Digital Commons Network^™

Petals And Pride: A Botanical History Of Queer Expression, Sarah O. Kowal

Graduate Masters Theses

“Petals and Pride” examines the historical use of flowers as enduring symbols of queer expression and persecution across diverse cultures and time periods, paying particular attention to violets, green carnations, roses, lilies, pansies, and lavender. This study begins with the appearance of violets in the works of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho and traces their adoption by the lesbian community of Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. Around this same time, another floral symbol emerged across the English Channel: the green carnation. Popularized by Oscar Wilde, the green carnation functioned in Victorian Britain as an emblem of sexuality …

Talk To Me: Exploring The Sociocultural Ecology Of Home Language And Literacy Practices Of Families In India, Surbhi Puri

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Existing research highlights the role of home language and literacy environments (HLLE) in shaping early language and literacy development, yet few studies have examined the practices of multilingual families in India. While home environments offer rich learning opportunities, broader sociocultural and policy contexts influence how families support literacy and language development. Families’ insights into home language use, literacy routines, and cultural practices remain underexplored in early childhood education research.

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the HLLE of preschool-aged children in India and examine how families support early language and literacy development within multilingual home …

Critical Geopolitics And The Reconstruction Of Meaning: A Discourse Analysis Of The 'Terrorism' Label Applied To Hamas By Western Hegemony, Cahaya Mulyani Sakti, M.Hamdan Basyar

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The emergence of Hamas in 1987 cannot be separated from the configuration of modern colonialism and the continuity of occupation that shaped the political reality. Hamas’s early phase was rooted in socio-religious activities through education and community empowerment programs, before evolving into armed resistance against the occupation. The labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization began in the mid-1990s in U.S. legal documents, which subsequently generated debate and gave rise to counter-narratives. This study employs the frameworks of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail & Agnew) and the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak) to analyze the labeling of Hamas as “terrorist” by Western hegemony. …

Digital Communication And The Evolution Of Ideological Narratives In Indonesia: Insights From Social Media Platforms, Tia Mariatul Kibtiah, Muhammad Fikri Fawazi

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study examines how pro-caliphate and anti-democratic narratives are articulated and normalised within YouTube comment spaces in Indonesia. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with high levels of digital engagement, Indonesia provides an important context for analysing how political-religious discourses circulate through everyday digital interaction. The research analyses 1,354 YouTube comments related to the caliphate, governance, and democracy. Data were collected using Google Apps Script, manually filtered for relevance, and examined through qualitative content analysis informed by Social Network Theory (SNT) and the Radicalisation Factor Model (RFM). The findings show that 34.49% of comments endorsed ideological pro-caliphate narratives, while 35.97% …

Making Kinship With Plants And The Multiple Meanings Of Care In Amazonian Indigenous Gardens, Ana Gabriela Morim De Lima

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper focuses on the bonds of kinship and care between humans, cultivated plants, and other-than-human beings in Indigenous gardens, myths, rituals, and shamanism, across Lowland South America. Drawing on Krahô ethnography and a review of ethnological literature, it highlights the contributions of Americanist ethnology to wider debates about multispecies relation, particularly with regard to vegetal agency. By exploring the ambivalent meanings of care- such as “caring,” “raising,” and “nurturing,” as well as “being careful,” “having respect,” and “taking precautions”- I examine how kinship relations between humans and their cultivated plants are made through care and unmade through its absence …

Making Noise Through Law: Indigenous Legal Mobilisation Against A Power Plant In “French” Guiana, Pierre Auzerau

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In so-called “French” Guiana, or Guyane, the Kali’na village of Atopo Wipi has fought for years against a hydrogen power plant being built on their land. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2024 in Guyane and Western Europe, where I collaborated with various stakeholders to support Atopo Wipi’s resistance to the power plant, my research focuses on the legal dimensions of the Kali’na’s struggle to protect their land. Specifically, this article examines how the Kali’na navigated different normative frameworks, including international human rights standards and French law, to fight the project. Through this analysis, I show how the …

“Ese Dia Que Se Va El Patron An Hecho Fiesta”.* Historicities Of Successful Resistance Against Hacienda Bosses Among The Kukama (Peru, 1933-1945), Arno R. Holl

