Digital Commons Network^™

Making A Way: An Auto/Ethnographic Exploration Of Narratives Of Citizenship, Identity, (Un)Belonging And Home For Black Trinidadian[-]American Women, Anjuliet G. Woodruffe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research study is to gather, convey and explore the lived experience related to transnational identity construction for Black Trinidadian[-]American women. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach to better understand what it means to live as, and be, a Black Trinidadian[-]American. Using auto/ethnography and interviews, I seek to answer the following research questions: (1) How do Black Trinidadian[-]American women describe their negotiation of cultural identity in Trinidad and the United States? (2) How do Black Trinidadian[-]American women describe “in-between” homeplaces within the intersectional context of gender, race, class, and culture? (3) How do Black, Trinidadian[-]American women describe transnational, …

Complex Identities: Putting Casey Plett’S Fiction In A Trans And Religious Studies Context, Catherine Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The work of Casey Plett is a prime place to discuss the experiences of being transgender and a Mennonite. However, her writing has received little discussion in the field of trans and religious studies, simply because fiction is rarely the focus of analysis in the field. This thesis argues that not only does fiction have a place in the field, but that there are unique analytic tools, such as trans standpoint theory, that can be used in the analysis of works of fiction to heighten what is gained and found in the endeavor. And so, this thesis not only argues …

‘Surest Guaranty Of Peace’: Rhetoric, Consumer Culture, And The Popularization Of American Naval Power, 1883 - 1909, Charles B. Harris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project a cultural history of the U.S. Navy during an era of a major institutional and technological transformation. In it, I trace the ways that Gilded Age and Progressive Era naval advocates successfully pitched the idea of modernizing the U.S. Navy to the American people. These military promoters justified technological advancement as societal progress, arguing for a more pronounced presence for the United States on the world stage. Marketing experts then seized on the people’s increasing fascination with naval power to rekindle a sense of patriotism by sensationalizing militarism. Riding this wave of popularity and public awareness of naval …

Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of Global Competency-Based Program Modules In Higher Education, Parandoosh Sadeghinia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Global competency-based modules are relatively new in higher education. As a way to measure global competency the USF Global Competency Test (GCT) modules objectively measure global competencies for individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of three global competency-based program modules and undergraduate student perceptions of the Unite Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the basis for the modules.

This study addressed the questions:

1. What are the change scores based on the Global Competency Test module pre/postassessment scores for students who participated in Operation: Global Action/Academic and Cultural Engagement program during Summer 2021?
2. Are there differences in the …

"Theology" In The Public University, Sarah T. White

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have suggested the transformative potential of “theological” inquiry anddiscourse in religious studies, particularly, in furthering religious literacy and peace building initiatives through greater understanding of “other”. Yet, “theology” is a relatively new academic approach to peace building and conflict studies and is still marginalized to a large degree in secular universities. Vigorous inquiry into the intrinsic value and potential role of “theological” inquiry and discourse in secular academics, as well as possible pedagogical strategies, are worthwhile and necessary towards achieving the wider aims of the secular university. To those ends, this paper presents a broad survey of the …

Narratives Of Success: How Honors College Newcomers Frame The Entrance To College, Cayla Lanier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Starting college marks an important period of transition for young people, as they manage multiple changes at once and begin to establish identities independent from their parents. The first year college student experience has been the focus of a great deal of academic research, as scholars and practitioners seek to discover the best way to support students and ensure they remain successfully enrolled at the university. However, very little of this research attends to the specific experiences of Honors College students. Further, a focus on the communicative process of transitioning, or organizational socialization, may add to what is currently known. …

Quercetin Loaded Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Dry Eye Disease, Bassma Sami Nashaat Hamed Eltanameli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dry eye disease (DED) is a common condition that affects the eye's anterior surface due to tear deficiency or excessive evaporation. The lack of tears leads to dryness and initiation of an inflammatory response which can irritate the eye and interfere with daily activities. Current treatment depends mainly on artificial tears eye drops which offer temporary relief and require repetitive administration due to frequent blinking. Prescription medications are also available but need around three months to relieve dry eye symptoms. Quercetin is a flavonoid that has an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect. However, it suffers from low water solubility and low …

Restarting Plural Modernity: The Lyrical Tradition Of The Hometown In Kaili Blues, Huadong Fan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dichotomous paradigm constituted by the realist tradition of Chinese cinema has become the epic and inertial discourse for understanding Chinese modernity. However, I argue that some new filmmakers after the sixth generation of directors have used the narrative and aesthetics of the hometown to change this dominant logic of Chinese modernity. The revolutions and wars of the twentieth century transformed the hometown from a relatively stable agrarian civilization to a modern society in violent turmoil. Recent hometown films are no longer satisfied with this realist aesthetic duality and strive for a pluralistic discourse of Chinese modernity, releasing it from …

