Decolonizing Minnesota Mathematics: Incorporating Indigeneity Into Middle School Mathematics, Tia Ahmed

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The invisibility of Native Americans in mainstream mathematics education has contributed to the academic underachievement and cultural disconnect experienced by Native American youth. Grounded in the frameworks of Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit), culturally relevant teaching, and ethnomathematics, this project investigates: How can the historical and current cultural contexts, mathematical understandings, perspectives, and issues relating to Dakota, Anishinaabe, and Urban Indigenous communities be incorporated into Minnesota middle school math curriculum in a way that fosters strong math identities among Native American students and supports the needs of Minnesota’s American Indian tribes and communities? Along with research on the intersectionality of …

Rooted In Wonder: Cultivating A Connection To The Environment Through Nature-Based Learning In Central Mexico, Mikaela Tennis

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Children are spending less time outdoors and feeling increasingly disconnected from the natural world. This reduced exposure and lack of interaction limits opportunities to form early connections with nature, which have lasting benefits into adulthood. Nature-based learning approaches have been proven to increase a sense of nature connectedness, which in turn strengthens one’s environmental attitudes and behaviors while supporting mental health and well-being. To address limited access to nature-based learning experiences in Central Mexico, this capstone draws from research on nature connectedness, nature-based learning, and nature center design to answer the question, How can a nature-based learning center be designed …

Supplementing Middle School Students’ Science Education With A Unit Design That Incorporates Outdoor, Nature-Based Programming, Tasha Sopp

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This project seeks to address the research question: how to develop a standards-aligned, nature-based field trip program that promotes authentic scientific inquiry for middle school students and supplements their learning? This project consists of a five-week ecology unit designed for 7th grade students that incorporates a nature-based field trip component as an anchoring phenomenon. Key influences of the curriculum from the literature review include the integration of inquiry-based instruction alongside the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), three-dimensions of science learning, and influences of nature-based, place-based programming throughout the unit and within the field trip component. Research suggests that hands-on, explorative, …

Implementing Student Choice Through Social-Emotional Learning To Support Independence And Motivation In Elementary Education, Allison Sloan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Most people feel more motivated and invested in the work they are doing when they have a voice in the matter. This remains true for elementary students with their school work. This capstone paper analyzes and compares research articles to answer the guiding question: How can classroom strategies grounded in SEL and student choice promote independence while supporting diverse learning needs? The guiding question and project were created due to a noticeable lack of choice being represented and provided in elementary classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between student choice, social-emotional learning, and student independence …

Understanding The Alphabet Soup Of The Special Education System, Grace Hansen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Transition age students with disabilities are increasingly expected to practice self advocacy and take an active role in planning their futures. However, a review of existing special education literature reveals a significant gap. While substantial resources exist to help parents and general education teachers navigate the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Accessible for age appropriate tools designed directly for student understanding remain scarce. To bridge this divide, this project introduces a student centered curriculum framework designed for secondary students in grades 7 through 12. Drawing upon foundational special education pedagogy, the project breaks down complex IEP terminology, processes, and meeting …

Thermal Transport Tuning Via Nanoscale Hierarchical Frameworks For Fe2val Thermoelectric Materials, Apoorva Pradip Joshi

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Waste heat represents a vast, untapped energy resource. Thermoelectric materials offer a promising route to harvest this energy by directly converting thermal gradients into electricity. The Heusler alloy Fe2VAl is a prime candidate for such applications because it is non-toxic and cost-effective. However, its intrinsically-high thermal conductivity severely limits performance. A detailed understanding of thermal transport mechanisms is therefore essential for improving its thermoelectric efficiency. This work examines the effect of atomic disorder on the thermal transport behaviour of Fe2VAl. We use germanium doping to introduce atomic-scale disorder and demonstrate a substantial reduction in thermal conductivity, from 28 W/m-K in …

Spirals Of Light: A Healing Journey Through Somatics, Dance, And Pedagogy, Jessica Batha

