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Healing Trauma: Diasporic Narratives in the Works of James Baldwin and Steve McQueen
No full textM.A.Cultural artifacts produced within the African Diaspora reveal liberating schemas. Embeddedcodes communicate cultural phenomena as they occur throughout history. This thesis
interrogates the process of decoding diasporic texts and visual art– a process which generates the
revelation of extant cultural codes. I converge the visual rhetoric of Steve McQueen, a Black
British-Caribbean film director, with textual analysis from Black American prolific James
Baldwin. I use a further review of reflective theoretical discourses, especially those pertaining to
diasporic identity, to support my thesis, like diasporic scholar Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic
and Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model, delving into W.E.B. Du Bois' concept of double
consciousness to contextualize the experience of diasporic communities as they navigate
multiple identities in their respective geographies. Through an analysis of these cultural schemas
and the broader literature on race, identity, duality and culture, this thesis seeks to champion
triumphant themes in diasporic narratives despite the presence of trauma. Diasporic narratives
have been used to unite individuals and communities to combat the imposition of race, place,
perception, and racial disinformation. In this research, I developed the terminology of
(Dis)information Trauma which bridges these subfields, corresponding with other theories, like
the Misinformation Effect. I assert that the psychological trauma stemming from disinformation
uniquely affects marginalized populations. Identifying this trauma is critical to understanding
cycles of resistance, as well as connection and recognition. Relative themes are encoded in
generational diasporic narratives. I conclude with an analysis of narrative decoding as a healing
mechanism
An Early Analysis of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund: Did the RRF Help Restaurants Survive the Covid-19 Era?
No full textM.P.P.Policymakers’ reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented damage to the US restaurant industry. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) was a novel program that attempted to support restaurant businesses in the wake of these extraordinary regulations and the real threat of hundreds of thousands of business closures. This thesis uses data on restaurants that received RRF grants, modeled sales levels, and operating status in January 2023 to examine for a causal relationship between receiving a Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant and continuing to operate three years into the pandemic. While receiving an RRF grant is correlated with continued business operations this study is unable to effectively establish a causal link. I, therefore, suggest future avenues of data collection and potential empirical methods to either disprove or provide more robust evidence for my results that the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was not responsible for causing recipients to stay in business. Specifically, currently unavailable data on all grant applicants would allow researchers to use a regression discontinuity, difference-in-difference, or other quasi-experimental approaches
Revisiting the Molecular Recognition and Solid-State Properties of Dimethoxypillar[5]Arene
No full textPh.D.Pillar[n]arenes, introduced by Ogoshi and co-workers in 2008, are among the recently found class of container molecules. Their unique name is derived from the tubular shape of these fascinating macrocycles. It is surprising that the first pillar[n]arene, dimethoxypillar[5]arene (DMP5), has so far been the least studied in the context of porosity and solid-state chemistry, considering that it is cheap and easily accessible. Indeed, next to nothing has been reported regarding the innate crystal/solid forms of DMP5. In the current research, set in motion by the quest for a guest-free porous () phase, DMP5 was shown to exist in three new polymorphic forms including meta-stable, close packed phase (), an empty crystalline non-porous phase () and an amorphous phase (a-DMP5). Both a-DMP5 and -DMP5 phases transformed to -CO2@DMP5 when pressurized with CO2 (30-35 bar) with a high kinetic barrier for CO2 release. -CO2@DMP5 was found to retain the guest CO2 molecules for up to 90 days at room temperature, characteristic of a 0D porous material. Single crystals of gas clathrates, xCO2@DMP5 and xXe@DMP5, were obtained, opening avenues for Xe biosensing applications.The solid-state properties of DMP5 have far reaching implications for its molecular-recognition behavior. Notably, a substantial majority of all previous guest binding studies of lipophilic pillar[5]arenes have been conducted in CDCl3 or a combination of CDCl3 and other small deuterated solvents. Yet, there is no experimental evidence to refute the possibility that chloroform can act as competitor guest for the pillar[5]arene cavity. It is evident from this study that CHCl3 can fit into the pillar[5]arene cavity acting as a guest itself and, therefore, compete with the intended guests when chosen as the solvent. In effect, the intrinsic affinity of DMP5 towards small guest molecules (e.g., n-pentane, n-hexane) and gas molecules previously perceived to be inherently low are shown to be significantly underestimated relative to their values in truly non-competing solvents. The understanding of true binding affinities of DMP5 towards apolar guest molecules also enabled the application of pillar[n]arenes towards the selective binding and separation of linear alkanes from branched alkanes and even more complex fuel mixtures
The Impact of Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance on Neighborhood Housing Affordability in Chicago, Illinois
