This research seeks to explore the gendered nature of nationalisms and the ways that they can be challenged and perhaps transformed through the participation of women in sport at the national level. Nationalism is part of the public sphere, while women have historically been relegated to the private sphere. However, many scholars argue that women do in fact taken part in nation building primarily as biological reproducers of the nation. This has led scholars to conclude that nationalism is indeed gendered. Sport has traditionally been a masculine domain where conceptions of hegemonic masculinity as well as the nation are developed and reinforced. However within the last thirty years women's participation in sport, specifically at the national-elite level has risen dramatically. This research seeks to explore how women's increased participation in the nationalistic and masculine domain of sport will affect nationalism. To discover how the increase in women's participation in national sport may or may not be affecting nationalism, two exploratory case studies were conducted focusing on the media coverage of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games between 1972 and 2008. The cases used in the analysis were Canada and India. For each case, a large, English-language, national daily newspaper was selected as a data source and the articles covering women athletes during the Olympic Games were collected, subjected to a basic form of content analysis and then categorized into one of three categories. Individual women athletes featured in the articles were also analyzed as well. The findings of this study reveal that Indian and Canadian nationalism were affected by the increase in women's participation in sport. However, the study also demonstrates the ways in which media continues to feminize women athletes in order to make them socially acceptable. Despite this, the study reinforces the idea that sport remains a valuable space where women can challenge traditional gender ideals within a nationalisms.

The Drowned Girl is a novel-in-stories that depicts the lives of eight characters living in a small Connecticut town. This work is one told through varying perspectives. Characters are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, daughters, sons, and lovers. Their lives intersect physically, and emotionally, and the separate stories reveal the facets and repercussions of events both past and present: the death of a son and brother in a car accident, the life and death of a notorious town figure, the past and tragic future of a young woman, Jules, whose body is found one spring in the Connecticut river. The Jules stories, six in all, document her spiral into despair, and involve the other characters as friends, lovers, and parents. As the locus of the cycle, Jules and the mystery of her death prompt characters to re-view their own circumstances, and the way in which past decisions have played a part. These revelations-of betrayal, and loss, and the way they affect key characters, are effectively inscribed in the story cycle's ability to convey a communal disparateness. Each character's story brings a new perspective, and the accumulation of the parts provides a more encompassing view of the whole. The focus on an upper middle class neighborhood called Ridgewood-a subdivision built on dairy farm land in the mid-sixties-is key to the thematic link that ties the stories together. I am interested in revealing the corruption of the natural landscape, the carving up of rural areas after World War II to create suburban communities in which family incomes and demographics are almost completely homogenous. The suburb of Ridgewood is mapped by roads designed to conform to a hierarchy that includes cul-de-sacs, and a pattern leading to residential areas of greater affluence. This setting serves as a backdrop to the complex disintegration of the family.

Current creativity research is dominated by attention to the individual, with increasingly less attention paid to creativity in its context, in groups, and in filmmaking as a collaboratively creative enterprise. This study answers the research call to explore filmmaking as an exemplar for collaborative creativity. Utilizing the stories told on DVD extras on special edition releases of feature films, this study analyzes how collaborative creativity is storied. In turn, these stories reveal specific communication forms, practices, and strategies that enrich theoretical conceptions of collaborative creativity. Following dramatistic concepts elaborated by Kenneth Burke, this rhetorical analysis finds three emergent patterns of communication--mythic, historic, and symbolic--in the discourses of making-of-documentaries (MODs) that illuminate collaborative creativity. As mythic patterns, MODs utilize the structure of the quest tale to organize the plot, drama, and rhetoric of collaborative creativity told in MODs. Audiences, then, are invited to re-experience the journey, and every MOD symbolically and ritually repeats and re-actualizes the cosmogony. As historic patterns, filmmakers converse in history with filmmaking predecessors, traditional industry practices, and present collaborators. Through their various roles as fans, critics, and memorialists, filmmakers renovate and commemorate film history, offering creativity theory criteria by which novelty is evaluated. As symbolic patterns, MOD discourse spotlights the metaphors filmmakers use to create collaborative environments and to characterize directors' performances. Together these metaphors create a guiding and habitable ideology for production work that improves upon "vision" as one guiding metaphor for creativity. This analysis enriches theoretical accounts of creativity by approaching collaborative creativity obliquely, as space-off, and rhetorically, as inducements to success stories in organizations. Taking communication as central to collaborative creativity, this study offers three counter-statements to traditional conceptions of creativity: creativity is shared, not possessed; collaborative creativity emerges within human drama; and collaborative creativity lives and finds its meaning in performance.

