Digital Commons Network^™

Alien Affects: Movement, Migration, And Landscapes Of Citizenship, Michael Andrew Lechuga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alien Affects is a materialist examination of the ways citizenship landscapes are shaped by three mechanisms of control - extraterrestrial film, border security, and the legal apparatuses of the State - that accelerate flows of dominant national citizenship and hinder the movements of migrants. As bodies move through borders and through communities in the US, they are subjected to techniques of citizenship control that divide citizens from aliens. This political division maximizes the State's capacity to benefit from the mobility of its preferred citizen groups while subjugating its alien groups - those who might be characterized as such because they …

Normal Brain Response To Propofol In Advance Of Recovery From Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome, Stefanie Blain-Moraes, Rober Boshra, Heung Kan Ma, Richard Mah, Kyle Ruiter, Michael Avidan, John F. Connolly, George A. Mashour

Open Access Publications

No abstract provided.

Jürgen Habermas On The (Non-)Translatability Of Religious Meaning, Kevin M. Vander Schel

Religious Studies Faculty Scholarship

The relationship between religious faith and public reason has occupied an increasingly central role in Jürgen Habermas’s mature work. Yet this recent engagement with questions of religious meaning also illuminates a significant area of development in Habermas’s thought. While his earlier writings emphasized a need to subordinate religious beliefs to rational critique and to translate religious truth claims into publicly accessible forms of reasoning, his later writings signal a shift to a more cooperative understanding of religious faith and critical reason that highlights the ongoing potential of religion to advance rational discourse and social criticism in the public sphere. This …

Grace And Human Action: Distinctively Christian Action In Schleiermacher's Christian Ethics, Kevin M. Vander Schel

Religious Studies Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Berkeley Redux: Imagination As Ethical Power In Shelley's "Mont Blanc", Daniel E. Lees

Professional and Public Writing Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bilingualism Across The Adult Life-Span: Age And Language Usage Are Continuous Variables, Sara Incera Burkert

ETD Archive

The purpose of this dissertation research was to analyze the effects of bilingualism and age on cognitive function. Specifically, I investigated the impact of bilingualism and age on two measures of executive control. The Stroop task is a measure of response inhibition, and the Flanker task is a measure of attention selection. Participants responded using a computer mouse. The mouse-tracking paradigm allowed me to examine the continuous dynamics of the responses as participants completed each trial. A better understanding of the impact of bilingualism and age on cognitive function has the potential to minimize cognitive decline in older age. The …

Leveling The Playing Field: Ensuring African-American Students Access To Advanced Placement Courses, Alisa L. Lawson-Mckinnie

ETD Archive

The under-representation of African-American high school students in advanced placement classes must be understood in terms of broader school contexts and practices. This qualitative study investigated how teachers and guidance counselors contribute to the academic success of African-American students of high potential at a large suburban high school in the city of Cleveland. The purpose was to improve the participation and performance of these students in AP courses. Data indicates that (a) school employees (teachers and guidance counselors) can positively affect achievement, (b) their definitions of success shape these students’ opportunities for achievement, and (c) developing the capacities of high-potential …

Predicting Student Success: Factors Influencing Nclex-Rn® Rates In An Urban University's Pre-Licensure Programs, David M. Foley

ETD Archive

As the US population becomes more diverse, schools of nursing are faced with the formidable challenge of graduating diverse groups of competent students who will pass the NCLEX-RN® and serve an equally diverse public in the safest manner possible. Although institutions of higher learning have adopted plans to enhance diversity among nursing graduates, tension is created between these initiatives and the academic rigor required by nursing education. In particular, schools of nursing in diverse urban metropolitan areas face unique challenges educating increasing number of men, minorities, and students for whom English is a second language (ESL). Stanton-Salazar’s (2011) Social Capital …

"I Warn You Ming, Stay Away From My Friends!”: The Language Of Superhero Mythology In Flash Gordon, R. James Buehner

ETD Archive

The Flash Gordon (Stephani, 1936) serial is a profoundly important, indeed seminal superhero film that has not been granted the critical attention that it deserves within modern film scholarship. Its position at the beginning of the genre of the modern screen superhero is examined through its evident thematically mythic implications and its culturally centered historical aspects. The serial Flash Gordon is treated and analyzed as a self-standing text that provides clues to the ontological and genealogical foundation and conventions of the screen superhero that is dominant in the media landscape today. This analysis is conducted through the Freudian – Jungian …

