Arts and Humanities Commons^™

E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs, Kēhaulani Lagunero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Hawaiian mele (songs) and Hawaiian ea (sovereignty), focusing on how mele acts as sovereign living entities representing cultural resilience, identity, and resistance to settler-colonial influences. Through semi-structured interviews with Kānaka Maoli, participant observation at cultural events, and close analysis of mele, I identify that these songs are not only expressions of cultural memory, but also living embodiments of ea—sovereignty because they are alive, and they are alive because they are ea. Drawing from the frameworks of cultural survival, survivance, symbolic power, and defiant indigeneity, I explore how mele actively engage …

The Role Of Imagination In Archaeology: Linking Contemplation And Method At The Amache National Historic Site, Sami Zepponi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeology is both a science and an interpretative process, blending material discovery with imagination to reconstruct past experiences. This research, conducted through the 2024 University of Denver Amache Field School, explores the archaeological imagination and the creative and cognitive engagement that shapes historical interpretation. Using Amache, a WWII Japanese American incarceration site, as a case study, this thesis examines how material culture, landscape modifications, and reflection inform archaeological understanding. This study explores how imagination connects tangible findings to cultural narratives by integrating community-based archaeology, place and landscape theory, and contemplative inquiry. Findings highlight imagination as essential to archaeology, enabling deeper …

Survival Guide For Queer Families In Heteronormative Healthcare: Liberatory Consciousness And The Paradox Of Dependent Healthcare, A Critical Policy Discourse Analysis, Dwenna A. Holden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study I explored and analyzed how the queer experiences of an anonymous higher education institution in the western United States’ self-identified queer faculty and staff intersected with the discursive framing of the college’s dependent healthcare structure and documents. Within a critical paradigm I designed research around a high-density theoretical approach to weaving various branches of queer theory together with critical theory around policy and law in relation to queer bodies and hostile heteronormative policy environments. I arrived at solutions based in complaint, survival, and transformation. I used critical policy discourse analyses to interrogate the college’s dependent healthcare documents …

Chingonas In Charge: A Phenomenological Study Of Latina Educational Leaders In Colorado, Paulina Yvette Lerma-Banuelos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite comprising 76% of the U.S. teaching workforce (2017−2018), Latina women held only 8.5% of principal roles and 2.7% of superintendent positions. In places such as Colorado, where Latinos make up 15.1% of the population, this inequity highlights the pressing necessity for better representation. The present study used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore the fundamental essence and attributes of leadership among Latina K−12 administrators in Colorado, with a focus on the concept of “chingona” and its transformative significance in their professional journeys. The name “chingona” was historically rejected by young Latina women because of connotations to being aggressive or …

An Autoethnography Of My Experience Navigating The United States Educational System As An Immigrant: Intercultural Communication Challenges And Cultural Asynchronization, Anuti Ngangana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to share experiences as an immigrant student and answer the following question: What does my personal life history reveal about the importance of intercultural communication in the U.S. educational system? Immigrants leave their countries of origin and migrate to the United States for various reasons. Many are traumatized when they enter the country due to civil unrest in their native countries. Immigrants arrive with their children, who join a school system that is generally unprepared to meet their needs. In order to document immigrant experiences, the researcher utilized an autoethnographic approach using counter-storytelling from …

A Raced Theology Of The Human Person: An Expanded Theological Anthropology, Cary W. Dabney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on race as a critical, yet largely unaddressed, topic in Catholic theological anthropology. In Catholic colleges and universities that are recognized as members of the Cardinal Newman Society, theological concerns about race are deemed irrelevant for theological education in the faith and are altogether absent from the theology of the human person. As a result, this collection of institutions treats race as a specialty within pastoral theology, one that is significant to groups, but not a part of the fundamental theology of the human person. This ‘un-raced’ theological anthropology results in the institution’s inability to respond effectively …

Entropy And Incarnation In The Duchamp Room: An Inquiry Into Aesthetic Time, Jesse Goodman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the posthumous installation of Marcel Duchamp, Étant donnés, as a test case for how particularly historically situated artworks may or may not change over time. It begins with an overview of Duchamp’s biography, and his own theories of art’s relationship to temporality (which influenced the piece’s construction). It then moves through contrasting accounts of aesthetic time from Adorno and Robert Smithson. Section two works with Walter Benjamin’s writing on photography and aura to produce an account of estrangement between the piece and the viewing subject induced by the historical development of the artwork’s “translation” and “replication”—through …

