This collection contains open access and campus access dissertations, made possible through Graduate Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The full content of open access material is available to all, although some files may have embargoes placed on them and will be made available as soon as possible. The full content of campus access material is only available to students, faculty and staff with a valid UMass Boston login credential. If you are physically located away from campus, but have a valid UMB login credential, you may select the “Off-Campus UMass Boston Users” link on the item’s record page to login, view and download Campus Access publications. UMB faculty, staff, and students may also request an item through InterLibrary Loan. Those not physically on campus, nor in possession of a valid UMass Boston login credential cannot access Campus Access resources.
Dissertations from 2025
A WORKER-CENTERED STUDY EXPLORING TRUST, DEPENDENCY, AND WORKER IDENTITY IN DIGITAL PLATFORM-MEDIATED LABOR, Wael Altali
Three Essays on the Effect of Environmental Regulation on Corporate Policy, Betul Arda
Development and Validation of a Self-Report Measurement Scale of Summer Camp Counselor Burnout, Monica Arkin
Embodying Altruistic Love: The Role of Emotions in Teaching Black Students with Disabilities within an Inclusive Elementary School, Joshua Armentrout
FOSTERING COLLABORATION BETWEEN MOBILE CRISIS INTERVENTION TEAMS AND SCHOOL TEAMS, Talia Berkman
NOTIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY: EUROPEAN UNION INVOLVEMENT IN INDEPENDENCE-SEEKING REGIONS, Kathryn Butterworth
The White Elephant in the Classroom: Using Local History and Resource Pedagogies to Remove It, Dawn N. Colquitt-Anderson
ADAPTATION AND DISCOVERY IN THE ETHIOPIAN HIGHLANDS: TESTING RULES, CRYPTIC SHREWS, AND PATTERNS OF MONTANE MAMMAL DIVERSITY, Evan W. Craig
INTEGRATING A STAKEHOLDER-CENTRIC APPROACH INTO DYNAMIC ADAPTION POLICY PATHWAYS FOR EQUITABLE COASTAL FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT IN EAST BOSTON, Shailee M. Desai
Investigating Testosterone and Cortisol in Romantic Relationships, Rylei Donovan
DEVELOPING A SMART FISH SMOKING TECHNOLOGY FOR CATFISH AQUACULTURE IN THE NIGER DELTA, NIGERIA, Lilian O. Elekwachi and Lilian Onyinyechi Elekwachi PhD
Suicidal Thoughts, Racial-gendered Discrimination, and Post-traumatic Sequelae: Ecological Momentary Assessment of the Discrimination and Trauma Suicide Risk Network within a TNGE BIPOC Community Sample, Álvaro Gamio Gamio Cuervo
GENDER, SOCIOECONOMIC MARGINALIZATION AND GRASSROOT ORGANIZING IN KENYAN FISHERIES, Margaret Wanjiru Gatonye
BEYOND THE INTERRUPTION: UNDERSTANDING THE LIVED REALITIES OF STUDENTS WITH LIMITED OR INTERRUPTED FORMAL EDUCATION (SLIFE), Rachel Hapennny-Rogers
"We Walk the Same Path but Have on Different Shoes: Wounded Healers and a Halfway House in Boston, MA", Julie LaBagnara
ADVANCING MARINE ANIMAL MOVEMENT STUDIES USING AN OPEN INNOVATION FRAMEWORK, Jacob Levenson
A Community-Engaged, Mixed-Methods Analysis of Experiences with Mental Health Services, Elliot Marrow
Amplifying the Voices of Immigrants: Nonprofits’ Advocacy and Mobilization of African Immigrants for Political Participation in the United States, Olanike Ojelabi
TAN OVA DEH SUH: QUEERIBEAN FEMINISM, HUMAN SECURITY, AND THE DYNAMICS OF EXCLUSION IN JAMAICA AND TRINIDAD & TOBAGO, Krystal-Gayle O'Neill
OPIOID USE DISORDER WITHIN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: NOT ALL SKIN INFECTIONS ARE EQUAL, Jennifer E. Pletcher
NEW MATHEMATICAL APPROACHES TO ULTRA-COLD ATOMS, Joanna Ruhl
Living in Action: A Critical Phenomenological Study of School-Based Mental Health Counselors’ Engagement in Social Justice Practices, Kerry Whiterell
Dissertations from 2024
Quantifying and Modeling Contexts for Sequential Recommendation, Benjamin Amankwata
Autistic Adults' Ableist and Neurodiversity Affirming Experiences in Therapy, Lana Andoni
Pathways to Lethal Violence: Personality, Psychological, and Clinical Risk Features of Male Homicide Offenders, Olivia Aveson
Hit-to-Lead Optimization of Small Molecule Adjuvants for Vaccine Formulation, John Mark Awad
