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School of Communication Studies - Graduate Student Scholarship

Current Students: Click here to submit your submit your masters thesis. If you have questions about your submission please contact the repository administrators.

Theses from 2025 2025

The Performance of Gender in Sound and Screen: Unpacking and Countering the Double Standards of Women in Taylor Swift’s “The Man,” Brienne of Tarth, and The Substance, Alexandra C. Ali

Seeking existential meaning in the “sea of trees:” A qualitative exploration in the depths of Japan’s Aokigahara “Suicide” Forest, Sophia Bates

Unheard Voices: A Poetic Inquiry into the Menace of Child Abuse in Nigeria, Folajimi Kalejaye

Confronting the postcolonial condition: A study on the blesser-blessee phenomenon in South Africa, Thandwa Maphalala

The voices of Black motherscholars: Navigating academia, motherhood, and beyond, DaNae Peterson and DaNae Peterson

Collisions: The Enlivened Entanglements of the Object-Self, Grace P. Smith

Theses from 2024 2024

Look: An examination of the clothing and clothing assemblages of the Washington D.C. punk scene, Cedric Ansah

“But because we are Christian”: The exploration of communication frames and identity negotiation among African immigrants and Black Americans in a multicultural church, Hawa Diakite

An examination of the fitsparation principles of influence, Anita Faerchuk and Anita Faerchuk

“If we don't get the help that we need, what does that say about the future for Americans?”: A rhetorical analysis of public responses to Ohio environmental disasters, Kaitlin M. Gold

Envisioning our ecological futures. Diffracting creative expressions., Mariam Ismail

Unpacking my dreadlocks: My hair MATTers depending on where I go, Tia Jones

Navigating global influence: A qualitative exploration of funding dynamics and stakeholder engagement in sexual and reproductive health organizations in Nepal, Jenisha Mainali

Theses from 2023 2023

The sounds of the shore: An Afrofuturistic double record performed through vernacular technology, Collin Bright

Talking back to white systems of power: A black feminist critical autoethnography, Kimberly Diggs

A qualitative analysis of nascent scientists’ understanding of communication and identity, Mercy Oluwabukunmi Faleyimu

Conversations with the “Queens of Lez,” “ChapStick Lesbians,” and fellow femmes; A qualitative exploration of queer femmeness, femme sex, and femme relationships, Megan Moore

American vibe check: Based, mid, or cringe? Measuring Gen Z’s attitudes and perceptions about American democracy, Bethany Perryman

Theses from 2022 2022

Cycles of domination and resistance: A performance autoethnography of a Black woman at a PWI, Savannah Brown

The theory of reasoned action as a basis for investment in cryptocurrency, WRR Rinaldo

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles: An autoethnographic study of a mother-daughter relationship experienced through a wounded body, Kathleen Smith

“but for those of us who live here”: Performance of work and community by women employed in rural, predominantly white, small-town schools, Telena M. Turner

Theses from 2021 2021

Seeking new understanding of primarycare policy constraints: A qualitative assessment of health workers and community perspectives on the role of communication in the implementation of Ghana‘s national community health policy, Mathias Aboba

Understanding motivations to attend various sized churches: A study using family communication patterns, expectancy violations, and anxiety to predict church attendance, Molly Bradshaw

"I just wanted to feel heard": An autoethnography of feminist complaint and institutional response, Rachel L. Mangan

Youth as coalitional possibility in the Youth Climate Movement: An analysis of the climate justice rhetoric of Hilda Nakabuye, Autumn Peltier, & Greta Thunberg, Kristopher Samuel

Ecofascist “Snakeoil” and the imperative of racializing environmental justice for the 21st century: A Burkean rhetorical criticism of contemporary ecofascist manifestos, Lantz Shifflett

'Why do they make her wear that?': A rhetorical analysis of Ramy Youssef: Feelings, Rania Zaied

Theses from 2020 2020

Because I, as a Black Woman, Can: Using autoethnography to investigate and evaluate hegemonic systems of oppression facing queer black women, Mayah-Peacelynn Bell

Finding my feet: An autoethnographic study of a Kosovar student, Erjona Gashi

Protecting the image of a nation: Jim Crow propaganda, Kevin Leaven

The (in)visible woman: A performative autoethnographic exploration of queer femme-ininity and queer isolation, Bri Ozalas

Making engineers: An ethnography of undergraduate engineering students in a project-based program, Bethany Popelish

Young, gifted, and black: A narrative of persistence of black women in academia, Zelda Tackey

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Increasing understanding of professor’s ADHD knowledge and perception of ADHD and how this informs their behavior towards students with ADHD, Rebecca Rosen

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Staying with and telling different stories: Toward a theory of environmental advocacy that bridges the scholarly and political selves, Michael Clay

“We Make Death Look Pretty”: A qualitative study analyzing reported effects of compassion fatigue on hospice nurse-patient communication, Katherine Harville

Between beeps: An autoethnographic study on Type 1 Diabetes, intersectionality and the body in chaos, Cristal Llave

“Taking the Power Away”: An autoethnographic exploration of intimate partner violence, social support, and survivorship, Darrian Pickett

(In)visibility and meaning in food labor: A Feminist autoethnography, Kathryn Shedden

The confirmation of Betsy DeVos: Polarization, populism, and moral foundations in U.S. political rhetoric, Jacob William Wrasse

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Tension and complexity in decolonial advocacy: A rhetorical analysis of situated approach in western Shoshone, Bikinian, and Hawaiian resistance to militarized colonialism, Taylor Johnson

This is herpes: A qualitative investigation of the disclosure patterns of HSV2 individuals, Katrina Miles

No stigma, no shame: Reducing the stigma of mental illness in college freshmen dorms, Ashley R. Reynolds

#Zika #Olympics: The use of dialogue in tweets regarding the Zika virus and the 2016 Rio Olympics, Daniel W. Vieth

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

My body, our illness: Negotiating relational and identity tensions of living with mental illness, Erin E. Casey

(Re)positioning black: Negotiating racial subjectivities in white discursively constructed spaces, Elisa Davidson

Achoo! Three major US newspapers reporting on the flu before and after H1N1, Philip A. Harris

“Knee high to a grasshopper”: An exploration of Appalachian youth, family communication patterns, and depression, Cori Howard

Padded assumptions: A critical discourse analysis of patriarchal menstruation discourse, Kathryn M. Lese

Contesting “obligation”: Memory, morality, and the (re)Construction of divestment narratives, Christina Quint

A tank full of wishful thinking: Crystallizing the rhythms of the road, Leanna K. Smithberger

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Policing Charities: A genealogy of the American nonprofit in the context of neoliberalism, Jaclyn Carroll

Place, space, and family: A rhetorical analysis of the resistance rhetoric of Judy Bonds, Alex K. Davenport

Making sense of mediation: The intersection of critical event narratives at a community conflict resolution center, Eric Dirth

Vanguardia mujerista haciendo escuela: An oral history of Cuban feminism, Marie Eszenyi

Identity disclosure in lesbian, gay, and bisexual patient-provider communication, Nicole Hudak

Let’s chat: Willingness to communicate and the development of a destigmatizing campaign, Ethan D. Smith