Digital Commons Network^™

Notes On The Future Possibilities Of Engaged Anthropological Research: Why Decolonizing Anthropology Needs Black Diasporic Feminist Theory And Methodologies, Meryleen Mena

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

While in the past decade there have been more ethnographic accounts that shed light on minoritized stories and demystify the specific challenges that women and femmes experience during their research, much is desired to prepare students and junior scholars from marginalized identities for fieldwork research. Reflecting on a moment of precarity in the context of pre-impeachment São Paulo, I explain why the integration of Black diasporic feminist thought, method, and praxis is critical to further decolonizing efforts in anthropology. Beyond reflection, this narrative calls for sustained politically active engagement to establish an anthropology of liberation.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Border Soundscapes: Latinidad, Belonging, And Sense Of Place In The Paso Del Norte Region., Josã© Manuel Flores Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the acoustic ecologies of the Juárez-El Paso border, investigating how soundscapes shape and reflect the cultural identity, sense of belonging, and sense of place within this unique transnational region. Guided by the theoretical lenses of belonging (Kohut, Tajfel, Turner, Hooks), sense of place (Feld & Basso), and habitus (Bourdieu), the research takes a phenomenological approach, informed by Merleau-Ponty's concepts of perception and Ceraso's notion of embodied listening. The study analyzes soundscape samples through Krause's categories of biophonies, geophonies, and anthropophonies, uncovering how these sounds contribute to the development of Latino identity and cultural cohesion in the borderlands.Focusing …

We're Swarming Again! Swarming, Collectivity, And Trope: The Case Of Extinction Rebellion, Tyler J. Behymer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetoric of the eco-movement Extinction Rebellion, focusing on the use of swarming and nature tropes to mobilize collective action and revivify contemporary notions of collectivity. Drawing on rhetoric of social movement scholarship, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, this essay theorizes swarming as a tropological economy that expands the conditions of propriety in the context of collectivity. Through an analysis of Extinction Rebellion’s discourse, this study demonstrates how the naturalization of swarming tropes works in various ways to rewild conventional political discourse, galvanize disruptive collective assembly, and challenge green neoliberalism.

Advisor: Casey Ryan Kelly

Trauma, Memory, Imagination, And Survivance: Uncovering Haunting Stories Within The Southwest Borderlands, Tania Paloma García

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project explores hidden histories of the García/Espinosa/Sargent/Burns family in northern New Mexico/southern Colorado during the middle-to-late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries, and continuing into the present. The project, in part, focuses on prominent rancher, lawyer, landowner, and territorial representative of New Mexico and Colorado, José Victór García. García’s life and legacy is examined regarding the lesser-known story of his “ownership” of several enslaved Indigenous youths on his property in Conejos County, Colorado. The methodology of haunting is employed to expose complex histories of Indigenous peoples in the Southwest borderlands, and within a broader context of colonialism. Indigenous enslavement is considered …

A Decade Of Earth-Centered Scholarship And Activism, Elizabeth Allison

CIIS Faculty Publications

Origin stories reveal the myriad causes that converge to birth a new initiative. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, this essay looks back to document the context and intellectual lineage out of which the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) emerged in 2013, and suggests some possibilities for the future of transdisciplinary education and the fields of religion and ecology (e.g. Tucker and Grim 2001), religion and nature (e.g. B. Taylor 2010), and spiritual ecology (e.g. Sponsel 2012) more broadly.

