Digital Commons Network^™

The Confirmation Of Betsy Devos: Polarization, Populism, And Moral Foundations In U.S. Political Rhetoric, Jacob William Wrasse

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The political communication behaviors from both the U.S. voting public and elected representatives contribute to a political discourse that is typified by hyper partisanship and extreme polarization (Hibbing, Smith, & Alford, 2013). Existing research (e.g., Feinberg & Willer, 2015; Haidt, 2012; Westen, 2007) suggested that this is potentially because U.S. Americans tend to craft persuasive messages that they themselves would find logically and morally impactful, rather than critically analyzing the positionality and belief system of their intended audience. Research on Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) suggested that, for a contemporary rhetor, understanding the moral, ontological, and ethical precepts that support their …

Selected Folksong Arrangements Of Zoltán Kodály: An Analysis And Performer’S Guide, Sebastian A. Haboczki

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The history of Hungarian music and the Hungarian nation is a long and complicated one. Conquered by many different empires throughout history, Hungary faced challenges in maintaining its unique music and cultural heritage. Despite Hungary’s tumultuous changes of governance, its folksongs have evolved and flourished. Through the efforts of people such as Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók, and Lászlo Dobszay, these folksongs have been collected, studied, and categorized. Kodály, an accomplished musician whose research and music education philosophy can sometimes overshadow his compositional prowess, also composed folksong arrangements which embody the true nature of Hungarian music. These arrangements can be used …

The Art Curriculum As A Model Approach For Cultivating Higher Order Thinking Skills, Nicole Ross

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

As a life-long learner, I am fascinated by the abyss of knowledge that characterizes and composes a life of consciousness. As a teacher and mentor, I am committed to igniting this quest for knowledge in others and developing effective practices in doing so. The curriculum functions as an invitation to knowledge—or what can be seen as the crux of an education. The question I am most interested in answering is: “how can we most effectively approach curriculum in a way that inspires higher order thinking?” Throughout this study, I examined the factors that go into the formation of curriculum, the …

“‘Bere We Þe Cros’: The Persistence Of The Cross In English Ritual And Religious Practices From Bede To The Reformation”, David Black

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Long before Christian missionaries arrived in England in the 7^th century, the pagan population recognized the cross as a potent magical symbol. As a result, proselytizers shrewdly used the population’s familiarity with the cross, and their understandings of its power, to encourage converts to the new religion. Over the ensuing centuries of English Christian dominance, the magical aspects of the cross continued to develop both mythologically and theologically, without ever losing connection to their pagan origins. The Crusades, both through the propaganda of preachers and the massive influx of True Cross Relics, contributed in a substantial way to new …

The Devil In Cartagena: Slavery, Religion And Resistance In Seventeenth-Century Caribbean Colombia, Daniel James Dawson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis examines the role of religion in African communities in seventeenth-century Caribbean Colombia, and the tensions between the system of racial and religious hierarchy imposed by the Catholic Church and Spanish authorities and the everyday religious life of free and enslaved Africans and their descendants. It will examine interactions between African religion and Christianity and African resistance to Spanish Catholic authority. It will examine Spanish-Catholic thought on African spirituality, and investigate the relationship between African subjects and Catholic authorities in the Spanish Atlantic. It explores the goals of Catholic authorities in relation to African subjects, and the various methods …

The Arabic Animator's Perceptions Of Arabic Animation Film Industry, Ghanem Elhersh

Student Theses and Dissertations

Animated films from the Arab world hardly ever make it into cinemas in Japan, Europe or the United States, or onto the festival circuit (Van de Peer, 2017). The purpose of this research is to study the Arabic animation film industry from the point of view of its producers. Also, this study examines the reasons of the weakness of the Arabic animation films and the possible causes of the absence of the Arabic animation films from the world stage. This qualitative study has sought to understand the Arabic animator's perceptions of the Arabic animation film industry, and where is it …

Um Students To Intern This Summer In Eastern Asia, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Placements made possible through Freeman Foundation grant