No full textM.P.P.Since 2012, the number of Section 8 Project Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) subsidized units has increased across the country via the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which converts public housing to long-term PBRA units. Previous studies have provided mixed evidence regarding the impact of the PBRA supply on housing markets’ equilibrium rent levels and property values, among other spillover effects. Further, prior research has not investigated the relationship between the supply of PBRA units and rent burden, a neighborhood affordability metric that takes into account both rent levels and household incomes. I fill this gap in the literature by using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to employ a first differences model of the relationship between the supply of Section 8 PBRA units and neighborhood housing affordability in the city of Chicago at the census tract level. My findings do not align with the existing preliminary research on the RAD program. More specifically, I find no evidence of a strong association between PBRA supply and neighborhood housing affordability within my sample as a whole. The association between these two variables is statistically significant among tracts where the majority of residents are not Black and among tracts with high median household incomes, but this relationship is very small and not practically significant. My study demonstrates the need for additional research on the impact of PBRA housing in general, and of the RAD program in particular
Translating the Untranslatable: Cosmopolitan Oscar Wilde on Soviet Television
No full textThis article explores TV adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s plays and prose on the Soviet television of the so-called “stagnation” era of the late 1960s-early1980s. Though seemingly ideologically alien to the USSR, Wilde was a widely read and popular young-adult writer for the duration of the Soviet period. I will point to possible reasons for this unlikely popularity and look at two made-for-TV adaptations: The Importance of Being Earnest (1976) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1968). As a queer cosmopolitan author, Wilde translates into, and undermines, a virulently anti-cosmopolitan culture. The adaptations in question use the guise of addressing and educating a young-adult audience to transmute queerness and the art-for-art’s-sake philosophy (both of which I identify with cosmopolitanism) into an ideologically hostile environment that delegitimizes them. Such adaptations both embody and pave the way for the more worldly and individualistic (in the Western sense of the word) art of the 1970, which, in turn, helped along the anti-totalitarian arc of the 1980s.https://doi.org/10.57928/sg5z-xn2
Pure and Dye-Doped Cytosine Monohydrate Crystals under Thermal and Mechanical Stress
No full textPh.D.PURE AND DYE-DOPED CYTOSINE MONOHYDRATE CRYSTALS UNDER THERMAL AND MECHANICAL STRESSMegan E. Fleming, M.S.Thesis Advisor: Jennifer A. Swift, Ph.D.ABSTRACTSolid state organic materials are omnipresent across a variety of fields from food industries to fine chemicals. In particular, organic molecular hydrates are of utmost importance to the pharmaceutical industry. The relative stability of hydrated and anhydrous crystal forms depends to some extent on the environment (e.g. temperature, pressure, relative humidity). A wide range of environmental conditions can be encountered in the manufacturing and tableting processes, and these changes can potentially lead to dehydration or other solid state crystal transformations. This dissertation investigates cytosine monohydrate (CM), a model hydrate of DNA nucleobase, to better understand how mechanical and thermal stresses alter material structure and properties. Cytosine crystallizes in both anhydrous (C) and monohydrate (CM) forms. This dissertation shows that CM crystals prepared with select quantifiable dopants, which include in low concentrations
The Effect of Foreign Military Education Competition on Foreign Policy Influence in Postcolonial Africa
No full textPh.D.Foreign military education (FME) is education or training that a sponsoring state provides to military service members of a recipient state. Since World War II, most states in the international system participate in FME as recipients, sponsors, or both. While most scholars and practitioners believe that the main reason states sponsor FME is to gain foreign policy influence in recipient states, the ability of sponsors to achieve this goal is more assumed than interrogated. To move beyond anecdotal evidence, I construct new datasets of the FME African states received from World War II to 2022 as well as the personal FME experiences of African military leaders during the same time period. These datasets allow me to take competition within the FME domain into account. I analyze the data using a mix of social network analysis and quantitative models that I complement with case studies and interviews with sponsoring and recipient state government officials and military officers.I find that even when aggressively controlling for current military and economic capabilities and diplomatic relationships, the personal FME experiences of a state’s leaders are a statistically significant determinant of a state’s foreign policy decisions: its UN General Assembly voting behavior and its likelihood to participate in and contribute to a sponsor-led military coalition. The results show that competition affects FME at every step of the process: (1) sponsoring and recipient states establish an FME relationship, (2) graduates from a sponsoring state’s FME program rise to positions of influence in the recipient state’s military and government, and (3) recipient state leaders’ personal FME experiences impact their state’s foreign policy decisions. This project highlights the importance of diplomacy and the extent to which it resides in the military domain. It emphasizes that the value of any instrument of foreign policy cannot be ascertained based on its employment by a single state in isolation from all others. Instead, the entire network of states that make use of the same practice sometimes amplifies and sometimes attenuates the benefits that any one state derives from it