The Ecofeminist And Gaian Spirituality: Subverting The Patriarchal Discourse In Doris Lessing’S Selected Novels, Shereen Mohamed Safwat

Computer Science

Doris May Lessing (1919-2013) lived most her life on the veld of South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and came back to London in 1949. Her multicultural upbringing allowed her to gain a special connection with nature via her intuitive instinct. This article sheds light on three novels by Lessing namely, The Golden Notebook (1962), The Four-Gated City (1969) and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) that are to be tackled within the theoretical frame of ecofeminist and Gaian spirituality. This paper dives into the depth of the Gaian and ecofeminist spiritual realm in the selected novels. It explores the alternative path …

Wildlife Conservation: The Importance Of Individual Personality Traits And Sentience, Karen A. Owens, Gosia Bryja, Marc Bekoff

Animal Sentience

Individual differences in personality types within the same species have been studied much less than differences between species and populations. Personality differences are related to risk-taking and exploration, which in turn correlate with individuals' daily responses, decisions, and fitness. Bold and shy personality types can have different advantages and disadvantages under different social or environmental pressures. Analyzing personality differences has helped clarify how elk habituate to a well-populated area and how management strategies can be adapted to them. For wolves newly repatriated to Colorado, individual personality factors are likely to prove important for adapting to their new homes as well …

The Impact Of Material Selection On Acoustic Performance In Interior Design: A Scientific Investigation, Ahmed Salah Ahmed Mohamed, Ashraf Hussein Ibrahim, Doaa Abdel Rahman

Journal of Art, Design and Music

This holistic approach to design acknowledges that a space's functionality and comfort are influenced by a multitude of factors beyond its visual appearance. For instance, designers now pay close attention to acoustics to ensure optimal sound quality within a space, creating environments conducive to communication and concentration. They also consider lighting design to enhance mood, productivity, and overall well-being, while ensuring energy efficiency. Additionally, designers address the thermal environment by optimizing insulation, ventilation, and heating/cooling systems to create comfortable indoor climates year-round. By integrating these tangible and intangible elements seamlessly into the design process, designers can create spaces that not …

Author Bios, Back Matter 04

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Featured Artist: Yaire Thaiz Barboza, Back Matter 02

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Using Contemplative Approaches In Education As A Pathway To Cultivating Hope In Design-Driven Futuring, Francesco Michele Noera, Luca Simeone, Rike Neuhoff

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Amidst the challenges of our time, characterized by pervasive uncertainty and global crises, despair often overshadows hope. Within the context of design-driven futuring, where long-term futures and possibilities are envisioned and shaped, the absence of hope can leave designers feeling powerless and doubting the impact of their work on a predetermined world. Yet, hope is a human experience that can be nurtured. This research explores the inner world of design students, addressing their emotions, thoughts, and perceptions. We conducted design experiments in Master's programs in Denmark and Italy, adopting a contemplative approach during design-driven futuring processes. Contemplative practices, known for …

Love. The Forgotten Dimension For Just And Democratic Ai Futures, Meike Hardt, Nazli Cila, Pieter Desmet

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Addressing the widespread use of AI-driven decision-making systems in public spheres, in this paper we advocate for the integration of love as both a virtue and an affection within the discourse of participatory practices in AI design and development. Based on an analysis of justice, the need to shift the focus to love will be highlighted. Furthermore, we introduce two directions love could play during AI design: (1) love as an epistemological design inquiry to question the conventional knowledge structures in design by integrating embodied and experiential knowledge, and (2) love as a political design inquiry to challenge unjust systems …

Tracing The Digital Plant Humanities: Narratives Of Botanical Life And Human-Flora Relations, Paul Longley Arthur, John Charles Ryan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper, we trace the emergence of what we term the digital plant humanities (DPH) as an evolution of burgeoning botanical interest among environmental and digital humanists. We argue that DPH coalesces the theoretical and methodological frameworks of the three research areas of plant humanities, environmental humanities, and digital humanities. After conceptualising DPH, we analyse three projects representative of the emergent field—the Native American Ethnobotany Database; Herbaria 3.0; and Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of America—while referring to a broader range of formative projects including the Plant Humanities Lab.

