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This thesis examines the promise and problems of memoir in the pedagogy and practices of teaching memoir in college composition. I interviewed three University of Central Florida instructors who value memoir in composition, and who at the time of this study, were mandated to teach memoir in their composition courses. The interviews focus on three main points of interest: (1) the instructors’ motivations behind their teaching of memoir, (2) how these instructors see memoir functioning in their classes, and (3) what these instructors hope their students will gain in the process of writing the memoir essay. By analyzing these interviews, I was better able to understand the three instructors’ pedagogical choices and rationales for teaching memoir in their classes. I have also collected data and research from scholarly journal articles, books, and from my experiences teaching memoir in the composition classroom. This thesis challenges the widely accepted notion that memoir and the personal in composition scholarship, pedagogy, and teaching practices are “‘touchy-feely,’ ‘soft,’ ‘unrigorous,’ ‘mystical,’ ‘therapeutic,’ and ‘Mickey Mouse’” ways of meaning-making and teaching writing (Tompkins 214). My findings show that memoir in the classroom is richer and far more complex than it might appear at first, and that the teaching of memoir in composition can, in fact, be greater than the memoir essay itself. Even though each instructor I interviewed values the personal and believes memoir belongs in composition curriculum, it turns out that none of these instructors’ core reasons for teaching memoir was so his or her students could master writing the memoir essay, although this was important; rather the memoir essay ultimately served in the instructors’ classrooms as a conduit through which they ultimately could teach more diverse writing skills and techniques as well as intellectual concepts that truly inspired them. Since the teaching of memoir seems to be even iv more dynamic and versatile in process and pedagogy than many of the other essay genres traditionally taught in college composition, this thesis makes recommendations for how memoir needs to be viewed, written about, and taught in order to harness the promise of this essay genre more consistently in the discussion of composition pedagogy and in the teaching of memoir to our students in the composition classroom.

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Interdisciplinary integration and practice through meaning making and context can contribute to the reconsideration and revolution of research by supporting narrativesand creating space for public discourse. In researching my heritage as a Korean adoptee, I found that the literature has been predominantly from adoptive parents' perspective,focusing primarily on child and adolescent development. Lacking in the literature is the adult adoptee perspective, and specifically their experiential voices. This interdisciplinary thesis has three major purposes (1) to explore how transracial transnational Korean adoption affects identity formation, (2) to illustrate how mentoring relationships can be a means to address and reframe the theme of loss as experienced by an adoptee, and (3) to use interdisciplinary inquiry as a means of expression to make meaning and illuminate adoptee identity formation. Drawing from my personal experience as an adoptee, an artist, a researcher, and as an educational mentee I integrate past research findings, Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN: storytelling), epistolary Scholarly Personal Narrative (eSPN: epistolary storytelling), and visual artistic research through jewelry/sculpture to describe constructing my adoptee identity. Images of the jewelry/sculpture are provided, while a public art opening displayed the series of work.

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and Chronic Pain Syndrome (CPS) can be treated in many different ways. I found a problem in the balance of healing modalities surrounding diagnosis and care of illness and disease. This struggle is not singular to AS and CPS, but universal to physical and mental concerns. Some effective treatments and therapies are not recognized as such or are just beginning to become so. The scope of my work reflects on the course of my life. It was heavily influenced by the way my medical care was managed from an early age and how it evolved over the years. Through my educational program, I examined the necessity to bridge the gap between treatment paradigms and to expand on a broader, more inclusive, healing rubric. This rubric includes a broader emphasis on skill-based and complementary and alternative medicines. The viability to incorporate holistic health therapies earlier in life is explored through my use of the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) qualitative research method. I chose this methodology because scientific fact could be argued either way for one therapeutic approach over another. By incorporating lived experience through SPN the union and cohesion necessary in all healing modalities, and their positive aspects, can be seen. The truth becomes self-evident. The results of this examination showed awareness earlier in life toward alternative and holistic treatments being paramount. Parents and educators lack information concerning modern therapeutic approaches. It also showed each situation will vary, but choice in treatment for ailments and illness of all kinds is not only viable, but highly recommended and researched. Access issues such as health insurance remain obstacles with some treatments and therapies, while others are a matter of cost prohibition, such as nutrition therapies. The implications of my work indicate a need for earlier incorporation of holistic healing programs and skill based therapies alongside perpetuated medical models in early childhood development and education. In conclusion, awareness towards medical concerns and how we as a society treat them can be improved upon by systemically incorporating less harmful therapies earlier in life. Fostering relations between medical providers, care providers and educators for students' wellbeing should be the foreground of any educational policy. Educators and parents alike should be made aware of and take advantage of effective skill-based treatments before a physical or mental condition surfaces or medication only approaches are authoritatively recommended. Integrating programs that build strong mental resilience and focus on youth development and education can reduce the necessity for more invasive treatments or medications should an ailment or illness develop.