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis investigates dance as an embodied practice of healing, attunement, and belonging through phenomenology, somatics, and environmental engagement. Grounded in Sondra Fraleigh’s eco-phenomenological framework, the research weaves personal narrative, artistic inquiry, and interdisciplinary scholarship to examine how thresholds of birth, injury, and recovery shape sensory orientation across the lifespan. Drawing from lived experiences as a dancer, mother, educator, and researcher, the study explores tone, breath, light, and movement as formative forces in identity and resilience. Central to the inquiry is a knee injury and subsequent surgical recovery, which catalyzed a somatic practice aligned with circadian rhythms, sunrise ritual, and …

Machine (Un/Re) Learning, Jordan Shadley

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis document is an exploration of the interaction between live performance art and digital content creation such as Generative A.I. In this work, I draw from several courses I completed during my time in Saint Mary’s College of California MFA in Dance and Creative Practice program, including Dance and Social Justice, Phenomenology, Somatic Movement Seminar and Dance and Performance Studies. Each offers a throughline of my scholarly explorations and embodied research into the spheres of adapting and challenging how concert dance spaces respond to digital information and creation. I utilized live movement collaboration and distorted videography through Generative A.I. …

D-Entangled, Macy Yu

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis investigates the choreographic, somatic, and cultural significance hair holds in dance through identity and belonging. Hair is more than merely a visual or aesthetic marker, it is a lived, identity-bearing, and sensory archive of the body. To say that hair is merely just for aesthetics in lifestyles and in dance is not acknowledging its full impact. Hair functions as both a cultural and sensory archive as well as embodied resistance and a site of identity. I identify as a multi-ethnic woman, dancer, educator, and choreographer. This paper analyzes hair through the examination of four different methodologies including a …

Kinesthesis: A Choreographic Study Of The Somatic Effect Of Fascial Intervention, Mira Larsen

MFA in Dance Theses

This master’s thesis was a choreographic study that experimented with the somatic effects of fascial intervention practices, culminating in a final performance in June of 2026 at the LeFevre Theatre at Saint Mary’s College of California. Each chapter of this document investigates the topic of fascial awareness supported through somatic practice and its effect on creating impactful emotional and physical connections in ballet choreography and pedagogy. This document offers the conceptual framework for the choreographic process of the thesis project, titled Kinesthesis. Through the lenses of phenomenology, somatics, social justice, and performance studies, the research goal involved the utilization of …

Colonization To Commodification To Codification: The Salimpour Method, Suhaila Salimpour

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis examines how colonization and commodification have shaped the codification of belly dance though the Salimpour Method. Codification here refers to the process of naming, categorizing, and organizing of movement into a teachable system. While codification inevitably transforms tradition, it also serves as a method of preservation. As the inheritor of the Salimpour lineage, I trace how my mother, Jamila Salimpour, first codified belly dance and how I built on her work to create a comprehensive pedagogical system that situates belly dance within artistic and academic contexts. This study argues that the Salimpour Method is a strategy of preserving, …

“A Beautiful Mess: Rebirthing Through Earth, Dance, And The Divine”, Mikayla Douglas

MFA in Dance Theses

A Beautiful Mess: Rebirthing Through Earth, Dance, and the Divine by Mikayla Douglas is a culmination of research, creative practice, and lived experience that was developed during her time at Saint Mary’s College of California in the MFA Dance Program. This thesis investigates the shared dialogue between eco-somatics, eco-phenomenology, motherhood, nature, and the BIPOC birthing body. Through the use of outdoor somatic practices, personal reflection and stories, Mikayla Douglas explores how nature can serve as a site of healing, embodiment, and reclamation for Black and Brown birthing bodies. The research of this thesis work is grounded heavily in both scholarly …

