Digital Commons Network^™

Social Safety And Social Security: Validating Context-Specific Instruments For Slums, Liss D. Romero, Katherine Palacio, Zacheous Ako Abang, Valeria Silgado, Humberto Llinas, Leidy González, Erika Frydenlund, Daniel Bolivar, Jose J. Padilla

VMASC Publications

Social safety and social security are concepts that help explain a community's well-being by assessing how it manages and mitigate existing, or perceived, risks. However, these terms are often conflated, which can limit understanding, particularly in areas with unstable living conditions. This study explores both concepts in the context of residents living in slums. As the number of displaced people grows, slums and informal settlements are becoming increasingly common worldwide, making it essential to clarify these concepts. Residents of slums face numerous hazards, including crime, violence, inadequate housing, overcrowding, and limited access to essential services. To measure social safety and …

By The Light, Desiree Galamgam

CMC Senior Theses

On the island of Helios, the sun god, a water nymph finds comfort tending to the flora along  riverbanks. Clytie avoids her oceanid sisters’ poisonous proclivities. Modeling herself after the sun god’s incessant responsibilities, she spends her existence working. Only taking breaks to perch herself at the top of her alcove’s hill to watch Helios drive his chariot to rise and set the sun, she sees him as the epitome of perfection and freedom.

Her tranquil life is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Helios himself at the footsteps of her isolated cave. Clytie begins to feel new emotions as …

Pesos For Pesos And No One Feels At Home: Gentrification And Displacement In Mexico City, Sophia L. Castellanos

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates how gentrification and displacement have affected Mexico City, providing historical context and reasoning behind current policies for digital nomads and tourists. It examines policies enacted in similar cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Venice, which face challenges from increased tourism and short-term rentals like Airbnb. The thesis also reviews these regulations, highlighting their successes and limitations, and offers recommendations for integrating some of these strategies into Mexico City’s 2024 Tourism Law. Additionally, it explores public innovation strategies that could promote collaborations between the government and communities rather than complete government control. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges …

Family, Stability, Mentors & Money: Student Definitions Of Success, Arturo Caldera

CMC Senior Theses

This research takes a deep dive into the factors shaping marginalized communities’ educational experiences, particularly for low-income Latino students from migrant backgrounds navigating public schooling spaces. Across sixteen qualitative interviews, participant narratives reveal how a systemic lack of resources at the institutional, interpersonal, and structural levels undermines the quality of support students receive and shapes their academic trajectories. Grounded in student-centered practices and informed by scholarship in multicultural education, Chicanx/Latinx studies, feminism, and psychology, this study contributes to ongoing efforts to move beyond deficit-based frameworks and instead recognize the cultural wealth, knowledge, and resilience students bring from their homes and …

Criminalizing Motherhood: Abortion, Obstetric Emergencies, And State Power In Post-1998 El Salvador, Valery M. Reyes

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how a series of regressive legal reforms in El Salvador–the 1997 Penal Code’s expansion of abortion-related punishments and the 1999 constitutional amendment defining life as beginning at conception–eliminated all exceptions to abortion and transformed a woman’s reproductive body into a site of surveillance. Rather than expanding rights, these reforms rolled back on existing protections by not recognizing obstetric emergencies, miscarriages, or cases of rape as legitimate grounds for abortion. Prosecutors and judges could treat such medical emergencies as convictions for “fetal homicide,” carrying sentences of 30-50 years in prison.

Court documents, reports from non-government organizations …

Representation In Black Media And How It Affects Generational Mental Health, Amiya Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This article examines how negative media portrayals of Black Americans have harmed their mental health. It traces the impact of persistent stereotypes and the lack of recognition for Black achievements in the media. Each chapter explores how media—from social media to movies—reinforces outdated stereotypes originating in the antebellum era and discusses how Black Americans have challenged these narratives to assert their identity. The article also highlights positive shifts in representation within the media industry, as well as research on how racial discrimination and media depictions influence the mental health and self-esteem of Black adolescents.

