USF St. Petersburg campus Master's Theses (Graduate)
This collection contains Master's theses created by USF St. Petersburg campus graduate students since the University received separate accreditation within the USF System. However, please note that the official copies of theses and dissertations written by USF students who had declared St. Petersburg as their home campus prior to separate accreditation are maintained by Special and Digital Collections in the USF Tampa Library.
Recognizing the valuable contributions of our student scholars, the Poynter Library has created this portal for graduate theses. Some theses may have restricted access for a period of up to one year following graduation if the student requests such an embargo at the time the thesis is submitted to the USF St. Petersburg campus Office of Graduate Studies.
It is the intention of the USF St. Petersburg campus Digital Archive to comply with all U.S. and international copyright restrictions and to respect the intellectual property of all authors whose work is represented in the archive. If any individual or corporate entity has concerns about a specific item, please contact digcol at nelson.usf.edu
Theses/Dissertations from 2019
Seasonal Water Quality Trends in Bayboro Harbor, a Humid Subtropical Urban Estuary in Tampa Bay, Florida, Stephanie Asher-Leonard
Effects of In Situ Incubation Temperatures on Hatchling Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) Morphology, Health Indices, and Locomotor Performance, Kelsey Alexandra Fleming
State Emotion Regulation as a Mediator of the Relationship between State Attachment Security and State Mindfulness, Jamie Onufrak
Phillis Wheatley and Carolina Maria de Jesus: Unexpected Voices of Revolutionary Times, Tami L. Toms
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
Free Speech and Defamation in Kuwait and U.S. Law: Historical Dimension of Jurisdictions and Law in a Social Context, Ahmad Shehab Alshehab
Soil Accumulation, Accretion, and Organic Carbon Burial Rates in Mangrove Soils of the Lower Florida Keys: A Temporal and Spatial Analysis, Amanda R. Chappel
Organic Carbon Burial in a Freshwater Marsh to Mangrove Transitional Area in Everglades National Park, Kailey R. Comparetto
Mangrove Encroachment into Ecologically Restored Salt Marshes: Quantifying Vegetative and Soil Carbon in Tampa Bay, Florida, Emma E. Dontis
Do Spoilers Change a Person's Enjoyment of a Television Show?, Olivia M. Leal
MoS2 Doped TiO2 Nanomaterial and the Enhancement of Photocatalytic Properties for Solar Disinfection, Timothy McColgan
Spatial and Temporal Levels of Microplastics in Tampa Bay Surface Waters, Laurinda Kinsley McEachern
Elusive or Illusive Truth? The Role of Sensors and Sampling Strategies in Data Collection and its Implication for Scientific Knowledge and the Pursuit of Truth, Christopher R. McHan
Factors Affecting HIV Testing Among Youth in Kenya, Allison Nall
The Effects of Binaural Beats on Emotion and Cognition, Olivera Petrovich
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
Historical Black Press Newspapers and Technology Adoption: The Weekly Challenger, Daytona Times, and Florida Courier, Indhira Suero Acosta
Who Should Manage Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in the Gulf of Mexico?A Study of the Social Dynamics of the Red Snapper Fishery, Sydney A. Alhale
Between Two Empires: Life in Mid-Eighteenth Century St. Augustine on the Eve of Evacuation, T.E. Bryant
The role that the quantity of sampling wells has on the groundwater quality analysis at the Savannah River Site (SRS), Jerry J. Cantrell
Informant Discrepancies in Transactive Memory System scoring, Lovia Feliscar
Integration of Terrestrial Source, Landuse, and Watershed Hydrogeology in Coastal MPA Management, Kyle Flanagan
The Polarization and Civility of Hong Kong Political Discourse on Facebook News Pages, Leung Kiu Fok
Historical sediment record and levels of PCBs in sedimentsand mangroves of Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico, Lindsey Hanson
Florida Entanglements: The 1791 William Augustus Bowles Rebellion, Clinton Hough
Representations of Transgender Murder Victims in Digital U.S. News Media: A framing analysis, Karlana June
