Digital Humanities Commons^™

Quantified Lives: Data, Bias, And The Cost Of Categorization, Colin F. Geraghty

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project critically examines how statistical methods and data visualization have historically been used to categorize, rank, and control human populations. By exploring the works of key figures like Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, and R.A. Fisher, it traces the evolution of categorization frameworks from their eugenic roots to modern applications in artificial intelligence and global metrics like the World Happiness Report. Through interactive visualizations and historical analysis, the project invites users to question the legitimacy of these frameworks and reflect on their impact on society. At its core, this work emphasizes the need to move beyond rigid classification systems, challenging …

Where The Landscape Inspires The Lines: Python-Based Workbooks And Digital Tools For Reading Yoshino Ki, Miaoling Xue

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Where the Landscape Inspires the Lines (https://yoshinoki.info/) explores the intersection of premodern Japanese literature and digital humanities (DH) through an innovative online platform for reading, annotating, and coding. Centered on Yoshino ki 吉野記 (A Record of Yoshino), a seventeenth-century Japanese poetic travelogue authored by the poet and courtier Asukai Masaaki 飛鳥井雅章 (1611–1679), this project offers an interactive and immersive experience designed to meet the academic and research needs of a diverse group of scholars and students while advocating for a multilingual approach that challenges anglophone-centric biases often found in DH. To ensure consistency, the project uses Yoshino ki as a …

Caedmon Records & The Power Of Youth: How Audiobooks Revolutionized Children’S Literature, Faihaa Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The first known spoken-word recording was introduced to the world by Thomas Edison through the invention of the phonograph. Originally intended for a visually impaired audience to read without exertion, the first known recording was a recitation of the English nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Edison himself. The inclusion of a children’s nursery rhyme since the genesis of such an invention has become significant in observing the rise and success of the audiobook industry and its direct impact in increasing literacy proficiency in children.

Interactions between children’s literature and the history of the audiobook have been many …

Guaqueras And Campesinas In Western Boyacá, Colombia, María F. Buitrago

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Guaqueras and Campesinas in Western Boyacá (https://mariabuitsan.github.io/guaqueras-ycampesinas/) is a digital memory project chronicling the lives and labors of women residing in the emerald-producing municipalities of Colombia. The project explores women’s remarkable resilience amidst a historically extractive and patriarchal emerald economy by co-creating an online collection enriched with various sources such as interviews, photos of artifacts, and audio from fieldwork. The collection uses Dédalo, a free and open-source Cultural Heritage and Management System, to store, digitize, and index all the unedited material and presents a selection of these resources through a static website. The collection intends to illuminate and honor the …

3bb: Loss And Remembrance In The Anthropocene, Amanda J. Woolsey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Undisputedly, we are living in a time of tremendous and unprecedented ecological loss. Various forms of life on earth are disappearing at a rate unheard of in human history, with a growing amount of evidence suggesting that we are in a period of mass biodiversity loss and extinction. This extinction event is marked by a series of environmental catastrophes that vary in acceleration, intensity, and impact, such as climate-change driven weather events wiping out an endemic island species, to habitat loss and fragmentation leading to the slow death of a once-common species. One such piece of supporting evidence is Rosenberg …

Decades Of Division: Analyzing Hate Crimes In The Usa (1991–2022), Sangeeth Sajan Baby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project comprehensively analyses hate crime data in the United States, leveraging advanced data analysis and visualization techniques to unmask patterns and insights. By utilizing datasets of criminal offenses reported by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, this study explores the dynamics of hate crimes across racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation groups. The analysis reveals key findings, including the disproportionate targeting of African Americans and LGBTQ+ individuals, the prevalence of hate crimes in specific locations like residences and educational institutions, and the consistent patterns of attack types and locations across different racial groups. Analysis of crime data over …

Chatgpt Didn’T Write This: Evaluating The Impact Of Llms With A Case Study In Grading Cuny Language Immersion Program Student Essays, Benjamin Inbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study evaluates the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs), specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, in grading essays from students in the City University of New York’s Language Immersion Program. The program serves English language learners with diverse linguistic and demographic backgrounds, offering intensive language instruction to prepare students for academic success in college. Using a dataset of 30 pre- and post-program essays scored by program instructors and ChatGPT-4o under three paradigms, this research explores the alignment between human and AI-generated scores across five rubric-based competency areas. Findings reveal that ChatGPT-4o aligns moderately with human grading, with the strongest agreement …

