Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Faulkner's Feeble Few: The Mentally Impaired Citizens Of Yoknapatawpha, Matthew Brent Foxen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores Faulkner's use of mental impairments and illnesses, by analyzing closely three of his characters. With chapters focusing on Benjy Compson, Tommy, and Darl Bundren, this work investigates the literal, aesthetic, and figurative purposes that each man serves in his respective novel. It identifies commonalities and differences among these and other mentally impaired or ill characters.

Decollations, Joseph Mcbirnie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following presents the critical preface to the unpublished manuscript, Decollations. Through the tapestry metaphor, the author describes the process of creating the collection through the lenses of aesthetics, psychology and mythology.

Digital Biliteracy: Digital Technologies As Homes For Arab Immigrant Children's Biliteracy Development, Laila Al-Salmi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The revolution of digital technologies and children's increasing access to them is

impacting the literacy development of children around the world. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between digital technologies and immigrant children's biliteracy development. The purpose of this study was to understand the digital literacy practices of Arab pre-kindergarten children and how these shape biliteracy development in Arabic and English. Tomake sense of the emergent biliteracy of these young participants, the study proposed Digital Biliteracy, a theoretical framework that draws on elements of New Literacy Studies, MultimodalLiteracies, Digital Literacies and Situated Learning Theory.

The study employed a qualitative …

Edge Of The Wind, A Novel, James Euedell Cherry

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Edge of the Wind, a novel

James E Cherry

December 2014

Literature

A twenty-five year old African American man, Alexander van der Pool, loses his job and his insurance to purchase his meds for Schizophrenia. He his holed up in his sister's bedroom for three months where he reads incessantly, begins to write poetry and hears voices. The primary voice he hears is that of Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of Richard Wright's Native Son. After writing numerous poems, Alex wants to see if they are any good and takes his work to a local community college. He visits a literature …

Constructing A Participatory Citizenship: Rhetoric And Agency Of The Revolutionary Association Of The Women Of Afghanistan, Lauren M. Connolly

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project addresses the various constructions of citizenship and considers the concept of a participatory citizenship. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an example of how citizenship activities are performed by a transnational feminist organization and how the members' actions contrast with the frames about Afghan women provided by the United States government and news outlets. Feminist critical discourse analysis is used to analyze texts from these groups in order to consider how citizenship is constructed and/or denied to othered women. The texts analyzed demonstrate how colonial concepts impact Afghan women and feminist rhetorical studies demonstrates …

Que No Te Eduque La Rosa De Guadalupe - Stereotypes In Telenovelas, Ana Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Gender-based discrimination and gender-based violence prevail in cultures where sexism and violence are usual. According to feminist organizations our best solution is education from an early age. However, in places where means of formal education are scarce, we may turn to alternative solutions such as television. Television has been examined in multiple studies for its role in the formation of gender, and other type of stereotypes. But also it has been considered a useful tool in challenging traditional notions about gender and in helping to promote social change. For this reason, a textual analysis was conducted on La Rosa de …

Sisma, Paul Jesus Guillen Delgado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

En Sobre la violencia: seis reflexiones marginales, Slavoj Zizek cuenta la anécdota de un hombre sospechoso de robar en el trabajo. Cada tarde los vigilantes inspeccionan su carretilla, pero nunca encuentran nada. Un día descubren el ardid: lo que el trabajador está robando son las carretillas. He tratado en este libro titulado SISMA de actuar como ese obrero frente al lenguaje y el Poder. El lenguaje que es una manifestación humana debe ser "robado" de los aparatos ideológicos del Estado (Althusser) y del Poder (Foucault). Mi investigación poetica se centra en el terremoto que asoló parte del Perú en el …

Family Related Attitudes And Beliefs Influencing Risk And Support Seeking Among Female Victims Of Domestic And Sexual Violence In El Paso, Texas, Diane Ilene Huerta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

To provide effective prevention and intervention strategies for victims of domestic and sexual violence, health care professionals, law enforcement responders, and service providers must adequately understand the factors that influence risk and support seeking processes among victims. More than 12 million men and women become victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking yearly, over 24 people per minute (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013). About one in four women and one in seven men have experienced severe physical intimate partner violence at some point in their life (CDC, 2013). Minority populations are at disproportionately higher risk for domestic …