Unraveling Collective Anomalies in Data-Driven Systems: Manifestation, Detection, and Enhancement Implications, Mohammad Bakhsh
The Professional Roles and Functions of School Psychologists in Alternative vs Traditional Education, Staci C. Ballard
Up From Slavery: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of the Perilous Passage of Black Students in Doctoral Programs, Karl Vaughn Bell
Promoting Equitable Climate Resilience in Gentrifying Communities: A Needs-Based Approach in East Boston, Patricio Gabriel Belloy Kauak
Introducing A Practitioner's Framework for Mobilizing Collective Action, Matthew Paul Bond
From Fear to Freedom: The Journey of LGBTQ Latine/x Asylum Seekers and Their Access to Legal, Medical, and Mental Health Services in the U.S., Jonathan Briseno
Functions of the Minibrain Signaling Network in Brain Development, Melissa Brown
Older Immigrants' Long-Term Care Expectations: The Roles of Caregiving Experience, Acculturation and Transnational Ties, Cindy Nhu Bui
Conserved Transcription Factors Rewire the Hippo Pathway to Regulate a Binary Cell Fate Decision in Color Photoreceptors, Joseph Ralph Bunker
To Fear the Heat of the Sun, David Capone
Meeting the Emotional Needs of Hospice Patients: A Mixed-Methods Study, Katherine Frances Carelli
Advancing Methods for Studying the Neuroscience of Sex Variability and Diversity, Vic Shao-Chih Chiang
Finding Freedoms in Unfreedoms: Resisting and Disrupting Racism, Racialization, and Dehumanization via an Advisory-Based Participatory Action Research Project, Antonio Matteo Cinelli
Beyond Good Intentions: Black Feminist Praxis on White Saviorism in Social Responsibility Organizations (SROs), Conscious Consumerism, and Transracial Adoption, Chidimma Ozor Commer
Hypertension Awareness, Treatment and Control in Working Aged American Adults: Analysis of Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2020, Carol Civello Connolly
Anode Materials for Next-Generation Secondary Batteries: Interfaces and Alloying Mechanisms, Saida S. Cora
After the Disaster: Environmental Harm and Cultural Change, Timothy Dennis Dacey
Three Essays on Earnings Information Implications, Phoompat Dangwung
Remittance Behaviors Among Cuban Migrants in Miami and Madrid: Motivations, Practices and Experiences, Denisse Delgado
Heritage Language Maintenance, Language Socialization, and Family Language Policy: An Ethnographic Case Study of a Trilingual Family, Rosiane Barcelos de Oliveira
Molecular Impacts of Vitamin A Deprivation in the Drosophila Eye, Deepshe Dewett-Tuli
The Provision of Healthcare for Older Adults in a Massachusetts Jail/House of Correction: Perspectives from Providers, Laura Driscoll
Novel Roles of BRCA2 in Suppressing Replication Stress Induced Genomic Instability, Haohui Duan
Reimagining Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning Implementation in the Urban Setting: A Case Study of a Massachusetts Elementary School, Molly Helene Duffy
Branding the College Presidency: Examining Presidential Aesthetics in U.S. Higher Education, Eric Dusseault
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF THE ACHIEVER RESILIENCE CURRICULUM (ARC) ON TEACHER AND STUDENT OUTCOMES, Gianna Famolare
Investigation of Electrochemical Processes and Interfaces for Multivalent Ion Batteries, Shengqi Fan
Peritoneal Dialysis Nurses' Knowledge, Values, and Implementation of Clinical Guidelines of Pre-Dialysis Education and Evidence-Based Practice, Sumayah Fatane
Examining the Potential of Online Community-Based Learning to Foster Global Citizenship Capacities in College Students: A Mixed-Methods Multi-Institutional Study, Caitlin Ferrarini
Web-based Visualization and Machine Learning in Science and Medicine, Loraine Franke
A Case for Health Promotion in Social Media: A Mixed Method Systematic Review of Cardiac Heterotaxy YouTube Videos, Kathryn Franklin
Challenging Aspects of Caregiving: The Unique Perspective of Children 65+ Caring for Parents 90+ with Dementia, Elizabeth A. Gallagher
Repertoires of Resistance: Latino Immigrant Food Service Workers, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Dignity and Justice at Work, Meredith L. Gamble
