Digital Commons Network^™

Student Retention In Music Programs: An Analysis Of Relationships Between Selected Student Demographics And Continued Enrollment In Music Programs With The Presence Of School-Provided Supports, Jessica Wiese

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Music education provides significant cognitive, social, and academic benefits; however, elective music programs often face substantial annual attrition. While existing literature has documented material barriers (e.g., instrument costs, transportation, scheduling conflicts), this study investigates the persistence of attrition within a medium-sized suburban district on Long Island that has systematically mitigated these obstacles. The district provides free instruments, flexible scheduling, and dedicated transportation for all students. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine whether demographic disparities in music enrollment remain predictive of withdrawal in such a post-barrier environment.

The research used a two-phase explanatory sequential design. In the first …

Knowledge Landscapes Across Time : Threats And Opportunities For The Humanities In Thailand, Nattanun Chanchaochai

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

No abstract provided.

The Internet At War: An Empirical And Legal Analysis Of Harmful Narratives On Social Media During Armed Conflict, Bailey Ulbricht, Allen Weiner

Michigan Technology Law Review

This Article empirically investigates the connection between harmful narratives on social media and violent acts perpetrated against persons protected under international humanitarian law (IHL) during armed conflict, and then examines the legal implications of such a relationship. First, examining comprehensive datasets from two inter-state armed conflicts (Russia-Ukraine and Armenia-Azerbaijan) as case studies, this Article documents patterns in Telegram data indicating that more violent acts are preceded by increases in harmful narratives than decreases in such content. This suggests that harmful narratives on social media platforms may plausibly contribute to the incidence of real-world violence committed against protected persons during armed …

Procedural Justice And Body Worn Cameras, Yael Granot

Psychology: Faculty Publications

The extensive and rapid roll out of body cameras across American police forces in the past decades was intended to improve issues of accountability and transparency in policing. Trust and perceptions of fairness of police are shaped, in large part, by how one is treated by officers and departments—the fundamental interpersonal work of procedural justice. This Article reviews findings on public and police support for body cameras, as well as research connecting body cameras to perceptions of procedural justice. It then elaborates on past research with a vignette experiment, aimed at isolating the unique and interactive effects of just policies, …

Competitive Dance And The Adolescent’S Body: Considering Pedagogical Approaches To Teaching Competitive Dancers, Catri E. G. Barba

Dance (MFA) Theses

Diving into the past and researching for the future, this thesis explores the development and perpetuation of hyper-sexualized adolescent bodies through the competitive dance scene. Drawing on dance theorists, educational theorists, and embodied research (i.e., the author’s body archive), this thesis explores how the competition gaze is performed for and by a capitalist patriarchy. Specifically, this thesis critically reflects on the author’s career as a young competitive dancer in the greater Los Angeles, California, area during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a competition dance instructor and K-12 educator for two decades, and how those personal experiences have shaped …

Reflecting Their Gaze: Resisting Distorted Perceptions Of Self And Other As Object, Francesca F. Harman

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis is an investigation into ways of seeing, constructions of otherness, objectification, influences on self-perception, and most urgently, how artists can resist objectification through the affirmation of their own subjectivity. Drawing from scholarship in feminist theory, performance studies, visual culture studies, and film theory, this thesis engages the writing of thinkers such John Berger, Jean-Paul Sartre, bell hooks, Rae Langton, Ann Pellegrini, Martha Nussbaum, and Coco Fusco. This thesis critically examines the way in which comparison, perceived lack, and fear of the Other contribute to constructions of identity. Distorted perception is at the root of objectification, and often leads …

Rediscovering The Hidden Nan Yumiao (Mysterious Rain), Katherine E. Nettles

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis explores complex themes of becoming, belonging, and how they shape identity through the perspective of transracial adoption. The investigation draws from personal experiences, cultural texts, and nature vs. nurture research. Combining self-reflection with scholarly sources allows for a broader picture of adoption trauma rather than a fixed bias. The author's research considers the circumstances surrounding adoption, including birth parents giving their child up due to social, economic, legal, or political constraints. This thesis examines finding a place of belonging in public, in community, in family, and in society. This concept of belonging has different meanings based on people's …

New Hampshire Tcap, Riley Lane

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

"That She May Bear On My Knees:" An Adoption Ritual In The Hebrew Bible, Claire Ellen Hobbs

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

How Historical Experiences Shaped The Italian Constitution: A Comparative Perspective With The United States, Kaitlin M. Rocca

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Taboo And Innuendos: A Conversation Analysis Of Dirty Jokes, Bailey Fraser

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phonetics And Orthography In French: A Proposal For A New Course, Kyara A. Crespo Gutierrez

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Performing Within Performance: Gender Nonconformity In Drama, Eliana Lazzaro

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Bias And Practice: Understanding How Adult Beliefs And Ppt Expertise Affect Self-Contained Placement Recommendations In Special Education, Amy M. Martino

