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Living the Part: Stanislavski’s Acting Method Bringing Life to Shakespeare’s Plays through the Art of Reading
No full textThis teacher research project explored the use of Stanislavski’s Method Acting as an interpretive reading strategy, specifically for reading Shakespeare’s plays. Drawing on both traditional and contemporary teaching artists, the study examined how the Method was applied to reading instruction with preservice educators in The Teaching of Shakespeare 4551 course at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. By considering the perspectives of both the Method actor and the preservice English educator, the research focused on reflections of activities adapted from Drama Education and Method Acting, applying them to the teaching of reading in English Education.
Through dramatically reconstructed retellings of my teaching workshops and an analysis of practice, I sought to answer the following question: What happens when the Method Acting approach is used as a reading strategy for studying dramatic texts? My analysis of the collected data (observations, student writing, and interviews) revealed that through my adaption of the Method as an approach to Shakespearean drama study, my students connected with the text, both intellectually and emotionally, and intended to adopt a similar approach in their own teaching of Shakespeare and perhaps other literary works
School Leadership: Rethinking the Role of Principals After Covid-19
No full textThis action research study aimed to explore the perceptions of elementary school families and principals regarding the education of families for their growth and development within the school environment. The process began with the researcher carefully designing and leading a workshop called GROW!, which was offered to families at a specific elementary school in Brazil. The two-evenings workshop introduced families to key concepts such as Transformative Learning (Mezirow, 1991) and Adult Development (Drago-Severson, 2009), laying the groundwork for understanding how adults can develop critical thinking skills (Brookfield, 2012).This study resulted in recommendations that would help principals, families, adult learning specialists and policymakers understand the needs, and gain insights pertaining to the learning of families for their growth and development within the school environment.
The researcher drew data primarily from a focus group conducted with 7 elementary school families who had participated in the research workshop intervention, and from interviewing 4 elementary school principals in different cities of Brazil.
The findings with respect to the learning were: (1) all the participant families who attended the workshop described that the workshop is helpful, meeting their learning needs; (2) all the participant families perceived that the knowledge imparted in the workshop was valuable; (3) all the participant families and all the participant principals reported that there is need to foster Family-School Learning Partnerships, and; (4) all of school principals reported that interventions would help them create an environment that meets the adult learning needs of today's elementary school families. However, three out of four of them find themselves incapable of implementing such interventions. And two out of four of them are concerned about parents' engagement in attending such interventions.
The principal recommendations from this study are: (1) principals should take a proactive role in the learning process of their schools families by seeking support from adult learning professionals and implementing programs that foster critical thinking for growth and development; (2) families should recognize that overcoming parenting challenges offers opportunities for personal growth and development by actively engaging in learning; (3) adult learning specialists should explore the professional opportunities arising from families' needs for development and support, creating innovative, community-centered programs; (4) policymakers should empower principals to turn schools into community hubs by providing access to resources and training that enhance family learning for growth and development
The Sonic Architecture of Interdictor: Matter, Structure, and Code
No full textThis dissertation examines composer Marek Poliks’s Interdictor—a sound installation of 558 computer fans on an aluminum hull—as a “reconversion piece” that leverages institutional resources to stage a strategic exit from the neoliberalized New Music field. Through a tripartite analysis, it first maps the field’s hollowed-out conditions, then performs a technical autopsy showing how the work’s C++ code materializes a logic of algorithmic precarity. Finally, a reception study reveals how critiques of the work’s “emptiness” inadvertently validate its core function: to devalue the field’s capital through a performed departure.
This framework is tested and expanded through the creative component, Drinking Brecht, a collaborative work of experimental theatre created under the banner of Sister Sylvester (Kathryn Hamilton). Where Poliks’s model is one of alienating exit, this project explores collectivist, embodied participation. While the piece centered Hamilton’s voice as the primary storyteller, our collaborative process—engaging my own compositional practice and the artistic contributions of Jessie Cox, Ellery Trafford, and Hamilton’s too—became a site to consciously negotiate authorship across differences of gender, race, and artistic discipline. The piece thus functions as an open laboratory, representing a different form of Bourdieusian struggle that challenges monolithic authorship through a shared, yet critically examined, creative practice. Together, these case studies chart the complex and often contradictory strategies artists deploy within a reconfigured cultural economy
Space in Time: Three Essays on the Daytime Experience of Space by Race, Class, and Partisan Affiliation
No full textHow do neighborhoods manifest and perpetuate racial and socioeconomic inequalities in urban America? An expansive literature in the social sciences explores a wide range of ways neighborhoods matter. Prior work has primarily studied space in narrow terms by place of residence, schools, or workplaces, although people visit a larger scope of spaces for a broad range of purposes, such as health visits, leisure, and shopping. In addition, neighborhoods are likely to change due to the travel patterns of residents who leave and the visitors who come into these spaces. For these reasons, this dissertation revisits the above question by first demonstrating how neighborhoods are dynamic spaces that change throughout the 24 hours of a day, 7 days a week, and how these changes relate to mechanisms which are known to perpetuate inequalities, specifically voter turnout and cultural consumption.
