Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Native American Perspective On Navigating The Academic World With Resilience And Honoring The Wisdom Of Native Elders, Shani Renee Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

The graduation percentage among Native American students has consistently remained at a discouraging 50 %, both in the past and at present. This study employed a narrative inquiry approach to investigate the low graduation rates among Native American students, from the perspective of a Native American educator and mother. This study examined the historical trauma and colonization experienced by Native Americans and how it has affected Native American families and communities, resulting in low rates of graduation among Native students. In addition, this study examined factors contributing to resilience by acknowledging Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Ways of Knowing …

Acquisition Of Spatial And Temporal VTe-Kuru By Learners Of Japanese At A University In The U.S., Ayumi Naraoka

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined to what extent Japanese as Foreign Language (JFL) learners have mastered the grammatical pattern for the verb gerund + kuru ("come"), which is referred to as Vte-kuru henceforth. There are two types of Vte-kuru: (1) the spatial Vte-kuru, meaning "to do [something] and come back," and (2) the temporal Vte- kuru, meaning "begin to." It is assumed that learners did not use Vte-kuru often, even though they should have learned two uses of Vte-kuru by the end of their 200-level Japanese class. To find out to what extent …

Applying Decolonizing Theories And Methodologies In Archaeology To Two Collaborative Cultural Resource Management Projects, Cydney K. Lanthier

Dissertations and Theses

Decolonizing theories and methods were employed during two separate graduate research projects. The methods of the initial project were informed by political ecology, the landscape-level historical ecology theory, Tribal sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), Indigenous archaeology, and community based participatory research (CBPR). The initial project was based entirely on CBPR and purposed to gain National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) over a portion of the traditional landscape. This project was cancelled before completion. However, several methods involved in CBPR were employed before then. The second project took on more of the historical ecology …

Feeling Otherwise: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Queer And Trans Youth Of Color Who Create And Embody Fursonas, Hazel Ali Zaman

Dissertations and Theses

Queer and trans youth of color are often the target of surveillance, bullying, discrimination, and abuse. However, in an attempt to navigate such violent and discriminatory circumstances, the queer and trans youth of color in this dissertation found refuge in furry art and performances, both online and offline, where they were able to express themselves freely and thus acquire a sense of belonging among others with similar experiences. In this dissertation, "a furry" is used to refer to an individual who self-identifies as one who has an affinity for anthropomorphic animal characters. A common practice among furries is creating a …

The Women Of The Oregon State Insane Asylum: 1900-1910, Rebekah Catherine Averette

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the lives of female patients at the Oregon State Insane Asylum between 1900 and 1910 and examines the significance of that decade as a period of transition in asylum care from a moral treatment model to a focus on moral hygiene practices to subvert insanity before it took root and medicalized psychiatric treatment for severe or chronic cases requiring institutionalization.

At the turn of the twentieth century, state insane asylums were in the aspirational early stages of transforming into specialized psychiatric and medical hospitals. Ultimately, the hoped-for transformation would not materialize in a meaningful way until well …

Immigration Policy Evaluation For Technology Professionals Immigrants In The United States, Angel Contreras Cruz

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. Immigration System is complex for technology professionals seeking to relocate to the United States for employment or education. The United States relies on its employment-based immigration to attract and select the best talent to fill the shortage of skilled jobs. Technology professionals, a stream of highly skilled immigrants, tend to contribute and be more beneficial to the U.S. economy, which is one of the principles of U.S. immigration policies. Although U.S. immigration policies are constantly updating, policymakers, experts, and scholars suggest that the United States needs significant immigration reform to solve current issues, such as improving technological capabilities …

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph Robert Burns

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

The Mirror Project: Reflections On The Experiences Of African-American Female Adolescents Experiencing Foster Care, Bahia Anise-Cross Degruy Overton

