Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Defining Dyslexia Within And Across Disciplines: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Ann Marie Trumbo

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: In the present study, we conducted a systematic review to investigate the core features of the definition of dyslexia across different disciplines according to their associated professional organizations and published research in order to evaluate the presence and type of inconsistencies within and across disciplines in how dyslexia is defined. Method: Definition statements of dyslexia from professional organizations in medicine, education, speech-language pathology, psychology, and the International Dyslexia Association were collected via scope of practice guidelines or via the organization's official website. Using a database with a wide disciplinary reach, we collected 764 of the most cited articles from …

Viva Fulbright: Cedarville Student Heading To Spain, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Recent Cedarville University alumnus Warner Litrenta will be spending his first year after graduation as a cross-cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Program in Spain.

Dysfunctional Warfare: The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, Rob Johnson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was based on false premises, faulty assumptions, and a weak strategy. As the conflict has unfolded, heavy losses have imposed a strain on available Russian manpower. The Russian army reached a culminating point outside Kyiv and has exhibited little sign of operational learning. By contrast, Ukrainians have fought an existential war, making good use of dispersed light infantry tactics with high motivation levels. Western support has allowed them to compensate for their deficiencies in armaments and munitions. This commentary also shows military and policy leaders how the political context continues to impose limitations on the Ukrainians.

Lindenwood Digest, May 18, 2022, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Rigsby Chosen To Lead Ouachita's New Criminal Justice Degree Program, Felley Lawson, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Dr. Malcolm L. Rigsby has been named professor of criminology and criminal justice and coordinator of the criminal justice program at Ouachita Baptist University. He brings more than 20 years’ teaching and research experience in higher education to the post, as well as a background in banking, private law practice and private-owned business.

A Thematic Analysis Of How A Rhetor And A Demagogue Framed Their Presidencies, Megan Cooney, Shaundi Newbolt

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This essay uses thematic analysis through the lens of framing theory to dissect how former U.S. President Barack Obama and former U.S. President Donald Trump created contrasting but successful frameworks of America to win their campaigns. The paper operates on the grounds that Obama is a rhetor and Trump is a demagogue. Frames consummate a multitude of themes that are created with rhetorical tools – namely figurative language. The storylines that are created by politicians can play an instrumental role in developing the constituent’s basis of reality. This study aims to unpack how a rhetor and a demagogue can use …

Dr. Duane Wood Residence Hall, New Master’S Degree Highlight Trustees Meeting, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University continues to thrive, with record enrollments for 15 consecutive years and new facilities that will transform the campus for the growing student body.

That’S Not What I Heard: A Study On University Communications And Marketing Strategies Regarding Covid-19 Policies., Hannah M. Belayachi

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This study applies Situation Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to the crisis responses of independent college and state flagship universities to determine what strategies most effectively reach campus audiences and influence their COVID-19 attentiveness. This study mainly looks at one institution within each of the previously mentioned categories and compares their general messages regarding COVID-19, how it fits with SCCT, and if any other methods within the SCCT could have been more effective. A subsection within this paper includes looking at public commentaries made by audiences associated with the institutions of study (i.e., parents, alumni, and students) and evaluating their comments …

The Problem Of The "Virtual": Virtual Reality, Digital Dualism, And Religious Experience, Jordan Brady Loewen

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation uses resources from religious studies to critique the problem of digital dualism haunting notions of the "virtual" in the discourse of contemporary virtual reality technologies (VR). Digital dualism is the idea that digital or "virtual" worlds are fundamentally distinct from the "real" or physical world. Digital dualism is a problem because it mischaracterizes how we experience the spatial and temporal connections to our body in digital-virtual worlds and contributes to a false sense of subjective singularity rather than multiplicity that destabilizes how we relate to ourselves and others. Using the study of religion, philosophy, and aesthetics, we can …

Receiving A Queen: A Queer And Trans Feminist Classical Reception Rhetorical Historiography Of Elagabalus, Thomas William Passwater

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies representations of Elagabalus, the sovereign of Rome who ruled between 218–222ce, after her assassination to examine how depictions and historical accounts of Elagabalus's life make rhetorical decisions about Elagabalus's identity and being that can foreground the composer's relationship to history and the function of history as a rhetorical force. Thus, this project, through studying Elagabalus's composers, raises questions about the nature of figure studies and history. The project draws on trans, queer, and feminist theories and rhetorics which help highlight the contingent and conflicting nature of Elagabalus's identities across representations without settling them into a singular narrative …

Not Like Other Girls: Feminist Modernisms, Domestic Labor, And The Trouble With Conventional Women, Ana Elizabeth Quiring

