Graduate Student Dissertations

Graduate student dissertations completed in the last five years:

SHALMIT BEJARANO, supervised by Karen Gerhart (History of Art & Architecture). Dissertation: “Picturing Rice Agriculture and Silk Production: Appropriation and Ideology in Early Modern Japanese Painting.” August 2010

CARRIE BONILLA, supervised by Yas Shirai (Linguistics) “Testing processability theory in L2 Spanish: Can readiness or markedness predict development?” 2012.

DEREK CHAN, supervised by Yas Shirai (Linguistics) “Tense-aspect processing in second language learners.” 2012.

BLAINE CONNOR, supervised by L. Keith Brown (Anthropology) Tramsfers and Private Lives of Public Servants in Japan: Teachers in Nagasaki’s Outer Islands. Defended 2010.

JAMES M. HOMMES, supervised by Evelyn Rawski (History).  Verbeck of Japan: Guido F. Verbeck as Pioneer Missionary, Oyatoi Gaikokujin, and "Foreign Hero,"defended July 2014.

 SUNG-GEUN KIM, committee member, Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). “Measuring Poverty.” Defended July 2012.

ZOE LUCK, supervised by Yas Shirai (Linguistics) “Transitive and intransitive constructions in Japanese and English: A psycholinguistic study.” 2012.

WENDY MARTELLE, supervised by Yas Shirai (Linguistics) “Testing the Aspect Hypothesis in L2 Russian.” 2011.

ERIN MCGRATH, committee member, Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). “Social Policy Reforms in Turkey during AK party reign.” Expected Defense Summer 2014.

PEACE MEDIE, committee member, Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). "Addressing Violence against Women in Post-Conflict States: How Issue Framing Influences Policymakers in Liberia." Defended July 2012.

YUKI MORISHIMA (Ph.D. awarded Dec. 2013), supervised by Karen Gerhart (History of Art & Architecture). Dissertation Title: "Portraits of Japanese Emperors: Their Political and Ritual Usages in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." 2013.

ELIADA NWOSU, committee member, Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). "Network Diversity Value and Local South African Entrepreneurial Development in a Globalizing Economy: A Grounded Theory Analysis." Defended May 2010.

BENJAMIN J. PACHTER, supervised by Bell Yung (Music). Dissertation: "Wadaiko in Japan and the United States: The Intercultural history of a Musical Style." 2013.

MÓNICA LILIANA JACOBO SUÁREZ, supervised by Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). "Bi-lingual Education as part of a Successful Immigration Policy." Defended May 2013.

MARY LOU VERCELOTTI, supervised by Yas Shirai (Linguistics) “Complexity, accuracy, and fluency as properties of language performance: The development of multiple subsystems over time and in relation to each other.” 2012.

SELMAN YILMAZ, committee member, Müge Kokten-Finkel (GSPIA). “State and Religion in Turkey: A state of change in the 2000s.” Defended August 2013.