Skin and Redemption: Theology in Silent Films, 1902 to 1927
Year of Dissertation:
2010
This dissertation analyzes theological concepts in silent moving pictures made for commercial distribution from 1902 to 1927, and examines how directors and scenarists sorted through competing belief systems to select what they anticipated would be palatable theological references for their films.
LONG-TERM INCARCERATION AND PUBLIC SAFETY: PREDICTING THE RECIDIVISM RISK OF LONG-TERM PRISONERS
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Since the 1970s, the number of people incarcerated in the United States has grown exponentially. The United States has now reached a historical moment as it incarcerates more of its citizens that it ever has before. Moreover, the rate at which it does surpasses all other nations. Increased length of sentences and time served have contributed substantially to America's prison growth, calling into focus the need for research that examines the impact long prison sentences have on an individual's likelihood of recidivism. To date, little is known about the relationship between long prison sentences and public safety outcomes. Unfortunately, in recent years, long-term incarceration has received minimal attention from the academic world.
An Investigation of the Psychological Processes Involved in Juror Rehabilitation
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Judges often attempt to rehabilitate jurors who express an inability to be fair during voir dire. The present research examined psychological mechanisms operating during juror rehabilitation. Study One investigated whether the influence of rehabilitative questioning on juror judgments observed in previous research is attributable to informational or normative influence from the judge. I manipulated the presence of two components of rehabilitation (i.e., legal instruction and elicitation of a commitment to forgo bias) within a mock voir dire. I also varied evidence strength to assess whether rehabilitative questioning improves the quality of jurors' judgments. Jurors watched a trial and rendered a verdict. Rehabilitative instructions reduced the number of guilty verdicts for biased and unbiased participants. Rehabilitation did not increase jurors' sensitivity to evidence strength. Study Two tested the hypothesis that traditional suppression rehabilitation will lead to increased accessibility of PTP under conditions of cognitive load. I manipulated exposure to PTP and the type of rehabilitation questioning received (i.e., no rehabilitation, rehabilitation framed in terms of suppression, rehabilitation framed in terms of concentration). Efforts were taken to induce a state of cognitive busyness in all participants while they watched the trial; after the trial participants deliberated to a verdict. Exposure to PTP increased the likelihood that participants would vote guilty. In the no rehabilitation and concentration conditions, participants who read PTP perceived the defendant as more guilty than did participants who did not view PTP. However, in the suppression rehabilitation condition, participants who read PTP perceived the defendant as less guilty than did participants who did not read PTP. Rehabilitative instructions and suppression rehabilitation resulted in more lenient judgments than the no-rehabilitation control, suggesting that participants were not well calibrated to the magnitude of their bias, and when prompted to be unbiased, overcorrected in the opposite direction. Although rehabilitated jurors may be motivated to correct for bias, they appear to have difficulty estimating the degree to which biases influence their judgments. It is possible that jurors may be better able to assess the presence of and correct for a biasing influence if it is discrete rather than attitudinal in nature.
Passive Fascism? The Politics of Austrian Heimat Photography
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This dissertation focuses on Austrian Heimat [homeland] photography during the 1930s. Seemingly apolitical, this regional and popular photography of bucolic landscapes, quaint villages, peasants in traditional dress, skiers, and mountaineers was fundamental in shaping Austrian identity. Both the pre-war fascist and the postwar democratic governments easily appropriated and encouraged its dissemination. It fully fit within the vision of building a new Austrian nation comprised of distinct regional identities.
Transcendent Reform: Quaker Women and Social Reform During the Hicksite Schism
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Abstract
Systematics and Phylogeny of Arcoid Bivalves (Arcoida: Pteriomorphia: Bivalvia)
Year of Dissertation:
2009
The Arcoida is a large group of mostly marine bivalves, with a global distribution. Familiar taxa in this group include the arks, bittersweets and dog cockles. Relationships among the higher-level taxa of the Arcoida are not well understood and the classification of this group has been the subject of debate and rearrangement. While many views exist as to the evolution of this group, none of them are based explicitly on a phylogenetic analysis. In this study, the phylogenetic relationship of the Arcoida is inferred from a systematic analysis based on both morphological and molecular data. This is the first analysis in which representatives of all seven nominal families are included. 141 morphological characters from the external shell and internal anatomy were coded for 131 taxa. The phylogenetic signal of both these character types was explored. Few non-homoplastic synapomorphies for the group were recovered; shell tubules are confirmed as the sole non-homoplastic synapomorphy for the order. Shell characters failed to recover the majority of the higher taxonomic ranks that they were initially used to describe. Little coherent signal was received from the analysis of anatomy alone. Four molecular markers, the nuclear 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, protein coding histone H3 and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I, were also investigated using direct optimization as implemented in POY (Varón et al., 2008). These data were analyzed individually as well as simultaneously with the morphological data. A Sensitivity Analysis (Wheeler, 1995) of the molecular data was also performed--this explores the effects of parameter costs (i.e. indels and transition/transversion ratios) on the phylogenetic results. The results of these phylogenetic analyses do not reflect the current classification of the group. In this study, the majority of the higher taxonomic groups of Newell (1969) were not recovered, including the two superfamilies Arcoidea and Limopsoidea, as well as five of the families; only the monophyly of the Glycymerididae and Noetiidae is supported. A major taxonomic review of the order is necessary. This analysis is the largest and most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the Arcoida to date.
Polling, Media Discourse, and the Construction of Ignorance: Public Opinion Formation and the Bush Tax Cuts
Year of Dissertation:
2010
The advent of polling brought anticipation of renewed government accountability as well as concerns that powerful interests would use the power of mass media to subvert public opinion's emancipatory potential. When early models of public opinion manipulation did not stand up to empirical scrutiny, its study took a decidedly technocratic turn. Critiques of public opinion today tend to be either so fundamental that they suggest its study is moot or so technical that it is difficult to see the larger substantive implications for public opinion formation. We know that public opinion on many issues is "irrational" in the sense that a more informed public would be, quite literally, a public of a different mind. At the same time, we know that mass media exerts a substantial influence over how the public thinks about issues.
The Relationship Specificity of the Reflective Function: An Empirical Investigation
Year of Dissertation:
2009
The present study examines the stability of the Reflective Function (RF) across relationship contexts by testing the correlation between mothers' RF in discussing their children/parenthood and their RF in discussing their parents/childhood. It was hypothesized that RF would be stable across these contexts as evidenced by a positive, significant correlation between RF scores on separate interviews that focus on parenthood and childhood in detail.
Hacia un nuevo imaginario nacional: narradoras cubanas de los noventas
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Hispanic & Luso Brazilian Literatures & Languages
As opposed to other Latin-American literatures, Cuban literature in the seventies and eighties of the last century was not characterized by the development of narrative written by women. This could seem a contradiction given the emphasis that the project known as the "Cuban Revolution" placed on restituting misappropriated values put on women by a pseudo-republican Cuba for the services of foreign interests. For the new female "partner" in the interior of the emerging revolutionary discourse, her image would not be identified with that of the prostitutes, housewives or illiterate mothers that the governing powers in previous times wanted to impose as the only image, however she would be identified with that of active subjects -physically and intellectually- in the construction of said project.
ON THE PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND APPLICATION OF JANUS SPHERES
Year of Dissertation:
2009
Advisor:
Ilona Kretzschmar
Surface-anisotropic Janus particles are a new class of materials with interesting properties that have attracted great attention recently. There have been many reports on the manufacture of Janus particles. However, most of them employ the traditional high-cost vapor phase deposition to obtain an asymmetric surface modification of particles.