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Living In (Im) Material Worlds: Modes Of Production And Consumption In Utopian Literature, Pauline Spangler

All Theses

My thesis examines and defines 'conditions of production' and 'conditions of consumption' as they apply to both Marxist economic theory and to the more culturally-oriented production and consumption of literary texts according to Pierre Bourdieu. I will establish the relationship between these conditions as cause and effect, complementary, and, finally, mutually necessary depending upon their context and manifestation. Alterations in the conditions of production and consumption affect our treatment of their corresponding, associative dichotomies in the literary tradition - the transcendent and the material, the spiritual and the corporal, the well-wrought art object and the commodity fetish, and, finally, male …

Evaluating The Sign Language Phonology Of Sight Words Used To Support Deaf /Hard Of Hearing Students' Literacy Development In Idioma De Señas De Nicaragua, Julie A. Delkamiller

Student Work

Over the past 30-years linguists have been witnessing the birth and evolution of a language, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua, in Nicaragua, and have initiated and documented to date the syntax and grammar of this new language. The purpose of this naturalistic comparative exploratory field study was to evaluate preprimer and primer Dolch sight words and sign language frequency and phonology—location, handshape, and movement—used to support deaf/hard of hearing students’ literacy development in Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua compared to American Sign Language. The research focused on the word and sign frequency and phonology or individual components of a Nicaraguan …

“Out Of Many, One People” : A Comparative Analysis Of Short Fiction By Michelle Cliff, Jennifer Nicole Laster

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis is a comparative analysis of six of Michelle Cliffs short stories where I discuss the aspects of class, race, and self-alienation present in her work. In formulating and gathering the appropriate research for this project, I discovered that like most short fiction, Cliffs has not received criticism equal in comparison to her full-length novels. Therefore, the aim of this project is to present an in-depth critique of Cliffs short fiction using black feminist, post-colonial, and queer theory approaches to produce close readings her work to reaffirm her importance as a contemporary Caribbean author.

Chapter One juxtaposes the theme …

Designing A Woman-Friendly Workplace: A Prognosis And Prescription For Institutional Health At The University Of Guam, Helen Thompson, Andrea Sant Hartig, Diane Thurber

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores the campus activist and research efforts made possible through a Campus Action Project grant awarded by AAUW (2006-2007) to the University of Guam (UOG). Faculty-student researchers developed a workshop series addressing women’s workplace concerns and conducted research investigating the health of UOG through selected key indicators of a woman-friendly institution. This article focuses on the research findings, the impact of the grant efforts, and recommendations for institutional changes.

Reinterpreting The Comedy Of Errors: Exploring "Madness" And The Need To Belong, William K. Smith

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Since The Comedy of Errors' rescue from the literary bargain bin where it was tossed by nineteenth and early twentieth-century critics, many modern scholars have provided insightful cultural, linguistic, and theatrical commentaries on a play that is clearly more complex than it first seems. One area these recent discussions frequently address is the play's portrayal of madness in early modern society. However, what many of these discussions fail to remember is that ultimately Errors is a comedy "performed for the Delight of the Beholders" and that no one in the play is actually mad. Therefore, this essay argues that The …

Grounding To Place And Past: Motherhood In The Novels Of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich And Linda Hogan, Elise Doney

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The interconnectedness in both form and content ofNative American literature originates from the complex relationship between cultural and personal identity as inextricably intertwined with spiritual and natural realms. In Louise Erdrich's Tracks and Linda Hogan's Solar Storms and Power motherhoodliesatthecenter ofthisinterconnectedweb ofrelationships among identity, community, tradition, and landscape. Each novel centers on a protagonist who is, in some form, distanced from her primary mother/daughter relationship, consequently literally and figuratively displaced. The disrupted maternal relationship results in the child's displacement, functioning as a metaphor for the community's severance from tradition and the land. However, surrogate mother/daughter relationships develop in each novel …

Generational Differences Between North African Francophone Literatures: The New Stories Of Immigrants In France, Christen M. Allen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study seeks to establish the generational difference between Beur and Francophone literatures using Kiffe Kiffe Demain by Faïza Guène contrasted with Le Siècle des Sauterelles by Malika Mokeddem. The struggle underlying both narratives is the protagonists’ attempts to negotiate their own identities while being torn between two very differing cultures. Le Siècle des Sauterelles explores the role that the French colonization had on Algerians as individuals. The characters are Algerian nomads who cling to western ideals of literacy and personal choice and in so doing, reject Algerian social hierarchy. The characters in Kiffe Kiffe Demain are from two cultures: …

Narrative Language Intervention For English Language Learners, Tanja Ayn Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A preliminary study was designed to determine whether ELL children responded favorably to a revised version ofthe narrative intervention procedure previously utilized with children with language impairment. This study employed a pre-test, post-test design with 11 ELL children ranging in age from 8;8 (years;months) to 9;2 (years;months) who were at-risk for language and learning problems.

