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Cascade
No full textSet in Colorado Springs, Cascade is a novel detailing the unraveling senses of belonging of its cast of characters. At the start of the novel Isa’s adoptive father, Ottis, leaves the city where they’ve built a life as a small, makeshift family. Isa and her mother Teresa, brother Zo, and best friend Cherry are left to confront their individual and collective modes of survival in Colorado Springs. As a novel, Cascade is concerned with a less critically engaged edge of the black diaspora in America: the realities and peculiarities of being black the Mountain West, in a city that did not experience a major historical black migration but has an established black population due only to the military and scattered migrations of black individuals and families.
While Cascade is the novel-in-progress examining these layers through detailing the lived experiences of its characters, the critical afterword is a craft essay exploring Cascade’s theoretical and spiritual underpinnings, as well as tracing its future potential. This afterword explores the influence of Black Geographies further, along with the novel’s engagement with reality TV, epiphenomenal time, craft questions of fiction and the true story, and the idea of ancestor as muse. As a whole, this project seeks to explore some of these seams between geography, blackness, the construction of family, and how we can use narrative to navigate the space between the living and the dead
Genres of Parody: Autofiction, Horror, and the Contemporary Novel
No full textMy dissertation investigates culturally significant overlaps between contemporary works of autofiction and horror. I contend that both respective categories exhibit a parodic relationship to their own genres, and I situate this argument within tentative designations that I call Digital Autofiction and Weird Horror. Parody here is re-contextualized in the contemporary moment to reflect a mode of genre engagement that decidedly moves away from postmodern associations of irony, pastiche, and fragmentation. Instead, I conceptualize and engage with a notion of parody that has evolved to fit what might be called a metamodern moment. This framing is explored through close readings of texts that I assert can be reliably placed in a “middle-of-genre” spectrum: works which neither fully embrace their genre conventions nor overtly advance their boundaries in formal evolution.
In pairing two ostensibly dissimilar genres together, I engage in an unconventional critical study that finds mutual identity amidst both genres’ shared contentions and popular receptions alike. In that way, one primary ambition for this project is to better understand how literary genres have been read, performed, and circulated in the last decade by juxtaposing thematic difference in order to reveal shared histories of influence. Another ambition is to introduce a proposed “Auto-Horror” sub-genre that has emerged in our current literary landscape, and which I believe is worth devoted critical attention as a form of “post-Covid” era literary experimentation.
In readings of contemporary novels by Patricia Lockwood, Mariana Enríquez, Brett Easton Ellis, David Demchuk, and others, my dissertation provides a new context in which to consider today’s fiction and the way it uniquely engages with still-lingering postmodern aesthetic sensibilities. Finally, this work contributes to a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship devoted to recontextualizing genre as a whole—reframing its conventional interpretation as a categorizing system towards a conceptualizing that is more expansive and generative; one that operates beyond classificatory utility
Reconciling Moral Dissonance: A Framework for Re-Integrating Moral Orientation with Life Agency During Warfighters’ Struggles with Military Moral Injury
Get PDFThis dissertation uses case studies to critically examine the Three Mirror Model (TMM) as a framework for understanding the formation and healing of Military Moral Injury (MMI). I adapt the work of Stephen Brookfield and Neal Krause to evaluate using the TMM as a methodology for dealing with the complex issues of MMI within a military deployment cycle (training, warfighting, and healing) (Brookfield 2012, 2017; Krause 2022). Specifically, I use theorists, researchers, healers, and warfighters as key stakeholders to identify and critically examine the intersections of disciplines and the subsets of models where warfighters’ moral orientations and moral agency form and reconcile the moral dissonance that results in MMI.
A warfighter’s moral orienting system is a composite of core values used to “guide individual[s] along preferred pathways to significant destinations” (Pargament and Exline 2022, 29-30, 243-ff). These destinations include the moral agency that individuals use to: 1) regulate their cognitions and reactions, and 2) process their emotions and life narratives.
