Digital Commons Network^™

Towards Food Sovereignty In Cameroon: Indigenous Food Practices And Community Grain Banks In The Mayotsanaga Division Of The Far North Region, Prudencia Ayamba, Chimene Tankou Nkouamou Epse Nukunah Dr

Journal of Critical Global Issues

Food security is a term defined in 1996 by the World Food Summit as a situation where everyone has both economic and physical access to nutritious and safe food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This concept also became a priority during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and later the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to combat world hunger by 2030. However, the term ‘food security’ has faced criticism for overlooking indigenous knowledge and practices in addressing the food crisis and for misrepresenting marginalized populations. Because of these limitations, the term …

“For Rescuing His Horse”: An Anthrozoological Approach To Dissent In Seventeenth-Century New England, Richard Mcgee

Open Access Master's Theses

The seventeenth-century colonization of New England entailed varying social, political, economic, cultural, and religious processes that were driven by and impacted several peoples. However, the presence of animals is undermentioned. This thesis forms an animal history of seventeenth-century New England, explains how different peoples understood human-animal relations, and evaluates how human-animal connectivity impacted how people conceptualized and conducted settler-colonialism. This thesis especially interrogates why some Puritan colonists limited different understandings of human-animal relations in the 1600s, namely from Indigenous Peoples, Quakers, and dissenting colonists deemed criminals. This thesis proposes that some Puritans restricted different concepts of human-animal relations because those …

Green As Cure: The City Beautiful Movement And The Spatial Politics Of Health, 1870-1950, Avi Patel

Library Map Prize

At the turn of the twentieth century, Progressive Era reformers understood the American city not merely as disordered but as pathological—an environment that bred disease and eroded civic life. This thesis argues that the City Beautiful Movement (CBM), embodied in Washington's 1902 McMillan Plan, advanced a spatial logic it terms "green as cure:" the conviction that disciplined landscape design could function as a form of environmental medicine, restoring health to the urban body. Drawing on maps, planning documents, and congressional reports, the thesis shows how plans defined disorder, prescribed intervention, and embedded assumptions about race and belonging into the built …

Book Reviews, Mea Boykins, Kimberly F. Monroe, Denzel Oliver, Latif A. Tarik

The Griot - Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc.

No abstract provided.

"Queens Of Ghost-Land" 134 Years Later: Un-Masking An Appalachian Witchcraft Accuser, Aine Norris

English Faculty Publications

In 1891, newspapers across America printed a story about witches in the Appalachian Mountains and the alleged powers they possessed to control their small farming community. The article was scathing in accusation and ultimately contributed to continued othering of the women profiled, increasing their visible vulnerabilities of class, gender, and societal status. Despite an implied familiarity with the region, the article was published with initials for its byline, an act that simultaneously identified the author to locals as historian Eva Grant while offering her anonymized national protection as a subject expert. For over five years the accusations were re‐printed in …

A Neo-Kuyperian Approach To Mathematics, Calvin Jongsma, Kevin Vander Meulen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This chapter develops a Reformational perspective on the discipline of mathematics that stems from the seminal ideas of Kuyper, Dooyeweerd, Wolters, Clouser, and others. The implications of the Biblical motif of Creation-Fall-Redemption is explored for the task of Christian scholarship in general and for the field of mathematics in particular, drawing upon relevant developments in the history and philosophy of mathematics.

