Digital Commons Network^™

Hyphenated Journeys: Identity Negotiations Of Multiethnic Vietnamese Americans Through The Lens Of Hybridity, Rheyna Leilahn Biu

Masters Theses

This study explores how Vietnamese Americans with mixed heritage navigate their identity. Through interviews and autoethnography, it examines how multiracial/multiethnic Vietnamese Americans maintain their Vietnamese identity while constructing their multiracial/multiethnic identity. The findings underscore the importance of several factors of identity maintenance, including seeking cultural security outside the home, language as a key to culture, and the importance of connection through cultural sharing in shaping and expressing multiracial/multiethnic identity. It uses Homi Bhaba's theory of hybridity to understand how these individuals view their hyphenated identities. The research highlights the role of verbal and nonverbal communication in this process. The researcher …

Indigenous Artists Working With Digital Materials, Luke A. Meeken

Teaching Resource Archive

This is a static PDF version of the online resource found here: https://www.gildedgreen.com/indigital This document contains the five thematic curricular modules from the online resource but does not contain the always-growing online database of contemporary Indigenous digital artists, who can be found at the above link.

This resource includes several thematic modules designed for use by educators of preservice art teachers, which can be adapted for use in graduate and undergraduate level courses (and parts of which will be deployed in my own elementary and secondary methods courses). These could be used in whole or in part, and are designed …

Disability As Identity, Jessica Schomberg

Library Services Publications

This chapter will focus on disability as an identity category: who gets to claim it, who gets to refuse it, and who has it thrust on them against their will. It will also talk about the power that comes from claiming disability identities and being in community with disabled people. This chapter will not discuss nondisabled as an identity category, nor will it discuss caregiver identities. With that basic understanding, we can work to move conversations about disability in libraries beyond the minimal expectations of inclusion and to a more joyous celebration of disabled people as full participants in library …

Digital Identity Negotiation: How International Students Balance Home And Host Country Ideals On Social Networking Sites, Oluchi Ikwuakam

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Minority groups, including people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, various ethnicities or races, gender non-conforming individuals, and others who are not part of the societal majority, face daily challenges due to unequal access to digital technology. From elementary school through college, the gap between students with better access to digital tools and those without becomes evident in how these technologies are used in classrooms. International students, who may be a majority group in their home country, become part of a minority in their host country as they seek better educational opportunities. These technologies, such as social networking sites, often reflect the …

Boba Tea Shops And Identity: Exploration Of Boba Shops Among College Students In Greater Orlando, Naydelin Karime Trejo Vega

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This thesis explores the cultural and social significance of boba tea shops among college students aged 18 to 26 in Greater Orlando. Although many people view boba tea as a trendy drink, this study treats it as a meaningful part of some students’ daily lives, identity formation, and sense of belonging. Through a multi-method approach that includes participant observation, surveys, and semi-structured interviews, I examine what motivates college students to purchase boba tea and how boba shops impact their identity and sense of belonging. I conducted fieldwork at three different boba tea shops in Greater Orlando—two franchises and one locally …

Makers Of Identity: Those That Hold It, Or Those That Create It?, Valentina K. Quintero

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Throughout the semester, the topic of AI potentially achieving personhood has been a deeply debated topic. Issues rise and fall depending on perspective, and there are still too many unknowns to be completely certain that AI has either managed to become a person or has not. One of the key details of personhood is the modern understanding of the word identity. This paper will go into the origins of the word and how it may have changed, and how it is important in regards to AI and its potential. Wittgenstein’s language games, personal opinion, and cultural influences will be explored …

The Experience Of Child Language Brokering In Latin/Hispanic Students: Understanding How Clb Shapes Attitudes Towards Higher Education, Noemi Maldonado

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Immigrants often pursuing a better life than that in their own places of birth migrate to the states. In order to make lives in the states they bring their families with them or begin to create their own already inside the host country. With little knowledge of the place, they arrive and with nothing more than the help of their children, they seek to find a place in the society they became a part of. Immigrant children or those who come from migrant families often must help their parents, caretakers, or extended family manage the English language and American culture …

Seeking Safety And Losing The Self: Affirmative Action Bans And The Whitening Of Mexican American Identity, Bella Bennett

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Vamos A Pláticar Sobre Nuestra Historia: De Mi Relación Con Mi Familia Al Éxito, Ana K. Pizano

