WATERFRONTS FOR WORK AND PLAY: MYTHSCAPES OF HERITAGE AND IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY RHODE ISLAND

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: WATERFRONTS FOR WORK AND PLAY: MYTHSCAPES OF HERITAGE AND IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY RHODE ISLAND Kristen A. Williams, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Nancy L. Struna Department of American Studies My dissertation examines the relationship between heritage sites, urban culture, and civic life in present-day Rhode Island, evaluating how residents' identities and patterns of civic engagement are informed by site-specific tourist narratives of eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth-century labor histories. Considering the adaptive reuse of former places of maritime trade and industry as contemporary sites of leisure, I analyze the role that historic tourism plays in local and regional economic urban redevelopment. I argue that the mythscapes of exceptionalism mobilized at Rhode Island's heritage sites create usable pasts in the present for current residents and visitors alike, alternatively foregrounding and obscuring intersectional categories of difference according to contemporaneous political climates at the local, national and transnational levels. This study is divided into two parts, organized chronologically and geographically. While Part I examines the dominant tourist narratives associated with Newport County, located in the southeast of the state and including Aquidneck Island (also known as Rhode Island), Part II takes the historic tourism associated with mainland Providence Plantations as its case study and focuses exclusively on Providence County, covering the middle and northern ends of the state. In each of these sections, I explore, challenge, and re-contextualize the politics of narratives which reference the earliest Anglophone settlers of Rhode Island as religious refugees and members of what scholar Robin Cohen refers to as a "victim diaspora" against the rich co-constitutive histories of im/migrant groups that, either by force or choice, relocated to Rhode Island for work and thus constitute a "labour diaspora." The existence of these two or more populations living in close proximity to each other in areas of Newport and Providence, I argue, produced what Denis Byrne calls a "nervous landscape" fraught with cultural, economic and political tensions which exists even as narratives of the pasts associated with each group are mobilized in the contemporary urban environs of each city and its tourist attractions

After Miller v. Alabama: A Content Analysis of Juvenile Sentencing Decisions Across the United States

In 2012 a Supreme Court ruling (Miller v. Alabama) determined that life without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional based on the eighth amendment. However, the Supreme Court decision only applied to ongoing and future cases. The objective of this thesis was to conduct a policy analysis on new sentencing laws (i.e., state level) and subsequent Supreme Court decisions (i.e., federal level) that impacted the juvenile court after Miller v. Alabama (2012). Furthermore, it examined differences across states as a result of newly implemented legislative actions. A search of all 50 states and federal actions was conducted to gather information to assess similarities and differences in responses across the United States. Findings showed that while policies regarding life without parole for youth were implemented additional reforms are still needed

Environmental Health: Food Safety

Presented for World Environmental Health Day, September 26, 2016 in Greenville, North Carolina

Risk and Resilience in Emerging Adults with Childhood Parentification

Childhood parentification, an adult-child role reversal in which a child provides physical and/or emotional care for a parent, has been associated with both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes in emerging adulthood (Hooper, 2007b). The current three-part investigation (quantitative, written narrative, interview) used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore adjustment in emerging adulthood following childhood parentification experiences and sought to identify factors that may influence parentification outcomes. In total, data from 205 participants were analyzed in the quantitative portion of the study, with 181 participants providing written narrative responses and 10 individuals participating in a follow-up interview. Results from quantitative and qualitative approaches indicated that parentification was associated with a number of maladaptive outcomes, including increased internalizing symptoms, decreased positive social relations, decreased life satisfaction, and increased substance use. Parentification was also associated with ideological and interpersonal values that were in opposition to parental beliefs. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, six factors were identified that may affect the relation between parentification and later outcome: perceived unfairness in the family of origin, perceived stress of adult roles, self-management skills, supportive parenting, optimistic attitude, and perceived value of skills learned. Clinical implications for the findings are discussed

Brand new : assessing the applicability of the recently published non-profit brand idea framework to the South African context : a case study of eight South African non-profit organisations.

M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.The increasing pressures on the non-profit sector, in particular reference to funding, has meant that many non-profits in South Africa are having to adapt to compete in a global funding market and to professionalise to align with funders’ demands. Many non-profits view their brand in a commercial light, primarily as a fundraising and marketing tool, however the Non-Profit Brand IDEA Model is a recently developed model that proposes a specific communication plan for brands in the non-profit sector. This model suggests that a strong brand can assist in achieving organisation impact, the ultimate goal of most non-profits. In addition, it proposes that the brand can be used to harness partnerships which alleviate the pressure for funding. As South Africa has a growing non-profit sector, this study assesses the applicability of the Non-Profit Brand IDEA framework in the South African context as it could provide a solution to the pressures facing this vital sector

Examining the construct of childhood parentification : an empirical investigation

Parentification refers to an experience whereby children take on adult roles in childhood. Two questionnaire-based studies designed to address two areas of parentification research were conducted. To help explain the divergent psychological outcomes of parentification, Study 1 tested internal locus of control as a moderator in the relationship between parentification and outcome in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 99). Internal locus of control moderated the relationship between parentification and depression, suggesting that higher internal locus of control is related to lower levels of depression following childhood parentification. To bring further delineation to the parentification construct, Study 2 examined a number of theorized family functioning correlates of parentification in samples of adolescent (N = 92) and adult participants (N = 80). Results from Study 2 suggest that childhood parentification is often found in mutually unsupportive family systems, where physical and emotional needs are unmet, and parents demonstrate reduced care for their children. Findings from both studies bring further understanding to the construct of childhood parentification

The effects of a running lifestyle on body composition and caloric intake in female distance runners

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 W54Master of Scienc