Within the military ethos, moral orienting systems are driven by warrior codes that define the moral standards that direct warfighters’ identity and ethical agency. Therefore, the content and processes of warfighters’ moral orientations need to be considered when defining and treating MMI. During military training, warfighters integrate military values and professional competencies into the moral orienting systems that drive the moral agency they perform during combat. Specific events in warfighting can dis-integrate relationships between moral orientation and moral agency, causing levels of moral dissonance (Litz et al. 2009; Shay 2014; Maguen et al. 2011; Tick 2005).
Moral dissonance can be examined as struggles that 1) disorient the nature of individuals’ moral orienting systems, 2) disrupt their formations of life purpose and meaning, and 3) result in a spectrum of maladaptive behaviors (Pargament and Exline 2022, 32-34). Following combat, warfighters need to reconcile their moral dissonance. Their inability to do this results in MMI. Multiple treatment modalities and programs support warfighters’ reconciliation of moral dissonance through the creation of adaptive post-traumatic meanings (Park et al. 2017). The TMM is a framework that explains this process. It provides a multi-discipline, research-based approach for understanding, mitigating, and healing moral dissonance from warfighting
Leadership in Extreme Contexts: An Emerging Typology
Get PDFThis study investigates the relationship between leadership and extreme contexts through the lens of rural hospitals facing environmental jolts. Rural hospitals offer a unique setting for this research, given their inherent geographic isolation, lack of resources, and the critical role these facilities play in their communities. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with Chief Executive Officers of rural hospitals, this research takes a grounded approach to build theory surrounding how leadership not only shapes but is shaped by extreme contexts and environmental jolts. The research results in four primary contributions. Namely, this study extends existing typologies on leadership in extreme contexts, proposing an updated model based on real-world experiences of leaders operating in extreme contexts. The research also supports the existence of a recursive relationship between leader and context in extreme environments. Next, it successfully integrates the previously distinct bodies of literature on extreme contexts and environmental jolts. Lastly, it builds out the relationship between adaptive leadership and jolts within extreme contexts, highlighting leaders’ short and long-term responses. Collectively, these results extend leadership theory and emphasize the critical impact context has in influencing leader behavior while also considering how leadership, in turn, changes the context, particularly in extreme cases facing environmental jolts
Bridging Design and Perception: Novel Tools and Technologies for Creating Effective Human-Robot Interactions
No full textThis thesis explores human perception of robots through the use of novel tools and technologies. First, the impact of Augmented Reality (AR) data presentation on human perception of robots is investigated. A study conducted with the AR human-robot teaming system found that robot performance significantly influenced participants’ perceptions, overshadowing the impact of matching or mismatching robot confidence feedback. Second, the DU Want to Build-A-Bot platform is presented, which enables participatory robot design and opens the door for novel research of how robot design affects human perception. The Build-A-Bot platform enables the collection of diverse robot designs, facilitating machine learning analysis to pinpoint key design features that shape human mental models of robot capabilities
New Light on Sagrini
Get PDFReviews of a new biography of Luigi Sagrini (1809–1874) and a volume of his guitar works:
Bernard Lewis and Robert Coldwell, In Search of Luigi Sagrini (DGA, 2021)
Robert Coldwell, ed., The Music of Luigi Sagrini (DGA, 2021
A Critical Policy Analysis of Universal Preschool in Colorado: Its Roots, Intentions, and Development
Get PDFHigh-quality preschool experiences are essential for preparing four-year-old children for a successful transition to kindergarten, benefiting them academically, emotionally, socially, and physically. However, access to such preschools remains limited, particularly for children from marginalized communities. This qualitative critical policy analysis examines transitioning from the targeted Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) to a universal preschool approach through the 2022 Colorado House Bill 1295: Department of Early Childhood and Universal Preschool Program. Drawing on Young and Diem\u27s (2017) framework for critical policy analysis, this study explores the roots, development, and potential implications of the universal preschool policy.
This study analyzes documents and audio sources to provide insight into Colorado\u27s political and historical context. It highlights the intentions behind the transition and the challenges it aims to address. While the universal preschool policy seeks to create a more equitable early education system, funding priorities may perpetuate inequities for historically marginalized populations and their families.
