Digital Commons Network^™

Sherwood Anderson And The Industrial Corruption Of Midwestern Individualism, Hudson Rice

Senior Honors Theses

Sherwood Anderson’s literary Midwest reflects many of the idealistic characteristics resulting from the region’s frontier, agrarian origin. The most prominent of these characteristics is the region’s emphasis on and appreciation of human particularity. His novels Winesburg, Ohio and Poor White document the region’s unique relationship with individual particularity and how this particularity clashed with a new industrial lifestyle. The two novels reflect the Midwest’s unique understanding of individuality and offer an explanation for why the region’s response to an industrial cultural overhaul was so damaging for the Midwest’s identity, as the traditional identity was supplanted by an industrial one.

Reducing Septic-Reliant Households: How A Comprehensive Legal Scheme Could Improve Water Quality, Environmental, And Human Health, Karlin Foor, Anna Bailey

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Considering the [...] concerns of septic reliance in Virginia, this paper will present and explicate three issues pertaining to the Maryland Sustainable Growth and Preservation Act (the “Septic Law”). Maryland's Septic Law represents an effort at a statewide legal scheme for approaching the issue of rapid development on septic. It may function as a useful starting point for Virginia to approach the danger that failing septic poses to Virginian citizens and the health of the Chesapeake Bay, a vital contributor to the state economy and cultural heritage. Part II opens with an overview of Maryland’s Septic Law. Part III evaluates …

Can Changing Neighborhoods Influence Mental Health? An Ecological Analysis Of Gentrification And Neighborhood-Level Serious Psychological Distress—New York City, 2002–2015, Karen A. Alroy, Haleigh Cavalier, Aldo Crossa, Shu Meir Wang, Sze Yan Liu, Christina Norman, Michael Sanderson, L. Hannah Gould, Sung Woo Lim

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Neighborhood conditions influence people’s health; sustaining healthy neighborhoods is a New York City (NYC) Health Department priority. Gentrification is characterized by rapid development in historically disinvested neighborhoods. The gentrification burden, including increased living expenses, and disrupted social networks, disproportionally impacts certain residents. To ultimately target health promotion interventions, we examined serious psychological distress time trends in gentrifying NYC neighborhoods to describe the association of gentrification and mental health overall and stratified by race and ethnicity. We categorized NYC neighborhoods as hypergentrifying, gentrifying, and not-gentrifying using a modified New York University Furman Center index. Neighborhoods with ≥100% rent growth were hypergentrifying; …

Evaluating The Impact Of Land Use Changes, Drivers Of Tmdl Development, And Green Infrastructure On Stream Impairments, Charitha Jayasri Gunawardana

Dissertations (1934 -)

Despite the water quality improvements and regulatory advancements over the last 50 years since the enactment of the Clean Water Act, water bodies within the United States are still impaired for a broad range of contaminants from non-point source pollution. Improving watershed management approaches to meet this challenge will require a greater understanding of (1) how changes within a watershed, such as changing land use, impact stream water quality, (2) what influence socioeconomic, spatial and political factors may have on the progress towards meeting water quality goals, such as those set within Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and (3) how …

Telemental Health In Emergency Care Settings: A Qualitative Analysis Of Considerations For Sustainability And Spread, Mckenzie K Roddy, Patricia Chen, Alvin D Jeffery, Jeydith Gutierrez, Melissa Rubenstein, Corey Campbell, Eric Blake, Michael J Ward

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: Following rapid uptake of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined barriers and facilitators for sustainability and spread of telemental health video (TMH-V) as policies regarding precautions from the pandemic waned.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using semistructured interviews and observations guided by RE-AIM. We asked four groups, local clinicians, facility leadership, Veterans, and external partners, about barriers and facilitators impacting patient willingness to engage in TMH-V (reach), quality of care (effectiveness), barriers and facilitators impacting provider uptake (adoption), possible adaptations to TMH-V (implementation), and possibilities for long-term use of TMH-V (maintenance). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed …

Sustainable Development In Hazard Mitigation Planning, Brooke Morrell

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

No abstract provided.