Children were administered the recalling sentences subtest ofthe Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 in English and Spanish, Frog Stories requiring them to tell a story that paralleled to a wordless picture book about the adventures 'of a frog in English, and the Test ofNarrative Language …

A Comparison Of Ffr Measures Of Young Adults With Biomark Normative Values, Kathryn Eileen Pitts

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The BioMARK (Biological Marker of Auditory Processing) test, formerly known as BioMAP, is a measure of the frequency following response (FFR) in children to a speech stimulus. The test was designed for 8 to 12 year old children. Other tests of the auditory brainstem such as auditory brainstem responses, have normative values that are valid for listeners from age 2 to adulthood. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the speech-evoked FFR of young adult listeners to determine if a separate set of normative values is needed for this age group. FFR tests using the BioMARK with thirteen …

A Model For Doctoral Students' Perceptions And Attitudes Toward Written Feedback For Academic Writing, Gulfidan Can

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate social science doctoral students' perceptions and attitudes toward different characteristics of written feedback and written feedback providers for their academic writing. Moreover, it aimed to provide an explanatory model to describe the relationships between these perceptions and attitudes, students' revision decisions, and other potentially relevant factors in their written feedback practices. The investigation was informed by two theoretical frameworks: principles of instructional design and conditions of learning, and situated learning and communities of practice.

The study used a mixed methods approach in which qualitative data collection and analysis was followed by quantitative …

The Perceptions Of Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Full-Time Seminary Teachers Regarding The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities, Reginald S. Slocombe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Efforts to formally educate students with special needs have been ongoing for over 50 years in the United States. Teachers are on the front line of the work to include students with disabilities. Previous research indicates a correlation between the attitudes of teachers and successful inclusion of students with disabilities. Two-hundred and fifty-one full-time released-time seminary teachers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (S&I, formerly the Church Education System or CES) in Utah responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitudes toward including students with disabilities in their classrooms. Selected personal and professional …

The Effect Of A Narrative Intervention On Preschoolers' Story Retelling And Personal Story Generation Skills, Trina D. Spencer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Narration, or storytelling, is an important aspect of language. Narrative skills have practical and social importance; for example, children who tell good stories receive attention and approval from their peers. When children accurately recount events surrounding an injury or dispute, vital information is passed to parents and teachers. Additionally, early childhood narrative skills are moderately correlated with reading comprehension in primary grades. Because narration is socially and academically valued, language interventionists often address it. The research literature on narrative intervention has most often included school-aged participants and those with language or learning difficulties. Only a small number of studies have …

A Longitudinal Exploration Of Factors That Influence Acculturation And Enculturation Patterns Of First-Generation Mexican Immigrant Women, Dennis Aaron Ahern

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biculturalism in the Latino population in U.S. has been found to relate to positive outcomes in the literature. However, little is known about the development of bicultural adaptation. The constituent parts of biculturalism, acculturation, and enculturation were measured over several years as part of an existing longitudinal study along with several variables that held promise as predictors of acculturation and enculturation change. An additional data point for acculturation and enculturation was gathered along with other important demographic information. Change in both acculturation and enculturation was modeled revealing that acculturation and enculturation increase and decrease linearly. The trajectory for acculturation is …

Perceptions Of Agriculture Teachers Toward Including Students With Disabilities, Monica D. Giffing

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The inclusion of students with special needs in regular education classrooms has been required by federal law for more than three decades. However, much of the responsibility for successful accommodation of students with disabilities rests upon the shoulders of teachers. Previous research has indicated that successful inclusion of students with special needs is strongly influenced by the attitude of teachers involved. In this study, all secondary agriculture teachers in Utah were surveyed to determine their attitudes and perceptions related to their willingness and ability to include students with special needs in their classrooms and laboratories. Selected personal and professional characteristics …

The Effects Of A Short-Term Teacher Abroad Program On Teachers' Perceptions Of Themselves And Their Responsibilities As Global Educators, Raquel Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In October 2007, two hundred American educators traveled to Japan for three weeks as guests of the Japanese government under the Japanese Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Abroad program. The purpose of the trip was to increase understanding between the people of Japan and the United States; to enrich American and Japanese curricula with international perspectives; to encourage appreciation for the people, culture, and educational system of Japan; and to expand professional development opportunities for educators.

Broadly speaking, these are the goals of global education. The question this qualitative case study examined is whether teachers who participate in isolated, short-term …

Framing Masculinity In The Poetry Of Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Margaret Garry Burke

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines how the contemporary Irish poet, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, is destabilizing traditional notions of the masculine and feminine. Female Irish writers have been suppressed and silenced by a strong patriarchal society and it is interesting to study how Ni Dhomhnaill uses vivid masculine imagery to delineate new boundaries within the institutionalized male/female construction. The two works that I explore, “Nude” and “A God Shows Up,” represent her complex journey toward a strong feminine voice.

Book Review: We Share Walls: Language, Land, And Gender In Berber Morocco, Damla Isik

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of We Share Walls: Language, Land, and Gender in Berber Morocco by Katherine E. Hoffman

The Pelikan Movement - An Immigrant Story, Richard Blythe

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Blythe, Richard J. “The Pelikan Movement: An Immigrant Story.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2008. 306 pp.

The Pelikan Movement, led initially by Jan Pelikan, the grandfather of the Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan, was a pivotal event in a Slovak Lutheran immigrant community that desired to provide a confessional Lutheran witness to their mother country. Shortly after the First World War, this immigrant community was resolute to return to Slovakia to share their confessional Lutheran understanding of the Christian faith, in the Hurban tradition, as well as their new church polity and practices that they adopted in America during the previous …

Rhetorical Inventions/Inventional Rhetorics: Opening Possibilities, Justin Hodgson

All Dissertations

This work seeks to open possibilities for rhetorical invention, or perhaps more accurately, to indicate how changes in technology (and the essences of technology) are opening radical possibilities not just for rhetorical invention but also for how we speak, how we think, or even how we live in our worlds. It traces shifts in rhetorical invention: beginning from primary oral cultures, which made linkages via a process of 'AND' or divine inspiration, represented by the +, to literate cultures (or print-cultures), which predominantly invent via analogy and discovery, represented by the =, and to electronic cultures, which revel in the …

Touching The Truth: Applying Literary Realist Theory To Jose Rizal's “Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not), Francesca T. Falqueza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

When criticized for exaggerating events written in Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), Jose Rizal claimed that he was "ready to match every incident in his novel with one from life" (Guerrero 10). This thesis attempts to prove the validity of this statement using literary realist theory. Moreover, the novel's factual aspect proves to be not as important as its faithful depiction of Filipino life during Spanish rule. A close reading of the text examines specific incidents within the novel which reveal Rizal's intent for the novel as well as the message he desired to convey to his people. Further, …

Synculturation: The Residual Variable Of Bilingualism, Claudia Coronado

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The language acquisition system is intricate; bilingualism is the meta-synthetic process of culture elements, linguistic components and cognitive abilities. Proficiency in a second language is not only the recognition of environmental elements in that language, but an ability that requires the mutation of different components. We cannot perceive the phenomenon of bilingualism in a linguistic isolated perspective. The purpose of the study was to find the interconnectedness of linguistic proficiency, cultural elements, and cognitive development. The cognitive advantages associated with balanced bilingualism should not be uniquely explained by the isolation of language proficiency. The referential packages of the cultural synthesis …

The Borderline Between The Personal And Political, Celeste De Luna

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This paper is a documentation of the form, content, techniques, and processes of the body of visual artwork I created for my M.F.A. graduate coursework. My work frequently uses themes based on the migrant/border experiences of women, children, and families throughout generations in the context of the larger American experience. My acrylic paintings on canvas, assemblages and installations validate Latino/Chicano experiences and invites reflection and learning. My work is influenced and relates to contemporary Chicano and Post-Chicano Art, Feminist Art, and the writings of Gloria A. Anzaldua.

Gender, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension And Science Reasoning As Predictors Of Science Achievement Among African-American Students At A Historical Black College Or University, Consuella Artiemese Davis

Dissertations

This study investigated predictors that influence the science achievement of African-American non-science majors in a Physical Science class. The population consisted of male and female college students enrolled in Physical Science courses at a historical black college or university (HBCU) located in the southeastern portion of the United States. A personal data information sheet was administered to 120 participants during the Fall of 2008. The personal data information sheet consisted of questions pertaining to the high school courses, students took in math, language arts and science. It also consisted of basic background information. Students also gave written consent for their …

Love, Lust And Literature In The Late Sixteenth Century, Kristin J. Johnson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

I have chosen to focus on several poets of the long 1590's, since I would argue that together they represent, for the first time, a confluence of literary love traditions that have previously existed independently across multiple centuries, nations and languages. First, I consider Ovid and the influence of the witty, Ovidian elegy love tradition as practiced by Christopher Marlowe and John Donne. Then I will discuss Petrarch and the serious sonnet sequence tradition, the influence of which is evident in the sonnet sequences of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. Next, since both the afore-mentioned love traditions are based …

Impact Of Resilience On The Academic Achievement Of At-Risk Students In The Upward Bound Program In Georgia, Deborah Darlene Lee

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between resilience and the academic achievement of at-risk students in the Upward Bound Program in Georgia. The researcher used a quantitative method to collect data for the study. The researcher used the Healthy Kids Survey (Module B) instrument to assess the resilience of participants; it had 33 items on it and the researcher added a demographic section to the survey to collect information about the participants' families, schools, GPAs, and SAT/ACT scores. All of the participants chosen for this study were at-risk students due to their status as low-income and …

Cultural Diversity Awareness Of Elementary School Teachers In Georgia Classrooms, Sohmer Evans Collins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study determined the extent of cultural diversity awareness of in-service, elementary teachers in Georgia classrooms. The study also determined if different levels of cultural awareness existed between teacher groups in relation to their race/ethnicity, gender, level of education, number of years teaching experience, level of education, and exposure to or experience with multicultural education training. A group of 305 certified, in-service elementary school teachers completed the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory, which assessed their beliefs about cultural diversity in five domains: general cultural awareness, culturally diverse families, cross-cultural communication, assessment, and creating a multicultural environment. Results indicated that elementary, in-service …

School Leadership: Narratives Of Title I Distinguished Middle School Principals, Cindy L. Boyett

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

I began thinking about the topic of this dissertation in 2006 when I entered the world of educational leadership. I found myself struggling as I transitioned from middle school teacher to middle school administrator. I knew other novice administrators must be experiencing the same transition growth pains and that they too must be longing for information/stories from other leaders that have successfully made the transition to successful educational leader. Educational leaders are under close surveillance as the bar for accountability continues to increase each year due to measures put forth in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Everyone …

Curriculum Implementation: A Study Of The Effect Of A Specialized Curriculum On Sixth Grade Mathematics Summative Test Scores In A Rural Middle School, Libby Plath Bicknell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine curriculum implementation in sixth grade mathematics as it related to standardized testing in a rural district. The school in the study contained two groups of students, one group who had been taught the new statemandated curriculum and another group who was taught an outdated curriculum. The purpose was to determine if there was a statistically significant disparity between the criterion-reference test scores of the two groups while controlling for differences in student ability level through the use of pre-test scores as measured through an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The hypothesis was that …

Parent, Student, And Teacher Perceptions Of School Climate At Suburban High, Cory J. Steiner

Theses and Dissertations

School climate has a major impact on the school setting. In order to manage climate, it is essential to assess and understand the perceptions of teachers, students, and parents.

This study identified the differences between teachers, students, and parents relative to their perceptions concerning school climate at Suburban High. The instrument was the Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire-RS (OCDQ-RS), a revision by Hoy and Clover (1986) of the original OCDQ by Halpin and Croft.

Data were used to develop an action plan for managing school climate at Suburban High. Data gained from this study were utilized to develop a practical plan …

A Dash Of Sufferage Spice: Rural And Urban Ethnicity Construction In The Transnational Women's Suffrage Movement, Anna M. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

The women's suffrage movement in Europe and the United States led to female enfranchisement in much of the West in the early twentieth century. Suffrage historiography, however, places too much emphasis on a middle-class history of urban white women's struggle to win the vote. This traditional scholarship not only lacks a thorough class-based analysis but also fails to examine ethnicity's role in the American women's suffrage movement as well as larger transnational connections.

Research on the construction of Norwegian ethnicity and its corresponding influence on Norwegian-American support of women's suffrage contributes to filling this historiographical gap. In addition, the influence …