Situated within the transnational feminist movement which has gathered in response to the historical process of enclosure and regulation associated with capitalism, Caribbean women writers are uniquely positioned to bear witness or create resistance to the exploitation of their bodies and the environment under this system of slow violence. This dissertation takes up a queer eco- materialist feminist framework to explore the critiques and the methods of resistance to this system offered by Car...
Lauren E Shoemaker.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Comfort, Susan M. Committee members: David Downing; Tanya Heflin; Alexis Lothian.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study addresses the language diversity in twenty-first century U.S. college composition classrooms by arguing that composition theory and pedagogy should expand beyond the prescriptive conflation of "the English language" and "Standard American English". Within the overarching discourses about three major constructs-Humanizing Pedagogy (Bartolome, 1994), the World Englishes ethos (e.g. Bolton, Graddol, & Meierkord, 2011; Bolton & B. Kachru, 2006), and the harm reduction model (e.g. Denni...
Melissa Elliott Lee.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Park, Gloria Committee members: Curtis Porter; Bennett Rafoth.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

In this multiple-case study, the author investigated fully online students' perceptions of and experiences with asynchronous and synchronous writing support options of an institutional writing center and a commercial tutoring service. This dissertation used a multiple-case study design (Merriam, 1998, 2009; Yin, 2009) to ascertain which features of these writing assistance options fully online students perceive as the most and least helpful for improving their writing skills and why. Data sou...
Shelah Y Simpson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Ben Committee members: Emily Heady; Gian Pagnucci; Gloria Park.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study examines the student writer perspective of a first-year composition program's student learning outcomes. Student descriptions of learning are a valuable, yet often overlooked data source. The student voice broadens a first-year composition program's outcomes-based, student learning assessment process as program assessment data is often derived from the faculty perspective through analysis of student writing artifacts. This research project used learning outcome interviews based in ...
William J Donohue.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Dana Driscoll; Bennett Rafoth.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This mixed methods study examines the impact of grit and self-efficacy and the factors of these constructs on the performance of students at-risk. Grit was explored as a person's passion and perseverance toward a long term goal. Past research on this construct determined it to be predictive of success in many different contexts, not limited to student performance (Duckworth, 2016). Self-efficacy was evaluated using Vuong, Brown-Welty, and Tracz's adaptation of the College Self-efficacy Instru...
Luke E Faust.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Paquette, Kelli Committee members: David Piper; Meghan Twiest.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Research on relationship escalation, maintenance, and de-escalation has yielded important information on how relationships form successfully, the challenges of maintaining them, and the emotional impact the process can have for the parties involved. Technology has arguably altered the way in which individuals experiences the stages of a relationship but few studies have examined this area of communication. This dissertation explored the life cycle of relationships on Tinder. Three main the...
Rhiannon Briana Kallis.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Ortiz Juarez-Paz, Anna V. Committee members: Steven Kleinman; Zachary Stiegler.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The issues that Gothic and speculative fiction most often confront deal with the deepest and darkest of human fears and concerns. Much Gothic and speculative fiction gets people to confront their fears in the way that it can address the problems of the present through imagined worlds. Might rethinking the value of imagined worlds move us toward a more-inclusive justice? This dissertation explores the human, human fears, and human imagination in Gothic and speculative colonial-themed texts to ...
Gregory Luke Chwala.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Comfort, Susan M. Committee members: David Downing; Ardel Haefele-Thomas; Alexis Lothian; Veronica Watson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Veterans' treatment courts are the most recent problem-solving court innovation. Following the successful drug and mental court models, veterans' treatment courts institute therapeutic jurisprudence and effective intervention to provide participants the opportunity to become productive members of society through community treatment administered in conjunction with judicial oversight. Unfortunately, very little is known about these courts and the participants within them. This study unravels t...
Paul Andrew Lucas.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Martin, Jamie S. Committee members: Erika Frenzel; Kathleen Hanrahan; John Lewis.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The purpose of this qualitative dissertation is to explore the lived experience of online students. This study provided real-world accounts of students who graduated from graduate programs offered at both online non-profit and for-profit institutions. The grand research question is "What are the lived experiences of successful graduate students who have graduated from online programs as viewed through the theoretical lens of the Community of Inquiry framework?" This inquiry was designed to id...
Cori Dunagan.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Start, Jay Committee members: Nurhaya Muchtar; Mark Piwinsky.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

There is a serious shortage of African American male teachers in the United States. Currently less than 2% of teachers in the United States are African American males. The purpose of this study was to explore what motivates African American males to choose a career in teaching. After an extensive review of the literature on African American male teachers, four themes emerged as major reasons why black men teach: a) a desire to be a role model, b) social justice factors, c) peer influences and...
Terrance Lamar Hudson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Millward, Robert Committee members: Roger Briscoe; David Piper.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English