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Acknowledgements And Author Biographies

Emerging Writers

This document contains acknowledgements and author biographies for Volume 5 (2022) of the Emerging Writers Journal.

A Bad Time To Name Your Pet: Pet Names In The Age Of Witches, Evan Velez

Emerging Writers

In early America, there were many strange superstitions about witches. Colonists looked for all sorts of forms of witchcraft “evidence”. According to The Penguin Book of Witches, the nature of pet names may have served as an unconscious form of evidence (Howe 239). While the author thought of this suggestion as a form of social logic, this essay investigates it as a phenomenon of language. Pet names had a key role in influencing negative feelings towards animals labeled as “familiars.” This affected colonists’ perceptions of an animal, and resulted in the familiar eventually becoming a hated “pet.”

Full Issue

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Factors That Support Sustainable Cultural And Curricular Change In Stem Teaching And Learning, Erica Slate Young, Peaches Hash, Sarah Schott, Jack Bookman

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Using a mixed-methods design, this body of work from the SUMMIT-P consortium explores possible effective conditions for the sustainable reform of STEM teaching and learning at the collegiate level. A model of catalysts for successful and sustainable change is proposed, based on five years of data collection and observations. These catalysts include institutional support, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of faculty involved, measures of student success, institution size, prior faculty experience, faculty buy-in, and institutional culture. The discussion ends with a delve into the potential broader impacts of this work. For example, this model may help institutions better understand how to …

A Tale Of Four Departments: Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities Informing Mathematics Education, Bryan D. Poole, Caroline Maher-Boulis, John Hearn, Jason Robinson, Patricia Mcclung, Amanda Jones

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

As a result of the Curriculum Foundations Project and the SUMMIT-P consortium, faculty from four different departments at Lee University created a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) with the goal of improving students’ attitudes toward undergraduate mathematics courses, including students’ perception of the utility of mathematics in their lives and the feelings of anxiety that they experience in these courses. The interdisciplinary collaborations resulted in introducing novel activities and manipulatives in various mathematics courses (Introduction to Statistics, Concepts of Mathematics I and II, and Algebra for Calculus). This paper first describes the efforts of creating the inter-departmental FLC. Second, it discusses …

Collectivistic Independence In Children's Picture Books, Andrea Badger

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

In an individualist society, the usefulness of collectivist ideas can often be overlooked. This is potentially because individualism and collectivism have been incorrectly framed as oppositional. This thesis examines themes of individualism and collectivism in children's’ picture books by using the psychological concepts of individualism, collectivism, idiocentrism and allocentrism. Picture books examined include: The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who!, by Dr. Seuss, Swimmy, by Leo Lionni, What Do People Do All Day?, by Richard Scarry, and Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. This thesis studies how individualism and collectivism interact with each other within a story, and proposes …

Factors Affecting Customers’ Decision To Share Personal Data With Mobile Operators, Ammar Ali Qaffaf

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Companies that personalize their services based on users’ specific needs have increased sales and customer satisfaction. Personalization requires analyzing the user’s behavior and correlating the action with other pieces of information. The information available for cellular service providers has grown substantially as connectivity becomes ubiquitous. Customers are unknowingly sharing their locations, habits, activities, and preferences in real-time with their service providers. Although cellular service providers state that they share personal data with external entities in their publicly available privacy policies, users have limited control over who can access their personal information. Users have no, or suboptimal, control to manage their …

"Adapt Or Die": How Young Millennials Are Surviving The Threat Of Ontological Insecurity, Nathalie Marx

Scripps Senior Theses

Postmodernity has been dictated by a thirst for advancement, efficiency, and discovery. It has also created unimaginable risk: threats of nuclear war, frightening climate events, unreliable economic systems. This thesis investigates the tension between external risks, threat of future instability, and individual action and resistance. Through an analysis of twelve in-depth interviews with young millennials, I suggest that through perceived “zones of security,” individuals develop cognitive schemata to calculate the probability of their own, and others’, ontological continuity. This paper contributes to the scarce collection of sociological literature that represents the modern, intersecting crises which might contribute to a culture …

Indigenous (Mis)Representation: Implications For The Mmiwg2s Epidemic, Desi Greer, Jillian Topsky, Danara Greer, Chloe Burnstein, Emma Swartz, Sam Severson

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In the United States and Canada, Native women, girls, and two-spirit people are stolen and killed at a disproportionate rate. Despite their pleas for justice, non-indigenous media are reluctant to give Indigenous voices a platform to incite change. Critically, the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S) is not endemic to North America, but permeates through aboriginal life on every continent as a tool of settler colonialism. Existing literature on the topic of MMIWG2S has traced the roots of the crisis to settler colonialism and to non-Indigenous popular culture, but there is a gap in …

Quest Capstone 2022- Making Missoula's Communication More Effective, Lorelei Keith, Brooke Nicklay, Noah Gilder

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Teaching Constitutional Law In The Midst Of A Constitutional Crisis, Sean Kammer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Merits Of Merit: Book Review, Neil Fulton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Identity Dynamics Of Minority College Students, Nabil A. Mohamed