The Impact of Parental Relationship Instability of Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior: A Conditional Moderated Mediation Analysis, Sharbari Ganguly
Understanding the People Who Ride and Drive Paratransit, Shayna Gleason
Hired for Diversity and Onboarded for Assimilation: A Case Study of Racial Battle Fatigue Among Student Affairs Practitioners of Color, Kristina Hall-Michel
Governing AI: Creation of Norms and Delegation of Authority, Muhammed Mahdi Hasan
Democratizing the Early Identification of Alzheimer's Disease and Access to Care: The Role of Psychologists in Brief Assessment, Jacqueline S. Hogan
Conflicted Resources: Revising the Concept of "Conflict" Resources through the Case of Central Africa, Linda Holcombe
The Sankofa Study: Preliminary Feasibility and Outcomes of an Afrocentric Racism-Related Stress Intervention, Shannon Marie Hughley
Digital Wellbeing: Gendered Disinformation and Social Implications, Hyein Jeong
Modeling and Evaluation of Protein Insertions and Deletions & Cancer Subtyping Using Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Data, Muneeba Jilani
Engaging Survivors in Transnational Justice Governance: Global, National and Local Perspectives from Uganda's Post LRA Insurgency, Dennis Jjuuko
Biophysical Characterization of 3D Pancreatic Tumor Models Using Particle Tracking Microrheology, Dustin P. Jones
Effective Neural Network Architecture for Few-Shot Learning, Tianyu Kang
Unheard Voices: Lady Health Workers in Lahore's Peripheral Communities, Samiya Khalid
Unveiling Factors Impacting Social Media Reshare in Racism Discourse, Yoongi Kim
Unsettling Teacher Education: Cultivating Teaching as Resistance, Epistemic Disobedience, and Counterhegemonic Practices, Nina M. Kunimoto
To Eat or Not To Eat? That is the Question: Nutrient Source Shifts in Carnivorous Plants, Emmi Kurosawa
Unraveling the Opioid Crisis in Urban Centers: Policy Approaches and Community Strategies to Address Overdose Deaths in Boston, MA, Evans F. Kyei
Second Victim Phenomenon Among Obstetric Nurses in the U.S.: An Interpretive Description, Lynne Frances Lambert
Second Victim Phenomenon Among Obstetric Nurses in the U.S.: An Interpretive Description, Lynne Frances Lambert
Finding the Blind Sports: An Exploration of the Complexity and Diffusion of Police Body Camera Policies, Stephanie Lessing
Remembering More or Less: Studies of the Development of Memory in Infants and Young Children, Yibiao Liang
Revelations in the Enzymatic Degradation of Alkanesulfonates: Structural and Biochemical Insights into C-S Bond Cleavage from Two-Component Flavin-Dependent Monooxygenases SsuD and MsuD, Jeremy Jun Ming Liew
Opportunities and Limitations of Nature-Based Strategies for Transformative Adaptation: An Examination of Stakeholder Values and Social Contracts in Boston, Jessica Jeanne Lillquist
Biophysical Determinants of ALA Photosensitization and PDT Efficacy in Oral Cancer, Yiran Liu
Navigating Institutional Dynamics for Sustainable Investment: Analyzing Entrepreneurial Efforts, National Path Dependencies, and Rationalization Processes, Steve Michael Loren
Size Matters: The Characterization of Telomere Function in Germ Cell Development in Danio Rerio, Jessica MacNeil
How Teachers Perceive Teacher Leadership in a Massachusetts Urban Turnaround High School: A Concurrent Mixed-Methods Case Study, Matthew Lawrence McCarthy
"I Feel Like We're All in a Dark Cave Together": A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Queer College Student Experiences During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Matthew L. McClellan
You Can Do Math: The Development of Black and Latinx Student Math Identity Though Inclusive Pedagogical Practices in Community Colleges, Anu Oluwa Meacham
Playing Offside: An Intersectional Analysis of Sports in Kenya's Informal Sector, Ellen Busolo Milimu
SGM Health Inequity: Exploring Sexual and Gender Minority Curricula in U.S. Medical Schools for Inclusive Medical Education, James March Mistler
Expect Delays: The Parkinson's Disease Risk Factor TMEM175 Regulates Endocytic Traffic, Daniel R. Montagna