Transcultural Performance Art, Political Intention, And The Aesthetic Projects Of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Coco Fusco, Violeta Luna, Roberto Sifuentes, And La Pocha Nostra, William R. Stark

Doctoral Dissertations

Transcultural Performance Art, Political Intention, and the Aesthetic Projects of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Coco Fusco, Violeta Luna, Roberto Sifuentes, and La Pocha Nostra

William R. Stark

University of Connecticut, 2018

This dissertation analyzes socio-cultural and socio-political concerns that characterize performance art in the United States (U.S.) from the late 1980s to 2015. Of particular interest to my research are performance artists who cross cultural borders and challenge normative cultural paradigms, celebrate cultural hybridity, and challenge the epistemological value of national, cultural, ethnic, and racial borders. My research examines the ways that multimedia performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña (1955 – Mexico City, D.F.), …

Topics In Stochastic Analysis And Riemannian Foliations, Qi Feng

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation contains three research directions.

In the first direction, we use rough paths theory to study stochastic differential equations and SPDEs. We first prove convergence and the rate of convergence of the Taylor expansion for the solutions of differential equations driven by $p$-rough paths with $p>2$. The main results are the Castell expansion and the tail estimate for the remainder terms. Our results apply to differential equations driven by continuous centered Gaussian process with finite $2D~\rho-$variation and fBm with $H>1/4$. We then give a new and simple method to get a priori bounds on rough partial differential …

A Holistic Approach To Jesus The Nazarene In Matthew 2:23, Dylan West

Senior Honors Theses

In Matthew 2:23 Jesus is said to have fulfilled what the prophets spoke when he and his family moved to Nazareth, that he shall be called a Nazarene. Due to the uniqueness of this term and the town of Nazareth being found nowhere in the Old Testament, multiple views have been proposed. These views include Jesus of the despised town of Nazareth, Jesus as a Nazirite, and Jesus as the branch from Isaiah 11:1. Each of these views propose their own interpretation of this Old Testament citation. However, these views often do not acknowledge the possibility of multiple meanings intended …

Arab Nationalism In A Francophone Country: The French Language And Moroccan Identity, Jewan Attallah

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

This paper examines French colonization in Morocco (1912-1956) and the formation of Moroccan national identity. After gaining independence in 1956, the Moroccan government implemented a language policy that aimed to reconstruct Arab-Moroccan national identity by only allowing standard Arabic in public education. As a legacy of the French protectorate, French became the language of aristocrats and upper classes. Currently, the linguistic split between Arabic and French makes students unemployable and illiterate because schools are not adequately preparing them for Morocco's workforce. French language fluency is required in political, economic, and academic sectors. While most scholars focus on contemporary debates, my …

Constructions Of Adolescence In James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain, Hannah Gautsch

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

In Go Tell It on the Mountain, race and adolescence influence each other in unique ways within the character of Gabriel. When Gabriel attempts to make a firm distinction between adolescence and adulthood in order to differentiate his righteous self from his sinful self, he characterizes sin as regression back into adolescence, which he then begins to fear. While the concept of queer temporality can be used to analyze Gabriel’s fear of regression, this explanation fails to include how Gabriel’s Blackness complicates his positioning. To connect adolescence with race, this paper reads Halberstam’s In a Queer Time and Place …

Beyond Motivation: Differences In Score Meaning Between Assessment Conditions, Nikole Gregg

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Written communication is a skill necessary for not only the success of undergraduate students, but for post-graduates in the workplace. Furthermore, according to employers the writing skills of post-graduates tend to be below expectations. Therefore, the assessment of such skills within higher education is in high demand. Written communication assessments tend to be administered in one of two conditions: 1) course embedded and 2) a low-stakes, non-embedded condition. The current study investigated possible construct-irrelevant variance in writing assessment scores by using data from a mid-sized public university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Specifically, 157 student products were …

