This dissertation tracks the production of narratives that frame U.S. universities as ethical institutions. It argues that such narratives--in popular imaginaries and scholarly discourse--rely on elisions of the racial-colonial entanglements of higher education. In linguistics, elision refers to the deletion or omission of sound, explaining…

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet sociocultural barriers have historically limited access and opportunity for women in multiple contexts, including their professional pursuits. Such sociocultural barriers are particularly pronounced in technical domains and have relegated minoritized voices to the margins. As a result of…

This study applies a Foucauldian critical analytic to investigate how different discourses that are present in one Alabama public school are shaping various aspects of the teacher-self. In an environment of increasing technology-mediation of teachers' work that coincides with public policy reforms that aim to systematically manage the activities…

Research Topic: An exploration into human imagination, ethical aim and action are the progenitors for reconciliation between humans and their environment. This study of two successful projects in Brazil provides an example of working toward a balance between human endeavors and sustainable environments. This inquiry is an exploration that…

This dissertation examines the phenomenon of ethical datives (EDs) in two Slavic languages, Russian and Macedonian. EDs are defined through a pragmatic lens as discourse licensed perspective markers in which a dative form expresses a speaker's decision to signal someone's emotional attitude--real or perceived--toward the action. Owing to…

Political discourse is an observable, measurable, and testable manifestation of political worldviews. However, when worldviews collide, notions of truth and of lies are put to the test. The challenge for researchers is how to establish confidence in their analysis. Despite the growing interest in deception research from a diversity of fields and…

This dissertation seeks to understand the interplay between informal articulations of social categories and formal instantiations of those categories in official language. Specifically, it explores the process of social categorization as it is used to identify threats to national security. The research employed a qualitative, document-based,…

The social and political role of Black college presidents in the 1930s and 1940s via annual radio addresses is a relevant example of how the medium of the day was used as an apparatus for individual and institutional agency. The nationalist agenda of the United States federal government indirectly led to the opportunity for Black college…