Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this community
News
The Library is undergoing a migration to Spartan Search, where the UoTIR will be integrated in with our catalog. Current capstones, theses, and dissertations will be housed in the Digital Collections found here: https://ut.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=01UTAMPA_INST:SpartanSearch
Browse
Browsing Graduate Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing 1 - 20 of 301
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item An Absurdity of Bodies(The University of Tampa, 2019-01-03) Whaley, KaylaIn this collection of essays, a young girl keeps discarded butterfly wings in a secret box in her desk. Prayer healers and medical researchers compete for a preteen's faith. A college student finds friendship and heartache in a toxic, sexually-charged quartet. And after acquiring a feeding tube, a young woman finds solace in learning the intimate rhythms of her stomach. Blending narrative essay, lyric essay, and micro-memoir, AN ABSURDITY OF BODIES explores the physical, emotional, and sensual realities of inhabiting a body and the processes by which we become acquainted with our own physical selves and those of others.Item ACROSS THE BRIDGE; REMEMBERING AFRICA FROM THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2014-06-05) Isaac, Cheryl CollinsBy the time she arrived in the United States in 1996, Cheryl had been a victim of the First Liberian Civil War which was started in 1989 as a coup attempt by rebel leader, Charles Taylor, to overthrow corrupt president, Samuel Kanyon Doe. Cheryl’s father was a member of Doe’s cabinet. The coup soon escalated into a war as Liberia unraveled and rebels fought to eliminate remnants of Doe’s government. Founded in 1847 by African American freed slaves, Liberia had undergone years of unrest because of divisions between Americo-Liberians and Native-Liberians. Once Cheryl’s father fled the country and her mother was captured and forced to live with the warlord Prince Johnson, Cheryl soon found herself in the middle of war, separated from her family, and coping with a lifestyle much different from the privileged, Americo-Liberian one she had grown accustomed to. Fifteen years later, she suddenly finds herself reliving those years from a remote town within the Appalachian Mountains. Mirroring memory and the psychology of war trauma, this work of nonfiction uses two distinct narrative modes and voices to capture: Liberia from a child’s perspective in the early 1990s, and rural America from an adult’s contemplation in the year 2012; a Liberian girl in the middle of war, an American woman recovering from war.Item AFTERLIGHT(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2017-06-15) Berry, StevenAfterlight is a modular work which utilizes 17 found artifacts from a collection of many objects discovered by the author. The author functions as a curator, presenting these artifacts to the reader. At the core of the work is a mystery: a town which has disappeared from both records and the physical world. Found items in Afterlight are presented in their original forms, both to preserve their integrity and to filter out narrator bias. The curator and reader investigate the artifacts together, piecing together evidence and making conclusions along the way. Instead of solely reading the book, the audience is expected to act as a co‑investigator. The premise of Afterlight is an experiment in presenting a narrative that deviates from traditional structure and instead is meant to be experienced like an exhibit or case file. Afterlight is a vehicle to explore motifs of secrecy, finding identity, the pliability of truth, the terrors of uncertainties and unknowns, coming of age, the illusion of innocence, and to what extent anything can truly be forgoen. The variety of source material utilized throughout the book provided ample opportunities to work in different modes and tones, resulting in a product that more closely resembles reality than a first‑ or third‑person narrative method. Most importantly, Afterlight was created as a record of a place with no record; it no longer exists outside of these pages. Therefore, preserving the memories and events of that place was a prime motivator in the creation of the book.Item Ahab: A Hockey Story(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2021-01-16) Huestis, BradleyAHAB: A Hockey Story is a sports themed Bildungsroman featuring Corporal Will Foley, an injured U.S. Army paratrooper. After losing his foot, Will must fight to regain his old life—soldiering back, rekindling his passion for ice hockey, and coming to terms with himself, his girlfriend, and his Boston PD father.Item The Alafaya Collection(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2020-06-18) Bentley, LeeAlafaya is a novel told in stories spread across generations as one girl seeks to renew the bond between her land and magic. Conthesa is a young girl whose only wish was to grow up peacefully with her sisters on the edge of the woods. When a voice leads her to the infected World Tree, Conthesa becomes caught up in an ancient struggle between the shadowy lower realms, corrupted Kings, and the magic she has sworn to protect. The structure of events and varying points of view play a vital role in this novel. The stories shift perspectives to show how the choices made by some lead to new paths for others. Conthesa’s journey to understand the truth in the connections we make in life and the power they hold, are showcased through her gains and losses as she progresses through the narrative. Alafaya is a collection drawing on fairytales and legends of old to rethink what we know of the origin of myths.Item All That is Given(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2018-01-04) Levin, MeganIn All That is Given, Megan Levin confronts the shattering of the Davis family, and the pieces that spread and grow on European and American soil. After