Cultural Values As A Moderator Of The Emotion Suppression To Strain Relationship: A Comparison Of Two Dominant Theoretical Mechanisms, Roxanne C. Lawrence

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although the relationship between emotion regulation and deleterious health outcomes is a robust finding in Western cultures, studies show that this effect is attenuated in non-Western cultures. The present study employed an experience sampling method to examine the mitigating effect of cultural values (i.e., individual-level collectivism) on the relationship between emotion regulation and employee strain (i.e., job satisfaction and anxiety) through the theoretical models of emotional dissonance and resource loss (operationalized as inauthenticity and emotional exhaustion). Using data collected from 182 adults working in the service industry, I ran a multilevel path analysis to test the study’s hypotheses. Results indicated …

Bad Bunny’S Purplewashing As Gender Violence In Reggaeton: A Feminist Analysis Of Solo De Mi And Yo Perreo Sola, Dairíne Hoban

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bad Bunny has skyrocketed to fame in the past few years, gaining worldwide recognition as one of the best reggaetoneros of his time. His self-promoted image as an ally to women’s movements and the Queer community has garnered him the recognition of being a role model for youth and as an anomaly in the misogynistic genre of reggaeton. However, few have looked beyond the assertion of allyship to see if his work truly does support women and anti-gender violence ideology. While scholarship on reggaeton has well documented the prevalence of gender violence in the lyrics, videos and overall culture of …

A Comparative Thematic Analysis Of Newspaper Articles In France After The Bataclan And In The United States Of America After Pulse, Simon Rousset

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project interrogates unequal power relations that underlie newspaper representation of terrorism and reinforced Orientalism discourse following the 13 November 2015 mass murders in Saint-Denis and Paris, France, and following the 12 June 2016 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, United States of America (U.S.A.). It was not surprising to bear witness to the ways national media took hold of these major socio-political events. These events, and the stories that have been published about them, are interpreted through the prism of terrorism, moral panic, and Orientalism, in the sense that the media tend to transcribe the shock of the attacks as …

Alternative Approaches To Protect Sensory Inner Ear Tissue Against Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity, Nicole K. Febles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder often involving permanent damage and loss to the inner ear’s mechano-sensory hair cells and spiral ganglion neuron fibers. Significant causes of SNHL are ototoxic drugs, environmental factors, loud noises, and continuous wear with age. A successful but ototoxic chemotherapeutic known as Cisplatin often damages auditory hair cells via mitochondria dysfunction, DNA fragmentation, and cellular death through apoptosis. Despite the high prevalence of SNHL, there currently is no FDA-approved prevention or cure. Thus, auditory and cancer researchers have investigated various individual otoprotective agent preventions with limited success. This dissertation used a novel …

Montage Music Videos: Racial Utopianism Vs. Abstract Cowboys And The Question Of Cultural Montage, Alan E. Blanchard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Along with the explosion of consumer goods in America over the past century came the human impulse to alter these objects to produce new meanings the manufacturers never intended: commercial products become amateur artists’ raw material. We see this with custom cars and the curious blending of clothes. Inevitably, digital commercial products, like music videos, would undergo a similar treatment as seen in DJ Cummerbund’s “mashup” videos “Old Staind Road” and “Blurry in the USA” where he is painting with audio tracks and sculpting with video clips to create new digital art with new meanings uncoupled from industry’s original intent …

From Mythology To Pop Culture: Myth, Representation, And The Historiography Of The Amazon Warrior Woman In Ancient Art And Modern Media, James William Poorman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today’s global society, the mediums in which cultural iconography are portrayed are mostly film, photography, and other mass media. 2500 years ago, in classical Athens, pottery and sculpture dominated the social scene. . Regardless of societies, religions, cultures, etc., certain human traits seem to follow us through time. On the other hand, some things do change, i.e.: the way civilizations view other groups through cultural lenses, view their own culture through perceived gender norms, and how civilizations and cultures try to correlate taboos into the exotic or barbaric. Wonder Woman is a recreation, or reinvention, of an ancient Athenian …

School Music Administration During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Trauma, Loss, Meaning, Change, And Innovation, Christopher Burns

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On Friday, March 13, 2020, the School District of Osceola closed its doors for Spring Break and did not open again until 3 weeks later in a digital capacity. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way teachers and students learned. The band, chorus, and orchestra classrooms were empty, and replaced with digital meetings with the need to unmute and turn cameras on. This study is an autoethnographic narrative of my life during the COVID-19 pandemic as a district resource for the teachers that I serve. While music administration has existed in many forms over the past 100 years, there are no …

