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The Impacts Of Social Context For Women In Cybersecurity Degree Programs, James Joseph Enwright May 2025

The Impacts Of Social Context For Women In Cybersecurity Degree Programs, James Joseph Enwright

Dissertations - ALL

The cybersecurity workforce has a major problem in that it is comprised of only approximately 25% women. This shortage of women is a contributing factor to the growing field’s considerable overall lack of qualified candidates and has also resulted in a critical gender diversity deficiency. Our adversaries tend to come from more various backgrounds. As such, it is essential that those of us in the cybersecurity field embrace diverse perspectives so we can defend and protect our organizations more effectively. This study was influenced by the researcher’s area of practice, Cybersecurity Education, and the desire to help broaden women’s participation …

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Disabling Structures: Disability And Graduate Student Professionalization, Gabriella Wilson-Kopko May 2025

Disabling Structures: Disability And Graduate Student Professionalization, Gabriella Wilson-Kopko

Dissertations - ALL

While scholarship on graduate education and graduate teacher assistant training has emerged as a growing trend in the field of rhetoric and composition, perspectives from disabled graduate students about their navigation of academic spaces remain understudied and undervalued (Lutkewitte, Kitchens, Scanlon; Macaulay; Badenhorst, Amell, Burford; Brown). An often neglected and precarious student population, disabled graduate students’ experiences are critical to graduate education scholarship because their lived experiences offer insight into critiques of normative and disabling academic structures. This IRB-approved study contributes to scholarship on graduate education by carefully analyzing the cultural expectations of normativity, ability, and productivity that are implicitly …

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Geometry And Mechanical Response Of Twisted Thin Tubes, Pan Dong May 2025

Geometry And Mechanical Response Of Twisted Thin Tubes, Pan Dong

Dissertations - ALL

Nature provides many examples of thin sheets and shells, from flower petals to graphene sheets. Such materials can exhibit complex deformations such as creases, folds and wrinkles, particularly in thin, flexible structures like cylindrical shells and ribbons. Here we investigate the geometric transformation and mechanical response of a twisted thin tube, which is made from a thin polymer sheet. In Chapter 2, an interesting "locking behavior" was found in a thin cylindrical shell. After an initial compression, the shell can be twisted with little resistance until it reaches a “locking angle”, which coincides with the appearance of an ordered wrinkle …

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Black Girls Graduating High School: Advanced Courses, Career Technical Education, And Extra Curricular Opportunities, Tara Michelle Gourdine-Jennings May 2025

Black Girls Graduating High School: Advanced Courses, Career Technical Education, And Extra Curricular Opportunities, Tara Michelle Gourdine-Jennings

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Abstract This dissertation examines the impact of advanced coursework, Career and Technical Education (CTE), and extracurricular participation on the graduation outcomes of Black girls in a midsized urban school district in Central New York. Grounded in Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit), this study addresses how systemic barriers and inequities influence access to educational opportunities that are often gatekeepers for postsecondary success. Despite the longstanding underrepresentation of Black girls in Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and STEM-based CTE pathways, this study highlights the academic and social benefits of these experiences when access is equitably provided and supported. Using district-level data …

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Exploring The Interplay Of Restorative Justice, Mental Health, And Support Structures In Shaping Student Outcomes, Harneet Kaur May 2025

Exploring The Interplay Of Restorative Justice, Mental Health, And Support Structures In Shaping Student Outcomes, Harneet Kaur

Dissertations - ALL

In recent years, educational policymakers and researchers have increasingly recognized the complex interplay between school discipline, mental health, and the availability of support personnel, and their cumulative impact on student outcomes. My dissertation aims to investigate these interrelated factors through the lens of three distinct but complementary studies. Each study examines different aspects of this multifaceted issue: the effectiveness of Restorative Justice (RJ) reforms in school discipline, the influence of access to mental health resources on student disability diagnosis, and the long-term economic impact of mental health issues on young adults. The first study of my dissertation, titled "Moving Away …