Enoch’S Measuring, Counting, Weighing, And Balancing Creation In 2 Enoch, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In recent years one can see increased scholarly attention to the epistemological dimension of early Jewish apocalyptic writings and, in particular, to the ways by which divine knowledge was harvested and cultivated by the protagonists and antagonists of those early Jewish accounts. The early Enochic booklets have traditionally played a central role in these epistemological probes since they contain the earliest descriptions of the transmission and acquisition of divine knowledge in Jewish apocalypticism.  These accounts deal both with revelations unveiled by God and angels to the patriarch Enoch and with illicit transmission of divine knowledge by the rogue group of …

To Use Or Not To Use Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Art Design? A Multigroup Utaut2 Model Based On Motivation And Engagement Profiles, Yihan Jiang, Ning Luo, Ruixiang Gao

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This research investigated the acceptance of the artificial intelligence (AI) art tool, Midjourney, among 970 Chinese artists and designers using the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model and incorporating person-centered work motivation and engagement profiles. Path analysis of the entire sample showed strong explanatory power, accounting for over 60% of the variance in usage intention and behavior. Latent profile analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and engagement revealed two subgroups: the majority “Interested and Engaged”, and the minority “Disinterested and Disengaged”. As evidenced by multigroup comparison, the former exhibited significantly greater acceptance, recognizing Midjourney’s value …

Orthodox–Catholic Relations Between Georgia And Italy: Historical Legacy, Contemporary Dynamics, And Future Prospects, Zaza Tsotniashvili

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines Orthodox–Catholic relations between Georgia and Italy across three temporal registers: the historical legacy of Italian Catholic missionary engagement, the contemporary institutional and legal dynamics binding the two churches, and the prospects and obstacles that will shape ecumenical rapprochement in the years ahead. Building on the seven-century missionary record explored in the author’s preceding study for this journal, the analysis turns its principal attention to the present and future, as recommended by the journal’s editorial guidance. Drawing on Vatican primary documents, Georgian constitutional and statutory texts, the reports of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue, international religious-freedom …

Contesting Conservatism: Neoconservatives, Evangelicals, And Foreign Policy In The Reagan Era, Emily B. Kissel

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores how foreign policy shaped and destabilized the conservative coalition during the Reagan era. Although historians often portray the conservative movement of the 1980s as unified by anti-communism, this study argues that foreign policy debates exposed significant ideological divisions between neoconservatives, evangelical Christians, and the broader conservative base. These groups shared common goals but disagreed over the moral and strategic direction of American foreign policy. Neoconservatives and evangelical Christians wanted the same muscular assertion of American power abroad, but the factions framed foreign policy differently to appeal to their supporters. These policies and aggressive anti-Soviet rhetoric struck widespread …

Contesting Conservatism: Neoconservatives, Evangelicals, And Foreign Policy In The Reagan Era, Emily B. Kissel

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores how foreign policy shaped and destabilized the conservative coalition during the Reagan era. Although historians often portray the conservative movement of the 1980s as unified by anti-communism, this study argues that foreign policy debates exposed significant ideological divisions between neoconservatives, evangelical Christians, and the broader conservative base. These groups shared common goals but disagreed over the moral and strategic direction of American foreign policy. Neoconservatives and evangelical Christians wanted the same muscular assertion of American power abroad, but the factions framed foreign policy differently to appeal to their supporters. These policies and aggressive anti-Soviet rhetoric struck widespread …

Religion, Death, And Journalism In The Christian Science Monitor, 1908-1918, Natalie Hammill

All Master's Theses

The Christian Science Monitor was created in 1908 by the Christian Science Church and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, with the goal to “injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” The question arises, how does a religion that does not believe in physical reality produce a newspaper, and how does that newspaper treat subjects like sin, sickness, and death, subjects Christian Science teaches its adherents to ignore? This thesis argues that the Christian Science Monitor used the inherent flexibility of Christian Science beliefs around physical reality in combination with popular ideas about non-sensationalism and “clean journalism” as the basis …

“Allied In Character”: U.S. And British Relations During The Russian Intervention, 1918 - 1919, Zachary J. Rubino

All Master's Theses

In 1918, the newly proclaimed Soviet Union signed a separate peace with Germany to remove itself from World War I and attend to a brewing civil war. Great Britain, France, the United States, and other Allied nations, in the thick of fighting in the West, sent a coalition force into Russia. The Allied forces would be led by the British, who hoped to force the new Soviet government to reopen the Eastern Front. The United States joined the coalition reluctantly. Consistent with his policy of national self-determination, President Wilson restricted the 339^th US Infantry Regiment to non-combat roles. However, …

