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Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Female Leadership and Acquisitiveness in Family and Nonfamily Firms
No full textThis research investigates the impact of female CEOs on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in family and nonfamily firms. With a sample of 165 Italian listed companies engaged in M&As from 2011 to 2016, the study explores whether CEO gender impacts on firm's acquisitiveness in family and nonfamily firms. Findings indicate that having a female CEO is associated with lower acquisitiveness overall. However, this trend is not consistently observed in family firms, challenging conventional assumptions. This research contributes to understanding the nuanced dynamics of female leadership and M&As, shedding light on the role of CEO gender in distinct ownership contexts
Italian America: The Role of Place in the Italian Diaspora
No full textThesis (B.A. in Italian Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2024.Il termine “Little Italy” è stato coniato negli ultimi decenni del XIX secolo, durante le prime fasidell'immigrazione e dell'insediamento degli italiani nelle città del Nord America. Da allora, lanascita di quartieri italiani ha suscitato l'interesse pubblico per oltre un secolo e mezzo. Alla lucedi ciò, questa tesi esamina l'importanza del luogo nel contesto della diaspora italiana,combinando il significato storico e attuale della “Little Italy” di Providence, Rhode Island, percapire come esso agisca nella conservazione del patrimonio culturale e nell'integrazione socialeall'interno della comunità. Le metodologie impiegate in questa tesi si basano su un'ampiaquantità di materiale d'archivio e ricerche storiche in combinazione con interviste a immigratiitaliani e figure locali dei quartieri italiani di Providence: Federal Hill, North End e Silver Lake.Il risultato di questo studio dimostra che, dopo oltre un secolo dall'arrivo dei primi gruppi diitaliani nelle Americhe, la “Little Italy” riveste ancora oggi un ruolo importante all'interno dellacomunità. Anche se la definizione di questi luoghi può non essere la stessa di decenni fa, la loroimportanza come mezzo di conservazione del patrimonio culturale è rimasta. Infatti, mentremolti quartieri etnici stanno scomparendo, la “Little Italy” in una forma o nell'altra rimane,grazie a coloro che ogni giorno continuano a dare significato a questi luoghi
Machine Hallucinations and AI Expectations: The Possibility of AI as the Newest Medium of Art
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Studio Art)--John Cabot University, Spring 2024.In the 21st century, the use of artificial intelligence has expanded outside of the fields ofscience and technology and into the field of the creative arts. The use of generative AI hasdivided artists since its emergence. However, artists willing to embrace new technology in theirpractice have had positive results incorporating AI technology into their work. Refik Anadol, aself-proclaimed AI and “data artist”, incorporates artificial intelligence into his large-scale AIinstallations. Anadol’s series Machine Hallucinations, uses a generative adversarial network withan adaptive discriminator and an original latent space browser program in order to transform amassive visual dataset into what the artist refers to as a “data painting”: a form of AI artwork.Using Anadol’s series as a case study, this dissertation will explore the idea of AI-generatedartwork becoming its own medium of art. The notions of creativity and originality are critical inthe discourse of AI-generated artwork. The scientific and artistic communities have differentnotions of what it means to be creative. Whether or not the artist or the machine is responsiblefor the aspect of originality in an AI-generative work relies heavily on the intention of theartwork and the agency of the author. This question of originality is further exacerbated by theinability to copyright AI-generated work in most countries due to a lack of judicial precedent onthe topic. In another manner, the perception of AI by the general public stands to also be adecisive factor in AI becoming a recognized medium of art. However, the critical issues in thediscourse of AI becoming its own medium, such as image appropriation, the reliance oncomputer technology, and the notion of creativity, bear some resemblance to the issues faced bythe mixed-media, photography, and video mediums in their emergence. This dissertation aims toaddress these critical issues that stand in the way of AI becoming a recognized medium of art
Mirror Acts: Dramatic Form in Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
No full textPirandello is among the first playwrights to reshape the very notion of theatre and pave the way for a postmodern understanding of the human. By fixing one of drama’s cardinal axes—space—and making it simultaneously literal and inherently static—Pirandello frees the other—time—thereby undoing the core of the dramatic arc. This simple shift repositions both plot and characters, placing them in a cosmology which tauntingly ignores them. Their experience—and by extension the human experience—becomes inherently aimless. In this latter light, Pirandello’s characters are an anticipation of Beckett’s. While this is indubitably an important point of contact between the two, it is the similarity in their structural redefinition of spacetime, that allows both to pave the way for a pivotal revolution of form that will bloom in the works of their heirs—Pinter and Stoppard, primarily—and anticipate postdramatic theatre. In this light, Six Characters in Search of an Author, first staged in Rome and Paris in 1921 a time when Beckett would have been exposed to a response to it, plants a lasting seed
“(Re)Ordering the Mediterranean: The Evolution of Security Assistance as an International Practice
No full textSecurity assistance – foreign actors training and equipping security forces in another country – has proliferated in the Mediterranean over the last decades. Now, more than a decade on from the Arab Uprisings, security assistance cannot be considered merely a tool to obtain strategic objectives, but is in itself a site of competition, collusion and potential collision. In this Introduction to the Special Issue, we develop a framework deploying reordering as a lens through which comparative and interdisciplinary explorations can develop comprehensive and critical views of the evolution of security assistance in the Mediterranean. We propose a theoretical framework centred on international practice and socio-material network theory, which brings different types of providers and recipients, as well as the discourse-material structures underpinning them, into a common frame. The framework conceptualizes security assistance as operating at vertical (between provider and recipient), and horizontal (between vertical blocks) levels. It can purposefully be analysed across three dimensions – knowledge, materiality and networks. In so doing, we may be able to observe how, despite the absence of formal institutions, norms or governing mechanisms, security assistance constitutes an international practice and contributes to the ordering, and continuous reordering, of the Mediterranean as a governable geospatial field of intervention