Dissertations and Theses

As the author Zora Neale Hurston says, "If you're silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." The Mirror Project (MP) aims to break this silence by giving voice to Black women who have experienced foster care in Portland, Oregon during their adolescence. In focus groups and interviews, participants shared their stories. Racial identity development theory, phenomenology and Afrocentric feminist epistemology provided lenses for gaining insight into their experiences in a predominantly white city. The MP revealed six themes: lack of youth engagement in foster care decisions, the need for a cultural lens in social work, …

Educational Attainment: American Indians/Alaska Natives Phenomenological Study Of A Northeast Nebraska Indian Reservation, Stacy Brasch

Dissertations and Theses

This phenomenological study explored the perspectives of American Indian/Alaska Native students who had all graduated from the same Northeast-Nebraska public school located on a federally recognized Indian reservation and completed at least a four-year degree. To that end, the central research question addressed by this dissertation is, “Why were these individuals successful in their educational attainment pursuits when so many of their contemporaries were not?” The two sub-research questions were (1) What supports do American Indian/Alaska Native graduates perceive as having helped to ensure their resilience and successful educational attainment? And (2) What challenges do American Indian/Alaska Native students identify …

More Than A Stop On The Way To Yellowstone: The Parks Of The Black Hills And Their Impact On Wilderness Preservation, Arianna Lynn Van Kley

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the ideologies that contributed to the establishment of public parks in the Black Hills of South Dakota as a microcosm for nationwide conversations about preservation, tourism, nationalism, colonialism, and commerce. Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial each complicate and enhance understandings of how public preservation projects emerged out of debates that included ideas outside environmental protection efforts. The people who supported the establishment of these parks, such as the McDonald and Stabler families, South Dakota Senator Peter Norbeck, state historian Doane Robinson, and sculptor Gutzon Borglum, implemented their own ideas across …

A Study Of Gender Apartheid: Afghanistan And The Islamic Republic Of Iran, Golazin Safaeimojarad

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the systemic and institutionalized forms of gender-based discrimination termed gender apartheid, focusing on Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It argues that gender apartheid, a severe form of discrimination where women and girls are subjugated and denied fundamental rights under institutional frameworks, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule and Iran under the Islamic Republic of Iran are two prime cases of gender apartheid. Through a qualitative research approach employing case studies and a comprehensive review of legal documents, academic materials, and reports from reputable organizations, the thesis outlines how gender apartheid is not only a direct product …

Utopia And Dystopia In Shakespeare’S Plays, Wenhui Duan

Dissertations and Theses

Writers and literary scholars’ interest in utopian fiction has increased in the recent decades, although the term originates from Sir Thomas More’s 1516 Utopia. Many Shakespeare scholars show interest in studying Utopia in Shakespeare’s comedy The Tempest, but not many scholars study Utopia in other Shakespeare’s plays. The contrary to Utopia is Dystopia, which appears as a term in 1952, however, More has set out elements of Dystopia in his 1516 Utopia. Few scholars study Dystopia in Shakespeare’s plays. In three chapters, this thesis compares Utopia in two of Shakespeare’s comedies and Dystopia in two of Shakespeare’s tragedies from the …

Religious Upheaval In A South Dakota Mennonite Community, 1874-1940, Ryan Mews

Dissertations and Theses

In 1874, multiple colonies of German-Russian Mennonites and Hutterites entered the Dakota Territory to settle into tightknit religious communities. These Anabaptists sought to escape religious persecution and assimilation in Russia but found themselves influenced by American religious groups. Their history of isolationism caused these groups to draw lines between their congregations that kept them small but allowed them to interact with new ideas in different ways, but caused them to redefine their German Mennonite identity. One such influence erupted from the Presbyterian Church called fundamentalism that encouraged evangelical works in America and sought to combat modernism in religious institutions. In …

The Contested Exempla Of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Victoria Theresa White

Dissertations and Theses

In 82 BCE, Lucius Cornelius Sulla emerged the victor of his civil war against the supporters of Marius and Cinna. The brutal aftermath of this victory, characterized by the creation of the proscriptions, would brand Sulla as a cruel and immoderate victor. Still, his successes in Rome’s previous wars against foreign enemies had enshrined Sulla as a brilliant military commander within Roman memory. Previous scholarship about Sulla has focused on the dichotomy of Sulla’s actions, often in order to evaluate his clemency or cruelty and his aims of his political reforms. This thesis analyzes how ancient Roman and Greek authors …

