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(Re)Appropriation: A Reading Of The Tempest, Kapalkundala, And Disgrace, Sunayani Bhattacharya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The thesis looks at William Shakespeare's The Tempest in conjunction with J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and BankimChandra Chattopadhyay's Kapalkundala. In their own distinctive ways, each of these texts appropriate Shakespeare's play and are, in turn, appropriated by it while exploring the patterns of dominance and resistance inherent to the colonial/postcolonial context. The Tempest, as a play, is central to this argument owing to its experiments with power structures and their subsequent subversion. Shakespeare's text also provides an interesting point of departure because of the numerous postcolonial re-readings that it continues to provoke, creating theoretical room for discussing the status …

Digging It: A Participatory Ethnography Of The Experiences At A School Garden, Branimir Cvetkovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This case study of a school garden focuses on concepts of community that are fostered and embodied at this setting. By utilizing participatory ethnographic methodologies, this research explored gemeinschaft and gesellschaft concepts of community. Data reveals that students are able to learn mastery, belonging, generosity and independence while participating in the garden work. Teachers manage students who attempt to challenge the boundaries of this community by utilizing and ethic of care which allows teachers to de-emphasize authority and to first consider the networks of relationships and how to mend and improve them. Students are able to experience governmentality and an …

Historical Imagination In/And Literary Consciousness: The Afterlife Of The Anglo-Saxons In Middle English Literature, Richard Joseph Ellman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the afterlife and literary presence of the Anglo-Saxons in three literary works from the Middle English period. Middle English writers appropriated classical and French traditions for decidedly English purposes, but relatively few scholars have noted the way in which individuals in the Middle English period (particularly in the fourteenth century) drew upon and (re)constructed an organic English identity or essence emblematized by the Anglo-Saxons. Post-Conquest English men and women did not relate to their Anglo-Saxon forebears in an unproblematic manner; changes in language and culture, precipitated by the Norman Invasion, placed a vast, unwieldy gap between Middle …

Creek Schism: Seminole Genesis Revisited, Philip C. Hawkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work reevaluates commonly accepted interpretations of Seminole ethnogenesis in light of recent scholarship and previously ignored sources from the Spanish archives. It argues that Seminole formation was largely a bi-product of a struggle between two opposing Lower Creek factions: the Creek "nationalists" and the ostensive Creek "partisans" of the British. This factional struggle became increasingly bitter during the French and Indian War and ultimately led to a schism whereby the ostensive "partisans" of the British colonized of the Alachua savanna in the early 1760s to become recognized as the first Florida Seminoles. This work also raises questions about the …

Communication As A Cultural Construct At The United Nations Arabic Translation Service, Amina Iraqi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I examine the practical challenge of constructing communication at the Arabic Translation Service (ATS) of the UN through the process of translation. Unlike in English in which "communication" has only one equivalent, in Arabic it has many depending on the context. My analysis focuses on analyzing the occurrence of two translation equivalents, namely ittissal and tawassul given that their use in translation sometimes proves to be cultural.

I conducted participant observation over the course of a two-month internship at the UN Headquarters in New York. Using grounded theory, I pieced together insights from a database of occurrences …

Social Implications Of Fair Trade Coffee In Chiapas, Mexico: Toward Alternative Economic Integration, Joseph J. Torok

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The coffee trade in Chiapas, Mexico is a unique approach of sustainable development and economic integration, demonstrating that local social movements can change behaviors in international trade regimes. The Zapatista community of Chiapas, Mexico, has an impact on the global trade system, where resultant changes begin at the local level. In the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, factors contributing to the Zapatista rebellion have led actors within civil society to form new socio-political organizations capable of changing participation, norms, and economic outcomes during the post-rebellion period (1994 - present). This study explores the dilemmas facing the autonomy of actors in …

Dialectal And Developmental Influences On Real Word And Non-Word Spelling Tasks, Stephanie Joy Dickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spelling development is a linguistic process which involves the interaction of phonological, orthographic, and morphological knowledge (Bahr, Silliman, & Berninger, in press). It is also clear these linguistic factors are influenced by a person's dialect. Previous research has indicated that use of African American English (AAE) does influence spelling performance (Kohler, Bahr, Silliman, Bryant, Apel, & Wilkinson, 2007); however, few studies have considered how dialect use influences spelling as a function of spelling task (i.e., real vs. non-word tasks), error category (phonological, orthographic, or morphological) or grade. A secondary goal was to note if dialectal or developmental errors predominated in …