Hell On Earth: An Exploration Into What Drives Evil, Samuel Taylor Hogan

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Evil abounds. Even the most cursory glance at the news yields harsh headlines about bombings, school shootings, acid attacks, murder, rape, sex slavery, torture, and the occasional mass genocide. The 20th century alone featured roughly 135 million military and civilian deaths due to war and democide (White & Pinker, 2013). Recently, a cultural narrative has emerged proselytizing that evil is an aberrant, caustic mutation of the otherwise unsullied human soul. Philosophers and sociologists, among others, contend that “civilization needs to believe that it does not have an inhumane or barbaric side, leading members of the mainstream to constantly project unacceptable …

Neuro-Cognitive Factors In Adolescent Psychotherapy, Jean F. Ndzana

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Cognitive and developmental differences between teenagers and adults must be overcome to ensure a level playing field in the process of counseling. Exploring the developmental factors involved, and discussing associated treatment interventions can help the counselor close this gap by improving client adherence to treatment and outcomes. This paper consists of a review of the current literature in neuropsychology, neuroscience, cognitive linguistics and counseling, as it relates to brain and cognitive developments in adolescence. These findings are referenced to show the many developmental changes that occur in adolescence, and how those changes can be a hindrance to successful participation in …

The Application Of The Specific Learning Disability Exclusionary Clause As Practiced By Virginia School Psychologists, Kaitlynn Carter

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

When special education eligibility is being determined under Specific Learning Disability, the exclusionary clause needs to be carefully considered. The current study was concerned with the exclusions of cultural factors, environmental or economic disadvantage, and limited English proficiency. The study used a semi-structured interview to explore when and how the exclusionary clause is considered by school psychologists in Virginia and what type of impact it has on eligibility decisions. Ten school psychologists were contacted via the email database of the Virginia Department of Education and completed a phone interview. Grounded theory was used to investigate the themes and ideas regarding …

From Critical To Calm: The Development And Implementation Of A Brief Unified Mindfulness Workshop For College Students, Mandi Eggenberger Quay, Mandi Quay

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Dramatic rises in levels of anxiety, stress, and depression in college students have been observed over the past decade and is so pervasive that it has been deemed the College Student Mental Health Crisis (CSMHC). A number of experts have argued that much of this crisis can be attributed to students’ overall lack of basic knowledge of emotions and adaptive emotional processing. To address this problem, this study sought out to develop a brief mindfulness workshop as an intervention for college students to help increase student well-being, decrease anxious and depressive symptomology, and allow for material to be easily internalized. …

Mental Toughness, Well-Being, And Coach-Created Motivational Climate Within Collegiate Athletics, Chad Doerr

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study examined the relationship between college student-athletes’ well-being, self-ratings of mental toughness in sport, and perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate. One hundred and two NCAA Division I female student-athletes completed measures of well-being, mental toughness, and coach-created motivational climate over the course of a university academic year. The author hypothesized that mental toughness and perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate would predict well-being. Overall, the results of the study found a predictive relationship between well-being and mental toughness, and well-being, mental toughness, and an ego-involving coach-created motivational climate.

These results provide initial evidence that cognitive, affective, personality, and …

Quaker Campus, May 3, 2018 (Vol. 16, Issue 24), Whittier College

Quaker Campus

No abstract provided.

The Cowl - V.82 - N.24 - May 3, 2018

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 82, Number 24 - May 3, 2018. 32 pages.

A Green Dialogue For Aging Society, Dian Tan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This thesis addresses the issue about disconnections of communication between human to human, and human to environment. It seems like we got connections with other people via various smart devices, meanwhile we are so disconnected with the people and environment where we are currently living. Technologies sometimes hinder the communicating ability of human. Architecture could become a media that contains more messages send to human, helping on the communication between human to human, and human to environment.

