Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring “I Can Only Draw A Stick Figure”: The Influence Of Technology On The Creative Mind In Art Education, Tristan Stephenson

Art 895 Research Papers

Upon hearing someone is an artist, the public seems to commonly share the phrase, “I can only draw a stick figure.” To an art educator who aims to teach anyone about art, this statement may be perplexing. Even if individuals enjoy art as elementary-aged children, it appears people can lose an enthusiasm or mindset for art, regardless of ability. This phenomenological and arts-based study aims to break down why people think they cannot draw and better understand such thinking through the potential impact of today’s technology and digital culture. Information will be gathered through qualitative observations, documents, and visual materials, …

The Data Driven Body, Kimberlyn P. Konen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines how wearable fitness technologies function as persuasive digital tools that shape cultural understandings of health. Through a qualitative rhetorical analysis of popular devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, and WHOOP, the study explores how interface design, data visualizations, notifications, and marketing materials communicate implicit messages about wellness. Rather than acting as neutral measurement tools, fitness trackers promote specific values, including quantification, discipline, optimization, and self-surveillance. Findings reveal that these devices define health through numerical metrics, encourage consistent productivity, frame wellness as competitive performance, and use emotional feedback to reinforce success or failure. Additionally, marketing imagery promotes …

Gendered Politics Of Pictures: How Images In A Pakistani English Textbook Homogenize Female Identities, Liaquat Ali Channa

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative multimodal analytical study draws upon Kress and van Leeuwen’s ideas about pictures and problematizes textbooks of English that supposedly teach only English in Pakistan. It aims to understand the identities of an adult female as shown in the images of an English textbook. It uses Foucault’s theories of discourse and discursive formation, and a Vygotskian sociocultural view of the development of consciousness. By following Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019), all the pictures of the My English Book 4 are first analyzed thematically. Later, O’Toole’s (1994) method of analyzing pictures is employed for a detailed examination of a representative …

Navigating Barriers: The Career Challenges Of Chinese Non-Stem Graduates In The U.S. Job Market, Dilin Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the career challenges faced by Chinese international graduates from non-STEM fields as they transition from U.S. higher education to the job market. While prior research has largely focused on STEM graduates who benefit from favorable visa policies and high labor demand, limited attention has been given to non-STEM students navigating structural, cultural, and social barriers to employment. Guided by the intellectual capital framework—which encompasses human, cultural, and social capital—this study examined how Chinese non-STEM graduates experience and respond to these barriers within the intersecting contexts of immigration policy, labor market expectations, and cultural adaptation.

Five …

A Comparative Static Analysis Of Identifier Clones And Homonyms In Open Source Projects, Jose Palomino Lau

Theses

Identifier naming is a core element of software engineering and program comprehension. While existing literature suggests that naming consistency is ideal, there is limited empirical data on identifier homonyms, instances where the same name is used for different behaviors. This thesis investigates these naming patterns through a manual analysis inspired by grounded theory, supported by static analysis with srcML across three open source projects in Java, C and Python. By establishing a behavioral framework through axial coding, this research classifies 771 identifiers into functional categories to document their presence and role within the code. The results reveal that naming redundancy …

Morphological Analysis Of Oilima Markirya: Deciphering J.R.R Tolkien’S Early Elvish Poetry, Rebecca Colley

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines J.R.R. Tolkien’s Quenya poem Oilima Markirya (“The Last Ark”) through a morphological analysis of its linguistic structure. By constructing a detailed morphological chart, this study analyzes noun cases, verb conjugations, and derivational patterns in the poem, demonstrating how grammatical meaning is systematically encoded in Quenya. This paper also compares multiple versions of the poem preserved in Parma Eldalamberon 16, tracing how Tolkien revised morphological forms over time. These revisions reveal a movement toward greater regularity and structural consistency, suggesting that Tolkien approached Quenya as an evolving linguistic system rather than a static invention. Ultimately, this analysis highlights …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Atlas Assessment Levels And Asboa Instrumental Ensemble Concert Assessment Ratings, Daniel Cooper