The Voice And Cystic Fibrosis: A Descriptive Case Study, Veronica Smitley

ETD Archive

Cystic fibrosis is a common autosomal recessive disease with severe effects on the respiratory, digestive, and endocrine systems. Symptoms include chronic cough and wheezing, frequent upper respiratory tract infections, and reflux disease. While most treatments for cystic fibrosis aim to mitigate the respiratory and gastrointestinal dysfunction, the potential adverse effects on an individual’s voice has not been researched in a systematic manner. We hypothesized that individuals with cystic fibrosis may show physical signs of vocal fold damage, as well as common dysphonic symptoms. Given the impact voice disorders have an overall quality of life, identification and management of cystic fibrosis-related …

A Survey Of Speech Sound Production In Children With Visual Impairment, Shannon L. Zeszut

ETD Archive

Few studies have explored the characteristics of speech sound productions in children with visual impairments. Similarly, there is little research on how speech- language pathologists provide therapy to improve speech sound productions in children with visual impairments. This study addressed the need for research evidence upon which speech-language pathologists might base their clinical practices. The intent of this report is to contribute to the available information on successful speech-language therapy for speech sound productions in children with visual impairments.

Fifteen speech-language pathologists responded to a survey that inquired about speech sound productions in the children with visual impairments on their …

Local Knowledge, Global Stage, Regna Darnell, Frederic W. Gleach

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

The Histories of Anthropology Annual presents localized perspectives on the discipline’s history within a global context, with a goal of increasing awareness and use of historical approaches in teaching, learning, and conducting anthropology.

This tenth volume of the series, Local Knowledge, Global Stage, examines worldwide historical trends of anthropology ranging from the assertion that all British anthropology is a study of the Old Testament to the discovery of the untranslated shorthand notes of pioneering anthropologist Franz Boas. Other topics include archival research into the study of Vancouver Island’s indigenous languages, explorations of the Christian notion of virgin births in …

Rebuilding Shattered Worlds, Andrea L. Smith, Anna Eisenstein

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Rebuilding Shattered Worlds explores the ways a demolished neighborhood in Easton, Pennsylvania, still resonates in the imaginations of displaced residents. Drawing on six years of ethnographic research, the authors highlight the intersecting languages of blight, race, and place as elderly interlocutors attempt to make sense of the world they lost when urban renewal initiatives razed “Syrian Town”—a densely packed neighborhood of Lebanese American, Italian American, and African American residents.

This ethnography of remembering shows how former residents engage collective memory-making through their shared place, language, and class position within the larger cityscape. Demonstrating the creative power of linguistic resources, material …

Imagining Kashmir, Patrick Colm Hogan

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

During the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, Kashmir—a Muslim-majority area ruled by a Hindu maharaja—became a hotly disputed territory. Divided between India and Pakistan, the region has been the focus of international wars and the theater of political and military struggles for self-determination. The result has been great human suffering within the state, with political implications extending globally.

Imagining Kashmir examines cinematic and literary imaginings of the Kashmir region’s conflicts and diverse citizenship, analyzing a wide range of narratives from writers and directors such as Salman Rushdie, Bharat Wakhlu, Mani Ratnam, and Mirza Waheed in conjunction with research in …

Thinking About The Torah, Kenneth Seeskin

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

The Bible is an enduring source of inspiration for the human heart and mind, and readers of Thinking about the Torah will be rewarded with an enhanced understanding of this great work’s deeper meanings. Drawing on Western philosophy and particularly Jewish philosophy, Kenneth Seeskin delves into ten core biblical verses and the powerful ideas that emerge from them. He speaks to readers on every page and invites conversation about topics central to human existence: how finite beings can relate to the infinite, what love is, the role of ethics in religion, and the meaning of holiness.

Seeskin raises questions we …

Haters, Bailey Poland

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Cybersexism is rampant and can exact an astonishingly high cost. In some cases, the final result is suicide.

Bullying, stalking, and trolling are just the beginning. Extreme examples such as GamerGate get publicized, but otherwise the online abuse of women is largely underreported. Haters combines a history of online sexism with suggestions for solutions.

