Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Thesis(M.A.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and filled out the appropriate web form. / A novel excerpt and short stories collection / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

The foundation of culturally sensitive patient-centered palliative care is formed from one's social, spiritual, psychological, and physical experiences of serious illness. The purpose of this study was to describe categories and patterns of psychological, social, and spiritual healing from the perspectives of aging seriously ill African American (AA) elders. Using narrative analysis methodology, 13 open-ended interviews were collected. Three main patterns were prior experiences, I changed, and across past, present experiences and future expectations. Themes were categorized within each pattern: been through it . . . made me strong, I thought about . . . others, went down little hills . . . got me down, I grew stronger, changed priorities, do things I never would have done, quit doing, God did and will take care of me, close-knit relationships, and life is better. Faith in God helped the aging seriously ill AA elders overcome things, whether their current illness or other life difficulties.

The incidence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is highest in the southern states of the United States (US), with adolescents in this region being one of the most affected populations in the country. A limited amount of information is available on adolescent HIV risk behaviors in the southern states, specifically focusing on race and gender. The purpose of this study was to use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Risk Behaviors Survey (YRBS) for high school students in the southern states for 2011 and 2013 to examine the influence of race and gender on 1) early sexual initiation, 2) number of sexual partners, and 3) condom use. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression was used for the analysis. A total of 6,244 (6.7%) students reported early sexual initiation, 13,121 (14.1%) reported having multiple sex partners, and 11,820 (41.1%) reported condom use in southern states for 2011 and 2013. Minority males were greater than 10 times more likely to engage in early sexual initiation compared to white females (OR-10.40; 95% Confidence Interval (CI)-9.03-11.98). Minorities and males were more likely to have multiple sex partners compared to whites and females (OR- 1.84; CI-1.73-1.95, OR-2.20; CI-2.07-2.34, respectively). Minority males were over 2 times more likely to use condoms compared to white females (OR-2.04; CI-1.87-2.23). There was a statistically significant association between the three sexual health behaviors and psychosocial factors, such as dating violence, forced sex, body weight perception, and substance use before sex. Gender and race along with psychosocial factors were associated with HIV risk behaviors for high school students in the southern states. These preliminary findings could potentially be used to target HIV/AIDS awareness and preventative actions to populations affected by the HIV burden in the southern states.

A HISTORY OF BONES is a collection of lyrical and narrative poems which examines the interconnectedness of humanity through recurrent physical images—bones, blood, hair, etc. These images reflect the commonalities of the human race at the most basic level by pointing to the unavoidable fate all living things share. The poems build on popular culture, politics, world history, and mythology to show the universality of human “baggage”. As the title poem says, “We carry all our histories with us where we go.” Over time, and all over the world, people exist as history collectors amassing experiences, both shared and unique, to which they must surrender and accept as parts of themselves. The collection is divided into three sections, which move from “local history” to “national history” and, finally, to “global history.” Poems in the first section, “Five Acres,” focus on personal history, including the history of the American South. The section title poem, “Five Acres of Pine Trees,” uses the scenery of the heavily-wooded land of rural Alabama as a means to discuss both the absurdity of invisible boundary lines and the wars which arise in relation to them. Poems in the second section, “Domestic Dream,” examine various ideas associated with the United States, such as modern politics, the country’s history of wars, post-post feminism, domesticity, and identity. The section’s title poem is a persona poem which follows the speaker from a kitchen to a fantasy world of fishing on a remote Greek island and back to real life. The collection’s final section, “Ode to the Globe” simultaneously pans out to encompass various cultures, languages, world regions, and points in history while pinpointing the emotional strain of carrying one’s histories. This section’s title poem imagines a character in love with the idea of world cultures, languages and historic places, who obsesses over these things, but views them through books, rather than personally encountering them. All three sections are braided together by the shared emotions of all peoples: nostalgia, regret, anxiety, hatred, passion, and longing. Thematically A HISTORY OF BONES shares elements with the work of Janet McAdams who often examines a single forgotten moment in history told from the perspective of a semi-removed speaker. The poems within the collection often depend on vivid, carefully attended details reminiscent of Elizabeth Bishop and Adrienne Rich. The poems also are influenced by e.e. cumming’s frequent word creation. The poems in the collection, however, are most influenced by the work of John Rybicki, specifically his third collection, We Bed Down into Water and the oddly juxtaposed images found in his work.