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study investigated the relationship between two key forms of school accountability that relate to secondary instrumental music programs. A thorough review of relevant literature was conducted to establish a framework for analyzing how ATLAS achievement levels may predict ASBOA concert assessment ratings of bands and orchestras in Arkansas. A quantitative approach was used via a binary logistic regression to interpret the impact of ATLAS achievement levels and SES, as defined by free and reduced lunch percentages, on an ensemble's likelihood of earning a superior or non-superior rating at region concert assessment. Results found statistically significant relationships for the predictive …

The Effects Of Extracurricular Activities On Academic Achievement, Attendance, And Discipline On Hispanic Students In One Northwest Arkansas Junior High School, Michael Jennings

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Academic achievement and school engagement of Hispanic students are persistent concerns in the United States education system. Research has indicated that extracurricular activities can mitigate some of these concerns; however, limited research has examined their effects specifically among Hispanic students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of extracurricular activities on academic achievement, attendance, and discipline among junior high school Hispanic students. In this study, archival data from two consecutive academic years were obtained for Hispanic students in a public school district in Arkansas, United States.

Academic achievement was measured using state-standardized test scores; attendance was measured …

Akan Proverbs And Social Media Commentary: The Representation Of Women In Ghanaian Society, Richard Ayertey Lawer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines how gender ideologies embedded in Akan proverbs are reproduced, negotiated, and contested within contemporary Ghanaian digital discourse. Drawing on feminist rhetorical analysis and digital discourse studies, the research analyzes a purposive sample of 25 Akan proverbs and 36 social media posts and comments from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (2022–2025) focusing on women in public roles. The study demonstrates that Akan proverbs function as enduring ideological resources that construct women’s agency as conditional, subordinate, and morally regulated. These ideological patterns are recontextualized in digital spaces through both explicit citation and implicit proverbial reasoning, where users mobilize cultural logics …

Professional Portfolio: Becoming A Justice-Centered Practitioner, Akemi Nakagawa

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This professional portfolio reflects my learning through this program, including the knowledge and skills I have developed, how my learning has been shaped by the people I have learned from and alongside, and what I will carry forward into future practice. I share my developing theoretical orientation that guides my thinking and practice, grounded predominantly in the Reproductive Justice framework, Critical Social Work, Janet Finn’s Just Practice framework, and by the work and wisdom of Paulo Freire–particularly his pedagogy of popular education.

This portfolio also reflects my ongoing development as a social worker who is committed to advancing intersectional justice …

The Illocutionary Constitution Of Second Nature: An Interpretive Reconstruction Of Hegel’S Philosophy Of Language, Roland William Carspecken

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers an interpretive reconstruction of Hegel’s philosophy of language. Rich reflections on the nature of language and its significance to human life can be found across Hegel’s works. Many of these reflections strongly suggest that language plays a vital role in Hegel’s philosophical project. Yet surprisingly, Hegel never set down a comprehensive account of his view of language. To this day, it remains a matter of dispute whether Hegel’s writings on language are consistent enough to amount to a single ‘philosophy of language’ and, if they are, what sort of philosophy of language they might offer. In the …

Values-Based Clinical Ethics: A New Model Of Health And Ethics Consultation For Patients Suffering In Extremis, Adam Trainer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that contemporary clinical ethics is inadequately equipped to support patients suffering in extremis because it relies on an insufficiently discriminating account of health and a constrained model of moral reasoning. Drawing on Bernard Lonergan, it reconceives health as an emergent, multi-layered, heuristic notion shaped by biological, psychological, social, and existential goods. On that basis, it critiques principlism’s global applicability thesis and the undergirding claim that its principles form part of the common morality, arguing that this justificatory structure is philosophically insufficient and practically limited for clinical ethics in cases marked by profound suffering, moral plurality, and normative …

Brief Reviews Of Books And Products: Theses On The Metaphors Of Digital-Textual History, David Advent