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Exploring The Therapeutic Potential Of Art Materials Through Direct Engagement In The Art Process: A Heuristic Art-Based Research Study, Emily Christine Bulthuis May 2025

Exploring The Therapeutic Potential Of Art Materials Through Direct Engagement In The Art Process: A Heuristic Art-Based Research Study, Emily Christine Bulthuis

Theses - ALL

This study explored the therapeutic potential of various art materials to enhance future client sessions. Utilizing a heuristic art-based approach, I explored seven materials, including: acrylic paint, watercolor, paper, colored pencils, air-dry clay, charcoal, and oil pastels; each approached in five distinct ways. The materials were selected for their affordability, accessibility, and versatility in creative expression. After each session, I completed a self-designed four-question questionnaire to reflect on my emotional and physical interactions with the materials. I then wrote a thick description of each material, drawing from my personal experience and evaluating how it could be used with clients in …

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How Toxic Communications In Chinese Online Fan Groups Affect Fan Engagement, Tian Xia May 2025

How Toxic Communications In Chinese Online Fan Groups Affect Fan Engagement, Tian Xia

Theses - ALL

Abstract The study used a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) theoretical framework to explore how toxicity impacts fan engagement in online fan groups in China. An online survey method in China with a sample size of 205 participants was used to measure the hypotheses 1)Toxicity causes fans to feel less autonomy in online groups, 2) Toxicity causes fans to feel less skilled (competence) in online groups, 3) Toxicity causes fans to feel less relatedness in online groups and research questions and the research questions 1) How will autonomy, competence, and relatedness relate to specific fandom behaviors? 2) What is the difference between …

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Exploring Rupture Through Documentary And Narrative Filmmaking, Luca David Higonnet - Faithfull May 2025

Exploring Rupture Through Documentary And Narrative Filmmaking, Luca David Higonnet - Faithfull

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines the theme of rupture—familial, cultural, and personal—across three films by the author: the documentaries 8 Years and 90 Miles (2023) and La Atrevida (2025), and the narrative short Family Practice (2026). I explore how my personal/family life and cross-cultural background shape my cinematic investigations of identity, resilience, and belonging. 8 Years and 90 Miles traces Cuban athlete Bruno Rendon’s defection, revealing how the experience of exile fractures a person emotionally and physically. La Atrevida redefines Reggaeton’s history by telling the story of Excenia Knights, the first woman on the Reggaeton scene. It highlights the cultural shifts and …

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Resisting (Un)Accountability: Rhetorical Strategies Of Forgetting Denmark’S Iud Campaign In Greenland, Cæcilie Paarup Madsen May 2025

Resisting (Un)Accountability: Rhetorical Strategies Of Forgetting Denmark’S Iud Campaign In Greenland, Cæcilie Paarup Madsen

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores how colonial amnesia manifests rhetorically in media representations and public discourse about Denmark’s IUD campaign in Greenland. Beginning in the mid-1960s, this state-led initiative systematically targeted Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, fitting them with IUDs as part of a nationwide birth control campaign, some without their consent or knowledge. During the campaign’s most intensive years from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, approximately 4,500 girls and women – half of the fertile female population – were subjected to this reproductive violence. The spiral campaign was largely forgotten by the Danish public until an investigative podcast, Spiralkampagnen, brought it to …

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What Makes Me Feel Cold Is Not Winter Or Night, Yushan Liu May 2025

What Makes Me Feel Cold Is Not Winter Or Night, Yushan Liu

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines how cinematic form can render visible the lived experiences of displacement, temporal disjunction, and marginalization among transnational subjects, particularly international students navigating between legal regimes, emotional landscapes, and cultural systems. Through a practice-led methodology anchored in film theory, phenomenology, and spatial analysis, the project explores how space and time function not as narrative backdrops but as agents of affective rupture. The film WHAT MAKES ME FEEL COLD IS NOT WINTER OR NIGHT employs disjunctive spaces—such as parking garages, mini-golf courses, and restaurant interiors—as sites of perceptual tension, drawing from Deleuze’s concept of the “any-space-whatever.” These locations, stripped …