All three papers in this dissertation use mobile phone location data from October 2018, which has over 15 million unique mobile phone owners for the 49 most populous metropolitan areas in the US. I supplement this data with other large-scale data, including voter file data, business data, and the 2018 American Community Survey. The three essays of this dissertation use several common computational techniques, including clustering algorithms for the location data, imputation of demographic characteristics for mobile phone owners, and pooling of imputed model results to account for uncertainty in the imputed demographic characteristics.
This dissertation finds that residential demographics are insufficient to capture people’s daytime experiences of space. Specifically, in the first chapter, I show that Black-White segregation ebbs and flows and reaches its nadir around 12PM, and is higher on average over the weekend. In the second chapter, I find people are exposed to out-group members by race and party at higher rates than the demographics of their neighbors would suggest. Hence, residential segregation underestimates the exposure people have to people not only by race, but also by race and party.
I explore an implication of the discrepancy between daytime and residential exposure to diversity in the second chapter of this dissertation, in which I find exposure to diversity has different within-race, between-party associations with voting behavior in the 2018 midterm elections. Most notably, White and Black Republicans are more likely to vote with greater daytime exposure to Black Democrats. Black Democrats are more likely to vote with greater residential and daytime exposure to Hispanic Republicans.
In the last chapter, I find that space matters in new ways, such that I find the number of cultural venues in one’s residential neighborhood is a stronger predictor of cultural consumption than a college degree. Moreover, white college graduates not only consume culture most frequently, but also live in neighborhoods with the largest numbers of cultural venues, thereby reinforcing their dominant position to consume culture. Yet, I also find that racial minorities with less than high school degrees consume culture more frequently and live in neighborhoods with greater numbers of cultural venues than their white counterparts. The heterogeneous trends that I find encourages future work in cultural consumption to study the intersection of race and class
Intermediaries and Emissions Disclosures
No full textI examine the impact of information intermediaries' emissions estimates on firms' emissions disclosures. Major intermediaries provide investors with estimates of firms' emissions, using emissions models calibrated with disclosing firms' data. If firms disclose selectively, however, intermediaries risk underestimating non-disclosing firms' emissions, thereby deterring firms from disclosing. Using novel data, I document evidence that higher-emitting firms indeed abstain from disclosure and intermediaries' estimates appear downward biased. Exploiting a plausibly exogenous shift in intermediary coverage, I then show that firms are less likely to disclose their emissions once the intermediary's estimates become available. Finally, using structural estimation, I quantitatively explore the potential consequences of refining intermediaries' estimates and the roles played by disclosure mandates
Comparison of high resolution XRF and downhole geophysical scanning of Nussloch loess records, Germany, with field observations
No full textNussloch (Germany) is a distinctive site of interest, particularly as a reference sequence for Late Pleistocene European loess, because it provides a comprehensive record of millennial climate variability. A notable feature of this site is its location within an active quarry. Consequently, the stratigraphic profiles documented constitute an ephemeral record, susceptible to rapid disappearance or brief accessibility, contingent on the operational status of the quarry. In order to guarantee the maintenance of a complete record of the sequence, three separate cores were collected and labelled S1, S2, and S3. The results of core S2, which is the most complete and thoroughly examined, are presented here. A comparison is drawn with the most recent P8 profile that is currently available. XRF measurements, conducted after the cores had been opened and described, are also presented. Borehole logging was carried out in the field after core retrieval, and the resulting measurements are also presented. The findings of this study demonstrate that a high degree of correlation can be established between the records from outcrop investigations and core studies, demonstrating the importance of preserving such archives for future research.