True Blue: A Narrative Inquiry Exploring Instructional Practices Used During Reading Instruction In A Title I, 2010 National Blue Ribbon School In New Mexico, Debra Yvonne Kerney

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past 32 years, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, a trademark of excellence and success in academics, has recognized nearly 7,000 American schools in which students have demonstrated high academic performance and achievement (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Previous studies of National Blue Ribbon Schools have largely centered upon leadership characteristics (Carney-Dalton, 2001; Copeland, 2003; Kushner, 2000; Lyles, 2009; Maslyk, 2012;Sapone, 2001), but studies have not focused on the particular instructional practices that are used within these schools. Since 1982, 36 out of 862 New Mexico schools (NCES, 2013) have achieved National Blue Ribbon status (United States Department …

In Search Of Refuge: Mexican Refugees And Asylum Seekers To The U.S. From 1980 To The Present, Taylor Kristine Levy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An estimated 130,000 Mexicans have been murdered since 2006, with another 27,000 having been officially "disappeared;" approximately 2-3% of the adult Mexican population has been forced to leave their homes due to this violence, many of whom have entered the United States seeking refuge (Molloy, 2013; Olivares, 2012). These refugees have emigrated using a variety of both authorized and unauthorized channels, with a significant (and increasing) number applying for political asylum in the United States (Lyst, 2013). This Thesis seeks to provide a historic background and comprehensive analysis of the identity and struggles of the four types of modern Mexican …

Illicit Inhabitants: Empire, Immigration, Race, And Sexuality On The U.S.-Mexico Border, 1891-1924, Irma Victoria Montelongo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

On any given day and at any given location, the residents of El Paso, Texas see Border Patrol agents, city police, sheriff's deputies, DEA agents, and FBI agents, ICE agents, DPS officers, and U.S. Marshalls, as well as a full display of military personnel. To understand how this location functions vis-Ã -vis the residents and law enforcement and social control we must think of the U.S.-Mexico border as a line of ingression heavily guarded from those considered dangerous, defective, and diseased. Immigrant bodies, seen as inferior and disposable, are often subjected to insidious levels of racist, classist, and sexist rhetoric …

Redemption Store, Tia Palsole

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis attempts to articulate the difficulties inherent in mother-daughter relationships through short literary fiction where the protagonists are either mothers, daughters, or both. The short stories are set in two fictional southern towns in North Carolina and South Carolina and use interrelated characters and settings to enhance the sense of connectivity, as well as to highlight occurrences of disconnection and isolation.

The ten short stories are arranged chronologically, beginning in the 1930s and culminating with the final story, set in 2013. Recurring characters provide continuity and structure to the collection. Thematic elements emphasize socioeconomic, racial, and gender inequities of …

The Rhetorical Making Of A Personhood: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey Into Literacies And Subjectivities, Viethang Thi Pham

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the form of an autoethnography, an examination of "the private troubles of individuals" and their connection to "public issues and to public responses to those troubles" (Denzin viii), this Dissertation demonstrates the impact of a country's history on its people's lives. According to Bourdieu's theory, changes in field trigger changes in habitus and capital; this interrelatedness "offers an epistemological and methodological approach to a historicized and particular understanding of social life" (Thomson 81). From an eyewitness' perspective, this writer/ethnographer narrates her stories/experiences in Viet-Nam and in America to shed light on her cultural and linguistic struggles, her transitions through …

Operational Code And Al-Ikhwan: An Assessment Of The Evolution Of The Muslim Brotherhood's Operational Code And Possible Public Diplomacy Options For The United States, Robert Kevin Thomson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The primary aim of this Thesis is to provide the reader with a firm understanding of the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood's operational code from the early 2000s to 2013. Specifically, this research will address and analyze the evolution of the Brotherhood's political rhetoric from its historical context to the present. The Brotherhood's political rhetoric will be analyzed utilizing Operational Code Analysis. The secondary aim of this research is to provide a potential framework for policymakers and diplomats to utilize public diplomacy and strategic communication strategies to engage and constrain the influence of the Brotherhood in a globalized society. This …

Literatura Sobre La Frontera Norte Mexicana: Comparación Y Análisis Del Discurso Pragmático, Emily Celeste Vázquez Enríquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