Dissertations of Practice

This plática qualitative study explored how family engagement influences the college experiences of Latino/a/x students at a two-year public community college in the Midwest. This research was guided by Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model to help provide insights into how familial capital assists in navigating the college journey for Latino/a/x students using an asset-based perspective. This research aimed to help better understand the lived experiences of Latino/a/x students and their families at the 2-year Midwest public community college and to challenge the deficit-oriented views of Latino/a/x family engagement in Western culture through the sharing of Latino/a/x students' and families’ stories. …

Flags As Symbols Of Place: Unpacking Geographic Meaning And Identity In Student Flag Designs, Carlos A. Morales-Ramirez

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Flags have been around for centuries; however, vexillology, the study of flags, was not officially coined until the 1960s. Despite this, there is still a need for more scientific and empirical research. Using qualitative arts-based research (ABR) methodology, this study investigates the creative journey of students in an undergraduate geography course as they design a flag for a place of their choosing. Students were asked to interpret the concept of ‘place’ through their flag designs while also incorporating flag design principles. The results showed that participants selected places tied to themes such as hometown, family, love, memories, and culture often …

Glossed Over, Rebecca Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Glossed Over is a collection of interdisciplinary artworks exploring my Korean-American diasporic identity and how gender, queerness, religion, neurodivergence, and internet culture intersect within that experience. Through a blend of painting, woodworking, and sculpture, this installation carries the various elements of undefinable 한 (pronounced: han), a concept I attempt to define and contextualize in the Introduction and throughout this thesis. Each artwork operates through coded language, metaphor, and partial disclosure, offering space for the othered to find recognition through subtle cues and signifiers. Through Glossed Over and this thesis, I scratch the surface of my journey in reconciling generational trauma …

Echoes Of Antiquity: The Romanticization Of The Classical World Through Architecture In The Old South, Cait Gurley

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the American South looked to the Ancient World as cultural and ideological model. Specifically, the Old South conceptualized Ancient Greece as a glorious land filled with honorable heroes who defended their home and way of life. Confederates utilized formal education in Classical studies to instruct the public on its ideologies. However, the economic downturn immediately following the Civil War forced Confederates to find another means of disseminating their ideologies to the public. Thus, in Reconstruction, ancient Greek-inspired architecture, as demonstrated in the Nashville Parthenon, acted as a vehicle for transporting ideologies. Yet, the …

Yaoi Lesbians: Media, Identity, And Desire, Olivia Marquardt

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Media consumption reflects aspects of identity while also assisting in identity formation (Koller, 2008; Zemmels, 2012; Wu, 2006). This thesis examines the phenomenon of lesbians who engage with men-loving-men (MLM) media. The practice seems odd due to the contrast of lesbians desiring women for their social, platonic, romantic, and sexual relationships, but this thesis finds that repeated consumption of media that display men and their desires can index lesbianism. This practice helps lesbians construct their identities through three processes of indexicality: indexical disjuncture, indexical bleaching, and indexical denial (Barrett & Hall, 2024). Through a discourse analysis of five semi-constructed interviews …

Once Upon Another Time: Retelling Fairy Tales & Legends With Inclusive Identities For Modern Young Adult Audiences, Hailey Drapcho

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how modern young adult (YA) fairy tale retellings can act as interventionist works as part of the mythopoeic YA fantasy sub-genre, where they enfold traditionally excluded identities into the archetypal role of the fairy tale female protagonist who is expected to embody an idealized form of girlhood. Fairy tales have a profound impact on self-image and how individuals create expectations of their role in the world. By fracturing the archetypes maintaining restrictive and exclusionary expectations, mythopoeic YA fairy tale retellings affirm the young adult girl to embrace her own individual identity and determine her role in the …

Breaching The Screen: A Digital Technofeminist Methodology For Virtual And Augmented Realities, Frank Macarthy

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a methodological framework that seeks to further scholarly and pedagogical inquiry at the intersections of feminist rhetorical studies, digital rhetoric, and cultural studies. More specifically, drawing upon theories of technofeminism (relationships among technology and feminism) and cyberfeminism (relationships among the internet and feminism), this dissertation proposes a digital technofeminist methodology to study the complex relationships between virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies, bodies, and rhetoric. This framework aims to help digital rhetoric scholar-teachers to critically investigate digital technologies that blur the distinction between virtuality, material bodies, and realities.