Keywords: Nussloch, loess cores, XRF scanning, borehole logging, Upper Pleistocene, Europ
A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial of PRIDE in HIV Care: A Crowdsourcing and Peer-Actuated Network Intervention to Increase Engagement in the HIV Care Continuum for Sexual Minority and Gender Expansive Men in Kazakhstan
No full textHIV transmission in Kazakhstan has increased among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender and nonbinary people who have sex with men (TSM), driven by low HIV testing rates. PRIDE in HIV Care is an intervention designed to have a community-level effect of increasing HIV testing among MSM and TSM in Kazakhstan. The intervention was tested using a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized controlled trial across three cities in Kazakhstan: Almaty, Astana, and Shymkent. The order of intervention implementation by city was randomly set to occur in 6-month increments. The PRIDE in HIV Care intervention is a theory-driven “crowdsourcing and peer-actuated network intervention” designed to amplify community members’ successes and resilience via “influencers” who can strengthen and impart benefit to their networks and community. We collected serial cross-sectional data where MSM and TSM (N = 629) among the study cities completed one assessment between 21 August 2018, and 30 March 2022. The primary outcome was whether they had received an HIV test in the prior six months. There was a statistically significant increase in odds of recent HIV testing for every additional month the intervention was implemented in a respondent’s city (AOR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.05–1.12; p < .001). The PRIDE in HIV Care intervention appears to be efficacious in enacting a community wide increase—i.e., promoted HIV testing among those who did not go through the intervention itself—in HIV testing among MSM and TSM.
Trial Registration. This trial is registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02786615)
The Journey to Superintendent: Experiences of Latinx Leaders in Connecticut
No full textThis phenomenological study addresses a critical research gap concerning Latinx superintendents whose potential influence is largely unexamined despite the growing Latinx student population and persistent achievement disparities. Latinx students comprise 32.1% of Connecticut's public-school enrollment. Yet only 5.3% of its educators and a minimal number of superintendents (five) currently identify as Latinx, an issue occurring while Latinx students face systemic challenges and discrimination.
Guided by my own experiences as a Latinx educational leader and by Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) and its counterstorytelling function, I designed the purpose of this study to illuminate the testimonios (voices and experiences) of nine past and present Latinx superintendents in Connecticut (CT) to understand their ascension strategies, persistence against inhibitors, and the influence of their Latinx identity on their leadership. I employed a qualitative methodology, involving a modified three-part interview series with each participant, to ensure an in-depth understanding of their professional journeys. I collected 40.5 hours of interview data.
I chose to report out the findings of the study using a composite format that combined the stories of the 9 participants into four profiles and used quotes from the participants but attributed each quote to one of the participants. In doing so, I was able to conceal their identities while still sharing rich life stories (Aleman, 2010; Baldwin 2005; Hicks Tafari, 2018; Rios Taylor, 2023; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002; Yosso, 2006).
My analysis of the testimonios yielded four significant findings. First, the concept of Collective Liberation emerged, highlighting the intentional strategies employed by Latinx leaders to leverage and mobilize the collective power and influence of the Latino community to support other Latinx educators and strengthen the educational pipeline. This commitment is rooted in the LatCrit goal of transformative social justice. Second, superintendents successfully persisted by Navigating the Systemic Forces of Isolation, Discrimination, and Internalized Oppression, overcoming institutional racism, political bias, and feelings of self-doubt. Third, they adopted a Social Justice Mandate, utilizing strategic community power, savvy communication, and purposeful collaboration to advocate for equity initiatives against systemic resistance and political turbulence, often involving the dismantling of inequitable systems and a focus on core needs. Finally, their work is defined by an Identity-driven, Culturally Grounded Leadership approach, rooted in their lived experiences and cultural values—such as familia and service—which creates a profound sense of urgency and responsibility toward equity for marginalized communities.
The study concludes that the success of Latinx leaders is inherently tied to their ability to achieve transformative social justice goals. The findings suggest that Latinx superintendents require explicit support from Boards of Education (BOEs) to navigate the political volatility and budget constraints that are often cited as major challenges. To increase representation and improve the Latinx educational pipeline, primary recommendations include fostering collaboration among stakeholders across public and private sectors to develop recruitment strategies, advocating for legislative changes to mandate programs like DUAL language acquisition in schools, and encouraging Latinx leaders to expand their professional networks (such as Connecticut Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents) to combat isolation and replicate successful equity models
The Kids of the Pike: Constructing Our Personal Geographies One Block at a Time
No full textWalking the streets of “The Pike” with youth who once held my hand as third-graders and now tower over me as teenagers, I found myself tracing the contours of a community in transformation. This dissertation follows diverse young people as they navigate, document, and story their personal geographies in a rapidly gentrifying Northern Virginia corridor—a place where Ethiopian restaurants sit next to Bolivian bakeries, where luxury apartments rise where family pharmacies once stood, where the future keeps arriving before anyone asked for it.
