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A Security Worth Having: The Pursuit Of Happiness Through Reading Burney, Radcliffe, And Austen, Samantha Meeks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the works of three female authors of female protagonists in the long 18th century: Frances Burney’s Camilla and Evelina; Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian; and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. By following the paths to security the female protagonists of these novels fashion, and identifying the elements of Stoicism and related Hellenism and the aspects of cybernetics, this dissertation delves into the choices female protagonists make along the way regarding their security and how such choices lead to agency and self-fashioning for these women. Emotional, economic, and …

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Jerusalem And Other Holy Places As Foci Of Multireligious And Ideological Confrontation, Rivka Ulmer

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Local Identity In The Lives Of The Fathers Of Mérida: When Ethnicity And Religion Aren’T The Point, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

While scholarship on early medieval Europe often centers ethnicity or religion over other forms of identity, they were not always the most relevant form of identification for contemporaries. In the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (late sixth-early seventh century), ethnic and religious identity were actually deployed to construct a local identity around the space and people of the city. This article explores how the text did so by closely analyzing terms used and their context, and by applying social scientific theories of boundary construction to illuminate the strategies of identification behind it. It argues that such an approach …

Good Vibrations: Folk Circles As Communication Environments, Missy Alexander

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

For over 25 years, I have participated in the creation of music and community through what are commonly called folk circles. Typically run as monthly gatherings, participants who range from complete beginners to seasoned pros, join together and share their favorite songs. These environments have clearly defined rules for participation (although rarely stated overtly), a strong ethos of mutual support, and frequently function as a path to friendships for people new to a community. This essay examines the folk circle as a communication environment and posits an explanation of why it is impervious to digital invasions.

What Are The Limits To Smart Innovation? The Digital Underground Initiative And New Frontiers Of “Smartness” In Singapore, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper argues that the emergence of new frontiers of smart transformation, such as underground spaces, can pose significant challenges to the implementation of “smart” technological solutions. Exploring the case of Singapore’s Digital Underground initiative, we show that elements such as material complexity, co-ordination between stakeholders, and the availability of appropriate regulatory and administrative frameworks can problematize the implementation of subterranean smart initiatives. By considering multistake-holder perspectives on these “more-than-technological” factors, this paper offers lessons for urban planners, policymakers, and developers in cities around the world that are keen to leverage technology to unlock the potential of underground space.

From Homeland To Hostland: Language Ownership Of Heritage Dialect And Narratives Of Third Culture Kids Of The Gulf, Maryam Aref

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this study is to examine Arab Adult Third Culture Kids’ sense of heritage language ownership and their identity constructions in relation to their transnational Arab Gulf context. The present study has three main aims: to ascertain their sense of ownership towards their heritage dialects, to understand the basis for their claimed or denied ownership, and to investigate the positions they ascribed to themselves and others in relation to their belonging and transnational and linguistic experiences. The study aims to fill the gap where there is a scarcity of sociolinguistic research around Arab Third Culture Kids in …

Interspecies Responsivity In Early Modern Drama And Animal Performances, Taylor C. Culbert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation proposes an expansive, interspecies definition of performance that uses behavior rather than cognition as the decisive feature and illustrates how such a definition can reshape our approach to theatre and performance history. Using the concept of responsivity, which refers to the embodied and affective ways that humans and non-human animals acknowledge and react to one another, I trace human–animal interactions across a variety of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century performance genres, from the aristocratic stag hunt and entertainments involving trained animals to the plays of Molière and Shakespeare. Drawing on my experience training animals, I offer a new perspective on …

Disability Theatre Communities: Engaging Artists And Audiences In Contemporary International Performance, Joseph Paul Hill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Disability Theatre Communities” examines how communities are constructed in, through, and around contemporary international disability theatre performances. It explores ideas of community formation and intersection across three case studies to elucidate the various ways in which disability theatre artists, productions, companies, and organizations attract, engage, and educate variable artist and audience communities. The project analyzes Rome, Italy’s Teatro Patologico and its Integrated Theatre of Emotion, a theatrical training program for neurodivergent performers; Wales-based writer, theatre-maker, and dramaturg Kaite O’Reilly, whose international collaborations center d/Deaf and disabled performers and foreground audience accessibility; and the biennial BIT (Blind in Theatre) International Festival …

Subsidiarity In The Shadow Of Sovereignty, Loren King

Political Science Faculty Publications

Subsidiarity frustrates. It admits of clear articulation as an ideal (‘vest authority as close as feasible to those most affected’) but then invites conflicting interpretations and elaborations. As a workable principle, subsidiarity seems to founder exactly when we need it: when we ask what, precisely, that principle regulates. As a regulative moral precept, subsidiarity promises a politics sensitive to diverse needs and responsive to local knowledge, yet in practice any implementation of the ideal pulls us back toward an authoritative center to regulate disputes and coordinate all of this local wisdom. I love subsidiarity for these frustrations and ambiguities. In …

