Digital Commons Network^™

Interview Format And Job Pursuit Intention, Pallavi Nimbappa Honkanadavar

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examined how interview format influences job pursuit intentions (JPI) in the context of increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring. Specifically, it compared human-led, AI-led, and AI-assisted scenario interview formats, and tested whether perceived procedural fairness and anticipated interview success mediated these relationships, as well as whether AI familiarity moderated the effects. Preliminary results from a sample of 72 participants indicated that, although the overall effect of interview format on JPI was not statistically significant, the pattern of means suggested highest JPI in human-led interview formats, followed by AI-assisted interviews, and finally completely AI-led interviews. Mediation analyses …

Creating A "Good Person": Netiquette And Instagram, Melissa S. Danai-Nolder

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This project aimed to ask the question, “How does digital etiquette, or netiquette, lead to socialization of self-presentation on Instagram?” I interviewed 15 students classified as "Generation Z" who attend a northeastern university and have an Instagram account. This was done using a convenience sample of participants who were asked to participate in the interview. Done by the convenience of the individuals who were at the location at the time. The results indicate a disconnect between wanting to be seen as a “good person” and the means used to paint this image. Netiquette plays a role in crafting self-presentation, as …

Relationships And Recovery: Social Factors In Alcoholics Recovery, Elizabeth Moe

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Introduction. Recovery is a process of change through which individuals improve their overall wellbeing, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential. In recovering from alcohol and substance use, there are many paths one may take to reach recovery, but engagement with new social circles and communities has been shown to be the most effective. This leads to the research question: what is the role of relationships during alcohol recovery? Methods. This mixed-methods study uses both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data from the National Alcohol Survey was used to compare the effects and perceptions of drinking on …

An Invasion Of The Intimate Sphere: The Manipulation Of Libido Under Totalitarian Regimes, Elyssa Lucero

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper examines the temporal nature of libidinal control in the totalitarian systems represented in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Arguing that the most enduring forms of domination operate through the reorganization of desire, the essay explores how regimes intervene in familial, romantic, and social attachments to redirect affective energy towards the state. Orwell depicts a primitive, reactive phase of control in which attachments are violently ruptured, whereas Huxley imagines an advanced system that operates through preemption, never allowing attachments to form. Drawing on Freud’s theory of redirected libido, Berlant’s theory of Cruel Optimism, Marxist …

Navigating Faith And Sexuality: Christian Pastors' Experiences In Providing Pastoral Care For Lgbtq+ Youth, Keith I. Raymond

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Within the Christian context, religion and sexuality are often cultural factors that shape the identity development of LGBTQ+ youth, with congregational stance (affirming, tolerant, non–affirming) and individual religiosity/spirituality serving as protective or risk factors (Crockett et al., 2018; Raedel et al., 2020; Yarhouse & Sadusky, 2021). Christian pastors’ theology, relational ministry approach, and pastoral skills influence how they engage with and care for queer youth, yet the professional ties between pastors and LGBTQ+ youth remain underrepresented in counseling literature. Guided by queer theory, this qualitative case study examined how Christian pastors understand and navigate pastoral care for LGBTQ+ youth within …

Performative Racial Allyship And Ally Ambivalence: A Qualitative Study, Peter D. Goldie

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Racism is rampant in and outside of higher education institutions (HEIs). Preliminary research has found that white allyship--or white people's efforts to dismantle racism by partnering with People of Color--can be beneficial to Black communities when done authentically and in ways that center Black voices, perspectives, and liberatory goals. However, a growing body of scholarship has found that white people seldom show up as allies in meaningful ways. Instead, they frequently resort to performative racial allyship (PRA), or behaviors that are meant to signal solidarity with a marginalized racial group yet are superficial and self-serving. To support effective antiracism efforts, …

The Lived Experiences Of African American Youth With The Juvenile Justice System, Marion D. Rogers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative case study examined the lived experiences of African American youth in the juvenile justice system using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Intersectionality Theory as guiding frameworks. Three participants engaged in three rounds of in-depth interviews, and the data were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding, with findings presented at the within-case and cross-case levels. Results revealed how family dynamics, school exclusion, community survival strategies, and systemic surveillance shaped participants’ pathways through the justice system, while experiences of resilience coexisted with mistrust, invisibility, and ambivalence toward counselors and authority figures. The study highlights the importance of culturally responsive …