Local and Diverse Economies as a Driver of Sustainability: A Perspective from US Cities, Alita M. Kane
Sadomasochistic Fantasy in Dickens’s Great Expectations, Daniel G. Lauby
Task-Dependent Fluency and Devaluation of Gender-Ambiguous Faces: The Effects of Categorization Disfluency on Hireability, Ilona Nemeth
Neural Activation in Bilinguals and Monolinguals during a Word-Recognition Task, Rebecca Porzig
Theses/Dissertations from 2016
Slacker Joyce: James Joyce, Richard Linklater, and the Silent Re-Canonization of the Masterpiece, Layne M. Farmen
Forest Community Integration and Collective Agency in Korup National Park,Cameroon: Interactions with Forest Policies and the REDD+ Mechanism, Adam E. Flanery
Elusive Truths: Baltasar del Castillo, Royal Subsidies, and the 1576 Residencia of Florida, Katherine Godfry
Analyzing Factors that Influence Success and Failure of Conservation Practice: A Multi-Scale Study, Jessica Gruber
The Effect of Value Learning on Attentional ResourcesDuring Top-Down Processing: An ERP Study, Carlene Ann Horner
Theses/Dissertations from 2015
Enhanced Photocatalytic Inactivation of E. coli in Water Using Nanocomposite Graphene-Titanium dioxide, Hazel Decina Anderson
Valuing Illusion: A Comparative Analysis of Jean Baudrillard and Eihei Dogen, Nicholas Boynton
Emerging Adulthood : Internal Markers of Adulthood and Alcohol Use, Kristen L. Hannum
Some Moral Judgments May Be Immune to Hindsight Bias, Marielle G. Machacek
Examining the Effects of LACE Training on Cognitive Function in Older Adults : An ERP Study, Brandon D. Peacock
Marriage in San Agustín de la Florida, 1784-1803 : Practical Application of the Real Pragmática de Casamientos, Karen Packard Rhodes
Stabilizing de facto Conflicts in the Post-Soviet Space : The Role of the European Union in Conflict Resolution in Moldova, Marissa Wyant
Theses/Dissertations from 2014
“…A Bolshevik, a Negro and a Gun”, Nadine Allan-Vaught
Winter-Dominated Little Ice Age Cooling in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Determined from Mg/Ca in Planktonic Foraminifera, Rita Marie Crouch
The Victorian Man: Re-defining and Re-negotiating Masculinity in Brontë and Gaskell, Sylvia Crowhurst
An Analysis of Wetland Mitigation Success in Hillsborough County, Florida 2000-2007, Leigh Ann Elgin
Assessing the Impact of Untreated Sewage on the Coral Reef System off the Coast of Caye Caulker, Belize: Applying the Foram Index, Kristen Lynn Emrich
The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Describe and Predict the Presence of Harmful Algae in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida, Erin L. Faltin
Scientific Novels and ‘Lady Novelists’: Nature and Nurture In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, Ashlie Flanigan
"I Do Not Know How to Fulfill Those Demands": Rethinking Jesuit Missionary Efforts in La Florida, 1566-1572, Saber Gray
Sterilization and the Mass Media: Representations of Women in the California State Prison System (2006-2010), Ashley Barbara Jasper
We Women: From the Age of Aquarius to the Coming of Age: An Intimate Look at the Challenges of Aging in America through the Eyes of Pinellas County Women, Christine S. Melecci
The Endless Pier: A Study of Iconic Architecture via the St. Petersburg Pier, Kyle W. Pierson
Theses/Dissertations from 2013
The Impact of War and Service on Veterans Attending College, Ashley Abene
Consuming Places: A Bioregional Comparison of Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyles, Lauren Drakopulos
Constitutional Collision Course: Governor Rick Scott and the Refusal of High Speed Rail Stimulus Funds, Francis Henry Kurtz
A Comparison of Avian Abundance and Species Richness in Palustrine Emergent Wetlands in Southwest Florida, Matthew P. Miller
The Big Watermelon: A Cultural History of Florida's Brooksville Ridge, Douglas E. Ponticos
Assessing Atmospheric Levels of PCBs and PBDEs in Tampa Bay and Studies on Remediation of these compounds, Lukasz Talalaj
Theses/Dissertations from 2012
A Textual Analysis of Media Frames: The Coverage of the Shooting of Trayvon Martin, Andrea K. Andrus
“What do you think of Bleak House?”: Dickens’s Serial Novels and Victorian Literary Fandom, Susan Jane Ballinger
Bat Species and Distribution in a Gulf Coast System at Fort DeSoto Park, Florida, Jennifer Beltran
