Digital Commons Network^™

In Pursuit Of My Eye: A Book Of Photographs, Amanda Piela

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This book progresses chronologically through photos that represent pivotal moments in my life. I carefully selected the photos I have included in the book from thousands of photographs that I had never so much as even looked at after I shot them and dumped them onto hard drives. The book functions as a way to organize my journey through photography and extrapolate on what I have learned over the years. I refer to teachers, professors, peers and advisors that have influenced me in countless ways as well as friends that have modeled for me and supported me over the years. …

Arab Women In Development: A Postcolonial Legacy, Rachel Bass

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The way in which women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have been portrayed in international development and rights discourse is based on a narrow, ahistorical view of Arab/Muslim majority societies, which exhibits an overconfidence in the discipline of economics and the ideology of neoliberalism, or free-market economics. Based on arguments presented by anthropologists, feminist economists, geographers, sociologists, comparative literary scholars and others, I explore in this thesis the legacy of colonialism in MENA in its various incarnations: as physical colonization in the 19^th and 20^th centuries; as suppression of indigenous knowledge in favor of …

The Poppy: Contextualising A Seemingly Timeless Symbol In History, Materials And Practice, Emily Barrett

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

the poppy, a blood red flower, is the British nation’s symbol of remembrance. For over one hundred years, the poppy has been worn on the lapels of numerous generations as an act of respect for the military men and women that lost their lives serving the nation during times of war. The tradition ultimately began with World War I and since that time the poppy, its meaning and its use, is often viewed in a timeless manner; it transcends time to unite the past and the present. However, the poppy is not an unchanging, static and bounded symbol. This research …

Collective And Individual Identities Of Soldiers At The Florence American Cemetery And Memorial, Christiana Chmielewski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, located outside of Florence, Italy, is the final resting place of 4,402 American soldiers who died during World War II while fighting in the Tuscan region after the liberation of Rome in June 1944. In addition to those buried, 1,409 soldiers are commemorated on the Wall of the Missing. By joining the military, these men (and women) became a part of the larger military family. Such a process ensured that their individual identities would become intertwined with that of a collective military identity. However, it was their biological kin, the family that remained in …

Framing The Lowcountry: The Evolution Of The Region’S Vernacular Tradition, Brent Russell Fortenberry

All Theses

Timber-framing systems are the foundation of Early Modern vernacular architecture traditions. The fabrication, construction, and finish details of such assemblies are indexes of the character-defining features of building practices and the wider socio-cultural context. The Lowcountry of South Carolina is no exception. From the late seventeenth-century onwards builders from Old World traditions came together to erect unrivalled British edifices in the colonial and Early Republic periods. While other scholars have closely scrutinized and interpreted the framing traditions of the Chesapeake and New England, there has yet to be a consideration of the nature and evolution of the Lowcountry’s framing. Bringing …

Forensic Science Developments And Judicial Decision-Making In The Era Of Innocence: The Influence Of Legal Process Theory And Its Implications, Sarah Lucy Cooper

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article confirms the existence of these legal process-centric themes and considers some potential implications of these approaches. Part I briefly sets out key tenets of the legal process vision and provides some back- ground to the American Innocence Movement. Using examples from relevant case law, Part II examines the courts’ approaches thematically, demonstrating how the courts exhibit loyalty to the legal process vision. It also considers the implications of this loyalty, including that it can result in both the extraction of science from its social context and an awkward approach towards discerning between credible and incredible forensic science evidence …

Talking About Aphasia: The Two Voices Of Insight, Elizabeth O'Brien

College Honors Program

This thesis aims to understand the lived experience of communication disorders (CDs), including the challenges, stigmas, and misconceptions related to CDs. It draws upon in-depth interviews with speech-language pathologists (SLPs), participant observations of people with aphasia, and observations of aphasia forum websites. During the data collection process, people talked about the stigmas and hardships of CDs and the subjective experience of having trouble communicating with others. This thesis will use their words and ideas to highlight the important aspects of coping with and treating CDs. It discusses how people with aphasia think about space, their body, and time, and considers …