Statistical And Data Mining Methodologies For Behavioral Analysis In Transgenic Mouse Models Of Alzheimer’S Disease: Parallels With Human Ad Evaluation, Ralph E. Leighty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of human senile dementia. Alzheimer’s represents a significant public health concern, having widespread social and economic implications. Consequently, protocols for early detection and therapeutic intervention (both behavioral and pharmacologic) constitute important targets for medical investigation. Furthermore, contemporary research depends upon comprehensive neurobehavioral assessment and advanced statistical and computational analytic methodologies for characterizing AD-associated sensorimotor and cognitive impairment, as well as evaluating therapeutic efficacy. This dissertation introduces data mining-based techniques (decision trees, neural networks, support vector machines) for behavioral analysis in both nontransgenic and Alzheimer’s transgenic mice, to evaluate …

Multimodal Text Designers: A Case Study Of Literacy Events In A Multicultural Context, Mary-Virginia Feger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The erasure of Latino/a adolescents' multiliteracies in school settings affects both their views of education and their entry into the community outside of school. Framed by literacy-as-social-practices perspectives and communities of practice theory, this case study explored what happened when a group of 13 Latino/a adolescents and their Latina teacher engaged in a six-week play production in an after-school program and performed the play for parents. It examined the relationship between the participants' discourse practices and their performance, and determined how they validated their performances. Data collected included observations, interviews, students' written reflective responses, a fieldwork journal, and a DVD …

Semantic And Phonological Priming Effects On N400 Activation In People Who Stutter, Jessica Lauren Huffman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To date, research on mechanistic aspects of fluency disorders has focused heavily on motor contributions to stuttering. Only recently have researchers begun to explore psycholinguistic contributions to stuttering. Psycholinguistic planning for speech heavily involves the activation and processing of lexical information. We used a neuroscience approach to compare word activation in mental lexicon while completing a picture naming task in people who stutter (PWS) versus fluent individuals (PWNS).

Twenty-eight individuals ranging in age from 19 - 52 years old participated in a picture-word priming task adopted from Jescheniak et al. (2002). Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while participants saw black and …

Beyond Orthographic Segmentation: Neurophysiological Evidence That Pseudo-Derived Word Stems Are Processed Semantically, Theresa Herbert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Morphological segmentation while reading is essential for new vocabulary learning. The study's aim was to investigate semantic-level morphological segmentation using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in typical young adult readers. Past research has suggested that, because semantically opaque words prime their stems (e.g., corner/corn) similarly to transparent words (e.g., farmer/farm), readers recognize complex words from their constituent morphemes without regard to semantic information. However, this priming effect may be due to orthographic and phonological overlap between prime and target words. The research presented here addressed this possibility by creating five conditions in which orthographic, phonological, and semantic relationships between …

Transformational Processes And Learner Outcomes For Online Learning: An Activity Theory Case Study Of Spanish Students, Joseph M. Terantino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the actions of online language learners from an activity theoretical perspective. It also attempted to explain how the students' learning outcomes evolved from their online learning experiences. This explanation placed an emphasis on the learners' previous experiences, defining their activity systems, the use of mediational tools, and the resolution of contradictions. Within this activity theoretical case study a background survey, four interviews, and three field observations were conducted with seven foreign language students of an online Spanish course. The students' on-screen actions were recorded and subsequently documented in a video episode …

“I Stand For Sovereignty”: Reading Portia In Shakespeare’S The Merchant Of Venice, Deborah Van Pelt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Portia serves as a complex and often underestimated character in William Shakespeare's controversial comedy The Merchant of Venice. Using the critical methodologies of New Historicism and feminism, this thesis explores Portia's representation of Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. Striking similarities exist between character and Queen, including physical description, suitors, marriage issues, and rhetoric. In addition, the tripartite marriage at the play's conclusion among Portia, Bassanio, and Antonio represents the relationship Elizabeth Tudor formed between her merchant class and her aristocracy. Shylock serves as a representation of a generic or perhaps Catholic threat to England during …

Correlates Of Body Depilation In Men, Michael Boroughs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Body depilation is a relatively new area of research inquiry. Although women in many industrialized cultures have engaged in body depilation for some time, this behavior has been documented only recently in men. While originally thought to be the practice of just a small percentage of men, recent studies suggest that more men engage in body depilation than had been previously hypothesized (Boroughs & Thompson, 2002; Boroughs, Cafri, & Thompson, 2005; Martins, Tiggemann, & Churchett, 2008; Tiggemann, Martins, & Churchett, 2008). Nevertheless, this area of research is understudied and the relationship between body depilation and men's overall body image is …

Spanish-Specific Patterns And Nonword Repetition Performance In English Language Learners, María R. Brea-Spahn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonword repetition tasks were originally devised to assess the efficiency of the phonological loop (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974), a component of the working memory system, where verbal information is temporarily stored and translated to support activities like phonological processing during early word-recognition (Snowling, 1981; Wagner et al., 2003), speech production (McCarthy & Warrington, 1984), and articulation (Watkins, Dronkers, & Vargha-Khadem, 2002; Yoss & Darley, 1974).

