary networks. While traditional historiography has privileged male, Catholic nationalist narratives of the Rising, this study foregrounds the lives of Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, Margarett Skinnider, Elizabeth O’Farrell, and Julia Grenan to demonstrate how women’s same-sex relationships influenced their political participation, modes of survival, and visions of national belonging. Drawing on diaries, letters, witness statements, photographs, and archival silences, this thesis employs queer theory to read practices of visibility, gender performance, and …

Inclusive Postsecondary Education Practices & Staff Beliefs Related To Parent Engagement, Abigail Mojica

Theses and Dissertations

Inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are expanding across the United States, yet research on parent engagement in these settings remains limited. This study examined current practices related to parent engagement within U.S. IPSE programs and investigated whether specific staff and program characteristics were associated with variations in engagement. A national sample of IPSE program leaders (N = 106) completed an online survey assessing staff demographics, program features, and parent engagement activities. The survey was developed for this study, informed by literature on secondary transition, IPSE programs, and parent engagement in both K–12 …

Soil Macroinvertebrate Biodiversity Patterns In Congaree National Park And The Role Of Dna Barcoding, Sharon Ann Kendrick

Theses and Dissertations

Soil and leaf-litter invertebrates are important components of terrestrial biodiversity and contribute to key ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling, and soil formation. Despite their ecological importance, these communities remain difficult to document because many taxa are small, cryptic, or challenging to identify using morphology alone. This study examined patterns of soil macroinvertebrate biodiversity across habitats within Congaree National Park while also evaluating the usefulness of DNA barcoding for documenting taxonomic diversity. Sampling was conducted at 39 sites between September 2022 and October 2024 across upland, bottomland, and bluff habitats. Macroinvertebrates were collected separately from leaf litter and soil …

“Why, Marcus, So She Is”: An Examination Of The Father/Daughter Relationship In Shakespeare’S ‘Titus Andronicus’, Anna Elizabeth Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the father/daughter relationship between Titus and Lavinia in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Scholarship on this relationship is sparse, and chapter two discusses the context that it is typically understood within, namely the father/daughter chastity pattern—in which fathers jealously protect their acquiescent daughters’ chastity from violation, ending in the daughter’s death. It is asserted that Titus and Lavinia fall outside of this pattern. Chapter three examines Titus and Lavinia’s relationship before her assault, asserting that Titus assumes the role of Roman first and father second, which guides his treatment of all his children. Lavinia is connected to …

Teaching The Teachers: A Responce To Legal Illiteracy In Education, Landon Lee Kekoa Fielder

Theses and Dissertations

This action research dissertation aimed to examine the impact of teachers’ knowledge of education law and their perceived understanding of how it impacts their daily functions. This mixed methods study was conducted using digital data collection methods and analysis. The findings of this study revealed an increase in legal literacy among both pre-service and in-service teachers. Quantitative findings indicated an improved understanding of key legal concepts amongst participants. Additionally, qualitative findings expressed a heightened awareness and clarity surrounding legal responsibility for teachers. Across both in-service and pre-service teacher participant groups, participants identified gaps in their understanding and recognized the value …

Rock In Weary Land: The Educational Expertise Of The Black Church, Salondra Daniels Griggs

Theses and Dissertations

Due to a challenging political landscape, Black students receive less educational support from public institutions. As a result, other institutions such as the Black Church have become a “Rock” for Black students to lean on in times of distress. This study examines the educational expertise located within the Black Church. Through a qualitative comparative case study, this comparative case study examines how two Black Baptist Churches in the southeastern part of the United States use their community expertise to support the education of Black student

“Get Out To Vote, No Time To Stay At Home”: Grassroots Pedagogy And Political Organizing Of The Johns Island Citizenship School, Anne Elizabeth Mineri

Theses and Dissertations

The 1957 Johns Island Citizenship School emerged from the everyday actions of local leaders like Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, and Bernice Robinson as a foundational site of grassroots pedagogy and organizing that reshaped the political landscape of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Situated within the critical years between 1957 and 1961, a formative moment in the modern Black freedom struggle, the school demonstrates how local activism laid the groundwork for broader regional and national movements. In a state where literacy tests functioned as mechanisms of disenfranchisement, learning to read and write became a direct challenge to systems of exclusion. Through …

Reading The Criminal Mind: Victorian Pseudoscience And The Fear Of Degeneration In “The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde”, Abigail Jasa Sommer

Theses and Dissertations

This paper argues that Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) functions as a gothic critique of late-Victorian pseudoscience and the cultural desire to make morality legible on the body. Situating the novella amid phrenology, physiognomy, criminal anthropology, degeneration theory, and evolutionary psychology, it shows how scientific discourse circulated beyond professional institutions to shape popular assumptions about deviance, identity, and social order. Through Jekyll’s experiment and Hyde’s emergence, Stevenson stages the collapse of the “scientific gaze”: Hyde appears to confirm the period’s criminal typologies, yet his deformity remains simultaneously undeniable and indescribable, exposing the …

