Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Relational Processes In Support-Related Communication Among Young Adults With Cancer, Kathleen Darabos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite decades of studies reporting positive associations of social support with cancer-related quality of life, little attention has been paid to understanding how relational qualities (e.g., self-disclosure, perceived support member disclosure, perceived support member responsiveness) of cancer-related support exchanges might influence psychological adjustment and intimacy among young adults with cancer. Further, little attention has been paid to understanding how young adults with cancer communicate with their social support networks among different modes of communication [(face-to-face vs. technology-related (e.g., text message, social media)] remains poorly understood. Questionnaire data from 45 young adults with cancer combines these two separate but related literatures …

Swedish Migration Politics: Have The Sweden Democrats Taken Over The Political Agenda?, Sofia Sedergren

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Sweden Democrats’ anti-immigration rhetoric has gained increased influence over Swedish politics in recent years as mainstream parties have adopted an increasingly restrictive attitude towards immigration. Despite this rapprochement to the Sweden Democrats, mainstream parties continue to articulate their opposition to the party. My thesis examines if and how the Sweden Democrats have impacted mainstream parties’ immigration rhetoric in their election manifestos, and if changes on immigration postures have impacted political issues related to immigration, such as foreign policy and welfare; I also assess if the Sweden Democrats have introduced new policy issues and views to the political discourse. I …

Hearing/S: Will In The Carceral Archive, Kayla Morse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This long-form poetry project follows the human will — in this case the “criminal,” or captive will — as it is manhandled through an archive of reverends, wardens and superintendents narrating the future of prison reform. Drawing primarily from National Prison Association Conference archives between the years 1874 and 1895, these documents saturate the work with a will resistant but compelled towards subjugation by the state — as it appears within the text across forced labor economies, eugenic prison science that dictates starvation, classification, and isolation as the rule, the dehumanization of banal bureaucratic processes, the visceral and spectacular violence …

Italian/Americans And The American Racial System: Contadini To Settler Colonists?, Stephen J. Cerulli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the relationship between ethnicity and race, “whiteness,” in the American racial system through the lens of Italian/Americans. Firstly, it overviews the current scholarship on Italian/Americans and whiteness. Secondly, it analyzes methodologies that are useful for understanding race in an American context. Thirdly, it presents a case study on the Columbus symbol and the battle over identity that arose out of, and continues over, this symbol. Finally, this thesis provides suggestions using the case study and methodologies to open up new ways of understanding Italian/Americans and the American racial system.

Everyday Violence: Catcalling And Lgbtq-Directed Aggression In The Public Sphere, Simone A. Kolysh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation aims to expose how women and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people are barred from full participation in the public sphere and public life because of catcalling and LGBTQ-directed aggression on the streets of New York City. The harmful, cumulative, and long-lasting effects of these interactions make it difficult for marginalized people to belong and benefit from a supposedly inclusive and democratic society. Focusing on the public sphere of New York City, this dissertation is a qualitative study of catcalling and LGBTQ-directed aggression. I analyze interviews with catcallers and sixty-seven recipients of everyday violence as well …

Captives Of A New Alcatraz: The New York City Department Of Correction From 1954 To 1990, Jarrod Shanahan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) from 1954 to 1990—a period that began with an audacious program, led by progressive penologist and DOC Commissioner Anna M. Kross, to replace “custodial” prisoner warehousing with a rehabilitative model directed by civilian experts. As part of this plan the political legitimacy, executive strength, and most importantly, the institutional capacity of DOC were expanded, while the department’s plant facilities were increasingly concentrated on Rikers Island. The previously remote penal island was connected by bridge to mainland Queens amid plans for dazzling new jails and a university-affiliated research institute, to …

Adults Formerly In Foster Care Narrate Schooling Experiences, Danielle Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Roughly 400,000 children are in foster care in the United States (Lash, 2017, p. 5). These youth are less likely to graduate high school than their non-foster peers (Barnow et al., 2015). While several barriers contribute to the poor educational outcomes for children in foster care, research has noted that the label “foster child” is associated with negative connotations and differential teacher treatment (Altshuler, 2003; Finkelstein, Wamsley, & Miranda, 2002). In spite of such observations, little research has emphasized the perspectives of those in foster care. To fill this gap, this qualitative study posed the following question: How do adults …

