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The Thomism Of Bartolomé De Las Casas And The Indians Of The New World, Thomas Francis Xavier Varacalli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines Bartolomé de Las Casas as a Thomistic political philosopher. It argues that Las Casas intentionally drew upon the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas in order to provide a robust philosophical anthropology that was able to defend Amerindian rationality and self-rule. He uses Thomas and the Classical tradition to disprove the notion that the Amerindians are natural slaves, to uphold the inherent goodness of politics, to protect Amerindian kingdoms from imperial claims and the direct power of the papacy, and to condemn the unjust wars of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas. Las Casas’ Thomism is particularly important because …

Idling Women: The Domestic Bildungsroman And The American City, 1830-1900, Jordan L. Von Cannon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Idling Women: The Domestic Bildungsroman and the American City, 1830-1900, I explore urban narratives of female non-development. In city novels featuring female protagonists, there are two normative arcs of development: either women find new opportunities for marriage, work, and, in some cases, independence in the city, or they fall prey to threats of seduction, poverty, and even death. However, these two plotlines fail to accommodate stories of women who wait to develop, fail at it, or otherwise resist what might be considered character growth. By problematizing distinctions between idleness and the American “work ethic” often tied to the industrialized …

Violent Conventions: An Analysis Of The Unintended Aesthetics Of On-Stage Accidents, Jeremy Matthew Reynolds

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In theatre scholarship, the event of the on-stage accident is a fairly neglected area of research. Aside from brief archival detailing of some of the more tragic events, scholars have not approached the accidents from a theoretical or historiographical position. Many, I surmise, find little of interest in an on-stage accident due to its lack of aesthetic purpose or intentionality. In this project, I focus on those neglected accidents and, more specifically, accidents that take place due to a violent failure of theatrical convention. I discuss three specific moments where a theatre convention – established to concretize the world of …

Going Public: How The Government Assumed The Authority To Prosecute In The Southern United States, Jason Twede

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores factors that may have influenced the transition from private prosecution to public prosecution in Georgia during the late-eighteenth century—a transition that eventually happened in every jurisdiction in the United States. There are numerous people, both inside and outside academia, who are calling for a change to the current system of prosecution in the United States. One possible change that is being advocated is a return to a system of private prosecution. Understanding the reasons the system changed from a system of private prosecution in the first instance is important when determining whether such a return is appropriate. …

Measuring The Effect Of Vocabulary Instruction On Reading Comprehension: A Comparison Of Academic And Tier Ii Words, Eiley C. Berg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was (a) to determine if 4th grade students could learn academic vocabulary words or tier II general words using a vocabulary intervention program referred to as the lexicon enhancement program (LeEP), and b) to determine if the category of vocabulary words (tier II general vs. academic) impacts the number of vocabulary words learned, general vocabulary abilities, and reading comprehension. A total of 111 fourth graders participated in this study. Six classrooms were randomly assigned as either the academic group, tier II group, or control group. Pre- and posttest scores of the Zero-One-Two (ZOT; Robinson, 2013) …

Graphic Design Students’ Perceptions Of Using Apple Ipads To Create Sketches And Promote Idea Generation, Elizabeth Becker

Theses and Dissertations

Artists and designers typically utilize sketching during the early stages of the design process because it provides them with an opportunity to transfer ideas from their head onto paper, computer, or mobile device. Sketching is regarded by researchers in the field of design to be an essential part of the design process.

The existing research in this field is focused on comparing paper and pencil sketches with sketches completed on computers. There is a void in the literature examining sketching completed on mobile devices like the Apple iPad. Therefore, this study aimed to fill that void.

The purpose of this …

Examining Identity Of Novice Teacher Educators: A Self-Study, Laura Brudvik

Theses and Dissertations

Novice teacher educators can provide valuable insight into the question of professional identity and how it informs practice. Collaboration through interviews using self-study highlight how the experiences of their novice teacher educator years contribute to their identities. The self-study method provides an integrative approach, bridging research and practice, with the goal of ultimately improving practice. This self-study identifies specific qualities possessed by teacher educators who are former classroom teachers, and analyzes those qualities to determine possible benefits to teacher education. A corollary study is a self-study of my personal construction of professional identity as a novice teacher educator. The self-study …

Measuring The Effect Of Vocabulary Instruction On Reading Comprehension: Comparing Students Of Lower And Higher Socioeconomic Status, Michelle Burns Burns

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of a lexicon enhancement program on students categorized as lower SES, determined by whether or not they qualified for the federal free or reduced lunch program. Specifically, the performance of lower SES students on measures of vocabulary learning and reading ability were compared to classmates who did not qualify for the federal program (higher SES). Forty-six 4th grade students from the Grand Forks Public School district participated in the study. Students from the lower SES and higher SES group were randomly assigned by classroom to be either in the intervention or the control group, with …

Burnout, Autonomy, And Job Satisfaction In Full-Time Public Community College Faculty Members: A Regional Survey And Analysis, Justin W. Berry

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived levels of burnout, autonomy, and job satisfaction in full-time public community college faculty members; it was also of interest to determine potential relationships between burnout, autonomy, job satisfaction, and demographic factors. Participants in this study were 146 full time faculty members from twelve public community colleges within Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Measures in this study assessed perceived levels of burnout, autonomy, and job satisfaction. Independent samples t-tests and Pearson correlations were utilized to analyze data.

