All Trails Lead To Sterling: How Sterling Brown Fathered The Field Of Black Literary And Cultural Studies, 1936-1969, Amber E. Zu-Bolton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Poet and professor Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989) played a significant role in the birth of black literary and cultural studies through his literary and academic careers. Brown helped to establish a new wave of black cultural and folklore studies during his time as the “Director of Negro Affairs” for the Federal Writers’ Project. As a professor at Howard University, Brown influenced black literary studies through his literary criticisms and seminars and his role as a mentor to literary figures of the next generations. Through letters to and from Sterling Brown and manuscripts, this thesis argues that Brown’s poetry, publications and …

The Tradition Of Cassava Rice Eating: Communication Patterns Of Sunda Wiwitan Indigenous Families In Cultural Heritage In Cireundeu Village, Cimahi City, West Java, Nanda Utaridah, Antar Venus, Atwar Bajari, Dadang Suganda

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

The people of Cireundeu Village are known to hold firm Sundanese wiwitan customs and traditions of ancestral heritage that contain local wisdom. The tradition of eating cassava rice has been carried out by indigenous peoples for a hundred years since 1918 for generations. The process of introducing and applying the tradition of eating cassava rice was started by this traditional family in carrying out the inheritance of giving culture to the village of Cireundeu.

This research uses a qualitative method with a case study approach to three indigenous families in Cireundeu village who have different beliefs and birthplaces. As …

Salutogenesis And The Prevention Of Social Death: Cross-Cultural Lessons From Genocide-Impacted Rwandans And Indigenous Youth In Canada, Jobb D. Arnold

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Combining trans-disciplinary theories with cross-cultural ethnographic research, this paper explores community-based approaches to genocide prevention among Canadian-Indigenous groups as well as with Rwandan student genocide survivors. A Salutogenic framework is used to examine community responses to the micro-foundations of genocide (Antonovsky 1987). These processes are explored using first-hand accounts from “New Family” networks of student genocide survivors in Rwanda and members of a Canadian urban-Indigenous “Village.” These perspectives shed light on how locally adaptive, socially networked practices can help promote emergent forms of genocide prevention (Williams 1977). This paper focuses on three areas of local practice that have helped build …

Status And Remediation Of Mercury In Fish And Aquatic Ecosystems, Geoffrey Dean Millard

Dissertations - ALL

Mercury is a known neurotoxin which can bioaccumulate and biomagnify as methylmercury, causing significant human and ecological impacts. New York State and the surrounding region is impacted by mercury in complex ways as some areas are recovering from the effects of acidic deposition while the entire region is increasingly influenced by climate change. In order to better understand the drivers and trends of mercury dynamics in New York State, my research was conducted in three phases: 1) the impact of lime (calcium carbonate) additions on mercury cycling in small acid-sensitive headwater streams of the Adirondack State Park; 2) applied advanced …

Using Blended Learning To Enhance The Experience Of Students In Built Environment Related Degree Programs, Philip Russell, Ruairi Hayden

Support services (Former ITT) - Articles

Blended learning was introduced into the Construction Management programme in the School of Surveying and Construction Management at the Technological University Dublin in 2016. The module has traditionally been delivered by face-to-face teaching but online delivery has been facilitated using the Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard) which has enabled a more blended approach to academic instruction. This innovative change to module provision has also provided an opportunity to enhance the student learning experience within the School through a more flexible teaching and learning environment. In this paper, the design, development and implementation of blended learning into a Construction Technology module is …

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R4 Book Report 2 (Br2) By Title 2018-2019, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R4 Book Report 2 (BR2) for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019. Book Report 2 is defined as "Number of Successful Section Requests by Month and Title." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results: 119,275 successful section requests for 9,528 reported titles.

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R4 Database Report 1 (Db1) 2018-2019, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R4 Database Report 1 (DB1) for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019. Database Report 1 is defined as "Total Searches, Result Clicks and Record Views by Month and Database." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results: 817,969 regular searches, 412,951 result clicks, and 251,573 record views for 345 reported databases.

