Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Listening To Cursive: The Roles Of Regional Identity And Folk Beliefs In Perceptual Cue-Weighting, Stella Takvoryan

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Listeners use knowledge acquired from experiences to weight phonetic-level cues to phonological contrasts. Phonetic knowledge is imbued with expectations about the contexts in which cues covary, speakers of a variety, and identity categories or constructs, so it can be challenging to distinguish expectations about variation from expectations about speakers. This study aims to explore the extent that expectations about iconic vowel quality variation in Southern American Englishes can drive cue-weighting. Listeners categorized stimuli with vowel qualities synthesized from an [ɛ]-[eɪ] continuum from a Southern and a non-Southern talker, with duration manipulated in tandem. Half of the participants saw a label …

Open Access And Citation Impact: Modality, Funding, Publisher, And Disciplinary Trends At The University Of Kentucky, Ben Rawlins, Mitchell Scott

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

As publishers and libraries attempt to align business models and collection strategies to an ever-increasing open access (OA) publishing landscape, both have found that the message of open access citation advantage (OACA) resonates with current and prospective authors. Despite its widespread promotion and acceptance, however, OACA is not universal and is subject to ongoing debate. This quantitative study contributes to the OACA debate and research with a longitudinal focus on citation data from journal articles published 2018-2021 by University of Kentucky affiliated authors. The article and citation data for University of Kentucky affiliated authors are supplemented with University of Kentucky …

Three Lesser-Known African American Poets, Authors, And A Publisher In Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This article highlights the work of some lesser known historical poets who were African American, including Frances Carter DeBerry, Lawrence Harris, Sr., and Phil H. Brown.

The Tiny Library And The Mini Library, Reinette F. Jones

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Ask a librarian to describe a tiny library and a general answer will be a facility that is smaller than a small library. A more contem-porary description is a little library in a small wooden box that is attached to a stand and placed in a neighborhood to support reading and free book exchange. Both are good answers and added to these definitions is the centuries-old backstory when the tiny library was whatever an individual meant for it to be.

Framing Large Language Models: Teaching Foundational Concepts Of Generative Ai And Information Literacy For Critical Student Engagement, Isaac Wink, Jennifer Hootman

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This chapter situates the emerging scholarly conversation around AI literacy within the established Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We apply three frames in particular: 1) Authority Is Constructed and Contextual, 2) Information Creation as a Process, and 3) Research as Inquiry, considering competencies relevant to students encountering generative AI applications in educational contexts and addressing ways that both students and instructors may seek to engage productively with such tools.

This chapter primarily focuses on tools such as ChatGPT that are built atop large language models (LLMs)—systems trained on massive text corpora—rather …

Storage Media Prioritisation With Technical And Archival Appraisal, Andrew Mcdonnell, Megan M. Mummey

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This spreadsheet tool is designed to provide archives and libraries a means of prioritizing the order in which data is migrated from physical media carriers and other sources in their collection in need of preservation. It is an adaptation of work from the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Glasgow, who developed a methodology for prioritizing archival processing of digital collections stored in physical storage media.

The original tool (downloadable here: https://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/1634/ ) permits users to calculate a priority score by weighting the following factors: the DPC BitList Endangered Digital Media score, the age of the media, its …

Analysing The Us—China “Ai Cold War” Narrative, Yujia He, Richard Heeks

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining prominence in the recent revival of “cold war” narratives comparing US-China relations today to the historical rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union. Drawing on a review of existing academic and policy literature engaging with the “AI cold war” narrative, this paper examines how the narrative is justified, and numerous ways that it can be challenged. It finds that the framing is largely driven by the securitisation of AI, as state actors and policy pundits view AI innovations’ dual-use capabilities as key to national security and ideological competition. However, critics posit that …

Working Together, Making It Better, Reinette F. Jones, Kopana Terry, Taylor Leigh

Library Presentations

Communication and collaboration, answering questions, and accomplishing goals related to the history of Spanish-speaking people in Kentucky.

Just What Is Equity And What Is It Doing In A Nice Field Like Assessment, Julene Jones, Glenn Phillips, Ciji Heiser

Library Presentations

This presentation outlines a literature review on equity and assessment, drawing from the article Making a Grand Contribution: Professional Development Resources for Leveraging Assessment Data to Advance Equity. The review will explore how assessment practices can promote equity, identifying professional development strategies that support equitable data use in higher education. The findings will inform institutional leaders, faculty, and assessment professionals on embedding equity within assessment processes. This session will engage participants in discussions about the history of equity in assessment and its current uses, equipping them with tools to advance equitable assessment practices and institutional change.