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History is an exploration of seven key metaphors that Martin Paul Eve, Professor of Literature, Technology, and Publishing at Birkbeck College, University of London, argues have structured our cultural and linguistic understandings of the world around us. Eve organizes the book around eight chapters (“theses”), with each metaphor comprising a separate chapter. The theses are connected thematically in pairs, save for the closing chapter. Eve decodes each metaphor into its basic elements and interweaves the complex digital and textual histories behind each metaphor. Overwhelmingly, Eve wants readers to recognize how striking the parallels are …

Sir Gawain, The Travelling Sun Of Medieval Literature, Leah H. Dascoli

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines Sir Gawain’s roles in Medieval Arthurian literature from various geolinguistical regions in Europe. Starting in the twelfth century and extending to the late fifteenth century, there is a shift in literary legends that can be glimpsed through understanding what roles the authors of the Arthurian genre use for Sir Gawain.

By incorporating evidence within the text and supplementary evidence of historical context during which the stories were written and translated, this study seeks to create a discussion between the more obscure sources and more circulating sources in which Sir Gawain is a common factor. It argues that …

How To Fail At Faith, Olivia R. Bacon

Honors Theses

How to Fail at Faith tells the story of Ruth, a girl in middle school who begins to doubt her faith in the Christian God. With these doubts come existential questions, fear, and, most strangely, a voice that narrates Ruth’s everyday activities inside her head. Ruth is scared this voice means she is only a character inside a story, but is even more scared to tell her parents about her internal struggles. As Ruth grapples with her faith, this “narrator” becomes a tangible support amid uncertainties. Ruth surrenders to trusting God after fighting her doubts, and discovers that her mysterious …

Developing Spanish-Language Campus Tours To Enhance Accessibility And Competitive Recruitment At The University Of Mississippi, Caitlyn E. Culpepper

Honors Theses

This thesis proposes and outlines an initiative that would bring Spanish-language campus tours and visit resources to the University of Mississippi, increasing accessibility to the campus visit experience while also providing institutional benefits within a competitive recruitment landscape. Through a review of current literature on Hispanic/Latino students in higher education, institutional enrollment and recruitment data, comparative research on peer institutions, and conversations with university professionals, this project explores the role that language accessibility, family engagement, and campus visits play in the college decision-making process.

Findings suggest that Hispanic/Latino students remain an underrepresented yet rapidly growing population in higher education and …

Beyond Barriers: Understanding The Struggles And Support Systems For English Language Learners In Mississippi Public Schools, Gurkirt K. Sandhu

Honors Theses

English Language Learners (ELL) make up a growing portion of Mississippi’s public school population, yet questions remain about how effectively schools are supporting their academic development. This study explores the structure and implementation of ELL programs in the state of Mississippi, with a focus on how these programs are experienced by those directly involved: ELL administrators, parents, teachers, and former ELL students. By examining both institutional practices and personal perspectives, this study aims to better understand the strengths and limitations of the present Mississippi ELL support systems. This study employed a qualitative approach to gather insights from the above-mentioned individuals …

Tensions, Characteristics, And Methods Surrounding Critical Autoethnographic Narrative: A Dialogic Review Of Bedrettin Yazan’S Autoethnography In Language Education, Meryem Büşra Ünsal, Ufuk Keleş

The Qualitative Report

In this book review, the authors critically explore Bedrettin Yazan’s Autoethnography in Language Education, which addresses theoretical, methodological, and ethical dimensions of autoethnography in applied linguistics and teacher education. Organized as a reconstructed scholarly dialogue between a doctoral advisor - Ufuk, and a doctoral researcher - Meryem, the review systematically outlines the book’s central arguments, chapter structure, and contributions to qualitative research. Attention is given to Yazan’s positioning of autoethnography as an onto-ethico-epistemological stance, his engagement with debates surrounding legitimacy and rigor, and his discussion of reflexivity, identity, and emotional labor in research. The review also highlights the book’s practical …

Using Forensic Psycholinguistic Analysis To Detect Dark Tetrad Traits In Police Interviews Of Murder Suspects, Amanda Janette Borman-Ballard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Inner City Black Male Mentors’ Narratives Of Emerging Adulthood And Civic Engagement, Andrea Maria White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Msw Portfolio, Kyle Dyrud

