University of Southern Mississippi
Aquila Digital Community (University of Southern Mississippi, USM)Not a member yet
11361 research outputs found
Sort by
MLA Annual Conference 2024 Recap
Get PDFRecap of the 2024 Mississippi Library Association Conference held in Natchez, Mississippi on October 9-11, 2024
The Sexual Assault Survivor Experience of Medical Forensic Examinations
Get PDFFollowing a sexual assault, survivors may seek medical forensic examinations (MFEs) at hospitals. MFEs can be important in identifying and prosecuting the assailant and in receiving necessary physical and psychological care, yet many survivors choose not to undergo the examination. In this qualitative study, I explored survivor experiences of MFEs at United States hospitals to identify possible areas for improvement of the MFE experience. Understanding these experiences is essential to reducing barriers to care, minimizing further harm, and supporting survivor recovery
Effects of Financial Literacy Education Intervention on Loan Borrowing and Debt Management of Undergraduate Students in the Southeastern U.S.: An Experimental Investigation
No full textThis mixed methods experimental pretest-posttest between-groups effect study examined the causal effects of financial literacy education on loan borrowing and debt management behaviors of undergraduate students in the southeast of the United States. Loan borrowing and debt management behaviors of undergraduate students are understudied. Therefore, this study aimed to fill the gap in the literature about experimental investigations of financial education interventions for university students and provided evidence-based recommendations for improving financial literacy programs in higher education. The study is theoretically grounded on the lens of Behavioral Economics, Planned Behavior, and Social Cognitive. This explanatory sequential mixed method study employed phenomenological design, Simple random, convenience, and purposive sampling techniques to develop a robust methodological framework. The sample (N = 85) were randomly selected from university of AKA in the southeastern US, (n = 43) were randomly assigned to treatment, and (n = 42) to the control group. Multivariate Validated instruments that measured financial borrowing behavior, debt management practices, and financial attitude were used to collect data. Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), and thematic analysis tools were used to analyze the data. The results revealed, among other things, that students in the intervention group demonstrated greater financial awareness, borrowed more cautiously, and managed their debt more effectively than those in the control group. Also, findings revealed that students’ personal experiences highlight the transformation of students\u27 mindset on financial management. I recommended that financial literacy education should be a required component of higher education curricula
Palmers Crossing: A Black Enclave in the Gulf South
No full textThis dissertation is a community study of Palmers Crossing, a historically Black and unincorporated community south of Hattiesburg. While historians have mentioned Palmers in their discussions of the civil rights movement because of local leaders like Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, Dorie Ladner, and Joyce Ladner, I emphasize the everyday lived experiences of the residents of Palmers. I utilize the business empire of local resident Milton Barnes, who owned Barnes Cleaners, the Embassy Club, the Hi-Hat Club, the Hattiesburg Black Sox, Smith’s Drive-In, and a construction company, as a lens to tell the history of the community. I argue that Palmers was a Black Enclave—or an unincorporated, autonomous, and self-sufficient Black space that nurtured Black culture, social life, and business—in the Gulf South. In addition, this dissertation also adds to the historiography of the Chitlin’ Circuit in the Gulf South and the longevity of local, independent Black baseball post-MLB’s integration and the end of Jim Crow.
By analyzing the history of Palmers Crossing from 1939-1994 through the lens of Barnes’s businesses, I show how Palmers played a significant role in Black life in south Mississippi and that the community should not be seen as peripheral to the city of Hattiesburg. To tell this story, I rely on oral histories with Palmers community members to describe their experiences with Black musical artists who appeared at the Hi-Hat Club, a game at Black Sox Park, and their lived experiences of what it was like to grow up in Palmers Crossing. This dissertation tells the story of Palmers Crossing—its different neighborhoods, businesses, and clubs—an aims to preserve the history of this community that has so often been overlooked and marginalized in the history of Black life in south Mississippi. My methodological approach of a Black Enclave is a rural analogue to the Black Metropolis and highlights that rural Southerners were cultural innovators and brokers
Revnan / Rakontèr
No full textThis dissertation represents a critical and creative undertaking: a collection of poems composed between 2021 and 2025 accompanied by a critical examination of where poems like these fit in the broader literary imaginary. The title of the manuscript is written in Louisiana Creole, sometimes called Kouri-Vini, and means “Ghost / Storyteller.” I followed my curiosity about my Louisiana Creole identity into the poems of this collection, our close communion with our ancestors, and the ghosts that haunt us. Amidst this personal and creative exploration, I stumbled into scholarship. My ongoing scholarship, as investigated in the critical introduction to Revnan / Rakontèr, considers Creolization, the Gothic, the role of the storyteller, protest, and the connection between Louisiana and the Wider Caribbean
“From the Synagogue to the Streets”: Outsider Rabbis, Mississippi, and the Civil Rights Movement
No full textThe historiography of Jews in the Civil Rights Movement is extensive, and recent scholarship has reevaluated the relationships between Jews and civil rights organizations. The role of southern Jews in critical states, such as Mississippi, is often amalgamated into one category: supportive but scared. The focus on two rabbis known for their outspokenness regarding racial equality, Charles Mantinband of Hattiesburg and Perry Nussbaum of Jackson, is central to most southern Jewish studies. However, it neglects aspects of their background. Neither rabbi was a native Mississippian nor accepted as truly Southern due to the stances they took regarding racial equality. Charles Mantinband was from Virginia and originally held segregationist views until attending City College of New York. Born and raised in Canada, Perry Nussbaum developed a different understanding of race and inequality. Although each rabbi attempted to make Mississippi home, they faced backlash regarding their stances on equality due to being deemed outsiders by Mississippi’s closed society.