Under Open Skies: Black, Queer, And Ascending, Skyler Zakaar

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis explores personal healing and community building through dance, rooted in my lived experience as a Black Queer man in America. Stemming from research in Phenomenology, Critical Dance Pedagogy, and Dance & Social Justice, I interrogate the impact of white supremacy and systemic racism both within and beyond the queer community. My choreographic process centers intersectionality and collective agency, seeking to resist the fragmentation of identity and to affirm the wholeness of self. Through performance and comprehensive study, my intentions are to foster empathy, connection, and belonging, while advocating for equity and transformation within dance and broader cultural discourse. …

Adaptive Leadership: The Pathway To Increase Child Welfare Retention Through Perceived Organizational Support Of The Supervisor’S Voice, Shawna Higgins

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Child welfare organizations continue to experience high rates of case manager turnover, disrupting continuity of care and negatively affecting outcomes for children and families. Although previous research has established that supportive supervision influences case manager retention, little was known about child welfare supervisors’ perceptions of the organizational support they receive or how adaptive leadership behaviors demonstrated by organizational leaders influence those perceptions. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 13 supervisors employed in Florida nonprofit child welfare organizations. Guided by Adaptive Leadership Theory and Perceived Organizational Support Theory, the study examined supervisors’ perceptions of organizational support, organizational silence, …

Resisting Dualism In Contemporary Movement Building: Lessons From The Zapatista Movement On Creating Assertive, Insurgent, And Generative Praxis, Nico Killian

University Honors Theses

The common struggle of social movements, revolutionary and otherwise, in the contemporary era is how to establish a collective capable of asserting its politics via grassroots organizing in the face of the logic of global capitalism that atomizes communities, reconfigures the role of the state, and unleashes the fragmentizing and simultaneously totalitizing forces of the global market. Discourse regarding effective movement building in the contemporary era often falls into two dualistic avenues of resistance - complete autonomy that rejects any engagement or affiliation with political structures out of fear that it would result in demobilization through co-optation or negotiating a …

Economic Background And The Role Of Self-Compassion, Dixy Melendez

Psychology and Counseling Theses

Although self-compassion is established as a buffer against psychological distress, few studies examine its protective role alongside socioeconomic discrimination. This study used hierarchical multiple regressions and a hierarchical logistic regression to examine subjective social status, downward classism, self-compassion, and internalized shame as predictors of distress, academic anxiety, and academic task choice among college students, controlling for demographic variables. Greater self-compassion predicted less internalized shame, and greater downward classism predicted greater shame and distress. Self-compassion showed only marginal protective effects against distress after accounting for other variables. Internalized shame was the strongest, most consistent predictor, robustly relating to academic anxiety and …

The Neuropsychological Analysis Of The Effect Of Shame And Traumatic Memories In Paranoia: A Network Analysis, Anwesha Maitra

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Paranoia is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional psychological phenomenon influenced by trauma-related distress, shame, maladaptive interpersonal experiences, and emotional functioning. Although these factors have been extensively associated with paranoia, their relationships with neurocognitive functioning, social cognition, and global functioning remain less well understood. The present study examined these relationships using traditional statistical analyses, network analysis, and machine-learning approaches in a non-clinical sample of 42 adults.

Participants completed self-report measures assessing trauma-related distress, childhood interpersonal experiences, shame, paranoia, depressive symptoms, fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, and hostile attribution bias, in addition to a comprehensive neurocognitive battery, an emotion recognition task, and …

Neural Correlates Of Anger Rumination To A Personal Event And Subsequent Changes In Working Memory, Mairin Claire Madison Cotter

Dissertations

Rumination is a maladaptive coping strategy that is associated with the emergence and maintenance of several psychological disorders and related symptomatology and thus has been proposed as a transdiagnostic risk factor. Recent work has focused on patterns of brain activation during rumination to sadness; however, less is known about brain activation patterns in response to anger-inducing events and how anger rumination may influence working memory. This study sought to identify potential neurophysiological correlates (through electroencephalography; EEG) of anger rumination, examine how anger rumination subsequently impacts working memory performance, and determine whether neurophysiological correlates of anger rumination are associated with working …