Terry Pratchett’S Witches Novels And The Consensus Fantasy Universe: A Feminist Perspective, Clair J. Hutchings-Budd Ms

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Abstract

Between 1987 and 2015, Terry Pratchett published eleven novels and one short story within his Discworld universe that came to be known as his “Witches” sub-series. In these texts he engaged with the narrative imperatives, preoccupations, and tropes which together make up the consensus fantasy universe, and those deeper mythologies and legendarium with which the author necessarily has an intertextual relationship. This paper focuses upon one aspect of that consensus universe, which is the difference between male and female magical practitioners—witches and wizards—in the fantasy canon, and how Pratchett sought to challenge and subvert the stereotypes of the genre …

Mythopoesis In Tennyson's Idylls Of The King, Rebecca A. Umland

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This essay examines mythopoesis in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. This epic Arthurian poem includes features of the futuristic and fantasy genres and confounds linear time. The poet creates an imaginary geography—one steeped in history and myth—for the arrival and departure of his remarkable hero, Arthur. Moreover, through the mythopoesis of his epic poem, Tennyson’s King is more than human, differing in both degree and kind from his knights. The bookend poems that open and close the combined Idylls represent two of Tennyson’s boldest departures from the received legend that emerged out of the Middle Ages.

Gluten Free Diet Ameliorates Si Enteropathy In Iga Deficient Mice, Ryan Albert William Ball

Theses and Dissertations

Secretory IgA is the most abundant antibody in the intestinal mucosal and functions as the first line of defense against pathogens and micro-organisms in the gut. Selective IgA deficiency is the most common form of antibody deficiency. Clinically, IgA deficient patients are largely asymptomatic, they are however at a higher risk of developing certain inflammatory conditions like Celiac disease; an SI-specific enteropathy triggered by exposure to dietary gluten. Interestingly, celiac patients are 10-15 times more likely to have an IgA deficiency. Recent studies have shown that IgA^-/- mice develop enteropathy specifically in the ileum. We confirmed this phenotype in …

Cashing The Check Of Democracy The American Revolution And Citizenship In The Black Freedom Struggle 1960-1970, Zachary Earle Clary

Theses and Dissertations

Separated into three interconnected parts, this thesis first proposes a reconfiguration of the vocabulary that historians use when classifying the memory and legacy of the American Revolution in the twentieth century. From there, I offer a comparative analysis of the Black Freedom Struggle’s relationship to the Declaration of Independence and other components of the American Revolution to demonstrate that the Revolution, while useful as a rhetorical tool or a conceptual model, functioned primarily as a counterpoint to the twentieth-century quest for Black citizenship. In other words, the American Revolution was a formidable example of radical protest in the American past, …

“We Are Created Inferior To Men”: Leveraging Horsemanship To Reinforce Gender Expectations, 1830-1861, Gabrielle Marie Mccoy

Theses and Dissertations

Horses have played a central role in human society since 3500 BCE when humans began domesticating and riding horses in large numbers. Horses continued to be important to human society during the nineteenth century as people used horses to drive industrialization, manage plantations, and transport goods, among other uses. Although historians and anthropologists have long extolled the horse’s laboring value, this paper views the horse and horsemanship (i.e., horseback riding, horse training) in a social context. Through the examination of newspapers, fictional literature, and manuals, this paper argues that Americans used horses and horsemanship to reinforce antebellum gender expectations. Reinforcing …

The Widened Hearthstone Urban Playgrounds As The Infrastructure Of Public Mothering, 1900-1930, Alexandra Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the limitations on their formal political involvement, women across the United States took control of the Progressive Era playground movement, and playground advocates nationwide argued that urban play spaces constructed motherhood into the city. While many mothers used playgrounds for child care, playground directors used the maternal authority constructed into playgrounds to promote their ideas about ideal citizenship. One playground director, Mabel E. Macomber, called this aspect of playground work the “'mother' element,” believing, as did other workers and advocates, that playgrounds were part of the apparatus of urban mothering, and in the case of many poor working women, …