This thesis argues that Mantiband’s and Nussbaum’s relationships with each other, their congregations, and the wider community are crucial in understanding the Mississippi Jewish experience during the Civil Rights Movement. The study of these rabbis has three objectives: understanding how their congregations reacted to the rabbis’ activism, why they were seen as outsiders and “othered” by their own communities because of their views on racial equality, and the broader Mississippi Jewish community’s relationship with ideas of racial superiority and being seen as white. Reasserting these issues in the historiography complicates the relationship between Mississippi Jews and the Civil Rights Movement by refocusing Rabbis Nussbaum and Mantinband as important activists in their communities and congregations
Digital Storytelling across Disciplinary Horizons: a Bibliometric exploration through Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Social Sciences
Get PDFThis study aims to know the key publication trends and patterns in digital storytelling research and to find the most influential papers, authors, journals, funding sponsors, sources, and countries that contributed to digital storytelling research from 2013 to 2023. This was examined through a systematic bibliometric analysis conducted on 508 documents collected from the Scopus database based on particular inclusion and exclusion criteria. Bibliometric patterns were obtained using the VOS viewer software. The findings indicated that the digital storytelling research field is emerging and shows growing interest in this particular field. The increasing citation trend shows its importance across various disciplines and applications. The most influential paper on digital storytelling was by Willox et al. (2013) which narrated the methodological process they developed to engage a remote community in northern Labrador on climate change. Chan, C. was the most influential author who wrote about the role of digital storytelling in social work, technology, critical thinking disposition in youth civic engagement, higher education, etc. This study suggests that if we are ready to implement digital storytelling in problem-solving, it will impact students’ conceptual understanding and learning will become more fruitful and life-oriented
Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms, and Governments Control the News
No full texthttps://aquila.usm.edu/katrinagulfcoast_photos/1112/thumbnail.jp
Predominant-Dominant Chains in Japanese Video Game Music
No full textThe short looping forms in Japanese video game music feature rapid modulations based on common chord progressions that necessitate contextual readings of harmonies in various keys to isolate how they manipulate tonal space. One such progression used by Japanese game music composers utilizes chains of predominant-dominant chords to move key centers by conflating function in minor-third related keys. These triumphant sounding transitional phrases are uniquely valuable in a medium dominated by stories of heroism and fighting authorities both earthly and divine. Building on the functional framework of 19th century theorists and existing popular music research, two models are created that help to visualize predominant-dominant chains: the minor-third grid and functional maps. Christopher Doll’s “centric ambiguity” and Drew Nobile’s conception of Robert Bailey’s “double-tonic complex” are used to contextually analyze predominant-dominant chains with similar function in minor-third related keys and to isolate bass notes that are divorced from the rest of the chain respectively. Predominant-dominant chains and the minor-third grid also open new opportunities for additional interactions with various other chord progressions in the style to be explored in the future
Connecting For Success: Evaluating the Frequency of Check & Connect Meetings on Student Behavior
No full textDropout prevention efforts commonly address risk factors including chronic absenteeism, which continues to be a nationwide concern. Check & Connect is a student engagement intervention that aims to improve graduation rates and mitigate several risk factors of dropout. Previous research has failed to address if the frequency of Check & Connect meetings results in varied effectiveness of the intervention. The current study aims to evaluate the effects of modified frequency of Check & Connect meetings on academic engagement, term grade average, absences, and office discipline referrals through the use of a multiple baseline across participants design. Results revealed that students overall rated the increased frequency of Check & Connect meetings as socially acceptable and received fewer ODRs during the intervention phase or stabilized at zero. However, the study did not support previous findings that the Check & Connect intervention might lead to increased academic engagement, reduced absences, or improved term grades. Practical limitations and future directions for implementing Check & Connect in a rural high school setting are discussed