Digital Commons Network^™

Defining Regenerative Business Through The Context Of Place: A Case Study West Michigan Businesses, Aislinn Teachout, Aislinn Teachout

Masters Theses

This study builds upon existing scholarly literature on regenerative design and regenerative sustainability by relating the framework to existing West Michigan businesses and their place-specific practices. Applying concepts from those more developed fields to business sustainability, this paper contributes to the still emerging field of regenerative business by proposing a comprehensive definition of regenerative business. The definition is then applied to three businesses in a case study format to highlight regenerative business practices. While none of the businesses highlighted claim to be regenerative, all have examples of practices that demonstrate regenerative action and enhance the West Michigan community.

By defining …

Relocating Community To The Virtual: Sound Knowledge, Affective Listening, And The (Dis)Embodying Of Sound And Space, Zachery D. Coffey

Masters Theses

Music within Protestant church communities frequently reduces the distinction between performers and audience, emphasizing the collective, participatory role of all congregation members, in manners of music making similar to those discussed by Thomas Turino. This dynamic helps establish individual and communal identities. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, church communities saw changes in their services, music, and ways of life. Meeting in a physical building proved impossible due to the dangers of COVID-19 and many churches mitigated these dangers by streaming, recording, and posting services online. Between 2020 and 2022, I observed and participated in changes to technological production …

Breaking | Grounding | Growing: Expanding The Rhode Island Gardening Reentry Programs As A Pathway Towards Stability, Juliana Soltys

Masters Theses

What happens to the over two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails?

Changing in sentencing laws and policies have created a cycle of imprisonment, racially isolating and oppressing BIPOC communities. Reintegration and reentry programs are an avenue to break the cycle of recidivism. Through my work, I have developed hands-on, structured opportunities for justice-involved adults to rebuild a life for themselves by increasing the accessibility of gardening reentry programs. This project creates a space for mentorship and support for Rhode Island’s formerly incarcerated people with the goal of helping them to develop vital life skills through growing and …

Capture, Control, Circulate : Can We Queer Regulatory Power In Graphic Design?, Adie Fein

Masters Theses

Capture, Control, Circulate addresses regulatory power, the transmission and enforcement of culturally-sanctioned behaviors and identity. How does regulatory power operate in graphic design and what—if anything—can the graphic designer do to subvert that operation? The methodologies for subversion explored in this book typically draw from queer and trans* experience and thought. Therefore, the work herein takes up issues of identity, normativity, marginalization, and community.

This thesis also considers design education, and its contemporary emphasis on the capture and control of content. It advocates instead for an educational model that centers circulation; that is, graphic design’s capacity to platform, to publish, …

“And They Wrote It All Down As The Progress Of Man”: Relationships Between Environment, Extractive Industries, And Appalachian Agency, Emma V. Kelly

Masters Theses

The landscape of Central Appalachia has shaped and been shaped by its residents for thousands of years. The advent of industrialized extractive industries greatly shifted the nature and the extent of these processes, with capitalistic domination being asserted over the environment. While this shift towards industrialization was a widespread phenomenon, it undertook a unique trajectory within Appalachia, a region which occupies a distinct position within the national perspective. Although geographically established by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachia is more than a politically defined set of counties: It is an incredibly diverse sociocultural region that exists on varying planes of marginalization …

Building Stronger Student-Teacher Relationships Through A Mentorship Program To Increase Student Reading Achievement, Emily Nicholas

Masters Theses

Research has shown that students learn best when their teachers know and understand them. When there are strong student-teacher relationships in place, reading achievement improves. In the following project, teachers will be part of a yearlong mentorship program at their school to improve student-teacher relationships in their classrooms. Teachers that are struggling to build positive student-teacher relationships will be the mentees and they will be paired with staff members who have already established strong, positive relationships with their students and will act as their mentors. The program will have three main components: cultural competence training, community connection and classroom library …