Building on digital rhetoric and technofeminist scholarship, this dissertation …

The Effects Of Operatic Voice Type On Singer Identity, Adelaide J. Mcdonald

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Within Western art music, voices are typically classified using the Fach system, which is based upon vocal characteristics and separates singers into the categories of soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, counter tenor, tenor, bass, and baritone. Over time, these categories have become embedded with social and cultural meaning within the operatic world, leading to the development of stereotypes and expectations surrounding singers, as well as social categories and identities, referred to in this study as “sociocultural vocal categories” and “sociocultural vocal identity,” respectively. Currently, there are limited explorations of the sociocultural vocal categories and their associated stereotypes, with research on singer …

Second Generation Immigrants In Higher Education: Experiences In Selective Liberal Arts Contexts, Brenna Paxton

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the educational experiences of second-generation students at a selective, predominantly white liberal arts institution, in order to better understand what types of factors and practices contribute to their success, and how successful educational trajectories intersect with racial, ethnic, cultural and gender identities. To explore this, hour-long interviews were conducted, diving deeper into the educational experiences of second generation immigrants, also considering the lives of previous generations such as parents and grandparents. Interviews were transcribed and coded, uncovering patterns and themes that existed across participants’ experiences. Findings revealed that second generation immigrants at …

The Boston Metco Program: Recent Alumni Experiences And Educational Equity, Maya Hernandez

Honors Theses

This project focuses on contemporary school integration practices by examining, in particular, the Boston METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity Inc) program and the experiences of its recent alumni. The METCO program, the United States’ longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, was created in 1966 to give students of color from the city of Boston better educational opportunities by busing them to the surrounding suburbs for school. To this day, it is a program meant to expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by permitting students from Boston to attend public schools beyond district lines, in the suburbs. My …

Authenticity Can Be Costly: Understanding School Belonging Among Latine Immigrant High School Students, Deborah A. Ith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

School belonging is strongly associated with positive outcomes, including overall wellness and higher educational attainment. These outcomes can have lasting impacts on the lives of students. The construct of school belonging is defined as the degree to which a student feels accepted, supported, valued, and comfortable expressing themselves authentically within the school community. Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, especially recent immigrants, often have experiences within the school setting that interfere with the development of a strong sense of school belonging. Unfortunately, much of the prior research on school belonging has relied on survey data, correlational studies, or teacher …

The Relationship Between Autistic Features And Identity Development Processes Among College Students Through An Intersectional Lens, Alejandra Santana

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Research on autistic features and identity development has indicated that autistic traits are positively associated with identity disturbance (Ratner & Berman, 2015). Characteristic attributes of autism, including circumscribed interests and impairments in social relatedness, align with self-rumination and hardships engaging in the components of identity formation (Gotham et al., 2014). Nonetheless, research on this topic remains scarce. The present study analyzed the association between autistic features and identity formation processes while considering sociocultural factors, such as gender conformity and social camouflaging. A sample of college students enrolled in a large metropolitan city (N = 427) was recruited to complete …

Ideas Of The "Russian World" And Ukraine: Value Epicrises On The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Under The Moscow Patriarchate, Oleksandr Brodetskyi, Iryna Horokholinska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Against the background of the identity, jurisdictional, and institutional crossroads in which contemporary Ukrainian Orthodoxy finds itself, the authors analyze the mental, value-related, and personal (linked to the “human factor”) influences in Ukraine of the destructive and militant ideology of the “Russian World” (Russkiy Mir), as well as the degree of involvement of leading functionaries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the dissemination of these influences.

The article reveals the mechanisms of the corrosion of spirituality among the ecclesiastical elites of Russia and their satellites in Ukraine. This corrosion is manifested in the substitution of the Church’s …

At The Table: Queer Identity And Exploration Through Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Seth Carroll

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the phenomenon of a growing queer subculture within the tabletop role-playing game community. Eight participants, all self-identified members of the LGBTQIA+ community with significant experience playing tabletop role-playing games, were interviewed to better understand their lived experience within this subculture, what draws them to playing tabletop role-playing games, and the personal impacts and meaning they draw from engaging in them. Participants identified as White, between the ages of 23 and 30, and represented a variety of queer identities in both sexuality and gender. Data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in order to derive six group …

"She's Such A Nice Girl": Exploring The Literacy And Identity Formation Practices Of Black Girls In White, Appalachian Communities, Tamicah Tierra Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines the experiences and stories of two Black girls in predominantly White Appalachian communities, focusing on the language and literacy practices they employ to navigate and make sense of their Black feminine identities. It focuses on how literacy and language skills acquired from spending quality time with their mothers, engaging in various spaces with friends, and engaging in interest-driven traditional media and/or social media helped them to analyze their communities’ and the larger landscapes’ discourses around race and gender to create and modify their desired identities. This qualitative study employs narrative case study to center the lived experiences …