Aspiring To “Make It Work”: Defining Resilience And Agency Amongst Hispanic Youth Living In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Sara Arias-Steele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how Hispanic youth (ages 13-21 years) living in low-income neighborhoods of Florida defined resiliency and expressed agency navigating personal challenges and neighborhood adversity in pursuit of success. From the standpoint of the participants, this study focused on how youths: 1) judge the quality of life in their neighborhoods and the opportunities available for them, 2) identify personal aspirations for themselves and 3) identify what resilient factors allowed them to face the challenges and barriers of their daily lives to pursue this aspiration. This study takes into account the structural barriers that create inequities to examine how personal …

Peminist Performance In/As Filipina Feminist Praxis: Collaging Stand-Up Comedy And The Narrative Points In Between, Christina-Marie A. Magalona

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project documents the interdependent effort between performers, authors, and texts, through re/theorizing the role of the personal narrator in autoperformance as both an individual, and a part of a political collective. Through a scripted and staged performance, studied as the data, I critically engage with representations of first-generation women of color via comediennes (Ali Wong and Cristela Alonzo) and their personal narratives, and dialogically consider moments of dis/identification as a Filipina American.

Rooted in performance in/and communication studies, the overarching method employed is conspicuous aesthetic performance, via a scripted and staged narrative performance. I join performance and other methods …

Reframing The Gothic: Race, Gender, & Disability In Multiethnic Literature, Ashely B. Tisdale

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is about the exploitation and disposability of disabled bodies. I am interested in understanding how some bodies are vulnerable to systems of exploitation by virtue of their race, gender, and disabilities. Chapter one interrogates Alejandro Morales’s The Rag Doll Plagues, where ill and disabled female characters are disposed of during the protagonists’ journey toward national progress. Hanya Yanagihara’s The People in The Trees is the subject of chapter two. In this novel, ill, elderly characters of color are experimented on as their sovereign island is mined by pharmaceutical corporations. Chapter three discusses how James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods portrays …

Stop-Motion As Theory, Method, And Praxis: Arresting Moments Of Racialized Gender In The Academy, Sasha J. Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this autoethnographic qualitative study, I introduce “STOP-motion” as a Black feminist organizing concept, methodological approach, and praxis to examine the twinness of arresting moments when disruption, displacement, disorientation, or disembodiment prompts critical reflection and transforms outsider-within moments into movements of resistance and collective empowerment. I recount three ARRESTING moments of racialized gender I have endured in white-dominated academic spaces: being STOPPED in a breakfast line at a conference, STOPPED in a department bathroom, and STOPPED by a large promotional department banner that exhibited myself and two Black colleagues. Relying on Black feminist aesthetics, I experiment …

Blue Rage: A Critical Cultural Analysis Of Policing, Whiteness, And Racial Surveillance, Wesley T. Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an interpretive project deploying critical media analysis and interpretive qualitative methods to examine televisual and cinematic performances of policing. I use interpretive qualitative inquiry to explore blue rage, policing, and whiteness. By highlighting the racial surveillance which undergirds policing, I analyze blue rage as a critical race concept that addresses the affective policing of racial resentment and racial solidarity among law enforcement. My media analyses demonstrate the ways that whiteness is operationalized through law and order and criminal justice. Analyzing cinematic and televisual depictions of the police and racist surveillance, I address policing—as a profession, as a …

The Value Of Sleep: Aura And Aesthetics Of Cohabitation In Juha Lilja's Revision Of Warhol, Christopher Costabile

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis positions Juha Lilja’s 2013 digital video work, Sleep, as a prime example of what the author terms an “aesthetics of cohabitation” — a newly suggested method of artistic creation set in opposition to capitalist society’s commodification of both space and time, represented here through the work of Robert Hassan and Jonathan Crary. Lilja’s eight-hour-long video work, which is accessible on YouTube, is a reimagining and re-envisioning of Andy Warhol’s film of the same name. It subverts the intended function of digital streaming platforms while using digital technology to meet aesthetic criteria in shot length and overall duration, which …

Four Hollywood Film Adaptations Of Little Women: Identifying Female Subjectivity In Characters, Plots, And Authorship, Haiyu Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines the expressions of the limits and possibilities of female subjectivity in the four Hollywood film adaptations of Little Women, filmed in 1933, 1949, 1994, and 2019 respectively, by combining textual and audience analysis with adaptation theory, feminist film theory, and feminist adaptation theory. In exploring the disparate femininity of female characters, the different representations of plots, and the authorship and changes of structure, I argue that the 1933 and 1949 versions present evidently conservative and patriarchal characteristics in the text, but their female subjectivity can be obtained through the complexity of emotion of the female audience …