Learning To Spell, Alana Ines Perez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores homonymic variations of the word “spell,” sewing together the framework for the ways my poems think about bilingualism, magic, Caribbean poetics, migration between northern and southern terrain, the body and personal spirituality. This thesis also experiments with forms old and new, such as the sonnet, and what I am naming “little altar poems” and “fragmented episodes.” These three forms attempt to do the work of recuperating Caribbean narratives and epistemologies. The “estrella sonnet” sequence uses the premise of an abortion as a way to initiate a nuanced discussion around how white patriarchy defines choice, consequently disregarding the …

Ciento Ochenta Grados: South Carolina Promotores De Salud And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Richard Lyle Strater

Theses and Dissertations

This research engages with promotores de salud in South Carolina to examine sustainability challenges in their work to support Hispanic and Latino communities through advocacy-as-care approaches. This thesis contributes to scholarly literature on CHWs in the United States at a time when the profession is working to legitimize itself through professional advocacy, which includes the organization of state CHW associations, regional CHW networks, and the National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW). Their work to support communities is, at times, made more difficult because of their positioning within formalized neoliberal systems of care, while also being marginalized by their lack …

From Derby Tracks To Surf Shacks: Reflections Of California’S Changing Cultural Landscape Through Artistic Renditions Of Recreation 1930s-1960s, David Walls

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to analyze works of art originating in the state of California during the 20^th century to better understand how sports and recreation were used as a subject matter to reflect upon the state’s changing cultural landscape. This changing landscape encompasses a wide range of social, cultural, economic, and political topics, however, the topics of race, migration, and economic strife are the most consistently reflected in the artistic production of this time and must be emphasized. Scholarship of art created within this region and timeframe has neglected the impact of recreational subject matter and …

Rhetorical New Materialism, Queers, And Cringe, Katherine Anne Schell

Theses and Dissertations

Cringe, the negative reflexive reaction we experience when we witness something embarrassing or awkward, has a bad reputation in the queer community. In online and physical queer spaces, there is a pervading belief that “cringe culture” must be antithetical to queerness, that no queer community could possibly achieve liberation until it has eradicated the threat of cringe. This thesis revises that cringe vs. queer positioning by reimagining cringe as its own rhythm of queerness and examining the productive aspects of cringe through engagement with thinkers like Karen Barad and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The thesis, formatted as a response to a …

Projecting The Effects Of Climate Change And Urbanization On Longleaf Pine Stands In The Florida Flatwoods, Lilian Grace Hutchens

Theses and Dissertations

The southeastern United States once held millions of hectares of highly connected longleaf pine ecosystem. In a dramatic range reduction, longleaf pine now occupies less than 5% of its original extent, its remnant patches existing within a matrix of human-dominated land uses. Conservation planning for longleaf pine ecosystems is complicated given the ecosystem’s reliance on fire and the broad spatial and temporal scales at which longleaf pine management must operate. Planning timelines for longleaf pine management extend into the end of the 21st century, a period during which climate, fire regimes, and land cover are all expected to change, influencing …

A Flood Of Information: Assessing The Effectiveness Of An Enhanced Flash Flood Warning Social Media Graphic, Christopher John Long

Theses and Dissertations

Flash flooding is the most frequent and damaging type of severe weather globally. In the United States, heat is the only weather-related cause of death more frequent than flooding. However, while the number of deaths associated with other types of severe weather has decreased since the 1950s, the number of flash flood-related deaths has remained steady. Therefore, there exists a need to improve flash flood warning communication.