A Pilot Study Of A Culturally Responsive Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention For Black American High School Students With Social Anxiety, Hannah Thomas

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Cognitive-behavioral interventions have been shown to be effective for treating social anxiety, yet few have been evaluated for racially and ethnically minoritized youth, including Black American adolescents. These interventions also do not address sociocultural factors, including racial discrimination and mental health stigma, that may shape the experience of social anxiety among Black American youth and serve as barriers to care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a pilot evaluation of the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of Interacting and Changing Our Narratives (ICON), a culturally-responsive, school-based cognitive-behavioral group intervention for Black American high school students with social …

Navigating Reentry: A Life Course Inquiry Into The Structural And Personal Dimensions Among Returning Citizens, Julie Chowdhury

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study explores how returning citizens experience incarceration and reentry across the life course, focusing on the interplay of structural conditions, relational contexts, and human agency. Guided by Life Course Theory (LCT), reentry is conceptualized not as a discrete post-release transition but as a developmental process shaped by cumulative disadvantage, institutional stratification, and linked lives. Data were drawn from in-depth semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated adults in the northeastern United States and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings show that incarceration and reentry are experienced as relational and multigenerational processes embedded within family systems and constrained opportunity structures, rather …

Through The Eyes Of Alumni: Transformative Power Of Eof For First-Generation College Students From Racially/Ethnically And Economically Marginalized Backgrounds, Sabrina Magliulo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study used the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to describe the impact participation in New Jersey’s Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program had on the life trajectories of thirteen first-generation Black and Latina/e/o alumni. Findings suggest that authentic relationships between participants and EOF institutional agents created non-judgmental healing spaces where students could honor their cultural wealth and use it to enhance their college experiences. As higher education practitioners seek to increase positive outcomes for students from marginalized backgrounds, this study’s findings provide evidence for adopting EOF practices and investing in intentional screening and hiring practices to identify professionals equipped …

Design For Death, Serena Domsic

Interior Design Capstones

Although cemeteries are the eternal final resting places for countless souls, the design and purpose of burial grounds are often rudimentary and their impact has turned obsolete throughout the years. Cemeteries have become forgotten in the community landscape and are perceived as sinister and morbid through the eyes of modern American culture. Because encounters with death have dwindled for most of the population, many people ignore developing their beliefs about death and how to cope with loss until they are in the midst of emotional distress. This capstone project proposes an enhanced cemetery design that engages the community so individuals …

Knit Of Identity, Caroline Westphalen

Theses & ETDs

Knit of Identity is a creative writing portfolio following the author’s journey as both a writer and as a human. This thesis includes a variety of drafts through the years, annotated and revised to explore the creative writing process. Utilizing a rich catalog of various writing forms and performance-based elements, Knit of Identity provides a messy and unfettered look at how a sea of voices informs the ever-ongoing process of finding one’s own.

(De)Composing Transhumanisms: Fungal And Trans Ecologies In Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation, Miles Nives Qapevewni Enriquez-Morales

English (MA) Theses

This thesis project analyzes the novel Annihilation (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer and situates the biologist’s transformation and transition in the book in a trans ecological framework. By expanding on foundational texts such as Jackson Jesse Nash’s “‘I Am Not Returning Home’: A Transgender Reading of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation”, this paper argues that representations of fungus in Annihilation present a possibility for trans futurity rooted in transformation, ecological entanglement, and a rejection of binary thought. Additional articles from Transgender Studies Quarterly and A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies orient this fungal transformation in the larger framework of rejecting normative …

Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Honors College

Honors Convocation

The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation Awards Program for Spring 2026, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Criminalizing Curation, Duncan Hosie

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article surfaces emerging threats to artistic expression posed by the Dost test, which outlines six factors for interpreting a “lascivious exhibition of the genitals” under federal and many state child pornography laws. It argues that the present state of American politics has eroded normative inhibitions that previously prevented the ambiguities and vulnerabilities of child pornography prosecutions from being systematically exploited. By way of repair, the Article offers two jurisprudential reform proposals.