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper analyzes two cases of resistance by Kukama workers within the debt slavery system of habilitación in the Peruvian Amazon during the first half of the twentieth century. It discusses the similarities and differences between the two cases, and positions the workers and their accounts of events and agency within the historical, social and cosmological framework of the time and region. Through the examples studied here, the hierarchies, power dynamics, spirituality, lifestyles, traditions, and cultural changes that shaped Kukama communities at the time become visible from an emic perspective. The paper places special emphasis on how historical events are …

Here-, There-, And Every Where-: Exploring The Role Of Pronominal Adverbs In Legal Language, David Chandler

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Legal language is distinctive and sometimes difficult to understand. One type of word that appears to be part of so-called ‘legalese’ is the pronominal adverb (PA). The purpose of this thesis is to examine the prevalence of PAs in legal registers compared to more general registers of contemporary American English to determine the extent to which these words are distinctly legal. The study will also explore why different types of PAs may be (in)frequent in specific legal registers to better understand their use. The frequency of PAs was extracted from corpora that are designed to represent six registers of English …

The Second Prophecy Of Mandos: Eschatology, Mythic Sources, And Editorial Choices In Tolkien’S Legendarium, Paolo Pizzimento Dr.

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article examines the development and significance of the Second Prophecy of Mandos within J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium. Through an analysis of Tolkien’s published works and posthumously edited texts, the study traces the evolution of the prophecy from its earliest formulations in The Book of Lost Tales to its later iterations in the Quenta Silmarillion tradition. Particular attention is devoted to the editorial decision by Christopher Tolkien to omit the prophecy from the 1977 publication of The Silmarillion, assessing both the philological and interpretative factors that may have influenced this choice. The essay further investigates Tolkien’s conceptualization of eschatology …

Environmental Ethics And The (Dis)Continuity Of Meaning In Experience And Nature, Harrison S. Jackson

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

From Double Absence To Double Presence: Video-Selfie As Empowerment In A Multicultural Italian Classroom, Maria Ranieri, Ilaria Bucciarelli, Giulia Cuozzo

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This paper examines the video-selfie as a tool for empowerment in multicultural secondary school classrooms. We draw on data from the European ICME project, focusing on a vocational secondary school in Italy, where 17 of 18 first-year students – approximately half of whom had migration backgrounds – produced short videos presenting themselves through personally meaningful objects. Students then participated in a structured reflection activity after watching each other's videos in class. We combine three theoretical frameworks: critical media literacy, identity and self-representation studies, and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. Our argument is that the video selfie empowers in multiple ways: it …

Food, Crisis And Hope: Three Conflicts, Three Approaches, Johanna Mendelson Forman, Michael Shaikh, Joan Nathan, Yeheniia Yemshenetska, Andrea Borghini

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Plenary Session: Food, Crisis and Hope: Three Conflicts, Three Approaches

Panel hosted by Johanna Mendelson Forman

Michael Shaikh - "Saving Cuisine Is the Same As Saving a People"

Joan Nathan - "The Edible DNA: Jewish Food as a Bond through Crisis and War"

Johanna Mendelson Forman and Yevheniia Yemshenetska - "Hope and Crisis in War: Ukraine’s Deployment of Food as Soft Power during Conflict"

Andrea Borghini - "Food in Times of Crisis: A Leadership Perspective"

Migration And Settlement: Nation, Diaspora, And Culinary Geographies In Izmir’S Culinary Culture, Betül Öztürk

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The study explores the historical formation of Izmir as a port city shaped by waves of migration, examining how these dynamics contributed to the emergence of a hybrid culinary culture. The present study draws on historical sources and literature on migration to trace Izmir’s transformation from a small Ottoman settlement to a cosmopolitan Mediterranean city. The study highlights the role of diasporic communities including Rums, Sephardic Jews, Armenians, Levantines and later internal migrants in shaping daily life. The manner in which cohabitation patterns, neighbourhood-based settlements, and shared economic spaces have served to facilitate continuous cultural interaction among ethnic minorities is …

Bonding Through Boucherie: Strengthening Social Ties Through Butchery, Evelyn Lambeth

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

“La boucherie de quartier” is a Cajun phrase referring to a neighbourhood pig slaughter. One such annual event, the Lâche Pas Boucherie in southern Louisiana, brings multiple generations and many traditions together with the goal of sharing and celebrating music, food and culture. Boudin, crackling, andouille sausage, and hogshead cheese are but a few of the unique offerings from this melting pot of shared flavours. I was born and raised in southern Louisiana but rarely appreciated the novelty of Cajun cuisine until I moved to Australia. The flavours and spices of my former home add a certain piquancy that is …