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This mixed-methods Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) examined high rates of segregation for students receiving special education services in an urban district in central Connecticut. A root cause analysis, supported by a review of existing literature, guided the need for intervention given the widening gap between academic achievement and post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities as compared to their peers at the secondary level. Using an improvement science framework within a convergent mixed-methods design, this study investigated the implementation of a six-week professional learning intervention for high school administrators. The professional learning focused on the facilitation of Planning and …

Sociocultural Outsidership In Entrepreneurship: Rethinking The Double-Edged Role In Marginalisation, Robert J. Pidduck, Susana C. Santos, Eric W. Liguori, Reginald Tucker, Alexander Newman

Management Faculty Publications

This editorial introduces the special issue on marginalisation and entrepreneurship. While entrepreneurship research has long examined the impact of economic deprivation and structural barriers, far less attention has been given to sociocultural elements of outsidership – such as status incongruence, class-based identity conflict or cultural misalignment, among other related facets. We bring these dynamics to the fore, offering a conceptually rich yet ideologically neutral lens through which to understand how outsider dynamics can shape entrepreneurial cognition, legitimacy and venture development. Further, by synthesising emerging work across fragmented literatures, we propose a research agenda that explores sociocultural outsidership not only as …

Lockstepping Structure, Darrell A.H. Miller

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

The new judicial federalism is now entering its early middle age. As it has matured—moving from rights to structure—it has become more complicated in its application. For if one were to take arguments about state experimentation and interpretive flexibility to their logical conclusion, there is no reason state legislative, executive, and judicial powers should stay in lanes demarcated by federal constitutional law. Easily amended state constitutions and elected judges support theories of judicial function more akin to statewide legislative policymakers than passive judicial magistrates. Positive rights in state constitutions would seem to demand recalibration of the rules of standing and …

Corporate Disclosure Meets Natural Language Processing: Topic Modeling, Disclosure Strategy, And Audit Implications, Wanxin Yu

2026

Corporate disclosures serve as a critical channel for firms to communicate their financial performance, strategic initiatives, and firm-specific risks. In recent years, rapid advances in natural language processing (NLP) have provided powerful new tools for extracting insights from the growing volume and complexity of corporate disclosures. This dissertation consists of three studies that explore how advanced textual analysis can reveal deeper insights into corporate disclosures, managerial behavior, and auditor practices.

The first paper (co-authored) develops a topic-based approach to measuring the substantive content of risk factor disclosures. Using an embedding-based topic modeling framework, we identify 30 interpretable risk topics and …

Necessary-Law Arguments, A. C. Paseau

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Session C: Co-Creating With Ai: Augmenting, Enhancing, And Elevating Instructional Design, Michael Mcvey, Angela Elkordy, Ian Natzmer

Learning Together at the Forefront of Change: GenAI Summit 2026

Instructional Designers are using Generative AI to support their work, and the panelists will share a new model for organizing how to think about AI's role in Instructional Design. In addition, we will share insights from the local founder of Odeum, a software application that allows designers to collaborate with AI to develop rich, immersive educational environments.

Poetry Reading: Original Work From The Craft Of Poetry (Seciton 1), Cara Dees, August Parker, Aubrey Jones, Zachary Ligasan, Brandon Dolan, Christopher Smith, Chloe Kuzmeskas, Jessie Godfrey, Finch Hester, Valentina Quintero, Sydney Strayer, Abigail Mcclure

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This creative reading from the students of "English 3420: Craft of Poetry" features several student presenters sharing the original poems that they wrote and revised across the course of the Spring 2026 semester. These poems of grief, joy, and survival showcase the linguistic brilliance and dazzling creativity of Belmont undergraduates.

Unsettled: A Scholarly Personal Narrative On Whiteness And Transformative Learning In International School Communities, Sara Gregson

Doctor of Education

As a privileged, White, US American living outside of the United States, I have dealt with many complex and unsettling situations. In this dissertation I interrogate how Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) can function as an analytic lens for analyzing my lived experience in international schools around the world. I have used Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) to deconstruct my privilege, positionality, and whiteness and to critically reflect on how I, and others, can have transformative experiences that disrupt the impact of whiteness in transnational communities outside of the United States. This work is not a comprehensive study of the international school …

Hope Is An Act, Not A Wish: An Autoethnographic Journey Of Reimagining Disability As A Catalyst For Playing With Possibility, Creativity, And Innovation Within Liminal Spaces, Jennifer Salerno

Doctor of Education

This dissertation aimed to challenge and move beyond unjust social norms related to individual ability and independence, finding such norms based on a fictitious ideal of human capacity. Instead, an ethic of interdependence, such as encompasses the natural world, is defined and promoted in turn. People with disabilities are considered deficient and marginalized because they deviate from ableist norms (Flynn, 2020). They face significant barriers to establishing and maintaining relationships with nature as a result of ability expectations around how bodies should look and behave in the natural world (Wolbring & Lisitza, 2017). People with disabilities covet normality and the …

