University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Letter from Gov. Thomas Bragg to Jacob Siler, April 14th, 1858
Full text linkIn this document, NC Governor Thomas Bragg is responding to a letter from Jacob Siler about a debt owed by Mr. Stephen Munday. Bragg approves of Siler’s motion to take it to court but suggests that Siler get an assignment of the debt just in case the court rules against him. This transcription and its attendant annotations, explanatory material, and bibliography were prepared by students in ENGL 618: Research Methods in English, the required gateway class for the MA in English at Western Carolina University
An Analysis of Concussions and Cortical Structures
Full text linkThe purpose of this analysis is to test for differences in cortical myelination between athletes with and without a diagnosed concussion, 24-48 hours after injury and 8 days later. Findings suggest that intracortical myelin may be a biomarker of the long-term effects of concussion, but how soon after injury these changes occur remains poorly understood. The goal was to determine whether athletes with a concussion would demonstrate reduced intracortical myelin and if the effects would be greatest 8 days after injury
School engagement and Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicide: Identity groups differences
Full text linkThe Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS) is a framework for understanding suicidality, yet there is little connection of IPTS to school environment, or exploration of this model within various populations. In this article, we conduct a cross-sectional assessment in a high school to understand the relationships between student engagement, IPTS, and suicidal behavior, to provide guidance for counseling professionals to target prevention and intervention efforts to increase effectiveness. A total of 1081 high school students participated in the current study. While perceived burdensomeness was found to moderate the relationship of some aspects of student engagement to suicidal behavior, nuances existed in risk factors to suicidal behavior for various identity groups within the school. Findings have implications for prevention and intervention efforts that would be most effective for students with diverse backgrounds
The Autistic College Experience: An Autoethnographic Study
Full text linkThis thesis considers the autistic college experience from an autoethnographic perspective. It critically examines my own experience as an autistic person, how autism has shaped my life in college, and the evolution of my self-identity in relation to autism. Further, I contextualize this with the documented journeys of other autistic college students, gathered from qualitative studies, anthologies, and other sources, and from my interviews of college students at my university. With this, I demonstrate how I have evolved from seeing my autism as a condition separate from my personhood to an essential part of who I am. Finally, I use the information synthesized from my experience and my research, to recommend supports for autistic students at the university level
Sharing The Creative Aging Impact Story: Navigating Barriers, Pursuing Sustainability, And Dreaming Into The Future
Full text linkThe United States population is rapidly aging and as negative narratives about aging are perpetuated by persistent ageism, older age is often accompanied by social isolation and diminished well-being. Creative aging programs are an excellent solution. These research-driven arts-based programs engage older adults–often those living with dementia–and their care partners in interactive art experiences. They aim to inspire creativity and joy; promote vital social connections; support physical, cognitive, emotional, and social well-being; and preserve agency and dignity. While creative aging program development is growing, the field encounters barriers of funding, capacity, transportation, visibility, and more that inhibit program sustainability, let alone expansion to meet demand. Through conversational interviews, this research investigates these barriers and discusses interviewees’ dreams for the field to critically examine its potential for increased impact as policy-making for “age-friendly” longevity-focused communities gains greater support. By raising questions and theorizing about how dreams of new funding streams, communication networks, a national teaching artist certification, and the integration of arts on prescription into healthcare could be pursued, the goal is to increase creative aging’s visibility and turn negative, fearful narratives of aging into positive aging stories of purpose and vitality
Equity and excellence : addressing underrepresentation in selective STEM schools
Full text linkThe National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS) is an organization comprised of member high schools from across the country, some of which are residential schools in which students from across the state apply to gain admittance to advanced academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. Underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) students in programming with selective admissions processes, such selective STEM schools, has been evident throughout their history, and there is a perceived tension between the goals of excellence and equity in discussions around addressing this underrepresentation. The purpose of this study is to explore, describe, and understand the purpose of chosen selective STEM schools while interrogating how this impacts whom they claim to serve. I conducted a qualitative study focused on three residential selective STEM schools that are members of NCSSS using a critical race theory framework. My goal for this study was to gain insight about what elements can lead to more equitable outcomes. I reviewed publicly available documents including school website pages, school board documents, state statutes, school publications, and news articles. I additionally compared the school demographics for Asian, Black, Latinx, and White students to the general education population of the state. While the admissions processes at the selective STEM schools I studied follow some of the practices that research suggests can mitigate underrepresentation of CLED students, the racial demographics at the schools do not reflect the racial demographics of the general education population of their state. Specific course requirements and emphasis on an applicant having taken the most advanced offerings available fail to consider structural issues that often exclude CLED students. This along with lack of clarity and transparency are likely impacting racial equity at selective STEM schools. My recommendations center on gathering additional school data which can guide the selective STEM schools as they then modify admissions criteria and procedures, develop, or modify programming for younger CLED students, and develop intentional steps and goals for racial equity
