American Studies Commons^™

Frontier Identity In Cultural Events In Holmes County, Florida, Tyler Dawson Keith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Holmes County, Florida plays host to several cultural events that perpetuate a frontier identity for its citizens. These events include the dedication of a homesteading cabin, which serves as the meeting place for other "pioneer days" events; "Drums along the Choctawhatchee", an event put on by a local Creek Indian tribe that celebrates the collaborative nature of pioneer and Native Americans; the 66th annual North West Florida Championship Rodeo; and a local fish-fry. Each of these events celebrates the frontier identity of the county in unique and important ways. Using the images of the frontier created by William "Buffalo Bill" …

The Blues Is Alright: Blues Music As A Root For Cultural Tourism And Public History, Katherine Duvall Osteen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With a focus on the Mississippi Delta, Elvis Presley's Graceland, and Austin, Texas, this thesis is an exploration of the successes, failures, and necessary re-imaginings of sites of music lore, places in which the blues have played a role in music tourism, and how public history is used in different ways to accomplish a similar goal. For cities with ties to blues history, blues music tourism can become a source for financial stability as well as a teaching opportunity in the form of public history. Beyond a push to increase financial gain in places that are benefiting from blues tourism …

A Place Of Happy Retreat: Benefiting Locals And Visitors Through Sustainable Tourism Practices At Beale Street, Graceland And The National Civil Rights Museum, Cathryn Stout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interdisciplinary work examines Beale Street, Graceland, and the National Civil Rights Museum through the lens of sustainable tourism. It specifically examines the value of integrating the culture and history of the host community into the attraction, and using tourist attractions to provide personal and economic development for locals. Chapter One is titled "'Can I Live' on Beale Street," Chapter Two is titled "Opening the Gates of Graceland," and Chapter Three is titled "Creating a Public Forum at the National Civil Rights Museum." Memphis has been predominantly African American since 1986, and African American history was significant in the creation …

Principles Of Thomas Pynchon's Literary Realities, Ira Anthony Walker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thomas Pynchon's literature is unique in subject and style. Postmodern by definition, Pynchon illustrates physics as a societal metaphor; Guy Debord's text The Society of the Spectacle suggests that these societal, literary, metaphors constitute and/or lead to a Spectacle. Through the analysis of an unpublished text: Minstrel Island, an early written short story: "Entropy," and a short novel: The Crying of Lot 49 the reader is capable of seeing a developing theme of physics as metaphor constituting multiple Spectacles. The narrative devices offered by Thomas Pynchon become Spectacular in nature and reflect the characteristics and environment of the tumultuous 1960s …

Front Matter, Tom Mack, Ph.D.

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Contents, Tom Mack, Ph.D.

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Tom Mack, Ph.D.

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Oswald Review Undergraduate Research And Criticism In The Discipline Of English: Volume 13 Fall 2011

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English

No abstract provided.

The Politics And Culture Of Climate Change: Us Actors And Global Implications, Charles Waugh

English Faculty Publications

Despite the scientific consensus on global warming, many people in the USA,—both ordinary citizens and elected leaders alike—remain skeptical of the need to act, and in fact remain skeptical of the idea that humans are contributing to global warming at all. Thus, environmental justice arguments based on United States carbon emissions and the disproportionate impact of rising temperatures and rising sea levels on tropical developing nations such as Vietnam frequently fall on deaf ears. This chapter explores the political and cultural construction of this deafness, seeking a better understanding of how and why so many Americans refuse to act to …

Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. ISBN 90-420-0534-3 299 pages, bibliography, index. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek presents a framework of comparative literature based on a contextual (systemic and empirical) approach for the study of culture and literature and applies the framework in audience studies, film and literature, women's literature, translation studies, new media and scholarship in the humanities and in the analyses of English, French, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian, and English-Canadian modern, contemporary, and ethnic minority texts. Copyright release to the author in 2006.

