Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Treasury Of Stories: Policy Narratives Of Anti-Illicit Finance, Paul Christopher Kemp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how the US government identifies and responds to the problem of illicit finance, specifically, why the US Treasury utilizes certain approaches over others. I employ a comparative case study of three relatively recent, non-traditional approaches in the Treasury’s anti-illicit finance repertoire: targeted financial sanctions (a case of strong policy action), anti-money laundering in real estate (a case of tentative policy action), and the proposed demonetization of high denomination notes (a case of policy inaction). While considering a wide range of plausible explanations for this variation in policy action, I argue that the Treasury’s decision to either …

Older Women’S Stories Of Covid-19 Loss: Communicated Narrative Sense-Making Through Photography, Anne Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The diverse array of challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult to assess the full impact of this global health crisis. More than 300,000 older Americans died, leaving a nation of grieving survivors in their absence. This profound loss of life will undoubtedly inform the field’s understanding of grief and grieving for many years to come. Pre-pandemic, older women in the United States understood grief to be part of their life stage; COVID-19 amplified the grief experience through both cumulative losses and the isolation particular to the novel coronavirus response. However, few qualitative studies explore older women’s grief, …

Nonprofit Narratives: How Two Organizations Use Social Media And Rhetorical Appeals To Address Issues Of Sexual And Domestic Violence, Samuel Hiester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though often seen as a panacea for organizational objectives, nonprofits must be judicious in deploying social media, particularly due to resource limitations. Nonprofits deploy many types and styles of digital texts, including social media. Classical rhetorical appeals can be effective means for achieving positive impact in that context. When used correctly, these ‘digital texts’ can be leveraged for maximum engagement with audiences. This study examines both a large, national organization – the National Sexual Violence Resource Center – and a small, regional one – Branch House Family Justice Center – for not only what sort of digital texts are utilized, …

“It's Like A Phantom Limb. It Feels Like It’S There. It's Supposed To Be There, But It's Not.”: Birthmothers’ Metaphors Of Ambiguous Loss, Melodee Lynn Sova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Birthmothers are a population with unique experiences and challenges. Among those challenges is the difficulty understanding and managing a loss for which they do not have a readily available coping strategy. As a birthmother, the author of this dissertation was uniquely situated to connecting with, and understanding the ways in which, birthmothers expressed their narratives. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which birthmothers make sense of their experiences with ambiguous loss by examining the metaphors they employ when narrating their adoption story. The use of metaphor in the birthmother narrative was especially important because metaphor …

The Influence Of Message Type, Environmental Attitude, And Political Ideology On Perceptions Of Aquaculture In The United States, Tabitha C. Boze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, aquaculture receives varying degrees of support based on individuals’ perceptions of the industry. This study analyzes the factors that contribute to those perceptions; namely, message type, affect, political orientation, and environmental attitude. We collected data through a nationwide survey, distributed by Qualtrics, which recruited a representative sample of U.S. residents. The survey included multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions regarding individual characteristics (e.g., age, income, political orientation, etc.) and opinions on aquaculture. In order to study message type, we employed four experimental conditions (narrative video, narrative text, infographic video, and text) and one control group with …

“The Gates Are Closed Here”: A Mixed Methods Study Examining The Lived Experiences Of Black South African Township Youth, Jason St. Mary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

South African Black township youth encounter immense risks within their environment, with little opportunity for perceived success. The Langa Township, the oldest established segregated community in Cape Town, South Africa, is enveloped in massive unemployment rates, substantial poverty, and violent gangsterism. Extensive literature exists in North America on the relationship between positive youth development (PYD) and successful outcomes for young individuals, although there is limited research examining the framework in an international context. Due to historical oppression forced on South African youth, postcolonial theory provides a critical foundational component to PYD in the study. This mixed methods study examined the …

Rethinking Reintegration And Veteran Identity: A New Consciousness, Jeni Hunniecutt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Veteran reintegration is a process of identity transformation. Written as a first-person narrative and weaving my own story of Veteran reintegration and identity into the chapters, this purpose of this project is to address two questions: RQ1: Examining my own experiences of separating from the U.S. Military institution, what are some possible Veteran identity tensions that exist in the liminal space of reintegration? And, RQ2: How might the experiences of U.S. Military Veteran reintegration be shaped by an individual's sacred liminal experience of military initial entry training as well as their institutionalized liminal experience of belonging …