Principals As Disciplinary Decision Makers: Ethical Tension And The Use Of Exclusionary Discipline For Students With Disabilities, Sarah Te Scaffe Tew

Theses and Dissertations

Students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at disproportionate rates. Previous research regarding principal decision-making has focused on decision-making broadly, and it has been predominantly qualitative in nature. School-level administrators frequently make disciplinary decisions for students with disabilities and report experiencing ethical tension in the process. Stakeholder, organizational, legal, and personal interests have been identified in the research as sources of ethical tension. The purpose of this study is to identify which factors cause the greatest level of ethical tension for administrators when making disciplinary decisions for students with disabilities and to examine the relationship between administrator’s perceived level of …

Examination Of Metacognitive Strategies As An Intervention Supporting College Readiness For Students In Large Enrollment Introductory Biology Courses, Angela S. Mohrman

Theses and Dissertations

Students who meet traditional definitions of college readiness based on prior coursework, grades, and standardized test scores often continue to struggle in large-enrollment introductory STEM courses. These struggles are particularly evident in introductory biology, where high cognitive demands, rapid pacing, and content volume require learners to regulate their own studying in ways many students have never been taught. This action research study examined whether sustained, explicit instruction in metacognitive regulation—planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning—could support introductory biology students’ college readiness and learning of biology content.

Using a mixed-methods action research design, the study investigated a 15-week co-curricular metacognitive intervention taken …

Breast Cancer Communication For Young Women: Exploring Narrative Games As Vehicles Of Transportation, Adetutu Oluwaseyi Wande-Kayode

Theses and Dissertations

Despite extensive intervention efforts, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Prior research in breast cancer communication has largely focused on older women, yet early-onset breast cancer among younger women (ages 18-39) has increased in recent years. This trend highlights an urgent need for tailored communication strategies to improve young women’s understanding of breast cancer risk factors, prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship. The present study developed and tested a digital narrative game based on the Health Belief Model, as a potential tool to enhance …

From Boca Chica To Mars: Spacex, Desubjectification And The Making Of Expendable Futures, Iwalewa Oluwajuwonlo Olorunyomi

Theses and Dissertations

This project examines how SpaceX’s development of Starbase Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, Texas, produces what I call desubjectified futures: the systematic transformation of residents from subjects who imagine and create futures into objects upon which futures are imposed. Drawing on five weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews with residents, environmental justice organizers, and members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, I argue that SpaceX achieves hegemony not simply by manufacturing consent but through an ontological operation that strips communities of the capacity for collective self-determination before consent becomes meaningful.

I trace this process through three interrelated modes. First, discursively, how SpaceX …

The Mountains Call: Escaping To Zones Of Seclusion, Alec Lee Parry

Theses and Dissertations

The biographical and thematical overlap between the literature of Austrian authors Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard, and Swiss writers Max Frisch and Fleur Jaeggy, is established in literary scholarship. However, similarities in the role Alpine spaces play in their works remain unaccounted for. The Alps represent a cultural and geographical boundary between linguistic identities and international borders. Protagonists across this dissertation’s three chapters face internal crises, prompting them to move to “zones of seclusion.” Within these “zones of seclusion,” characters spark discussions of collective memory even if they are isolated themselves. These peripheral locations force recollection, often on collective memory, …

The Unstable Horizon Of Composition: The Demonstrations Of Expertise And Ethos By Freelance Composers Within Destabilized And Precarious Digital Environments, Mary Elizabeth A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation centers the demonstrations of ethos and expertise by freelance composers operating within destabilized digital environments enabled by the gig economy. As labor, and particularly the labor of writing, increasingly grows more precarious, composers have adopted nonstandard forms of communication that entail financial, socioeconomic, and material precarity and that break from conventions in highly hierarchical and standardized professions. Because freelance composers exhibit an alternative to institutional and hierarchical structures, composition must account for these growing precarious forms and conditions of labor. These composers represent the unstable horizon of composition and the diverse and destabilized practices of knowledge and composing …

The Enchantment And Disenchantment Of The Virgin Mary From Late Middle Ages Through The Reformation, Quentin Jameson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Virgin Mary’s role in late medieval and early modern high magic, arguing that her presence and absence in magic display cases of enchantment and disenchantment. Starting in the twelfth century, debates on Mary’s immaculate conception and purity gradually reshaped and elevated her status in Latin Christendom. This enabled Mary to be an active agent within magic as a purifier and advocate. However, early modern natural philosophers and leaders of the Reformation removed these divine abilities from Mary, producing a disenchanted Virgin within high forms of magic.