From a practical perspective, there is a significant need for a systematically-designed Spanish nonword repetition measure that is equivalent to currently-available English measures. For this study, a database of nonwords that considered phonotactic and phonological …

Sympathy For The Devil: A Character Analysis Of Gibreel Farishta In Salman Rushdie’S The Satanic Verses, Catherine Mary Lafuente

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses created a major controversy when published in 1988, much like the controversy that Nikos Kazantzakis's novel The Last Temptation of Christ caused in 1951. Kazantzakis's work upset many Christians due to the controversial characterization of Jesus, who in the novel engages in sexual activities and other behaviors that many Christians find offensive. The Satanic Verses caused a similar uproar in the Umma, or Muslim community, resulting in book burnings, death threats, and even a murder. Most of the controversy focused on some the problematic characterizations of the Prophet Muhammad and his wives, such as using …

Program Satisfaction, School Climate Perceptions, And Psychoeducational Experiences In College Preparatory Programs: A Comparison Of Caucasian And Ethnic Minority Students, Yanique T. Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study focused on the extent to which participation in academically rigorous college preparatory programs, International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Advanced Placement (AP) particularly, impacts students from racially diverse backgrounds (Caucasian, African American, Asian American and Hispanic/Latino American). Student outcomes of interest included the program satisfaction, school climate perceptions (relationships with peers and teachers), and psychoeducational adjustment (academic and mental health functioning). The experiences of 381 college preparatory participants were also compared to 143 general education peers and subjected to a series of MANOVAs and ANOVAs. General findings indicated that, regardless of the student's racial identity, students in AP …

Giving Birth In A Different Country: Bangladeshi Immigrant Women’S Childbirth Experiences In The U.S., Mst Khadija Mitu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immigrant women often lack the social support and help from extended family and other social relationships, which is very significant during the pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal period. This research was conducted among Bangladeshi immigrant women living in the United States, in order to understand their experiences during pregnancy and childbirth: how they coped with the settings of a different country during that period, and how they felt about this situation. While there are several studies on immigrant women and maternal health issues in anthropology, to my knowledge, there have been none that focused specifically on the childbirth experiences of Bangladeshi …

The Realization Of The Speech Act Of Refusal In Egyptian Arabic By American Learners Of Arabic As A Foreign Language, Nader Morkus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated how the speech act of refusal is realized in Egyptian Arabic by intermediate and advanced American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. It also compared the performance of the learners to that of native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the learners' language proficiency and their pragmatic competence. In addition, it examined the extent of pragmatic transfer from L1 and whether there was a relationship between the degree of pragmatic transfer and the level of L2 proficiency. The study also examined how refusals are …

Classroom Discourse And Teacher Talk Influences On English Language Learner Students' Mathematics Experiences, Mariana M. Petkova

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the features of the classroom discourse in eight Algebra I classes from two urban high schools with diverse student populations. In particular, by using the discursive analysis perspective, the type of communication between teachers and students was examined. The study investigated to what extent teachers' patterns of discourse change as a result of the number of ELLs present or their particular teaching experiences and ESOL endorsement. Furthermore, the impact of teachers' cultural and linguistic backgrounds upon ELLs' mathematics experiences was explored, particularly the teachers' patterns of discourse and adjustments to their teacher talk, or modifications of instructions …

Effects Of Dialect Use On The Fast Mapping Skills Of African American School-Age Children, Jessica Pierre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that African American children are prone to score lower on vocabulary tests when compared to their white peers (Champion et al., 2003; Qi et al., 2006; Restrepo et al., 2006; Thomas-Tate et al., 2006; Washington & Craig, 1992). The dialect spoken by these children may be affecting their performance. However, little is known about how dialect use interacts with word learning abilities. The current study continues a project initiated by Wyatt, Bahr, and Silliman (2007) which examined dialectal influences on the fast mapping of novel stimuli in preschool children. The participants in the current study were …

Transdiscursive Cosmopolitanism: Foucauldian Freedom, Subjectivity, And The Power Of Resistance, Joanna Rozpedowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following project will consist in the study and examination of the concepts and theories that lie in the domain of political theory. The enquiry into the dimensions and complexities of the socio-political organization and the political substance of individual human agents will be conducted with the intellectual assistance of the postmodernist turn of thought. I will interrogate and develop a specifically Foucauldian reading of international politics and the emerging global world order as well as situate Foucault's insights and theorizing in a cosmopolitan framework, which calls for a progressive re-conceptualization of the dimensions of power and the modalities of …

Character Strengths And Virtues Of Young Internationally Adopted Chinese Children: A Longitudinal Study From Preschool To School Age, Troy Loker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shifting from traditional deficit-based psychological research, the current study aimed to broaden the understanding of post-adoption development through a strength-based approach and further explore the recently developed Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Character Strengths among a particularly resilient population of young children-internationally adopted Chinese children. Archival longitudinal data of parents' descriptions about their adopted Chinese children's positive characteristics were analyzed from two time points two years apart. Data on 179 children ages 4 - 5 years old (M = 59.67 months SD = 6.60 months) in Time 1 from 172 families were analyzed with content analysis coding procedures.