undertaking the task to heal from maternal divergence, daughter Aubrey and her husband Johannes Esser create their lives in the university town of Marburg, Germany. Back in New England, younger brother Isaac vows to keep his wife Muriel in an eternal state of felicitousness. Aubrey’s best friend and sister-in-law, Bridgett, soon becomes the median between what is left of the Davis family. With the help of a Parisian painter, she shelters her nephew before he too is caught up their perpetual familial feuds. This novel pilots readers though the Davis’ and Essers’ adolescent adventures through the use of flashback, and invites readers to explore the demands and cultural electricity of expatriation as it is seen through the eyes of young adults.Item Altar Call(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2018-06-14) Dupuy, Daniel"Altar Call and Other Stories" shows the division inside and between characters. The collection explores this relationship through prideful siblings, oblivious parents, and troubling neighbors. It contains themes of death, betrayal, moral duty, and mercy. The stories often feature the struggles of growing up as an older sibling through “Golden Hour,” where a sister struggles to process her relation to her ill brother, and “Brothers,” where the older brother must decide if he will defend his younger brother who is getting bullied. It features themes of physical deformity boys born with no arch to their feet in “Sins of the Father,” a father who has lost his eye to cancer in “How to Kill a God,” and a young man who tries to atone for his sins by plucking out his eyes in “Dust.” The stories are grounded primarily in reality with occasional diverges into the fantastical when the characters imagine events playing out, experience events half asleep, and go on bad drug trips. The language is focused primarily on metaphor, and each of the endings move towards an epiphanic moment, without stating each one explicitly. The stories attempt to draw from theological principles, but are grounded often anagogically rather than in parable or direct allegory. The characters are often unsympathetic and operate at odds to their own beliefs, resisting their own systems of thought. While they often move towards self-realization, they seldom experience a change in themselves, but there’s a change outside of them that transforms something or someone else, such as the unnamed man in “Asher” or the neighbor in “August.”Item Altitudes: A Collection of Poems(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2015) Stevens, Taylor AndyItem Alzheimer's Foundation of America Resources to Caregivers of Persons Living With Dementia(Nursing Department, The University of Tampa, 2022-12-15) O’Connell, Margaret; Dr. Robin WhiteAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurocognitive degenerative disease with progressive deterioration of memory, orientation, cognitive thinking and is the major leading cause of dementia. The deterioration may become disabling, requiring a caregiver around the clock. Most caregivers are not trained or prepared for the care required. The purpose of this project was to recognize the caregiver’s lack of knowledge of AD and ADrelated dementia (ADRD), provide resources to the caregiver to increase their knowledge, and provide AD/ADRD patient activities. The planned method was to survey the AD/ADRD caregiver, provide education, and administer a post survey after several weeks. The survey instrument consisted of questions of data collection to evaluate the information on an AD caregiver website. The original survey was used by speech pathologists and published in 2018, survey was simplified for caregiver ease of reading. The survey consisted of closed ended survey questions. A ten answer Likert scale was used to allow the researcher to gather detailed data and increase validity. The quantitative data was analyzed using inferential statistics. This study evaluated the AD/ADRD caregivers knowledge base on AD following review of the content on the Alzheimer’s Foundation of Americas’ web based Teal Room. The mean pre survey overall was significantly lower than the mean post survey overall.Item American-Cuban(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2017-06-15) Medrano, OscarItem Analysis of Social Media Practices Used in Hiring Practices and the Ethical Questions Raised(MAPC, The University of Tampa, 2021-12) Christian, SydneySociety relies heavily upon technology and social media to stay connected. The growth of the Internet has enabled the popularity of using social media in the workplace for professional purposes such as recruitment and hiring. There are some ethical and legal concerns when using social media in such practices. This project examined the role of social media in recruitment of employees. A survey was sent out to e-recruiters inquiring how recruiters and hiring managers feel about the lack of regulation in using social media for recruitment practices. Society and employers use social media for cybervetting and gathering supplemental information on candidates. This is dangerous because of legal and maybe even unethical implications as it invades a candidate’s personal space. This project sought to determine how recruiters are using social media. The results demonstrate that majority of respondents refrain from using social media as the sole factor in hiring or not hiring potential candidates. The results also showed there is a difference between the way various age groups look to social media for hiring practices; some seemed to think social media is a valid source to see if candidates are reliable whereas others did not. This research will help recruiters make sure they are following proper protocol in hiring.Item THE ANGEL'S SHARE: Fourteen Chapters from the Eighteen-Chapter Novel(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2016-01-07) Ishmael, SusanItem Another Kind of Love(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2016-06-16) Del