For the past few years the homemaking courses has shifted its emphasis from cooking and sewing skills to the solving of managerial problems of the individual and the family of today. Each person who is taking an active part in living is constantly purchasing and consuming goods and services and must realize that his welfare depends upon the relation between the satisfactions that he receives from the things he buys and the price that he pays for them. Since every one must purchase goods, the high school student needs to learn how to buy wisely. The executive committees of the homemaking divisions in the different states which are revising the courses of study realize that management of money from the consumer-buying view point is important and needs a place in meeting the needs and interests of the high school student of today. The problem in this study is to determine the adequacy of the objectives on consumer-buying in the homemaking courses in high schools of the Southern Region. This study is made for the purpose of determining the adequacy and extent of consumer-buying teaching objectives in homemaking education in the high schools of the Southern region. in order that way may reach a conclusion as to the adequacy of the objectives we must adopt a standard. We will consider the objectives and desired outcomes set forth by the Department of the Interior as that standard. We will reach our conclusion through a compilation of consumer-buying courses offered by the schools of these states of the Southern region and by a comparison of the objectives and outcomes of the state courses with those of the United States Vocational Education consumer-buying courses.

Two significant public health concerns that threaten both the physical and mental health of African-American women are Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). African-American women (AAW) in the south carry the greatest burden of HIV and disproportionately represent the region with an incidence of 71% for new HIV infections, and elevated rates of morbidity and mortality. In 2013, the murder rate among AAW was 2.5 times higher than it was among Caucasian women. Most of the published studies that explored the association between IPV and HIV had mixed populations, did not explore topics unique to AAs, or were qualitative studies. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between colorism, IPV, and high-risk sexual behaviors (HRSB)/HIV-risk among AAW and determine if colorism was a mediator in the IPV-HRSB relationship. The theory of power and gender and the social cognitive theory provided the theoretical framework of this study. The dissemination of this self-assessed quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was to a homogeneous sample of 143 women. The analysis of the variables used correlation statistics and linear regression. Findings revealed a significant relationship between IPV-HRSB (r = .882, p =.001), colorism-IPV (r2 = .371, p = .001) and colorism-HRSB (r = .377, p = .001); however, colorism did not mediate the IPV-HRSB relationship. This study has implications for positive social change in that practitioners may gain a better understanding of colorism's influence on IPV and HRSB, and may serve to modify existing programs. This knowledge may subsequently help to decrease adverse behaviors that are unique to AAW prone to IPV with an increased HIV-risk as a result of colorism.

Community is an evolving and complex concept that historians have applied to localities, counties, and the South as a whole in order to ground larger issues in the day-to-day lives of all segments of society. These social networks sometimes unite and sometimes divide people, they can mirror or transcend political boundaries, and they may exist solely within the cultures of like-minded people.This volume explores the nature of southern communities during the long nineteenth century. The contributors build on the work of scholars who have allowed us to see community not simply as a place but instead as an idea in a constant state of definition and redefinition. They reaffirm that there never has been a singular southern community. As editors Steven E. Nash and Bruce E. Stewart reveal, southerners have constructed an array of communities across the region and beyond. Nor do the contributors idealize these communities. Far from being places of cooperation and harmony, southern communities were often rife with competition and discord. Indeed, conflict has constituted a vital part of southern communal development. Taken together, the essays in this volume remind us how community-focused studies can bring us closer to answering those questions posed to Quentin Compson in Absalom, Absalom!: “Tell [us] about the South. What’s it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.” / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1290/thumbnail.jpg

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