Using current events and the latest available research into cybersexism, Bailey Poland questions the motivations behind cybersexist activities and explores methods to reduce footprints of Internet misogyny, drawing parallels between online and offline abuse. By exploring the cases of Alyssa Funke, Rehtaeh Parsons, Audrie Pott, Zoe …

George Sword's Warrior Narratives, Delphine Red Shirt

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

The general focus in Lakota oral literary research has been in the study of content rather than process in oral traditions. In a new disclosure of the characteristics of Lakota oral style, Delphine Red Shirt shows how its composition and structure are reflected in the work of George Sword, who composed 245 pages of text in the Lakota language using the English alphabet. What emerges in Sword’s Lakota narratives are the formulaic patterns inherent in the Lakota language that are used to tell the narratives, as well as recurring themes and story patterns. Red Shirt’s primary conclusion is that this …

A Listening Wind, Marcia Haag

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

A Listening Wind, a collection of translated original texts and commentary edited by Marcia Haag, highlights the large array of Indigenous linguistic and cultural groups of the U.S. Southeast. A whole range of genres and selected texts represent language groups of the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Yuchi, Cherokee, Koasati, Houma, Catawba, and Atakapa.

The traditional and modern Native literature genres showcased in A Listening Wind include stories that speakers perceive to be in the past (or “fixed”), genres that have developed alongside these stories, and modern story types that have sometimes supplanted traditional tales and are now enjoying trajectories of …

Intersectionality, Anna Carastathis

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people’s lives. While “intersectionality” circulates as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices to urge a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to “go beyond” intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorial purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements.


Through a …

Challenges Facing East Asian Immigrant Children In Sexual Abuse Cases, Kim Roberts, Hongyuan Qi, Huan Zhang

Psychology Faculty Publications

Immigrants from East Asia make up 14.21% of the total number of immigrants in Canada. These families face many challenges as they acculturate to North America but, sadly, some of these children may be at risk for sexual abuse. In this position paper, we outline the ways in which East Asian children are at a particular disadvantage when considering prosecution of those who perpetrate abuse compared to Western non-immigrant children. We focus specifically on two areas of concern: 1) Cultural differences that can impact the disclosure of sexual abuse; and, 2) Language differences which reduce the chances that perpetrators will …

Narratives Of Resistance: (Re) Telling The Story Of The Hiv/Aids Movement – Because The Lives And Legacies Of Black, Indigenous, And People Of Colour Communities Depend On It, Ciann L. Wilson, Sarah Flicker, Jean-Paul Restoule, Ellis Furman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Centering the narratives of the intersectional struggles within the HIV movement for Indigenous sovereignty, Black and People of Colour liberation, and LGBTQ rights tirelessly fought for by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities legitimates their lives and legacies within the movement; and the relevance of a focused response to the HIV epidemic that continues to wreak devastation in these communities. The recent political push for a post-HIV era solely centers the realities of middle-class white, gay men and has genocidal implications for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour communities.

The Outsider Within: Béla Tarr And Hungarian National Cinema, Lilla Tőke

Publications and Research

Béla Tarr is probably the most paradoxical figure in contemporary Hungarian cinema. His artistic trajectory shows a movement from documentary style realism (Family Nest, 1979) towards more modernist cinematic practices (Satan’s Tango, 1994, Werckmeister Harmonies, 2000, and The Man from London, 2007). A major celebrity in the global film culture that prides itself in being transnational, international, and in crossing linguistic and ethnic boundaries, Tarr has consistently found himself on the fringes of the Hungarian cultural and political establishment. In this study Tőke considers Tarr’s films and public persona as catalysts in the debates about what constitutes “Hungarian cinema” in …

Lengua Latina: Representations Of Sex And Gender In Latina Literature, Jessica L. Harris

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

An exploration of the influence of Spanish language on gender, sexuality, and sisterhood in various aspects of Latina/o literature. In Chapter I, I examine Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s film, Chicana playwright Josefina Lopez's Real Women Have Curves, and Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera as a tool for analyzing conceptions of “Other” and the ways these issues intersect with one another. In Chapter II, I look at La Virgen and La Malinche dichotomy and the ways stereotypes appear in Latina poetry. In Chapter III, I discuss hermanas and comadres and their importance outside the intimacy of romantic relationships. Throughout this project, I …

Cooperative Learning Activities In Social Studies Classrooms And The Effect On Self-Determination For Students With And Without Individualized Education Programs (Ieps), Carey Anne Aubrey-Martinez