Reviewing Tourism And Urban Development In The United Arab Emirates, Adriaan De Man, Robert Bridi, Sérgio Guerreiro

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Cities are emerging as tourist hubs and heritage-based leisure is central to economic diversification strategies that improve conditions to residents and visitors. Within this context, urban tourism has gained prominence in the international travel market. Considering the expansion of tourism in the Arabian Gulf States, it is important to reflect on the role it can play in the expansion strategies of cities, building on global practice. This paper explores a particular aspect of this reality, namely the incorporation of heritage elements and their commodification in the urban setting of the United Arab Emirates. It elaborates on recent sources and addresses …

Reflections On Linear B, (Part 15): Sign 81 In Linear A And The Egyptian Four-Headed Ram God, Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article makes several tentative suggestions, including:

1. Linear A sign 81 (antecedent of Linear B81) may be an abbreviated image (two heads) of the four-headed Egyptian ram god Banebdjedet, with the horizontal line designating his horns shifted downward to the middle of the character.

2. A few other Linear A characters (e.g., sign 305) may represent slight alterations of sign A81.

3. Linear A82 includes two sets of three short horizontal lines. Those might signify brightness, and in the case of Banebdjedet the brightness would be his wisdom.

(2026) Desegregating The Community Of Inquiry In Philosophy For / With Children: A Dialogue On Racism, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Darren Chetty

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

This dialogical article examines persistent challenges in engaging racism, colonialism, and white supremacy within the theory and practice of Philosophy for/with Children (P4/wC). Framed as a mutual interview between two long-standing colleagues, the dialogue revisits formative encounters in the P4/wC community and situates them within broader intellectual traditions, including American pragmatism, deliberative democracy, and Africana philosophy. Drawing on personal experience, archival material, and critical scholarship, the authors interrogate the metaphilosophical assumptions underpinning the “community of inquiry,” particularly its commitments to reasonableness, consensus, and democratic dialogue. Concepts such as the “gated community of inquiry,” white ignorance, nonideal theory, and insurrectionist ethics …

(2026) Three Traditions Of Philosophical Dialogue, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

This chapter distinguishes and interrelates three major traditions of philosophical dialogue: inquiry, political, and contemplative. Inquiry dialogue, exemplified by the “community of philosophical inquiry,” emphasizes collaborative reasoning aimed at forming the most reasonable judgments about contested concepts. Political dialogue, exemplified by the story circle, shifts the focus toward democratic transformation, highlighting how discourse is shaped by power, ideology, and the need for emancipatory critique and action. Contemplative dialogue, exemplified by lectio divina, foregrounds self-awareness, ethical disposition, and attentive presence as conditions for meaningful exchange. Across these traditions, dialogue is presented as a normative practice that simultaneously cultivates the self and …

Reassessing Argentina’S 2018 Crisis: Fiscal Imbalances, External Constraints, And Imf Policy, Michael Garcia

Honors Theses

This thesis will evaluate the causes of Argentina’s 2018 financial crisis, examining how it should be evaluated through the lens of fiscal imbalance or by external constraints. The dominant interpretation is shown in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2018 Standby Agreement. It attributed the crisis to excessive fiscal deficits, inflation, and weak monetary discipline. This perspective is supported by the Polak model. The model itself connects domestic credit expansion to balance of payment imbalances. It views external crises resulting from internal policy excess.

This paper offers an alternative interpretation of a post-Keynesian that emphasizes external vulnerability, foreign currency debt, and …

Reassessing Argentina’S 2018 Crisis: Fiscal Imbalances, External Constraints, And Imf Policy, Michael Garcia

Honors Theses

This thesis will evaluate the causes of Argentina’s 2018 financial crisis, examining how it should be evaluated through the lens of fiscal imbalance or by external constraints. The dominant interpretation is shown in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2018 Standby Agreement. It attributed the crisis to excessive fiscal deficits, inflation, and weak monetary discipline. This perspective is supported by the Polak model. The model itself connects domestic credit expansion to balance of payment imbalances. It views external crises resulting from internal policy excess.