Trade And Transport In Late Roman Syria, Christopher Wade Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the relative notoriety and miraculous level of preservation of the Dead Cities of Syria, fundamental questions of economic and subsistence viability remain unanswered. In the 1950s Georges Tchalenko theorized that these sites relied on intensive olive monoculture to mass export olive oil to urban centers. Later excavations discovered widespread cultivation of grains, fruit, and beans which directly contradicted Tchalenko’s assertion of sole reliance on oleoculture. However, innumerable olive presses in and around the Dead Cities still speak to a strong tradition of olive production. This thesis tests the logistical viability of olive oil transportation from the Dead Cities to …

Divining The Southwest: Liminality, Pragmatism, And Regionalism In "Death Comes For The Archbishop", Alex C. Blomstedt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work aims to explore the themes of pragmatism and liminality, particularly as they pertain to spirituality, in Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop. By taking an interdisciplinary critical approach to the novel, I will synthesize its spiritual affect into a sensibility called “pragmatic liminality.” Finally, I will connect this sensibility to other works in the Southwestern literary canon and elucidate the foundational importance that pragmatic liminality has to the Southwestern “sense of place” and its role in the larger narratives of regionalism in American literature.

Statistical Analysis Of Fluvial Channel Belts, Kyle Ryan Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As meandering rivers laterally migrate over time, they build channel belts. The accumulation of all previous flow paths creates the channel belt. To better understand these ancient rivers, modern river systems are being mapped to find statistical relationships between current flow path and the channel belt of river systems. It is important to examine a wide range of systems in terms of age, size, and location. The rivers are being mapped using an ImageJ, interpretations from Saucier (1994) and Google Earth. Three channel belt morphologies are mapped for 15 modern channel belts; the width of the river in relation to …

“Between The Yes And The No”: Alternative Ontologies And Literary Depictions Of Mysticism In Borges And Mahfouz, David Shane Elder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the advent of the modern era and the subsequent age of Enlightenment, the rational tradition has enabled the West to assert command of a large area of the globe and its population. While advancing the conditions of living for many, rational structures have also been used to control and repress others. The theosophy of the medieval Islamic mystic Ibn al-ᶜArabī, with its basis in irrational thought, offers a counterpoint to the rational and empirical traditions, the Social orthodoxies to which these epistemologies contribute, and the ontologies with which these epistemologies and orthodoxies are correlated. Yet mystical expression is very …

Commencement Program, May (2016), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom And The Making Of A World Safe Diversity: A Pastoral Perspective, Aco Girevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Holy Children Are Happy Children: Jonathan Edwards And Puritan Childhood, Russell Allen

Masters Theses

The eighteenth century is often considered the most important era in the history of childhood. Old Puritan conceptions of original sin and physical punishment gave way to Enlightenment concepts of childhood innocence and rationality. Jonathan Edwards was a central figure who stood in the midst of this intellectual change. Situated quite literally in the middle of the transitioning eighteenth century, Edwards’ attempted to bridge the gap between Puritan conceptions of childhood and new ideas made popular by John Locke. Sometimes the bridge held firmly, and other times it cracked widely. Edwards’ theological and philosophical understanding of childhood was at the …

Into The Gap: A Mixed Methods Study Of Acculturation, Stress, And Refugee Family Functioning, Kieu Anh T. Do

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Every day, new waves of refugees result from increasing social, political and environmental instabilities around the world. Numerous studies have detailed the various stressors and adjustment issues that refugees face when resettled in a new host society. The majority of these studies focus on individual-level variables and not on the family as a whole. Thus, more studies are needed to understand how refugee families adjust in the resettlement context in order to promote positive outcomes. Studies that have examined family-level functioning often focus on how acculturative differences increase stress in refugee families, contributing to higher levels of familial tension and …

Community Viability And Marine Conservation: Hybrid Resource Management And The Role Of The Coral Triangle Center On Pulau Ay, Indonesia, Jerica Rossi