With Malice Towards None: Six Stories And A Novella, Burke Nixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A fiction collection consisting of six short stories folloby a novella. The pieces attempt to be comic, but also--with debatable success--to be more than just comic. As the title suggests, one of the collection's thematic concerns is mercy and its absence. Most of the pieces are set in Texas; characters in the collection include a female student in an absurdly incompetent public high school, a parking cop, the best friend of a stand-up comedian, an Abilene man whose life goal is to be struck by lightning, and an unselfconscious grandfather character, who bookends the beginning and end of the collection. …

William Faulkner's Hebrew Bible: Empire And The Myths Of Origins, Scott T. Chancellor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I propose that William Faulkner's literary imagination is charged by a Jewish sensibility rooted in reverence for the Bible as a text that is as vital and relevant in his time as in any since its composition. The Hebrew Bible's narrative method of compiling, redacting, doubling, and retelling, and its attention to curses, genealogies, covenants, and nation-building, reverberate in Faulkner's time as resoundingly as in any preceding it. There are myriad links in Faulkner's work between the Hebrew Bible, Southern Christianity, and American colonialism that merit our attention within ongoing discussions of Faulkner, empire, and nation-building, the Bible and colonialism, …

Book Review: Enacting History, Laura Mattoon D'Amore

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Technologies Of Apprehension: The Family, Law, Security, And Geopolitics In Us Noncitizen Family Detention Policy And Practice, Lauren Leigh Martin

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how US immigrant family detention policy emerged from reinvigorated border security priorities, immigration policing practices, and international migration flows. Based on a qualitative mixed methods approach, the research traces how discourses of threat, vulnerability, and safety produce detainable child and parent subjects that displace “the family” as a legal entity. I show that immigration law relies on specific kinds of geographical knowledge, producing what I call the ‘geopolitics of vulnerability.’ More broadly, I analyze how current immigration enforcement practices work at local, national, and international scales, so that detention deters future migration as much as it penalizes …

Waiting To Exhale, Kaavonia Hinton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The Story: Savannah Jackson’s sister Sheila tells Savannah about a business owner named Lionel, and Lionel invites Savannah to attend a New Year’s Eve party. As Savannah gets ready to ring in 1990, she reflects on her annoyance with Sheila and their mother, who have suggested that Savannah is miserable because she does not have a husband and does not live closer to her family. She realizes she does not need a man to validate her but admits that, as she broke up with Kenneth Dawkins four years ago, she wants to be in love again

Choosing My Best Thing: Black Motherhood And Academia, Kaavonia Hinton-Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Scholars argue that White feminist theoretical undertakings concerning mothering are not appropriate for studying Black mothers because they rarely take race and culture into consideration (Collins, 1991; Joseph, 1991). Collins (1994) argues that the experiences of Black mothers are paramount to any inclusive discussion about mother/child relationships. Scholars who have turned their attention to the Black mother often do so via literary works and/or criticism (see, for example, Crews, 1996; Morrison, 1987; Wade-Gayles, 1984; Washington, 1990; Williams, 1986) or in reality (Collins, 1991, 1994; Roberts, 1997a). However, a computerized search for studies on the Black mother produces literature …

How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Kaavonia Hinton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The Story: Stella Payne is an ambitious African American woman who holds masters degrees in fine arts and in business administration. A successful analyst for a large investment firm, she makes more than $200,000 per year and has an impressive portfolio. Despite her accomplishments, she no longer finds her career satisfying and feels her life is simply boring and predictable. Anxious to get a respite from single motherhood, she watches her eleven-year-old son, Quincy, board a plane to Colorado, where he will spend a few weeks with his father

Documenting The Oral Narratives Of Transient Punks, Thomas Ross Heffernan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The uninitiated do not realize the complexity of the punk rock sub-culture. Outsiders may find it hard to distinguish the subtle lines by which differentiation occurs within the so-called subculture. The "punk rock subculture" is a misnomer; it is not a salient community. The experience of being "punk" is fractal; what it means to be punk and what classifies one as punk is in constant redefinition and there are various different communities with varying ideologies and identities. The punk subculture has absorbed various epistemologies in its 40+ years of existence, modified them, and made them their own. Within this milieu …