Charles H. Schaffer: “Alger County Charcoal King”, Thomas J. Straka

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

One of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s earliest industries was iron production. Iron furnaces (smelters) were part of that industry; these were primarily fueled by charcoal, produced in hundreds of charcoal kilns scattered across the Upper Peninsula. Charcoal burning was a major industry in its own right, and one person, Charles H. Schaffer, came to dominate it, earning the name “Alger County Charcoal King.” His empire began when the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad expanded east from Marquette and was centered on charcoal kilns at the Onota station in Alger County. When wood supplies near Lake Superior declined, he expanded his charcoal …

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

Repair Rolodex: Exchanges, Changes, And Patchwork Parables, Ethan Howard

Masters Theses

This book is an index of nine exchanges with strangers whom I met online through email Listservs or by word of mouth. In these transactions, I offered to repair broken things for a trade-in-kind payment. Through the brief relationship between owner and designer, each interaction suggests that an object is almost never entirely obsolete despite its perceived obsolescence.

At the core of these trades is a grassroots protest of the landfill and a critique of our global capitalist commerce system. The apparent desire for and nature of these trades demonstrates that stories make our objects meaningful. Each interplay studies peoples’ …

From One Nature To Another, Sarah Mann

Masters Theses

Lichen‭, ‬fungi‭, ‬and soil each represent a microcosm of nature‭. ‬They are all quintessential examples of complex symbiosis‭, ‬yet they are often treated as lifeless materials‭. ‬But what if we took a moment to connect with each one on a daily basis‭ - ‬would that impact the way we envision the future‭? ‬

For most of us‭, ‬our homes won’t be radically changing any time soon‭; ‬therefore‭, ‬From One Nature to‭ ‬Another‭ ‬invites us to bring these entities inside and‭ ‬reflect on their possibilities as collaborators‭. ‬Each piece was carefully researched and designed to‭ ‬provide the correct atmospheric …

Not Sanitized For Your Protection: Aids And The Politics Of Trash, Emma Banks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Metaphors of waste are particularly potent when enlisted to describe and justify the segregation and subjugation of marginalized communities. For, as discard studies scholars have shown, waste is not merely about trash; it is about power (Liboiron and Lepawsky). Maintaining power necessitates hierarchical categorization, whereby the needs and desires of some people are prioritized over those of others, to frequently catastrophic effect.

At the turn of the 21st century, AIDS patients and allies needed no such explanation of what it meant to be relegated to the fringes and designated as waste. Thrown to the proverbial curb of society, PWAs (people …

Extractivism And The Defense Of Life And Territories: An Account Of Latin American Environmental Thought, Pedro Monque

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We are living today through an environmental crisis of planetary proportions. Recent decades have seen the proliferation of distinct environmentalisms around the world. In Latin America, a unique environmental vocabulary is being born out of resistance to northern framings of the environmental crisis whose proposed solutions often deepen environmental injustice vis-à-vis the global south.In this dissertation, I provide an account of the key themes in this lively but undertheorized tradition that I call Latin American environmental thought.

The conceptual core of Latin American environmental thought, I argue, are the concepts of extractivism, the defense of life and territories, and alternatives. …

Towards More Inclusive Practices In Applied Linguistics: A Study Of Journal Editors’ Views On Using ‘Who’ With Nonhuman Animals With Implications For Language Education, Denise Dillon, George M. Jacobs, Meng Huat Chau

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Like racism or sexism, speciesism highlights how people fail to give due respect to nonhuman animals. After more than 20 years since the publication of Dunayer’s (2001) seminal work, Animal Equality: Language and Liberation, speciesism appears to remain a controversial issue. In this article, we explore the issue of speciesist language by considering the views of journal editors on one point raised in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020): that the relative pronoun who should only be used with humans and not with other animals. The results of this study suggest that while …

The Wild Arctic Char In Swedish Sápmi – From Staple Ingredient To Nostalgic Food, Julia C. Carrillo Ocampo

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The way food is preserved, prepared and consumed is embedded in cultural symbolism strongly connected to the geographical landscape. This article focuses on the memories of Sami actors within the wild Arctic char value chain to explore how changes in the foodscape influence the way this produce is prepared and consumed in contemporary Sápmi and the use and view of traditional preservation techniques. The empirical material was obtained through interviews and observations with Sami actors as they are the dominant agents related to this produce. Consequently, I traced different narratives attached to the char in the region called Swedish Sápmi …

Knowing Others And Ourselves, Mark Phelan

Convocations

Lawrence University celebrated the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff at the annual Honors Convocation Friday afternoon, May 24, 2024.

