Digital Commons Network^™

Cotheorizing Healing With Undergraduate Queer And Trans Latina Survivors Of Power-Based Violence, Kimberly Correa

Dissertations

Current research on healing from power-based violence highlights the importance of integrating victim-survivors’ personal culture and identities into healing approaches, yet few studies actually focus on the culturally distinct healing processes of victim-survivors (O’Brien & Macy, 2016; Sinko et al., 2023). Grounded in Jotería theory (Alvarez, 2023) and Latina/Chicana feminist frameworks (Garcia, 1989), this qualitative study employs queer pláticas as both a methodology and method to center culturally rooted dialogue, reciprocity, and cariño as a political praxis. This study explores how six queer and trans Latina undergraduate victim-survivors conceptualize healing from power-based violence and how their identities, cultural values, and …

Beyond The Badge: How Internal Culture Contradicts External Service In Urban Police Departments, Rowan Bari Eiselman

Educational Studies Student Papers and Posters

This ethnographic study examines how gendered workplace culture and mental health culture shape officer retention in two urban police departments: the Orange Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th District. Through ride-alongs, observations, and informal interviews with nine current and retired officers (four female, five male) across various ranks conducted between March and April 2026, this research reveals a troubling contradiction: departments tasked with serving diverse communities struggle to support diversity within their own ranks. Female officers navigate professional isolation, prolonged competence-proving expectations, and implicit career-versus-motherhood choices, with experiences varying significantly between the more supportive Orange PD and …

Digressions Of Vision: Elihu Vedder’S Artistic Evolution, Stella Morris

Art and Art History

This thesis examines the artwork of prolific American artist Elihu Vedder (1836-1924), utilizing his eccentric yet comprehensive autobiography The Digressions of V (1910) as its grounding source. Despite enjoying a successful, sixty-year career, Vedder has posthumously sunk into relative obscurity in American art history. I postulate that Vedder’s artwork has been largely overlooked because of his breadth in style, creating an inability to classify his art within a single movement. Vedder drew upon the creative traditions of Romanticism, Aestheticism, Symbolism, and greatly admired the art and philosophy of the British Pre-Raphaelites. In addition to artistic variety, Vedder also lived most …

"Black History Is Black Horror": Hauntology And Cultural Trauma In 20th And 21st Century Black Women's Gothic Horror, Destini S. Beckwith

Theses

Octavia Butler’s Afrofuturistic, gothic horror, neo-slave narrative Kindred (1979) vividly illustrates the story of a woman, Dana, involuntarily time-traveling from her home in 1976 Los Angeles, California, to a plantation in 19th-century Maryland. The interactions that she has with her ancestors, such as Alice, a free Black woman, and Rufus, a white man who enslaves Alice, leave Dana mentally and physically scarred. The 20th-century novel is meant to graphically reflect on the horrors of enslavement and the mental and physical effects that Black people endured/still endure because of it (i.e., grief, racial violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Furthermore, the novel’s …

Generative Ai As Artificial Audience, Chrystina Scoglietti

Distinguished Student Scholarship Collection

This paper examines generative artificial intelligence as a distinct communicative development that reshapes rhetorical practice and composition pedagogy. Situating generative AI within a historical framework of communicative revolutions—including primary orality, literacy, and secondary (digital) orality—the paper argues that generative AI constitutes a new form of literacy rather than a mere extension of digital media. By producing near‑human language and creative output in direct response to user input, generative AI functions not only as a compositional tool but also as an artificial audience to which rhetoric must be tailored. The analysis explores how this shift challenges traditional assumptions about audience, persuasion, …

A Multidimensional Framework For Burnout Resilience In Adults, Anthony Martinez

Distinguished Student Scholarship Collection

This paper explores burnout as a growing public health concern and argues for a multidimensional framework to build resilience in adults. Drawing on contemporary research, the paper defines burnout as a response to chronic stress that undermines emotional, mental, and physical well‑being. It examines how the integration of physical, mental, and spiritual practices can mitigate burnout and enhance long‑term resilience. The analysis highlights the role of physical activity in regulating stress responses and improving mental health, the importance of mental health practices such as self‑regulation, cognitive reframing, and meditation, and the impact of spiritual practices, including prayer and positive religious …

Rock On! Examining The Relationship Between Armed Conflict And Rock Protest Music, Dylan Conner Dunn

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between rock protest music and wars, armed conflicts, and other related events. The purpose of this research is to explore how such specific events, or war and conflict in general, influence rock songwriters. This paper examines a series of nine rock songs ranging across five decades, from the Vietnam War to the 2010s. A variety of artists wrote and recorded these songs, ranging from hard rock to classic rock, to folk rock and beyond. Some are more audially intense, lyrically visceral, and featuring explicit language, whereas others are much more stripped-back and “family-friendly.” Each of …

Unnoticed Witnesses Of History: First-Hand Accounts Of Ukrainian Women In South Carolina During Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine, Madeline R. Fyock

Senior Theses

Language and other cultural symbols have become widely contested in post-Soviet Ukraine, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The conflict prompted many in Ukraine and its diaspora to re-negotiate and affirm Ukrainian national identity through language, traditions, and culture. The ways in which national identity is signaled in Ukraine has been widely studied in the wake of 2022, but less research has investigated how similar trends are occurring in migratory contexts, where conflict and displacement play crucial roles in identity construction. This study examines the ways that Ukrainian immigrant women in South Carolina signal their …

We're All Ramblers, Here: American National Identity As Articulated Through The Sounds And Stories Of Bluegrass Music, Greyson M. Sherman