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates the centrality of conventional womanhood to feminist literary history. As women gained access to voting rights, universities, and professions in the early years of the twentieth century, some writers sought to distinguish themselves from old-fashioned, domestic women in order to fashion themselves as uniquely modern. Not like Other Girls argues that this gesture of contradistinction has formed a core component of the feminist modernist ethos, both for early century writers and their scholarly reception. In response to this rift between the modern and the conventional, the dissertation gives an account of conventionality’s presence in modern feminist life. …

Toward Extended Situational Crisis Communication Theory: Include Visuals, Prior Performance, And Framing Devices, Mohammad Ali

Dissertations - ALL

Human brains are inherently capable of receiving and processing visual messages faster than written text messages. The recent proliferation of internet use, social media platforms, smartphones, and online news media sites facilitated the spread of visual content (e.g., pictures, videos, and data visualizations) online much higher than before. However, visual contents have been largely ignored in crisis communication research, leaving the crisis managers to devise strategic crisis responses and deal with a crisis without sufficient research evidence. Responding to a recent research call to fill the gap, this dissertation conducts a 2 (picture: action vs. damage) × 3 (distinctiveness: high …

'Play The Book Again': Towards A Systems Approach To Game Adaptation, Johnathan Sanders

Dissertations - ALL

Situated at the interstices of game studies, adaptation scholarship, and literary theory, this dissertation puts forth a theoretical framework for effectively analyzing literary game adaptations (that is, playable digital or analog systems that are based upon a work or works of literature) as expressive intertextual systems which facilitate aesthetic experiences. By integrating contemporary game studies with filmic adaptation studies and literary theory, I argue that game adaptations allow us to see how games, adaptations, and indeed all texts can be productively conceived of as Barthesian networks of meaning: collections of interacting formal, narrative, intertextual, and contextual elements from which a …

The Emergence Of Postcolonial Apologia: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Chinese Governmental Response To Western Accusation During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Yiqing Ran

Theses - ALL

In my thesis, I examine how the Chinese government developed postcolonial apologia throughout its dispute with the US government over policies related to COVID-19. I focus on the shifting rhetorical strategies used by the Chinese government to defend China from accusations by other nations, especially the US. I determine that the Chinese government's response to the Western accusation during the COVID-19 pandemic progressively shifted from participating in the Western system to questioning Western centralization and adding Chinese interpretations to the existing world order. I argue that China's self-defense strategies altered in light of the changing geopolitical context and became more …

On The Use And Abuse Of Violence For Life: Affect, Witnessing, And Protest, Harrison Maurice Lucas

Theses - ALL

Following the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 by police officer Derek Chauvin, a protest began in the city of Minneapolis that resulted in the burning down of the third precinct police building, the looting of a local Target, and the destruction of over one hundred buildings in the area. But despite this violence, the Minneapolis uprising sparked a wave of protests that spread to over sixty countries on every continent of the globe. Why was Floyd's murder so politically mobilizing? And why did this protest inspire so many others? To answer these questions, I treat the video …

The 1980 Refugee Act And A New Type Of National Apology, Shewit Mikael

Theses - ALL

In immigrant and refugee discourse studies, the overwhelming focus is on how the nation state excludes certain groups through bureaucratic and legislative practices. This thesis seeks to investigate how power manifests through inclusionary immigration practices such as the 1980 Refugee Act. These intentional acts of allowing entry are, at times, driven by perceptions that the nation has created crises and, in this way, allowing entry might be seen as a form of remediation or reparation. In my investigation of the 1975 and 1980 Refugee Acts, these acts appear to respond to the refugee crisis created by US involvement in Vietnam, …

Richard Sennett Calling In Communication Ethics, Lin Gu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on an interplay between Richard Sennett’s scholarship and the literature of communication ethics. Content from communication ethics provides a better understanding on how Sennett contributes to urban communication in this historical moment, and answers how we can make communication possible in the era of difference.

Sennett’s scholarly concerns starts with a phenomenon that he termed as the fall of public man, which is people’s self-withdrawal from the public domain. Sennett initially credited this to a mismatched “I” and “me” and believes reconciling them would solve the problem. Later, Sennett realizes the self-withdrawal from the public domain has …

Reporting On Athletes And Mental Health: An Evolution In Language And Lexicon From 1970 To 2019, Vivian Ferris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the spring and summer of 2021, several athletes made headlines for seemingly prioritizing mental health over the status quo of sports society. For example, in May 2021, during the French Open, professional U.S. tennis player Naomi Osaka announced she would not appear at press conferences, despite threats of fines, citing on social media it was for her mental health. The controversy surrounding Osaka and others led to further questions. Looking through the lens of agenda setting and framing theories, the purpose of this study is to better understand the frequency, variety, and evolution of language in journalistic coverage of …

From Intern To Owner: Grad Revamps Newspaper, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

It’s not often that employers ask their interns to buy their company, but for Bonnie Rutledge, an offer her junior year changed her career and local community for the better.