Communicative Harmonics: A Synchronization Of Minds, Manners, And Emotions As A Phenomenological Approach To Resonant Leadership, Victor J. Grigsby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the heart of human relationality and resonant leadership is an interpersonal vibration that creates group coherence. The fusion of minds, manners, and emotions is a synchronization of individual vibrations and frequencies that unite the human spirit. Communicative harmonics presupposes the necessity for dialogue as the interconnection of contrasting perspectives. The auditory framework of speaking and listening parallels that of leading and following and is used to explore dialogic leadership as a major element in leadership communication. This dissertation is modeled after the work of Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad and incorporates a musical pentad of tone, rest, frequency, rhythm, and …

The Contribution Of Catholic Compromise Principles In Global Health, Scott N. Helstad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Roman Catholic tradition has developed comprehensive ethical principles to address complex practical scenarios that encounter foundational value compromises. These are referred to as compromise principles and they have both a narrow and a broad focus. Narrowly, these compromise principles are critical for Catholic healthcare organizations in the United States with regard to the guidelines of the US Bishops in their Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. More broadly, these compromise principles are relevant in the secular realm regarding global health. This dissertation examines these varying perspectives, hence its title, “The Contribution of Catholic Compromise Principles …

Hospital Organizations’ Obligation To Promote Spiritual Well-Being Among Nurses: Development Of A Normative Ethical Argument, Michael Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents an innovative strategy to promote the support of nurses' spirituality within hospital organizations. By focusing on the spiritual well-being of nurses by hospital organizations, with a natural extension into nursing schools, the approach aims to enhance nurse’s ability to protect their own spirituality, provide comprehensive spiritual care to patients, and increase nurse moral resilience. By investing in nurses' spirituality and spiritual growth, hospitals can potentially increase job satisfaction among nursing staff, improve patient care outcomes, and create a more holistic healing environment for both nurses and patients. As the nursing shortage continues and the number of nurses …

God Who Crafts: An Appalachian Theology Of Making And Community, Gwendolen Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachia has been the subject of much speculation and often disparagement since it first became distinct as a part of the United States in approximately the 1860s, but it is more than just its reputation. This dissertation discusses the history and modern myth of Appalachia, and then it considers Appalachia on its own terms through what the people who live there have said about it and about their own lives.

This work focuses on the continued prominence of craft and its place in the spiritual lives of mountain people as it examines interviews that I conducted with mountain crafters. I …

Kenneth Burke's Epideictic Rhetoric Of Science, Andri Kosasih

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses Kenneth Burke’s challenges, notions, and perspectives on modern science and how we should view, utilize, and apply science to our lives. This project argues that we need more than the rhetoric of science; we need an epideictic rhetoric of science. The term epideictic is important because the encounter between science and society creates a tension between maintaining and changing beliefs. Because science involves belief and is itself a belief, every time we engage with science, it demands a verdict from us: to believe or to reject it. On the other hand, as we seek to maintain our …

Analyzing Decolonial Subjectivities In Reggaeton And Latin-Trap Music In Puerto Rico: A Critical Discourse Analyisis, Andres I. Rivera Amador

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project studies decolonial possibilities for subjectivities in the urban music genres of reggaeton and Latin-trap in Puerto Rico. Using Ian Parker’s critical discourse analysis to analyze the lyrics and videos of three key songs, it systematically examines subjects constructed in songs, objects, discourses, and their relationships to each other. In addition to studying reggaeton and Latin-trap lyrics, the project highlights the emergence of social themes that guide the critical discursive analysis. Psychological literature and decolonial theory supplement the analysis, bringing in important theoretical insights regarding the songs’ salient social themes, such as black pride and resistance, gender fluidity and …

Achieving Health Equity For Minorities, Marginalized And Vulnerable Populations: The Ethical Challenge For Improving Addiction Health Services And Policies In The Health Care System, Jasia A. Baig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the past few decades, health disparities and substance misuse have transformed into unprecedented healthcare crises facing contemporary society. Although enormous contributions through policies and interventions have been made to promote health equity, substantial health inequalities and disparities persist, particularly in addiction health services and policies at multiple healthcare system levels for the marginalized, minoritized, and vulnerable populations.

The thesis of this dissertation asserts that a biopsychosocial ‘systems’ thinking towards treating addictive disorders along with systematic interventions and coordinated improvements specifically focused on minorities, marginalized and vulnerable populations at research, clinical, public health and global levels will significantly reduce health …

Thresholds, Dagon Blank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thresholds focuses on liminal spaces, moments of change, and those who cross these boundaries. For instance, transitions from the old to the new, unconscious to conscious, the known to the unknown, or where man meets nature. Sometimes, I think of them as a threshold where both sides are trying to cross simultaneously, but the door is only big enough for one to fit. The scenes in these paintings focus on the figure set in the contemporary world, referencing symbols of classical paintings, mythology, and philosophy.