This thesis applies Karen Barad’s concept of intra-activity and continuous …

The Secondary City: Georgetown And The Waccamaw Neck Within A Global Maritime Perspective, 1740-1850, John Paden Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Georgetown is not and has never been the primary city on the South Carolina coast. Its harbor is shallow and muddy and its urban development lacks the commercial density found in more prominent Atlantic port cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Despite all indicators to the contrary, this marshy backwater outpost became the second richest port in the United States prior to 1850 through rice and indigo exportation. As a result, the port drew people, goods, and ideas from around the Atlantic. Despite its small size and limited cultural relevance, Georgetown was a regional node for international …

Paisajes Virales: Vih/Sida En La Literatura Cuir Latinoamericana Contemporánea, Cristian Camilo Garcia Tengono

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes the concept of viral landscapes as a critical tool for analyzing representations of HIV/AIDS in contemporary Latin American ‘queer’ literature. Drawing on Gaston Bachelard's notion of poetic space and Sara Ahmed's theory of bodily orientation, this work understands the landscape not as a descriptive backdrop but as a principle of literary creation. Similarly, it adopts cuir — a phonetic and political adaptation of the English ‘queer’ into Spanish — as a critical position specific to the Latin American context, one that inscribes sexual dissidence within genealogies shaped by coloniality, racialization, and structural inequality. From this framework, the …

Understanding Spanish Language Patterns In Therapy: Insights Into Therapists, Clients, And Session Characteristics, Vanessa Perez

Theses and Dissertations

Spanish-speaking individuals face significant barriers to accessing linguistically appropriate mental health services. Language match between therapists and clients has been associated with positive impacts on the therapeutic process; however, little is known about how Spanish is used in youth therapy sessions or how therapeutic and demographic characteristics influence its use. Using 54 recorded Spanish-speaking therapy sessions from a randomized controlled trial of school-based mental health services in Los Angeles, California, this study sought to understand who participated in these sessions, how Spanish was used, and what predicted its use. To address these aims, data were drawn from electronic health records, …

Maternal Reading Skills And Child Mortality In Nigeria, Kayode Ibraheem

Theses and Dissertations

Although, child mortality in Nigeria has declined significantly over the past three decades, the country still has one of the highest rates in the world. The inverse relationship between maternal education and child survival is well established, but the mechanisms by which education impacts mortality remain underexplored. This study assessed the mediating effect of maternal literacy in the relationship between child mortality and maternal education, extending prior work that focused primarily on mothers with low education levels. Using the data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, I analyzed 24,865 mothers who had at most secondary education as well …

From The Public To The Pentagon: How Polarization Shapes Support For Service, Votes For Veterans, And Senior Military Rhetoric, Matthew Wallace Fryman

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how contemporary political polarization affects the US military across three critical democratic touchpoints: public support for military service, voter behavior toward veteran candidates, and the rhetoric of the nation’s most senior uniformed officer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS). Although the military remains one of the most trusted public institutions, partisan conflict increasingly draws it into political debates, raising concerns about the health of civil–military relations and the sustainability of the All-Volunteer Force.

Chapter 2 investigates whether polarization reduces citizens’ willingness to recommend military service, a key driver of recruitment in a highly competitive, …

“Not Being Classified (English Proficient), Only Limits How Much I Can Learn”: An Action Research Examination Of The Elpac, Manuel De Jesus Acuna Jr

Theses and Dissertations

Emerging language learners across the United States face challenges in accessing equal educational opportunities because they are classified as not proficient, which holds them back. The emphasis on this classification compromises their performance on state exams, jeopardizing their educational future. The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California is a state-mandated exam that non- first-language English Speakers must take and pass in order to be classified as English proficient. Districts and educators must begin to challenge the educational system in California. This research outlines the difficulties faced by emergent language learners who are not classified and the repercussions on their future. …

Orchestrating Value In Global Supply Chains: An Ecosystem Approach To Boundary Decisions, Innovation, And Sustainability, Kijong Kim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds on an ecosystem perspective to examine how suppliers strategically navigate interdependent relationships to sustain competitiveness in global supply chains. In today’s digitally interconnected and institutionally diverse global economy, suppliers operate within complex ecosystems composed of buyers, other suppliers, complementors, and institutional actors. In such environments, suppliers cannot rely solely on compliance with buyer mandates or transactional efficiency to maintain advantage. Instead, they must strategically position themselves within networks to preserve relationships, specialize innovation, and implement sustainability practices. Although international business and supply chain research increasingly acknowledges interfirm interdependencies, it continues to view supplier behavior primarily through hierarchical …

Fostering High Achievement For Students Within And Beyond The Classroom – Building In Students Academic Language And Literacy Skills To Improve Standardized Test Scores In United States History And The Constitution. An Action Research Study, Amber Nicole Gant

Theses and Dissertations

The scores received on high-stakes tests throughout a student’s educational journey are an indication of the level of mastery of advanced content. Subsequently, these scores highlight their ability to access skills that reflect their likelihood to achieve success and become 21st century college and career-ready individuals. As an educator teaching in an underserved area, students’ inability to comprehend academic language and literacy skills negatively impacts standardized test scores and evidence of complete competency of learned materials. This research examines the effects and outcomes of building on students’ academic language and literacy skills to foster higher academic achievement on standardized tests …