Results indicated that full-time public community college faculty members have moderate levels of …

Teachers' Of Students With Visual Impairments Perceptions And Experiences Of Teaching The Expanded Core Curriculum, Renae T. Bjorg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the qualitative research study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVIs) in the state of North Dakota regarding the expanded core curriculum (ECC). This study included transcribed interviews from six TSVIs who taught in grades K-12.

The National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Including Those with Multiple Disabilities was used to frame this study. Phenomenological methods were used to analyze the interviews into codes, categories, themes, and an assertion. Following were the seven themes supported by the data collected:

1. Teachers of students …

The Relationship Of Substance Use, Biological Sex, And Age To Defender Behaviors In Middle And High School Students In Rural Schools, Amanda D'Ottavio

Theses and Dissertations

While there are many studies looking at the characteristic of defenders in bullying situations, the literature regarding defender behaviors and substance use is lacking. In a sample of rural adolescents, the current study aims to examine the relationship between defender behaviors, substance use, biological sex and age. Rural middle and high school youth from six Northern Plains schools in the Midwest (N = 264) completed a self-report survey. Surveys were created to examine defender behaviors and substance use, and a demographic questionnaire collected biological sex and grade level. Grade level was used in place of age. A relationship between defender …

School Experiences Of Middle School Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Shannon D. Grave

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined the school experiences of adolescents with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in sixth through eighth grade. Two research questions guided this study: what were the participants’ day to day experiences and what were their perceptions of those experiences? The results of the study yielded three conclusions. First, school can be a confusing and unpredictable source of stress. This stress can be ameliorated through increased predictability in the classroom and through adaptations to materials based on individualized needs and preferences. Specific classroom based strategies were identified and discussed, with clear shared preferences emergent. Participants indicated preferences …

Old Tales, New Renditions: The Foundations And Development Of Anti-Semitic Ritual Murder Libels With Emphasis On A Shift In Centrality From Crucifixion To Blood Motifs In Late Medieval And Early Modern German Contexts, Evan John Halbach

Theses and Dissertations

The terms “ritual murder libel” and “blood libel” both refer primarily to medieval and early modern anti-Semitic allegations that Jews murdered Christian children on religious holidays, either to abuse or profane Christ and Christians, or to acquire Christian blood for use in Jewish ritual, sorcery, or as a medicine to treat stereotypical racial infirmities. Scholars to this point have generally treated the two libels as either synonymous, or have considered distinctions to be relatively insignificant. Insufficient treatment has been given to an inversion of primary and secondary motivations attributed to the libels’ constructed villains. In “ritual murder libels,” contempt for …

The Impact Of Trauma On Children’S Functioning And The Utility Of The Cbcl Ptsd Profile, Nicola Ashton Herting

Theses and Dissertations

The high rates of trauma exposure among children and adolescents is a major public health concern due to the many ways trauma can adversely impact cognitive, emotional, and social development and functioning. The high rates of comorbidity between posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and other mental health disorders translate to complex diagnostic pictures. When conducting psychological, educational, or neuropsychological evaluations it is therefore imperative that clinicians assess for trauma to accurately diagnose, but ultimately to ensure appropriate recommendations for treatment and interventions are made. Several challenges to screening and assessing PTSS among children and adolescents have prompted the identification of efficient …

Ecocomposition As Writing Curriculum: An Ecological Approach For Writing Program Administrators And Composition Instructors, Erin Renee Lord Kunz

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation forwards an argument for an ecologically-based composition and rhetoric curriculum that also emphasizes the best practices established by the Council of Writing Program Administration, particularly the writing process. I concentrate on how a writing program administrator can utilize ecological literacy to navigate her own experience in a new place and also how themes of ecological literacy can be applied to the writing program itself. Based on personal experiences as well as literature that establishes the need for best practices in composition and rhetoric curriculum, I argue that ecological composition, or ecocomposition, can assist in implementing an ecological writing …

Impact Of Seasonality On Agricultural Productivity In Bangladesh, Mohammad Gulam Mostofa

Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies the impact of seasonality on agricultural productivity in Bangladesh for the period of 1980-2013 for 7 regions. This study exploits regional fixed effect to estimate the impact of both observed and unobserved effects on agricultural productivity in order to control for regional differences. I used a panel dataset for the fixed and random effect regression model to control omitted variables bias and endogeneity. Findings from this study expressed that the effects of all the climate variables are not significant to rice, wheat, and pulse yield. Maximum temperature and minimum temperature wet for rice, minimum temperature dry and …

Britain's First War With Kandy: Landscape, Violence, And Conquest In Colonial Sri Lanka, Elizabeth Anne Mjelde

Theses and Dissertations

Accounts of travel to Sri Lanka published during the period of British conquest (1796 through 1818) reveal a consistent yet problematic tendency: despite ongoing military conflict, visual artists constructed representations of the island as a peaceful and orderly place. The contradiction is heightened when travelers’ uniformly tranquil images of Sri Lanka are juxtaposed with documented acts of destruction to land and property, undertaken by troops during Britain’s first war with the inland kingdom of Kandy, a conflict which eventually led to the island’s complete colonization. The present study reconciles this contradiction through analysis of publications by each of five artists …

Parent Understanding Of K-6 Student Mathematics Performance Using Standards-Based Compared To Traditional Report Cards, Jill Ann Olson

Theses and Dissertations

More and more elementary schools are adopting standards-based report cards to report student achievement in an effort to communicate to parents their child’s mastery of standards at each grade level. The effect this has on parent understanding of their child’s achievement is still uncertain. A survey methodology was used in this quantitative study to examine parents’ understanding of their K-6 child’s mathematics performance when reported using standards-based compared to traditional report cards. The researcher sought to determine the effect understanding has on parents’ probability of providing at-home skill building activities in the areas in which the child is not performing …

Can You Really Predict Markets With Twitter?, Christopher Plenzick

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I attempt to apply an emotional proxy derived by applying

the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) to messages posted to the

Twitter social networking service in order to forecast the movement two stock

market indices: the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the CBOE

Volatility Index (VIX). In contrast to previous works, I have compared the

results of various forecast models employing different sentiment variables, as

well as comparing the neural network approach to more standard logistic re-

gression. Additionally, several of the models used employ an as-yet unique

sentiment proxy, focusing on the average of …

Teacher Referral Following Natural Disasters, Melissa Anne Quincer

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that teachers are common referral points for children

experiencing mental health difficulties. This is especially true in rural communities and a

major time of intervention has been following natural disasters, when there are not

enough mental health services in an area, or they are too taxed. This study sought to

explore teachers’ referral habits and determine if there is any difference when rural

challenges are present or if the teacher has previously experienced a disaster. To this end,

teachers were recruited, presented with vignettes that either contained rural challenges or

did not contain rural challenges and …

The Impact Of Power Status On Gender Stereotypes, Sexism, And Gender Discrimination Toward Women In The Workplace And The Career Identity Development Of Women, Juemei Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Women often experience unique barriers at workplace that hinder their career development (Whitley & Kite, 2010). In this study I focused on several of the barriers: gender stereotypes, sexism, and gender discrimination. Specifically, I examined the impact of career-related power, the gender of the perceiver, and the gender of the perceived on the endorsement of gender stereotypes, of sexist attitudes, and of gender discrimination. Significant results indicated that gender stereotypes and sexist attitude are most strongly endorsed by men with high power and women with low power. The largely insignificant results of discrimination also suggested that a climate change might …

The Invocative Use Of The Bible's Rhetorical Power In The Transcripts Of Anne Hutchinson's Trials, Carolyn D. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Generally speaking, some Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans invoke the rhetorical power of the Protestant Old and New Testaments in their writings to specify and dictate certain courses of action, especially during the period known as the Antinomian Controversy. These authoritarian, dogmatic, directive allusions to Scripture-- what I call the invocative use of the Bible's rhetorical power--appear frequently in some specific contemporaneous Massachusetts Bay Colony journals, sermons, and letters. The author employs these uses to establish the literary and interpretive contexts for the rhetorical use of the Bible in the transcripts of Hutchinson's civil and ecclesiastical trials. For example, the author …

Negotiating Higher Education In The Us: Voices Of Ghanaian Graduate Students At A Midwestern University, Mildred Emefa Biaku

Theses and Dissertations

In this case study, there was an examination to gain a deeper understanding of the

effects of social interactions experienced by Ghanaian Students with various actors in

curricular and co-curricular departments and perceptions of the support during these

social interactions. Recommendations were made for ways to enhance social interactions.