The scenes are dynamic and driven by the expressiveness of the human figure and the …

The Ethical Imperative Of The Renewal Of Virtue Within The Moral Community Of Catholic Healthcare, Amanda Altobell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Catholic healthcare is one of the largest nonprofit organizations and providers in the United States, offering medical care to many diverse communities. The fundamental mission of Catholic healthcare is to bring about Christ’s healing ministry and live out the fundamental principle of caring for the vulnerable in pursuit of the common good. However, there have been many missteps, not only due to a more polarized and secular community but also to scandals and conflict due to previous hierarchical and rules-based anthropology that often misses the person's lived experience. Therefore, this dissertation will argue that for Catholic healthcare to survive the …

On The Deconstruction Of Nothingness In Digital Communication, Matthew S. Lindia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project argues that digital technologies call for a new problematic of communication, centered around the conditions of (im)possibility for creating perfect digital profiles of users as generated from user data. Beginning with Edmund Husserl’s analysis of essentially occasional expressions, this dissertation posits that user data occurs on three levels: (1) the level of expression, where a user wants-to-say something through their inputs, (2) the level of facticity, where biometric data are involuntarily produced by the user, and (3) the level of nothingness, where the user’s inaction, such as not-answering, is taken as data. Moving beyond what Husserl’s framework can …

Tackling Social Stigma: An Ethical Obligation In Healthcare Intervention To Involuntary Childlessness, Persis Naumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigma associated with involuntary childlessness has negatively affected health and well-being for several decades. This situation is particularly exacerbated for women within the Tamil socio-cultural context, resulting in feelings of shame, neglect, denial, isolation, and constituting a significant barrier to long-term access to healthcare services. Although advancements have been made in the provision of biomedical care, the psychosocial support remains inadequately addressed. Moreover, there are currently no healthcare interventions that specifically target the stigma associated with this issue, which hinders open communication with healthcare providers, delays necessary treatments, and adversely impacts overall health outcomes. The central thesis of this …

The Ten Commandments Goes Hollywood: A Century's Film Adaptations Of The Moses Narrative As Reflections Of American Culture., Aaron Nusz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the various film adaptions that the American Hollywood has released about the Biblical character Moses. The scope of this examination is limited to theatrical releases from Hollywood in English, which spans roughly 100 years of history. Each of the five films examined in this dissertation represents a different period in American culture, and all are from a different film genre. Starting with The Ten Commandments (1923) which represents the silent-film era of Hollywood, to the 2014 blockbuster Exodus: Gods and Kings, the film industry has continued to produced films which examine the life and deeds of Moses …

Gastropoda A Song Cycle In 7 Movements For 10 Musicians., Jonathan Krueger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by Gnostic myth, biosemiotic forms and Basilides of Alexandria's Seven Sermons to The Dead, Gastropoda tells a creation myth of the opposite yet complementary processes of birth and consumption. The subject of the myth, an unnamed Gastropod, is thrust from the formless ocean to a land more differentiated; full of boundaries and obstacles which obscure the source from wence it came. Through communion with the darkest and lightest aspects of this world, a worm-like entity known as Abraxas, the Gastropod follows two separate yet simultaneous sequences of events that lead to the same essential outcome. One is the path …

Temperament And Screen Time Into Adulthood, Kareem Barbis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The possible correlation between language skills, temperament, and screen time in adulthood is understudied. It was hypothesized that high effortful control scores and low childhood screentime would corelate with higher cognitive reflection scores and higher language skills. Using a correlational design, 162 participants were studied (M age = 19.17 years old, 80% female, 86% White, 6% Hispanic). Participants completed an adapted version of the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (Evans & Rothbart, 2007), Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT; Fredrick, 2005), the Cognitive Reflection Test 2 (CRT-2; Thompson & Oppenheimer, 2016), Thompson & Oppenheimer, 2016), a childhood screen time questionnaire, a bilingualism questionnaire, and …

Not Just A Good Ole Boys Club: Studying The Personal, Performance, And Professional Roles Of Women In Bluegrass, Lydia Hamby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates gender disparities in professional bluegrass music. Through a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative data from festival lineups and qualitative interviews with six professional female bluegrass musicians, this research provides a comprehensive view of gender dynamics in the industry. The quantitative analysis of eight major festivals in the Appalachian region reveals that women comprise on 8.87% of performers on average, indicating systemic exclusion. Qualitative data from interviews and participant observations at Blue Highway Fest explores the social and institutional practices that sustain these disparities, revealing roles such as the “singer girl” sex appeal, manager, and token female. This …