This paper offers an alternative interpretation of a post-Keynesian that emphasizes external vulnerability, foreign currency debt, and …

Un-Determining The Overdetermined Body: Anorexia Nervosa And Selfhood In What I Lost By Alexandra Ballard, Maddalena (Maddy) R. Grieco

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the intersection between young adult fiction and anorexia nervosa through the lens of Alexandra Ballard’s 2017 novel, What I Lost. The fictional space of the novel interacts with the larger trends of American culture and society, forming a connection between the external world and the protagonist’s personal experience with anorexia nervosa. Specifically, this thesis explores three external forces–the fashion industry, the transmission of generational ideals and habits, and the institutional recovery center–that are mapped onto the site of the female body, resulting in the expression of anorexia nervosa. The following chapters detail each external influence, respectively, …

Unchanging Gospel Message, Changing Context: Contextualization Strategies In The Lukan Paul, Irenaeus, And Athanasius, Joy Axelsson

MA in Religion Theses

This thesis examines how early Christian leaders strategically contextualized the gospel within the diverse sociohistorical contexts of the Roman Empire while maintaining theological consistency. Using a comparative synchronic methodology adapted from Michael Gorman, it analyzes five primary texts spanning the first through fourth centuries: the Lukan Paul’s missionary speeches in Acts (Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Athens), Irenaeus’s On the Apostolic Preaching, and Athanasius’s On the Incarnation. Each text is analyzed within its literary, historical, and cultural context to identify patterns of strategic constants and variables in gospel presentation. The analysis shows that central gospel elements, such as Christology, monotheism, …

A Better Way: From Pyramids To Gardens: Recovering God's Design For Leadership, Accountability And Renewal, Tara Naomi Korpi

Doctor of Ministry

This doctoral project emerges from my vocational context as a consultant and pastor working with senior pastors and executive leadership teams within evangelical contexts. Across these settings, I encountered patterns of abuse and unethical and immoral behavior that were not rooted in isolated mistakes but embedded within organizational cultures that normalized pastoral isolation, protected institutional image, and lacked effective structures for accountability. These observations shaped the project’s conviction that, when empowered with appropriate tools for integrity and accountability, leaders can cultivate healthier churches where righteousness is prioritized, harm is prevented, and pastors are supported to finish well for lasting Kingdom …

Iceberg Ethos: Credibility And Hemingway In Predictive Legal Writing, Brad Desnoyer

Faculty Works

In predictive legal writing, credibility is not inferred from conclusions alone. It is constructed sentence by sentence. Analytic correctness is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Supervising attorneys read prose as evidence of intellectual control, treating disciplined style as proof of substantive mastery. Yet legal writing scholarship has largely framed clarity as a matter of pedagogy or professionalism rather than as a structural theory of ethos.

This article reframes predictive writing as institutional rhetoric. Within the hierarchical environment of law practice, cognitive fluency governs professional trust: writing that is easy to process yet disciplined in reasoning reads as competence. Drawing …

Why Does The U.S. Still Practice The Death Penalty? An Application Of Waltz's Three Images, Anika Tracy

University Honors Program Senior Projects

The United States is the only Western democracy that still practices the death penalty, and legal scholars, domestic politics scholars, and comparativists have written extensively about American capital punishment. In this thesis, I will synthesize this scholarship to present a multifaceted explanation for America’s uniquely continued use of the death penalty through Kenneth Waltz’s three “images” or levels of analysis. While Waltz’s three levels of analysis is an established theory in the field of international relations (IR), the utilization of IR theory for an analysis of American capital punishment is particularly enriching because death penalty abolition is a norm in …

Climate, Energy, Economy: Interconnected Perspectives From Politics, Business, And The Public, Isabella Harper Heinzen