Political Communication Of Women's Aceh Legislators (Opportunities And Challenges Of Women In Aceh In The Public Sphere), Ainol Mardhiah, Dadang Rahmat Hidayat, Agus Rahmat, Nuryah Asri Sjafirah

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The lack of representation of women in Aceh parliament, indicates that women were left behind in every decision-making related to the development of the Aceh region. Though women are the largest group in this area. This paper intends to examine the political communication of women legislative members in Aceh by focusing on: opportunities and challenges for Acehnese women in the public sphere. This study uses qualitative research methods with a case study approach. The results of the study show that with the legalization of the Law no. 12, 2003 on the Public Election and Law on the Aceh Government no. …

Succession Of Microbial Populations And Nitrogen-Fixation Associated With The Biodegradation Of Sediment-Oil-Agglomerates Buried In A Florida Sandy Beach, Boryoung Shin, Ioana Bociu, Max Kolton, Markus Huettel, Joel E Kostka

C-IMAGE Publications

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill contaminated coastlines from Louisiana to Florida, burying oil up to 70 cm depth in sandy beaches, posing a potential threat to environmental and human health. The dry and nutrient-poor beach sand presents a taxing environment for microbial growth, raising the question how the biodegradation of the buried oil would proceed. Here we report the results of an in-situ experiment that (i) characterized the dominant microbial communities contained in sediment oil agglomerates (SOAs) of DWH oil buried in a North Florida sandy beach, (ii) elucidated the long-term succession of the microbial populations that developed in …

“If It Hadn’T Been For Writing, I Think I Would Have Lost My Mind:” Resilient Dwelling And Rhetorical Agency In Prison Writing, Maggie Shelledy

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Renewable Energy Development In Alaska: Policy Implications For The Development Of Renewable Energy For Remote Areas Of The Circumpolar Arctic, Gwen Pamela Holdmann

Engineering

The territories that comprise the Arctic region are part of some of wealthiest and most advanced countries on the planet; yet, rural Alaska, northern Canada, the Russian Far East and Greenland--characterized by off-grid communities, regional grids, and higher degrees of energy insecurity--have more in common with the developing world than the southern regions of their own country. This thesis explains this paradox of energy development in the Circumpolar North and tackles the issue of developing renewable energy in remote areas where technical and socioeconomic barriers are significant. The primary research questions are two-fold: 1) Why did the Alaska electrical system …

Developing Sociolinguistic Awareness Through A Digital Lexicon Project In A Fifth Grade Classroom In Rural Alaska, Julia F. Boynton

Linguistics

This teacher action research examines how teachers can build student awareness of language variations in order to help students make meaning during the learning process thus bridging the gap between home discourse and school discourse. In this study students built a digital lexicon using a class generated list of Village English terms that are present in Aniak, Alaska. The purpose of this study was to build students' sociolinguistic awareness through explicit instruction and the Aniak Digital Lexicon project. The findings showed that providing students with explicit instruction helped develop students during their meaning making process and students were able to …

Materials Of The Future, Zhanique Waite

Research Papers by TMD Undergraduate Students

This paper used material culture methodology to examine selected women's fashions from the 1960s housed in URI's Historic Textile and Costume Collection. The focus was on innovative materials. Included are three paper dresses, a metallic dress, and a pair of white vinyl go-go boots.

Teaching The Sun As Simile: Bringing Nature Into Language Arts Middle School Classrooms, Stormy Kage

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Teaching the Sun as Simile is an essay that explores an interdisciplinary approach to teaching middle school English Language Arts (ELA) by infusing nature and environmental studies. This essay defines emerging concepts of new literacy studies and eco-criticism, literacy, and composition as it relates to ELA pedagogy. Also, it provides an explanation for the importance and relevance of using nature to develop an ecosystem of better readers, writers and communicators in middle school general ed and special ed classrooms.