Wide Screen With Critical Essay "Translating A Poetry Of Cinema"., James L. Richie Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation combines the creative task of translating Víctor Cabrera’s poetry collection WIDE SCREEN (2009) from Spanish into English with a critical study that analyzes the volume to highlight the uniqueness of his writing, the importance of translating such a work for an Anglophone audience, and the challenges that occur in translating this complex collection. Moreover, Cabrera’s writing engages with a variety of cultural works in ways that challenge preconceived notions of language, culture, and medium. The poetry in WIDE SCREEN draws inspiration from the films of American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, while frequently putting these films into dialogue with works …

The Scream Notation System: A Notational System For Screamed Vocals, Matthew Delcambre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Western music notation, there is no specified system of notation for screamed vocals, a style of singing that has become increasingly popular since the late 1970s with the advent of metal music and seen increased interest in screams in other genres since. Screams are a unique and diverse vehicle of delivery that can be differentiated according to timbre, technique, pitch and physiology. This research aims to first identify the anatomical and timbral differences between named screams and create a database of screams to be studied. The next task is to design a notational system appropriate for screams and then …

Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring The Intersection Of Feminist Identity And Societal Expectations In Ama Ata Aidoo’S Changes: A Love Story (1991), Grace Adutwum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo explores the intersection of feminist identity and societal expectations of African women, specifically Ghanaian women. This work examines how Esi and other characters struggle for love, autonomy, and independence, and reveals how tradition often limits African women’s choices and agency. This research also highlights how Aidoo presents a distinct, context-specific approach to gender roles and pressure from society, rather than viewing feminism as a strict opposition to patriarchy. By using African feminism as a theoretical framework, this work analyzes how marriage, career, and independence shape Esi’s identity. The depiction of polygamy, independence, …

“With Neither Hope Nor Fear”: Continuity In The Life Of Isabella D’Este, Alyssa Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Isabella d’Este is traditionally viewed as the most notable female art patron of Renaissance Italy, primarily studied for her excellent taste. This positive interpretation has left her out of the reputational rehabilitation that modern historians have applied to many of her contemporaries, and what recent work has been done focuses on her marriage. However, Isabella outlived her husband by nearly twenty years, and contrary to writers who view that widowhood as an afterthought, she remained a dominant political and cultural figure in her own right. This thesis reassesses Isabella’s letters to argue that the traditional segmentation of her life does …

Student Performance And Course Modality: The Relationship Between Outcomes, Modality, And Course Subject, Olivia Baxley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify if a significant relationship existed between teaching modality and student performance outcomes while also considering the factor of course subject being taught during the 2021-2023 academic years. Three courses were included in the research: Math 1630 Finite Mathematics, English 1010 Composition I, and Biology 1110 General Biology. Each of the three courses are introductory level courses in the math, English, and science subject. The study also included statistical analysis on gender as related to student performance outcomes.

The findings presented of this research showed a significant relationship between teaching modality and …

Performative Masculinity In Ducal Literature In Florence (1520-1580), Matthew T. Perkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ducal literature of sixteenth-century Florence illuminates the performative nature of gender and sexuality, especially in regard to masculinity. The impetus of this study is Benvenuto Cellini’s autobiography, My Life. While contemporary historiographical studies examine Cellini’s work for its overt misogyny and violence, this work argues that the performative nature of gender, through interdisciplinarity and contextual analysis, offers a highly complex view of masculinity. Cellini’s autobiography directly relates to Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Vasari’s accounts of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni and Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Il Sodoma, emphasize the importance of fashioned …

Held On By A Thread, Annie M. Hutchins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist, Annie Hutchins, discusses her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Held on by a Thread, which was installed at Tipton Gallery in Johnson City, TN, from March 6, 2025, through March 28, 2025, with a public reception held on March 7, 2025. The exhibition is a collection of textile works containing repurposed material artifacts of the life she shared with her maternal family since childhood. The artwork incorporates found objects from the artist’s home, including domestic textiles, clothing, handmade sewing projects, family photographs, and sewing notions. The artworks are made using the printmaking technique of photo emulsion screen …

Angelic Wasting: The Impacts Of The Enlightenment, Evangelicalism, And The Industrial Revolution On Romanticization Of Tuberculosis In England, 1800-1850, Sara M. Sudano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to elucidate the intersections between the portrayal of tuberculosis in the Romantic era and the Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution. This study aims to do so by locating and analyzing depictions in the primary source representations of the disease, then considering the effects of the three factors mentioned above on its representation. The Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution interacted in a variety of ways, and the influence of all three factors was found within the representations of tuberculosis, albeit in often indirect ways. In the novels of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë, tuberculosis was …