The Convocation followed a Thursday evening Honors Awards Ceremony and Reception, where 144 students, two student organizations, and five faculty and staff were celebrated with awards that spanned the entire university experience: from academic honors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Conservatory of Music to leadership in Student Life and Athletics.

The Honors Convocation, the third and final convocation of the academic year, highlighted those accomplishments and celebrated this year’s Faculty Convocation Award recipient, Mark Phelan, professor …

Contributors

Exile

No abstract provided.

Mi Ofrenda, Bonita Vasquez

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the role of the Dia de los Muertos holiday in wasteful spending, food waste, and environmental waste in the United States due to its food-centered traditions and commercialized competitions. As the holiday has become more mainstream, the once-homebound practices have expanded into large, drawn-out festivals nationwide. Articles on the holiday’s traditions, as well as studies on waste, have been reviewed. The analysis showed that the traditions have evolved and that food waste directly affects financial and environmental waste. This paper concludes that the holiday’s practices can be adjusted to help reduce food, financial, and environmental waste.

The Destruction Of Louisiana Wetlands: An Environmental History, 1900-2000, Gloria H. Adams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Louisiana experienced a loss of almost 1,800 square miles of land during the 1930s, primarily due to the sinking of the state's coastal wetlands. In the early 1970s, both public officials and private residents began to recognize the situation on the coast. State and federal leaders reached a consensus that immediate action was necessary to tackle the issue. Over a span of around four decades, authorities in Louisiana and Washington, D.C. enacted a sequence of legislation and regulations with the intention of safeguarding fragile ecosystems such as the wetlands in the state. In the 1980s, authorities also initiated the development …

Authorizing Violence: Spatial Techniques Of Citizenship Politics In Northeast India, Samarth Vachhrajani

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Authorizing Violence: Spatial Techniques of Citizenship Politics in Northeast India studies the spatial and legal instruments through which Hindu Nationalism and its political front, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), operates in Northeast India. I document the means through which authoritarian power has been introduced into a democratic structure of governance. Emphasizing the role of architecture and spatial knowledge, I attend to how the violence of disenfranchisement and dispossession is legitimized under the force of law.

For this, Chapter 1, entitled 'Legislating Containment,' turns to the legal instrument of citizenship and studies the Goalpara detention center and multi-purpose criminal …

“You Don’T Build Bridges To Safe And Familiar Territories”: Study Abroad Practice Based In Reconciliation As Falling Apart: Part 2, Kalyani Unkule

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Radical Explorations Of Radical Empiricism: William James’S Transmissive Theory Of Mind In The Context Of Visionary Experience, Rita Spellman

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

The dominant ontology in science is a form of materialism and it filters down into the social sciences in ways I will touch on throughout this paper. The influence of the current dominant ontology is especially apparent when it comes to experiences and phenomena that challenge its underlying assumptions which is why I will primarily focus on visionary experience and psi phenomena as studied by radical empiricists throughout the ages.

The philosophical position of William James challenges materialist assumptions by championing the idea that the only world we can speak of is the world of our experience. William James affords …

'My Body Is Fertile Ground': Exploring Relational Agriculture Through Gender, Body, And Local Food Policy, Erin M. Tansimore

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This master's portfolio, "'My Body Is Fertile Ground': Exploring Relational Agriculture Through Gender, Body, and Local Food Policy," explores the concept of relational agriculture through multiple forms of practice. It comprises three parts: a personal essay discussing the author's experiences with the land as a young woman with a turbulent relationship with her own body; a literature review on gender dynamics in alternative agricultural spaces; and a survey report and a USDA Census of Agriculture data brief produced during an internship with two local food entities.

The first piece, "My Body Is Fertile Ground," details the author's experience with an …