Digital Commons Network^™

From Dante’S Inferno To California: Visualizing The Marginalized In Sandow Birk’S Social Critique, Lorenzo N. Williams

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

This research explores the intersection of medieval literature and contemporary visual art, focusing specifically on Sandow Birk’s reinterpretation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. By examining Birk’s illustrated adaptations of Inferno and Purgatorio, this paper analyzes how he translates and visually reimagines Dante’s moral and spiritual journey as a modern critique of California’s social crises, particularly those affecting unhoused populations. It investigates Birk’s recontextualization of Dante’s allegory in relation to the urban decay of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ultimately, this study aims to reveal how Birk’s visual narrative bridges historical understandings of religious and social issues with contemporary experiences of …

Mashin’ Up Stratified Blackness: Unpacking The Communal Responsibility Of Black International/Immigrant Academics To Black American Academics, Candice Peters, Abigail Smith

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Our duoethnographic inquiry, grounded in Intersectionality, addresses the following questions: How do intersectionality and internationalization complicate Black diasporic dynamics within the United States? What communal responsibilities do Black international/immigrant people hold toward Black American people within the U.S. academy? Through critical engagement with three previously published poems, we foreground the communal responsibility that arises at the hands of internationalization and unpack the intertwined realities of anti-Blackness, racialized hierarchies, and diasporic dynamics. Our findings unmask three themes: (1) evolving understandings of race across transnational contexts, (2) Black intraracial stratification, and (3) taking up responsibility. We conclude by urging a (re)commitment to …

A Narrative-Driven, Socratic Instructional Framework For Teaching Adversarial Cognition In Cybersecurity, Joshua K. Goossen

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The Socratic method has demonstrated, in studies across law, medicine, and nursing, that dialectic structured questioning improves expert reasoning. Cybersecurity currently teaches tools and techniques but lacks Socratic dialogic leaving graduates underprepared for novel scenarios requiring cross-domain reasoning. Because law, medicine and nursing cultivate similar reasoning as security there is principled reason to expect reasoning benefits could transfer to security students. This paper argues that the correspondence warrants investigation. Investigation requires a named, teachable reasoning target analogous to clinical reasoning and we specify that target as adversarial cognition, a framework integrating adversary features, system architecture, implementation logic, governance structure, human …

Pola Pengembangan Gerak Tari Banyuwangi Dalam Tari Sasanjung Karya Ragiel Alfan Di Sanggar Tari Kuwung Wetan, Banyuwangi, Anandhita Dwi Aristanti, Robby Hidajat

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study describes the development of Banyuwangi dance movements and the elements of posture, movement, rhythm, and tempo in Sasanjung, a dance choreographed by Ragiel Alfan at Kuwung Wetan Dance Studio in Banyuwangi Regency. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed. Data were collected through observation, documentation, and interviews with five informants: the choreographer, a dancer, the studio owner, a musician, and a local cultural expert. Data analysis involved data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. Credibility was examined through triangulation across sources and data collection techniques. The findings indicate that Sasanjung draws primarily on Gandrung dance through the …

Analisis Musikal Aransemen Lagu Basanan Oleh Grup Jazz Patrol Kawitan Banyuwangi, Khalif Ardiansyah, Tutut Pristiati, Yurina Gusanti

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

Basanan is a musical repertoire from Banyuwangi associated with the oral traditions of the Using community. This study aims to analyze the musical arrangement of Basanan performed by Jazz Patrol Kawitan Banyuwangi, focusing on melody, harmony, rhythm, structure, dynamics, and instrumentation. A qualitative descriptive-analytical approach was employed, using audiovisual performance recordings, musical transcriptions, interview data, and relevant literature. The analysis involved repeated observations, identification of musical elements, and interpretation of their relationships within the arrangement. The findings indicate that the arrangement employs pitch material associated with B-flat major, with an emphasis on G in certain melodic passages. Its harmonic treatment …

Profit Distribution Mechanisms For Investment Accounts In Malaysian Islamic Banks: An Analytical Study In Light Of Shariah And Accounting Standards, Fares Djafri, Ashraf Md Hashim, Zeynelabidin Hayat