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The Role Of Causal Structure In Romantic Stay-Leave Judgments, Judith Lynn Burkle May 2025

The Role Of Causal Structure In Romantic Stay-Leave Judgments, Judith Lynn Burkle

Theses - ALL

I report on one between-subjects experiment exploring the impact of causal structures on decisions regarding staying in relationships. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a first-person perspective or a third-person perspective. In each condition, subjects encountered several relationship scenarios that instantiated one of five distinct causal structures: (a) common cause, (b) common effect, (c) causal chain, (d) positive feedback loop, and (e) negative feedback loop. Within these scenarios, subjects were asked to make causal attribution judgments by evaluating how each event described in the scenario would influence the decision to stay in the relationship. Additionally, subjects rated …

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Chinese Women’S Perspectives In Metaphorical Narratives: Exploring Identity, Growth, And Societal Expectations Through Illustration, Cancan Jin May 2025

Chinese Women’S Perspectives In Metaphorical Narratives: Exploring Identity, Growth, And Societal Expectations Through Illustration, Cancan Jin

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the struggles and growth of Chinese women through metaphorical narratives, focusing on how they navigate societal expectations, gender inequality, and personal identity. First, it examines the importance of metaphor and anthropomorphism in storytelling. It analyzes how these techniques are used to address women's issues. Second, it explores the social background of Chinese women, from the May Fourth Movement, which challenged traditional gender roles, to the socialist era’s push for labor equality, and the modern struggles of workplace discrimination and the "double burden." Third, it introduces Tortoise on the Way, a visual thesis written and illustrated by the …

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Flexible Rate: A Motor-Learning Based Treatment For Childhood Stuttering, Jenna Renee Sherry May 2025

Flexible Rate: A Motor-Learning Based Treatment For Childhood Stuttering, Jenna Renee Sherry

Theses - ALL

Abstract Purpose: This study examined the efficacy of a novel teletherapy speech restructuring treatment, Flexible Rate, grounded in motor learning principles and delivered within the Challenge Point Framework. The following variables were evaluated: stuttering frequency (percentage of stuttered words), perceived stuttering severity (rated by participants, parents, and the researcher), perceived speaking control, and communicative attitudes. Methods: A series of single-case studies utilizing an ABA design was used to examine the effects of Flexible Rate treatment in two children who stutter, ages 10 and 13. During treatment (B), participants completed two 30-minute virtual sessions per week for eight weeks. Participants were …

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Love Against The Machine, Jalal Ghias Beygi May 2025

Love Against The Machine, Jalal Ghias Beygi

Theses - ALL

The ties that bind existence to meaning offer powerful forms through which we can examine the nature of Being. I examine technology through opposing concepts of death, time, and space. My work is a mirror reflecting how the technology of this century has evolved into an individualistic desire machine. While confronting these forces, it ultimately finds salvation through the exercise of inner freedom. Here, art becomes a form of resistance and reclamation, the last stand for humanity against commodifying systems.

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The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings May 2025

The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings

Theses - ALL

The Idiot's Asylum: “What better place to do it than from my own grave?” is an essay that examines how vulnerability and collaboration operate as the throughlines of collective creativity. By utilizing live performance, large-scale installation, video, food, and humor, I explore how immersing my audience in a unique experience encourages them to bear witness to or physically engage in a social and vulnerable act of trust – especially within a state of uncertainty. I consider historical and cultural movements centered around radical play, humor, and participation such as Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus, Situationism, and feminist performance art to be foundational …

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The March Towards A Totalitarian Ecology: Making Sense Of 'Ecofascism' Through The Political Ecology Of German Nazism, Cassidy Glen Thomas May 2025