Synthesizing precedent, criticism, and theory, the Article demonstrates Dost invites selective enforcement against politically and religiously unpopular artwork by authorizing courts and prosecutors to assess polysemous visual works …

Black Athens: Organic Intellectuals And The Civil Rights Movement In Boston, 1920–1985, Raymond Dinsmore

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the history of Boston’s civil rights movement through the lives,ideas, and accomplishments of its most influential leaders within what this study terms “Black Athens.” Despite Boston’s reputation as a premier global center of intellect and thought leadership, its Black community has rarely received due recognition for its vital contributions to the city—and particularly to its twentieth-century freedom movement. While many historians have examined the political, social, and cultural dimensions of Boston’s freedom struggle and the broader civil rights movement, few have foregrounded its intellectual history. I argue that this omission has produced an incomplete understanding of both …

The Ethical Imperative To Shift Toward A More Equitable Literary Education, Eleanor L. Bryant

Honors Theses

Choices governing canon formation have material, emotional, and intellectual consequences. Within canon formation, authors of different social identities, consistent with macrosocial power differentials, are unequally valued and shape cultural consciousness about which texts are aesthetically and intellectually valuable. It’s important to recognize canon formation as a process of unequally distributing cultural capital and knowledge production. The strategies and imperatives outlined here are basic first steps toward utilizing the classroom as a site to counter misogyny, racism, classism, colonialism, and homophobia. This project aims not only to deepen understanding of the sociological conditions of canon formation but also to impose an …

College Student Coping And Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Trinka Peer Pape

Dissertations

The isolation experienced by college students during the COVID-19 pandemic led to numerous issues and increased stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the coping mechanisms that college students utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore the impact of the pandemic on how these students coped and their overall lived experiences. Participants were juniors and seniors graduating between May 2023 and May 2024 from a university in the southern Midwest. The researcher employed a mixed methodology approach, consisting of a quantitative survey, followed by qualitative interviews with students who completed the survey. Based on the results of the …

The Relationship Between Media Use, Identity, And Attitudes Towards Women, Kelly A. Summers

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pornography’s popularity among college men is widespread, with degrading content being common in top-selling pornography (Bridges et al., 2010; Foubert et al., 2011). Research has shown higher consumption of degrading pornography is associated with more negative attitudes towards women, greater acceptance of rape culture, more sexist beliefs, and greater likelihood of engaging in aggressive and dominant behavior during physical intimacy (Bridges et al., 2023). “Incels” (a term meaning involuntarily celibate) are individuals who have not yet had a sexual debut despite an interest. Relatively little research exists on this population, but the little that has been conducted suggests incels have …

Black Labor Matters, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Black and organized workers increasingly find themselves threatened by two key outside forces: one seeking to stop anti-racism efforts via diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and the other curtailing employees’ union organizing. This Article argues that a response must be grounded in uniquely local strategies by two specific worker coalitions. One coalition–the New Black Workers Movement (NBWM)–arose from Black Lives Matter civil rights protests in 2020 that captivated the workplace and heightened awareness about anti-Blackness and concerns of systemic racism. The other coalition–the New Labor Workers Movement (NLWM)–developed in 2020 as a workplace response to a global pandemic that …

Between Home And Hallway: Does School Discipline And Parental Incarceration Moderate Academic Outcomes Among Justice Involved Youth?, Morgan M. Hamer

All Theses

This study examines the relationship between parental justice contact, school disciplinary action, and academic performance of juvenile justice involved youth. Prior research has found youth with parents with justice system contact and juvenile justice involved youth to be vulnerable populations. Specifically, this study examines how a youthful offender with at least one parent with justice system contact performs academically, and if this relationship is moderated by school disciplinary action. Using quantitative data from the baseline wave of the Pathways to Desistance Study (Mulvey et. al, 2004), an ordered logistic regression analysis was employed to assess whether parental justice contact predicts …

Rainbow Row: Tourism, Color, And The Making Of A Civic Icon, 1930s – 1960s, Samantha E. Threlkeld

All Theses

This thesis investigates the emergence of Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina, as a civic and tourism icon through an integrated analysis of visual culture, preservation governance, and material evidence. While Rainbow Row has become one of the most recognizable images of Charleston’s historic district, the chronology and cultural mechanisms through which its colorful façades were produced, interpreted, and disseminated have remained largely unstudied. This study addresses the primary research question: How Rainbow Row’s painted façades were leveraged in marketing and tourism narratives between the 1930s and the 1960s, and what those representations reveal about the construction of Charleston’s civic …

The Invisible Toll: Black College Women And The Intersection Of Academic Stress, Rest Deficiency And Exhaustion At Clemson University, Jomya Ford