Rio, ChristinaAnother Kind of Love is a novel that tells of loss, love and fate as seen through the lives of Ray and Cheyenne—whose love for each other takes them both by surprise. Cheyenne begins her story engaged to Jedidiah, a loving, wealthy and caring man. Ray, the foreman of a construction company, meets Cheyenne, who is distressed by the growing illness of her nursing home-bound mother. Their initial meeting sparks the inevitable course of their relationship. Beyond love, Ray struggles with questioning her faith and her role in Santeria, the ancient earth religion practiced by many in the Puerto Rican community, including Ray’s mother, whose ultimate goal is passing down the ways of Santeria to her daughter. Through interactions with friends, family, and the heart, Ray and Cheyenne face different life choices that force them to ask the question: How do you answer love?Item THE ARCHBISHOP’S SON: A Novel(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2014-06-19) Hosek, Don A.The Archbishop’s Son tells the tale of Emil, an orphan raised in a Catholic orphanage in 1900 Prague. He discovers his mother had been one of the nuns at the orphanage and when he finds her, she tells him that his father is the archbishop and asks him to avenge her for the fate she suffered after being expelled from her order. The novel examines questions of theodicy, justice and family relations.Item ARMADILLO’S CROSSING: A MEMOIR(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2014-06) Lockwood-Fleming, Katherine BatesOne night Kathy Lockwood comes home to find her father has cut his hand and can only assume he has killed her mother. Her OCD and dysfunctional life lead her to expect the worse – and often that’s what happens. Like an armadillo, she sees herself as road kill as she navigates her crazy life in the late 70s/early 80s of Washington D.C. and later Tampa, Florida, told with a sense of humor and comfortable voice. So while she didn’t have most of the usual teenaged problems like broken hearts and prom dates, she had to keep her family alive – at least until she could see them split safely apart.Item The Art of the Snare Drum(MAPC, The University of Tampa, 2022-08-11) Steele, Cameron; Dr. Patrick SeickA book on comprehensive drumming technique that explains the ins and outs of how to play the snare drum in a loose and relaxed manner.Item Asbestos: A Collection of Stories(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2014-06) Tier, BenjaminHerein contains a collection of my thesis work, consisting of short stories. Each story was written and revised during my time with the University of Tampa MFA in Creative Writing program. As an artist, I seek to explore the impulses and sensations of which I am most ashamed. As a writer and a student, I aim to craft this shame into prose fiction. “Asbestos” symbolizes a universally acknowledged evil that was once a perfectly viable commodity. There exist many asbestoses. The obvious evils are horrifying, but even more so are the subtle asbestoses that lead to the metastasis of moral destruction.Item Atlas Was a Housekeeper(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2020-01-09) McMahon, DawnItem Attitudes and Barriers to Telemedicine Among Adults(MAPC, The University of Tampa, 2023-08-15) Pierpont, Elizabeth; Roman Sereda PA-C, DMScTelemedicine involves the use of technology to deliver healthcare services remotely, and while it has been growing in popularity, there are still barriers to its adoption. Previous research indicates that age, education level, computer literacy, and bandwidth availability can act as significant barriers to its adoption. Patients with higher education levels and residing in rural areas tended to use telemedicine more readily, while certain age groups, especially older individuals, exhibit varied attitudes towards its efficacy compared to in-person visits (Scott Kruse et al., 2018; Tipre et al., 2022; Eikelboom & Atlas, 2005; Waselewski et al., 2022). Therefore, we aim to identify what the attitudes and barriers are to telemedicine among 5 different age groups. An anonymous online Qualtrics survey was used to collect data from adults 18 years and older between May 31, 2023, and July 15, 2023, from 206 respondents. Results found that younger (18-25) and older (70+) adults were more comfortable with telemedicine, while middle aged participants (36-50) experienced more discomfort with technology to communicate with doctors. Participants considered telemedicine suitable for prescriptions and lab results but less suitable for annual physicals and dermatological conditions. Advantages included time efficiency, convenience, and increased access to providers, while disadvantages included technological difficulties, limited interaction, and lack of physical examination. Those needing assistance setting up appointments showed lower confidence in using video chat, but overall, telemedicine was perceived positively across age groups.Item Aurora(MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa, 2021-01-16) Perkins, DixieAurora is the story of a seventeen-year-old orphaned fae hybrid, with the royal bloodlines to stop the bloodshed and unite the unseen races of the Mythian world. Living as an empathically gifted human, she hides her talents while being hunted by those who killed her mother and are determined to prevent her from brokering peace. As the story unfolds, Aurora discovers the value of friendship and faces harsh, unchangeable realities with a measure of grace that inspires imitation. This YA novel in the fantasy genre explores the notion of belonging: to family, to a vocation, to a culture, and simultaneously to one’s self. Using imagery of light and darkness and those amorphous moments of transition in-between to illustrate the process of growing up, this work demonstrates how teens become independently their own person and invites them to ponder the paths open to them on their road to adulthood.