In this project, it is hypothesized that improving the National Weather Service’s flash flood warning social media graphic by including areas that commonly flood may increase individuals’ perceived storm risk, their intended compliance …

Dust Production And Transport In A Long-Lived Fluvial-Eolian System In The Pampas Of South America, Blake Marcus Stubbins

Theses and Dissertations

Wind-blown dust from southern South America links the terrestrial, marine, atmospheric, and biologic components of Earth’s climate system. The Pampas of central Argentina (~33-40° S) contain an extensive upper Miocene to Holocene eolian record that spans the relatively warm conditions of the Late Miocene to cooler climates of the Plio-Pleistocene and Holocene. We collected 13 loess, paleosol, and fluvial samples from the upper Miocene Cerro Azul and Rio Negro Formations which resulted in n = 5129 new detrital zircon U-Pb ages. Late Miocene rivers conveyed sediment from northern Patagonia, the Andes adjacent to the Pampas, and the Sierras Pampeanas to …

Language Ideologies In Transgender Communities In The U.S. South, Archie Crowley

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how metalinguistic discussions within transgender communities in South Carolina are shaped by experiences, identities, and ideologies related to intersecting social dimensions, specifically, gender, age, race, and regional identity. Based primarily on 20 ethnographic group and individual interviews with 41 transgender individuals living in South Carolina, as well as over 24 months of participant-observation in two trans organizations, the analysis illustrates how trans South Carolinians simultaneously navigated changing norms of community language use, expectations of regional linguistic practices, and mainstream discussions of trans linguistic affirmation. I draw on these sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological methods to examine how discourses …

The Theory Of Intonation: Boris Asafiev And The Russian Piano School Tradition, Polina Golubkova

Theses and Dissertations

Boris Asafiev was one of the leading musicologists whose Theory of Intonation is a philosophical and aesthetic study that comprehensively explains the historical and theoretical aspects of musical art. The Theory of Intonation is the methodological basis for music disciplines in Russia, including piano pedagogy. The purpose of this study is to create a source that explains Asafiev’s philosophical and aesthetic vision of the concept of intonation and to show how it can be applied to piano pedagogy. This study is also intended to translate and codify the Theory of Intonation and to provide examples of its implementation in any …

Centering The Teacher: How An Autonomy-Supportive Environment Impacts Arts Educators’ Sense Of Agency And The Collaborative Culture Of Their Education Networks, Kyle Andrew Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

In this action research study, I adapted statewide systems of support for visual and performing arts educators in an effort to promote a positive sense of professional identity and strengthen the collaborative culture of the support systems. Prior to this study, the educator network met monthly for professional learning sessions planned and facilitated by a leader in a non-teacher role. As an action researcher, I restructured the sessions to create an autonomy-supportive environment to foster educators’ leadership skills and promote authentic collaboration. Study participants had autonomy over the planning, aims, content, and facilitation of the networking sessions. A basic qualitative …

Parent Perspectives On Barriers And Facilitators To Optimal Healthcare And Medical Screenings For Children With Down Syndrome In South Carolina, Vinita Oberoi Leedom

Theses and Dissertations

Children with Down syndrome (DS) often have co-occurring conditions affecting vision, hearing, sleeping, and more. Screenings, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), can help prevent secondary disability, and allow children to thrive. Studies have evaluated the receipt of recommended screenings, but barriers and facilitators surrounding access to screenings and care have not been described.