The Tortured Pre-History Of Urban Blight: African American St. Louis And The Politics Of Public Health, 1877-1940, Taylor Desloge

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a long history of the contested legal and environmental category of blight, especially in its racialized dimensions, in tandem with the African American experience of living in blighted urban spaces and forging a black politics of public health and welfare. Rethinking the conventional view that identifies blight as simply a preoccupation of post-World War II planners, this dissertation relocates its roots in a politics of public health that emerged a hundred years earlier, in the Post-Reconstruction Era, when black migration to the city and the rise of industrial capitalism raised new questions over both the social needs …

Gender In The Making: A Pragmatic Approach To Transgender Experiences In Lowland Tropical America, Magda Helena Dziubinska, Diego Madi Dias

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Based on long-term fieldwork experiences among both the Guna in Panama and the Kakataibo in Peruvian Amazonia, this article proposes to examine the transgender phenomenon in indigenous America. Making use of the notions of performance and status, we argue that (trans)gender should be understood via two complementary dimensions: at the same time that it is manifested in a set of expressive practices, it is also inscribed in a specific system of social organization. Adopting a pragmatic approach that emphasizes the relational, aesthetic and performative dimensions of gender, the article analyses the ways through which two Amerindian peoples negotiate and inhabit …

Teaching In A Multicultural And Demanding Society, Khalid Aada

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

What does involve leading a new experience of teaching and learning under the new paradigm of a true knowledge society? Is it about mastering the teaching experience through critical reflection, or knowing the natural and social environment in its multiple interactions? Isn’t it about favoring an educational environment where students are not only limited to participate in a traditional way, but expect to find meaning to their learning experience and be able to build the acquired knowledge? This article allows to identify different stages in the new educational models within a multicultural environment. In other words, a field where teachers …

The Impact Of Virtual Presence On Willingness To Book: The Moderating Role Of Self-Construal And Gender, Sung Jun Joe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Social influence is not limited only to interactive situations but also includes those that occur without a direct interaction such as the mere presence of others (Argo, Dahl, & Manchanda, 2005). Although there is wide agreement that the mere presence of others influences one’s decision-making process, little research is conducted to understand whether the effect of the presence of others influences consumer behaviors in an online context (Naylor, Lamberton, & West, 2012). To address this gap, this study suggests that mere virtual presence (MVP) provides social cues to the customer and influences the customer’s willingness to book (WTB). Specifically, the …

Minimizing The Dangers Of Air Pollution Using Alternative Facts: A Science Museum Case Study, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

A science museum exhibition about human health contains an exhibit that minimizes health impacts of air pollution. Relevant details, such as the full range of health risks; fossil fuel combustion; air quality statutes (and the local electrical utility’s violations of these statues), are omitted, while end users of electricity are blamed. The exhibit accomplishes this, not through outright falsification, but through selected “alternative facts” that change the focus and imply misleading alternate explanations. Using two classical rhetorical concepts (the practical syllogism and the enthymeme) allows for the surfacing of missing evidence and unstated directives underlying multimodal rhetoric. By stating multimedia …

Crip Time In Fin-De-Siècle Spain: Disability, Degeneration, And Eugenics, Erika Rodriguez

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

A period of intense nation-building, the late nineteenth century was marked by the search for medical and legal solutions to the increasing number of bodies that did not align with culturally constructed expectations of productivity and reproduction in Spanish modernity. Authors of this time used representations of disability to engage in urgent political questions about population control and the rights of individuals in the face of increasing medical intervention. In carrying out this analysis, I raise the question of how representations of disability created a space to reconfigure the social values that determined what lives matter. Focusing on canonical realist …

Trump Asks A Feminist Extraterrestrial For A Favor, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a feminist science fiction satire about impeachment.

Analyzing Discourse Surrounding The George Morris Ban: An Ideological Critique Of Sexual Assault Culture In Sports, Megan Mcloughlin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On August 6^th, 2019 one of the biggest names in the equestrian community, George Morris, was barred from the sport for life based on sexual assault allegations. I have conducted a Social Constructionist discourse analysis of the online responses to this case. Overarching themes exposed flaws in the hegemonic ideals of both the sports world and American culture in its entirety. As the case continues to develop every day, I have adapted my research to reflect new findings and have found that Deflection, Bolstering, and Reflection have emerged as the major themes of this discourse. This method allowed …

From Sharks To "The Big Ugly", Kristin Rearden, Joy Bertling

The Rural Educator

This longitudinal case study explored one rural elementary art teacher’s praxis for two years after she participated in professional development sessions on place-based education (PBE). These sessions focused specifically on PBE within the discipline of art for K-12 art educators in a geographically-large southeastern school district. Through surveys, observations, interviews, and document analysis of curricular materials, the researchers investigated the teacher’s experiences with PBE as she taught art in a rural area of the district. Her curricular decisions transitioned from a focus on art reflecting her personal knowledge base to art that built on students’ expressions of, experiences in, and …

The Miss America Pageant Should Restore Prioritizing The Evening Gown Segment, Keishel Williams

Capstones

Evening gown in pageants, as in society, has always represented a woman's way of expressing her personality and femininity through fashion. Miss America's attempt to stop requiring evening gowns implies that wearing formal gowns does not equate to being a modern, empowered woman.