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Identity salience hierarchy is the idea that individuals hold their important identities on a metaphorical scale—activating them when the right situation calls for it. Moreover, the hierarchy is related to the notion of commitment, otherwise defined as the number of people and meaningful relationships associated with an identity. For most college students, their salience hierarchy shifts over time as their commitment to the student identity typically increases. When a shift in hierarchy occurs, there is a transformation in identity. However, for racial, ethnic, and religious minority students, their capacity to develop an identity independent of their minority background raises questions …

Three Essays On Governance, Inequality, And Social Equity, Sarah Ausmus Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Comprised of three essays, my dissertation is linked by a common focus: the relationship between state or local governance arrangements and inequality or facets of social equity. I draw upon a range of literatures to motivate my research questions and inform my methodologies—welfare and social policy, public economics, intergovernmental relations, public finance and management.

In the first essay, I ask: does localizing welfare governance impact geospatial access to the social safety net? This is an important question because proximity is highly salient to program utilization. I geocode the location of human services nonprofits from tax filings in eight states using …

Recasting Paul As A Chauvinist Within The Western Text-Type Manuscript Tradition: Implications For The Authorship Debate On 1 Corinthians 14.34-35, Joseph A. P. Wilson

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The mandate for women’s silence in 1 Corinthians 14.34-35 is an incongruity within Paul’s undisputed writings. Critical scholars expressed doubts about these verses’ authorship beginning in the nineteenth century. The consensus of egalitarian Paulists today is that vv.34-35 are not Paul’s sentiments. Disagreements about circumstances beyond this fact remain unresolved. Supporters of the quotation/refutation (“Q/R”) hypothesis argue that Paul quoted a letter from Corinth in vv.34-35 and refuted it in v.36. Supporters of the interpolation hypothesis regard the passage as a marginal gloss by a later author, inserted at one of two locations (after v.33 or v.40). The present work …

Analyzing Factors That Contribute To Attrition Of Underrepresented Undergraduate Students In Computer Science, Noura Albarakati

Open Access Dissertations

In recent years, women and underrepresented minority students have made significant advances in traditionally White male-dominated majors. Nevertheless, they are still underrepresented in most STEM majors. Consequently, many institutions in Higher Education are exploring ways to deliver environments that support those underrepresented students’ retention in science and engineering. This study sheds some light on women and minority students’ underrepresentation in computer science by exploring factors associated with their retention in the field.

This dissertation starts with an exploratory analysis that examines the attrition rate of underrepresented students who switched to other majors compared to their majority peers and investigates any …

A Technology-Based, Mixed Methods Approach To Examining The Psychosocial Determinants Of Maternal Health Disparities, Hannah M. Ming

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Exposure to racism and discrimination in the U.S. increases Black women’s risk for experiencing maternal health disparities. Additionally, racism and discrimination affect maternal psychosocial well-being, creating evidence for a biopsychosocial relationship between racism and maternal health outcomes. However, current research does not define the psychosocial Black maternal self well. Given the dynamic relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes, research must comprehensively examine the Black maternal self. The operationalization of a comprehensive construct for Black maternal psychosocial well-being can improve understanding of the relationship between racism, psychosocial well-being, and Black maternal health outcomes.

Purpose: …

Digitizing The ‘Ideal’ Latina Information Worker, Miriam Sweeney, Melissa Villa-Nicholas

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies Faculty Publications

Recent examples of virtual assistant technologies designed as Latina information service workers are noteworthy objects of study for their potential to bridge analyses of Latinas’ labor history and information technology. Latinas in the United States have traditionally worked in blue collar information technology sectors characterized by repetitive labor and low-wages, such as electronics manufacturing and customer service. Latinas information service workers, though fundamental to technoscience, have been largely invisible in histories of computing. Latina virtual assistants mark a shift in this labor history by relying on the strategic visibility of Latina identity in/as the technology interface. Our research explores Latina …

A Critical Exploration Of Ideology And Agency In Intensive Motherhood Literature, Maya Autret

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation explores how scholars have extended Sharon Hays’ (1997) influential work on Intensive Motherhood Ideology (IM). In conceptualizing IM, Dr. Hays proposed that IM ideology leads women in cisgender heterosexual unions to spend more time caregiving despite increased participation in paid work, compared to prior decades. Dr. Hays further asserted IM is a form of resistance to neoliberalism (i.e., capitalism based on a free-market system). However, it is unclear to what degree women are driven by an oppressive ideology and/or are making important social contributions based on conscious choice, which carries important implications for women’s agency. Through content analyses, …

Socioeconomic Status, Gender, And Diet, Alexander Dean Bracken

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Health outcomes like morbidities and death relate to socioeconomic status (SES), or the power and prestige related to social classes. Many of such outcomes can also be attributed to diet, which SES and gender have been related to. The current study sought to discover factors relevant to dietary behaviors like ground meat preference and motives like the importance of food price, nutrition, naturalness, and convenience. Does SES predict a preference for ground turkey; the importance of food price; nutrition; and naturalness? Does gender predict the importance of food nutrition, naturalness, or convenience? A survey measured participants’ levels of education and …