Wayne State University Dissertations

Students with disabilities are spending significantly more time in the general education setting than they have historically. General education teachers are in need of strategies to enable them to work with these students more successfully. Additionally, research shows that all students could benefit from activities geared toward developing self-determination skills.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to see if the use of cooperative learning activities could improve the self-determination abilities of general education students and students with an Individualized Education Program in a social studies classroom. Students were given the American Institutes for Research Self-Determination Scale as a pretest …

Funds Of Knowledge Of Arab Immigrant Families: An Examination Of The Perceptions Of High School Students, Parents, And Teachers, Hiba Kahil Elhajj

Wayne State University Dissertations

With the growing numbers of English learners in American schools, the Federal Government has mandated special services and programs to meet the needs of this population which increased research about the best strategies that would help close the gap between ELs and their peers. Nonetheless, the current education system still views ELs from a deficit lens which focuses on closing the gaps in students’ education instead of focusing on the assets that they have. Therefore, there is a specific need to bridge the home and school environments together so that teachers can build on the skills that students bring from …

Understanding The Experiences Of A Group Of Yemeni Students In An Esl Science Class, Gihan Fradi

Wayne State University Dissertations

American classrooms are experiencing an influx of diverse language speaking students while for science educators the study of EBL students’ learning in science classrooms is a relatively new field (Lee & Buxton, 2010). At the same time there is a growing emphasis on the importance of science practices (NGSS). This poses significant challenges for science educators who are enacting science curriculum that supports all students’ learning. Supporting EBL students’ academic achievement is significant because literacy is important for students’ access to economic and social benefits that come with science literacy (Atwater, 1996).

The purpose of this study was to examine …

Impact Of Self-Selected Versus Prescribed Level Reading On Arabic Speaking Ell Students: A Mixed Methods Study, Manal M. Assi

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

IMPACT OF SELF-SELECTED VERSUS PRESCRIBED LEVEL READING ON ARABIC SPEAKING ELL STUDENTS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

by

MANAL M. ASSI

May 2016

Advisor: Dr. Sandra Gonzales

Major: Curriculum and Instruction; English as a Second Language

Degree: Doctor of Education

This study uses the Accelerated Reader collection to find which reading model, reading within the Lexile range versus having the choice to read outside the Lexile range, will positively impact Arabic speaking eighth grade ELL students and improve their attitude towards reading. The study was conducted in a Title III charter school in the metro-Detroit area. Participants included six female …

The Convergence Of Emotional Geography And Teaching: Considering The Influences Of Emotionality On Female High School English Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Work, Brigitte Diane Knudson

Wayne State University Dissertations

This qualitative research study explored the ways in which sociocultural and professional emotional geographies contribute to female high school English teachers’ perceptions of the work of teaching, as well as how they shape their professional identities. Data collection methods over a 12-week period included a researcher reflective journal, survey, focus group interviews, and individual interviews.

The study sought to understand how female high school English teachers understand the work of teaching and considered their perceptions through lenses of gender and socioeconomic class of both the teacher and the teacher’s school of employments. To this end, the findings represented both a …

Acculturation And Multiculturalism Of Students In Secondary Level Education Programs, Rachelle Warren

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Even with the rapid changes that individuals are currently experiencing in the U.S. as a result of its fluctuating economy, increased immigration, and evolutionary technological advances, there is not a curriculum or course requirement that exists for Michigan students in secondary level education programs which specifically addresses the issue of acculturation and multiculturalism. This situation is a present reality. Whether planned or unceremoniously imposed, adjusting to a new way of life can be challenging for many people, and establishing a venue for learning the skills to successfully accomplish this task is imperative. If there is a demonstrated need for …

Exploring Crossover Effects Among Working Spouses Through The Lens Of Social Cognitive Theory: Soc And Work-Family Conflict, Kevin Thomas Wynne

Wayne State University Dissertations

Managing competing demands from multiple life domains poses a significant challenge for today's workforce. In particular, employees who also have an active role at home often experience work-family conflict (WFC), which is associated with a number of negative outcomes. Research has shown that the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) set of coping strategies includes behaviors that tend to reduce WFC. However, it remains unknown how working spouses' use of these effective strategies "crossover" to influence the partner’s outcomes. Do individuals' use of SOC coping strategies reduce their spouse's experience of WFC? Using an emergent data analytic method—the actor-partner interdependence model …