The intent of this study was to explore the variance of epistemological development in pre-ministry undergraduates across different institutional contexts, using the Perry Scheme as a theoretical lens. Semi-structured interviews were employed in order to elicit information from participants that revealed their personal perspectives regarding their approaches to acquiring, maintaining, and implementing knowledge. Students from three institutional contexts were included in this study: secular university, confessional Christian liberal arts university, and Bible college. A review of the precedent literature for this research presented foundational biblical-theological and theoretical sources that defined and elucidated the context of this study. The biblical-theological analysis first identified the nature of human knowledge and development within the context of the redemptive-historical metanarrative. Then, two prominent biblical themes that relate specifically to epistemological development were treated: the knowledge of God and biblical wisdom. A thorough review of the Perry Scheme was then provided, including theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, the model itself, and major extensions and elaborations of Perry's model. A final section introduced the "principle of inverse consistency" as a paradigm for interacting with Perry and other developmental theories, from a biblical worldview. The qualitative research design consisted of five steps. First, the researcher contacted and enlisted students and obtained a Dissertation Study Participation Form from each participant. Second, a customized interview protocol was designed according to the Perry Interview Protocol, in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Intellectual Development (CSID). Third, a pilot study was undertaken. Fourth, one interview was conducted with each participant, and the interviews were transcribed and submitted to the CSID for scoring. Fifth, in addition to the scoring analysis performed by the CSID, the researcher designed and implemented an independent content analysis procedure, including a structured analytical framework of epistemological priorities and competencies. Finally, the scored data and content analysis results were evaluated together, and interpreted by the researcher to yield findings and implications. Overall, this research observed that epistemological positioning was generally consistent among pre-ministry students from differing institutional contexts. The CSID's stated majority rating for typical college graduates was reflected in each sample grouping-a point of transition between Positions 3 and 4, defined in the Perry Scheme as mid to late "Multiplicity." By certain measures, however, scores among context groups were distinguishable. For example, average scores for secular university students reflected a point very near, but slightly above Position 3, while average ratings among Bible college and liberal arts university students reflected a point essentially midway between Positions 3 and 4. Also, when a filter was applied that eliminated the results of the oldest and youngest sample participants, the liberal arts university grouping reflected a distinguishably higher epistemological position than other groupings. Evaluation of the research interview data according to the researcher's structured framework of epistemological priorities and competencies yielded findings that were consistent overall with the variations of levels of epistemological positioning as reported by the CSID. In addition, numerous prominent themes emerged from analysis of interviewees' articulations that were identified as bearing relevance to participants' epistemological maturation. Finally, the impact of effects of differing social-academic cultures on pre-ministry undergraduates' epistemological perspectives and maturation were examined. Evaluation of these themes and environmental conditions served to highlight numerous conformities as well as significant distinctions among pre-ministry students from differing institutional contexts.

In this thesis project, I investigate the drama of Perry and introduce his dramaturgy into the academic landscape. As the critical discourse is shifting towards the realm of popular culture, we must begin to locate several discourses at work in the drama of quite possibly the most popular, visible, and financially successful African American playwright of the twenty-first century, if not of all time. Drawing on gender and queer theory, I offer a theoretical discussion about subversive and non-subversive drag acts, and I question the degree to which Perry appropriates drag in a politically liberating or constraining manner. Moreover, I examine the gender and sexual politics in Madea’s Family Reunion to illustrate the ways in which I read Perry as offering a very conflicted dialectic between activist aspirations and oppressive tendencies, particularly in regard to questions of safe feminist spaces, motherhood, female self-sufficiency, female self-definition, domestic violence, and homosexuality.

ABSTRACT This dissertation examines how Tyra Banks, Shonda Rhimes, and Tyler Perry negotiate blackness in terms of racial representation both in their interactions with the press and public as well as in their final product. Banks, Rhimes, and Perry are among the few prominent African American executive producers working in an industry of inequality. Each is the creative figure behind a prominent prime-time television show. This project contributes to the discussion of race and representation in the field of television studies. I argue there is a connection between how Banks, Rhimes, and Perry publicly discuss race and how these perspectives are encoded in America’s Next Top Model (Banks), Grey’s Anatomy (Rhimes), and House of Payne (Perry) from 2005-2010. These three are vital case studies because their shows offer a range of African American representations and extra-textual discourses about representations. Chapter Two historically contextualizes the industrial shifts in mainstream broadcast networks and basic cable channels as it relates to blackness onscreen and diversity behind the scenes. ABC, The CW, and TBS are the focus of this chapter because they are the outlets for Banks, Rhimes, and Perry’s shows. I also position ABC, The CW, and TBS in relation to the rest of the industry as it has moved from the multi-channel transition to the post- network era. Chapter Three examines how Banks, Perry and Rhimes promote and publicize themselves as the key creative figure of their shows. This analysis places each individual in different sites of the burden of representation, which each handles differently. Chapter Four explores the connection between the role blackness plays in their image as public creative figure and how it is represented in their texts through a representational analysis of America’s Next Top Model, Grey’s Anatomy and House of Payne. This dissertation advocates a neo-racial framework to examine blackness on television and behind the scenes. A neo-racial framework acknowledges that racial inequities continue to exist and the context surrounding these inequities needs to be examined. I conclude that the Banks, Rhimes, and Perry cases show that we are not in a post-racial society or in the post-network era.

