Black Parents’ Use Of Educational Advocates: Disrupting Structural And Systemic Racism In Education, Fredericka R. Butler Phd

Dissertations

Research indicates that educators’ deficit perceptions of Black students and their families factor into Black student overrepresentation in disciplinary and special education referrals and underrepresentation in advanced coursework (Annamma et al., 2014; Ford et al., 2023). This prevalence of implicit bias is documented, as is the significance of Black parent involvement in their children’s education (Latunde & Clark-Louque, 2016). Black parents’ awareness of educator racism encourages distrust of educators and interferes with cultivating effective home-school relationships that encourage successful student outcomes. School districts offer the services of educational advocates to provide support to parents whose children are referred for special …

Analytical Approaches For Identification Of Essential Genomes Of Plasmodium Knowlesi And Babesia Divergens, Sida Ye

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Apicomplexa constitute a large phylum of single-celled, obligate intracellular protozoan parasites. Notably, Plasmodium spp. and Babesia spp. are apicomplexan parasites that infect red blood cells. Plasmodium species are the causative agent of malaria and are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, affecting large human populations, whereas Babesia spp., transmitted through the bite of Ixodes ticks cause babesiosis.

In this dissertation, we investigate the essential genome of these parasites using high-throughput transposon mutagenesis. Identifying the essential genome is key to finding new drug targets and understanding resistance mechanisms, a crucial pursuit given the rising resistance to frontline antimalarial drugs and the challenges …

Comparison Of Propofol Microbial Contamination Following Treatment With Drug Disposal Devices, Ransome Van Der Hoeven, Alan L Myers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Pharmaceutical waste represents a major burden to the health care system and environment. Proper drug waste disposal devices are vitally needed, especially for propofol solutions that inherently carry a high risk of microbial contamination.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to compare the capabilities of 2 drug disposal systems for decontamination of propofol solutions inoculated with medical pathogens and assess chemical degradation of propofol after treatment with Fenton reagents.

Methods: Standard microbiological assays were used to assess survival and growth of Escherichia coli and Candida albicans inoculated into propofol solutions. Both a prototype instrument and a commercially marketed …

Scattering Garden - Designing For Cremated Ash Scattering In Cemetery Landscapes, Sathya G. Munagamage

Masters Theses

Cremation is gaining popularity as a preferred after death care procedure. Therefore the need for spaces to bury or scatter cremated ashes is also rising. “Scattering Gardens”, as specific spaces allocated for cremated ash scattering in cemetery landscapes will play a significant role in responding to this shift. The effect of accumulation of these ashes on soil ecology is a rising concern. My thesis investigates the socio-cultural and environmental effects of cremated ashes in the landscapes in which they are placed. Using the North burial ground cemetery as a test site for my investigations, I explore the potential of design …

From In To Out, Jaeyeon Shin

Masters Theses

In contemporary Korean society, where uniform ideals and social pressure often dominate, individuality—especially emotional individuality—can be difficult to maintain. This loss of personal agency has real consequences: mental and physical health challenges, including eating disorders, are on the rise.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 3 percent of the global population is affected by such disorders—roughly 1.55 million people in South Korea—despite the country having the lowest obesity rate among OECD nations. The increase, particularly among women in their teens to thirties, reflects the emotional toll of conforming to rigid societal standards.

Architecture is not merely a backdrop …

Parallel Worlds, Mary J. Connell

Masters Theses

When I start a painting, I’m never sure how the painting process is going to go or how the painting will be resolved. I don’t plan things out or make sketches in preparation for the paintings. Each decision is intuitive. I typically have a question, a response from a prior painting. As a result, all the paintings in the studio become related as they respond to each other.

Doubt and curiosity steady my hand, balancing one another out. Through hard work, time, mistakes and the occasional success, a painting gradually emerges from the surface. Sometimes it is lost again for …

Gust, Stroll, Veil, Jungeun Park

Masters Theses

I witness the unsettling and chaotic moments of everyday life:

blood clots in fried eggs, a dead rat on my porch, mites crawling on our skin . . .

These quiet tragedies exist with almost brutal indifference!

We eat, digest, excrete. We menstruate. We parasitize. We coexist.