The Female Body In Visual Narratives, Dolly Sharma

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

When a photographer seeks to capture the culture of a particular place inhabited by a minority group in society, a pertinent question arises as to how one might capture the female body in ways that avoid eroticisation while still conveying the photographer’s intent. The way photographers approach the Himalayan and Indian regions is particularly complex when they must decide whether to ask women to pose themselves in order to frame the multiple narratives that emerge out of a female body—such as motherhood, nurturing an infant, ornamentation and adornment, and the bodily manifestations of patriarchal and prejudicial practices. Photographer Olivier Föllmi, …

Dari Editor Vol. 15 No. 2 (Agustus) 2025, Rahayu Surtiati Hidayat

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Dengan gembira kami menerbitkan sepuluh artikel dan dua timbangan buku dalam edisi ini; terbitan rekor untuk jurnal ini. Kami berharap dapat menerbitkan banyak artikel dalam setiap edisi. Isi tulisan yang kami terbitkan juga meningkat mutunya baik dari segi penelitian maupun penyajian. Tiga artikel menarik perhatian dengan menunjukkan berbagai karya yang menjadi lambang kejayaan suatu negara dan keguyuban suatu komunitas (Titik Pudjiastuti, Muhamad Alnoza, Nur Aini Setiawati). Tiga artikel lain membahas kehadiran pendatang yang mengubah sistem dalam negara (Dien Rovita Rovita, Mela Maulina Putri, Rudi Ekasiswanto). Tidak kalah menarik empat artikel bertemakan karya sastra (Asri Pratiwi Wulandari, Raka Darmawan, Haikal Haikal) …

Serat Yusuf: Sastra Islam Populer Di Jawa Timur, Titik Pudjiastuti, Mamlahatun Buduroh, Mu’Jizah Mu’Jizah, Rias Suharjo, Turita Indah Setyani, Dwi Rahmawanto

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Serat Yusup is one of the popular Islamic literary works in Java, especially in East Java. This literary work is a handwritten ancient manuscript written in the form of tembang macapat, in Javanese language, and using Pegon or Javanese script. Serat Yusup which create by the students (santri) is inspired by Surah Yusuf, the 12th Surah of the Quran. As a literary work, its story differs significantly from its inspirational text, and there are so many of it. In relation to this, the question arises: what are the reasons behind the creation of Serat Yusup and why is it …

Keidiomatisan Kompositum Berleksikon Hati Dalam Bahasa Indonesia, Dien Rovita, Sonya Puspasari Suganda, Untung Yuwono

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

A compound (kompositum) is a construction formed through word formation by combining two or more elements to create a new meaning. In Indonesian, compounds can be formed by combining several elements, one of which may be a nominal lexeme referring to a body part. Compound words can be distinguished from other word combinations—particularly syntactic phrases—based on grammatical and semantic criteria. Semantically, compounds can be analyzed according to the degree of idiomaticity in their meanings. Based on this premise, the present study aims to explain the idiomaticity of compounds in Indonesian that are formed by combining multiple elements, one of which …

Myth Of Happiness From The Consumerism Perspective In Simone De Beauvoir’S Les Belles Images, Joesana Tjahjani, Sekar Dewantari

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

France's post-World War II, thirty years of glory, resulted in the growth of purchasing power among the French, which triggered growth in consumerism, notably among the bourgeois— France's upper-middle-class society. People believed in a myth that objects are not solely useful for fulfilling needs but also served as a sign of social status, dignity, andcomfort. They equally believed that if the objects are consumed and the associated social standards fulfilled, they maybecome a way to obtain greater happiness. This article aims to examine the myth that happiness can be attained byconsumption and social standard fulfillment in a French consumer society …

Piyagĕm Cikĕruh (1631 M): Simbol Relasi Kuasa Kerajaan Mataram Islam Di Priangan, Muhamad Alnoza

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

After the collapse of the Sunda Kingdom in the 16th century, most of its territory was controlled by the Islamic Mataram Kingdom. The occupation of Islamic Mataram in the ethnic Sundanese area in fact left behind several metal inscriptions known as piyagĕm. This study specifically examines the oldest piyagĕm found in the Priangan area, namely Piyagĕm Cikĕruh from Garut Regency. Based on the assumption that every inscription that is king is a symbol of power, this study focuses on science which is a symbol of power relations in Piyagĕm Cikĕruh. This study was conducted with the aim of finding the …