Lishmah: An Exploration Of Syntactic Ambiguity And Biblical Exegesis Through The Jewish Calendar Year, Shani Tzoref

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lishmah (Hebrew, meaning “for its own sake”) is a digital resource for exploring syntactic ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible and traditional Jewish biblical interpretation. Hosted on CUNY Manifold, it currently features twelve curated cases of syntactic ambiguity, each linked to a month of the Hebrew calendar, accompanied by annotated medieval Jewish commentaries.

The project employs digital tools for data compilation, presentation, and user interaction. While in its early stages, Lishmah aims to contribute to digital humanities by bridging traditional close reading with computational approaches and highlighting discourse analysis in biblical studies.
Future plans include developing Lishmah into a collaborative research …

Visualizing The Rise Of American Women's Soccer, Hoi Wah Tang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The rise of American women’s soccer is a compelling narrative of determination, talent, and triumph on the global stage. From the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 to the ongoing dominance of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), this journey encapsulates not only athletic excellence but also the broader struggles for equality, representation, and respect in sports.

This project aims to bring this story to life by presenting a rich tapestry of data visualizations, timelines, and multimedia elements that showcase key moments, players, and milestones. Through engaging graphics and interactive features, users will explore how the sport evolved, the …

Expectations Versus Reality In New Cairo's Gated Communities: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Socio-Spatial Features, Ala'a Marwan

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to introduce a new framework to identify the disparities between gated community residents’ experiences and real estate developers' visions towards the development. As New Cairo experiences significant growth, many residents are increasingly relocating to gated communities. It has become crucial to assess users’ expectations before moving and their lived experience post-moving to allocate the gaps between their expectations and reality, otherwise, the GC developments will grow apart from users’ updated preferences. The research focuses on the socio-spatial qualities such as accessibility to services and facilities, community interaction, and vast green areas between buildings for privacy, all of …

The Influence Of Meme Culture On The Perception Of Japanese Music: A Survey Of Dolphin In Town-Kingo Hamada, Salsabila Alfajri, Bambang Wibawarta

International Review of Humanities Studies

The research aims to explore the influence of meme culture on the perception of Japanese music in the digital era, specifically analyzing the impact of meme culture on the song "Dolphin in Town" by Kingo Hamada. This study utilized quantitative methods, with surveys as the main technique for data collection. The results showed that meme culture plays an important role in introducing songs and artists that may not have previously received attention. The study also highlights the diverse impacts of meme culture on the perception of Japanese music, including its influence on popularizing, accepting, and interpreting music in various ways. …

For The Love Of Subtitling: Analysing The Challenges In Audio-Visual Translations Of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, Haritima Sharma

Living in Languages

Any form of audio-visual media utilises specific stylistic elements in order to represent the reality within which the media form is situated. These representations occur through the language and iconography of the media form, which works on stereotypical features that the audience can easily identify. Forming a pivotal part of the media, these representations must be rendered in the translations for a linguistically and culturally diverse audience. Audio-Visual Translation (AVT) has been used since the 1930s to make media accessible. Of the various modalities, subtitling has emerged as the most widespread mode of AVT due to time and cost benefits. …

Grieving & Swiping: Online Dating As Consumers' Post-Breakup Resolution, Zeynep Ozdamar Ertekin, Salih Kural, İrem Taştan

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This study explores the underlying motivations of consumers’ usage of online dating applications after the breakup of romantic relationships. The experiences of young-adult consumers who went through post-breakup grief are investigated through in-depth interviews. Findings resulted in twelve categories of motivations that participating consumers had regarding their usage of dating apps, in relation to managing the grief after breakup. Motivations are grouped under the categories of coping, updating, and desiring. Moreover, findings also demonstrated diverging pathways in using dating apps for emotional resolution. The study contributes to our understanding of dating app usage by highlighting important insights from consumers who …

Interfaces Gráficas Y Género: Impacto En Discursos Normativos, Marco V. Ferruzca, Paulo C. Portilla, Juan Villegas, Román A. Mora