Elements of place : Southern women writers, race, and generational environmental knowledge
Full text linkThrough a chronological and thematic study of twentieth and twenty-first century American literature, “Elements of Place: Southern Women Writers, Race, and Generational Environmental Knowledge” answers the following questions: how do Southern women writers represent elements of place? How is the natural world racialized, and how do African American writers portray Southern environments compared to White writers? I argue that because of the South’s particularly violent racist history, Black Southern writers and their White contemporaries portray the natural world differently: the Black women writers I examine (Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Jesmyn Ward) focus on surviving natural disasters and racial oppression, whereas the White women with whom I engage (Flannery O’Connor and Janisse Ray) write more about environmental ethics and care. All these women write about the dissemination of environmental knowledge through three generations of Southern families. Through an intersectional ecofeminist framework, I examine how socially constructed boundaries—particularly those of gender, race, and class—influence perceptions of the natural world and how literary portrayals of nature reveal social and ecological injustices. Southern women—and especially Southern Black women—have unique cultural experiences when compared to women from other regions. Studying Southern women’s environmental writing allows for a more comprehensive understanding of environmental movements, including how contemporary Southern women writers process the ongoing climate emergency. We can better understand the complexities of environmental issues by including Southern women’s voices, especially since environmental justice concerns often disproportionately affect women and other marginalized groups. This project initiates new ways of thinking about Southern ecoliterary traditions, altering how we read Southern and environmental literature. By examining Southern women’s environmental writing, readers better understand the nuance of how regionality affects environmental thinking, activism, and storytelling. My project offers a holistic approach to understanding the entanglements of Southern women, the natural world, race, class, and gender. While many important works critically analyze these topics, my research foregrounds specific elements of place, natural and built. Without analyzing an assemblage of elements of place, we obtain limited, often one-dimensional interpretations of women’s relationships with the natural world. My analyses focus on specific elements of place to examine how social identity markers overlap and entangle, influencing Southern women’s portrayals of nature and environments
Theology of leadership : investigating religions’ impact on female executive advancement and pay
Full text linkThe underrepresentation of women in top leadership roles and the existence of the gender pay gap among top executives are well-documented phenomena. Many studies have delved into the dynamics of gender and leadership, investigating factors like discrimination, socialization, and family responsibilities that may contribute to this disparity. This study introduces a novel approach by examining the role of religion, particularly Christianity, as a potential influence on both the underrepresentation of women in top leadership and the gender pay gap among executives. This research juxtaposes the top management teams of religious and secular organizations to discern how religion impacts women’s career advancement. It employs a quantitatively dominate convergent mixed methods design to examine factors such as fundamentalism, denominational leadership, and religiosity. It finds fewer women within the top management teams of religious organizations. Moreover, organizations affiliated with denominations which are non-affirming of LGBTQ+ issues, Evangelical denominations, and members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities have fewer women in both the top management team and on the governing board. This research underscores the complex influence of religion on gender roles, demonstrating that the impact of religious beliefs on gender dynamics is multifaceted and varies significantly across different contexts
Understanding the effects of fake news corrections on memory and belief accuracy : the roles of reminders, retrieval, and repetition
Full text linkExposure to fake news can have detrimental effects on memories and beliefs, carrying widespread consequences for individuals and society. When it comes to correction strategies, there is an ongoing debate on whether corrections should repeat the fake news details or not. The familiarity backfire account argues that repeating fake news increases its familiarity and perceived accuracy, thereby impairing memory and belief accuracy. Conversely, integration-encoding accounts propose that repeating fake news can facilitate memory and belief accuracy by facilitating conflict detection and allowing both representations to be integrated together. In this integrated dissertation, three empirical papers are presented to build on previous work by exploring how fake news reminders, retrieval, and repeated exposure influences correction efficacy on memory and belief accuracy. The findings observed here more closely align with integration-encoding accounts than the familiarity backfire account, in showing that increasing accessibility to fake news can improve correction efficacy. However, it was also found that increasing accessibility to fake news can also impair memory and belief accuracy when corrections are not remembered, thus emphasizing the moderating role of recollection-based retrieval. Theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed along with directions for future work to establish a more comprehensive understanding of how to effectively correct fake news
Internal base-directed regioselective aromatic Claisen rearrangements of imine derivatives
Full text linkThe aromatic Claisen rearrangement is a powerful sigmatropic reaction which unfortunately lacks regioselectivity. In this work, various tetralone-based imine derivative substrates featuring an intramolecular base were investigated to better understand the potential role of the tautomerization step in aromatic Claisen rearrangement regioselectivity. High regioselectivity (> 85%) for the more sterically hindered versus the less sterically hindered position was observed for a methyl oxime and for aliphatic imines. Despite steric hindrance, the allyl aryl ether’s meta substituent was found to have a significant electronic effect towards regioselectivity. As selectivity is one of the greatest challenges in organic synthesis, our research findings aim to tackle this challenge in the context of ortho-alkylation. Continued experiments which investigate the aromatic Claisen rearrangement regioselectivity of imine derivatives such as hydrazones are currently in progress