The Effectiveness Of Writing Professional Development For Instructional Leaders On Student Academic Outcomes, Kourtney Y. Lavergne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how elementary instructional leaders in a Southeast Texas school district perceived and utilized the R.A.C.E. (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain) professional development training as an instructional tool to improve student writing performance. The study was guided by two research questions: (a) How do elementary instructional leaders perceive the R.A.C.E. professional development training as an effective English writing curriculum tool to improve student performance? and (b) How do instructional leaders utilize the R.A.C.E. professional development training to improve student writing performance in their classrooms? The study was grounded in adult learning theory …

Attendance And Academic Performance: A Comparison Of 4-Day And 5-Day School Week Schedules In Texas High Schools, Cynthia Miles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative cross-sectional comparable study examined the differences in academic performance and attendance in Texas public high school campuses between those operating on a 4-day instructional week and those operating on a 5-day instructional week. The study used a quantitative, cross-sectional comparable design. The analysis included campus-level data from the Texas Education Agency’s Texas Academic Performance Reports. The independent variable was instructional schedule—either a 4-day or a 5-day instructional week. The dependent variables included campus attendance rates and student performance on the English I and Algebra I End-of-Course (EOC) STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) assessments of ninth-grade …

A Perspective As Observed By Public Middle School Teachers On A Lack Of Empathy Demonstrated By Public Middle School Students, Gail P. Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore a perspective as observed by public middle school teachers on a lack of empathy demonstrated by public middle school students. The research analyzed how public middle school teachers in the southern region of Texas described their perception of how a lack of empathy demonstrated by public middle school students impacted students during the school day. The study involved 10 selected participants who participated in a semistructured open-ended interview on the Google Meet platform. The participants consisted of 90% female and 10% male, with a combined total of 91 years of …

Understanding The Experiences Of Faculty Members Who Teach Case Conceptualization, Asianna Harris

Dissertations (1934 -)

Competence in case conceptualization (CC) is a core skill in clinical training. However, many graduate programs lack a structured process for teaching this complex and dynamic clinical skill. While most research focuses on students’ perspectives on learning CC, there is a distinct gap in research on faculty experiences, successful teaching methods, and the assessment of teaching practices. Therefore, this study addressed the gap in extant literature by exploring how doctoral programs’ faculty taught transtheoretical CC and how they evaluated the effectiveness of their instruction. A Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) design was employed to deeply examine the experiences of 13 faculty …

How Wounded Healer Trainees Develop Self-Awareness Of Their Wounds And Use This Self-Awareness In Clinical Work, Nishi Ravi

Dissertations (1934 -)

The wounded healer, a concept originally introduced by Carl Jung (1951), characterizes individuals who, having undergone personal struggles or ‘wounding,’ feel inclined to alleviate the suffering of others. Extant literature attests to the prevalence of woundedness among counseling professionals and to the potential benefits and risks their wounds pose in clinical practice. Despite its widespread use across the literature, the wounded healer concept has yet to be formally and empirically operationalized, and this study addresses that gap by offering a concrete, empirically grounded definition of the construct. Yet, while wounded healers are increasingly recognized across counseling training contexts, little research …

Coping With Uncertainty In Everyday Situations (Cues©): The U.S. Pilot Study, Sarah Lehman

Dissertations (1934 -)

Autistic youth experience anxiety at an increased rate compared to their neurotypical counterparts. The presence of anxiety often amplifies the social and functional difficulties faced by autistic youth, which can exacerbate poor outcomes. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), defined as negative beliefs and reactions to unpredictable or ambiguous situations, has been identified as a key factor to the manifestation of anxiety in autistic populations. The current study aimed to replicate the protocol and results from Rodgers et al. (2023) by conducting the first U.S. pilot study examining the feasibility and efficacy of Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations (CUES©); an 8-week …

Advancing Sensing And Structural Health Monitoring Of Non-Conventional Space Structures, Scott Bender