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

Adults Perspectives Of Friendships And Social Interaction Between Students With And Without Complex Support Needs During A Pandemic, Jorden Morales

Special Education ETDs

Social interactions and friendships are important for all individuals including those with complex support needs (CSN). The voices of adults including parents/guardians, primary caregivers, teachers, and related service providers who responded to a survey provided insight into supporting social interactions and friendships for children with CSN during the Covid-19 pandemic This mixed methods study used thematic analysis to explore participants’ responses to open-ended questions while multiple choice questions were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Additionally, this study included a research narrative to speak to the various roles I hold related to this study (i.e., parent, educator, researcher). Three themes emerged from …

Plugging Into A New Age: The Impact Of Social Media Use On Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions Of Production Agriculture And Consumer Decisions, Shannon K. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Today, 84% of young adults between the ages of 18-29 use at least one social media site (Pew Research Center, 2020) and are in the stages of emerging adulthood where they are making independent decisions for the first time (Arnett, 2000). As society becomes more technologically advanced, we become further removed from agriculture (Powell & Agnew, 2011; Dale et al., 2017). Thus, resulting in a separation between consumer and producer (Wilson & Lusk, 2020; Holt & Cartmell, 2013). This leaves the opportunity for society to turn to social media for agriculture information leading to negative perceptions of agriculture (Eyck, 2000; …

The Role Of School-Home Communication In Supporting The Development Of Children’S And Adolescents’ Digital Skills, And The Changes Brought By Covid-19, Mai Beilmann, Signe Opermann, Veronika Kalmus, Joyce Vissenberg, Margus Pedaste

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

School-home communication is a growing research field in social sciences, particularly in education sciences and communication studies. While previous studies have paid much attention to the importance of school-home interaction in supporting primary academic socialisation and progress of elementary school pupils, the role of teacher-parent communication and collaboration in influencing the development of children’s and adolescents’ digital skills remains an under-researched area. This paper employed thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with education experts in six European countries, providing an insight into their opinions and views on the problems in communication between homes and schools. The analysis identified main problems in …

Teaching Feminist Media Studies In A Post-Weinstein Era, Gigi Mcnamara

Feminist Pedagogy

In this critical commentary, I will address the concept of witnessing as it relates to contemporary feminist empowerment while also properly situating Weinstein-produced films as historical mediated texts.

The Threat Of Returning To “Normal”: Resisting Ableism In The Post-Covid Classroom, Sarah M. Parsloe, Elizabeth M. Smith

Feminist Pedagogy

The abrupt switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted pervasive ableism; accommodations that had been “impossible” were suddenly available. This critical commentary draws from interviews with 16 students and our own ethnographic accounts as student/professor to understand how COVID shaped disabled experiences in the classroom. As a student with a disability, Elizabeth was hyperaware of her vulnerability to illness, but also experienced herself as less impaired online. She could control her learning environment to minimize sensory and mobility challenges. Additionally, professors’ flexible policies helped her to manage energy, time, and symptoms. However, Elizabeth and her peers feared an …

Witnessing With Cameras Off: Feminist Pedagogy And The Zoom Classroom, Kristin Comeforo

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Witnessing Engaged Voices: A Feminist Pedagogy Of Inclusion, Alana M. Nicastro, Patricia Geist-Martin

Feminist Pedagogy

When student perspectives, needs, and wants are left out of academic discourse, the discursive structures necessary to encourage, organize, and evaluate their voice are absent. Students then become ambivalent instead of exercising their voice and decisively assessing the value of their contributions. This original teaching activity targets the problematics that constrain voices in the classroom and invites readers and listeners to consider their positionality and action as a commitment to a Feminist Pedagogy of Inclusion (FPoI). In this way, students and professors can deliberately hold a space where the act of witnessing is more than simply observing voice. The intended …

What’S The Word On The Street?: Witnessing/Performing Theory, Desirée D. Rowe

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, May 12, 2022, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2022

Volume 158, Issue 43

The Rhetoric Of Blame: A Rhetorical Framing Analysis Of Othering And Blame In Historical Health Crises, Colin G. Cameron

Master's Theses

The United States’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic was hallmarked by blame rhetoric and fluid social and political expedience. However, the pervasiveness of othering and blame in contemporary pandemic discourse is perhaps consistent with the blame rhetoric of health crises throughout history. Using a rhetorical framing analysis approach, this study aims to explore the various elements of blame rhetoric embedded in newsprint media frames regarding historic infectious disease outbreaks. In doing so, this study investigates three case studies: the San Francisco smallpox outbreak of 1876, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s – 1990s. …