Drawing on childhood geographies, multimodal literacy studies, and place-based education, I posed three research questions: What are the personal geographies of a diverse group of kids in the Commonwealth Pike community? What does it mean to be me in this place? How do a diverse group of kids in the Commonwealth Pike community story their personal geographies?
My methodology embraced walking as both method and metaphor—understanding that some knowledge only emerges in movement, that stories unfold in the space between one step and the next. Through walking interviews, photography, sketching, and participant observation, youth taught me to see their Pike—not the one in planning documents, but the one that lives in sidewalk cracks holding invisible histories, in sketches tracking which businesses "have the flavor of the Pike," in photographs preserving places that will soon exist only in memory.
Findings reveal that personal geographies aren't just mental maps but embodied practices—daily pilgrimages to shuttered stores, deliberate routes that resist efficiency in favor of meaning. Youth navigate through pedagogies of belonging, where landmarks become teachers, instructing them in who they are through accumulated memories. Their geographies are temporal palimpsests, layered with what was, what is, and what might have been. They remain in place while the place itself transforms into something unrecognizable, staying home while home becomes elsewhere.
For curriculum and teaching, this work demonstrates how place-based pedagogies can honor the sophisticated spatial knowledge students already possess. Walking methodologies and multimodal documentation position students as researchers of their own lives, knowledge creators rather than receivers. The dissertation shows how attending to student geographies can inform culturally sustaining teaching practices that recognize young people as experts on their own experiences.
This research extends our understanding of multimodal literacies by revealing how different modes of expression—walking, photographing, sketching—produce distinct ways of knowing a place. It argues that youth perspectives on community change aren't just worthy of inclusion in educational spaces—they're essential for understanding what education might mean in communities where the ground keeps shifting beneath our feet
Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of Breathing Interventions on Anxiety and Dance Performance in Highly Skilled Adolescent Dancers
No full textDancers often experience performance anxiety in high-stakes contexts requiring optimal performance, such as dance competitions.
This study assessed the feasibility of measuring performance anxiety and dance performance errors and engaging in a breathing intervention in adolescent dancers (N = 11, average age 16.9 years, SD = 1.04) in natural rehearsal and competition contexts. The STAI5-S measured behavioral anxiety, and salivary cortisol and alpha amylase were utilized as markers of physiological anxiety pre- (20 minutes before performing), immediately after, and post-performance (20 minutes after performing).
The researcher evaluated whether dancers could engage in 2 minutes of breathing interventions 2 times pre- and 3 times post-performance during rehearsals and competitions. Feasibility was assessed through semi-structured questionnaires and researcher-created surveys. Lastly, the researcher examined the effect of competitive conditions on performance anxiety and dance performance as well as the preliminary effectiveness of the breathing intervention to reduce anxiety and dance performance errors.
Results showed that it was feasible to measure performance anxiety, and dancers and coaches felt it was possible to engage in breathing interventions before and after performance in a natural context. Behavioral anxiety decreased over time, cortisol markedly increased in competitions immediately after and post-performance, whereas alpha amylase was significantly higher in rehearsals immediately after and post-performance. No associations were found between anxiety and performance errors in either rehearsals or competitions.
Once the intervention was introduced, behavioral anxiety was higher in rehearsals and decreased over time, but there was no significant intervention effect. There was no intervention effect on cortisol levels, which rose substantially in competitions from pre- to immediately after and remained elevated post-performance. Salivary alpha amylase was not impacted overall by the intervention, however; there was an interaction effect in rehearsals when the intervention occurred such that alpha amylase levels were significantly lower post-performance compared to the no-intervention condition. Breathwork did not produce any differences in alignment, timing, and spacing errors across phases and conditions. Dancers and coaches had favorable feasibility ratings for the measurement tools and intervention.
It appears as though behavioral anxiety decreases over time, and there is a mismatch between reported anxiety and physiological anxiety. Cortisol rises in competitions and remains elevated. Alpha amylase is higher in rehearsals compared to competitions and is altered post-performance by breathwork. Anxiety does not seem to be impacting these highly skilled dancers; however, elevated anxiety is known to be detrimental to health and impact career longevity. Therefore, it is important to offer dancers a quick-in-the-moment tool to help mitigate performance anxiety