From Data To Action: Leading Assessment In Polarizing Times, Julene L. Jones, Ciji Heiser, Renée Delgado-Riley, Heather Strine-Patterson, Kevin Wright

Library Presentations

In an era of increasing political and social polarization, assessment professionals lead within complex landscapes to ensure data is used to drive meaningful change. This session features a panel of professionals exploring how to move from data collection to organizational change while leading assessment efforts with integrity and impact. Participants will answer a series of questions focused on current and evolving challenges, examples of their practice, and strategies they use to center student and organizational success in the assessment journey.

Ai In Newsrooms: Assessing Perception, Challenges And Possibilities In Bangladesh’S Media Landscape, Nadia Rahman

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

With the relentless progression of technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force across various sectors, and newsrooms are no exception. Developed nations have already integrated AI into journalistic practices, showcasing its versatility in different news functions. However, the developing nations, including Bangladesh, a south Asian nation faces challenges in catching up, marked by technological and economic disparities. As an emerging economic force Bangladesh encounters different obstacles in the adoption of AI in its media landscape. Despite the expansiveness of its media industry, the country grapples with limited technological support and inadequate training opportunities. These challenges bring up …

Black Love, Media Portrayals, And Social Identity, Nigel M. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation explores how media stereotypes about Black relationships influence Black individuals' perceptions, shaping their understanding and expectations of love. Using social identity theory as a foundation, a mixed-methods approach integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the impact of media portrayals on self-concept and relationship expectations. The quantitative findings investigate connections between media exposure, self-esteem, and partner preferences, revealing how media shapes ideas about ideal relationships and internalized racial dynamics. The qualitative analysis identifies seven themes that define Black Love and seven themes that depict media stereotypes of Black relationships. The study shows that while media often reinforce …

Cybersecurity Training As Risk Communication: A Theory-Informed Model Of Employee Learning And Behavior Change, Daniel Chaney

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Cybersecurity threats like phishing remain a persistent and costly challenge for organizations. Despite widespread corporate cybersecurity training (CCT) programs, many fail to produce lasting behavior change. This dissertation introduces the Training Knowledge Flow (TKF) Model to assess why such efforts often fall short. Grounded in communication theory, risk messaging, and adult learning principles, the TKF Model conceptualizes cybersecurity training as a staged process of learning, application, and behavioral adaptation. The model includes three phases: (1) Employee as Learner, focusing on message clarity and cognitive engagement; (2) Employee as Practitioner, assessing workplace transfer and training relevance; and (3) Employee …

Going Inside A Church Staff Group: A Qualitative Case Analysis Of Team Characteristics, Decision-Making, And Identity, Hillary Rose Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Many organizations, including churches, rely on leadership groups to coordinate efforts and fulfill their mission. Guided by the characteristics of highly effective teams, the functional theory of group decision-making, and symbolic convergence theory, this study examines how one church staff group engages in decision-making and enacts identity through socioemotional and task-related communication. This group is unique in that its members each lead different areas necessary for the church’s functioning. Data for this qualitative case-study consists of semi-structured interviews with each group members and five meeting observations. Findings provide insight into the group’s dynamics, decision-making process, and identity. However, of most …

Addressing The "Hidden Crisis" In Doctoral Education: Identifying The (De)Motivating Effects Of Memorable Messages From A Self-Determination Theory Perspective, Alexis A. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Although PhD students are academically capable, they paradoxically produce alarmingly high attrition rates. For several years, retention rates in PhD programs have averaged between 40% and 70% (Ames et al., 2018; Bowen & Rudenstine, 1992; Cochran et al., 2014; Gardner & GoPaul, 2012; Lovitts, 2001; Rockinson-Szapkiw & Spaulding, 2012). Scholars have presented several potential reasons that PhD students discontinue their studies, none of which include academic ability (Lovitts, 2001; Tucker, 1964; Sverdlick et al., 2018). Framed by self-determination theory (SDT), this study explores the social and communicative components of the doctoral education system by the psychological impact of memorable messages …

Virtual Speeches, Real Fears: Public Speaking Anxiety In The Online Communication Classroom, Timothy J. Bill

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

While universities have explored online course offerings for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend. The foundational communication course—a course that continues to traditionally emphasize public speaking—has felt the pandemic influence to increase opportunities for students to learn public speaking via online instruction. While scholars have learned much about the student experience of public speaking anxiety (PSA) in face-to-face settings, less is known about their experience of PSA in online courses. This dissertation explored the fears students experience when presenting online and how they view the online presentation environment.