Transformasi Syair Dodaidi: Dari Tradisi Lisan Ke Komersialisasi Digital Dalam Sejarah Masyarakat Aceh, Haikal Haikal, Anifa Nurhayati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Syair Dodaidi, as a form of Acehnese oral tradition, has played a significant role in the social and cultural life of the Acehnese people for centuries. It originally developed as a lullaby sung by mothers to their children, with lyrics containing prayers and praise to Allah SWT. This study aims to examine the transformation of Syair Dodaidi in the context of contemporary Acehnese society. The research methodology uses a historical approach with the stages of heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The results show that although Syair Dodaidi is still practiced as part of cultural heritage, there have been a …

Understanding Black Students Experiences Through Faithcrit, P. J. Welch, Timothy P. Westbrook, Larissa Malone

Journal of Graduate Education Research

Abstract

Many faith-based higher education institutions have sought to improve the experiences of Black students. Yet, they often fail to understand Black students' unique experiences. What are the experiences of Black students at a Christian higher education institution? This qualitative study explores the experiences of Black students at one Christian higher education institution, focusing on their social experiences, retention strategies, and faith in their academic journey. Black alumni and current students were interviewed about Black students' experiences and retention at a Christian institution. This study utilizes the theoretical lens of FaithCrit, a new branch within critical race theory that delves …

Awake And Alive: An Investigation Into Content For A Music Course Incorporating The Sciences, Harrison Boraas

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative, instrumental case study was to identify the content for an interdisciplinary course about music and the brain that educates collegiate students about the benefits of lifelong music engagement. Despite increasing awareness of musical relevance to the human brain, many institutions of higher learning continue to teach music as its isolated area of study without connecting it to other fields that could benefit from incorporating it or vice versa. The sample size consisted of four to seven experts that were either community experts or Liberty University faculty in the fields of science, medicine, or music within …

Sharing And Preserving Sociolinguistic Corpora On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Katherine Christoffersen, Isabella Calafate, Julio Ciller, Ana M. Carvalho, Ryan M. Bessett, Brandon J. Martínez, Hannia Rojas Barreda, William Flores, Richard Quiroz

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Since William Labov outlined the methodology for the sociolinguistic interview in 1972, sociolinguistic corpora have been used widely in the field of sociolinguistics to study diverse speech communities and linguistic features. However, most of these invaluable sociolinguistic collections have been available only to the individual researcher or research group, and these data sets usually disappear from use with that individual scholar. More recently, there has been a push towards data sharing in sociolinguistics, reflective of data sharing and the open science movement in other fields. Still, accessible online sociolinguistic corpora are few and far between, in part due to the …

Integrated Growth: Developing A Sustainable Continuum Of Whole-Person Discipleship For Cultivating Healthy Leaders, Joyce A. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Leadership, particularly within ministry contexts, involves complex responsibilities that often lead to chronic stress, burnout, and diminished well-being. These challenges underscore the need for a holistic, sustainable framework that supports leaders in every dimension of life. This Dissertation in Praxis explored a biblically grounded, multidimensional wellness initiative designed to foster integrated health among ministry leaders at The Harvest Church, a nondenominational congregation in North Houston, Texas. Framed by biblical principles of stewardship, wholeness, and relational unity, this study implemented and assessed a structured wellness program addressing four critical domains of a leader’s well-being: emotional resilience, financial stability, physical/nutritional health, and …

Elementary Seeds Of The Creation-Order Theodicy In The Early Christian Apologists, Lori A. Peters

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The problem of evil and suffering is a significant obstacle for people to consider the truth of Christianity. One way to eliminate this barrier is to provide a theologically sound and biblically accurate theodicy. The Creation-Order Theodicy is one such attempt. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the elements of the Creation-Order Theodicy have their roots in the early teachings of the church through the writings of the early Christian apologists through AD 250. Chapter 1 includes the nature of the problem, a review of existing literature, and the research methodology. Chapter 2 will summarize various modern …

A Chaplain-Specific Care Plan For Addressing Moral Injury And Promoting Holistic Well-Being In Nurses That Have Transitioned From Hospital Care To Hospice Care, Franklin Hicks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis project, “A Chaplain-Specific Care Plan for Addressing Moral Injury and Promoting Holistic Well-Being in Nurses That Have Transitioned from Hospital Care to Hospice Care,” addresses the lack of chaplain-led interventions for nurses suffering from moral injury. Many nurses who transitioned from hospital to hospice care reported ongoing moral residue from ethically distressing events in acute settings. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a spiritually grounded care plan, developed and facilitated by a board-certified chaplain, to address these moral wounds and promote holistic well-being among hospice nurses.