The March Towards A Totalitarian Ecology: Making Sense Of 'Ecofascism' Through The Political Ecology Of German Nazism, Cassidy Glen Thomas

Theses - ALL

In recent years, the topic of ‘ecofascism’ has been increasingly engaged in both scholarly and popular contexts, but often with little clarity or consistency in how the term is defined—sometimes detaching the concept from historically-based understandings of ‘fascism’ altogether. This thesis intervenes on this front, thoroughly grounding the concept of ecofascism in fascism through an explication of the political ecology and economy of interwar and Nazi Germany. As this thesis shows, while it is inaccurate to speak of a cohesive ‘green-wing’ within the Nazi Party, the nascent German conservation movement played a key role in cultivating a range of ecologically-themed …

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What We Carry Carries Us: Narratives Of African Immigrants Through Cultural Artifacts In The United States, Faizat Oladunni Asifat May 2025

What We Carry Carries Us: Narratives Of African Immigrants Through Cultural Artifacts In The United States, Faizat Oladunni Asifat

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I explore how African immigrants in Syracuse, New York, use cultural objects to navigate identity, memory, and belonging in a new environment. Through interviews, story circles, and personal narratives, it examines how everyday items transform into meaningful symbols of home, acting as emotional anchors and ways to preserve culture. The study reveals that these objects, though initially practical, gain significance through migration, helping individuals cope with the experience, maintain ties to their heritage, and negotiate hybrid identities. However, their meanings are fluid: some objects retain emotional and cultural weight, while others fade as immigrants adapt. Beyond personal …

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Harnessing Llms To Detect Hate Speech, Weibin Cai May 2025

Harnessing Llms To Detect Hate Speech, Weibin Cai

Theses - ALL

Hate is a sentiment, while hate speech refers to the expression of hate in a form that targets and attacks specific groups, such as race, religion, or gender. With the rise of the internet and social media, hate speech has spread rapidly, gaining wide exposure and posing threats to individual well-being, the profits of major tech companies, and social stability. As a result, both industry and academia have turned their attention to the study of hate speech. One of the most active areas is hate speech detection, which involves training models to predict whether a given piece of content is …

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Breaking Boundaries: Memory And Female Identity, Hui Qi May 2025

Breaking Boundaries: Memory And Female Identity, Hui Qi

Theses - ALL

My artistic practice revolves around material exploration and transformation. Initially, I focused on wearable metal jewelry, as its precision and independent craftsmanship allowed me to express the strength of female identity. Inspired by Mindy Herrin-Lewis’s use of micro-sculpting and her integration of ceramics and metal enameling, I began incorporating color, texture, and layered surfaces to express emotion and personal narrative. By merging metal, enamel, ceramics, and found objects, I create contemporary jewelry and sculptural pieces that bridge traditional craftsmanship with modern storytelling. This thesis explores how art serves as a tool for reshaping identity and reclaiming autonomy. In navigating the …

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In-Silico Investigation Of Claudin-16 Self Assembly In Tight Junctions, Baqi Ozomata Atimah May 2025

In-Silico Investigation Of Claudin-16 Self Assembly In Tight Junctions, Baqi Ozomata Atimah

Theses - ALL

Claudin-16 is a member of the Claudin family of proteins, which play a critical role in establishing paracellular permeability within tight junctions between cells. Claudin-16 exhibits diverse properties related to ion selectivity, tissue development, and barrier function. Depending on the context, claudins create channels that permit the passage of specific ions through the paracellular space or form barriers that restrict ion movement. This study focuses on the self-assembly of the human claudin-16 protein, which is essential for ion reabsorption and the proper functioning of the kidney. Molecular simulations were employed to investigate the interactions within dimerized claudin-16 and to elucidate …

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Institutional Effectiveness In Practice At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Taneika S. Thompson May 2025

Institutional Effectiveness In Practice At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Taneika S. Thompson

