Dissertations and Theses
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Publication From Classical and Patriarchal to Relational and Queer: Histories and Theories of Psychoanalysis(2025-05-19) Nugent, Jeanne; Carter, CarterAbstract This two-paper study investigates the historical and conceptual contexts of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, focusing on queer identity, sexuality, and gender. It examines the historiography and metapsychology of psychoanalysis to highlight the marginalized status of lesbian, gay, transgender, and gender non-conforming (LGBTGNC) people within the structure of the discipline itself. Part one explores the transmission of Freud’s foundational concepts through the leading histories of the movement over the past 125 years. It begins with Freud’s historical narratives about the movement and then traces the conditions that shaped the post-Freudian schools through subsequent chronicles. These historiographic sources document the impact of the end of the Victorian era, the World Wars, migration, Cold War politics, and social change movements within both progressive and regressive developments. Notably, most canonical texts ignore queer identity, gender, and sexuality within the overarching narrative. Part two evaluates the contributions of post-Freudian schools to metapsychology, starting with Freud’s Topographic and Structural models and tracing subsequent contributions from Ego psychology, Relational psychoanalysis, and Self Psychology. These schools decentered sexuality, leaving questions of queer (and non-queer) identity, gender, and sexuality under-theorized. The study concludes with a reconsideration of psychosexuality, dual-drive theory, innate polysexuality, and oedipal complexity as keys to a renewed psychoanalysis with queer people in mind, useful for the formulation of a new metapsychology relevant to a more fluid analysis of identity, gender, and sexuality today. Keywords: queer psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, LGBTQ+, metapsychology, Oedipus complex, Freud, Ego Psychology, Self Psychology, Relational Psychoanalysis, history of psychoanalysisPublication Rural Resistance to Renewable Energy: A Case Study of Cumberland Valley Township, PA(2025-05-18) Elijah Cook; Lisa, JosephThe United States’ energy transition is dependent on Rural America to shoulder the infrastructure of renewable development, but residents feel this threatens their identity, leading to opposition to renewable energy projects. This thesis employs a case study of the community's perspectives on a 7MW solar development in Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania. Renewable energy is critical for addressing the climate crisis, yet place-based, historical, and procedural factors influence rural communities to view these developments with opposition and skepticism. This study includes original survey data and interviews with key residents, finding that opposition stems from concerns about land use, aesthetics, lack of transparency, and community engagement. Residents' place attachments and historical relationships to the land play a crucial role in shaping their perceptions. These findings illustrate the need for inclusive, transparent planning when putting renewable infrastructure in rural communities. Rural America needs to be a partner, not an obstacle, in the country’s energy transition. For renewable developments to be successful, they must observe local values, history, and priorities in the communities they are situated in.Publication Coprophilous Fungi Spores as Proxy of Herbivore Presence near Vijayanagara-era Reservoir in Karnataka, India(2025-05) Pan, Connie; Morrison, Kathleen D.This thesis quantifies concentrations of coprophilous fungal spores in a sediment core from Kamalapuram Reservoir in South India, near the Vijayanagara Empire’s previous capital city. Analysis of the core, which captured depositional history dating from the 14th century to the present, aims to quantify dung fungal spore concentrations around the reservoir, assessing trends in spore concentrations in order to draw conclusions about herbivory, and comparing with pollen and charcoal records to identify correlation with human activity. As the first application of dung fungi analysis on sedimentary records from South Asia, this study also validates the taxa Sporormiella and Sordaria as indicators of herbivore presence in historical sediments from this region. Results reveal three major sections of the core. The deepest layers, dated to the height of the Vijayanagara empire, contain the highest dung fungi concentrations, suggesting dense local herbivore populations. Spore concentrations then decline, aligning with large-scale depopulation following the abandonment of the capital in the 17th century. Lastly, a resurgence of coprophilous fungi in recent layers, dated to the 18th-20th centuries, correlated with renewed settlement and agriculture in the Colonial and post-Independence eras. This study offers the first application of analysis of preserved dung fungi spores in South Indian sediments, as well as adding the new element of herbivore presence to previous analyses of land use around Kamalapuram Reservoir.Publication AN OVERVIEW OF EXISTING RESEARCH INTO STEREOTYPIC BEHAVIOR IN THE HORSE(2025) Dionne Benson; Punt, JenniStereotypic behaviors have health and ownership desirability implications for horses. They are examined extensively in assessments as indicators of compromised welfare. Researchers examining these behaviors have examined a myriad of potential causes with often contradictory results reinforcing the complex nature of stereotypic behaviors. In treating these behaviors, researchers have looked at various husbandry practices as well as medication and physical prevention with inconsistent results. The existing research, however, indicates that horses may benefit from stereotypic behavior by increasing their ability to cope with their environment. This raises questions about whether stereotypic behavior should be prevented.Publication An Egyptian Coffin of the Third Intermediate Period residing at the Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte(2025-05-19) Diego Federico Lope Córdova Rosado; Wegner, JosefNow approaching its 70th year residing in the Museo de Historia, Antropología, y Arte of the University of Puerto Rico (MHAA), an Egyptian coffin has served as one of the most impressive artifacts exhibited in the only archaeological museum in the island. Since then, very little research has been done directly on it, with the most recent being a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) pigment analysis done by undergraduate students in the Departments of Physics and Biology. The goal of this thesis is to elucidate this seldom studied coffin through analyses of its iconography and hieroglyphic text. This will be supplemented by material with analogous decorative styles and text of the same period to better understand the coffin’s significance in craft industry, scribal tradition, and religious belief.