Toddy, Tea, And Tapioca: Food, Famine, And The Moral Reordering Of Public Space In Malabar (Kerala), 1900- 1965, Mallory Rose Cerkleski

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This paper examines how public food and drink spaces in early twentieth-century Malabar functioned as critical infrastructures of everyday subsistence as well as sociability. It argues that toddy shops, beyond sites of intoxication, might have provided low-cost nutrition, informal credit, and cross-caste interaction for segments of the labouring poor. Colonial excise policies and temperance movements progressively narrowed these spaces, contributing to the rise of tea shops aligned with reformist ideals of respectable public consumption. While tea shops fostered political discussion and vernacular modernity, they could have been less reliable as nutritional buffers, especially during the food crises of the 1940s. …

Unspeakable Sacred Things Made Of Dough: Vermicelli And Pre-Christian Serpentine Symbolism In Southern Italian Ritual Foods, Anthony F. Buccini

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

It is commonplace to debunk the tale of Saint Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland: zoologists say he could not have done so, as there were no snakes in Ireland during his time. This tale is, however, a myth, and quite true if one views it symbolically. The snakes symbolise pagan beliefs and Patrick symbolises Catholic teachings, which, starting in the fifth century A.D. with Patrick as a key missionary, did indeed drive out the “pagan snakes” from Ireland. The Jewish story of the wily serpent deceiving Eve and Adam and bringing about their banishment from paradise was taken …

Tables Of Power: Ritualised Feasting And Political Negotiation In Irish History, Elizabeth Waters, Elaine Mahon

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This paper examines feasting in two specific contexts: the sagas of the early Irish medieval period, and the diplomatic history of the Irish state. Far from being decorative or incidental, feasting is shown to be a system of commensal politics that converts uncertainty into opportunity as well as symbolic capital. In the examples explored, the shared meal is shown to be not just a convivial gathering but a means through which authority is demonstrated, crises negotiated or averted, and relationships renewed.

Where Art Meets The Table: Food, Art, And Culture At The Intersection Of Crisis And Hope, Ciza Zoya

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Food is more than sustenance; it is a carrier of memory, identity, and power, shaping both belonging and exclusion. In contemporary art, food has emerged as a critical medium through which these tensions can be explored. This paper argues that food- based art operates at the intersection of crisis and hope, revealing how everyday practices of cooking, sharing, and eating both reflect social hierarchies and create possibilities for connection. Drawing on anthropological perspectives, contemporary art theory, and the author’s own artistic practice, the paper examines how food functions as a social structure shaped by gender, class, caste, and colonial histories. …

Food In Dinneen’S Foclóir Gaedhilge Agus Béarla, John D. Mulcahy

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Inspired by the work of the late Manchán Magan, this paper examines Irish food and hospitality through the lens of historical lexicography using the 1927 edition of Fr Patrick Dinneen’s Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla as a linguistic “time capsule”. By examining Irish words connected with everyday eating, the paper traces how these words embody resilience, reciprocity, and hope in the face of recurring crises such as famine, emigration, and political upheaval. The paper also draws attention to roles associated with food provision and banqueting, underlining the long-standing importance of hospitality in Irish society. This approach uncovers how hospitality was understood …

Dgs Programme 2026, Dgs Committee

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This is the full and final Programme for the DGS 2026 - Food and Crisis/Hope, as well as the Map of Producers who furnished the delicious food and drink we serve at lunch over the two days of the event.

Full Issue - 53.1

New England Classical Journal

No abstract provided.

Oral Tradition And Literary Innovation In An Epigraphic Oracle: Claros And Caesarea Trocetta During The Antonine Plague, Ryo Nagao

New England Classical Journal

During the Antonine Plague, the Lydian community of Caesarea Trocetta consulted the oracle of Apollo at Claros and inscribed its response, which was exceptional in form and language. This paper argues that Claros drew on performative literature and oracular traditions to provide an authoritative and innovative response that mediated the distress of the client community. Polymetry, diction, and intertexts with Pausanias and Statius combine to enhance both the aesthetic and religious function of the text. This analysis contributes to the study of epigraphy as literature, the mechanisms of oracular institutions, and civic responses to pandemic.