Instead of attempting to erase the evening gown as an outdated part of a modern woman’s wardrobe, the Miss America pageant should restore the original gown segment and use this opportunity to reshape America’s perspective on how modern women can choose to wear gowns and still be empowered.

https://keishelawilliams.wordpress.com/

Final Master's Portfolio, Hammed Oluwadare Adejare

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio contains four related essays concerned with issues of race and migration in literary creations of diasporic African writers and film texts by African American film producers. The first essay offers a general exploration of contemporary African diasporic writings and the pervading Afropolitan politics of home and belonging. The next essay in the collection provides a theoretical grounding for this writing genre, tracing the connections between the theory, Afropolitanism, and earlier modes of theorizing global race relations such as postcolonialism and cosmopolitanism. The third essay explores the application of these theories to Teju Cole’s diasporic novel, Open City, explicating …

Language Diversity In The Greek Educational System: Promoting Multilingual Classroom Policies, Xanthippi Foulidi, Marianthi Oikonomakou, Evangelos C. Papakitsos

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study focuses on the position of mother languages in Greek education at the level of educational policy, demonstrating the necessity of their further emergence based on modern scientific findings on the benefits of bilingualism. Through an effort to record a set of obstacles that make it difficult for them to join the curriculum, a framework is proposed to be used for the language repertoire of all pupils, so that their rights are respected in practice and their linguistic richness serves as a source of enrichment for the whole population. The implementation of practices that could enhance the free and …

Utilizing A Critical Literacy Framework To Discuss Issues Of Power And Privilege With Elementary Students, Barbara A. Pollard

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

This action research study utilizes a critical literacy framework to bring issues of privilege and power into critical dialogue with elementary students. The study is based on the idea that disadvantaged groups can eventually agitate for societal change if they are prompted to begin to critically question systemic inequalities from a young age. Thus, instead of allowing dominant culture to dictate unfair norms and practices by simply abiding to the status quo, this study suggests that elementary teachers should aim to be the vehicle for transformational change by implementing pedagogy that encourages students to think deeply and critically. Over time, …

Contemporary Central American Imaginaries Under (Re)Construction: Landings In A Postwar Cultural Landscape, Rosario Catalina Ramírez

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation maps contemporary Central American cultural production in literature, music and grassroots networks for culture. It is focused on the postwar period in the region, from the signing of the Peace Accords in the 1990s onwards. I focus on emergent cultural narratives in order to analyze the reconstruction of isthmian imaginaries through a constructive lens. Cultural texts and discursive imaginaries are analyzed from a perspective grounded in local histories versus the grand homogenizing narratives that have historically defined the Central America isthmus, such as mestizaje and the revolutionary as paradigm. Through the analytical constructs of aterrizaje and descendencia, …

Study The South Essay Examines Whitney Plantation, Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Blog Posts

In the latest Study of the South essay, Sarah Payne looks at how recent representations of slavery have provoked discussions about who should represent black pain and oppression and what purpose such representations serve. The tour of Whitney Plantation, which opened in 2014 in Wallace, Louisiana, stands out as the only plantation tour in the US dedicated to depicting the antebellum South entirely from the perspective of former slaves.

Black Aesthetics And Relative Autonomy, Michael Kelly

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

There has been a recent revival of black aesthetics unprecedented since the 1960s. Some is happening inside academic philosophy, including in this journal (Volume 7, 2009). But there are more examples of black esthetics across other disciplines. A key, controversial concept in transdisciplinary black aesthetics is autonomy. Modern Western aesthetics was racist when it was established in the eighteenth century because blacks were not considered to be capable of autonomy, necessary to have taste. Now that this anti-black racism has been exposed, but until critics are convinced that aesthetics today is free of such racism, autonomy will be viewed as …