Dissertations - ALL

Initially perceived as a compliance-driven, accreditation mandate, institutional effectiveness (IE) evolved into a comprehensive framework often encompassing institutional research, evaluation and assessment, and strategic planning. This study investigated the expanding role of IE at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) by examining how individuals in IE positions approached their work and whether those efforts contributed to knowledge creation at their institutions. Considering the alarming rate of closures among institutions of higher education (IHEs) and the finite number of HBCUs, this research is timely as it explored IE as a mechanism to drive institutional innovation and support financial sustainability. By interviewing …

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The Monumental Challenges Of Pastmaking, Tyler Davis Youngman May 2025

The Monumental Challenges Of Pastmaking, Tyler Davis Youngman

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Pastmaking is a process in which agents exercise power to make or use documents depicting a past that can be given or taken as historical truth. Such documents often possess narrative elements perceived for use in heritage formation, collective remembering, and identity maintenance practices such as storytelling. Pastmaking encompasses the performative creation of historical knowledge. The implications of pastmaking prompt considerable pause about: (1) who gets spoken for in (re-)tellings of prior events, (2) how agents arrive at consensus to determine what is historically known, and (3) how knowledge is lost or gained when historical narratives get (re-)written, a particularly …

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Curricular Reconciliation: Equitable, Inclusive, And Accessible Approaches To Professional Writing Through Coalition-Led Technical Communication, Lerie M. Gabriel May 2025

Curricular Reconciliation: Equitable, Inclusive, And Accessible Approaches To Professional Writing Through Coalition-Led Technical Communication, Lerie M. Gabriel

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines the process of revising a core professional writing course to integrate anti-ableist and anti-racist pedagogies throughout its design. Focusing on the pragmatic and theoretical aspects of this collaborative curriculum redesign, this dissertation examines how an intersectional, Black feminist approach to professional and technical communication curricula disrupts neoliberal legacies. In addition to limiting students’ critical thinking skills, interdependence, and imagination of workplace ethos, these legacies affect instructors' experience of teaching professional and technical writing (PTW), particularly those individuals who hold (multiply) marginalized identities. Through archival research and interviews, this dissertation contextualizes these revisions by exploring the rhetorical history …

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Scrolling Through Chaos: Examining Tiktok For Sensemaking And Resiliency Information Behaviors During Lebanese Crises, Christy Khoury May 2025

Scrolling Through Chaos: Examining Tiktok For Sensemaking And Resiliency Information Behaviors During Lebanese Crises, Christy Khoury

Dissertations - ALL

The rise of the video-sharing application TikTok was rapid during the COVID-19 pandemic, as government-mandated isolation drove many to find comfort and fun indoors. Originally, the application was known for its entertaining content but has grown to be a space where conversations about critical, international events occur. With its unique application structure and behavior norms comes the opportunity to examine the application as a source of crisis discourse. This dissertation leverages a sociotechnical perspective and mixed methods analysis to investigate multimodal crisis discourse and information behaviors on the application concerning two recent Lebanese crises: the August 4, 2020, Port of …

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Body Size Trends Of Late Devonian Dacryoconarid Tentaculitoids And Protocol Development For I/Ca Analysis In Corals By La-Icp-Ms, Ashley Prow-Fleischer May 2025

Body Size Trends Of Late Devonian Dacryoconarid Tentaculitoids And Protocol Development For I/Ca Analysis In Corals By La-Icp-Ms, Ashley Prow-Fleischer

Dissertations - ALL

Paleoclimatology provides context for understanding the timescales and animal responses to environmental change under modern climate change scenarios. The key drivers of climate variability are identified using proxies for environmental conditions. Biological archives are especially useful for linking changing conditions to ecosystem responses. This dissertation establishes the foundation for utilizing dacryoconarid microfossils as biostratigraphic indicators of environmental change in the Paleozoic. It also presents a protocol for measuring iodine-to-calcium (I/Ca) ratios—an established proxy for localized hypoxia—in coral skeletons using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Studying Paleozoic microfossils presents challenges due to the high degree of induration of …