The Establishment And Shaping Of The Education System And National Identity In Manchukuo, Tianyang Lei

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis studies the education system and national identity of Manchukuo the nationstate (1932-1945). In September of 1932, the Japanese army staged the "Mukden Incident," a bombing of a railway line near Shenyang that was used as a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria. Following the incident, the Japanese established the state of Manchukuo with the last emperor of China, Puyi, as its nominal head of state. The establishment of Manchukuo marked the beginning of Japan's aggressive expansion in Asia and its militarization of the region. It also marked the start of Japan's effective control over large portions of Northeast …

Critical Analysis Of Anti-Asian Hate In The News, Benardo Douglas Relampagos

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2019, the United States has had an increase in violence against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities along with an increase of mainstream anti-Asian racist rhetoric. Between 2021 and 2022, The Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism reported an overall 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes (Report to the Nation, 2021). While racism against black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities has been the topic of an ever-growing body of critical discourse, prior to 2019 few publications had addressed racism and injustice regarding language choices and discourse in the context of anti-Asian rhetoric in the US, specifically …

The New Profits Of Pleasure: Reality Television And Affective Exploitation In Post-Pandemic Neoliberalism, Sophia Aepfelbacher

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis uses reality television and the parasocial relationships it cultivates as a microcosm to better understand the current form of neoliberalism as well as the implications it has for democracy. I extend the preexisting scholarship surrounding neoliberalism and reality television by emphasizing the importance of social media in understanding that link. By conducting a case study of Netflix's Love is Blind, I demonstrate how both reality television content and the reality-television-participant-to-influencer pipeline serve to reinforce neoliberal values by constructing powerful cultural imaginaries such as a model of care and self-sufficiency that centers marriage and the household. I argue …

Examining Factors Impacting The Service Needs Of Unhoused Women, Holly Brott

Dissertations and Theses

Women account for a sizeable proportion of the unhoused population in the U.S. Over one-third (38.7%) of unhoused individuals are women, which is a 17% increase from 2016 (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2019). The increased prevalence of women experiencing homelessness calls for a renewed examination of their service needs. This dissertation presents three studies examining factors impacting the service needs of unhoused women. The first manuscript examined factors contributing to unhoused mothers’ successful completion of transitional housing; highlighted participant-identified programmatic strengths; and investigated differences in facilitators to success across two geographic contexts: one rural and one …

Do Men Strategically Leverage Women's Intersecting Identities? Intersectional Symbolic Inclusion As An Electoral Competition Strategy In Polarized Turkey, Elif Sari Genc

Dissertations and Theses

Do party elites use intersectionality as an electoral competition strategy? In this dissertation, I study this question in the context of mayoral elections in Turkey by focusing on the competition between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the People's Republican Party (CHP). Examining the gender and religious orientation of candidates from these parties, local variations in party affiliations, and partisan polarization that is decisive in vote choice at the district level, I argue that the Islamist AKP strategically selects secular-appearing women to leverage their intersecting identities in races where secularist partisan polarization against this party is high.

Drawing on …

The Greeley Variations, Mary Haidri

Dissertations and Theses

Inspired by the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, European snake folklore, and "wished-for child" fairy tales, The Greeley Variations features several generations of women and the Victorian house they live in. The novel explores prospective parenthood, maternal legacy, and repeated patterns (visual, genetic, and psychological) as haunting experiences.