Unmasked And Unprotected: An Autistic Poet's Journey Of Imperfect Confession, Cynthia Short

Theses and Dissertations

Cynthia Short’s thesis analyzes the consumption and contortion of neurodivergent experience across the clinical, personal, and artistic stages. Combining intersectional memoir with clinical research, traditional poetics, and spoken word experience, she weaves a first-person narrative of consumption and redefinition by systems that did not understand her. Yet, she argues that imperfect confession -done without self-knowledge, resources, or proper self-worth to resist consumption – still has its place. Her collection of twenty-nine self-authored poems serves as a testament to the growth her imperfect confession allowed, outlining her struggles with identity, clinical experimentation and economic survival in a world not meant for …

A Word From The Writing Team (January 2026), Pam Walter, Mfa, Laura Deloretta, Phd

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

More Than A Meal: What Death Row Last Meals Reveal About Identity, Power, And Humanity, Mackenzie Helbig

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Last meals on death row may appear to be a small or insignificant part of the execution process, but they can reveal deeper meaning about the individuals who choose them and the system that allows them. Before execution, inmates are often given the opportunity to request a final meal. While this moment is brief, it can carry emotional, cultural, and symbolic meaning. This study explores what last meals reveal about identity, mental state, and personal control in a highly controlled environment.

Using a descriptive qualitative approach, this research analyzes last meal records, academic studies, and inmate reports to identify recurring …

From Sacred Practice To Social Identity: The Historical Evolution Of Vegetarianism Through Religion, Psychology, And Social Norms, Makenna Mae Seymour

Honors Theses – Charlotte Campus

This research paper aims to explore how the vegetarian diet has evolved throughout history through lenses of religion and social psychology. Using primary and secondary academic resources, over thirty resources were evaluated, including books and journal articles,  using key words, such as “vegetarian,” “attitudes,” and “social norms.” The beginnings of vegetarianism were established through religious practices, but social norms from families and friends, as well as personal gain reasons, are the driving factors that have maintained the vegetarian diet over time. Vegetarianism began from Pythagoras and his cult in the 600s BC, but it grew once Hinduism and Jainism adopted …

Amalie Joachim: Reminiscences Of Childhood, Robert W. Eshbach

Faculty Publications

This bilingual edition presents Reminiscences of Childhood, the autobiographical narrative of the Austrian operatic singer Amalie Joachim (née Schneeweiss), in Nina Joachim’s English translation together with the original German text. Written for her daughters, the memoir recounts Joachim’s family background in Carinthia and Styria; her early musical training and exposure to domestic chamber music; the political and personal upheavals of the revolutions of 1848; the death of her father and the family’s subsequent poverty; and her first theatrical engagements in Troppau and Hermannstadt. The narrative offers a vivid first-person account of musical life, female artistic formation, family survival, provincial theatre, …

More Than A Man: An Ethnomusicological Survey Of The Folklore Of John Henry And Resource Guide For “More Than A Man” By Shanyse Strickland, Clayton R. Heath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

“John Henry” exists as an enduring folk legend in the United States of America, representing the confluence of the Reconstruction Era, the economic utility of Appalachia and the Westward expansion of industry which left it behind. Though based on historical events, Henry’s fictional representation has diverted and evolved in music and other media from its inception in the oral tradition to the modern age. Through this progression, shared symbols have circulated, gathering embedded meanings and associating the folklore with specific communities. Henry’s representational identity has been signaled with the creation and distribution of each version of his story, both complicating …

Structures Of Fantasy In Terry Gilliam's 'Time Bandits', Sean Fash

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Terry Gilliam’s use of fantasy genre conventions in his filmography is obvious in presence, but elusive in understanding.  Time Bandits, as an early entry into this filmography, simultaneously seems to mock and embody these genre conventions.  This paper seeks to find a way to understand Time Bandits on a structural level through existing frameworks in fantasy criticism and to see what deeper meanings the film holds behind its silly, fantastical presentation.  These structural templates of analysis are John Clute’s “full fantasy model” from his Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Farah Mendlesohn’s “portal quest fantasy” from her Rhetorics of Fantasy.  By deconstructing …

Selling Ideals: Sexualization In Teen Girl Magazines, 2007-2017, Megan Coogan

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Magazines are made to sell more than just a product; they sell lifestyles and ideals. Teen girl magazines target adolescents starting as young as twelve years old, but is the content in its pages appropriate and identifiable for that demographic? This study investigated how levels of perceived sexualization changed between 2007, 2012, and 2017, in Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines. A decrease in perceived sexualization was expected across the ten-year period of time. This window of time reflects the last ten years of publication for both magazines. Research was conducted by creating and utilizing a grading system for non-explicit sexualized …

Reconciling Discretion With The Rule Of Law: A Rawlsian Analysis Of Civil Disobedience By State Actors In Liberal-Democratic Schemes, Reid Devoge

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation starts from the position that the stability of liberal-democratic political schemes relies on its citizens mutually accepting a basic conception of political justice. While these conceptions of justice may vary, most incorporate the inter-connected concepts of autonomy, liberty, liberalism, and the rule of law. Within this conception of a liberal democracy, a potentially destabilizing issue arises when a legislatively passed law is put into effect, but a portion of the citizens perceive it as unjust. If legitimate (i.e., lawful) actions do not sufficiently resolve the concern, civil disobedience (i.e., disobeying the law) is a potential recourse, but this …

Digital Technology And Women’S Health In Nigeria: A Feminist Sts Walkthrough Analysis Of Mdoc Digital Health, Edith Michael Ogbodo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis critically examines how a Nigerian digital health platform, mDoc, represents and constructs women’s health. Drawing on Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Light et al.’s (2018) walkthrough method, the study interrogates the values, assumptions, and power relations embedded in mDoc’s design, language, and governance structures. The analysis reveals that mDoc, despite positioning itself as an equitable solution to Nigeria’s health crisis, reproduces and depoliticizes the structural inequalities it claims to address. Through its neoliberal emphasis on self-care, the individualization of structurally produced suffering, and the datafication of women’s bodies, the platform encodes gendered, colonial, and class-based assumptions …

Reading Between The Lines: Protected, But Not From Interpretation, Hooriya Habib

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In the realm of television, audiences are interactive viewers who decode meaning based on their lived experiences. Given that each culture has its own set of cultural codes it uses as a lens to navigate life, meanings do not remain constant. This cultural media study breaks down three advertisements to study the effectiveness of these advertisements in relation to religious and cultural codes. Using Stuart Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model, an oppositional reading was employed to understand the disconnect that may be caused between an audience of rural Pakistani women and the producers. Objects of focus were nonverbal codes such as …

Valuing Life And Loss: Genre Analysis Of Insurance Claims Processing In Ghana, Cornelius Fuumaale Suom-Kogle

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis draws on theories from rhetorical genre studies (Spinuzzi’s genre ecology and Freadman’s uptake), biopolitics, and the social justice turn in Technical and Professional Communication to examine how decisions are made in the processing of insurance claims. I adopt a qualitative, interpretive approach to analyze one hundred and twelve (112) claims processing examples from Ghana’s insurance industry. The findings indicate that insurance claims processing is a complex communicative system in which institutional power is enacted, negotiated, and, at times, contested. The findings also reveal that insurer-authored genres frequently enact forms of oppression (exploitation, marginalization, and powerlessness) through technical language …

The Hrt Boomerang: The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Hormone Replacement Therapy For Menopause In The United States, Rachel A. Dopico

Senior Honors and Award-Winning Theses

No abstract provided.

Toward Interspecies Reproductive Justice, Asha A. Ramakumar

Animal Law Review

Reproductive justice discourse has largely overlooked non-human animals, despite the parallel forms of biopolitical control exercised over human women and female animals’ reproductive labor. By examining the shared logics underlying the subordina-tion of both human women and dairy cows, this Article argues that any genuine conception of reproductive justice must inter-rogate reproductive exploitation beyond the human experience. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower and Carol J. Adams’ framework of the “absent referent,” this Article elucidates how powerful institutions control those with the capacity for preg-nancy by perpetuating narratives of biological essentialism and obligation.

Part II examines several examples of …

5bfts Grove At The Nma 14 Dedication Of The Falcon Field Association 4bfts Plaque At The 5bfts Grove In October 2024, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in September 2002. Document 14 ‘Dedication of the 4BFTS Plaque in the 5BFTS Grove’ is an account of events leading up to the Dedication of a plaque to remember cadets from 4BFTS Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, in the 5BFTS Grove and details of the Dedication service at the NMA on October 19, 2024.

Cultus: Eco-Phenomenology In The Work Of John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, And Jack London, Carter D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--English

In the face of increasingly dire environmental crises, proposed solutions have gravitated toward imperatives for faster, cleaner, and more efficient technologies and resources. While practical solutions are necessary, they are entirely insufficient to deal with an underlying issue driving environmental degradation: unbridled instrumental reason. In this dissertation, I suggest a theoretical posture, cultus, which attempts to balance the necessity of instrumental action with the guiding counterweight of receptivity. Furthermore, I argue that such personal receptivity is uniquely fostered in aesthetic experiences, attuning the individual to the non-identical and renewing a relationship of care.