Crowdfunding for sustainability: How environmental activism moderates support for B2B and B2C campaigns
No full textThis study explores the influence of customer investors' perceptions on their willingness to invest in sustainable crowdfunding campaigns. Specifically, it examines whether emphasizing a product's direct impact on consumers (B2C) or its broader industrial impact (B2B) affects investment decisions. Using a between-subjects experiment with 304 participants, the research investigates how environmental sustainability activism moderates investment behavior. The study found that higher levels of environmental activism decrease support for B2C campaigns compared to B2B campaigns. These results suggest that sustainability-focused backers prefer projects due to perceived greater systemic impact
The Emergence and Development of Roman Columbaria
No full textThesis (B.A. in Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2024.In Rome during the late first century BC, a new style of tomb challenged the expectations thatfunerary monuments needed a certain level of conspicuousness in order to perpetuate thememory of the deceased they commemorated. These subterranean tombs, called columbaria,featured uniform niches that lined the walls of their burial chambers offering little opportunityfor individual public visibility, unlike their above ground counterparts. Despite their well-knownpresence in Roman funerary culture, the emergence of columbaria has gone relativelyunderstudied and subjected to a regurgitation of the basic explanations provided by thenineteenth-century scholars who first excavated their remains. As a result of this, the motivationsbehind their construction and the inspiration for their novel architecture remains unclear. Tograsp the abnormality of columbaria, it is fundamental to contextualize them within the broaderculture in which they arose by considering the burial practices and funerary monuments thatexisted alongside them. Through a comprehensive examination of academic publications andarchaeological discoveries, this study suggest that the patronage of elite families, the role ofcollegia, and certain economic motivations were instrumental in the development of columbaria. Additionally, this thesis discusses the potential origins of their architectural predecessors byinvestigating the physical remains and scholarly interpretations of structures from Etruria, Alexandria, Lefkadia, and Rome
Fields Of Fervour: The Use of Football For The Promotion Of Nationalism By Authoritarian Regimes Within Regionalised States
No full textThesis (B.A. in International Affairs, Minor in Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Fall 2024.In the contemporary political climate, several authoritarian politicians are attempting to use football as political vehicle for the promotion of nationalist sentiment within their respective states. Over the last few decades, a significant amount of scholarly literature has analysed the theory regarding the relationship between football, collective identity, and nationalism. Using the three historical case studies of fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, this thesis explores the practical application of such theory analysing whether football is indeed an effective political tool for the promotion of nationalism within the specific context of regionalised states. The research finds that, despite placing significant emphasis on football for the promotion of nationalism, the regimes’ efforts are often unrealised in the context of the sport. International football, in its banal representation of the state, does provide a platform which can unite the populace and help facilitate state nationalist sentiment. Such impact is, however, fleeting given the infrequency of international football matches, and the fact that in divided states the official national team is often not seen to truly represent the whole population. Domestic football, on the other hand, whilst lending itself to more frequent appropriation by the regime, thrives on rivalries between clubs. As a result, domestic football often maintains or exacerbates divisions within society as clubs becoming bastions of sub-state nationalism in states containing several national identities. Although football must be understood as one part of authoritarian regimes’ wider cultural policy, this thesis demonstrates the limitations of the sport in promoting nationalist sentiment in states characterised by regional and national division
Testing the Effectiveness of an Ecomedia Literacy Environmental Education Lesson
No full textThe growing environmental crisis requires innovative educational strategies to promote pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. In this context, ecomedia literacy, which combines ecological education and media to enhance pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, stimulate sustainable actions, and foster critical thinking, represents a promising approach. In this research, we evaluated the effectiveness of an ecomedia literacy-based lesson. Participants (N = 106) were randomly assigned to either an ecomedia literacy group or a control group. Those in the ecomedia literacy group first attended the lesson and then completed a questionnaire to assess pro-environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions, while those in the control group completed the questionnaire before the lesson. The lesson focused on the use of plastic water bottles, and attitudes and intentions were assessed both in general toward the environment and specifically regarding the consumption of plastic bottles. The intervention was not successful in changing intentions or attitudes toward plastic bottles, but some facets of pro-environmental attitudes were better in the ecomedia literacy group than in the control group. The limited effectiveness of the lesson indicates the need for significant changes in content and future strategies to better achieve sustainability goals