Communion Anthropoid, Joshua Stanek

Dissertations and Theses

In National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, a man of good will offers all he has to a dear brother-in-law--recognizing the snakes he keeps as toys, the camper, the stones, dirt, and arid shrubbery are likewise dear to him. They go out to the desert at night and dig shallow holes, seemingly at random. Their imprecision is surprisingly fruitful. Imagine the constellation they made for the stars. In Communion Anthropoid, I am digging shallow holes in the dark with a mind to unearth what I believe I have lost. The dearness, I suppose. These poems vary in form from eight …

Son Otros Tiempos: Generational Experiences Of Male Friendships Amongst Mexican And Mexican American Men, Marisela Rodríguez Molina

Dissertations and Theses

Culturally specific work with Latinx men has also discussed the way Latinx masculinities are being redefined by younger generations. Grounded in Chicana Feminist epistemologies, I use Gloria Anzaldua's borderlands framework to analyze data from 20 interviews with sons and their father figures in understanding experience of masculinities within the context of male friendships. Differences between father's and son's experiences can be attributed to social context in which men are socialized and their borderlands experiences. Findings illustrate how understandings of masculinities represent a melding of cultural values between the dominant individualistic perspective in the U.S. and the collectivist perspective from men's …

The Use Of Feedforwarding Techniques In Sermon-Crafting: A Collaborative Approach To Preaching, Stephen Rollins

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Equipping Christians With A Post-Christian Evangelism Paradigm At Great Oaks Church Of Christ, Tim Alsup

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The New Heavens And New Earth: The Interpretive Development Of Isaiah 65:17, Baron Vander Maas

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Kurdish Filmmaking In Turkey: History And Narratives, Omar Sadik

Dissertations and Theses

This research investigates the history and politics of cultural production by examining Kurdish filmmaking in Turkey. Sadik provide an analysis of contemporary films and filmmakers to explore how Kurdish cinema in Turkey is situated in broader, global political-economic structures. By examining this important case through the lens of history and memory, Sadik clarify how production and aesthetics in Kurdish cinema point to important systemic processes. Sadik uses three main research strategies in this study: a historical survey of Kurds in Turkey, an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with contemporary Kurdish directors and an analysis of films directed by Kurdish filmmakers …

The Impact Of Studying Abroad On The Intercultural Spiritual Formation Of Harding University Latin America Students, Jeremy Daggett

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Deadly Emotions: The Argument For Tempered Feeling In British And American Literature Of Sentiment, Miranda Anne Liebsack

Dissertations and Theses

This project focuses on late eighteenth-century literature of sentiment, specifically examining the man and woman of feeling characters in The Adventures of David Simple (1744) and Volume the Last (1753), both written by Sarah Fielding, The Man of Feeling (1771), written by Henry Mackenzie, The Power of Sympathy (1789) by William Hill Brown, and The Coquette (1797), by Hannah Webster Foster. I use the following terms to analyze these texts: sensibility functions as the ability to feel great emotion, emotionally and physically; sympathy is the ability to connect with another with emotions, and sentiment is tempered emotion based in morality …

“I Am Still Dakota”: Assimilation, Education, And Survival On The Lake Traverse Reservation, Katherine Victoria Kemp

Dissertations and Theses

In 1867, the Sisseton Wahpeton signed the Lake Traverse Treaty and settled on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Northeastern South Dakota. As part of the growing westward expansion of settlers, the U.S government confined Indigenous peoples to reservations and tried to destroy their culture. Federal and state governments since then have continued to eliminate, relocate, and assimilate Indigenous people. For Indigenous peoples, the land is life, and assimilation through boarding schools served to sever them from their land and enforce white superiority. In this thesis, I argue that the Sisseton Wahpeton found ways to engage in cultural resilience utilizing Indigenous …

Things Left Behind, Aqeel Ahmad

Dissertations and Theses

Things Left Behind is the story of a family in a small town in Pakistan where both the town and the family are transitioning between their traditional ways of living and Modernity coming from outside the town. Through its various characters, the narrative unfolds the struggles of facing challenges put by technology and colonial projects. The characters long for the safety and familiarity of their rural and traditional backgrounds while becoming part of an urban and modern milieu, creating a conflict. The arrival of Modernity takes place at the cost of the rearrangement and modification of the traditional and familiar …