Using Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as a guide, this dissertation employed …

"The Lgbtq Community, That's My New Church": An Examination Of Lgbtq+ Former Church Members' Experiences Of Religious Exit, Samantha N. Pfeiffer

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This study examines the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who previously attended Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) churches, considering their experiences of being in the church, leaving the church, and rebuilding outside of the church. It also examines sermons from IFB churches that addressed topics related to the LGBTQ+ community to examine the teachings these individuals received while in the church. My examination of this topic was based in scholarly literature addressing the rhetoric of church sermons, the process and experience of religious disaffiliation, and Weick’s (1995) theory of organizational sensemaking. I used multiple qualitative methods in this study, including qualitative content …

The Information Practices Of Undergraduates Encountering Material Objects As Information Resources In Classroom Learning Tasks, Christopher A. Miller

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Undergraduate students sometimes encounter material objects as information resources in small-group classroom learning activities. Examples include art, artifacts, specimens, and anatomical models. This dissertation sought to identify common features of the students’ information practices in such situations, regardless of the activity’s discipline or content, and to explore how making material information central shapes students’ information practices. The conceptual framework combined theorizations of materiality and information practices. Methods involved video recording students doing a variety of simulated classroom activities with objects, video elicitation, qualitative content analysis, and praxiographic interpretation. The praxiographic interpretive descriptions illustrated how all aspects of the site–material, bodily, …

Player 2 Has Entered The Culture War: Discourse, Ideology, And Narrative In Gamergate 2.0, Ashley C. Mccann

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

My thesis addresses the ever-evolving landscape of Gamergate 2.0. Once a reactionary misogynistic harassment movement dedicated to attacking women in video games, the new iteration of Gamergate has evolved into an entirely new community. In its new iteration, Gamergate is even less ostensibly concerned with video games and more with reactionary content, mixing together nerd media, general pop culture, and right-wing politics. To study this community, I approach the Gamergate 2.0 community as an anti-fandom and reactionary affinity space. I argue that GamerGate 2.0 exists as its own powerful reactionary community that creates a worldview consisting of the desired destruction …

Where Does The Money Go? Three Essays On Intergovernmental Transfers, Spending, And Poverty In Indonesia, Jacobus Cd Rijoly

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Indonesia allocates substantial intergovernmental transfers to local governments; nonetheless, the decrease in poverty remains limited. This dissertation posits that the binding constraint is institutional, specifically the regulations and incentives that dictate the extent to which funds are allocated from the government to designated programs. Institutional pass-through refers to the fraction of a transfer that is allocated to a program expenditure. The three essays integrate estimation, budget composition evidence, and a formal model to explain both modest average effects and heterogeneity across regions and programs.

The first essay evaluates the impact of transfers on provincial poverty from 2001 to 2022 by …

Essays On Public And Nonprofit Financial Management In Times Of Crisis, Junoh Jeon

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation comprises three essays that examine critical aspects of public and nonprofit financial management, focusing on interorganizational relationships, local government influence, and financial reserve management in times of crisis.

The first essay examines how interorganizational relationships, specifically nonprofit organizations’ board interlocks, relate to their financial distress, depending on the temporal and spatial contexts. Organization-level fixed-effects regression analysis with Kentucky nonprofits from 2018 to 2022 shows that nonprofits with board interlocks in urban areas were less likely to experience financial distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. I suggest that board interlock acts as an adaptive buffering tool that helps manage resource …

Daily Anxiety And Dual Use Of Cigarettes And Vaping Products: Disparities By Sex, Race, And Ethnicity In U.S. Adults, Maggie K. Richardson, Delvon T. Mattingly, Osayande Agbonlahor, Alison C. Mcleish, Joy L. Hart, Kandi L. Walker

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective:

Despite a decline in cigarette use, the dual use of cigarettes and electronic vaping products (EVPs) is a concerning pattern of nicotine consumption in the United States. Anxiety, a risk factor for tobacco use, may contribute to dual-use patterns; however, the association between daily anxiety symptoms and dual use of cigarettes and EVPs is not known. This study investigated associations between daily anxiety symptoms and dual cigarette and EVP use overall and by sex, race, and ethnicity.