Parents of 24 children with DS in SC were recruited through schools and family support groups. One-hour long interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Information was collected on health, healthcare quality, respiratory concerns, pandemic effects, access to care, and knowledge about AAP …

Exploring The Current Training Of Undergraduate Geology Students And Teaching Spatial Skills To Improve Student Outcomes, Ann Marie Klyce

Theses and Dissertations

Spatial skills, which represent the ability to mentally manipulate objects (Schneider & McGrew, 2012; Atit et al., 2020) have been shown to be correlated with entrance, persistence and success in STEM (Shea et al., 2001; Wai et al., 2009). Specifically, these skills have been shown to be necessary to geologists and geoscientists (Hegarty, 2014; Gagnier et al., 2016). While we recognize the importance of these skills, explicit training in them is rarely offered (NRC 2006). Consequently, cognitive scientists and discipline based education researchers have begun concerted efforts to offer training in spatial skills to improve student outcomes (e.g. Uttal et …

To What Extent Do Existing Nature-Based Lesson Plans For Outdoor Learning Experiences In The Great Lakes Area Align To A Nature-Based Sense Of Place Framework?, Courtney Deavours

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This paper explores the question To what extent do existing nature-based lesson plans for outdoor learning experiences in the Great Lakes region align to a nature-based sense of place framework? Sense of place includes place meaning and place attachment that must be developed through experience. Chapter two explores nature-based experiences with examples from environmental education to help illustrate a sense of place development in action. The literature review further investigates current understandings of sense of place and current best practices for developing outdoor, nature-based, environmental experiences. The Sense of Place framework developed by Mathews et al. (2020) was used to …

Whale Watching In Early Childhood, Victoria Anderson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Whale watching (WW) is a growing business in the ecotourism industry. Two main goals of this industry is to support local conservation efforts and increase pro-environmental behaviors by altering participant environmental attitudes and beliefs. This capstone answers the research question: How can whale watching experiences contribute to the conservation efforts of ecotourism, educate youth on the importance of whales, and enhance the human-nature connection during early childhood? Research concludes that education plays a vital role in affecting participant environmental attitudes and beliefs. In addition to providing unique experiences to observe whales in their natural habitat, whale watching companies also have …

Nature’S Classroom: Designing A Practical Environmental Education Curriculum, Kendra Karwacki

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The world is currently facing a plethora of environmental catastrophes, and environmental education is a crucial tool for addressing this crisis. Environmental education (EE) programs, when included in formal primary schools, have been shown to create positive environmental changes and improve students’ academic performance, social-emotional learning, and physical health. However, teachers often face various barriers that impede their ability to implement EE programs in schools. This capstone combines three models for EE - place-based education, nature journaling, and community partnerships to address these barriers. The research question driving this project is: What factors do informal educators need to consider when …

Utilizing A School Garden To Promote Ecoliteracy In Elementary Aged Children, Kelsie Murphy

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Environmental education is a key component to building ecoliteracy in childhood. Due to the current climate crisis, developing a sense of ecoliteracy in the next generation is essential to slowing the effects of climate change. When students are given the opportunity to interact with nature on a regular basis, the connection between humans and their environment becomes that much stronger. Unfortunately, in the current public education system, little to no importance is placed on teaching science, let alone environmental science. A school garden offers an opportunity to provide students with more outdoor learning opportunities. This capstone uses a combination of …

Permaculture Curriculum For Public School Children In The United States, Nichole Ross

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Humans have created an environmental crisis on this planet that our children will have to deal with as its future caretakers. Unfortunately, we are not preparing them for this role. Research shows that children are spending too much time indoors, resulting in a disconnection from nature known as nature deficit disorder. In addition, we are not providing children with the sustainable design skills they will need to survive in uncertain times. Permaculture is a sustainable design science that can be used to teach children about sustainability and help connect them to nature. The public school system can reach the most …

An Educator's Guide To Expanding Accessibility To Nature Connections In Traditional Early Childhood Education, Olivia Romanello

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Over the last few decades, nature-based education has increased greatly in popularity across the United States. With its many developmental benefits, nature-based preschools have been an important hub to this movement. Children attending these schools are afforded many critical experiences that aid in their growth and development; gross-motor & social emotional skills, greater attentional capacity, and expanded creativity and critical thinking. This popular pedagogy has, however, not been equally accessible to all. With its many barriers, including but not limited to financial, this capstone uses an educator's guide to help answer the question: How can traditional Early Childhood Education programs …