Second-generation college students comprise a large majority of the collegiate population. The research on this population strongly suggests that their knowledge, capitals, and the support received from their parents gives them a “jump start” in higher education in comparison to their first-generation peers. The positive exposure to higher education received by second-generation college students is asserted to be directly linked to their parents' experiences in higher education. Second-generation college students are assumed to possess the basic knowledge for successful navigation of the college experience. As a second-generation, African-American college student, I carried a high level of expectation and numerous assumptions about what my experiences would be like in the academy. I assumed that my mother's college education would have a positive effect on my college journey. As my college experience unfolded, I found myself severely deficient when it came to basic collegiate knowledge and survival skills. The radical changes in higher education that had occurred during the twenty years between the collegiate experiences of my mother and me greatly decreased my mother's ability to pass on knowledge that was still up-to-date and practical for my experience. My journey through college was nothing like the second-generation student literature suggested. My experiences in higher education closely paralleled those associated with the first-generation student population. The challenges I faced included social, cultural and racial integration, course and major selection, reduced parental involvement and financial strain. I have since come to view myself as a first-generation college student amid second-generation college student assumptions and expectations. Through the use of Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology, this dissertation seeks to bring into focus a hitherto hidden population in higher education. These are the students, who in spite of having at least one parent or guardian with a college degree, do not know how to navigate the college journey; these are the students who feel like imposters in the academy because it is assumed they are better equipped to navigate the institution. In this dissertation I draw upon numerous studies of first-generation and second-generation college students to create an empirical understanding of the dual and dueling narrative I occupied during my undergraduate experience. I explore concepts of cultural and academic capital as being vital in my ability to master the college environment. I introduce for the first time in the literature a concept I call “values capital.” I also discuss the salience of social class identity in the pursuit of higher education in order to frame a narrative of my own self-empowerment and subsequent integration into higher education. In addition to a number of empirical studies, I will draw upon biographies and my own personal narrative to elucidate the universal themes of self-empowerment, authenticity, insecurity, ambition, and meaning-making—themes that all second-generation-on-the-outside but first-generation-on-the-inside students must confront if they are to be successful in higher education.

ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I explore my role as an administrator in higher education admissions at a major university and as a working mother who faces many real world challenges. The grueling travel demands, lofty enrollment goals, campus and inter-office politics, as well as the weekend and late night hours required, made it extremely difficult to achieve a healthy work life balance in admissions while also raising a small child. Additionally, "admissions" is increasingly becoming the "hot seat" within institutions of higher education. Gone are the days of an almost tenure like quality to enrollment professionals. If an enrollment director or vice president does not meet his numbers, their position is gone. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology, I seek to inquire into my experiences and to understand and focus on my resilience and spirituality and how I have come to harness this power in my work with students and their parents in one of the most anticipated and often dreaded parts of individuation-- the college admissions process. I share how becoming a working (single) mother in this profession was especially challenging amidst the highest-ranking professional women where I worked, many of whom were not mothers. I could not find a role model at the top that had small children. In this process, I discovered that I could use my experience and education in a more family-friendly role--higher education consulting.

My graduate film at Virginia Commonwealth University, "Nunna Mia e la Barca," explores the traditions behind narrative and documentary film construction. With this project, my goal was to blend narrative story telling techniques - for example continuity editing - with that of documentary approaches in order to communicate the story of my Italian grandmother, Nunna, and her journey on the Andrea Doria in 1956. These documentary approaches focus more on the specific details of Nunna's American home as I have experienced them growing up. Everything in the motion picture frame has been lit, composed, rehearsed, and edited as in any fictional film, but the actors are my family and do play themselves and others throughout the piece. Although the work is scripted, the actuality of Nunna being herself and acting out her daily tasks creates a soft merging of fiction and nonfiction that makes the film nearly docudramatic. The docudramatic elements(elements dramatized from a true story) stem from both the biographical information as well as the perception of the abstracted objects in Nunna's house. As in most of my films, my interest lies in the relationship between past and present events and the effect they have on the individual experiencing them. In order for me to tackle the combination of narrative and documentary, I had to define the terms as I understood them to be.