Large Language Models And Identity: A Reflexive Approach, Nicholas Austin Nielsen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explicates theories of identity, technology, and capitalism and uses an auto ethnographic approach in order to apply that explication at a personal level. The project responds to AI rhetoric in business and pedagogy and the instability surrounding perspectives on job security, the role of technology in Higher Education, and existential representations of the human. By deconstructing identity, ideology, cultural contexts, and technologic rhetorics, the goal is to further the scholarship surrounding Large Language Model applications in pedagogy and offer a personal, therapeutic approach to feelings of economic and existential discontent and fear experienced by students and educators regarding …

Taiwanese Elementary School Teachers’ Mindset Of Content And Language Integrated Learning (Clil) Instruction, Chin-Wen Chien

Journal of English Learner Education

Teachers need to undergo a mindset shift in language learning and teaching. This study used both qualitative and quantitative data to explore seven Taiwanese Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) teachers’ mindsets and led to the following major findings. First, the CLIL teachers had a stronger mindset regarding their instructional strategies, lesson preparations, and efficacy, compared to their more moderate mindset regarding their CLIL training and preparation. Secondly, the CLIL teachers had a different mindset regarding language use in their CLIL instruction due to their learners’ English proficiency levels. Finally, their lesson designs were lacking a 4Cs culture. Based on …

Agency And Identity Crisis In Diasporic Experience: A Study Of Dinaw Mengestu’S The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Phatik Prasad Poudyal

Critical Humanities

This paper examines agency and identity crisis in Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, focusing on protagonist Sepha Stephanos' diasporic experience as an Ethiopian refugee in the United States. Against the backdrop of trauma and socio-economic vulnerability, Sepha's struggle to navigate a new cultural landscape reveals the complexities of diasporic identity formation. Through a theoretical lens encompassing concepts of agency and identity discourse, the study analyzes Sepha's inability to exert agency in shaping his destiny, as influenced by his diasporic status and past trauma. Drawing on scholars such as William H. Sewel and Stuart Hall, the paper explores …

Roots And Routes: Hip-Hop From South Korea, Ute Fendler

Kritika Kultura

With the growing success of hip-hop in South Korea, the discussions about the authenticity of this genre increase and create cleavages between the mainstream and the underground rappers. The paper intends to analyze three examples of the contemporary music scene that are representative of different positions. Taking Simon Frith’s work on popular music as a means to construct identity, the paper suggests questioning the concept of authenticity (“roots”) and proposes instead conceiving hip-hop in South Korea as a movement at the crossroads (“routes”) of various influences and practices.

The Advanced Marginality Of The Ghetto Dwellers: Stigmatized Territory In Caryl Phillips's The Lost Child, Bahareh Nilforoshan, Bakhtiar Sadjadi

Kritika Kultura

Reading contemporary fiction through diverse disciplines appears to be a crucial part of recent narrative studies. The sociological approach to reading literary works provides a tenable framework for the analysis of fiction. Caryl Phillips’s The Lost Child demonstrates the characters’ obsession with their sense of belonging and identity through finding new facets in the post-war metropolis and through delving into the past and the present to find the lost children of the Empire, their identity, and roots. The present paper endeavors to explore the novel’s characters Monica, Tommy, and Ben through Loïc Wacquant’s conceptions of advanced marginality, territorial stigma, and …

Performing Elusive Homecomings: Mobility, Embodiment, And Diasporic Filipino Youth, Martin F. Manalansan Iv

Kritika Kultura

The Filipino global diaspora has precipitated the circulation of embodied modes of identification and belonging. This paper focuses on the experiences of Filipino young people who were born and/or raised abroad, and who have returned to the Philippines to seek fame and economic mobility in the entertainment industry. These migrant hopefuls, unlike older counterparts, enact the material tensions and semantic contradictions that form part of popular discourse around life abroad. As such, institutional media practices and mass audience perceptions mirror such conditions and create shifting systems of valuation around such things as skin color, accent, and bodily comportment. To respond …

Eleven Are The Stars Of Joseph’S Dream; His Coat, Many Colors, Alexander B. Bloom

Capstones

At the Conservative synagogue where I attended Saturday school for part of my childhood in the 90s I recall the teachers’ reimagination of the popular Michael Jackson song “We Are the World,” taught to the seven and eight year-olds who were made to sing it in chorus at some holiday celebration that year.

“We are the Jews,” we bleated out, in concert, “We are the Chosen.”

From my place among them I remember the unsettled feeling I had, to consider my non-Jewish friends at school, teachers and babysitters who knew not of tefillin, my maternal grandparents in the pews of …