I examine the life and work of …

Displacement And Belonging: The Search For Identity Through Latina Literature, Noelia A. Alvarado Torres

Literary and Intercultural Studies | Senior Theses

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez and Infinite Country by Patricia Engel are two novels that highlight the Latino search for identity and belonging in the United States.  The characters in these books navigate adolescence and adulthood in the face of displacement, each illustrating how history, culture, and society interfere with the search for one’s self. They also highlight the multicultural experience of being shaped by different spaces that at times contradict one another. Furthermore, these books, written by women and with women at the center, bring forth a voice that often gets left out in …

A Contextual Proposal Toward Ministerial Competency: The Theological Education Of Pastors In The African American Baptist Churches Of Central Mississippi, Kevin Thomas

Doctor of Ministry

There is a critical issue affecting some African American Baptist churches in Central Mississippi: the absence of formal theological training among a significant number of pastors. While these ministers are spiritually mature and deeply committed to their congregations, the gap in theological preparedness tends to pose challenges to doctrinal accuracy, exegetical soundness, and the long-term effectiveness of their ministries. This study aims to address the following question: How can a contextually informed and practically accessible theological education model equip African American Baptist pastors in Central Mississippi for faithful ministry? The argument presented asserts that theological education is not a luxury …

That's A Great Question! A Practical Guide To Engage Teens In Honest Conversations, Linda Van Voorst

Doctor of Ministry

This Doctoral Project addresses a significant and persistent challenge within evangelical churches: 70% of Evangelical teens disengage from church upon high school graduation. While often attributed to rebellion or declining belief, this project investigates deeper formative dynamics contributing to this disengagement.

Research revealed that many adolescents do not disengage because they reject faith, but because they lack safe, relational spaces within the church to voice meaningful questions about God, suffering, identity, and belief. When questioning is met with discomfort, defensiveness, or premature answers, adolescents often internalize the message that doubt is incompatible with faith. The research also surfaced that many …

Spiritual Friendship: Addressing Clergy Loneliness And Isolation, Tyler Tankersley

Doctor of Ministry

The Need, Problem, or Opportunity (NPO) that grounds this Project Portfolio is the widespread experience of personal loneliness and social isolation among pastors. While pastoral ministry is inherently relational, many clergy serve in emotionally demanding roles that limit their capacity to cultivate mutual, non-instrumental friendships, leaving them vulnerable to exhaustion, isolation, and diminished vocational sustainability.

Research conducted through collaborative design workshops, one-on-one interviews, surveys, and engagement with biblical, theological, and contemporary social research revealed that loneliness among pastors is not merely a social deficit but a spiritual and formational concern. Key insights include the distinction between loneliness and social isolation, …

Faith That Lasts: How Local Churches Can Support Families In Passing On Their Faith To Their Children, Andrew Corbyn Thompson

Doctor of Ministry

NPO Statement

More than ever, children raised in Christian homes leave their faith by adulthood.

A major contributing factor to this tragic exodus is the North American ministry model that outsourced discipleship from the home to age-segregated church programs and professionals. This project responds to the urgent need to equip and empower parents in their foundational role as their children's first disciplers.

Key Benefit or Insights that Emerged from the Research Overall

The research for this project, grounded in biblical and theological foundations and sociological observation, highlights that lasting, authentic faith is fostered in a holistic home environment where parents, …

Rhythms: Realigning To The Peaceable Kingdom, Todd A. Richards

Doctor of Ministry

American Individualism is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus. It is rooted in individual exceptionalism and meritocracy; one succeeds or fails by one’s own strength and will. The need for community and mutuality is minimized or non-existent. The I does not need the we. I pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I am the captain of my ship. I create my own destiny.

American individualism has created a church ill-equipped to encounter the Peaceable Kingdom in daily life. Faith is private. Christian community is relegated to weekly gathered worship. Spiritual friendships have been replaced with personal quiet …

Leadership Pathways Foundations: Developing Women In Alliance Missions, Melissa Lynne Singfiel

Doctor of Ministry

The project was developed to address the NPO: Women in Alliance Missions have unmet developmental needs, are often overlooked in the first decade of service, and underutilized for leadership opportunities.

A key insight of the research was a twofold obstacle facing women in ministry. First, the fundamental theological disagreement over women’s participation in leadership results in pervasive patriarchal preference and predominance of male leadership voices in the organizational culture. Second, a general lack of preparation and mentoring for women in the areas of leadership and formation results in an absence of women in the leadership pipeline and an additional layer …

Epistemic Lexical Verbs As Hedging Devices And Their Semantic Prosodies In Applied Linguistics Abstracts In Thai International Journals, Soranut Kumdee

PASAA

No abstract provided.