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This study examines the profit distribution mechanisms for investment accounts in Malaysian Islamic banks. It analyzes the Shariah and accounting foundations that govern the relationship between the bank and investment account holders. The study identifies a set of fairness parameters rooted in Islamic legal principles and Islamic accounting standards, most notably: the requirement to predefine profit-sharing ratios, adherence to the Shariah rules of loss-bearing in mudarabah, full transparency and disclosure, proportional profit allocation based on investment amount and duration, and the governance rules relating to the use of the Profit Equalization Reserve (PER) and Investment Risk Reserve (IRR) to ensure …

Diversifying The Investment Assets Of Waqf Institutions, Sakhr Abdullah Alasmari

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

The study aimed at researching the technical and economic factors that contribute to the formation of a good diversification of investments of waqf institutions, and finding a unified model for specific ratios for the distribution of waqf investment asset classes, or identifying factors that prevent this. The descriptive approach and the comparative analytical approach have been used to track and analyze the main concepts of the study topic and show the relationship between them, with the inclusion of a comparison of waqf investment funds in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, based on annual reports published in the Saudi Capital Market …

The Impact Of Digital Transformation On The Performance Of Islamic Banks In The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, Roukia Bouhider, Assma Guerfi

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This research aims to examine the relationship between digital transformation and the performance of 25 Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries over the 2015-2023 period using the Panel-ARDL model and relying on the descriptive approach. The main independent variable is the Digital Transformation Index, in addition to the cost-toincome ratio, the total asset, the deposit-to-asset ratio, the real GDP, and the inflation rate. Return on equity (ROE) is the main performance measure. The study concludes that digital transformation in Islamic banks in the GCC countries is in its early stages, but it is increasing following the Corona pandemic …

Financing Under The Income Share Agreement (Isa) Model: Towards A Shariah-Compliant Formula For Financing University Education, Asma Bint Mohammed Al-Amari

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This study examines financing under the Income Share Agreement (ISA) model as a contemporary financing instrument and seeks to introduce it as a new model at the local level. It aims to enable beneficiaries to access education in return for consideration linked to their future income. The study seeks to develop a Shariah-compliant structure by identifying its jurisprudential characterization and Shariah parameters and analyzing its contractual elements. The study concludes that the subject matter of the contract is the educational benefit rather than the transfer of ownership of money, which distinguishes it from a loan and other forms of financing …

Enabling Smart Waqf Investment Sukuk Through Blockchain Technology For Resource Sustainability And Return Development, Siham Rahmani, Mohamed Djafar Henni

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This study aims to examine smart waqf investment sukuk as one of the contemporary applications of Islamic financial engineering, based on the integration of waqf objectives, Sharia-compliant investment structures, and modern digital technologies. It seeks to highlight the potential of employing blockchain technology in developing their institutional and operational digital infrastructure. The study also aims to propose a smart waqf investment sukuk model based on the Murabaha to the Purchase orderer structure, identifying its components, the roles of its stakeholders, and the mechanisms for managing the rights and operations associated with it. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach to establish …

Islamic Finance And Money Creation: SharīʿAh Issues And A Reform Proposal, Abdullah Al-Sulami, Ayman Saleh

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Islamic Economics

This study highlights a fundamental problem confronting Islamic banking, namely the dominance of debt-based contracts, such as Murābaḥah and Tawarruq, at the expense of genuine partnership-based contracts, particularly Mushārakah and Muḍārabah. This dominance has, in turn, given rise to persistent criticism concerning the Shariah legitimacy of Islamic banking products. The study proceeds from the premise that this departure from the objectives (maqāṣid) of Islamic economics is not merely a technical or managerial choice, but rather an inevitable consequence of Islamic banks operating within a fractional reserve banking system and their inherent involvement in the mechanism of …

Instalasi Sebagai Ruang Traumatis: Estetika Partisipatoris Dan Pengalaman Fenomenologis Dalam Karya Jompet Kuswidananto, Muhammad Majid Amanulloh Kusmadi, A. Syaifuddin Rohman

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study examines Jompet Kuswidananto’s installation artworks as spaces that represent traumatic memory through bodily engagement and audience participation. The study employs a descriptive qualitative approach informed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and Claire Bishop’s perspective on participatory aesthetics. Data were collected through interviews with the artist and participants and through document analysis. The analysis focuses on two works, On Paradise #2 and Subterranean Thunder #1, selected for their relevance to traumatic memory, aesthetic experience, and audience participation. The findings show that both works construct experiences through relationships among objects, space, sound, light, and the audience’s body. Merleau-Ponty’s perspective demonstrates …

Briefly Noted: Terry Pratchett By Andy Sawyer, Janet Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Review of Terry Pratchett by Andy Sawyer, Writers and Their Work Series.