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Left Out And At Risk: Post-Pandemic Continuation Of Organizational Service Reduction In Metropolitan New York City Coincides With Rise In Opiate Use And Mental Health Problems For Latinos, Ruth Lin Campbell, Smita Ekka Dewan

Publications and Research

Increasing opiate use and mental health problems among younger and older Latinos in urban US contexts prompted this investigation into the organizational resources that facilitate help-seeking efforts of Latinos in New York State (NYS). Guided by a Vulnerability Model and a framework of organizational enabling resources, this study used complementary longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. The longitudinal component examined changes in levels of organizational facilitators for Latino substance use disorder (SUD) help-seeking in Downstate NYS across three time periods, while the cross-sectional component compared post-pandemic facilitator levels across service types and regions. A convenience sample of 241 SUD clinicians participated in …

Ai-Enhanced Feedback Loops In Physical Education Teacher Education: Using Chatbots And Brisk Ai To Support Reflection And Instructional Growth, Nikki Hollett, Sheri J. Brock

Educational Practices in Kinesiology

Educating physical education teachers to deliver effective online and hybrid instruction presents unique challenges. Instructors cannot observe preservice teachers live in a gymnasium, and real-time feedback is impossible. When dozens of students submit micro-teaching videos, the traditional feedback cycle breaks down. This teaching and learning resource presents a practical, scalable model to address these constraints through integration of two accessible AI tools: Brisk AI for automated video analysis and custom-designed AI chatbots for guided reflection. Through this approach, preservice teachers record short lessons, receive immediate automated feedback on their teaching behaviors, engage in chatbot-guided metacognitive reflection, and revise and reteach …

An Analysis Of Web-Based Languange Learning On Students Speaking Anxiety, Alfi Syahrina, Zarfina Yenti, Monalisa Monalisa

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

This study explores the use of Duolingo as a web-based language learning tool and its influence on students’ speaking anxiety at MTs Nurul Falah Kota Jambi. Speaking anxiety remains a significant affective barrier in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning, particularly in traditional classroom settings where students often experience communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. Employing a qualitative case study design, this research involved approximately 15 students who had used Duolingo for at least six weeks, along with one English teacher for triangulation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations and analyzed using thematic …

Drumming In Spring, Mary Moroney-Fernandez

The Cicadian

No abstract provided.

The Conceptual Architecture Of America First—Ideological Transactionalism And The Case Of Cuba, Larry Catá Backer

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Distinguished Alumni

Lloyd Clark Papers

Program for the 1999 Distinguished Alumni Gala at The University of Texas at Arlington

Asiaconnect Newsletter, May 7, 2026, Asiaconnect, Illinois State University

AsiaConnect

No abstract provided.

Countering Negative Language Attitudes: Adopting A Critical Multidialectal Approach To Language Teaching, Farah Ali, Kristen Terry, Rebecca Pozzi, Chelsea Escalante, Tracy Quan, Xinye Zhang

Global Language Studies Faculty publications

Language attitudes have been recognized as an important area of study in sociolinguistic research (Evans & Preston, 2023; Preston, 2013), and the consequences of prescriptive ideologies and negative attitudes toward non-privileged varieties extend to language instruction. These ideologies regard certain uses of the language as unacceptable if they diverge from what is considered the “standard” variety, established through linguistic imperialism and a colonial heritage (Benaglia & Smith, 2022) and perpetuated by linguistic authorities. Adherence to a prescriptive perspective without questioning its ideological and discriminatory function leads to the reproduction of a “deficit perspective”, in which those who use alternative varieties …

So All Students Learn And Thrive: An Improvecrit Analysis Of A School’S Multi-Tiered System Of Supports, Rebekah Kang

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) is an integrated K-12 educational framework that addresses the needs of all students in a systematic way by focusing on prevention and the implementation of evidence-based practices (California Department of Education, 2023). The “Guide to Implementing California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support” (Orange County Department of Education, 2023) promotes the maxim “All Means All” which paints a picture of schooling where all students are receiving the supports they need to learn and succeed. However, critical MTSS researchers have argued that MTSS failed to address the needs of all students, especially students of color, because it did …