This thesis explores images of the Japanese schoolgirl as accessory to the Occidental Self in contemporary Orientalist pop culture in the US. In an analysis of a series of images by four different Western pop culture artists, each artist expresses an appreciation for Japan that is based primarily on their encounter with Japanese pop culture. Furthermore, they express identification with the Japanese Other and a desire to introject into Japanese subjectivities. However, lacking the material body needed for full immersion or identification with the Other, they produce the Japanese schoolgirl as an accessory to the Self. The accessory provides false immersion or identification with the Japanese Other. In this way, the Japanese schoolgirl becomes the embodiment of Japanese pop culture and an object for Western fetishization. / text

Bible institutes and colleges were originally established to train men and women for vocational Christian ministry, and many contemporary Bible colleges continue with that focus. In addition to practical ministry training, they seek to help students grow just as Jesus did: intellectually, physical, spiritually, and socially (Luke 2:52). But how effective are they at doing so? This qualitative interview study analyzed the epistemological development of Bible college students. I used the Perry Scheme as a model and research by John David Trentham as a theoretical lens to examine the relationship between pre-ministry undergraduates' attendance at selected Bible colleges and progression through the positions of intellectual maturity according to the Perry Scheme. Although the Perry Scheme is widely influential in higher educational philosophy and pedagogy, its pragmatic and relativistic assumptions present problems in the Bible college setting. The findings of this study are intended to move towards an alternative to wholehearted incorporation or unqualified rejection of the Perry Scheme by building upon the essential discoveries of the Perry Scheme within a Christian framework to construct a biblically-based, theologically-grounded, wisdom-centered evaluative model of epistemological college student development.

Since YouTube was founded in 2005, prosumers have been uploading karaoke-style “lyric videos” of their favourite songs in order to creatively and visually accompany the song, while making it available online to other listeners. In the last few years, more and more artists have adopted this trend and are releasing official lyric videos that follow and expand on this tradition, thus commanding immediate visual attention to new singles. Additionally, these videos control the images and sounds associated with the song and artist, while profiting from advertising revenue tied to online video content. Though scholarship on music video is increasing, there is no evidence of scholarly research on lyric videos. Seemingly simple, these videos create meanings that impact artistic personae, song and album reception, and genre identity formation. They are not merely promotional devices, or placeholders for “official” music videos. Grounding my analysis in genre theory (Frow 2015, Brackett 2015 & 2016, Fabbri, 1982, Holt, 2007), I claim that lyric videos comprise a new visual genre of music video, following their own parameters, connections, and histories, while simultaneously participating in the ideologies and tropes of their musical genre. In order to illustrate the framework, I offer a history of the genre by focusing my analysis on the lyric videos released by Katy Perry over the course of seven years, from 2010 to 2017, from the promotion for four of her most recent albums. By offering a historical analysis, I show how the lyric video has emerged, evolved and become established as a distinct visual genre. I include brief interludes in my analysis to highlight other important moments in the development of the genre, and to discuss how the lyrics, sound, and images are diversely represented in lyric videos depending upon musical genre. Drawing from feminist theory (Gledhill 2000), as well as persona theory (Auslander 2004, Moore 2005), I conclude that lyric videos offer unique possibilities for artists to amplify the meaning of their song and the spectator’s understanding of the lyrics, while portraying information about the artist’s subjectivities, and as such, deserves more scholarly attention as a distinct visual genre.

Doctor of Philosophy / Educational Leadership / Sarah Jane Fishback / The military devotes significant resources and time in the development of officers through education. Recently, there has been a great deal of emphasis placed on military Intermediate Service Schools (ISS’s) to enhance the ability of graduates to think with greater cognitive complexity in order to solve the kinds of problems they may face after graduation. The military environment in which these mid-career officer students will serve is highly complex and requires a significant ability to generate solutions to unique and complex problems. One hallmark of a developmental adult educational experience is the advancement of the student to higher levels of cognitive complexity. The purpose of this research was to determine if there was a relationship between the cognitive complexity of faculty, students, and expectations for student graduates, at a military Intermediate Service School. Along with the simultaneous measure of cognitive complexity, via a survey administration of the LEP instrument, the researcher also developed a technique for translating learning objectives from Blooms taxonomy into a corresponding Perry position. This translation method was used to translate the college learning objectives into an expected Perry position for graduates of the college. The study also included demographic data to look for significant results regarding a number of independent variables. For faculty only these included teaching department, years of teaching experience, age, and military status. For both populations the variables studied included education level, gender, combat experience and combat trauma, branch of service, commissioning source, and years of active duty service. The study found that the mean cognitive complexity of entering students (CCI = 360) was lower than the cognitive complexity required of graduates (CCI = 407). However, the faculty mean cognitive complexity (CCI = 398) was not significantly different from a student graduate. The faculty results indicated that there were no statistically significant relations between the independent variables studied and the measured cognitive complexity. For students there was a statistically significant relation between measured cognitive complexity and gender.

