Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interorganizational Communication: Case Study, Emma Darocha

Comm-entary

The case presented in this study examines coercive power. An eighteen-year-old freshman attending college in a new state found himself longing for a community on campus which led him to decide to join a fraternity. Regrettably, this student did not find this community or brotherhood in this fraternity. As part of the pledging initiation, he was put in an extremely dangerous situation that was overseen by the authority figures of the fraternity. When he tried to drop out of the pledge process, he was coerced by older members to continue it and made to believe that this was something that …

Performing Relationships During Special Occasion Openings, Ashley Kayla White

Comm-entary

All conversations start with an opening. However, opening sequences take on different and at times more grandiose representations during special or uncommon interactional events. How these openings are performed, furthermore, conveys much about the social dynamics and relationships between interactants. The goal of this research is to explore how special event opening practices display relationships between people in day-to-day interaction by drawing from two recordings of special occasion communication. To achieve this, a conversation analytic perspective is employed and several concepts are analyzed in conjunction with openings. These include preference organization, affiliation, repair, body torque and spatial orientation, gaze, epistemics, …

Case Study Report: The Five Stages Of Grief In Wandavision, Lydia Osmer

Comm-entary

This report analyzes the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 2021 limited Disney+ series WandaVision through the lens of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s framework of the Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In the show, Wanda Maximoff uses her magic to create a personal-utopian reality “hex” following the death of her lover Vision. This magical reality works within the plot of the show to reveal how Wanda experiences and demonstrates Kübler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief.

Content For Change, Kaley Lambert

Comm-entary

This piece considers the perspectives of environmental activist Paul Kingsnorth, and author of Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture Mark Bould when assessing the power of storytelling in efforts for climate crisis action. Stories hold the potential to change perspectives and encourage new mentalities. Media content is able to perpetuate, develop, and share stories to a massive audience. This paper argues that if media content were, on a wide scale, to deliberately shift narratives to encourage compassion, action, and concern for the environment, and to discourage wastefulness and mentalities of expansion and colonialism, then it may become more feasible to mitigate …

The Almost-Feminism Of Midsommar, Kaley Lambert

Comm-entary

This paper argues that the 2019 horror film Midsommar accomplishes almost-feminism. It includes a matriarchal society, respects older women, punishes toxic masculinity, rewards emotional vulnerability, has complex and unique female characters, and has a strong female protagonist. There is also, however an overt lack of intersectionality, as Midsommar exhibits a lack of consideration for class, ableism, racism, or body diversity. This film is nevertheless a worthwhile counterweight in a sea of actively sexist horror films.

Pandemic Through The Lens: An Examination Of Repeat Photography During Lockdown, Lauren Cole

Comm-entary

The Covid-19 pandemic had sweeping effects on environments across the globe including, decreases in pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and many others. Repeat photography and social media became tools to document these changes for people to see. Generally, traditional climate imagery and repeat photography depict the degradation of the environment rather than its recovery. This paper works to show how the use of this unique situation, to promote positive environmental change, might work better as a persuasive tool in the fight for climate action.

Art In Climate Argumentation, Matthew Morely

Comm-entary

My paper examines the role of art in the environmental crisis that we are currently facing. I believe that the climate emergency is largely the result of a disconnect between the scientific community and the non-scientific community. In other words, scientists are trying to portray scientific information to a non-scientist demographic. I believe that if we are to prevail during these uncertain times, we need a middleman between these two parties. We need someone who is able to take the information that the scientists are bringing to the table and break it down to non-scientists in a way that makes …

Analysis Of 'My Sister’S Keeper' And Parents Of Terminally Ill Children, Brie Surawski

Comm-entary

This paper uses the film and the novel that it is based on to examine the behavior and communication strategies of parents with terminally ill children.

Empathy Meditation To Soothe Division, Kaley Lambert

Comm-entary

In that widespread lack of empathy and the presence of excess stress may be contributing factors toward harsh social division in the United States, programs to increase empathy and decrease stress may help to soothe these issues. Classrooms act as spaces which may be specially suited to trial and implement such programs. This research presents the foundational backing for such programs, and offers a detailed proposal for one set within the structure of a college level course.

Remembering The Aids Crisis & Act Up: The Failures Of The American Public, Government, And Cultural Institutions, Céilí Flot

Comm-entary

This paper discusses the history of the AIDS crisis and the activist group ACT UP. During the early stages of the outbreak, there was much confusion and hysteria surrounding the nature of the illness. Many misconceptions about the illness had led to inaction from the public and government. In response, ACT UP had formed to address this inaction. This paper analyzes a set of six photographs taken during ACT UP’s protest efforts and analyzes the arguments within them.

Kill ‘Objectivity,’ Save The Planet, Kaley Lambert

Comm-entary

This piece argues that objectivity is a flawed journalistic standard that is detrimental to pursuits for climate crisis action. Objectivity encourages practices that reiterate structures of injustice, disadvantage voices from marginalized communities while simultaneously advantaging stances with minimal scientific backing, and worsens matters of audience disengagement. In pursuit of reducing or eliminating this environmentally burdensome practice, this paper proposes a transition toward transparent objectivity as a possible alternative to objectivity for journalistic standards.

