Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Impact Of A Grade Contract Model In A College Composition Course: A Multiple Case Study, Nayelee Villanueva

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Due to the complex nature of assessment in critical pedagogy practices, continued research is necessary in order to investigate the constantly evolving nature of education and the way we come to know how people learn. To research assessment in the critical classroom requires both instructor and students. This qualitative multiple case study investigated impacts of a grading contract as a form of assessment on student writing in a Basic Writing composition course. This study examined the impacts of a grade contract on students' writing, motivation for writing, revision practices, authorship and expectations of a Basic Writing composition course. Through a …

Possible Benefits Of Playing Music Video Games, Amanda Pasinski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music video games, such as Rock Band, are an emerging and popular genre of video game that allows non-musicians a taste of what it is like to be a musician. For most people, developing musicianship (or the process of becoming competent with a particular musical instrument) to an expert level is a long and difficult process that can take up to 10 years or over 7,500 hours to complete. Yet musicians tend to outperform non-musicians on a variety of tasks--showing greater motor coordination, better synchronization skills, and better pitch and tempo discrimination--and possibly show differences in related cognitive processes. However, …

Corrugated Ware Function And Use As Identity Markers At The Harris Site, Danielle Romero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the function of corrugated vessels and addresses pithouse and group identity through the differences in technological and design style at the Harris site (LA 1867), a Late Pithouse period (550-1000 CE) Mimbres Mogollon pithouse village. Corrugated wares have long been defined as utilitarian cooking vessels. The goal of this research is to shed more light on corrugated wares as a ceramic type that served a variety of functions outside of cooking, including a presence in ritual spheres. This research also explores the use of technological and design styles of corrugated wares to discuss individual and group identity. …

Client Selected Music Based Effects On Marital And Couples Therapy, Kevin Matthew Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study was designed to examine the interaction of music-based interventions in the therapeutic process of Martial and Couples Therapy. The use of pre-recorded music was found to be under researched within the literature and created a void within the knowledge that clinicians have about how music might enhance effectiveness of treatment. The inclusion of music in this process is not currently known, which led to this study being conducted. Through a phenomenological lens, the awareness and understanding of how clients react and experience pre-recorded music during the therapeutic process, while still having a selection of options to preserve autonomy, …

The Effects Of Disbursement Of Foreign Aid To African Countries: A Case Study Of Ghana And Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire), Jemilat Kike Thompson-Odoom

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The African continent has received aid from developed countries for decades. This thesis seeks to examine the impact of foreign aid to developing countries using Ghana and Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire) as case studies. The study will contribute to the existing body of knowledge by examining the effectiveness of foreign aid. The study is based on data gathered primarily from development partners and donor countries. Indicators such as mortality rate, tuberculosis and access to sanitation facilities were used to test the failure or success of foreign aid in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Corruption perceptions from both countries were also analyzed …

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis's Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It proposes that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. Its review and study of related primary and secondary sources determines that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of the film medium through time, this thesis demonstrates a strong connection between documentary film and …

No Prejudice Here: Racism, Resistance, And The Struggle For Equality In Denver, 1947-1994, Summer Marie Cherland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study chronicles a story of civil rights that has been left untold until now. Recent scholarship contributing to the history of the "long civil rights movement" has reframed our understanding of civil rights beyond the years of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition, it has also demonstrated that civil rights activity occurred in regions other than the South. However, most work on the long civil rights movement demonstrates that activism among blacks began much earlier than the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case and instead, was a part of a longer freedom struggle that, in many ways, …

Global Climate Change: The Political Impact Of Global Warming On Developing Countries. The Case Studies Of Egypt And Oman, Eugene Thomas O'Neal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The discourse of climate change has become important in the field of political science, as well as in the policy-making community. Climate change has become a political phenomenon that has and will greatly impact political stability regionally and globally. Using the ecological security theory as a framework, I explored the relationship between climate change and political stability in developing countries.

This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative analyses to investigate the relationship between climate change and its effects on political volatility in developing countries. Using regression models, the author examined all non-OECD countries (140 countries) and their relationship to political …

Intersectionality And Labor Market Outcomes: Women's Racial And Ethnic Variations In Stem Fields And Professional Fields, 2001 To 2011, Anna Smedley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Although theories of group threat and racialized social systems can help explain labor market outcomes across racial and ethnic groups, they fail to account for gender differences in labor market outcomes. Intersectionality, the dominant feminist framework, suggests that identities such as race, ethnicity, and gender interlock to create a system of "multiplicative" disadvantage for minority women in the workplace. Additionally, contemporary changes in the labor force have witnessed increasing numbers of immigrant women entering the workplace - thus adding new challenges to the multiplicative disadvantages for some women. This study explores the changing pattern of Intersectionality barriers on labor market …

Physical Child Abuse And Cultural Differences In Reporting, Emily Frances Reed

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Previous research using both National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) data and other sources has found that biases do exist with regard to racial differences. The current study will build on past research of biases in the Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and reporting. This study uses a secondary data set, the 2009 NCANDS dataset; which consists of child specific data of all investigated reports of maltreatment to state CPS agencies. This research seeks to determine if there are disparities in cases reported to and substantiated by CPS as reflected by race (Black, White, & Hispanic children) and …

Social Capital Of Last Resort: The Role Of Religion, Family, And Trust Among People With Low Socio-Economic Status, Jean Reid Norman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative study finds evidence that poverty and homelessness undermine primary social relationships for many low-income people, eroding social capital, and that generalized trust may not be a good proxy for social capital, at least among a largely homeless population. This study also finds a surprising number of references to God, religion and spirituality among largely homeless populations when talking about their social networks, which addresses literature suggesting that church affiliation and religion may be unique in the formation of social capital. Twelve focus groups were conducted with a total 46 participants self-identified as low-income to explore social capital. A …

Hotel Bukovyna, Rebecca Ann Bosshart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This collection of short stories and first chapter of a novella take place in the historical area of Bukovyna, the beech tree land, partly located in Chernivetska region, western Ukraine. On the edge of it, or under it, or traveling to and from it, in contemporary time. I've been occupied with "the outsider," represented here, and where the seven stories reside, by the giant grande dame tourist hotel on Main Street, across from Shevchenko Park, in Chernivtsi, the region's city center. The occupants: the outsider looking in and around. Outsiders looking at other outsiders. An outsider being welcomed in. Most …

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney's Tangled And Disney/Pixar's Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman as progressive, industrious, …

Walt Disney And The Propaganda Complex: Government Funded Animation And Hollywood Complicity During Wwii, Amanda Michelle Cunningham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The focus of this proposed thesis will be on the animated propaganda films the studios of Walt Disney produced for the government during World War II, analyzing three of the most widely viewed animated features: The New Spirit (1942), Der Fuehrer's Face (1943), and Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943). These government-financed films were used to encourage Americans to pay their taxes; they generally depicted Germany as a threatening enemy and encouraged support for America's effort and involvement in the war. Using a semiotics theoretical approach, the thesis will analyze these films as propaganda to demonstrate how …