Building on the foundation laid by John David Trentham and his colleagues in researching the epistemological development among pre-ministry students, this phenomenological study used the Perry scheme as a lens to examine development among women in evangelical seminaries. Understanding female seminarians’ patterns and perspectives on knowing, along with the contextual realities they experience in seminary, aids women who desire to go to seminary, women in seminary, seminary administration, professors, and student development personnel, as well as churches in their ministry to women. The literature review in this work covers the theological foundation for epistemology. Theologically, knowledge is seen to be dependent, unified, relational, requiring belief, and necessitating obedience. From this foundation, Perry’s research and nine-stage scheme is explored. As this study focuses on the epistemological development of women, the following studies related to gender are also explored: Women’s Ways of Knowing by Belenky et al., Knowing and Reasoning in College by Baxter Magolda, and In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. Themes between these works were identified as voice, relationship, and connectedness. The Reflective Judgment Model by King and Kitchener is also examined and compared with Perry’s scheme. The use of the Reflective Judgment Model to study the development of seminary students is also reported. The ongoing dialogue of research on pre-ministry students is then surveyed including a discussion of inverse consistency and Trentham’s taxonomy of epistemological priorities and competencies. Thirty women were interviewed using semi-structured protocols to explore their epistemological development in their institutional contexts. This study included denominational and inter/multidenominational contexts. Participants were enlisted by completing a Thesis Study Participation Form. Using a custom-designed interview protocol for this population, an interview was conducted with each participant. The interviews were then transcribed and submitted to the CSID for scoring. The transcripts were also examined for statements demonstrating each of the epistemological priorities or competencies in Trentham’s Taxonomy. Statement attributions were determined in conjunction with Trentham. An independent content analysis was also completed to examine themes and trends. The data was then analyzed and findings reported. KEYWORDS: anthropotelic, Baxter Magolda, Belenky et al., biblical epistemology, Carol Gilligan, Center for the Study of Intellectual Development (CSID), Christian formation, Christotelic, complementarian, critical thinking, denominational, dualism, ethical development, epistemological development, epistemological telos, female patterns and perspectives, faith and reason, higher education, institutional context, institutional type, intellectual development, interdenominational, inverse consistency, multidenominational, multiplicity, Perry Scheme, pre-ministry, Reflective Judgment Model, seminary, seminary student development, student affairs, student development, student life, telos, theological foundation for epistemology, Trentham’s taxonomy of epistemological priorities and competencies, vocational ministry, William Moore, William Perry, women in ministry, women in seminary, Women’s Ways of Knowing (WWK)

Attorneys are at an increased risk of negative psychological and physical effects due to stressors in their careers. The purpose of this study was to identify if sex crime attorneys and homicide attorneys identify with significant psychological changes throughout their careers. The framework for this study was theoretical in nature and utilized the social cognitive processing theory. This quantitative study (N = 28) included the use of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, and the Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy Scale. A minimal significance was found correlating a decrease in aggression to years of experience as an attorney. There was no significance between alcohol intake, emotional empathy, and years of experience as an attorney. An insufficient number of participants may have affected any potential correlations. A correlation between career stressors and negative effects on a personal or professional degree would be cause for implementing techniques to improve professional and personal morale, limit life stressors, and improve overall health. Providing assistance to those who are at risk of negative behaviors due to their career would prevent future immediate and long-term treatments, increasing their quality of life.

From the time of their occurrence up to the present, people have constructed and revised narratives about violent racial events in Florida. In the case of the racial violence in Ocoee and the lynching of July Perry, multiple accounts coexisted until one particular group in the 1990's contested earlier conservative white Southern narratives with new public memories containing African American perspectives of the events, demanding racial justice and memorialization of the events. A struggle over the power to construct this narrative resulted in compromises between the two sets of memories. While some goals were attained, the landscape of memorization remains undeveloped. The construction of a narrative concerning the meaning of Harry T. Moore's life and death entered the public domain at his death and remained unchanging, carried forward by the collective memories of African Americans in Florida. Historians reassessed his role as a martyr for civil rights to the first martyr of the Civil Right's Movement. A group of African Americans in Brevard County were successful in attaining resources that included landscape and a memorial complex during the 1990's and the first decade of 2000. The construction of public memories and the power to gain landscape and resources for commemoration reflected the aims and power of each group. Because the public memories of July Perry were contested, the group could not attain commemorative landscapes. However, the narratives about Harry T. Moore had consensus, allowing significant commemorations.