Theses and dissertations published by graduate students in the Department of English, College of Arts & Letters, Old Dominion University, since Fall 2016 are available in this collection. Backfiles of all dissertations (and some theses) have also been added.
In late Fall 2025, all theses will be digitized and available here. In the meantime, consult the Library Catalog to find older items in print.
Theses/Dissertations from 2024
Dissertation: Contemporary Caribbean-American Literature: Identity Struggle for Caribbean Diasporic Subjects in American Racial and Cultural Contexts, Samirah Munahi Almutairi
Dissertation: Appalachia in the Anthropocene: An Approach to Understanding Neo Appalachian Narratives as an Affective Ecology, Rachel Michel Bates
Thesis: Days of a Daughter, Rebekah Marie Broussard
Dissertation: Developing Intercultural Competence and Cultural Capital: Applying Virtual Reality to Study Abroad Pedagogy, Jenifer Butler
Thesis: The Khronicon Part One: A Child of the Sancti, Richard Gerard Catoire
Dissertation: Medical Practice as Rhetorical Art Functional Medicine’s Therapeutic Partnership, Cristina Elena De León-Menjivar
Thesis: Space Junk, Bridget Megan Dolan
Thesis: Journalist Unplugged, Venisa J. Fields
Dissertation: “[T]he Observance of Trifles": Mapping Imperial Assemblages in Nineteenth-Century British Serialized Crime Fiction, Dana Joy Gavin
Dissertation: The Invisible African: Integrating the Black British Experience in 18th and 19th Century British Literature Survey Courses, Angela F. Jacobs
Thesis: Hozier, TikTok, and Sapphic Rhetoric, Sophia Marie Kovalcik
Dissertation: Finding Elleanor: The Missing Black Woman in Frances Whipple’s Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge and Elleanor’s Second Book, Judah-Micah Lamar
Thesis: This Changes Everything: A Memoir in Essays, Kate Lewis
Thesis: 1994, Jenn Sloggie
Dissertation: Inviting Submission: Isabella Beeton at the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, 1856-1865, Julie Megan Sorge Way
Dissertation: “Where Have all the Women Gone?” Circulating Rhetoric in Country Music Playlists, Rachel Van Hofwegen Willis
Theses/Dissertations from 2023
Dissertation: Multisensory Virtual Reality Artists and Media Dimensions Toward Immersion: A Framework of Mediology for Understanding Professional Communication Rhetorics, D’An Knowles Ball
Thesis: Service Etiquette (Love Stories), Emma Taber Coomey
Thesis: Seeking Sabbath in Annie Dillard's Holy the Firm, Olivia Grace Dycus
Thesis: High Functioning, Sean Fitzpatrick
Thesis: Focused on Freedom: Exploring the Potential of Grading Contracts to Support Writers in the Secondary English Language Arts Classroom, Margaret McGregor Fluharty
Thesis: And Then There Were Ghosts, Dan Heck
Thesis: The Human That Is Not Human: Examining the Doppelganger Through David Hume, Brittnea Anne Holland
Dissertation: Men, Women, and Italians: The Masquerade of Narrative and Identity in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, Ruth A. Holmes
Dissertation: Silently Correcting Your Grammar: Responses to Feedback and Adult Learners' Rural Writing Ecosystems, Jessica Marie Kubiak
Thesis: Becoming the Family Archive, Temitope Abigail Larayetan
Thesis: Some Stories from a Black Girl from the Bronx, Serenity Marshall
Dissertation: "I Think There Is a Place for Small Programs:" Advocating, Implementing, and Sustaining TPC Programs in Small US Institutions, Martha Lynn Russell
Thesis: Terrence Loves You, Quentin Dakota Steadman
Thesis: Her Precious White Body/Her Tender Black Flesh: The Gothic Link to Black Women's (Mis)Treatment in Real Life and on the Page, Madisty R. Thomas
Thesis: The Strong Black Woman ≠ Superwoman: Shattering Stereotypes of Strength in Black Literature, Tricia Inez Thomas
Thesis: Convenient Store, Caitie Van Dore
Dissertation: A Mindful Search for Basic Writing Identities: Constellating Contemplative Classroom Pedagogies, Classroom Community Circles, and Critical Discourse Analysis in a Cultural Rhetorics Ecology, Elizabeth Edwards Weems
Dissertation: Educator Professional Development as Rhetorical Situation, Bethany Leigh Creswell Wilson
Thesis: Pregnancy Island, Lacy L. Woods
Theses/Dissertations from 2022
Dissertation: Reading with Social, Digital Annotation: Encouraging Engaged Critical Reading in a Challenging Age, Miranda L. Egger
Dissertation: ESL to Composition Transitions: Investigating the Differences in Disciplinary Values Among Two-Year College Faculty, Amy M. Flessert
Thesis: The Forms of Things Unknown, Anna Marie Fogler
Thesis: Radically Inclusive Pedagogy and Praxis, Danie Jules Hallerman
Dissertation: Centering Community College Students' Experiences: A Multiple Methods Study of Multiple Measures for Writing Placement, Nicole L. Hancock
Dissertation: “Finding a Balance”: User, Reader, and Learner Functions in First-Year Composition Textbook Engagement, Travis Vincent Holt
Thesis: Addressing Public Perceptions About Cell-Based Meat and Cellular Agriculture Through Metaphors, Yvette Emma Hubbard
Dissertation: Fragmentation in the Dual Enrollment Experience: The Importance of Students’ Self-Perceptions in Dual Enrollment First-Year Composition Students, Sarah Crystal Johnson
