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An Amish Proposal for Christmas
No full textAn Amish Proposal for Christmas follows Becca Yoder, a 24-year-old woman who has spent her entire life working at her family’s small Amish market in northern Indiana. Though she longs to explore the world beyond her community, she knows she can’t leave until she finds someone suitable to take over her responsibilities at the market. Becca is tasked with training Gideon Fisher from Texas on how to run the market. However, Gideon is homesick, and Becca must help him discover what makes her hometown special. The novel highlights themes of new opportunities, the meaning of home, and traditions as both Becca and Gideon navigate what their futures might hold.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_popularromance/1130/thumbnail.jp
Reason, Revenge, and Ruin: Masculinity Unraveled in Poe’s Dupin, Montresor, and “The Tell-Tale Heart”
No full textEdgar Allan Poe’s fiction does not simply depict masculinity — it dissects it, exposing its contradictions and fragility. This project examines how Poe constructs and deconstructs masculinity through the figures of C. Auguste Dupin, Montresor, and the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” each of whom enacts a distinct, performative version of male identity. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performance, the study argues that Poe anticipates modern understandings of masculinity not as essence but as unstable enactment. Dupin asserts power through reason and detachment, Montresor through silence and calculated revenge, the narrator through obsessive control that unravels into confession. Through close readings of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Purloined Letter,” “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” this study explores how Poe’s male characters model competing and collapsing performances of masculinity. While previous scholarship has examined Poe’s narrative and psychological complexity, this project offers a sustained focus on masculinity as a site of crisis. Poe’s fiction ultimately suggests that when masculinity is performed too perfectly, it begins to dismantle the self it was meant to protect
Cultural Negotiations and Trips of Rearrival in Hala Alyan’s \u3cem\u3eThe Arsonists’ City\u3c/em\u3e
No full textDisplacement, voluntarily or exilic in nature, strikes such a deep chord within the immigrant that it permanently changes the global landscape to them, even if they remain abroad, and especially if they return home. The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan, published in 2021, takes the Nasrs from California, Austin, and New York and delivers them back to Beirut. At the head of the family are Idris and Mazna, first-generation immigrants, fleeing from Lebanon and Syria, respectively, their children, Ava, Mimi, and Naj are born in the US. The trip to Lebanon is made every summer until the Nasrs grow wary of this return due to various traumas. The propelling event for their ‘reverse immigration’ years later is when Idris, a cardiovascular surgeon, hears a heart he’s operating on telling him to return to Lebanon to sell his childhood home. This paper contextualizes and tracks the effects of transmobility of first and second generation immigrants and the different coping or defense mechanisms of processing diaspora. For the Nasrs, who long for Beirut with as much devotion as they resent it, the rearrival journey serves to demythologize their ‘home.’ However, instead of reiterating the Arab-American conundrum of being Arab in the US and American in the Arab World, Alyan creates a new space where both the Arab and US identities are inherently changed due to the characters’ transnational acts of mobility. The rearrival breaks through the hegemony and the veils nostalgia places on memory
Bridging the Gap in Access to Higher Education in Nigeria: A Policy Analysis
No full textABSTRACT To tackle the imbalance in access to higher education in the Federal Republic of Nigeria which had created a gap in higher educational attainment among the federating states, the federal government, having defined some states as educationally advantaged and others as educationally disadvantaged, introduced the Quota system of admission into Nigeria\u27s federal universities in 1981. In doing this, the federal government was signaling a determination to bridge the existing gap. More than four decades later there still existed concerns about unequal access to Western education and gap in access to higher education between the advantaged states and the disadvantaged states in Nigeria. Against this background, the present study undertook a policy analysis of one of the key criteria of the quota system, the ELDS criterion, which reserved 20% of the total admissions into Nigeria\u27s federal universities for those states classified as educationally disadvantaged. The goal was to assess the success of the ELDS quota criterion in bridging the existing gap in access to higher education. Following the qualitative research tradition, specifically, the interpretivist/constructivist method, the researcher orally interviewed a total of twenty-four (24) purposefully selected participants, 16 undergraduate students and 8 admission officers, from two federal universities, one each from the north and the south of Nigeria. The researcher also analyzed students\u27 admission records from the two universities, as well as extant official government documents on the quota system policy to answer two main research questions: 1) What do participants perceive as the social, economic, and political problems that have shaped the implementation of the current educationally disadvantaged states’ quota admission policy in Nigeria? 2) What are stakeholders’ perspectives on the implementation of the educationally disadvantaged states’ quota admission policy in Nigeria? Key findings from this study indicate that the gap in access to higher education between the advantaged and the disadvantaged states may have narrowed. However, this narrowing of the gap was not due to the implementation of ELDS quota. Also, some socio-cultural factors present at the inception of the policy, and which are still present in Nigeria, have worked against the successful implementation of the ELDS quota. Another major finding from this study is that rather than resolve the imbalance in access to higher education, the ELDS quota has yielded negative results including bringing down Western education standards. Finally, this study finds that the ELDS quota, in its present form, may have lost its relevance either because some states have grown out of Western educationally disadvantaged status or because of candidate\u27s disinterest in applying for higher education in institutions far from their geographical location. Consequently, this study reveals a need for the review of the ELDS quota either for reclassification of the states or total abrogation