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Anticipating The Adoption Of Quantum Computing Technology By Organizations, Kenneth Shui May 2025

Anticipating The Adoption Of Quantum Computing Technology By Organizations, Kenneth Shui

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This study investigated the challenges that may influence the successful adoption of adiabatic quantum computers based on an analysis of three case studies of organizations that adopted technologies adjacent to adiabatic quantum computers. Through the lens of the affordance framework, a mixed methods approach identified common challenges and themes when adopting different forms of classical computing. The qualitative method involved analyzing pre-existing documentation on classical computing technologies through a reflexive narrative review of the case studies. For the quantitative aspect, an A/B testing approach was used to compare the performance of D-Wave adiabatic quantum computers in solving a well-established computer …

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Understanding Shell Adhesion Mechanics For Soft Gripper Design, Chenxu Zhao May 2025

Understanding Shell Adhesion Mechanics For Soft Gripper Design, Chenxu Zhao

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates the adhesion mechanics of hyperelastic hemispherical shells with finite thicknesses undergoing large deformation against rigid planar substrates. By integrating theoretical modeling, numerical simulations, and experimental validation, a comprehensive understanding of the adherence-detachment behavior of soft elastomeric shell structures is established. The study also applies these insights to the design of soft robotic grippers based on tunable adhesion. To understand the dry adhesion of a free soft shell against a rigid substrate, first, a graphical-numerical modeling framework based on the energy approach is developed and used to predict shell adhesion with a wide range of surface energy, thickness, …

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Memetics Reinformed: Three Informational Developments Of Memes, Alexander O. Smith May 2025

Memetics Reinformed: Three Informational Developments Of Memes, Alexander O. Smith

Dissertations - ALL

Memetics and information have been connected since Richard Dawkins defined memes in 1976. Yet, information studies rarely contributes despite the connection. This dissertation develops a memetic program that exists within an information framework. An information-centric study of memes offers answers to questions of cultural dynamics, meaning production, and applies to questions in cultural heritage informatics and knowledge organization. This proposal offers a theoretically and empirically connected space within an information-centric development of memetics. What is provided is a three paper dissertation. These three papers include a (1) literature review and citation analysis paper, (2) a preliminary theory-method paper exemplifying a …

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Personalized Learning And Transformative Literacy Learning And Teaching: A Case Study Of Students' 20time/Passion Projects In English 8, Kim Fontana May 2025

Personalized Learning And Transformative Literacy Learning And Teaching: A Case Study Of Students' 20time/Passion Projects In English 8, Kim Fontana

Dissertations - ALL

This is a narrative case study of 20time or passion projects in English 8. The study explores how traditional educational hierarchies and practices, as well as perceptions of agency and competence, may be transformed in a personalized context by examining a single case comprising 17 students drawn from four sections of eighth grade English in which students are engaged in sustained 20time or passion projects as a fundamental part of their curriculum. The data comprise teacher, student, and administrative products, participant interviews and observations, and memos. Data analysis employs general qualitative methods and critical narrative analysis. This personalized, 20time thirdspace …

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Essays On Corporate Governance And Behavioral Strategy, Yi Huang May 2025

Essays On Corporate Governance And Behavioral Strategy, Yi Huang

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This dissertation bridges the corporate governance research and behavioral strategy research to examine how the interplay between governance mechanisms and managerial cognition and behavior shapes firm strategy and performance. The dissertation consists of three empirical essays. The first essay examines whether the greater monitoring intensity and informational advantages of concentrated institutional ownership curb CEO overconfidence. By situating CEO overconfidence within an agency context, this study highlights the importance of concentrated institutional ownership for curtailing CEO overconfidence and sheds light on the multiple channels through which these owners monitor. The second essay uses the behavioral theory of the firm and agency …

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