I seek the intersection of repulsion and wonder in my daily experience and body sensations, visualizing unseen stimuli. I employ veil as a strategy. It conceals yet reveals. Sometimes, it acts as a transparent layer, sharpening what lies beneath. Other times, it blurs colors and forms, rendering them ambiguous. Veil transforms, entices, and …

From Industrial Building To Affordable Senior Housing: An Idea Book Beyond Code, Weiyi Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis envisions a proposal to adaptively re-purpose Rhode Island’s extant industrial building stock into affordable housing tailored to the needs of its older and more vulnerable citizens. Architectural dignity, in terms of older citizens amidst this housing crisis, is the creation of living environments that honor their autonomy, comfort, and identity through design interventions that provide accessible, luminous, breathable, and socially enriching spaces, reaffirming their rightful place within the community. With humanistic care and logical rigor, it establishes a mathematical framework for assessment and execution, anchored in five criteria: light, air, space, accessibility, and livability, and presents itself in …

Chasing The Sacred: A Personal Archive, Yiko Yang

Masters Theses

The relationship between humans and nature is like that of a child to a mother, or consciousness to the unconscious. The former arises from the latter, which always holds and shapes it. As human consciousness evolves, the desire to return to the unconscious remains—we are always looking back, searching for that first glimpse of the world.

Thinking back to my childhood, certain fundamental images—archetypes—come to mind. Rooted in the research of Carl Jung and Erich Neumann, this concept also stems from my family’s cultural heritage and my deep, lasting connection with nature as a child. These archetypes reflect the natural …

Post Occupation Amnesia, Zainah Alwuhaib

Masters Theses

On August 2nd, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and occupied Kuwait in an attempt to expand borders and acquire resources. The occupation lasted for seven months. Even after liberation on February 26, 1991, many prisoners of war had not been found or returned, oil wells were still on fire, and buildings were left damaged or destroyed. The immediate recovery period focused on restoring what was lost and reclaiming a sense of cultural and national identity. Different buildings received different treatment, and analyzing what remains now, 35 years later, is essential in understanding the impacts of occupation on a nation.

To gain …

Playful Parenting, Shloka Kartikeyan

Masters Theses

“What is the next big milestone for my child, and how can I be ready for it?”

That is the question in every parents' mind as they watch their child grow. The developmental milestones being the source of guidance and cause of worry for parents.

We are in an overwhelming era of options - the global toy market was valued at around $114.4 billion in 2024 as reported by Global News Wire* - that’s the size of options in toys alone for parents to choose from. With all these products geared towards encouraging child development, parents are often left to …

#Protestpolicing: Intersecting Race And Social Media Activism In The Mile High City, Nancy Rios-Contreras

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Demonstrations addressing police use of force stress the importance of revisiting the organization strategies of social movements. Fatal use of force against individuals of color continues to tarnish police-community relations. Social media helps elevate the political movement addressing police use of force, but understanding social media as an activist resource remains underdeveloped. Resource mobilization theory is applied to the conceptualization of protest activities to describe how activists use social media as a resource to initiate and create local community change. This exploratory study consists of 20 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with activists over 18 years old and fieldwork observation. While social …

Navigating Crisis: A Qualitative Exploration Of Parents' Journeys With Suicidal Adolescents In Australian Emergency Departments, Demee Rheinberger, Lauren Mcgillivray, Fiona Shand, Sally Ann Pollard, Susanne Oliver Armstrong, Julia Lessing, Katherine Boydell

The Qualitative Report

Rates of emergency department (ED) presentations for suicide crisis (thoughts, feelings, plans and behaviours) in adolescents are increasing. Parents play a key role in supporting adolescents during and after the ED presentation, however little is known about parental experiences in the ED. Interviews with 20 parents from across Australia were undertaken to help understand this experience. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted, resulting in three themes which explore the impact of the suicide crisis and ED presentation on the parents’ sense of identity. First, parents’ identity was threatened as they were faced with the juxtaposition between the role of protector …

Between Sleeps, Cassidy S. Argo

Masters Theses

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Of Dolls And Jewels : Keeping As A Strategy Of Care And Belonging, Yuqi Fan

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I will discuss the psychology behind object attachment in the doll-keeping subculture by integrating doll language into contemporary jewelry. I researched the Chinese term “Pi” as an accurate way of explaining how doll-keepers are attached to their dolls. In this 21st century, the widespread use of social media and AI technologies have deepened people's reliance on virtual spaces, leading to emotional detachment in our society. Adopting the concept of “Pi” into contemporary jewelry, which encourages a shift in focus towards external objects, the practice of doll-keeping becomes a form of self-care that compensates for our current loneliness …