Cultural Heritage Preservation In The Context Of Climate Change Adaptation Or Relocation: Barbuda As A Case Study, Martha B. Lerski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This case study introduces an arts camp methodology of engaging communities in identifying their key cultural heritage features, thus serving as a meta study. It presents original research based on field studies on the climate-vulnerable Caribbean island of Barbuda during 2017 and 2018. Its Valued Cultural Elements survey, enabling precise identification of key tangible and intangible art forms and biocultural practices, may serve as a basis for further studies. Such approaches may facilitate future research or planning as climate-vulnerable communities harness Local or Indigenous Knowledge for purposes of biocultural heritage preservation, or towards adaptation or relocation. I report on findings …

Intergenerational Teenage Motherhood: Memory And Material Culture, Aspen Christian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper explores how memories and material culture can be used to understand intergenerational teenage motherhood. Intimate, feminist ethnography is used to explore the experiences of my mother and my grandmother who were both teenage mothers. Teenage mothers are blamed for perpetuating a cycle of poverty in the United States by conservative and neoliberal adherents, yet women were young mothers throughout the history of the United States. In their minds, teenage mothers have daughters who become teenage mothers themselves, which then maintains poverty across generations. This project counters that false narrative by focusing on the experiences of intergenerational teenage mothers …

Queerness, Witchcraft, And Embodied Presence: Aesthetic Knowings Of What A Body Can Do, Megan Bigelow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Taking as a point of entry the critique of representation and affirming the limitations of the cuts that language makes, this capstone project explores the imbrications and assemblages between Foucault’s concept of subjugated knowledges, witchcraft and other body-based ways of knowing and being, and the consciousness of non-human forms such as plants and through the framework of non-representational theory, process philosophies, aesthetics, queerness, and the concept of difference itself.

Since such theories themselves are living, breathing entities, this capstone project explores the ideological split that has occurred between sacred and secular beliefs, moving through different figures such as nuns and …

Death Of The Caliphate: Reconfiguring Ali Abd Al-Raziq’S Ideas And Legacy, Arooj Alam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The demise of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 generated vigorous debates throughout the Muslim world regarding the political future of the Ummah. While several prominent Muslim thinkers contributed to this “Caliphate debate,” none left as contested a legacy as the Egyptian intellectual, ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq(1888-1966). In his scholarly publication, Islam and Foundations of Governance,Abd al-Raziq argued against the revival and resurrection of the Caliphate by redefining it as coercive, monarchal, and as the antithesis of the community first established by Prophet Muhammad. While Abd al-Raziq’s book attracted tremendous criticisms in 1925, numerous scholars today have commended and …

The Subject Of Jouissance: The Late Lacan And Gender And Queer Theories, Frederic C. Baitinger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Subject of Jouissance argues that Lacan’s approach to psychoanalysis, far from being heteronormative, offers a notion of identity that deconstructs gender as a social norm, and opens onto a non-normative theory of the subject (of jouissance) that still remains to be fully explored by feminist, gender, and queer scholars. Drawing mostly on the later Lacan, The Subject of Jouissance shows that by locating the identity of the subject in the singularity of its bodily mode of enjoyment (that Lacan calls “jouissance”), and not in the Imaginary illusions of the ego, nor in the Symbolic social structures, Lacan fosters thinking …

Stabilizing Forces In Acoustic Cultural Evolution: Comparing Humans And Birds, Daniel C. Mann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Learned acoustic communication systems, like birdsong and spoken human language, can be described from two seemingly contradictory perspectives. On one hand, learned acoustic communication systems can be remarkably consistent. Substantive and descriptive generalizations can be made which hold for a majority of populations within a species. On the other hand, learned acoustic communication systems are often highly variable. The degree of variation is often so great that few, if any, substantive generalizations hold for all populations in a species.

Within my dissertation, I explore the interplay of variation and uniformity in three vocal learning species: budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), …

Defending The "Bad Immigrant": Aggravated Felonies, Deportation, And Legal Resistance At The Crimmigration Nexus, Sarah Rose Tosh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the development and effects of the “aggravated felony”—an expansive legal category that has spurred the detention and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including many green-card-holding lawful permanent residents, over the past thirty years. Offenses in this category need not be “aggravated” nor “felonies,” but rather, include a broad range of criminal convictions, including misdemeanors, ranging from check fraud and simple drug possession to drug trafficking and murder. Non-citizens in removal proceedings based on aggravated felony convictions are mandatorily detained and almost certainly deported—usually without legal representation. Still, despite growing academic interest in deportation and the …

A Politics Of Boundlessness, Fernando Orellana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of …