Twelve hospice nurses in West Tennessee participated …

Notifying The Public In Crisis Situations, Deborah Jean Link

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The messages that are provided to the public when there is an imminent or ongoing crisis are of extreme value to individuals, primarily to have information by which to base decisions upon. The sense of urgency during imminent or ongoing crisis is the factor that differentiates the need for information about the crisis from the need for information for other types of events. There is messaging during other, less critical types of incidents, but often there is little to no messaging to the public at a time when it is most needed and sought after, during a crisis. Erik J. …

Where Is God In Times Of Order And Disorder: A Practical Approach To Life Events With God, Chinedu Festus Onuigbo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to uncover what six next-generation females in Colorado, USA, encompassing high school through post-college, have experienced as they answer the question, "Where is God in times of order and disorder." Next generation refers to persons currently 25 years and younger. Pew Research (2019) reports, next-generation demographic during the transition from adolescence to adulthood may undergo one or more of the following: fall away from faith, question the existence of God, depression, and identity crisis. This researcher using phenomenology explored his Study Concept, a practical approach to experiencing life events with God using threefold biblical …

After His Likeness: The Holy Trinity And Creation Of Humanity, Chris Trevino

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation presents a comprehensive theological and interdisciplinary examination of the Holy Trinity (i.e., Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and its influence on human creativity, ethical development, and identity, as rooted in the Genesis creation narrative. Employing exegetical analysis of Genesis 1:26-27 alongside systematic theological synthesis, lexical‐theological study of צֶלֶם (ṣélem, image) and דְּמוּת (dəmûth, likeness), and historical‐doctrinal reflection on Chalcedonian definitions of the hypostatic union and kenosis, it develops a triadic framework that aligns the divine mind, heart, and will with human cognition, emotion, and volition. The study reveals that the threefold act of divine creativity (i.e., the Father’s …

Re-Imagine Paradise: The Impacts Of The Illegal Annexation Of Hawai'i & Tourism On Native Hawaiians, Paige Edwards

SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research

This literature review presents a vital exploration of colonialism, the illegal annexation of Hawai’i, and the subsequent emergence of the tourism industry as a neocolonial enterprise. Neocolonialism is the process of colonial dominance through modern exploitation, which is masked through economic opportunities and has left territories and their native people dependent on it. By tracing the major historical events in Hawai’i highlights how education was a vital aspect of Native Hawaiian culture, empowering its people - a stark contrast to the current education system where the education system perpetuates the commodification of Native Hawaiian culture. Education has played a pivotal …

Spiritual Music As A Factor Of Religious Identity In Ukrainian Orthodoxy, Oleh Sokolovskyi, Maksym Melnychuk, Sviatoslav Melnychuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This scholarly article explores current challenges and spiritual-cultural trends arising in the context of historical events and civilizational transformations experienced by modern Ukraine. The study focuses on the revival of authentic traditions of sacred musical art within Ukrainian Orthodoxy, regarded as one of the fundamental factors in the formation of national identity. Within an interdisciplinary approach that combines religious studies, philosophy, art history, and cultural studies, the research analyzes the musical sacredness as a phenomenon of numinous experience imbued with transcendental meaning and cathartic energy. It is established that the spiritual music of the Orthodox tradition functions as a form …

The Orthodox Parish And Community: A Reflection On The Post-Totalitarian Model Of Identity In Bulgaria, Presb. Sava (Shtoni) Kokoudev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines parish multifaceted identities and its function as a Eucharistic community, while also exploring its cultural, and historical influences in post-totalitarian context. The study delineates two identities and ecclesiological models—liturgical and institutional—to facilitate comparative analysis. The confusion and mixture of these models has caused a loss of parish community identity and function, which is evident in contemporary post-totalitarian status quo. Important issue is the restoration of the Orthodox Church’s authentic catholic identity (ɫɴɛɨɪɧɨɫɬ). This predicament gives rise to the second challenge of revitalizing liturgical life in parishes and reestablishing communion between bishops, priests, and laypeople. It also necessitates …

The Idea Of A Just Peace In Christian Social Ethics And The Possibility Of Its Implementation In The Context Of The Russian-Ukrainian War, Iryna Fenno

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This research examines the concept of just peace, which is most often discussed in the public sphere, particularly among political and religious circles, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. After analyzing Christian discourse on war and peace—including extreme pacifism, the idea of a just war, and just peacemaking—the author argues that the idea of a just peace is the most effective response. Through an analysis of sociological surveys, the article reveals Ukrainian society's attitudes toward the idea of just peace and demonstrates a direct correlation between these attitudes and political events on the international stage. Nevertheless, the mechanisms and …