The Role Of Acculturation In Adolescent Mental Health And Academic Achievement: Mediational Pathways, Ariz Rojas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the different pathways by which acculturation may influence Hispanic adolescents' psychological functioning and academic achievement. Proposed mediational pathways included adolescent perceptions of mothers' and fathers' parenting practices, acculturative stress, self-esteem, academic support, and academic motivation. Participants included 116 9^th and 10^th grade students recruited from high schools and a parent for each student. Parents completed a measure of acculturation and rated their adolescents' psychological symptomology. Adolescents completed measures of perceived parenting (mother and father), a self-report of psychological symptoms, a measure of acculturation and acculturative stress, as well as ratings of academic support and motivation. …

The Performance Production Process Of An Outstanding High School Choir, Kathy K. Rolsten

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the interest in and importance of producing high quality choral performance, the question "How is superior performance produced?" has not been addressed in a holistic and naturalistic way. A synthesis of previous research findings suggests that a combination of actions, interactions, relationships, and conditions produce superior choral performance. Yet a holistic examination of this multi-faceted production process has not been conducted. In order to identify all factors contributing to the production of superior performance and how these factors work together, I comprehensively examined an extreme case of superior performance. This extreme case of superior performance was one high school, …

Effects Of Solids Loadings And Particle Size Distribution On Siphon Ceramic Candle Filters, Danielle Renzi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the rural areas of Madagascar only 29% of the population has access to clean water and 10% has access to improved sanitation. It has been estimated that environmental risk factors, such as inadequate access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation, are responsible for 94% of the diarrheal disease burden. This study was focused on testing a point-of-use technology called the Tulip filter, which is a siphon ceramic candle filter impregnated with silver. The purpose is to assess its feasibility for implementation in rural regions of Madagascar through a laboratory study performed at the University of South Florida.

The …

Decision Aid Models For Resource Sharing Strategies During Global Influenza Pandemics, Alfredo Santana Reynoso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pandemic influenza outbreaks have historically entailed significant societal and economic disruptions. Today, our quality of life is threatened by our inadequate preparedness for the imminent pandemic. The key challenges we are facing stem from a significant uncertainty in virus epidemiology, limited response resources, inadequate international collaboration, and the lack of appropriate science-based decision support tools. The existing literature falls short of comprehensive models for global pandemic spread and mitigation which incorporate the heterogeneity of the world regions and realistic travel networks. In addition, there exist virtually no studies which quantify the impact of resource sharing strategies among multiple countries. This …

The Relationship Between Statistics Self-Efficacy, Statistics Anxiety, And Performance In An Introductory Graduate Statistics Course, William Ray Schneider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between statistics self-efficacy, statistics anxiety, and performance in introductory graduate statistics courses. The study design compared two statistics self-efficacy measures developed by Finney and Schraw (2003), a statistics anxiety measure developed by Cruise and Wilkins (1980), and a course performance measure. To view self-efficacy from two perspectives, the Current Statistics Self-Efficacy (CSSE) assessed student confidence in their ability to complete specific statistics tasks in the present, whereas Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics (SELS) assessed student confidence in their ability to learn statistics in the future. The performance measure was the combined …

It Takes More Than A Whistle: Perceived Characteristics Of Effective School Based Coaches, Jenna Nicole Sage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School districts across the United States are moving toward tiered models of service delivery such as Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and Response to Intervention (RtI). A common practice in providing support for those initiatives is to develop leadership teams who are facilitated by an education-based coach. With a recent surge in hiring and transitioning of education-based coaches who support PBS and RtI it is increasingly important to understand the perceived characteristics of those coaches who are most effective at providing the social and academic outcomes associated with tiered models of service delivery. This dissertation will use a case study methodology …