Cyborgean Horizons: Gender, Disability And Technology In Olympic And Paralympic Sport, An Intersectional Approach, Stephanie O'Neill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines two types of embodiment and its verification in the context of contemporary sports: sex/gender-verification testing in the Olympics, and the International Paralympic Committee’s multi-tiered grading system for assessing disability, the premises of which raise important questions for feminist and disability theory, as well as for the increasing and increasingly integrated role that technology plays in both the Olympics and the Paralympics. I outline the 80-year history of policing the gender binary in international sport and its controversies, with particular attention to the Castor Semenya case, and the implications for intersex and transgender athletes. I examine the history …

Who Needs Blame?: Answerability Without Expressed Blame, Sarah Gokhale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that we can hold other agents morally responsible without expressing blame and, more strongly, that doing so is preferable. I first argue that blame is fundamentally retributive, and that blame’s retributive foundation is incipiently present even in civilized guises. As such, even though some forms of expressed blame are quite civilized, expressed blame always involves a risk of emotional damage, entrenchment, and escalation. To make things worse, I argue that anger is an exacerbating feature of blame’s retributive foundation. I then argue that, generally speaking, cases of public blame involve higher stakes than cases of private judgments …

Objectively-Measured And Subjectively-Perceived Financial Literacy, Wenyi Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on financial literacy. The chapters examine the impact of financial literacy on households’ risk tolerance and financial planning behavior. Financial literacy was assessed in two dimensions: an objectively-measured financial literacy score, and a subjectively-perceived financial literacy level.

The first chapter reviews the literature measuring financial literacy, and raises concerns about the prevalent state of financial-literacy overconfidence, which can lead to underprepared financial planning and irrational financial behavior. This chapter uses the survey data from the Financial Regulatory Authority’s (FINRAs) 2009, 2012 and 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) to explore how individual and regional …

“How To Lose The Hounds”: Tracing The Relevance Of Marronage For Contemporary Anti-Police Struggles, Celeste Winston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the interconnected practices of flight from slavery and flight from policing. Focusing on Black communities within Montgomery County, Maryland, I provide evidence for how local legacies of enslavement and flight from slavery have empowered later generations of residents, including people still living there today, to practice safety and security on their own terms, beyond policing. I draw on archival and ethnographic research in seven Black communities in Montgomery County to document historical and ongoing local Black life practices and organizing against and outside of policing. I center these communities’ past and present placemaking and collective strategies of …

Gender Affirmative Monopoly: Who Is "Trans* Enough" To Receive Gender Affirmative Treatment In Norway?, Emilie Kristine Krumsvik

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis elaborates on the current practice and monopoly of the National Treatment Center for Transsexualism, which covers gender affirmative treatment through universal health care in Norway. This thesis examines this topic in the context of a broader debate regarding trans* people’s rights in Norway. This debate, which took place in multiple national newspapers, was incited by the decision of the Norwegian government to change the law regarding an individual’s right to change their legal gender in 2016. The debate was held between two main participants; The first group composed of critical voices who do not consider being trans* a …

Being Ethnic On The Eurasian Steppe: Civic Nation-Building Discourse In Kazakhstan And Russia, Nathan P. Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Civic nation-building as a concept has emerged within the political discourses of various post-Soviet states, particularly in relation to the status of ethnic minorities in Russia and Kazakhstan. This dissertation investigates the institutional efforts to establish civic nations in these states among their non-titular populations. My primary ethnographic sites are the various institutions producing and serving the discourse of civic nation-building to understand how the transmission of concepts and behaviors relevant to the civic nation operate in the context of daily interactions. I demonstrate the institutional dependence upon what I identify as “ethnicness” within the discourse and procedures of civic …

The Functional Morphology Of Ingestion In The Platyrrhine Sclerocarpic Harvesters (Platyrrhini, Primates), Zachary Stoffel Klukkert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The identification of anatomical correlates of diet and feeding behavior in nonhuman primates is an important area of research in biological anthropology. The morphology of the jaws and teeth reflects the phylogeny and adaptations that distinguish taxa and their different ecological niches. Studying the form-function relationships of jaws and teeth in modern species provides a framework for interpreting the diets of extinct species and for inferring the ecological pressures that may have contributed to the evolutionary diversification of primate craniodental morphology. Previous work on modeling primate jaw mechanics has focused largely on the functional context of a closed jaw. Little …