Beyond the Classroom: The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Learning Outcomes in Zambia
No full textM.P.P.Zambia is facing a learning crisis. In 2017, among the 36 percent of 15-year-old Zambian students who were enrolled in school, only five percent achieved minimum reading proficiency and 2.3 percent attained baseline mathematics proficiency. It is reasonable to assume that proficiency levels are even lower among those not enrolled in formal education. Parental engagement in education has been shown to be a strong correlate of student learning outcomes, but few studies have focused specifically on developing countries or on secondary-aged students. This thesis uses 2017 Programme for International Student Assessment for Development data to investigate the relationship between parental involvement in education and test scores for 15-year-old Zambian students. My results suggest that parental involvement has a positive and statistically significant relationship with learning outcomes, although the relationship’s magnitude is small in practical terms. I make a novel contribution to the literature by providing the results of sub-group analyses according to student health status and distance from school, and by focusing on secondary-aged learners in a developing context
Making a Space: Negotiating Discourses Within the Jordanian Women's Movement
No full textM.A.The ways women organize and create space for themselves have been of great interest in
recent decades. Literature published by academics, journalists, and civil society leaders reveals how women occupy space, form movement(s), and “do” activism. Gender is an often-used analytical category in all disciplines, and scholarship on and across the SWANA region has studied how women interact with social movements, states, and society as contributors and recipients. This thesis focuses on women’s rights actors in Jordan, particularly in the capital city of Amman. The desire to keep the discourse related to women’s issues public in the country—and more so the desire to take the lead in setting this public discourse—creates a discursive space that is a product
(and producer) of a multilayered, heterogenous Jordanian women’s movement. Despite efforts to depoliticize and relegate women’s issues to the sphere of development, this thesis will demonstrate that the women’s movement in Jordan is political and social, as women’s rights actors negotiate discourses and debates inside and outside the movement. Each actor works to position their preferred theory of change or type of “Jordanian woman” at the center of public dialogue, engaging with others and with the discursive space. Throughout this thesis, women’s relationships with the Jordanian state and its history, their differences in “doing” activism, and their relationship to recent political, economic, and legal reforms are traced. These factors and what I refer to as “calls-of-change” reveal both the movement’s various parts and the discursive space made for and of it
Using Podcasts for Professional Development of Maternal-Child Nurses: Knowledge and Perceptions of Confidence and Anxiety with Clinical Decision Making
No full textD.N.P.It has been over two decades since the Institute of Medicine identified medical errors as a leading cause of death in the United States, however errors of omission remain the most common medical error. Clinical decision making (CDM) requires effective communication skills and can help to reduce errors. Registered Nurses (RNs) require education to properly use clinical decision tools. This QI project occurred on a single maternal child unit. The primary purpose was to assess the impact of podcast-based learning, specific to unit use of Bilitool™ and unit policy on neonatal hypoglycemia, on self-perceptions of CDM confidence and anxiety. The secondary aims were to: (1) evaluate nurses’ knowledge post-podcast listening, (2) evaluate the preference and usability of the podcast-based learning, and (3) compare various demographic characteristics with outcomes. The project leader developed a podcasts series that guided the listener through risk factors, causes of hypoglycemia and jaundice, and reviewed proper use of clinical decision aides. The RNs (N=11) completed data collection at three time points. RNs completed the NASC-CDM© tool pre-listening and 10-weeks post go-live. The NASC-CDM© tool explores three dimensions of CDM. Scores were totaled for the full tool and each dimension. Results indicated that self-confidence scores increased significantly, and anxiety scores decreased in all three dimensions. RNs completed a scenario-based knowledge questionnaire two- and 10-weeks post podcasts go-live. Results showed improved reporting of key clinical data for jaundice and hypoglycemia after podcast listening. However, several errors of omission continued at week 10 (i.e., failure to report ‘no significant maternal history). Mean NASC-CDM© scores were not significantly correlated with years of RN or years of maternal child nursing experience. This highlights that RN work experience alone is not enough to impact CDM confidence and anxiety. Finally, participants evaluated the use of podcast-learning for their education with 81.8% of participants indicating they would prefer the use of podcasts in the future. Using podcasts for professional development allows the learner to listen in short segments, and standardize the information provided for use of unit tools or protocols.