GDI. Revista de investigación de Género, Diseño e Innovación

El diseño de interfaces gráficas de usuario generalmente considera una reflexión sobre propiedades vinculadas a aspectos visuales como el color, las imágenes, la tipografía, etc. Asimismo, algunos aspectos del usuario se ponen también a consideración como su edad, cultura, experiencia, género, entre otros. Sin embargo, la noción de género sólo se reduce a un binarismo para definir si la interfaz gráfica encaja en la categoría mujer u hombre. Muy pocos investigadores se han detenido a profundizar en el discurso heteronormativo que puede desprenderse de la interpretación de significado de una interfaz gráfica como consecuencia de la interrelación entre usuariogénerocomputadora. El …

Perspectiva De Género En La Animación: Desafíos Y Logros En La Industria, Carmen Pérez González, Luis Mayo Vega

GDI. Revista de investigación de Género, Diseño e Innovación

La perspectiva de género en la industria de la animación se centra en los desafíos y logros que enfrentan las mujeres en este campo. Se identifican los principales obstáculos que afrontan las directoras de animación, evidenciando un aumento en la representación femenina a lo largo de los años, aunque aún lejos de alcanzar la igualdad. Se destaca la importancia de incluir voces femeninas en la investigación académica para promover una representación equitativa. La metodología analiza informes recientes que evalúan la participación de mujeres en la industria y se recopilan recomendaciones de directoras destacadas para fomentar la equidad de género. Los …

Serious Music With Bea Witkin: An Upper West Side Audio Walk, Megan Hattie Stahl

Theses and Dissertations

Serious Music with Bea Witkin is a site-specific audio walk on New York City’s Upper West Side produced by Megan Hattie Stahl. This immersive, musical documentary explores and extends the life and work of composer Beatrice Witkin (1916-1990). Across four stationary chapters and three walking interludes, participants follow a one-mile route from Riverside Park to Straus Park by way of Witkin’s longtime residence on West End Avenue. Through guided narration, archival music, interviews and recordings of contemporary musicians sight-reading a 1985 string quartet piece by Witkin, Serious Music invites listeners to consider where music begins and ends.

Witkin, who graduated …

Introduction To The Historical Gazatteer Of The Crimea (Hgc) Repository, Mark Polczynski, Michael Polczynski

HGC - Historical Gazetteer of Crimea

Introduction Henryk Jankowski’s historical-etymological dictionary of pre-Russian habitation names in Crimea1 contains toponyms of approximately 1,300 unique habitations that existed in this region prior to Russian annexation in 1783. The Historical Gazetteer of Crimea (HGC) is an open-access georeferenced gazetteer of historical places derived from Jankowski’s work. The HGC includes 135 habitations, 43 districts, 6 provinces, and 17 rivers shown on Jankowski’s map accompanying his book HGC materials are available through a Marquette University repository. Here we provide an overview of the HGC and the associated repository, starting with a review of the information sources used to create the gazetteer, …

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Winter 2025, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the Down The Bay Project.

Area Of Effect The History And Effects Of Linguistic Choices Made In The Final Fantasy Franchise, Camille Mcdermott

Theses and Dissertations

The Final Fantasy franchise, a seminal role-playing game (RPG) series, has captivated a global audience since its inception in 1987. This thesis, titled "Area of Effect: The History and Effects of Linguistic Choices Made in the Final Fantasy Franchise," explores the intricate use of language that has shaped the series' identity and influenced its worldwide fanbase. The linguistic landscape of Final Fantasy is as diverse and dynamic as its fantastical worlds, evolving from simple text boxes to fully voiced narratives. This study examines the historical context and evolving linguistic choices throughout the series, highlighting how these decisions enrich the gaming …

Complexity Machines: New Histories Of North American Automobile Production, 1900-1950s, Kevin A. Moskowitz

History Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation examines the design and manufacture of the mass-produced automobile in North America from its inception at the start of the twentieth century through the height of production in the late 1950s. This network of producers constituted the single largest industry in North America. The success of this market required producing a product that was desirable to consumers in design, affordable to purchase, and could be built in high enough quantities to justify the realignment of the rest of North American society to serve this new method of transportation. This dissertation is a shift away from demand studies concerned …