En este trabajo se comparan cuatro novelas que incluyen a la frontera del norte de México entre sus páginas. El punto de diferencia del cual la comparación parte es el origen de los autores. Lo anterior se debe a que en la tradición del trabajo crítico que ha intentado entender y definir la literatura de la zona, uno de los principales puntos de debate refiere al cuestionamiento de si importa la pertenencia de los escritores al lugar narrado. Mientras hay críticos y académicos que afirman que las obras de la literatura norfronteriza mexicana son únicamente aquéllas escritas por autores de …

La Vida Es Truco, Luis Eduardo Álvarez Marí­N

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

La colección de historias La vida es truco, se centra en la historia de Eliseo, un niño de ocho años que espera a que su padre, un mago callejero y ladrón, regrese a casa. Durante la espera, el niño va contando a un narratario enigmático cada una de las aventuras que ha vivido con su padre, y a su vez va reconstruyendo la imagen que tiene sobre él: una figura mítica, un superhéroe que nunca se equivoca en nada. El volumén plantea temas como el engaño, la supervivencia, la paternidad y la infancia, en una familia disfuncional que intenta salir …

The Effects Of Cognates On Receptive And Expressive Language Among Typically Developing Preschool Second Language-Learners, Jesica B. Zavala De Guerrero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory study considers the facilitating effects of cognates across language of intervention, seeking to assess potential cross-language generalizations among typically developing preschool bilinguals. Nine bilingual, English-Spanish speakers of preschool age were assigned to one of three experimental groups (an English only group, a Spanish only group, and a bilingual group) or to a control condition. Children in the experimental groups were introduced to a vocabulary intervention that incorporated cognates and non-cognates. Analysis of data suggests the absence of a cognate advantage among preschool age children; furthermore limiting any possible cross-language generalizations. It is plausible to suspect that age may …

Review Of Renovación De La Luna, Armando González-Pérez

Spanish Languages and Literatures Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Dust : Polvo, Jonathan Scott Nehls

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A novel that takes place along the U.S. Mexico border.

Practicing Philosophical Pluralism With `Forrest Gump' A Speech-Act Body-Mind Analysis, Robert Lorenzo Oropeza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This essay looks at three different types of philosophy: Pragmatism and communication, phenomenology and Zen Buddhism. I discuss these philosophies using the film, Forrest Gump as a guide to get through the convoluted ideas and make the concepts easier to understand. We first wade through the waters of analytical philosophy and the language game in communication. We discuss speaker's intention in meaning according to Paul Grice and Forrest's problems with the implicatures of language. In the second chapter I focus on the phenomenology of the characters as well as the perspective of the person viewing the film. How do we …

Exploring Dance Teachers' Perceptions: Video As A Teaching Tool, Daralyn Scurlock

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The process in which dance instructors evaluate dance students' technical skills has been dependent on spontaneity; it is time sensitive and almost synchronous. However, video introduces an asynchronous evaluating component. Video recording can be utilized in the dance profession not only to improve a dancer's overall performance, but as an injury prevention tool. Therefore video permits deeper reflection.

This is a preliminary study designed to open the door for future studies in the dance field. In order to gain the in depth knowledge required for this thesis, an instrumental case-study design was utilized based primarily on the analyses of broad, …

Phonetic Realization Of /P, T, K/ In Spanish-English Code-Switching, Gisela Simental

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this investigation is to contribute to the relatively unexplored area of phonetic realization of sounds during code switching. The present study will focus on the analysis of voice onset time of voiceless stops in stressed word initial position. Spanish and English are ideal languages to test how bilinguals process and produce the low-level phonetic properties of stops during CS. Both languages have the same set of voiceless stops: /p, t, k/, yet these stops have different phonetic (or acoustic) characteristics in each language. Data was collected from the naturalistic speech of balanced bilinguals who were exposed to …

Secondhand City: Stolen Stories From La Limonada, Byron José Sun

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Roboton, Jupa and Calicas have just been drafted by the city of La Limonada to petrol, to rob, to intimidate, to extort, to kill and when necessary to protect those citizens that need it; as their crime spree progresses their tactics and abilities improve shaping them into criminal machines. The three new criminals will be tasked with the reality of destroying people's lives in order to insure La Limonada maintains its dominion over every citizen by controlling every aspect of their past, present and future. Many of those citizens are clueless on how they are controlled; it isn't until their …