A Diasporic Mythography: Myth, Legend And Memory In The Literature Of The Indian Diaspora By P.M. Biswas, G. Connor Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Scholarship continues to explore how postcolonial Indian authors use speculative fiction to explore their country's identity, but book-length studies on the diasporic Indian experience are hard to find. Poet, novelist and scholar Pooja Mittal Biswas examines noted fantasy books by four acclaimed Indian authors born during the first two generations of the Republic of India: Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Suniti Namjoshi, and Vikram Chandra. Each author offers a different vision of Indianness, drawing on their complicated experiences as Indians living outside their country of origin, shaped by and responding to colonialism's past, offering different views of how diasporic Indians should …

Tolkien And The Mystery Of Literary Creation By Guiseppe Pezzini, Katherine Sas

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This article reviews Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation by Giuseppe Pezzini, a study of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creative process in which Pezzini argues for a remarkably consistent and comprehensive (if quirky) theory of literary creation as embodied in Tolkien’s legendarium.

Science And Religion In The Imagination Of C.S. Lewis: The Quest For The Best Mental Model Of The Universe By Alister E. Mcgrath, Martina Juričková

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This is a book review of Science and Religion in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis: The Quest for the Best Mental Model of the Universe by Alister E. McGrath

The Mismeasure Of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment Of Tolkien’S Demonized Creatures By Robert T. Tally Jr., Gerry Canavan

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This is a book review of Robert Tally's The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien’s Demonized Creatures.

From Soldier To Storyteller: Essays On World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children’S Authors, Edited By Kathleen Broome Williams And Hal H. Friedman, Kris Swank

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Book review of From Soldier to Storyteller: Essays on World War Veterans Who Became Famous Children’s Authors, edited by Kathleen Broome Williams and Hal M. Friedman. Foreword by Michael S. Neiberg. McFarland, 2024.

Barrel-Rides And She-Elves: Audience And Anticipation In Peter Jackson’S Hobbit Trilogy, Janet Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, to the audience that loved the Lord of the Rings films, is an exciting opportunity to revisit Tolkien’s fantastic world and see favorite characters acting out their earlier adventures. The reader of the books, though, is often likely to find the difference in tone between the children’s book and the vastly expanded films jarring. This essay will explore audience expectations, the difficulties of filming a “prequel” after a “sequel,” and issues of “anticipation” in relation to character development.

In Memoriam: Gracia Fay Ellwood, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Brief in memoriam note for Gracia Fay Ellwood, who among other roles, was the Editor of Mythlore for several years.

"Making The Familiar Strange": The Ecocentric Power Of Climate Fantasy, John Cook

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Contributing to the failure to address climate change is a lack of public imagination, both in perceiving the threat of climate change and conceptualizing solutions. Climate fiction engages readers on an emotional level and speculative fiction in particular can invent alternative worlds illustrating different ways of thinking and living. Fantasy fiction is uniquely suited as a form of climate fiction, with its immersive, subversive qualities, prioritization of the nonhuman, and a tendency towards sprawling, multiple-volume epic series. This paper explores two categories of climate fantasy themes. One category is recovery—regaining a clear view of the natural world. The other is …

Conservative Demons And Countercultural Creators: Hellish Societies In The Dark Or Modern Age Of Comics, Andrew Burt

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In the Hellblazer and Sandman comic books, depictions of hell rely on the writer’s perspective and the decade they are writing because they account for contemporary folklore, political situations, and cultural conventions. This paper examines how hell appears as a parodic version of the regular world in these texts, accounting for the dark age of comics from the 1980s, where grim and gritty topics prevailed. While borrowing from Judeo-Christian conceptions of hell, demonology, and fears of everlasting torment and damnation like many other representations throughout the centuries, these comics also took elements from the creator’s personal lives and hopes for …

“Salvation Must Be Communicated”: An Ecumenical Reading Of The Place Of The Lion, Avery-Claire Galloway