The Bloom Of Atē: Women's Lives, Pain, And Metaphor In Sophocles' Trachinian Women, Casey Dué, Mary Ebbott

New England Classical Journal

This essay explores recurring metaphors for pain in the Trachinian Women and argues that they gain their meaning from the experiences of the women Deianeira and Iole, to later express the physical pain of Herakles, which is further conceptualized as atē. These metaphors employ imagery associated with natural cycles, such as blooming flowers and ocean waves. The metaphorical connections between the women’s emotional pain and Herakles’ physical agony helps us to arrive at a fuller understanding of what is meant when Herakles concludes that he is “like a parthenos” and has been found to be female (1071 and …

To Be Closer, Sarah Moschel Miller

LSU Master's Theses

to be closer explores the intersection of yearning and unease. This series of works uses the visual language of the body and its thresholds to explore how each of us builds interpersonal relationships and understandings of self. Pulling from abjection theory, the abject comes from the internal becoming external, the crossing of a bodily or personal threshold. My sculptures, vessels, and prints translate the visual language of the border of the body into a discussion of emotional ones. to be closer uses these corporeal thresholds and the language of the uncanny as vehicles to discuss the crossing of emotional …

Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Inklings: Tolkien And Lewis’S Relative Dimensions In Space-Time, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

As noted in Tolkien's letters, around 1936 he and C.S. Lewis agreed to each try their hand at writing "an excursionary 'Thriller'" – essentially science fiction – "each discovering myth." They supposedly “tossed up,” with Lewis drawing a "Space-journey" and Tolkien a "Time-journey" (Letters 39). The standard answer is that this bet resulted in a trio of published space-travel novels for Lewis (Out of the Silent Planet [1938], Perelandra [1943], and That Hideous Strength [1945]) and two incomplete and abandoned time-travel projects for Tolkien, The Lost Road (incomplete typescript dating to 1937 [LR 8]) and The Notion …

Cyberspatial Cartographies: Mapping Digital Nationhood Within The California-Punjabi Diaspora., Saihajpratap Singh Bajwa

Master's Theses

This research investigates the phenomenon of digital nationhood, the idea that a new form of community is actively produced through interactions taking place within digital social networks and forums. These spaces function as more than repositories of information or cultural archives; they are living ecosystems in which identity is constructed through mutual encounters among members of a diaspora, where shared references, meanings, and concepts proliferate across multiplex networks. The central questions animating this inquiry are: can a nation exist without a territory, and are these encounters producing what we might conceive of as a digital nation?

The Punjabi people serve …

Hidden Behind Happiness: Bhutan’S Global Image And Ethnic Exclusion, Deepesh Das Shrestha

Master's Theses

Bhutan has gained international recognition for its philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which promotes holistic development through principles of well-being, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and good governance. Yet this celebrated image conceals a darker history: the systematic expulsion of the Lhotsampa, the Nepali-speaking ethnic minority of southern Bhutan. This study critically explores the contradiction between Bhutan's international image as a model of happiness and the lived experiences of Lhotsampa refugees who were displaced during the early 1990s.

Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, the study draws upon in-depth semi-structured interviews with six resettled Bhutanese Lhotsampa refugees living in the …

A Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Assembly Line: Jewelry, Facture, And Alienation, Jonathon A. Zalakos

Masters Theses

A Pot of Gold at the End of the Assembly Line integrates icons of mass-manufacturing with signifiers of joyful work, stimulating a dialogue between industrial and craft labour. Visible traces of the making process left on these works conjure a spectral ‘maker’, implied by the fingerprints, toolmarks, assembly, and conspicuous decision making of an ‘other’. As we relate to these signifiers as opportunities for our own bodily action, this spectre speaks in our own voice. Possessed by this ghost, viewers are vicariously thrust into an imaginary context and made sensitive to the nature of this work — whether it validates …

Kicau Kericau: The Chirps And Warbles Of A Bird-Human Story, Airien Ludin

Masters Theses

This thesis tells the tale of bird-human relationships and what it means to live alongside one another, subverting the hierarchical view of humans as above birds inherited from colonial history. It asks how the practice of illustration can function as a site of Two-Eyed Seeing, where scientific and local knowledge are held together as an entangled narrative. It also examines how mendongeng (storytelling), as I have experienced it within Indonesian culture and everyday contexts, can help us understand birds as a companion species with their own agency.

This project takes two forms: first, a picture book titled Sun Bird …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …