Digital Commons Network^™

Flowing Progress: Transforming The Danube Through Infrastructure, Stefan Dorondel, Luminita Gatejel

Central European Studies

Flowing Progress: Transforming the Danube Through Infrastructure focuses on how different political regimes and forms of governance have imagined and technologically transformed the most international river in the world. Multidisciplinary and drawing on methodologies of history, anthropology of infrastructure, and science, technology, and society, this collection explores the tensions between the river and its natural pulses, the humans that populate its floodplains, state agencies, and infrastructure. The book engages the concept of disturbance to point out the circular and spiraling dynamics between hydrological processes and technopolitical and economic practices. Disturbance denotes a specific type of long-term dynamic between human attempts …

Understanding The Role Of Drug Offenses And The Death Penalty In Iran, Cyrus Zarganj

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been governed by Islamic laws devised by Shia Muslim clerics, significantly influencing the nation's legal framework in both criminal and civil contexts. The death penalty in Iran covers a broad spectrum of offenses, many of which would not be considered capital crimes or even crimes globally. This extensive application of the death penalty is an instrument of social control during periods of political tension, indicating a direct relationship between the regime's stability and the enforcement of extreme punitive measures. Despite some reduction in the visibility of executions due to international …

What Is Lost When Time Is Saved: Drawing In Collaboration With The Urban Periphery, Carmen Ribaudo

MFA in Visual Art

I pay attention to the overlooked spaces where land and industry meet, prompting me to wonder what can be gleaned in the oily and cracked urban periphery. With a focus on my hometown St. Louis, this industrial city is my subject matter. And so, I draw in a neighborhood bisected by a highway. I animate with sand near the river confluence on land preserved after a historic flood. I make my own bricks in this Brick City, setting up in locations of former terra cotta clay mines. I sit in the tension of what author Michael Martone calls the “midwestern …

"Driving Circles Around The Holler:" Liminality And The Grotesque In Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff, Celia A. Ranniger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Donald Ray Pollock’s 2008 short story cycle, Knockemstiff, is a regionalist work of grotesque Grit Lit featuring characters from a small, rural holler community in southern Ohio. This work examines the form, narratives, and characters through close reading, illuminating the layers of different liminalities present in the cycle. These liminalities include narrative liminality of the form of the short story cycle, the social and economic liminal spaces inhabited by the characters, and the ways that the text comments on the liminal nature of storytelling itself. This thesis will argue that the geography of the cycle’s setting coupled with the subject …

Localizing Design Stories - An Exhibition, Bianca Kóczán, Philipp Stingl, Michaela Anzer

Nordes Conference Series

localizing design stories (locdstories) is a collectively developed design research project. An offer to form a temporary group of a few facilitators and more participants interested in design. This group agrees to take time and share a braver space to explore and reflect upon the relations between their design practice, what stories have been told by whom to them about design, and what stories they would like to share. The setting consists of an adaptable seminar format and an interactive platform, a virtual globe gathering absent situated design stories beyond a dominant design historiography by inviting participants to tell stories …

Design For Longevity: A Relational And Systemic Perspective, Sheng-Hung Lee

Nordes Conference Series

As Relational Design (RD) grows in popularity, Casual Loop Diagrams (CLD) can complement RD in systemic analysis by visualizing relationships between variables. This study integrates CLD with RD within the context of longevity planning, which considers dimensions of financial, social and physical wellness. While RD maps static relationships, CLDs model dynamic interactions and feedback loops, enhancing innovation through a holistic and adaptive approach. By bridging relational and systemic perspectives, this preliminary study advances discourse in service design, system thinking, and research methodologies, demonstrating how RD and CLD contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of longevity planning. Findings emphasize the importance …

Anyone Can Put A Sofa, Chenfan Zhang, Valentina Auricchio, Daniela Selloni

Nordes Conference Series

This exploratory paper presents a case observed during the author’s participatory action research for the PhD programme. The case consists of reflections on a relationship-building intervention enabled through the placement of a tea dispenser and a sofa in a village’s common space. The paper provides the case to reflect about whether overemphasising on designers’ identity and roles has overshadowed the importance and opportunities of building human relationships when engaging with communities during the immersion phase. The paper argues that designers need to rethink their positioning and move beyond an overemphasis on professional roles when entering communities to better understand how …

Everywhere, All At Once: Speculative Layering Of Multiple Temporalities With Augmented Reality, Alessandro Ianniello, Roy Bendor

Nordes Conference Series

This paper considers the design of Augmented Reality experiences that allow the interrogation of multiple temporalities, in order to foster engagement with More-than-Human worlds. While Augmented Reality has traditionally been used to layer different spatial contexts onto the physical environment, we explore its potential to visualize alternative temporalities, offering users unique ontological perspectives on time and its role in shaping interconnected human and non-human futures. Drawing from futures studies, experiential futures, and speculative design, we examine how Augmented Reality’s capacity to represent temporal layers can deepen understanding of More-than-Human interdependencies. We report on a pilot experiment where participants engaged with …

Exploring The Entanglement Of Relational Design, Spatiality And Places, Thomas Binder, Jörn Christiansson, Gabriela Quintana Vigiola

Nordes Conference Series

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed a relational turn in design research, embracing the entanglements of human and non-human elements in socio-material arrangements. Despite the foregrounding of relations in these entanglements, little attention has been given to what role spatiality and places may have in relational design. This workshop explores the entanglement of relational design, spatiality and places based on design case studies from participants. Using a design charette methodology, participants will collaboratively (1) map how relational entanglements shape and are shaped by design research and practice; (2) identify and unpack cross-disciplinary tensions and opportunities; and (3) co-create …

Design Briefs After Progress, Li Jönsson, Maria Göransdotter, Åsa Ståhl, Kristina Lindström, Thomas Laurien

Nordes Conference Series

Design briefs can be expressions of needs expressed not only by educators but also by external actors and society more broadly. They are where societal needs, expectations, wishes and desires meet the internal, local and situated logic of design and design education. In this workshop, we aim to make an inventory of past and current design briefs and start to re-imagine them by moving beyond the taken-for-granted starting point of continued growth. We are led by the overarching question: what could a design brief become when it is actively intended to shift away from notions of design as formulated in …

Seasonal Design, Svenja Keune, Åsa Ståhl

Nordes Conference Series

Imagine it is a rainy winter day, and you are walking up to a little mustard yellow house on wheels and step up three wooden steps to enter. You notice the pulsing light of candles and the warmth of the fireplace that is heating the indoors. Some people are sitting around the table dreaming of how they would use the house if they could borrow it for a while. You take a step inside to join and have some tea. While stepping in you hear the splash of a puddle and feel your socks soak up water before you even …

Resisting Rationality And Designing For Being: In Place, In Time, And In Networks, Martin Åhlén, Jessica Rohdin

Nordes Conference Series

This exploratory paper is a critique to rationalistic driven design practices that excludes voices and damages the planet we share with other beings. Rationalism is implicated in the unprecedented climate change the world is suffering, which serves as the backdrop for the paper. The authors propose an alternative approach in a relational design framework of being—in-place, in-time, and in-networks—as a prompt for reflection and opening the views on how design affects its surroundings. Engaging with various scholars, the paper reflects on the necessity for design and designers to slow down, interact, be fully present, engage their senses, respect their surroundings, …

It Splatters! A Recipe To Codesign The World From Our Insides, Expanding Relational Practices In Participatory Design Research, Josymar Rodríguez Alfonzo, Liesbeth Huybrechts

Nordes Conference Series

This paper examines the relationship between sustenance labour and Participatory Design (PD), focusing on cooking, eating, and digesting, with the aim of contributing to the significant shift PD is undergoing towards more relational approaches. We discuss how the first author’s design and research practice evolve as she engages with her fieldwork as an 'eater'. By tracing the intimate connections between bodies, materials, stories, and environments in making a recipe — caraotas en coco — we highlight how the recipe expands our ways of relating, becoming response-able from within. The recipe acts as a medium of translation, taking the form of …

Human-To-Human Interaction Design: Choreographing Relational Practices, Erica Dorn, Kera Nelson

Nordes Conference Series

This paper explores Relational Design as a choreography of practices that cultivate the skills necessary to navigate differences and build community within design processes. It promotes a design practice that sees relationship-building as a core function of creating long-term stewardship in participatory worldmaking. The relational practices presented here emerge from outside traditional design disciplines, drawing primarily from community organizing, with an understanding that change occurs through networks of interdependent relationships. The paper outlines a trans-experiential set of practices: honoring place as kin, revealing and redistributing power, cultivating a culture of accountability, facilitating dialogue, and hosting belonging and celebration. These practices …

Intentional Action At The Margins: Unpacking Agency In Public Service Ecosystem Design, Nicole Hußmann, Annukka Svanda, Martina Čaić

Nordes Conference Series

This paper examines how public service ecosystems shape the agency of marginalized residents, focusing on immigrant job seekers. While ecosystem perspectives in service design have highlighted marginalization and actor interconnectedness, the role and intricacies of agency remain underexplored. To address this gap, we draw on a service design project in the City of Espoo aimed at improving an employment service for immigrants. Our findings reveal that immigrant job seekers’ agency is affected by (i) limited psychological, financial, and temporal resources, (ii) distorted information flows, (iii) the dependence on community support, (iv) biased attitudes of service staff and managers, and (v) …

Designing For Relay-Tional Co-Becoming, Alexandra Harder Lindek, Mathias Poulsen

Nordes Conference Series

This paper explores how the relay conversation approach can facilitate designerly co-becoming in rural communities working towards emerging futures. Building on relational perspectives in design research, we engage with the idea that participation in design is not merely about including diverse voices but about fostering conditions for mutual becoming. We examine how this approach unfolds through ongoing engagements and situated moments, where designers and communities navigate uncertainty and collectively shape new potentials. Rather than treating design as a predefined problem-solving activity, the relay conversation approach works with the evolving dynamics of place, social relations, and ecological entanglements. Through autoethnographic reflections, …

Designing Relational Space: Towards Adaptive And Interactive Learning Environments, Johannes Pointner, Albert Lang

Nordes Conference Series

This paper investigates relational and interactive principles in spatial design. Drawing from Relational Theory of Space, Actor-Network Theory, and embodied interactivity, it examines space as a dynamic and interactive system rather than a static framework. Using the New Practice Co-Lab as a case study, the paper examines modular architectural frameworks, technological integrations, and participatory design processes that create flexible, multifunctional environments for learning and collaboration. It further explores the ambiguities of relational spatial design, highlighting its challenges and opportunities. Rather than proposing a universal blueprint, this research presents scalable principles for designing situated spaces as emergent, user-driven systems.

Homework: The Politics Of Participatory Design In Distributed Contexts, Alicia Smedberg, Jens Portinson Hylander

Nordes Conference Series

This paper examines the evolving nature of participatory design as it shifts from co-located, real-time engagements to asynchronous, delegated participation—a transformation conceptualized here as homework. Through two case studies—a toolkit for activist self-organization and a workbook-based remote design process—the paper explores how participation, when structured as homework, redistributes agency, responsibility, and knowledge production across time and space. The analysis of this paper highlights how Participatory Design, when mediated through artifacts such as toolkits and workbooks, can both enable and constrain engagement, shaping power dynamics and the ethics of care in distributed collaboration. The discussion critically examines how delegation impacts environmental …

Designing For Multispecies Affordances: A Poetics Of Control, Martin Avila, Nelly Mäekivi, Erik Andersson

Nordes Conference Series

This workshop will engage participants in an exercise that conceives experimental design practices that involve communication with other-than-human species. The process encourages a shift away from human-centred control, creating conditions that allow other species to manifest their own behaviours. This is important since the dominant global material culture of design does not acknowledge the presence and interaction of other species with things designed, erasing biodiversity as human habits repeat anthropocentric and destructive ecological patterns. Building on the work of J. J. Gibson’s concept of affordances, and other work that conform the emerging field that today is understood as posthumanism, the …

An Exploration On Relationality And Decoloniality In Participatory Design Based On Care, Annalinda De Rosa, Milagros Hurtig, Marco Andrea Finardi

Nordes Conference Series

How is positionality brought into participatory practices? How are moments for self-reflection created in participatory design? How do design researchers challenge colonial perspectives in design? The workshop aims to create a space for a collective reflection on the need to undo the narratives of modernity and the cult of futurity that brings to the ubiquitous discourse on innovation as the only possible path for a better future. The workshop experiments with materiality as a channel to collectively explore how designing – as a transformative action embracing relationality – could adopt a pluriversal mindset. It furthers the discussion on relationality, elucidating …

Pigs For The Dispossessed Goat Demon: Jesus’ Exorcism In Mark 5 And Animal Interest, Michael Joseph Gossett

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how a historical-literal reading of Mark 5:1-20 can be defended against objections that claim Jesus caused or allowed unnecessary animal suffering. Contextual insights gleaned from 2nd Temple Watchers Traditions and Greco-Roman polytheism illuminate plausible symbolic value present in the deaths of the Gerasene swine. The context of Mark 5:1-20 presents a supernatural conflict compatible with Christian theology and rebel angel theodicies. Jesus’ actions concerning the Gerasene pigs are not necessarily unjustifiable examples of animal mistreatment.

The Apologetic Implications Of Paul's First Missionary Journey, Mark Garro

Masters Theses

This thesis takes a careful look at Paul’s first missionary speech in Acts 13 and the larger narrative of his first missionary journey in Acts 14, asking two main questions: What is Paul saying in his first recorded sermon, and what can the modern church learn from it, particularly when it comes to apologetics and suffering? Through literary and exegetical analysis, this study examines how Paul’s message fits into the broader narrative of Acts, paying special attention to the historical setting, rhetorical flow, and theological implications of the speech. The research is grounded in a wide range of scholarship and …

A Strategy For Helping Mother And Daughter Churches Foster A Healthy Symbiotic Relationship, Timothy Blazer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research project explores the dynamic relationship between mother churches and daughter churches within the context of church multiplication, with particular emphasis on the mutual benefits and shared challenges that emerge throughout the planting process. Central to the study is the guiding research question: “Will applying biblical principles of church planting partnership between mother and daughter churches enable church plants to thrive and flourish?” While much of the existing literature centers primarily on individual church planters, this study focuses on how mother churches and their church plants can experience growth and vitality through intentional and collaborative partnerships. The purpose …

A Teleoisrael And The Μυστήριον Of Mercy: The Identity Of Πᾶς Ἰσραήλ And The Apocalyptic Realignment Of God’S Covenant People In Romans 9–11, James Matthew Nowotny

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation explores the meaning of Paul's assertion in Romans 11:26 that "all Israel will be saved," situating it within the broader theological and literary context of Romans 9–11. The study addresses the complex question of Israel’s identity in Paul’s writings, arguing that Paul envisions a future eschatological salvation for ethnic Israel that coheres with God’s covenantal promises while incorporating Gentile believers into the redemptive plan through union with Christ. Utilizing exegetical analysis, intertextual engagement with the Old Testament, and investigation of Second Temple Jewish conceptions of Israel, the study proposes a nuanced model termed TeleoIsrael—a theological construct reflecting the …

Ethnic Diversity And The High School’S Band Repertoire, Shane Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the development of strategies to increase diversity in the music classroom, there is still room for further advancement. Ensuring that each student is represented in the class allows everyone to feel appreciated and work together. Research has shown the current state of diversity and inclusion in band literature selections and has presented recommendations for the next steps. By modeling Whitmore’s diversity in band literature research, this mixed-method research study identified the criteria by which band literature has been selected over the past five years. Perspectives on social issues, database availability, and educators making changes have emerged as themes through …

The Confucian Path To Utopia : Liao Ping’S Theory Of Great Harmony, 1897–1918, Jiahui Dong

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Seeing utopia as “the expression of the desire for a better way of being” and a term that encompasses both the meanings of “good place” and “no place,” this thesis examines the theoretical interaction between Western utopianism and the concept of great harmony, or Datong, which emerged from the study of ancient Chinese classics. It focuses on the late Qing to early Republican period through the case of Liao Ping (1852–1932), a new-text Confucian scholar from Sichuan province, China. As an eminent scholar, Liao was deeply exposed to and influenced by Western concepts and literature during the time of …

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 01, August 4, 2025, Grand Valley State University

Volume 60, August 4, 2025 – April 20, 2026

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

"Things That Were, Things That Are, And Things That Yet May Be": The Matter Of Time In The Faërie Realms Of Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Noelia Ramos

Journal of Tolkien Research

Tolkien’s feelings and relationship to Celtic themes are more nuanced than a simple binary of aversion versus passion. As he professed to Stanley Unwin—"Needless to say they are not Celtic!" (Letters #19)—his stance encompassed both resistance and fascination. His essay On Fairy-Stories, originally delivered as the Andrew Lang Lecture in 1939, can be seen as an early foundation for concepts later developed in The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955). In this context, the concept of fiction and the secondary world—particularly regarding the nature of time—is notably prominent, drawing parallels to the Celtic Otherworld.

This study aims to analyze …

Islamism And Women’S Movements In Iran: Hijab As A Burden Of Representation, Samah Ahmed

International Studies (MA) Theses

Throughout history, Islamic discourse, political Islam, and the status of Muslim women have been subjects of study. Still, few research efforts have concentrated on the changes and dynamics between Islamic discourse and feminist resistance. Particularly in Iran, attention has primarily been given to the Islamism project, often treated as separate from social movements in post-Islamism. This thesis explores how social movements have used the symbolism of the veil in their resistance, focusing specifically on the women's social movement during the Islamic Revolution. Drawing on Assef Bayat's approach of Islamism and social movements and Gender and power dynamics theory, the main …

Reverse-Chinoiserie: Qing Imperial Porcelain And The Reappropriation Of European Rococo, Yifan (Mia) Ye

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces “reverse-chinoiserie” to describe the Qing court’s reappropriation of European Rococo aesthetics in imperial porcelain. Through case studies of 18th-century ceramic diplomacy and design, it reveals how cultural imitation was reengineered into visual sovereignty. It examines how China responded to, absorbed, and redirected European fantasies of empire.