The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Murder, Samuel Maynard

Comm-entary

No abstract provided.

Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Surviving R. Kelly', Grace Righini

Comm-entary

This essay discusses the documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which details allegations of sexual abuse against the musician Robert "R" Kelly. The documentary provides a platform for young black women to speak out against Kelly and explain why he is an abuser. It also sheds light on victims' difficulties in obtaining justice, particularly when a celebrity is involved. The essay analyses the impact of the documentary and how it has empowered women to come forward with their own stories, regarding other women speaking out during the #MeToo movement and paving the way for future documentaries speaking out against other powerful celebrities. …

Death With Interruptions Short Analysis, Lydia Osmer

Comm-entary

In this writing piece, Death with Interruptions by José Saramago is analyzed through the lens of its stream of consciousness writing style. Using concepts from End of Life Communication studies and traditional literary analysis, this short analysis on Death with Interruptions focuses on the both the personified character of Death as well as Saramago’s stylistic choices throughout the story in order to illustrate human perceptions of love, life, and death.

Stimulus–Response Congruency Effects Depend On Quality Of Perceptual Evidence: A Diffusion Model Account, Blaine Tomkins

Psychology Faculty Publications

Individuals often need to make quick decisions based on incomplete or “noisy” information. This requires the coordination of attentional, perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms. This poses a challenge for isolating the unique effects of each subprocess from behavioral data, which reflect the summation of all subprocesses combined. Sequential sampling models offer a more detailed examination of behavioral data, enabling us to separate decisional and non-decisional processes at play in a task. Participants were required to identify briefly presented shapes while perceptual (duration, size, location) and response features (location-congruent/-incongruent/-neutral) of the task were manipulated. The diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) was used …

Organized Crime: A Test Of Durkhein's Theory Of Punishment And Society, Mary M.G. Rader

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Emile Durkheim is known as one of the founders of sociology. For Durkheim, crime and punishment were integral features of organized social life. Among his many ideas regarding law, he hypothesized that as societies develop from less to more 'advanced,' there would be a shift from mechanical to organic solidarity. Durkheim believed this social transformation could be measured by a society's form of law, with predominantly penal law among simple societies and complex societies evolving into a more civil and restorative form of law. In contradiction to Durkheim's assertation, I will argue that societies can evolve to be highly advanced …

Approaching Trans Healthcare Competency: The Implementation Of Trans Health Education For Medical Providers In Appalachia, Rebecca Altschuler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Barriers to competent and safe healthcare disproportionately impact people who are marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. It is well documented that transgender patients in particular experience barriers to both accessing care and receiving high quality, non-discriminatory care (Hatzenbuehler & Pachankis, 2016; James et al., 2016; Rahman et al., 2019; Safer et al., 2016). This lack of access to culturally competent healthcare services contributes to health disparities that disproportionately impact the trans community. Literature on barriers to competent care for trans patients indicates that providers experience discomfort related to their ability to provide competent care (Safer …

Preference For Abstinence-Based Recovery And Public Stigma Toward Substance Use Disorders, Diamond Meadows

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study drew from the publicly available Amerispeak survey (n = 6,515) and examined public stigma towards different substances, the relationship between preferences for abstinence-based recovery and stigma toward each substance, and whether perceived dangerousness of substances moderates the relationship between preferences for abstinence-based recovery and public stigma. The results indicate that the general public has greater stigmatizing attitudes towards methamphetamine use disorder than cocaine use disorder, opioid use disorder, and alcohol use disorder. Furthermore, a preference for abstinence-based recovery was associated with greater stigmatizing attitudes toward all SUDs. The perceived dangerousness of a substance did not moderate the …

Tmc Library Gale Databases, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

The TMC Library has a comprehensive collection of Gale databases provided by the TexShare consortium. The TexShare Databases are electronic resources licensed for the exclusive use of Texas libraries and their patrons.

Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions And Long-Term Opioid Treatment, Maria Ukhanova, Robert W Voss, Miguel Marino, Nathalie Huguet, Steffani R Bailey, Daniel M Hartung, Jean O'Malley, Irina Chamine, John Muench

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: One in 5 people in the United States lives with chronic pain. Many patients with chronic pain experience a subset of specific co-occurring pain conditions that may share a common pain mechanism and that have been designated as chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs). Little is known about chronic opioid prescribing patterns among patients with COPCs in primary care settings, especially among socioeconomically vulnerable patients. This study aims to evaluate opioid prescribing among patients with COPCs in US community health centers and to identify individual COPCs and their combinations that are associated with long-term opioid treatment (LOT).