Method:

Data are from the 2020–2022 National Health Interview Survey (n = 83,544). Multinomial logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic factors, …

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Commercial Attention Spaces: A Century Of Discourses, Measurements, And Models Of Attention In The Construction Of U.S. Advertising Markets, Jacob Saindon

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

A vast assemblage of networked devices populate our everyday spaces. Concomitant with the increasing ubiquity of media devices are advertisements. Indeed, many networked devices, specifically the “free-to-use” software applications, websites, or platforms displayed through them, are advertising-dependent. An assortment of firms within the commercial media industry—brands, agencies, publishers, vendors—work in concert to sustain a market for advertising. The core operation of the commercial media industry, I argue, is the production and exchange of attention as an economic object. In this study, I approach the production of attention and the framing of its markets as spatial processes. The continued growth of …

A Geopolitical Economy Analysis Of China And India’S Approaches To Transnational Data Governance, Yujia He, Ka Zeng

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Recent literature on the behavior of rising powers in digital trade and data governance highlights their discourses of data sovereignty and desire to preserve domestic policy autonomy. This article contributes to the literature by employing a political economy lens that shifts the focus from the nation-state/inter-state framework towards the dynamics of state–capital relations, allowing for a more historical and contextual understanding of the geopolitics of data governance in emerging economies. Using China and India—two of the largest emerging economies—as comparative cases, and drawing on secondary data from government documents and other sources, the article argues that the interplay between the …

“Single Girl, Married Girl:” Female Perspectives On Marriage, Maidenhood, And Motherhood In English-Language Folk Music, Avery Schanbacher

Libraries Award for Undergraduate Scholarship

In 1928, the Carter Family released “Single Girl, Married Girl.” The recording featured only Sara and Maybelle Carter, and in three short stanzas, highlighted the vastly differing lives of the single girl, who dressed fine and went where she pleased, and the married girl, with a baby on her knee, who rocked the cradle and cried. Sara and Maybelle Carter weren’t the only people who knew this song – before they recorded it for Ralph Peer at the famous Bristol sessions, it was alive as a part of musical traditions not just in their home in Scott County, Virginia, but …

A Case Study In Program Evaluation, Alexis Strottman

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation plan for the Bourbon County Physical Activity Improvement Program, as prompted in the University of Kentucky's 2025 MPH-Health Management and Policy Capstone Case Study. The case study outlines a program developed in response to high obesity and inactivity rates in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Utilizing the CDC's 6-step program evaluation framework, the plan outlines engagement of a diverse group of stakeholders to assess the program's effectiveness in increasing physical activity among residents. The evaluation focuses on both process and outcome measures, examining the implementation of exercise facilities, community events, and an app designed to track …

Identifying Adverse Childhood Experiences And Mental Health Needs Among A Small Sample Of Pregnant Women Who Use Cannabis, Aubrey Jones, Lisa M. Blair, Julie A. Kurzer, Kathy Rademacher, Letitia Ducas, Cynthia Cockerham, Kristin Ashford

Social Work Faculty Publications

Introduction: As the legalization of cannabis becomes more widespread use has steadily increased. Approximately 5 percent of pregnant individuals self-report use during pregnancy.

Methods: This study uses a mixed methods approach to examine adverse childhood experiences, mental health needs, and cannabis use among a small sample (N =59) of women. Cumulative ACE scores of four or more were considerably high within this sample compared to the US average.

Results: Results of a binary logistic regression indicate an association between ACEs and Cannabis use (OR 1.27, 95% CI (1.002- 1.616) when controlling for maternal age and anxiety. Qualitative results identified two …

Alternative Visions Of Swedish State Feminism, Lukas Bullock

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

Sweden has been lifted as a prominent example of a successful feminist policy enactor, and has built credibility as a humanitarian actor both domestically and transnationally. Simultaneously, intersectionally marginalized groups have attested to patterns of social exclusion and feelings of political disenfranchisement in Swedish society, calling into question Sweden’s reputation for feminist exceptionalism. This dissertation project centers on unpacking this dynamic by examining how Swedish gender equality policymaking institutions design and implement feminist policy, and how those efforts are interpreted and contested by intersectionally marginalized groups of Afro-Swedish feminist activists. Drawing from a mixed-methods framework that includes feminist ethnography (interviews, …

The Role Of Cooperative Extension In Community Development: A Study Of Success Stories And Leadership Practices, George Grant

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

The Cooperative Extension System (CES) plays a vital role in community education and development across the United States. CES agents and specialists work directly with community members to identify needs, mobilize existing assets, and empower action. Despite the overlap in the fields of CES and community development, few studies have systematically analyzed the specific practices used by extension personnel who act as facilitators of change within communities. To address this gap in knowledge, a qualitative study was conducted using directed content analysis of CES success stories published through the University of Kentucky to identify practices used among two integral positions …