Overall, …

“Desirable Images”: Sexual Mapping In William S. Burroughs’S Naked Lunch And Samuel R. Delany’S Dhalgren, Patrick Mcgowan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In "Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," Fredric Jameson describes the disappearance, within postmodernism, of an objective framework for mapping the social totality. In order to illustrate this concept, Jameson draws upon the ideas of urban planner Kevin Lynch as formulated in his seminal work, The Image of the City. For Lynch, the design of the postwar alienated city results in varying and fragmentary "cognitive maps" used by its inhabitants to negotiate urban space, a problem that can be rectified by "good" urban planning, which aims to create mappable public space through the implementation of external orientation markers. …

The Morphological Complexity Of Spelling, Ages 8 To 15 Years, Courtney R. Mossing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Learning to spell requires integration of phonological, orthographic, and morphological knowledge. Historically, spelling development has been characterized by linear stages in which children learn to use these knowledge bases in succession. A more recent view challenges the linearity of this approach and proposes that spelling development from the beginning is characterized by the simultaneous interaction of all three linguistic factors. Minimal research exists that qualitatively investigates the integration of these three factors, especially as noted in derivational morphology. The study's purpose was to investigate spelling accuracy and qualitatively analyze the morphological error patterns of typically developing children, ages 8-15 years, …

An Explanatory Examination Of Relationships Between Measures Of School And Student Socioeconomic Status And Reading And Math Achievement Of Hispanic Limited English Proficient (Lep) High School Students, Osvaldo Piedra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority population in the U.S. requiring limited English proficiency services (Guglielmi, 2008). Many schools and school districts place heavy emphasis on high stakes testing. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires all children to have access to a fair, equal, and high-quality education. Many schools and school districts focus on individual students to show grade level performance for small populations such as limited English proficient (LEP) students. The purpose of this study was to examine the question, "What was the relationship between measures of school and student socioeconomic status, and …

Cultural Response To Totalitarianism In Select Movies Produced In Czechoslovakia, Hungary And Poland Between 1956 And 1989, Kazimierz Robak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines resistance against totalitarian propaganda in select movies produced in regions subjected to Soviet-imposed totalitarian system. From 1939 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Central-Eastern Europe has experienced two of the most devastating and genocidal political systems in the history of the humankind. Nazism was destroyed with the end of WWII, and met widespread condemnation. Sovietism, commonly known as Communism, survived WWII and the Soviet totalitarian empire rose to the position of the world's second superpower. Effective and organized Soviet propaganda generated a new convincing image of Sovietism as a harmless, friendly and progressive system. …

The Effects Of Processing Instruction, Structured Input, And Visual Input Enhancement On The Acquisition Of The Subjunctive In Adjectival Clauses By Intermediate-Level Distance Learners Of Spanish, Victoria Russell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of processing instruction (PI) on the acquisition of the subjunctive in adjectival clauses by 92 intermediate-level distance learners of Spanish. PI is a novel instructional technique that is based on VanPatten's principles of input processing (1993, 1996, 2002, 2004), and it has three key components: (a) an explicit explanation of grammar that is not paradigmatic, (b) information on processing strategies, and (c) structured input tasks and activities. Structured input activities were isolated and combined with computerized visual input enhancement (VIE) in an attempt to increase the salience of targeted grammatical forms for web based delivery. …

"Oye Mi Voz!" (Hear My Voice!): The Perceptions Of Hispanic Boys Regarding Their Literacy Experiences, Rubylinda Zickafoose

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to uncover the perspectives that pertain to the literacy experiences of young Hispanic boys. Hispanic boys will be asked to describe, feel, judge, and make sense of their public and private literacies (Faulkner, 2005). This phenomenological study embraces two methods of data collection, participant focus groups and individual interviews. The primary question guiding this inquiry was: What are the perceptions of adolescent Hispanic boys who are considered low level readers (by state achievement tests) regarding their literacy experiences?

In order to help provide background information and set the stage for future work when considering …

Naturalism In The Philosophies Of Dewey And Zhuangzi: The Live Creature And The Crooked Tree, Christopher C. Kirby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will compare the concept of nature as it appears in the philosophies of the American pragmatist John Dewey and the Chinese daoist Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) and will defend two central claims. The first of these is that Dewey and Zhuangzi share a view of nature that is non-reductive, philosophically liberal, and more comprehensive than the accounts recurrent in much of the Western tradition. This alternate conception of nature is non-reductive in the way that it avoids the physically mechanistic outlook underwriting much of contemporary Anglo-American thought. It is philosophically liberal in that it accepts a more generous and …