Increasing Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being: Effects Of A Positive Psychology Intervention In Comparison To The Effects Of Therapeutic Alliance, Youth Factors, And Expectancy For Change, Jessica A. Savage

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the variance in subjective well-being (SWB) of early adolescents (n = 54) exposed to a positive psychology intervention aimed at increasing positive affect and life satisfaction as well as decreasing negative affect through intentional activities (e.g., gratitude journals, acts of kindness, use of character strengths, optimistic thinking). Understanding how to increase SWB among youth is important because of its associations with positive indicators of psychological and academic functioning. However, prior research is limited regarding interventions targeting SWB in youth and excludes the relation of common factors of therapeutic change. Based on the literature regarding therapeutic change, youth …

A Sedimentary Record Of Regional Land-Use And Climate Change In The Manatee River, Manatee County, Florida, Patrick Schwing

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Manatee River Watershed (Manatee County, FL) has experienced heavy anthropogenic development over the last 100 years and was relatively pristine previous to this development. The population growth within the watershed has surpassed the national trends and has doubled in the last 30 years. The heavy anthropogenic development has led to depletion in natural resources, nutrient loading, coastal erosion, and increased pollution. This study constructs records of sedimentological processes to compare the pre-development records to the past 100 years of anthropogenic development. The first portion of this study identifies specific changes in sedimentation attributed to anthropogenic activity in the Manatee …

Disciplinary Outcomes By Race And Gender In Schools Implementing Positive Behavior Support: Does Fidelity Of Implementation Reduce Disproportionality?, Therese Sandomierski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disparities in behavioral outcomes for minority students are a decades-old problem. Recently, the systems-level approach of school-wide positive behavior support (SW-PBS) and its growing research base have garnered attention as a possible remedy. Although SW-PBS has been shown to be effective in reducing a school's overall level of office discipline referrals (ODRs) and suspensions (OSS), and its success has been replicated in schools with large populations of minority students, effective outcomes across all groups of students within a school are not guaranteed. Some reports document increases in the magnitude of disproportionality even when ODRs and OSS decrease for the school …

Parent Involvement In Children's Schooling: An Investigation Of Measurement Equivalence Across Ethnic Groups, Heather Marie Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epstein et al.'s Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence focuses on the interaction and communication, or partnerships, among families, schools, and the community to bring the three closer together. The theory works in conjunction with Epstein's typology of parental involvement, which focuses on six types of involvement that are instrumental to a child's development and his/her school and educational success. These serve as the framework for the study and support the construct of parent's involvement in children's schooling.

The purpose of the current study was to conduct further validation analyses of an inventory designed to measure the construct of parent …

Computer Adaptive Rating Scales (Cars) For The Employment Interview, Greg F. Schmidt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the effectiveness of computerized adaptive rating scales (CARS) in comparison to the relatively more common behavioral anchored ratings scales (BARS) format. The current study sought to extend the body of psychometric research of CARS while investigating its potential for use in the employment interview. Using 43 videotaped interviews and supervisor job performance ratings, and constructing a new task-performance based CARS, it was hypothesized that employment interview ratings produced using the CARS format would yield significantly higher predictive validity coefficients than those produced by the BARS format. Results showed that while interview ratings produced in the CARS format …

The Impact Of Paternalism And Organizational Collectivism In Multinational And Family-Owned Firms In Turkey, Jennifer Schroeder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This correlational study examined the influences of paternalistic leadership behavior (PL) and organizational collectivism (measured at the employee level) on employee reported LMX, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in two types of organizations (family-owned firms and multinational organizations) in Turkey. Survey data were collected from (N = 154) employees in family-owned and (N = 159) employees in multinational firms (MNCs). Employees in family-owned firms reported significantly higher levels of PL, organizational collectivism, LMX, and OCBs. Further examination revealed additional differences by organization type, with the family-owned sample showing no significant relationships between study variables and OCBs, in contrast …