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Future lunar and deep-space missions will require new structural concepts that reduce mass while maintaining reliability. Two technologies that have received significant attention are inflatable habitats and additively manufactured structures; however, challenges remain in their characterization, validation, and long-term monitoring. This dissertation investigates methods to improve the testing and sensing of these non-conventional aerospace structures through the use of advanced photogrammetry and embedded distributed fiber-optic sensors. A color-filtering digital image correlation technique was developed to isolate orthogonal strain directions in woven inflatable structures, providing improved characterization of biaxially loaded softgoods. In addition, methods were developed to embed distributed fiber-optic sensors …

Improving Urban Search And Rescue Team Coordination Through Adaptive Context Awareness, Daniel Reyes Duran

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Modern multi-agent Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations heavily rely on mobile geospatial Common Operating Pictures (COPs) to maintain team coordination and Situational Awareness (SA). However, the proliferation of high-frequency sensor telemetry at the tactical edge has introduced a data saturation paradox challenge: while information theoretically drives informed decision-making, unmanaged data surges induce increased operator cognitive overload and alert fatigue on mobile End-User Devices (EUDs), while downstream data-broadcasting models inherently strain edge processing and viewport environments.

To resolve these constraints, this dissertation presents a context-aware Value of Information (VoI) data-management framework integrated directly with a custom, event-driven Android Team Awareness …

Identity Development For Queer East Asian Americans During The Coming Out Process To Family, Mei E. Tam

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been a growing number of Asian Americans who openly identify as queer, with over half a million residing in the United States (UCLA, 2021). Despite this, psychological research has paid limited attention to how queer and Asian American identities intersect and are integrated, often framing them as conflicting while overlooking culturally embedded meaning-making processes. The present study explored identity formation among cisgender queer East Asian Americans during the critical period of coming out to family, focusing on how their understanding of and relationship to their queer and ethnic identities shifted following disclosure.

Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews …

Fraud And Focus: Examining Self-Control Strategies In Students Experiencing Impostor Phenomenon, Francesca Angela Catalano

Theses and Dissertations

Impostor phenomenon (IP) is a common experience among individuals in achievement contexts characterized largely by feelings of self-doubt, attributions of success that focus on external factors, and beliefs that one is “fooling” others about their competence. Current research suggests the effects of IP are complex (e.g., IP is associated with higher grade point average and productivity but also self-handicapping, psychological distress, and difficulties adjusting to college). To better understand these complex effects, this study proposes a self-control perspective for IP, where this phenomenon is seen as involving additional self-control burdens. Specifically, the study examines whether IP is associated with grade …

On The True Interstellar Anisotropy Of Tev Cosmic Rays And Its Implications For The Local Interstellar Medium, Noufel D. Maalal

Theses and Dissertations

Several ground-based cosmic ray (CR) air shower experiments have produced sky maps of intensity anisotropy in the energy range from 1 TeV to a few hundred TeVs with very high statistics and angular resolution. These measurements provide opportunities to study CR sources and propagation in the interstellar medium (ISM). Such studies present two major difficulties. Firstly, CRs are deflected by the heliospheric magnetic field on the last stretch of their journey to Earth. Secondly, measurements at different latitudes are difficult to compare, leading to uncertainties in latitudinal variations on the order of the observed anisotropy. Experiments usually assume latitudinal variations …

Deconstructing Systemic Sclerosis Heterogeneity: From Patient Subtypes To Pathogenic Fibroblasts, Rezvan Parvizi

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This thesis advances heterogeneity as the central barrier both to interpreting therapeutic response and to identifying the molecular regulators that drive fibrosis in systemic sclerosis (SSc). In SSc, heterogeneity is manifest at every level at which the disease can be measured: clinically, in the variable extent of skin and organ involvement; molecularly, in the distinct gene-expression programs that distinguish otherwise comparable patients; and cellularly, in the diverse fibroblast populations from which the fibrotic signal ultimately arises.

Leveraging longitudinal skin transcriptomics from a large cohort treated with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), the first study demonstrates that intrinsic molecular subtypes are dynamic rather …