Dissertation Announcements

To request a dissertation announcement, please fill the out Dissertation Announcement Request Form.

To request an invitation to attend a dissertation presentation via teleconference, please contact the presenter and/or their committee chairperson.

Upcoming Presentations

Rebecca Clesse

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Honeycombs & Fig Trees: A Critical Poetic Inquiry of Belonging and Resistance

Date: March 13th

Time and Location: 10:00 a.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. René Saldaña, Jr. (chair); Dr. Josh Cruz; Dr. Weverton Ataide Pinheiro

Adedayo Afolabi

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Learning Progression-Guided AI Evaluation of Math-Science Sensemaking in First-Year Undergraduate Physics

Date: March 23rd

Time and Location: 11:30 a.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Gina Childers (chair); Dr. Merve Basdogan; Dr. Leonora Kaldaras

Madeline Levasseur 

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Speculative Fiction as a Tool for Social Commentary: Cultivating Empathy, Critical Thinking, and Activism in Middle School Students

Date: March 23rd

Time and Location: 2:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Jeasik Cho (Chair); Dr. Catherine Lammert; Dr. Corinne Barger

Mary Hooper

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: I Gave You My Hand, You Gave Me Your Paw: A Case Study On the Sustainability of Animal Assisted Therapy

Date: March 24th

Time and Location: 1:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Jeasik Cho (Chair); Dr. Heather Greenhalgh-Spencer; Dr. Lawence Kohn

Melissa Irby

Dissertation Proposal Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Performance-Based Funding Models and the Impact on Texas Community Colleges

Date: March 24th

Time and Location: 2:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Guillermo Ortega (Chair); Valerie Paton; Jeremy Anderson

Jennifer Dixon

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Military Veterans Turned Educators: An Exploration of the Perceptions and Experiences of Military Veterans Who Transitioned to Careers in K-12 Education

Date: March 24th

Time and Location: 2:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Stephanie J. Jones (Chair); Dr, Ryan Litsey; Dr. Cindy Miller

Jennifer Kim

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Associated Outcomes of IDEA Legal Disputes in Texas School Districts: Financial, Organizational, and Contextual Factors (2010-2025)

Date: March 25th

Time and Location: 11:00 a.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Robin Lock (chair); Dr. Janna Brendle; Dr. Laura Brown

Opeyemi Ogunyomi

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Self-Efficacy, Goal Orientations, and Academic Engagement Among Graduate Students of Color: A Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Study

Date: March 26th

Time and Location: 10 a.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Kamau Siwatu (Chair); Dr. Mary Hershberger (Co-chair); Dr. Jaehoon Lee

Jonathan Guajardo

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: You Belong Here, and There: Investigating Online Collegiate Communities in Higher Education

Date: March 26th

Time and Location: 1:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Jon McNaughtan (Chair); Dr. Stephanie Jones; Dr. Joseph Lopez

Nick Straka

Dissertation Defense Presentation to Doctoral Committee

Title: Ideology in Action: Examining Philosophy-Practice Coherence among Pre-Calculus Educators. A Case Study into Mathematics Teacher Pedagogical Alignment

Date: March 26th

Time and Location: 2:00 p.m. via Zoom

Committee: Dr. Mihwa Park (chair); Dr. Weverton Ataide Pinheiro; Dr. Raymond Flores