Al-Naseej: A Woven Path, Dalal M. Almazeedi

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how art and adaptive reuse can transform abandoned buildings in Kuwait City into vibrant cultural and artistic hubs that honor the nation’s tribal and artistic heritage and bridge the gap between past and present. Through repurposing these neglected spaces, Kuwait can preserve its historical identity while creating homes for contemporary design and creativity. This transformation revitalizes urban environments, and fosters a sense of belonging and community by integrating heritage with contemporary artistic expression. This project envisions the transformation of “The Old Amiri Hospital” into an artistic cultural hub that celebrates the traditional craft of Al-Sadu weaving, merged …

Comfort In Contradiction, Yanchen Zhao

Masters Theses

This research explores why modern visual experiences often feel hollow—why suburban McMansions imitate classical architecture and why luxury spaces feel staged. Instead of simply criticizing these aesthetics, I want to understand them: Why do we embrace symbols disconnected from history? What makes them feel familiar and comforting?

Using Jean Baudrillard’s idea of hyperreality and Marshall Berman’s view on modernity, I examine how today’s aesthetics are simulations—designs that no longer refer to a real past but exist as self-repeating symbols. Everyday objects borrow classical decorations without structural purpose, offering a sense of tradition and familiarity without real historical connection. Modernity, while …

Soft Stickers, Alexandra L. Croft

Masters Theses

The United States has long maintained an extractive relationship with national forest land, leaving a dwindling number of old-growth forests and an overabundance of young, small trees. Waste byproducts of the industry, such as sawmill offcuts, are typically burned or chipped for groundcover; but what if they were reconsidered as viable building materials in their own right? Opting for stuffed and strapped connections over conventional notches and nails, Soft Stickers proposes a building ethos that accepts and accounts for material variation and dimensional change over time through supple materials and a long-term maintenance commitment. Green wood offcuts dry and shrink …

Wooorrmmhooolleess, Kimberly Duck

Masters Theses

By now we all know that the internet is an integral part of our existence. One could argue that this online existence holds equal importance to our physical one. While the lines blur even further and Mark Zuckerberg can’t wait to cosplay the rich computer guy from Ready Player One, I choose to refrain from the existential dread that seems to be inescapable when thinking of the future nowadays. While we often associate the internet with portals (after all, we once called websites “Internet Portals”—in German at least), Wormholes more accurately capture the experience. Portals promise instant connection. But what …

Instrument, Elliott M. Romano

Masters Theses

I compose graphic design like I would a piece of music. Using input sources such as sound signals and noise algorithms, I create generative systems that alter or adapt typography and graphic form to output audio-textual compositions in real time. I call these systems graphic instruments.

In this book, I present a methodology for constructing and performing visual instruments as hybridized, real-time feedback systems, tracing a lineage of apparatuses as well as works of art and design that share a similar orientation. Through short-form essays and interviews with artists who operate between designer and performer, this thesis explores the …

Afrography: Scripting Futures Anchored In Culture & Community, Osmond Tshuma

Masters Theses

Latin and Arabic are the most used writing systems in Afrika, not only because of their functionality but because of colonial history. Colonialism established Eurocentrism as the standard, while Afrikan creations were marginalized and demonized. This thesis investigates various ways of reclaiming identity through typography using the concept of Sankofa, which emphasizes retrieving and learning from the past to build the future. By integrating cultural objects into designs and everyday visual language, we can challenge and reverse the demonization imposed on Afrikan symbols by colonial narratives.

The belief of Ubuntu, the philosophy that an individual’s well-being is intrinsically tied to …

Foundations Of Belonging, Yerim Jang

Masters Theses

In the early 1900s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants displaced by World War II sought refuge in the United States, drawn by the promise of a new life and the hope of finding community in an unfamiliar land. To navigate the challenges of a new country, these immigrants formed ethnic social clubs that provided essential support, including housing, employment, and spaces for social connection. Over time, as later generations assimilated and established new identities, these once-thriving social hubs diminished, barely operating their original functions and transitioned into bars, event halls, or restaurants. Since the early 2000s, a new wave of …

The House At The End Of Time, Gyles Jose Antonio Ferrao

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the architectural potential of thresholds as spaces of psychological and metaphysical transformation, positioning the edge not as a boundary but as a generative spatial condition. Drawing upon Carl Jung’s conception of dream architecture as a symbolic map of the self, the project proposes a nonlinear exploration of architecture through layered references that operate across metaphysical scales. The house becomes a medium through which the liminal is made tangible, a temporal and spatial construct that blurs the binary oppositions of life and death, memory and forgetting, reason and absurdity, consciousness and the unconscious.