“We Learned So Much More About Each Other”: Strengthening Student-Educator Relationships Through Culturally Affirming Practices, Ashley R. Routhier

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School connectedness serves as a powerful lever for positive student outcomes. Specifically, student-educator relationships provide well-documented benefits, acting as a protective factor against adverse experiences. However, building and maintaining these relationships remains a complex challenge influenced by site-specific conditions. This challenge is further intensified when accounting for diverse cultural and racial backgrounds. Utilizing an improvement science framework, this qualitative study examined educators’ perceptions as they facilitated culturally affirming social and emotional lessons in a pre-existing advisory block at a magnet high school. Findings indicate that factors at every level of the system shape student-educator relationships. Policies emerged as a critical …

Representation Of Indigenous Spiritualities In The Ontario Grade 11 World Religions Curriculum: A Discourse And Textual Analysis, Katelin A. Chavez

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Evaluation And Impact Of 4th Grade Writing Instruction And Intervention, Sasha R. Smith

Education Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of Texas's redesigned State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) introduced extended constructed response (ECR) items that required students to demonstrate reading comprehension through written responses. At the study site, fourth-grade students consistently demonstrated stronger reading comprehension than writing performance, revealing a gap in their ability to communicate understanding using evidence-based written responses. The purpose of this Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice was to evaluate the implementation and impact of a systems-based instructional intervention designed to improve fourth-grade students' performance on constructed response writing tasks through increased instructional coherence and explicit writing instruction. This embedded mixed-methods case …

Existential Intelligence: A Survey Across The Ages--As Well As My Ages, Howard Gardner

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Written in response to Branton Shearer’s (2026) paper on existential intelligence and existential reasoning, this paper argues that due to the lack of evidence of neural specialization and a developmental trajectory, pondering existential questions is best understood as philosophical thinking, rather than a distinct intelligence. The paper reflects on the status of existential thinking within the author’s framework for multiple intelligences. It traces the criteria originally used to identify the author’s seven intelligences, the later admission of naturalist intelligence, and the provisional consideration of pedagogical and existential intelligences. The paper explains why the labels “spiritual” and “religious” intelligence have been …

Presupposition In Shaqraa Al-Madkhali's "I Almost See Me": A Pragmatic Study, Hadiah Faiz Monawer Alrashidy

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This research investigates the presuppositions inherent in the poetic collection (Diwan) titled "Akadu Arani" (I Almost See Myself) by the poetess, Shaqra al-Madkhali. The study aims to categorize these presuppositions and analyze their functional role in articulating the poetess's intentionality, ultimately facilitating the efficacy of the communicative process. Methodologically, the paper adopts a pragmatic framework complemented by a descriptive-analytical approach. The study is organized into an introduction, a theoretical preamble on the concept of presupposition, and five core analytical sections: (1) Existential, (2) Factive, (3) Lexical, (4) Structural, and (5) Non-factive presupposition. The investigation concludes with several key findings, most …

A Stylistic Analysis Of Abu Tammam's Poem "Aya Wayla Al-Shaji Min Al-Khali", Fatimah Abdullah Al Shammry

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This research undertakes a stylistic study of Abu Tammam's poem "Aya Wayl al-Shajiyy min al-Khaliyy," seeking to reveal the aesthetic and semantic characteristics that distinguish the stylistic structure of his poetry. The study adopted the stylistic approach as a theoretical and analytical framework for examining the poetic text through its phonetic, syntactic, semantic, and rhetorical levels, based on a perspective that views language as a tool for generating both meaning and emotion. The research consists of two main sections: the first addresses the theoretical framework, including the definition of stylistics, its origins, methods, and trends, alongside a biographical overview of …

Existential Reasoning Within The Framework Of Multiple Intelligences, C. Branton Shearer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This article investigates the concept and construct validity of the proposed existential intelligence (Gardner, 1999). Thinking about fundamental existential issues such as death and the meaning of life is a valued human cognitive activity, but does this qualify as a distinct form of intelligence with coherence, structural integrity, measurability, and independence according to Gardner’s criteria? A more accurate framing for this construct may be existential reasoning—a type of cognition that seems likely to be a precursor to, subcomponent of, or parallel with the construct of wisdom. Data from the Scale for Existential Thinking (Allan & Shearer, 2012) are reviewed. …

Correlates Of Truancy Among Somali High School Students In Minnesota, Aisha Abdi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Truancy remains a significant challenge in schools today. Somali high school students’ truancy is specifically more prevalent. There is limited research on cultural factors that correlate with absenteeism within this population, and this quantitative study examined these factors. Acculturation, student employment, religious commitment, and perceived discrimination were the four key factors examined to inform the study. The sampled population were 16 high school students in grades 9 to 12 from two high schools within the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota. The student participants completed the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (SMAS), Child Perceived Discrimination Questionnaire (CPDQ), and researchers’ constructed surveys …