Framing Terrorism: How the Tampa Tribune and Tampa Bay Times Portrayed Sami Al‐Arian in 2001, Wendy Biddlecombe
Organic Carbon Burial Rates in Mangrove Soils: Global Context and A preliminary Investigation of the Coastal Everglades, Joshua L. Breithaupt
George Snow Hill: A WPA Artist and His Contributions to Florida and Tampa Bay, Diane M. Craig
A Multi-scale Approach for Characterizing Habitat Selection of Tidal Creek Fish in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, Renee M. Duffey
The Good, the Bad, and the Garbage : The Making of Modern Florida Solid Waste Policy, Andrew David Fairbanks
The Rhetoric of the American Dream: Freedom, Democracy and American Exceptionalism, Donna Knudsen
Effects of Hydrologic Changes and Precipitation on Tree Island Fire Frequency in the Everglades, Florida, Katie Laux
The Robles Family during the Civil War in Tampa, Karen E. Lucibello
Trends in Linear Extension Rates for over 100-Year Period in Three Coral Species from Dry Tortugas, Florida, Adis Muslic
Websites vs. Mobile Apps : A Content Analysis of Tampa Bay's News, Brittany Danielle Padley
Historical Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon, Pesticide, and Metal Contamination in Clam Bayou, Florida, Renee A. Price
Finding Florida : The Guide to the Southernmost State, Revised, Cathy Salustri
Rivers of Truth, Shores of Myth and the Land Between: The Dawning of Silvia Sunshine upon Florida’s Frontier, An Annotated Diary, Dara R. Vance
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
Using Bivalves to Assess Levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Tampa Bay, Jonelle Tamara Basso
Understanding Environmental Deficit Phenomenon: Influences Affecting Children's Connectedness to Nature, Lauren Bates
Linking Watershed, Soil and Landuse Characteristics to the Spatial Variability of In-stream Water Quality in Selected Florida Watersheds, Frederick B. Bradley
The Ethics of Shaping Perceptions of Reality: What Journalists Can Learn From Cartographers and Shamans, Christopher J. Dorsey
Anthropogenic Changes Over The Last 100 Years In Dove Sound, Upper Florida Keys, USA, Thomas S. Harmon
The Effects of Artificial Floating Wetland Islands on Water Quality in a Eutrophic Lake, Alexandra S. Jangrell-Bratli
Reality Skewed: Newspaper Codification of Stay-at-Home Mothers and Working Moms, Janet K. Keeler
Bagels, Beaches, & Bombers: Florida’s Jewish Community From 1929 – 1945, Jason Ashley Memmer
A Humble Vulgar Tree: Explorations of the Natural and Cultural History of the Cabbage Palm, Sabal Palmetto, Jonathan Miller
The Hanson Family Archives of Fort Myers, Florida, Cynthia Marie Mott
The Effects of Artificial Floating Wetland Island Construction Materials on Plant Biomass, Julie A. Vogel
Theses/Dissertations from 2010
Mapping Soil Moisture at a Regional Scale Using Integrated Remote Sensing, GIS, and Radar Precipitation: A Comparative Study, Shanon M. Connelly
Restoration of Propeller Scars in Seagrass Meadows Using Sediment Tubes and Design of a Working Prototype Unmanned Surface Vehicle for Seagrass Studies, Karen Leigh Dreger
The Evolution of the Family, Benjamin E. Hardisty
Struggle In The Sunshine City: The Movement For Racial Equality In St. Petersburg Florida 1955-1968, Peyton L. Jones
The Lady Leaves A Legacy : The Belleview Biltmore and Her Place in Pinellas, Deirdre L. Schuster
Diet analysis and community characteristics of Lepomis (sunfish) species congregating near natural spring vents of the Rainbow River, Florida, Michael S. Sears
Stakeholder Perceptions of the Gulf of Mexico Grouper and Tilefish Individual Fishing Quota Program, Britni N. Tokotch
Theses/Dissertations from 2009
New Port Richey: Myth and History of a City Built on Enchantment, Adam J. Carozza
Workin’ from Cain to Cain’t: Challenges within Florida’s Gulf Coast Oyster Industry, Diane Marie Wakeman
Shaping the Dream: A Survey of Post-World War II St. Petersburg, 1946-1963, Jon L. Wilson
Theses/Dissertations from 2008
Artist colonies in Europe, the United States, and Florida, Jennifer L. Aldrich
The builders versus the birds : wetlands, people, and public policy in the United States, Florida and Hillsborough County, Allyson R. Bennett