Data for this qualitative study was collected using three methods; non-participant

observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. Participants for the study were six

Ghanaian international students and five service providers selected from departments

across the campus of a university in the Midwest. It was found that there were systemic

issues that …

Redefining Islamic Identity: Cosmopolitanism In The Theater Of Tawfiq Al-Hakim And Akbar Ahmed, Gaber Abdelghaffar Abdelrahman Hasaneen

Theses and Dissertations

The question whether Islam is compatible with American, or generally “Western,” values has now imposed itself on public debates, gaining more urgency and traction with every tragic act of terrorism committed in the name of Islam. In these debates Islamic identity is usually defined in Orientalist terms. Fundamentalist Muslims reiterate Orientalist concepts of who a Muslim is. Orientalist observers on the one hand, and on the other fundamentalist Muslims have defined Islam as the West’s inimical Other, which has made the so-called clash of civilizations sound inevitable.

I argue that cosmopolitan observers challenge these misrepresentations. Representation, particularly self-representation, of the …

Paying But Half Heed To My Father And His World: Daughters And Fathers In Postcolonial Texts Of South Africa And Ireland, Jody Lee Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reads novels from South Africa and Ireland by noted writers like Nadine Gordimer and William Trevor, in order to examine how the peripheral and underanalyzed literary daughter has been increasingly used as a symbol of the developing postcolonial state. This reading focuses especially on the daughter-father dyad and how through this relationship the daughter reconfigures herself as what Kwame Anthony Appiah has elsewhere called "a partial cosmopolitan" - that is, a individual connected to both the local environment and to the larger global culture. This dual connection that I trace is established in a range of ways throughout …

Hommage Á Trois: A Tale Of Some Very Hungry Grammia Spp. Caterpillars, Katherine Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Larvae of the Arctiinae use an impressive arsenal of defenses to protect themselves against natural enemies. Several species within this subfamily have been studied for their defensive capabilities, specifically the use of plant secondary metabolites. Life history and sequestration patterns of secondary metabolites have been well documented for Grammia incorrupta; however, little information exists for other species of Grammia. Furthermore, information on sequestration patterns during the immature stages of several Grammia spp. is largely unknown. To address these gaps in knowledge, I am conducting a comparative study of the chemical ecology and life history traits for the virgin tiger moth …

Exploring The Impact Of Self-Determination On The Political Practices Of The Turtle Mountain Band Of Chippewa Indians: A Critical Content Analysis, Terri Jean Martin-Parisien

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) of 1975 specific to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI). The purpose of this study was to provide evidence as to the impact of the ISDEAA on the Tribe as well as if, and how, the Tribe set their own definition of self-determination, above and beyond the definition of the ISDEAA. This study also examined the tensions that exist between the federal government and the TMBCI using federal policies such as the ISDEAA.

Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and Content Analysis were used as the theoretical framework …

Racial Microaggressions, College Self-Efficacy, And The Persistence Of Students Of Color In Predominantly White, 4 Year Institutions Of Higher Education, John Mccullagh

Theses and Dissertations

College students of Color face unique challenges and barriers in college settings (Allen, 1992; Harper & Hurtado, 2007) and many of these students are not able to effectively integrate into the academic and social realms of college life. This leads many students of Color to ultimately drop out of college (Fischer, 2007).The present study utilized a sample of 228 Freshman college students of Color to examine the influence of college self-efficacy and experiences of racial micro-aggressions on factors related to the persistence in college of racial and ethnic minority students. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the direct and …

Paul Scott's "The Jewel In The Crown": A Novelist's Philosophy Of History And The End Of The British Raj, Kathryn Ann Hughes Nedegaard

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of Paul Scott’s best-known novel The Jewel in the Crown,

published in 1966. Scott noted that much of the research and writing on the British

Raj that ended in 1947, lacked an adequate understanding of the union that had

endured for more than three centuries. Scott believed too that many interpretations

of why the Raj ended relied too heavily on monolithic categories of “us and them”

and that they over-emphasized the socio-political and economic influences of

empire. He also believed that many scholars of the Raj ignored the love that existed

among all the people …

High/ Low Context Communication And Therapeutic Working Alliance Among Asian Americans, Yoshitaro Oba

Theses and Dissertations

Asian Americans utilize both high and low context communication styles depending on their values and cultural backgrounds. Their styles of communication are unique cultural factors and individualized by their level of acculturation. This study explored how those communication styles could contribute to the process of forming therapeutic relationships. The results indicated that communication styles were associated with levels of acculturation, help seeking attitudes for mental health professionals, and therapeutic working alliance. In addition, step wise multiple regression analysis indicated that interpersonal sensitivity in communication style and help seeking attitudes were predictor for therapeutic working alliance. These findings indicate how Asian …