Contemporary studies of the phenomenon of attention uncritically suppose that the only way to go about observing attention is as a modification of consciousness. Consciousness is taken to be always intentional, i.e., distinguished by reference to an object-whether physical or not-toward which it is directed. Observers of attention therefore assume that attention is an intentional modification of consciousness. Such practices of observation, in virtue of the kinds of practices that they are, take for granted that the fundamental constituents of reality are subjects and objects. Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger (and Maurice Merleau-Ponty after them) discovered that belief in the world as divided into subjects and objects is merely a convenience designed for the purpose of making a certain kind of sense of experience intelligible-a belief that operates as a controlling assumption which forces the world, if it is to be intelligible, to show up under the oppressively confined ontology that was originally introduced merely as an observational convenience. My work contributes to the prevalent literature an examination of these presuppositions by reconsidering what the landscape of attention studies would look like without the importation of the confinement of a world reduced to subjects in interaction with objects. I do this first by returning to the fundamental and yet strangely forgotten insights into the question that Husserl and Heidegger provided. Then I explore through some of the autobiographical work of Virginia Woolf, Simone Weil, and Pascal a pathway by which we might think differently about what it is to pay attention. I conclude that attention might also be understood as a kind of waiting that does not specify an object, but rather a posture, a way of being that necessarily manifests itself prior to any sort of prejudged or anticipated object. The contribution of my work will serve the community of observers of attention by forcing them to explain what it is to pay attention without reliance on the subject-object distinction.

Sedimentation is one of many characterization tools used to test materials in nanotechnology. Characterization of settling behavior is complex as there are many variables which can affect sedimentation. In our research, we focused on sedimentation in colloidal systems with the aid of an optical turbidometer. Nanoparticles of CeO2 (Ceria Oxide) and TiO2 (Titanium Dioxide) are embedded onto a polymeric matrix of a thermally responsive microgel of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and interpenetrating chains of poly(acrylic acid) to create novel composites. The composites are loaded with the inorganic oxide nanoparticles at different weight percent from a low value of 10 weight % to 75 weight %. The loading of the colloidal particles affects the sedimentation rate. In this thesis a turbidomenter is used to characterize the settling rate, which is an important characteristic for application of these new composites. TiO2 is a key constituent in many industrial products; cosmetics, paints, ceramics and used in waste water remediation. It is a potent photocatalyst which breaks down almost any organic compound when exposed to ultraviolet light. By combining nanoparticles of TiO2 with microgels of a polymer, the composites can facilitate use and recovery of the catalyst. Gravity settling of these loaded composites provides an easy separation of TiO2 nanoparticles. In this context, characterization of settling plays an important role. CeO2 composites are used to polish oxide coatings in the semiconductor industry and sedimentation of the composite particles is important as it can affect the efficiency of the planarization process. Therefore, measuring sedimentation of these composites is necessary. In this study, the settling behavior is measured optically for a variety of conditions that differ in loading of inorganic nanoparticles within the microgels, temperature of the solution, and concentration of particles in solution. The overall goal is to understand the sedimentation behavior of these novel composites and facilitate their use in industrial processes.

This multiple case study focused on the lives and experiences of four women who participated in an adult literacy program. This case study approach used critical ethnography as an analytic tool employing grounded theory leading to the development of a substantive theory. In-depth, semi-structured interviews and researcher's reflective journal were employed to collect data for this study that critically examined the impact of the transformative process of its participants and its influence on their socio-cultural context. Results revealed that participants did not necessarily experience a disorienting dilemma as contended by Mezirow (1978, 1991, and 2000). Rather participants experienced a series of integrating circumstances that led to the transformative experience. Moreover, the study indicated that unlike Mezirow's assumption that individuals need to have a high cognitive or educational level to experience a transformation these participants with little or no education experienced a transformation. Overall, the purpose of this study was to generate grounded theory on the impact of the transformative experience on the participants and their socio-cultural context. From the findings of the study, a substantive theory emerged revealing profound changes: a metamorphosis. Thus, the substantive theory is: Metamorphosis: Given the opportunity to shift frames of reference, one has the innate capacity to alter one's life and impact one's socio-cultural context creating possibilities for self and others. In light of this, all participants related experiences that reflect the core elements of transformative learning as first posited by Mezirow. These elements included exploration of new roles or actions, self-confidence in new roles, development of a plan of action and reintegration into life based on their new frames of reference. Major themes that emerged from the data are self-esteem and assertiveness, discovery of self, great personal sacrifice, development of sense of possibility for self and family, beliefs and values, increased spirituality, self-sufficiency, role model, opportunity for social action. As the women became empowered, the changes affected their socio-cultural context resulting in changes with their children, family and community. Finally, this study has far-reaching implications for policy-makers and practitioners in particular for strategic improvement of life for low-income families and family relationships. These findings can serve as the impetus to improve the disintegration of family values triggering a positive impact on entire communities.