The project conceptualizes architecture as …

This Is How To Shoot A Gun., Rene Camarillo

Masters Theses

The textile work I have developed for my thesis is a curated exposing of the social interactions and violent phenomena of underprivileged realities. It investigates the theatrics of community violence, mechanisms of survival both through labor and bullets. Elements of my work are inspired by setting a scene through minimalistic installation and allowing you, the audience member, to become a spectator. With an emphasis on the injured form, the work incorporates identity-driven artifacts of my neighborhood back home. My garments in this graduate collection which are hand-patterned and self-sewn aim to represent victims, perpetrators and spectators of violence.

Subtle moments …

Folding Horizons: Knitted Textiles For A Mobile World, Yutong Li

Masters Theses

We have grown accustomed to living in flux—moving between cities, countries, languages, and digital spaces. Life no longer unfolds in a straight line, but in fragments and transitions, never quite settling. In this restless rhythm—shaped by fast trains, shifting skies, and the invisible current of the internet—we find ourselves suspended in a vast, woven network. Connection is constant, yet motion is unrelenting.

This project begins with a question: how can textiles reflect this state of in-between? I imagine textiles not as fixed surfaces, but as responsive skins—adaptive, expressive, and attuned to change. Inspired by the tensions of contemporary life—surveillance, shrinking …

Tubo, Shaobo Liu

Masters Theses

In this light, while the pursuit of convenience has advanced human civilization in remarkable ways, it is essential to recognize that creativity depends on more than just abstract thought. It relies on the inevitable process of translating ideas into physical form, engaging both mind and body in a cycle of experimentation, failure, and discovery. Without opportunities to physically manipulate and construct, our creative faculties risk stagnation, underscoring the importance of preserving and reintroducing hands-on, experiential learning into modern life.

The modular system in my work prioritizes physical interaction and open-ended outcomes, which responds directly to the challenges posed by digital …

Patchworks - A Design Framework For Repairing Systems, One Patch At A Time., Jack A. Martinez

Masters Theses

Design interventions for social good often fall short—ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Even successful projects tend to have fleeting impacts. Despite prototyping, innovation, and scaling expertise, designers struggle to create lasting community change. Skills that drive capitalist markets remain underutilized in the social sector. Reducing barriers to entry in the design for social good field might foster a more equitable, service-oriented design practice.

This thesis examines how designers can collaborate ethically and effectively with community organizations to support their missions. It examines the challenges and benefits of applying a ‘patchwork design approach’ to social good through real-world partnerships. …

Time Reclamation, Yuming Hu

Masters Theses

In today’s involution culture or “internal competition”, epitomized by China’s 996 work schedule, time is tracked like a quota rather than lived. Drawing on Camus’ call to make one’s very existence a quiet act of rebellion, this thesis answers alienated time with multisensory design.

Four interventions, the Thermochromic Table, Blinds Light, Dappled Shadows Light, and a haptic Squeeze Timer, using temperature, light, shadow, and touch to stage brief “moments of awareness.”

Instead of urging users to optimize every second, these objects invite them to pause, feel, and enjoy time. Each prototype softens the clock’s rigid tick into a gentle cue, …

Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love, Jonathan Erick Guzman

Masters Theses

“Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love” is an interdisciplinary thesis that explores the intersections of queer Chicanx identity, photography, and performance as technologies of survival and self-construction. I construct a speculative archive of Chicanx queer experience through my tripartite personas: Barbí, Luke, and myself—collectively, the Guzman Triplets.

Through these embodied avatars, I embrace rasquachismo, camp, Catholic iconography, and hybrid photographic processes—including Polaroids, AI-manipulated imagery, anthotypes, and installation—to investigate visibility, fragmentation, and ancestral memory. Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s frameworks of la herida abierta and nepantla, José Esteban Muñoz’s concepts of disidentification and queer futurity, and bell …

Covered In Snow, Katelynn M. Rogers

Masters Theses

Covered in Snow is a photographic exploration into the ripple effect of maternal loss and environmental decay in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. In the wake of a miscarriage, the woods I had grown up within began calling to me, urging me to return. Unbeknownst to me, a series of accidental deaths of women had been happening throughout these trees my entire life, their stories only coming to the surface as I looked to the trees for solace. This series of inexplicable deaths in the woods I so desperately loved began to alter my relationship to the trees, a distrust …