Love On - The Life Of A Suicide Survivor: A Performance Autoethnographic Study, Patricia R. Wheeler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide touches the lives of millions of people each year in this country alone, yet conversations about suicide loss and survival after a loss remain taboo and often do not happen. The story I performed for this performance autoethnographic study centers on my life as a survivor of suicide. It provides a starting point for dialog regarding trauma, grief, and suicide loss. The narrative was constructed directly following the sudden death of my father, which had a direct effect on my ability to produce artistic work. The development, staging and performance of the story were altered to account for the …

9/11 Memorials : Contested Memory, Competing Narratives, And Healing., Jennifer A. Fraley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I examine the role that monuments and memorials play in our lives including artistically, historically, and culturally. I begin by examining what monuments and memorials are and how these public works should be their own classification of public art. I argue there are many things these works can be (place of mourning, celebration, historical marker, etc.) and should not be (a single source for a historical accounting); yet, memorials do have the necessary condition of creating a referential relationship between the viewer and the memorialized objects. Without this relationship, the work fails as a memorial. Memorials are …

Telling Tales As Oral Performance: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Storytelling In Ireland, Scotland And Southern Appalachia, Annalee Tull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I sought to link, through this paper, cultural performances of identity through storytelling in Ireland, Scotland, and southern Appalachia. I evaluated storytelling practices, whether it was a public or private performance, using symbolic interactionism, dramatist theory, narrative paradigm, and performance theory. The author studied abroad in Ireland and Scotland through the East Tennessee State University Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies Program and experienced an array of stories. She then evaluated her own experiences with storytelling from growing up in southern Appalachia and visited the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. The research is rooted in grounded theory from ethnographies, with …

Fire On The Prisoners: An Autoethnographic Study Of Ethics In Historical Storytelling, A. Trae Mcmaken

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During field experience as a storyteller constructing a performance based on the Battle of Kings Mountain on behalf of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association and the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, I encountered ethical and philosophical dilemmas. This challenge centered on ethical and spiritual convictions that put me in potential conflict with the task of creating a performance about war. This experience forms the basis of an autoethnographic approach to the art form, revealing the critical role played by personal ethics and a functioning engagement with historiography and narrative theory in producing effective performance stories. Historical performance storytelling has little …

The Hermeneutics Of The Hard Drive: Using Narratology, Natural Language Processing, And Knowledge Management To Improve The Effectiveness Of The Digital Forensic Process, Mark Pollitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to protect the safety of our citizens and to ensure a civil society, we ask our law enforcement, judiciary and intelligence agencies, under the rule of law, to seek probative information which can be acted upon for the common good. This information may be used in court to prosecute criminals or it can be used to conduct offensive or defensive operations to protect our national security. As the citizens of the world store more and more information in digital form, and as they live an ever-greater portion of their lives online, law enforcement, the judiciary and the Intelligence …

Performing The Personal Within The Organizational: Communicating Professional Identities Through Taiwanese Commercial Airline Pilots' Personal Narratives, Kai-Chun Chuang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project explored professionalism and the performance of identities by examining Taiwanese commercial airline pilots' discursive practices in everyday life. The intentions for this project were to not only expand current knowledge of organizational communication from a critical rhetorical perspective, but to further explore the under-appreciated concept of professionalism of organizational members. Theoretically, I traced theoretical analysis in the sociology of professions and further investigated scholarship from identity research in organizational communication studies. This research agenda helped to advance communication-based understandings of the meanings and practices of professional identity as a complement to the sociological conception. I further merged …

Cultivating A Rainbow Median Through The Study Of Sexuality In Second Language Acquisition: Identity Construction Of Lesbian Women Native To The Southern Region Of The United States, Elizabeth Walker Graves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite diverging theories concerning the dissimilarities between male and female speakers, there is a general consensus that there is relevance in the relationship between gender and language, especially when considering the sociolinguistic effects of gender in second language acquisition and for the L2 learner. While there is a wealth of publications dedicated to examining the relationship between gendered roles and language, the idea of superseding the study of gender roles with a more comprehensive and considered study of gender identities has not been as forthcoming until very recently. Furthermore, there is little significant research into the relationship between gender identity …

Physiological Reactions To Uncanny Stimuli: Substantiation Of Self-Assessment And Individual Perception, Tatiana Ballion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori’s initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user’s experience of uncanniness, …