At a time when strong leadership is needed to guide community colleges forward, a major crisis seems to be stirring (Eddy & VanDerLinden, 2006). According to some estimates, 45% of community college presidents will have retired by 2007 (Shults, 2001) and an even worse prediction offered by Weisman and Vaughan (2002) predict 79% of community college presidents will be retired by 2012. Echoing this view, Amey et al. (2002) assert that there is much work to be done in preparing the younger generations of community college leaders with skills and competencies necessary to meet this leadership challenge. There were two primary purposes addressed in this study. First, to further validate the AACC competencies by determining how current presidents and trustee board chairpersons from the states of New York and Florida rated the importance of the AACC (2005) characteristics and professional skills for effective community college leadership. Second, to identify those experiences and practices that community college presidents reported as helpful to their development of the six AACC leadership competencies. The results of this study provide support for the value of the six AACC competencies and offer important insights into the specific experiences that contributed to the development of these competencies for community college presidents. Specifically, there was consensus among New York and Florida community college presidents and trustee board chairpersons that all six competencies identified by AACC are "very" or "extremely" important for the success of community college leaders. Additionally, this study supported the philosophy that leader development is learned in many ways and that various leadership experiences contribute differently to the development of the AACC Competencies for Community College Leaders, some apparently more relevant to certain competencies than others. In conclusion, the results of this study provide community college leaders, boards of trustees, hiring committees and leadership development programmers with additional validation on the AACC competencies and those experiences and practices that community college presidents reported as helpful to their development of the six AACC leadership competencies.

Boundary and desire surround the relationships in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and The Last Man. The narrative modes of Captain Robert Walton relate his separation to the rest of the world and his need for companionship. Yet, not any companionship will satisfy his longing for connection with a human being; his search revolves around the need of common understanding. This further separates the character of Lionel in The Last Man from humanity in that he is unable to find anyone left on earth after a series of plague, war, and atmospheric anomalies apparently wipe out the human race. His survival hinges on the desire to find someone, anyone, in which to share any mode of common experience. His struggles with loneliness finally culminate in his autobiography. Both Frankenstein and The Last Man deal with the issue of narrative and the bounds of human necessity for acceptance and companionship. Though both tales are from a male perspective, the gendered aspects of the stories further separate the characters in each novel. How each character is estranged by forces outside their control, and how they express this relationship between their internal selves and their outer selves, are at the core of each text. Through these ideas of boundary and belonging, this thesis will explore the relationships in Frankenstein and The Last Man.

Previous research has demonstrated the influential role of physical appearance-related feedback in the development of body image and eating disturbances. Teasing and negative feedback have been established as strong correlates and predictors of body dissatisfaction, maladaptive eating behaviors, and psychological distress. However, very little is known about ambiguous appearance-related feedback and its impact on others. The current study sought to explore this area with an experimental study to examine the effects of ambiguous appearance-related feedback on body image, mood states, and intentions to use body change strategies. Undergraduate women (N=146) were randomly assigned to an ambiguous appearance-related or ambiguous nonappearance-related feedback condition. Body image, mood states, and intentions to diet, exercise, and use unhealthy weight control methods were assessed before and after feedback was provided by a confederate. Results indicated no significant differences between feedback conditions in body image and mood states. The mean trends for all mood state, with the exception of anger, indicated better mood states after ambiguous appearance-related feedback compared to after ambiguous nonappearance-related feedback. State anger was greater in the ambiguous appearance-related feedback condition suggesting that this particular type of feedback was interpreted in a negative manner. Further, there was a significant difference between feedback conditions for intentions to diet and use bulimic behaviors, with lower levels in the ambiguous appearance-related feedback condition. No significant differences were found for intentions to exercise. State appearance comparison was not shown to mediate the relationship between ambiguous feedback and body image, mood states, or intentions to use body change strategies. Trait appearance satisfaction, appearance comparison, appearance schematicity, and thin ideal internalization were found to moderate the relationship between ambiguous feedback and state depression. Trait appearance comparison moderated the relationship between ambiguous feedback and intentions to use bulimic behaviors. Exploratory analyses conducted with subsamples developed using high versus low levels of trait disturbance showed significant results for the subsample based on trait appearance comparison levels. The findings are discussed in the context of possible reasons for the unexpected responses to the ambiguous appearance-related versus nonappearance-related feedback. The limitations of the study and directions for future research are also noted.

Sufi poetry of the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE/132-655 AH) exhibited a particular penchant for highlighting the relationship between humankind and God with homoerotic language. While the homoerotic nature of Sufi poetry has received considerable scholarly attention, the ritual expression of such literature has not. The ritual of sama was a practice that occurred in the Sufi institutions and incorporated various elements of the poetry examined. By listening to the poetry, in the form of song and often with accompanying instrumentation, the mystics would experience transient moments of altered state experiences, usually interpreted as moments of union with God. This thesis seeks to align the homoerotic verse with ritual, and thus demonstrating the incorporation and sublimation of sexuality in medieval Sufi society. By focusing on the works of four specific Arab Sufi poets, Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri, Abu Bakr al-Shibli, Umar Ibn al-Farid, and Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, a distinct tendency to express passionate love for the Divine emerges. Furthermore, the portrayal of the Divine in masculine terms reflected, not necessarily homosexual love, but the intimate bonding between men experienced in a sex-segregated society.