Science Literacy Skills Of First-Generation And Underrepresented First-Year Students And The Stem Pioneers Intervention, Rebecca Sarah Katherine Thompson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

First-generation students and other underrepresented groups face particular challenges at college, which can affect whether they thrive in their courses and remain on track to graduate. For students interested in majoring in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and math), science literacy skills are necessary for success in their coursework and future careers. We investigated the impact of demographic factors on science literacy skills, retention, and grade point average (GPA). The STEM Pioneers program at Montclair State University (MSU; Montclair, New Jersey, USA) was designed to support first-generation students with an interest in STEM who have not yet declared a …

Adolescent Cognition As A Dynamic System : Examining Complex Cognition, Concepts And Context, Rachael R. Doubledee

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The transition to adolescence is characterized by the rapid development of many interacting social, emotional, and cognitive processes. Adolescent development is organized around developing successful peer relationships and peer interactions which can improve social standing, define group memberships, and develop a social identity. In the first manuscript, I identified cognitive complexity as an important underlying developmental concept to adolescent development and established a theoretical foundation. Cognitive complexity was explored through a dynamic systems approach which examined the interacting processes of development in addition to outcomes. In the second manuscript, secondary interviews (N = 24) were analyzed in a multi-stage process. …

The Lost Cause Of Free Speech, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

No abstract provided.

Worth A Shot: Encouraging Vaccine Uptake Through "Empathy", Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Pro- and anti-vaccine organizations and individuals have frequently invoked empathy as a strategy for increasing uptake of COVID-19 precautions, including vaccinations. On one hand, vaccine supporters deployed empathy to defuse conflict, prioritize safeguarding the collective welfare, and avoid government mandates. On the other hand, vaccine opponents used empathy to emphasize the alleged individual effects of pandemic precautions, mobilize public voices, and stress the importance of medical freedom in policy-making contexts.

This Article first defines empathy and reviews empathy scholarship, paying particular attention to its relationship with narrative and the contexts where empathy can be difficult or dangerous. It then applies …

How Do You Value A Victim? Victim Impact Statements In Military Sexual Assault Trials, Chris Cox

Scholarly Works

This Article examines a timely and important issue — the use of Victim Impact Statements (VIS) in criminal trials and, more specifically, in military courts-martial. The right for victims of offenses to provide VIS has existed in the United States for approximately three decades. However, the military’s implementation of similar rights for victims has languished, with the advent of the right for a victim to provide a VIS having been implemented only within the last decade. Relying on legal precedent in the form of appellate case decisions and qualitative assessments of trial court records, this article explores the current state …

Comparison Of Chinese And Western Arts Mirroring The Evolvement Of Consciousness, Rui Peng

Journal of Conscious Evolution

A few researchers of consciousness in the West demonstrate that the development of western art mirrors the evolvement of human Consciousness since human civilization emerged. This paper explores the differences in art development between China and the West by comparing the artworks in the same era. Furthermore, discussing why the Chinese scholar art over two thousand years does not reflect the same structures of Consciousness that western researchers defined.

How Relevant Is The Basic Reproductive Number Computed During Covid-19, Especially During Lockdowns?, Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, Steven G. Krantz, Thomas Kurien, David Swanson, Multiple Additional Authors

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Basic reproductive numbers during COVID-19, either through standard approaches or through time-varying approaches, are key for understanding the pandemic growth. However, improper usage and interpretations and computational difficulties during lockdowns could be misleading for planning and mitigation.

The Racial And Partisan Underpinnings Of Attitudes Toward Police In A Time Of Protest, Andrew Thompson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Racial and ethnic differences in policing attitudes have generally been examined through the group position or other conflict perspectives. This perspective contains a limitation, especially when considering recent trends in racial and policing attitudes. Racial attitudes have been liberalizing for over a decade among White political liberals and moderates, while Republicans’ racial attitudes have been relatively stagnant. These divergent trends may have accelerated since the murder of George Floyd. While racial attitudes (including attitudes about the police) have been polarizing along political lines, the group position model suggests that racial attitudes and policy preferences among dominant group members, regardless of …

Institutionalized Normative Heterosexuality : The Case Of Sexual Fluidity, Nicole Lamarre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since Alfred Kinsey’s early exploration of sexual behaviors, identities, and desires, there has been a proliferation of studies on what is generally regarded today as sexual fluidity. Inquiry into sexual histories that are neither wholly heterosexual nor homosexual (or even bisexual) has been incredibly well documented by this time. Generally, theories about sexual fluidity have taken one of two positions. The first camp interprets sexual variance as a sign of changing times and crumbling sexual and gender binaries. The second group of theorists postulate that sexual fluidity is neither new nor a particularly positive or liberating social trend. Instead of …

Constructing And Constraining Mobility At The New University, Rachel Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The goal of this dissertation is to uncover the black box that currently envelops the student experience at New & Mobility-Granting Universities, which are defined by their ability to enroll and graduate students from traditionally underrepresented racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds at a higher-than-average rate. More specifically, I use data from 65 student interviews at State U, which is a mid-sized public university, in order to show how opportunity is granted to some students through their common points of interaction with the institution—in the classroom, with advisors, within high-impact programs, and in the workplace. At the same time, I show that …