The Problem Of Using Evil Against The Possible Existence Of God, Juan Rafael Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis has two modules, which entail two different approaches about the problem of evil. In module one, which consists of chapters one and two, I consider the difficulties of defining `evil' and the case against the `logical problem of evil' respectively. Module two is a phenomenological and skeptical approach to the problem of evil. Specifically, it is a response to those that do not agree with Plantinga's arguments and it is a critique of the traditional paradigms about God, evil and ethics. For instance, I reject the so called category of "natural evils" and I categorize `evil' as a …

A Corpus-Based Study Of The Use Of Prepositional Verbs In Second Language Emergent Academic Writing, Elizabeth Wilcoxon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this paper, the author reports on a corpus-based study of prepositional verbs in L2 emergent academic writing using data collected from English as a Second Language [ESL] and English for Academic Purposes [EAP] classrooms in a Hispanic-serving university in the US. Prepositional verbs are relatively common in academic prose (lacking the informal overtones of phrasal verbs) and draw on the full set of prepositions (Biber et al., 1999). They are also difficult to acquire given the challenges posed by prepositional usage for most ESL/EAP learners. The literature in this area highlights the importance of prepositional verbs in L2 learning …

Toward A Theory Of Productivity Problems In Graduate Student Writing, Craig Wynne

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study focuses on the productivity problems that faced the dissertation/thesis writing practices of fourteen graduate students at a public university on the U.S./Mexico border. The author facilitated a series of group sessions designed to help graduate students in various disciplines cultivate awareness of Donald Murray's notion of "writing as process," as well as knowledge of writer's block and writing anxiety. Sessions also served to cultivate positive self-talk with relation to the writing process, an introduction to mindfulness meditation, and basic time management skills. Four types of data were collected: 1. field notes from participant discussion during workshop sessions; …

The Effects Of Cognates On Receptive And Expressive Language Among Typically Developing Preschool Second Language-Learners, Jesica B. Zavala De Guerrero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory study considers the facilitating effects of cognates across language of intervention, seeking to assess potential cross-language generalizations among typically developing preschool bilinguals. Nine bilingual, English-Spanish speakers of preschool age were assigned to one of three experimental groups (an English only group, a Spanish only group, and a bilingual group) or to a control condition. Children in the experimental groups were introduced to a vocabulary intervention that incorporated cognates and non-cognates. Analysis of data suggests the absence of a cognate advantage among preschool age children; furthermore limiting any possible cross-language generalizations. It is plausible to suspect that age may …

The Art Song Of Edmundo Villani-Côrtes: A Performance Guide Of Selected Works, Irailda Eneli Barros Silva Rodrigues

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this study is to present a performance guide for singers on twelve selected songs in Brazilian Portuguese for voice and piano by Brazilian composer, pianist, and arranger Edmundo Villani-Côrtes (b.1930). Since 1949, Villani-Côrtes has been active in the musical scene of Brazil. He has a unique compositional style that seamlessly combines elements of both art music and popular music. Villani-Côrtes’s body of works includes over two hundred compositions for solo instrumental music, orchestral music, choral music, and art song. He has written over sixty songs in Brazilian Portuguese, including the Ciclo Cecília Meireles (1987), winner of the …

Use Of The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual-5 Among Current Music Therapy Students, Jasmine Simons

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) provides updates of diagnostic criteria and it is crucial that clinicians from all relevant fields are aware of new terminology. Music therapists are increasingly being added to interdisciplinary teams and need to efficiently communicate with other professionals. This study aimed to discover if current music therapy students are familiar with the DSM-5 before they enter their professional practice. Music therapy students from two American Music Therapy Association-approved universities completed a survey aimed to assess their use and knowledge of the DSM-5. A total of 58 participants were included in the analysis. Findings from …

Unsettle Me, Lanie King Anderson

Honors Theses

This book is about my journey of faith in Jesus Christ during my undergraduate studies at the University of Mississippi. I read memoirs about others' spiritual journeys and studied their writing styles and storytelling methods before beginning my own memoir about my moments of spiritual unsettledness in school. I am convinced that the college experience, if whole-heartedly embraced, changes people. As a student, I have grown personally, cognitively, socially, and culturally in four years, such a short time for such change and growth. But I have especially grown spiritually because of my experiences in college. Questions have arisen about my …