Theses and Dissertations

When considering the economic and social costs and benefits of a global, intergenerational, and environmental issue, rigid analysis often falls short. The topics discussed in this thesis aim to address the complex moral, economic, and political concerns regarding climate change to provide a holistic view of the issue and the role humans play. The first section on the scientific consensus addresses concerns regarding the existence and severity of climate change, finding where the responsibility lies for humans. The second section analyzes the energy context in modern society to understand the call for a transition from oil and gas to renewable …

A Hero’S Horizon Of Mirrors: Dovette, Deve, Dovrà, William James Kerrane

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines James Joyce’s Ulysses as a modern transformation of the Ulysses myth through the philosophical framework of Ernst Cassirer’s theory of symbolic forms and W.B. Stanford’s historical study of the Ulysses tradition. While Stanford demonstrates how the figure of Ulysses has been continually reinterpreted across literary history—from Homer’s cunning hero to Dante’s transgressive explorer and the restless modern figures of the nineteenth century— this study argues that Joyce’s Ulysses represents a uniquely philosophical adaptation of the myth in which heroic identity becomes a function of symbolic consciousness rather than physical action. Drawing on Cassirer’s philosophy, which defines myth, …

The Impact Of Music Education On Language Acquisition Of English Language Learners, Andrew David Frey-Gould

Theses and Dissertations

Schools continue to face increasing accountability pressures to improve English language proficiency outcomes for English Language Learners (ELLs), while access to arts education, particularly music, has declined in many districts. This study examines whether music education can serve as an effective and equitable support for language development among elementary ELL students. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to determine whether participation in ensemble-based music programs (i.e., band, orchestra, and chorus) is associated with greater gains in English language proficiency than participation in compulsory general music instruction. This study is grounded in Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition theory and Patel’s resource-sharing …

Taking Up Space: A Love Letter To Healing, Heartbreak, And Hairspray, Hailee Amerson

Honors Program Theses

An Honors Thesis disguised as a one-woman show, "Taking Up Space: A Love Letter to Healing, Heartbreak, and Hairspray" is a cabaret revue-style performance. Through original monologues, and songs from the musical theatre canon, this cabaret takes audiences through where plus-size women fit (or do not fit) in the theatre industry. The piece takes a sociological perspective, beginning with the history of beauty and health standards, while asking audiences to confront their own views on what it means to be "fat". Interspersed through the show is my own story of growing up fat in an industry where thin is “in”, …

The Hollow Parent: A Philosophical Capabilities-Based Care Ethics Critique Of The U.S. Foster Care System, Lindsey E. Scanlan

Honors Program Theses

This thesis argues that the U.S. foster care system systematically undermines transition-age youth by failing to secure the capabilities required for genuine independence and a life of basic human dignity, particularly through aging-out policies that terminate support before these capabilities are fully developed. Using Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach as a normative foundation, it integrates classical American pragmatism (Jane Addams, John Dewey) and Maurice Hamington's contemporary care ethics to construct a context-sensitive framework for evaluating and reforming foster care. Pragmatism grounds normative assessment in lived experience and institutional context, while care ethics provides a relational account of moral practice structured around …

Res Publica Recondita: Augustan Authors’ Use Of Archaic Heroes As Exempla For The Golden Age, Katherine Anna Hamner

Honors Program Theses

Following decades of civil war and moral collapse in the Late Republic, Augustus sought to legitimate his principate through a sweeping cultural program proclaiming the arrival of a new Golden Age. This thesis examines how the authors Livy and Virgil contributed a literary dimension to that program by retelling Rome's archaic past. Livy curates the Roman kings as exempla of entrepreneurial virtue and civic self-determination, while Virgil's Aeneid grounds proto-Roman identity in pietas and coalition-building across ethnic boundaries. Both works, independent of direct state commission, answered the moral demands of the Augustan moment and affirmed that civilizational renewal requires a …