Threatened By The Outback: Landscape And Ecology In The Australian New Wave, Richard T. Dyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholarship discussing the Australian outback as a cinematic setting often conceives of this space as sharing a “frontier iconography” with the American west. A significant element of this conception is attributed to the natural features of these setting’s respective landscapes, which are said to share an arid climate, rugged geologic formations, and vast open spaces. In this project I instead strive to challenge the associations frequently conjured between these natural spaces by identifying an ecological stance within the Australian “new wave” outback film that is at odds with the presentation of the landscape in both classical Hollywood westerns and the …

I'M Going Digital: Potentials For Online Communities Through Internet Remix, Justin N. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the late 90s and early 2000s, computers and internet usage became more widespread. This widespread usage led to a proliferation of “digital objects” (digital versions of audio, video, image, text, etc.) dispersed through the internet. The instant and near-infinite reproducibility of digital objects combined with their ease of manipulation by computer users has led to their widespread recognition and use as tools of communication online. As a consequence, technology has allowed those traditionally thought of as consumers to become cultural producers by repurposing digital media objects. Because of this, internet remix of digital objects is one of the best …

The Impact Of War On U.S. Army Leader Self-Development Domain In The Early 21st Century, Stephen D. Pomper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research examines senior U.S. Army officer leaders’ propensity and appreciation to engage in self-devolvement and to develop their junior leaders. The research compares what the Army is prescribing to its leaders with what they are actually saying and doing. It focuses on the decade before the Global War on Terrorism, during the high-tempo war period, and the last ten years. We find that the past 19 years of war have impacted the U.S. Army in countless ways. One is arguably on its most precious capability—its active officer leaders. As the Army rose to war-related challenges, it did so …

Feasting On Words: What University Students Learn When They Study Food Writing And Food Media, Janet K. Keeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of food in college curriculum is unique in its ability to create lasting impact because of the keen interest millennial and Generation Z students have in what they eat and drink. Studying media with food at its core is an underutilized mechanism to show how food intersects with the lives of all people thus encouraging students to look beyond their own experiences to consider the wider society. A program evaluation of 10 semesters of food writing and food media courses at a Florida public university reveals the ways in which students make deeper connections to culture and current …

Honokiol Loaded Mpeg-Pcl Micelles For The Treatment Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Amna Shahid

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD), a multi-factorial age-related retinal hypoxic disorder resulting in irreversible loss of vision is the foremost cause of blindness in United States. Current treatment strategies used to treat disease involve multiple intraocular injections of Anti – VEGF agents into the vitreous of eye. In addition to the issues of drug localization and targeted delivery, the need to frequently inject drug into the eye raise patient compliance issues. These challenges call for sustained drug delivery system. In this study, a sustained drug delivery system was prepared by loading an anti- HIF agent, honokiol into MPEG-PCL polymer. These …

Teacher Certification Pathway And Mathematical Quality Of Instruction, Gail Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The formal documentation of alternative routes to teacher certification programs in the United States began in 1983 (Ludlow, 2011). According to the former US Secretary of Education’s Annual Report on teacher quality the high demand for teachers in high needs areas, such as mathematics, has caused growth in alternative certification routes for teachers (Paige, 2002). The many factors that influence teaching quality make it difficult to determine what impact, if any, a teacher’s preparation program has on the quality of their instruction. Current research on teacher quality shows varied results, making it hard to reach a conclusion about the effectiveness …

Neo-Colonial Elites’ Linguistic Violence And Monolingual Haitian Creole Speakers: Language Ideology, The Politics Of Linguistic Pluralism, The Crisis Of National Identity And Culture In Haiti, Frantzso Marcelin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Language is a very complex matter in Haiti. One of the most pressing issues related to language in Haiti is the aspect of violence. The violence that exists through linguistic means in Haiti today has for its basis the same mechanism that existed during the colonial era in Haiti. The same western concept of colonial social dualities, and unequal distribution of esteemed associates to African and European cultures are still at the forefront of linguistic violence. The only difference being that those ideas of colonial superiority, which informed those recurring acts of violence, are now self-imposed.

In Haiti, the nature …

Constructing A Neoliberal Youth Culture In Postcolonial Bangladeshi Advertising, Md Khorshed Alam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines the role of advertising in producing cultural narratives within the contemporary neoliberal economy and the historical context of Bangladesh. More specifically, based on thematic analysis of data collected from 73 in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi advertising practitioners, this study aims to understand the discursive production of youth culture in the country. The dialectical tensions between the global and local, universal, and particular inform this study. Using a postcolonial and cultural studies approach, this study investigates how Bangladeshi advertisers reconfigure, replace, or reinforce the notion of youth culture in Bangladesh. This study is significant because it: a) introduces a …