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

While previous scholarship has cautioned against a reductive tendency in the analysis of Charles Williams’s work, this paper offers an analysis that explores the importantly multiplicable nature of meaning used in one of Williams’s most bizarre novels, The Place of the Lion. A close reading of a remark from the novel’s heroine that “salvation must be communicated” provides a lens by which the entire novel can be read, revealing how Williams presents a specific, culture-centered version of Christianity where communication leads to a salvation that is more cultural than doctrinal, more than the erasure of sins, but an experience …

The Path Of Wisdom: Reassessing Tolkien’S Paremiology In The Hobbit And The Lord Of The Rings, Luis J. Tosina Fernández

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Using previous scholarship on the use of proverbs in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the present study reevaluates Tolkien’s use of proverbs in the series, with special attention to the use of pseudoproverbs and trying to provide sources that may have served as inspiration for the creation of Middle-earth proverbs. After close inspection of The Hobbit and the three parts of The Lord of the Rings, the findings point towards a less frequent use of proverbs than anticipated or presumed by previous authors. Moreover, despite including a far from negligible number of pseudoproverbs, for many of which …

Oxford At War: “Leaf By Niggle” As A Wartime Work, Part 1, Josh B. Long

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

J. R. R. Tolkien suggested that "Leaf by Niggle" was written around 1938-1939; however, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull argue that it was actually composed in 1942. This corrected date changes how one reads the story: often viewed as an autobiographical allegory of art and faith, “Leaf by Niggle” falls into place as a wartime work, informed and transformed by the World War II pressures of Tolkien’s Oxford—the city and the University. This article situates the story within WWII and analyzes how that context influenced the imagery, characterization, symbols, and motifs of "Leaf."

“A Story Must Be Told”: Narrative Engagement In The Lord Of The Rings, Matthew Thompson-Handell

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Much has been written on the allusions to untold tales in The Lord of the Rings and on the effects generated by such allusions. Any judgment on the importance of these effects should be treated with caution, as little work has been done to explore just how these effects operate on a reader. Nor have these effects been placed in a wider context that considers them alongside other aspects of narrative engagement. Much work could be done on the engagement generated by narrative techniques such as suspense, curiosity, and surprise - one example is provided here with an analysis of …

Mrs Pam The Mermaid Princess: Tolkien’S Domesticated Water Monster, Jean E. Graham

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien’s Roverandom features a mermaid princess who is unnamed except in association with her magician husband and thus known as “Mrs Artaxerxes” or “Mrs A. Pam.” A possible influence on Goldberry in The Fellowship of the Ring, Mrs Pam combines the domestic with the royal, and the beautiful with the monstrous. Her tail, described as “regrettable,” represents the hybridity of a being that is undermines binaries.

The Rhetoric Of The Road: The Romantic Journey As A Map Of Myth, Memory, And Majesty, Joe R. Christopher

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Scholar Guest of Honor Address at Mythcon 54, Weatherford OK, July 2026. This wide-ranging talk covered Dr. Christopher's personal and family connections with both the Mythopoeic Society and the city and state in which we met, as well as his decades of scholarly interest in the Inklings, tying it all together through Romanticism and the connecting theme of the Mother Road, Route 66.

Corrections:

On page 8, Dr. Christopher traveled to his first Mythcon from Texas, not Oklahoma.

On page 14, the quotation from Tolkien is on p. 241 in Green and Hooper.

On page 16, the biography should list …

“Learning To Ask The Deeper Questions Behind The Image That Most People Don’T See:” Teaching Critical Visual Literacy To History Teacher Candidates Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Heather Koopmans, Richard Hughes

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Despite the ubiquitous role of images in teaching history, few teachers have formal training in how to help students critically read photographs, paintings, and other images. The essay centers on research on how Critical Visual Literacy, which focuses on how images reflect complex issues of power in society, can assist emerging teachers in helping students think historically and better engage visual evidence associated with curriculum mandates to broaden historical narratives

Using Scenario-Based Generative Ai In A Social Studies Methods Course, Timothy Lintner, Ellis Reeves

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly transforming the landscape of educator preparation. This shift is especially evident in social studies. As emerging technologies like AI reshape how social studies is taught and learned, it is essential to incorporate them into course design and student outcomes. Simply put, we must ensure that the next generation of social studies educators can effectively use AI to create real-world, scenario-based learning experiences that foster inquiry and encourage student action-taking. This article examines how AI-supported, scenario-based learning was strategically integrated into a secondary social studies methods course at the University of South Carolina Aiken. From concept …