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective …

Dental Microwear Of Miocene Primates From The Turkana Basin Of Northern Kenya, Leah K. Myerholtz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Comprehending the dietary patterns of Turkana Basin primates from the late Paleogene and early Neogene can contextualize the role of food choice in the evolution of higher primates in Africa. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) quantifies wear on the enamel of a tooth and can be used as a proxy to infer aspects of a taxon’s diet in the past. DMTA can provide insight into what specific animals in the past ate, rather than what they were capable of eating, and by extension, reflect food availability related to habitat preferences or environmental fluctuation. Here, primates from six Oligocene through Pliocene …

Exploring Sexual And Reproductive Health Care In Central Appalachia Through The Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Non-Binary People, Chase Harless

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Transgender or nonbinary (TNB) individuals in the United States experience higher rates of sexual and reproductive health disparities when compared to their cisgender counterparts, along with lower access to care. TNB people in the south experience higher rates of disparities. Societal, interpersonal, and individual barriers contribute to these disparities in the TNB population. However, there is a paucity of research examining the sexual and reproductive health experiences of TNB people living in Central Appalachia.

Methods: An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) research design was used to collect and analyze semi-structured interviews with TNB individuals living in central Appalachia regarding their …

A Comparison Of The Expressive Language Characteristics In Schizophrenia And Wernicke’S Aphasia, Taylor Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental illness and language disorders are rarely linked together as a way of making a comparison. In this study, a comprehensive scoping review was initiated to discuss the differential diagnostic characteristics of expressive language in Schizophrenia and Wernicke’s Aphasia (WA). This study will examine the domains of language where there are overlaps between the characteristics of expressive language. Semantics, pragmatics, and discourse will be further examined while comparing what aspects of expressive language are key in each domain. Schizophrenia being classified as a mental illness and WA being classified as an acquired language disorder, there are fundamental properties of language …

The Student-Teacher Romance Film Genre: Hollywood's Historical Representation Of Abuse Of Power, Darby Gilliland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite vast literature analyzing films that depict romantic and sexual relationships between young students and their teachers, scholarship has yet to explicitly call this category of films and television a genre. The purpose of the present thesis is to define the student-teacher romance film genre and identify patterns that make it up as a means of illuminating the genre’s exploration of abuse of power in the classroom. I use a historical-generic methodology and gaze theory as a framework to conduct this analysis. I identify three distinct eras of the genre and analyze films from each time period. The first era …

"They Can Murder Us Today And It Wouldn’T Be A Novelty” U.S. Expulsion Policies And The Violent Structure Of The U.S. Enforcement Matrix, Cinthia Romo Alba

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the United States implemented two migrant expulsion policies: The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a policy which forces migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to remain in Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings, and Title 42, a policy that expelled migrants back to Mexico under the guise that it was a preventative measure for spreading COVID-19. I ask: What are the experiences of asylum seekers subjected to expulsion policies, and what do their experiences tell us about the structure of the U.S. Border Enforcement System? Relying on six months of ethnographic fieldwork at the Matamoros camp …

Sisters And Stewards: Women And Community-Building At The African Meeting House On Nantucket, Ma, Sean A. Fairweather

Graduate Masters Theses

Despite the underrepresentation of the achievements of Black women in the historical record, scholars have recognized the centrality of their participation in social institutions such as the church. This thesis uses a documentary archaeology approach to highlight the tactics employed by Black and other women of color on Nantucket Island to foster community through the Black Baptist church housed in the African Meeting House during the nineteenth century. In the free but racially marginalized neighborhood of New Guinea, the African Meeting House was one of two churches that facilitated dignity and uplift for its members. The maintenance of the church …

The Wqw Annual Program Report -- May 2023, Kicia Sears, Keoki Spaulding, Gilly Cantor

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

In early 2021, Warriors & Quiet Waters (WQW) engaged the Evaluation and Capacity Building team at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) to gain a clearer understanding of their program impacts, improve the participant experience, and better communicate the story of the warrior's journey to thriving. This report reflects the findings from the second year of the WQW-IVMF partnership.

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar. Temporada 2022., Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke, Sara L. Juengst, Daniela Balanzátegui

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Preliminary report on the 2022 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Refugee Advocacy Organizations: Factors That Influence Success In The United States And Ireland, Caleb Elkington-Stauss

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparative study of refugee advocacy organizations in Ireland and in the United States. The goal is to research and study some of the best practices that refugee support organizations utilize and report how these two countries address the ever-growing refugee crisis. This study assesses the applications and operations in both organizations and determines how these practices contribute to the fulfillment of their missions. This better understanding of the strengths and struggles experienced by these organizations will support the development of a model and framework for successful social welfare initiatives. Within this thesis, the social initiatives in …

The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader

All Dissertations

This dissertation rhetorically analyzes discrimination in Western institutional discourses and documentation procedures, such as architectural texts and procedures, through a historiographic lens. An analytical methodology will be offered to show how discrimination of intersectional bodies is historically informed and reaffirmed by the manipulation of Western myths and mythos. Specifically, by mapping navigational mathematics and cartographic methods over rhetorical, architectural, and historiographic theory, it will be shown how the manipulation of Western myths establishes and reifies patriarchal discrimination that eventually fissions into eugenicist logics in nineteenth and twentieth century France, England, and the United States. In modernity, the practice of manipulating …