American Sign-Language (Asl) For Audiologists, Colette Vossler-Welch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this project is to provide a means for Audiologists, Speech-Language-pathologists and related personnel to improve their ability to communicate and connect with culturally Deaf individuals through the use of video-animated sign-language interpretations. Arguments for or against the bilingual approach of using ASL and the spoken language with regards to Deaf education will be discussed through both a personal memoir and a review of current literature. This study will also shed light upon the history of the American Deaf population, American Sign-Language (ASL) and will conclude with a training module in ASL. The training module will be available …

Using Transfer Learning In Network Markets, Kai Cai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mechanism design is the sub-field of microeconomics and game theory, which considers agents have their own private information and are self-interested and tries to design systems that can produce desirable outcomes. In recent years, with the development of internet and electronic markets, mechanism design has become an important research field in computer science. This work has largely focused on single markets. In the real world, individual markets tend to connect to other markets and form a big “network market”, where each market occupies a node in the network and connections between markets reflect constraints on traders in the markets. So, …

School Optimism: Fast Life And Slow Debt In The Financialized University, Mark Alan Porter Webb

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, educational debt has quickly transformed US colleges and universities into spaces of cruel optimism: the higher education that students desire is all too often an obstacle to their flourishing. This study maps the contours of the white, middle-class attachment to the college dream, paying particular attention to the moments when the optimism surrounding higher education turns cruel. As this optimism wanes in the face of mounting educational debt, students deploy a myriad of fast life strategies—a flurry of actions that include work, activism, protest, leaving school and/or satirical critique—with the hope of mitigating the impact …

Essays On Paid Family Leave In The United States, Beila R. Leboeuf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: The first chapter is a literature survey that reviews the empirical research conducted on paid family leave in the United States. This chapter summarizes the documented benefits of paid family leave on women's labor force participation, leave usage, and children's health. Also, evidence that suggests potentially harmful effects of paid family leave is discussed. Possible directions for future research are explored, and the chapter concludes by considering the implementation of a national paid family leave program in the United States.

Chapter 2: The second chapter replicates and extends the results of Rossin-Slater et al. (2013). The purpose of …

How Black Lives Matter Has Influenced And Interacted With Global Social Movements, Arelle A. Binning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a chapter-based and member-led organization created out of grief by three queer black women. This thesis examines the international impact of BLM. I conducted telephone interviews with activists and advocacy organizations who have organized activist networks and/or won struggles against institutional racism outside of the United States. These activists are located in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, India, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Paris. I conclude that BLM has inspired the creation and supported the continued development of organizations advocating for national and transnational social and racial justice on a global scale. BLM in spite …

Cosmopolitan Democracy: Re-Evaluation Of Globalization And World Economic System, Muhammad Dalhatu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines cosmopolitan democracy theory as a method of addressing the problems of globalization. I begin by introducing the concept of “cosmopolitan democracy.” I then proceed to discuss contemporary political climate and its relation to critiques of globalization. Finally, I conclude by examining the elaborations of cosmopolitan democracy by various theorists as a way of addressing these problems. Chapter 1 introduces the work of David Held who introduced the concept in his book, Cosmopolitan Democracy and the Global Order: Reflections on the 20^th Anniversary of Kant’s “Perpetual Peace.” Cosmopolitan democracy refers to global governance through democratic theory. Held …

Independent Women? Social Class And Social Policy After The Gender Revolution In The West, Berglind H. Ragnarsdóttir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The gender revolution of the mid-20^th century resulted in extensive changes in social, economic, and policy realms. With their unprecedented entrance into the paid labor market, women moved toward greater economic independence. However, it remains unclear whether these changes in women’s economic well-being resulted in positive change for women across the class spectrum. The large-scale entrance of women into paid labor was not accompanied by men’s equal take up in unpaid domestic work. Thus, women found themselves struggling to balance work and family life and as a result, gender inequality in employment outcomes persists. In this dissertation I explore …

Empirical Analysis Of China’S Exchange Rate And Macroeconomic Policy, Jia Ji

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the effects of exchange rate and macroeconomic policy in China. It consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 explores the dynamics of monetary transmission mechanism. As China’s domestic financial markets deepen and develop further toward a market-based system, the country’s monetary policy transmission should continue to improve in the sense that the policy instrument’s influence on economic conditions increases in magnitude and stabilized across time. Using a short-term key interest rate as a standard monetary policy tool and time-varying parameter techniques, this study empirically demonstrates that China’s monetary policy framework is in the midst of transitioning to a …