Confronting Silence: The Constitution, Deaf Criminal Defendants, And The Right To Interpretation During Trial, Deirdre M. Smith

Maine Law Review

For most deaf people, interactions with the hearing community in the absence of interpretation or technological assistance consist of communications that are, at most, only partly comprehensible. Criminal proceedings, with the defendant's liberty interest directly at stake, are occasions in which the need for deaf people to have a full understanding of what is said and done around them is most urgent. Ironically, the legal “right to interpretation” has not been clearly defined in either statutory or case law. Although the federal and state constitutions do not provide a separate or lesser set of rights for deaf defendants, their situation …

Inharmonic Resonance: Music And Temporality In Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Sarah Elizabeth Cash

Open Access Dissertations

This project examines the way nineteenth century authors use music in their work to complicate social expectations and hierarchies. These authors use music as a fluid metaphor for subversive possibilities that work against hegemonic readings of the text. By “music” I mean representations of people playing and listening to music, discussions of music in text, and the production of musicality through language. I posit that music confounds its own seemingly measured structure through the nature and movement of sound. Thus, “music” can operate in written text as a non-linear and non-cyclical temporal sound space, revealing cracks or ruptures in dominant …

Towards The Development Of An Integrated Theory Of Macro-Level Crime: A Multilevel And Geospatial Analysis Of Anomic Disorganization Theory, Eric Ramsey Louderback

Open Access Dissertations

In recent years, the United States has experienced increasing structural trends of steeply increasing crime rates in some urban neighborhoods and a widening gap in wealth and income inequality between social classes. The primary criminological theory applied to explain neighborhood crime rates is social disorganization theory, while the primary theory linking economic inequality to crime outcomes is institutional anomie theory. However, while there is an increasing trend in the literature towards integrating current theoretical perspectives to better explain macro-level crime, no integrated theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain neighborhood crime patterns applying social disorganization theory at the neighborhood-level and …

Final Ma Portfolio, Melissa Bruggeman

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio contains four projects, two of which are lesson plans to be used in the secondary Language Arts classroom.

Haiku Palindromes, Tim Heath

Word Ways

A collection of palindromes in Haiku form.

Word Ladders, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

A word ladder is a link between two given words in which each rung is obtained from its predecessor by altering exactly one letter in it.

Second Language Acquisition Of Voicing Patterns In Spanish Sibilants, William Hagerman

Honors College Research

In the current study, English-speaking students enrolled in an upper-level university Spanish class read a series of sentences that are designed to elicit alveolar sibilants [s, z] in coda position, both word-internal and word-final. Samples are analyzed using Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2005), and data analysis compares the duration of voicing of each sibilant to the total sibilant duration to determine the percentage of voicing assimilation. Given that voicing assimilation in native Spanish is variable rather than categorical (Romero 1999; Schmidt & Willis 2011; Garcia 2013), a control group of native speakers provides a comparison sample. Given the differences of …

Por Sangre, Emma Cahoon

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Por Sangre is a creative work and personal nonfiction essay written in partial fulfilment of Creative Writing Seminar: Non-Fiction, or ENGL470C, sponsored by Professor Colin Rafferty. In it, the author discusses her relationship to her grandparents’ country of origin, Cuba. She describes growing up with her heritage and ruminates on questions of identity and national origin. The essay focuses largely on a recent trip to the country in which she discovers cultural and familial connections. Through numerous scenes from the trip, the author reflects on what it means to belong to a place and how to create an attachment to …

“And/Or” And The Proper Use Of Legal Language, Ira P. Robbins

Maryland Law Review

The use of the term and/or is pervasive in legal language. Lawyers use it in all types of legal contexts—including statutes, contracts, and pleadings. Beginning in the 1930s, however, many judges decided that the term and/or should never be used in legal drafting. Ardent attacks on the term included charges that it was vague, if not meaningless, with some authorities declaring it to be a “Janus-faced verbal monstrosity,” an “inexcusable barbarism,” a “mongrel expression,” an “abominable invention,” a “crutch of sloppy thinkers,” and “senseless jargon.” Still today, critics maintain that the construct and/or is inherently ambiguous and should be avoided …