Leveraging Hierarchical Methods for Multi-Sensor Fusion
No full textPerforming object classification is challenging under diverse sets of operating conditions. In electro-optical (EO) data, the position of the sun and sensor angle can significantly impact the appearance of objects. The pose of the object can impact performance in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. By combining multiple sensors, the performance drop can be reduced when operating conditions in your training set and testing set diverge significantly. Traditional multi-sensor fusion methods have primarily considered the fusion problem as a flat problem. Flat classification and fusion problems do not consider the relationships between classes. These relationships can be used to extract additional information and allow us to provide partial decisions (e.g., declare an object as a pick-up truck instead of a Ford F-150). In this thesis, several traditional decision-level and feature-level multi-sensor fusion methods are extended to work with hierarchical classification methods. The fusion methods on two multi-sensor datasets are evaluated: 1) visible EO (EO-vis) plus synthetic aperture radar (SAR) dataset and 2) EO-vis plus near infrared (EO-NIR) dataset. Classification performance is evaluated with traditional and hierarchical methods
J. D. Salinger and the Cold War: A Case Study in American Cold War Fatalism
No full textPresident Eisenhower’s 1953 UN speech, “Atoms for Peace,” helped to define the mounting concerns of the atomic age. He demanded that the global community accept the “significant facts” of their midcentury existence, or the domineering threat of global annihilation. This pervasive anxiety, reinforced by early Cold War political maneuverings like the US containment policy, would stricken the American people with “Cold War fatalism,” or a prevailing sense of alienation and submission in the earliest years of the Cold War, wrought by the new atomic age. The midcentury literary scene embodied such fatalism, as well, creating sect of nuclear first responders who grappled with new cultural questions and worries. High among them is J. D. Salinger, author of the 1951 classic The Catcher in the Rye, whose later works captured the necessary acceptance of fate in order to survive in the new, dichotomous, nuclear world. My paper follows Salinger’s character, Seymour Glass, and his appearances across three different works – “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” (1948) Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction (1959), and Franny and Zooey (1961). He is the eldest sibling of the cerebral Glass family, both a brilliant poet and highly spiritual, and commits suicide while on vacation with his wife. Through Seymour, Salinger displays the consequences of failing to adhere to Cold War fatalism, by embodying themes like artistic and spiritual purity, Seymour was incompatible with his historical moment and took his own life. I argue that, by reading Seymour Glass as inextricably bound to the Cold War era, Salinger may take part in a larger Cold War literature conversation, illuminating other avenues of study while deemphasizing The Catcher in the Rye and its relentless critical attention
Analyzing Racial Disparities in Developmental Education Placement: A Quantitative Study
No full textThis study examines racial disparities in developmental education placement, focusing on the overrepresentation of Black students in such courses. Using a quantitative action research design, data were collected via surveys and document analysis to explore student experiences and institutional policies. Findings revealed that biased testing methods and insufficient support systems contributed to inequitable placement practices, disproportionately affecting Black students. The study underscores the need for alternative assessment strategies and targeted interventions to address systemic barriers and improve educational outcomes for marginalized students. These recommendations aim to create a more equitable and effective placement process, fostering academic success and inclusivity
Utilizing Funds of Knowledge Theory, to Analyze the Influence of Leadership Styles on the Culture and Climate in Childcare Programs
No full textThe study examined the role of positive workplace relationships in fostering a supportive culture and climate, which in turn contributes to high-quality childcare programs. The methodology included a comprehensive analysis of user data derived from the lived experiences of childcare workers, complemented by in-depth surveys and interviews. The findings revealed a clear link between leadership dynamics and staff roles and perceptions. Additionally, the study identified a complex array of challenges and opportunities related to negative emotions, behaviors, and factors that hinder intrinsic motivation and collaboration among childcare staff. Moreover, the study emphasizes the importance of developing strategies that create informed and inclusive childcare environments by integrating the Funds of Knowledge framework into intimate settings, such as childcare programs
A Thousand Boy Kisses
No full textA Thousand Boy Kisses is about the journey of Poppy Litchfield and Rune Kristiansen. Rune was the Norwegian next-door neighbor to Poppy, and the two became inseparable. When Poppy’s grandma gives Poppy the challenge of getting 1,000 boy kisses, Rune is determined to help with every last one. The reader watches these two fall into love and hit all the bumps in the road. As the story grows, the reader can’t help but to be captivated by the characters and the plot that takes place within the pages. The book explores the themes of enduring young love, life, death, grief, and cherishing each moment.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_popularromance/1112/thumbnail.jp
Give Me a Sign
No full textLilah, a hard-of-hearing, near-deaf teen spends the summer working as a counselor at Gray Wolf, a camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids. She hopes to connect more deeply with the Deaf community and figure out where she belongs. In doing so, Lilah finds herself navigating new friendships, a budding romance with charming fellow counselor Isaac, and the challenges of self-advocacy. As she helps her campers embrace their identities, she begins to understand her own, learning that community, communication, and self-acceptance are all part of finding her place in the world.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_popularromance/1103/thumbnail.jp