Thesis: Serendipityblah, Amanda Linn Kunkel
Thesis: Toggling Between, Briana Morris
Thesis: IPROBLEMS, Matthew G. Moscato
Thesis: In the Wild a Parasite, Kelsey Ryann Orsini
Dissertation: Natural History of Discourse of Missouri House Bill 1042: Bringing a Critical Perspective to Policy Engagement in Two-Year Contexts, Mary Casey Reid
Thesis: Symbiotic Complexity, Francesca Santos
Dissertation: A Nexus of Literate Activity: The Design of Writing Assignments in the Disciplines, Lauriellen Stankavich
Thesis: You Are The Right One, James Joseph Valliere
Thesis: Navy Blues: Between Waves and Warriors, Reinetta A. Vaneendenburg
Thesis: Flying In Mind, Paula Jean Walashek
Thesis: Bad Actors, Wendell Ward
Thesis: Greenbox to Barbershops, Willie Wilson
Theses/Dissertations from 2021
Thesis: When They Came for Us, Samia Ahmed
Dissertation: The Spooky Vein: The Reparative Gothic-Modern in the Works of Richard A.W. Hughes, Corwin R. Baden
Thesis: Manifesting Devi, Roudri Bandyopadhyay
Thesis: On Being Seen or For Those Who Break Like Me, Shanisha K. Branch
Thesis: Rescripting Father-Daughter Dynamics: New Masculinities and Relational Possibilities in Post-Apocalyptic Video Games, Sarah Mortazavi Brooks
Thesis: Maladies & Remedies, Timothy Michael Fulghum
Dissertation: Building Bridges in First-Year Composition: Investigating the Support of Threshold Concepts in Writing-Related Transfer Across the Curriculum, Elise Antoinette Green
Thesis: Inter Alia, Richard Leise
Thesis: Bastard, Rashad McDowell
Thesis: Storied, Healing, Lili Louzhi Nizankiewicz
Thesis: Don't Destroy Yourself, Timothy Norton
Thesis: Never Pull an Arrow Out of a Body, Matthew Gerald Olive
Thesis: Tools and Ornaments, Tracy E. Rice Webber
Thesis: The Flame Returned: A Novel, Lee H. Smith
Thesis: Inside You, Your Cells Dividing Like Stars, Courtney Lauren Tala
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
Thesis: Diagnosis: Weirdo, James Corbett Beardsley
Dissertation: Students at a Crossroads: TA Development Across Pedagogical and Curricular Contexts, Cassandra Ann Book
Dissertation: Terrorists, Zombies, and Robots: The Political Unconscious, Thematics, and Affectual Structures of the Post-9/11 American Fear Narrative, Nathanael J. Cloyd
Dissertation: Global Language Variation in Online Writing Instructional Spaces: English as a Lingua Franca Among Global Participants in a Massive Open Online Course, Angela May Dadak
Thesis: Colin and the Nachtmar, Elizabeth Sarah Golliher
Dissertation: A Rhetorical Frame Analysis of Palestinian-Led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement Discourse, Jennifer Megan Hitchcock
Thesis: The Open Heart Furnace, David Jacobson
Thesis: The Shape of Things We Won't Say, Raoul Lobo
Dissertation: Concept Maps as Sites of Rhetorical Invention: Teaching the Creative Act of Synthesis as a Cognitive Process, Amy Lee Marie Locklear
Dissertation: Climate Change Games as Boundary Objects: Fostering Dialogic Communication within Stakeholder Engagement, Megan L. McKittrick
Dissertation: Holy Stitches Batman, or, Performative Villainy in Gothic/am, A. Luxx Mishou
Dissertation: Leveraging Maternal Rhetoric, Space, and Experience: La Leche League's Emergence as a Counterpublic, Jenny Lynn Moore
Dissertation: Playing on the Threshold: Topological Chronotopes and Video Games, Michael Joseph Piero
Dissertation: Shelter Rhetorics: Narrative Pathways & Assemblages of The U.S. Asylum Process, Monica Reyes
Thesis: Narmada, Bhavika Sicka
Thesis: What We Do Not Perceive When We Perceive It, Hannah Jane Trammell
Dissertation: Critical Language Awareness Pedagogy in First-Year Composition: A Design-Based Research Study, Megan Michelle Weaver
Thesis: Responsible Friend, Nina Correa White
Theses/Dissertations from 2019
Thesis: Pangaea, Nishat Manzoor Ahmed
Dissertation: Rhetorics of Functionally Applicative Game Design: Designing and Testing the Project Management Game Scrummage, Matthew Carson Beale
Thesis: Spiraling, Madeline Flynn Carey
Dissertation: The Women of Explosive Ordnance Disposal: Cyborg, Techno-Bodies, Situated Knowledge, and Vibrant Materiality in Military Cultures, April Michelle Cobos
Dissertation: Collaboration and Community in Undergraduate Writing Synchronous Video Courses (SVCs), Kimberly Fahle
Dissertation: Rhetorical Agency in Algorithm-Centered Digital Activity: Methods for Tracing Agency in Online Research, Daniel L. Hocutt
Dissertation: Adding Soul to the Message: Applying African American Jeremiad Rhetoric as Culturally Competent Health Communication Online, Wilbert Francisco LaVeist
Thesis: Sugartown, Emma Moore
Dissertation: Familiar Forms, Strange Uses: Paratexts, Narrative Interventions, and the Queering of Possible Worlds in Illicit Narratives of Nineteenth-Century Britain, Jessica Saxon
Dissertation: Crafting A Pedagogical Identity: A Multiple-Method Examination of an English Department’s Writing Pedagogy, Nathan Alan Serfling
Dissertation: Around Her Table: A Digital Community Archive Featuring Azorean-American Women in New England, Suzanne Lyn Parenti Sink
Thesis: Speaking for the Grotesques: The Historical Articulation of the Disabled Body in the Archive, Violet Marie Strawderman