Digital Storytelling And Study Abroad: The Impact Of A Narrative-Based, Reflective Practice Upon Identity Construction, Nicole Hubbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital storytelling is a multimedia genre that has been steadily gaining recognition since its inception in the early 1990s. Study abroad is also on the rise among U.S. undergraduates. Study abroad returnees often lack opportunities for structured reflection upon their experiences abroad. Digital storytelling is one reflective tool that may be useful for stimulating reflection as part of a narrative process, which connects past events with current life choices and solidifies identity. Five undergraduates and three graduate students attended digital storytelling workshops, created digital stories, and were interviewed. Analysis of these case studies found that while graduate students were more …

Through My Mother's Eyes: The Lifelong Journey Of Raising Children With And Without Disabilities, Lucie P. Lawrence

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the use of narrative, this study sought to document the life-altering journey of 32 mothers raising children at various stages of development and with a variety of disabilities. The main questions guiding this research study consider the lived experiences of mothers raising children with and without disabilities; what these mothers reveal about the journey with their children; how these mothers define motherhood; and how their definition of motherhood differs for each of their children. To address the research questions and capture the narratives of participants, a two-pronged qualitative methodology was applied, using diaries compiled by participants and in-depth interviews …

Vignetwork: An Exquisite Corpse Network Of Short Films, David Scott Calhoun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vignetwork (www.Vignetwork.com) is the name for an online system of interconnected short films that comes from the combination of the terms vignette and network. By developing Vignetwork as an experiment in narrative structure, it is possible to analyze what a hypertext is and what it means as a tool, environment, and model for understanding the world. By comparing it to various other films, projects, and ideas, Vignetwork emerges as a parable for how individuals define themselves in a shared, crowded world.

Constructing A Neuroscientific Pastoral Theology Of Fear And Hope, Jason C. Whitehead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary therapeutic circles utilize the concept of anxiety to describe a variety of disorders. Emotional reductionism is a detriment to the therapeutic community and the persons seeking its help. This dissertation proposes that attention to the emotion of fear clarifies our categorization of particular disorders and challenges emotional reductionism. I propose that the emotion of fear, through its theological relationship to hope, is useful in therapeutic practice for persons who experience trauma and PTSD.

I explore the differences between fear and anxiety by deconstructing anxiety. Through this process, I develop four categories which help the emotion of fear stand independent …

Ocosta-By-The-Sea: A Boomtown In Three Narratives, Katherine L. Arntzen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the Washington State 1890s railroad boomtown, Ocosta-by-the-Sea through place, microhistory, and narrative theories. Place theory focuses analysis on the townsite. A microhistory is created by the presentation of three narratives on Ocosta: the city-as-imagined, the city-as-built, and the city-as-remembered. The city-as-imagined narrative recounts the city that Ocosta was projected to become by its founders through analysis of historic maps, advertisements, and financial investments of the city's founders. The city-as-built uncovers information about the built environment of the site. The city-as-remembered reveals the city that has and is remembered by the local community. Site memory is explored through …

Struggling, Coping, And Thriving: Sense-Making In Stepfamily Couples' Narratives About Coparenting, Andrea L. Smtih Sisk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term coparenting implies a bioparental dyad that often excludes the stepparent's role in sharing parenting across joint-custody households. Focusing solely on this dyad also precludes gaining an understanding of how stepfamily couples manage together the communication and sharing of parental responsibilities with the parent(s) in the shared children's other home. In a departure from this bioparental dyad-focused approach, this study locates the stepfamily couple at the center of an inquiry into managing coparenting across households. This mixed methods design study included in-depth interviews of 32 stepfamily couples whose narratives about coparenting were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Forty-one percent …

Memories And Milestones: The Brighton Seminole Tribe Of Florida And The Digitization Of Culture, April Van Camps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project discusses individual photographs of the Brighton Seminole Tribe of Florida from the early 1900s to the current period, each organized by way of their institutional significance, not their place in chronological history. Following Jean Mohr and John Berger's model in Another Way of Telling, I create a narrative for the pictures with a discussion of historical information, current data from interviews, Tribal members' stories, and my own personal story as it is tethered to the tribe. The research addresses the following questions: Can photography offer a technological means to communicate culture in a vital, organic way? Can …