All Theses

Leisure has been an under-explored aspect of Black women’s lives in higher education, particularly within predominantly white institutions (PWIs), where limited culturally relevant opportunities and racialized isolation shape daily experiences. Constraints around rest, rooted in racism and gendered expectations, continue to influence how Black college women navigate academic pressure, deficiency narratives, and exhaustion. Guided by intersectionality, this qualitative study draws on semi‑structured interviews with Black undergraduate and graduate women at a PWI to explore how cultural upbringing, institutional climates, and internalized expectations shape their definitions and practices of rest. Findings show that while participants recognize rest as necessary, they rarely …

Campaign Finance And Democratic Integrity: Studying The Effects Of Campaign Finance On Elections, Abigail C. Johnson

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using data collected from the Stanford Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME) this paper examines the connection between campaign finance results in independent expenditures. Focusing on 2022 and 2024 United States Senatorial election cycles, this research investigates whether or not female and male senatorial candidates receive higher or lower rates of supportive and opposing funding and how such funding effects the electoral outcomes of female candidates. Through logit regression analyses and descriptive statistics, like histogram and distribution graphs conducted in RStudio, this research measures how financial backing from outside groups affects probability in Senatorial primary electoral …

Gender Identity, Political Alignment, And Views On “Man Or Bear” Trend Among Uconn Undergraduate Students, Erin Tumminello

Honors Scholar Theses

The “Man or Bear” debate, which became wildly popular online in 2024, asks whether someone would prefer encountering a random man or a random bear if alone in the woods. This question is meant to spark conversations around sexual and gender-based violence, and it created considerable discourse. Upon an exploration of the literature, findings include the fact that sexual violence often goes underreported among survivors, and that support of hegemonic masculinity and conservatism among men are associated with lower support for survivors. This study is meant to expand upon these findings, and to examine the ways in which gender identity …

Addressing Postsecondary Lack Of Preparedness Through Exposure And Empowerment, Deztiny A. Ochoa

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Too many high school students are not college or career ready when they graduate. At Learning For Life Charter School, the school counselor and the intern worked together to implement a project to address the issue. The community served was 7th graders to 12th graders. A lot of these students were on the verge of dropping out or completely dropped out of traditional school. The capstone project consisted of taking 10 students on a field trip to a community college nearby. The purpose of this trip was to give students the opportunity to see their options after high school and …

Three Deep Breaths, Gillianne Lisa B. Corpuz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Today’s youth are experiencing higher rates of stress and anxiety, especially those that are system-involved and/or at-risk. The Epicenter of Monterey County is a one-stop resource center for system-involved and/or at-risk youth ages 14-24 to receive support with housing, health/wellness, employment and education. The project is aimed to support The Epicenter’s health/wellness aspect. This capstone project serves the purpose of providing both the staff and community youth members at The Epicenter with an opportunity to learn an accessible way to take care of themselves, both body and mind. This would be done through a series of workshops walking through a …

Enhancing Emotional Regulation With Breathing Exercises And Body Movement, Katheryn Sani

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Some young elementary school children have not yet developed skills in responding appropriately to their feelings. Without proper emotional awareness and regulation skills, children may struggle with conflict management, peer relationships, and classroom behavior. By learning to recognize their own emotions and triggers, emotional meltdowns can be redirected, and disruptions in the classroom environment can be reduced. In order to address this issue, I have created a two-day lesson for second-grade students at Olson Elementary in Marina, California.

Increasing Ageism Awareness Among College Students, Mya Melendez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many college students are unaware of their participation in ageist behaviors against elders. When college students are unaware of their ageist behaviors, they create an environment that excludes elders based on stereotypes and prejudiced ideas and may engage in other exclusionary behaviors towards other groups. Making college students aware of discriminatory behaviors against elders may increase positive attitudes towards elders, protect elders from vulnerability, and decrease the stigma of aging. To address these issues, I will conduct a one-hour workshop addressing ageism to a class of Human Development and Family Science students at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Effects Of 1:1 Smart Device Usage On K-8 Student Learning And Long Term Retention, Cole D. Young

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The widespread adoption of 1:1 smart device initiatives in K-8 classrooms across the United States has coincided with growing national concern over declining student literacy, reading comprehension, and long-term retention. This capstone research paper examines the effects of smart device integration on K-8 student learning and retention through two complementary methods: a review of peer-reviewed academic literature and a series of interviews conducted with five educators working across a range of grade levels and school contexts. The literature review identifies a tension between the documented benefits of smart device use. Also a series of educator interviews, conducted with teachers spanning …