Capstone Collection

This qualitative research explores the traditional marine resource management system of sasi on Pulau Ay, Maluku, Indonesia and how it has been adapted under modern circumstances to promote conservation. The study was based on interviews with staff of the marine conservation NGO Coral Triangle Center (CTC) and the local Conservation Team, narratives of traditional leader elders, and focus groups with local fisherman. The first section of the findings articulates their perspectives on the historic and current situation regarding sasi and conservation on Pulau Ay. The study then utilizes The Interdependence of Ecosystem and Community Viability: A Theoretical Framework to Guide …

Gospel Encounter With Subaltern India , Stanish Stanley

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

This work examines the role of religio-cultural resources in enabling the transformation of a broken community and people.

In the context of nineteenth and twentieth century British India, an oppressed community in India set out to explore the possibility of challenging and re-defining their own destiny. This oppressed section of Indians who lived in the margins of Indian caste defined society were considered socially and ritually polluting people and were subservient to various socio-economic and religio-cultural biases. The daily life routine of this oppressed community, called the Sambavars (Pariahs) of the Malayalam speaking princely State of Travancore in South India, …

Christ, Church, And World: A Christological Ecclesiology For Post-Christendom, Theodore Hopkins

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Hopkins, Theodore J. “Christ, Church, and World: A Christological Ecclesiology for Post-Christendom.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2016. 296 pp.

The North American church is facing a profound crisis. The post-Christendom situation is changing the landscape of the church’s relationship with culture, society, and individual communities, creating problems of ecclesial identity and purpose. This dissertation argues that the unique challenges of post-Christendom require three criteria for ecclesiology: storied identity, doctrinal substance, and visible concreteness. Most recent Lutheran ecclesiology has begun with either God’s word of the Gospel or the Holy Spirit, leading to an emphasis on individual justification or the practices …

The Western Diet's Negative Impact On The Health Of The Pacific Islands., Jessica Ruikka

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

In an already challenging environment, the Western diet has introduced noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease to the Pacific Islands (PIC). Without modern medicine, many of these regions, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia are ill equipped to handle the long-term effects of these noncommunicable diseases. A high percentage of the Pacific Island population is obese and overweight; and the Islands are struggling to combat the epidemic. Many programs and proposals have been implemented, such as changes in trade policy, local activism, and government modifications, but there has been no evidence of a decline in noncommunicable diseases. There …

2016 Spring Graduate Commencement, Lindenwood University

Commencement Programs

Lindenwood University Commencement program.

Pace Report Screenshots, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Student Learning

Fall 2016 Admin Undergraduate Enrollment Summary - College.

Kerouac’S Noble Savage: The Tragic Fate Of The Primitive Man Trapped Within Modernity, Megan Reynolds

English Honors Theses

My research seeks to expand on existing studies of Kerouac’s seminole novel On the Road. Many current Kerouac scholars tend to lump Sal and Dean into a dynamic duo of sorts, but this sort of analysis ignores the fact that Sal never fully integrates into the Hipster crowd that Dean associates with. Even amongst his own friends, Sal seems distinctly on the periphery. Sal’s alienation stems from Kerouac’s own persistent feelings of otherness in American society. Searching for a group to join, Sal attempts to appropriate social and ethnic out-groups’ cultures, a feature that many Kerouac scholars dismiss as simply …

Fundamental Image Theory: An Integrated Model Of Trauma, Cassandra K. Sieg

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Historically, trauma theory and intervention has focused on “actual or threatened death or serious injury” (DSM-IV; APA, 1994). More recently, the field has broadened its consideration to a range of trauma and stressor related disorders, including perpetration induced traumautic stress (PITS; MacNair, 2015). Violence perpetration has negative implications on a personal, interpersonal, and group level, but a review of the literature reveals a significant gap in our understanding of perpetration-induced traumatic stress, including 2 fundamental questions: how does perpetrating violence cause trauma, and how can we treat this trauma? None of the existing psychological models adequately answer the first question, …

Anti-Suicide Laws In Nine African Countries: Criminalization, Prosecution And Penalization, Mensah Adinkrah

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Although several countries and jurisdictions across the globe have repealed their legal statutes criminalizing suicide attempts (or nonfatal suicidal behavior), suicide attempt remains a crime in several African countries. In these countries, a suicide attempt puts the suicide attempt survivor at risk for criminal apprehension, prosecution and penalization. The current article provides an overview of anti-suicide laws in nine selected African countries. In addition, it presents the results of a brief survey of the popular electronic and print media conducted to discover evidence of legal prosecution and penalization of suicide attempt survivors in the selected countries. The data show that …

Rauschenberg, Roci, And Cuba's Young Lions, Brett E. Beatty

Art & Art History ETDs

During the 1980s Robert Rauschenberg conceived of an art exhibition for which he would travel to different countries and collaboratively create work about the nations he visited. He called the project Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, or ROCI. He proposed the project as an endeavor to promote peace and understanding by communicating worldly' through art. This research is a case-study of the impact of ROCI at its seventh stop, Havana, Cuba. Following an introduction and a discussion on the mechanics of ROCI, the dissertation moves on to a critical analysis of the ROCI art. The purpose of such an analysis here …

Teachers’ And Administrators’ Perceptions Of The Under-Representation Of African American Males In Gifted And Talented Education Programs, Roy Sermons

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological case study is to explore the reasons for specific perceptions by urban middle and high school teachers and administrators about the underrepresentation of gifted African American male students in educational programs for the gifted and talented. Perceptions about gifted African American male students are generally defined as the views, thoughts, and patterns of educators pertaining to the characteristics of gifted students, recommendations for admission into gifted and talented education programs, and social and psychological factors that impede the enrollment of urban African American males into such programs. The phenomenological case examines social, cultural, and psychological …

Priming And The Activation Of The God Attachment System, Kevin Conner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Attachment theorists seek to understand the development of attachment bonds in childhood and how these bonds serve as the foundation of continued close-relationship development in adulthood. These attachment bonds are established early through the development of internal working models of attachment, yet they may continue to be susceptible to change when opposing attachment information is received. Due to the potential plasticity of attachment bonds, researchers have considered priming, the introduction of cues in order to interact with attachment working models, as a means to stimulate change toward more secure attachment representations, resulting in potential health benefits. In religious individuals, one …

Review Of Bubík And Hoffman's "Studying Religions With The Iron Curtain Closed And Opened: The Academic Study Of Religion In Eastern Europe", Branko Sekulić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened: The Academic Study of
Religion in Eastern Europe. Edited by Tomas Bubík and Henryk Hoffmann, Leiden-
Boston: Brill, 2015. 338 pp. Paperback, ISBN: 9789004283077

Participation And Perception: Early Exposure, Environmental Attitudes, And Off-Highway Vehicle (Ohv) Recreation In The Boise Metropolitan Area, Michelle Lee Kinney

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Off-highway vehicle use has and is becoming an increasingly popular form of recreation in the Boise Metropolitan region. However, it also has the potential to impact the flora and fauna present on public lands. As OHV use increases, so does the likelihood of impacts on the environments where recreation takes place. In order to effectively manage the resources provided by the landscape, more must be known about the user population. This study sought to determine which elements affect the continued use of OHVs and how OHV recreationists differed in their environmental attitudes by categorizing them into groups according to their …

Evaluating The Environmental Effectiveness Of Grassroots Environmental Stewardship Organizations In Maryland, Sarah Close, Dana R. Fisher, William Yagatich, Anya Galli Robertson

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Small organizations that conduct environmental stewardship projects often lack access to the research capacity, funding, or tools needed to evaluate scientifically the environmental effectiveness of the measures they undertake. Still, evaluation of environmental effectiveness, defined here as the implementation of specific local goals, is prudent where projects are carried out with environmental stewardship goals in mind. We propose and test a process for evaluating environmental effectiveness of stewardship programs in a rigorous, yet feasible, approach through analysis of archived documents, program materials, and project inventories, as well as a survey of program participants. Using three franchises of the Watershed Stewards …