This research offers guidance for jurisdictions transitioning from targeted to universal preschool programs, with specific recommendations for Colorado. Suggestions include a phased approach, comprehensive targeted universal strategies, adequate funding based on individual needs, and collaborative data evaluation. Future studies should focus on implementing the universal preschool program in Colorado and conducting policy analyses of similar initiatives in other jurisdictions
Empowering Providers to Empower Their Patients: One Model to Expand Knowledge, Competency, and Awareness for the Perinatal Substance Use Workforce
Get PDFPerinatal substance use (PSU) is a serious and growing public health concern. It is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes for both mother and child and has been shown to negatively impact the parent-child relationship. Despite the growing prevalence of PSU, there are notable deficits in provider knowledge regarding, and comfortability with, PSU. Moreover, providers report feelings of judgment, resentment, fear, and hesitancy related to their work with women with PSU. Subsequently, women with PSU struggle to find appropriate, compassionate, and effective treatment for their substance misuse. Widespread and accessible training is needed to bolster provider knowledge base, reduce stigma, shame, and increase quality of service provision and care for women with PSU. This paper aims to outline the development and structure of a PSU training to serve as a one model to expand knowledge, competency, and awareness for the PSU workforce. I begin with a review of the prevalence of PSU and its impact on maternal and infant wellbeing. Theoretical underpinnings of PSU are explored, including a specific discussion regarding the interplay between the neurobiology of addiction and the parent-child attachment system. Subsequently, the current state of the PSU workforce and the need for training is discussed. The paper ends with an in-depth review of a PSU training developed in collaboration with the University of Denver, Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the Colorado chapter of Postpartum Support International (PSI). Implications for the field and potential future directions are explored
Pornography and Masculinity: How Mainstream Pornography Reinforces a Narrow and Destructive Conceptualization of Masculinity
No full textIn mainstream pornography, boys and men are indoctrinated with a profoundly problematic template for sexual intimacy. Both masculine gender role strain and problematic pornography use predict interpersonal and mental health difficulties. In this paper, the relationship between gender role strain and problematic pornography use was examined through the lens of social learning theory, which argues that individuals imitate and replicate others’ behavior in novel situations. Given that mainstream pornography depicts acts of sexual aggression, men who are exposed to pornography before their first partnered sexual experience may recall and imitate the aggressive acts when they later engage in sexual intimacy. Due to culturally supported, narrow definitions of masculinity, boys and men are drawn toward pornography in a misguided attempt to strengthen their sense of masculine identity. In pornography, men may learn that sexual aggression is not only acceptable, but is a normative or even desired component of sex
Investigating Servant Leadership Measurement: A Mixed-Methods Study Integrating Content Analysis and Meta-Analysis
Get PDFThis study aimed to understand the similarities and differences among servant leadership measures and the variations in their effect sizes on job performance and job satisfaction. This paper explores how the items in servant leadership measures portrayed the servant leadership construct and how these relate to the outcomes. The researcher used an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. Which involved a qualitative content analysis of the measurement items and a meta-analysis of outcomes, considering the findings from the content analysis. Six key categories determined the three main themes: selfless generosity, inspiring influence, adaptive humility, integrity, empowering, and harmonious engagement. The three main themes were: selfless generosity (motive), authentic visionary (mindset), and honor (mode). These categories aligned well with servant leadership literature. However, we found only a moderate overlap (0.52) between all servant leadership measures, with significant variations between measures. The findings confirmed a significant effect between servant leadership and both job performance (r = 0.268) and job satisfaction (r = 0.566), which aligned with existing findings. The moderation analyses conducted did not address the heterogeneity found in the models, however, the findings for the content analysis provided explanatory power as to why effect sizes varied by measure. This research highlights the heterogeneity present in servant leadership measures and how these variations impact the effects found. Future research should focus on determining what is essential for the servant leadership construct and to what degree the content itself overlaps with other value-laden leadership styles