Senior Theses

This creative thesis argues that bluegrass music, through its multicultural origins and its central "Rambler" archetype, articulates a distinctly American negotiation between freedom and rootedness — one that extends far beyond the genre's narrow popular image. Drawing on musicological scholarship and cultural history, the paper first recovers bluegrass's suppressed origins in the convergence of West African, Anglo- Celtic, and broader European traditions, complicating narratives that position the genre as exclusively white and Appalachian. It then introduces the Rambler — the restless, longing figure who haunts bluegrass lyrically and structurally — as both a product of that history and a metaphorical …

Mercy In Motion: A Ministry Of Missional Engagement To The Local Community, Zane Patterson

Christian Ministries Senior Capstone

This paper presents Mercy In Motion, a philosophy of ministry designed to cultivate reconciliation between the church and the local community through intentional relationships marked by mercy, compassion, and community engagement. Utilizing William Frankena’s philosophy of education model, the ministry argues that humanity’s ultimate purpose is communion with God and others through reconciliation accomplished in Christ. The paper examines theological and cultural premises that shape the ministry, including the relational nature of the image of God, the influence of individualism on community, and the church’s responsibility to participate in reconciliation. It further develops a ministry profile emphasizing communion with God, …

Wholehearted: Equipping Local Churches To Help Women Heal From Sexual Abuse, Kaitlin Burden

Christian Ministries Senior Capstone

Many women in the church have experienced sexual abuse. Trauma of sexual abuse often leaves a variety of effects, and healing is necessary. God has called the church to play a role in the healing journey by acknowledging sexual abuse, responding with care, and guiding women toward healing. However, many women are not met with care or proper resources from the church, despite a longing for healing. Wholehearted is a sexual abuse recovery ministry that can be implemented at any church, often as an extension of a women’s or care ministry. Wholehearted desires that women will take their next steps …

‘They’Re Squeezing Us Like An Accordion’:Assessing The Information Environment Of Working-Class Residents Of Dublin’S North Inner City, Stephanie Costello

Irish Communication Review

This article assesses the communication environment of the north inner city of Dublin, an area characterised by entrenched disadvantage, rapid demographic change, and neoliberal urban renewal. Findings were produced from a ten-week engagement journalism project involving the Dublin Inquirer, various community groups, and working-class residents. Using Communication Infrastructure Theory (CIT), the study draws on focus groups, participant observation, and interviews to assess local storytelling networks in the context of the project. The findings reveal a fractured communication action context (CAC), where safety concerns, transient populations, litter, lack of public space, and negative national media portrayals constrain residents' ability to connect …

From Lino To Luxury: Class, Taste And Identity In The Mid-Twentieth Century Irish Provincial ‘Good Room’, Angela Mehegan

Irish Communication Review

The aim of this paper is to position issues of class and taste within the context of the home and through the lens of the domestic in mid-twentieth century provincial Ireland from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. This was a time of unprecedented economic growth and heralded a period of social and cultural change. Our homes and the artefacts we surround ourselves with are central to our sense of self and how we wish to be seen by others. Issues of class, taste, status, gender, and aesthetic possibilities are unpacked by focusing on the ‘Good Room’ as a …

Bias In The Wires: Epistemic Harms Of Linguistic Homogenization In Ai-Asisted Writing, Sarah Smith

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

Hundreds of millions of users now rely on AI-generated writing for ideation, drafting, and revision. As models make linguistic decisions about their writing, they create preferences that extend to users, reshaping our capacity to articulate who we are in ways that are just beginning to be understood. By drawing on research in computer science, psychology, ethics, and sociolinguistics, this paper traces how LLMs acquire and transmit linguistic bias. Users internalize AI preferences, subtly homogenizing linguistic decisions in ways that impact communities unevenly. This constitutes a form of algorithmic epistemic injustice, which harms writers through deflated credibility and the loss of …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 40. A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Books And Booklets About Alfred Russel Wallace, George Beccaloni, Jasper H. Pol, Charles H. Smith Editor

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

This bibliography presents the most comprehensive listing to date of books and booklets on Alfred Russel Wallace’s life and work, in all languages and editions, while excluding AI-generated works and most print-on-demand titles. It is based on a list compiled in 2023, which was expanded through searches of online catalogues and other resources. Analysis of the 160 works reveals a marked increase in publications since the late twentieth century, substantial linguistic diversity, and the growing use of manuscript sources in scholarly studies, particularly following the online availability of Wallace’s correspondence via EPSILON.

Readder: An Evidence-Based Rsvp Speed Reader For Students With Adhd And Convergence Insufficiency, Adrian Mangine

IPHS 484: Senior Seminar

readder is a web-based Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) application designed to improve reading speeds and accessibility for students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and convergence insufficiency (CI). ADHD affects approximately 9% of school-age children, and CI affects 5–15%, with recent evidence suggesting a 73% comorbidity rate between the two conditions (Moussaoui et al., 2025). Traditional reading demands coordinated saccadic eye movements that are disrupted by both ADHD and CI, leading to fatigue, reduced comprehension, and reading avoidance. RSVP eliminates saccadic demands by presenting words sequentially at a single fixation point and has been shown to improve reading comprehension in adults …

Closing The Loop In Sustainable Fashion: Recycling Textile Waste And Its Environmental, Social, And Consumer Impacts, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Fast fashion has intensified textile waste, emissions, and social inequities across global supply chains. This study examines sustainable fashion frameworks and the role of textile recycling in advancing circularity. It employes a qualitative integrative literature review synthesizing interdisciplinary research on waste streams, recycling technologies, policy instruments, and consumer behavior. However, advanced recycling technologies offer environmental benefits but remain limited in scale. Nonetheless, rising consumption offsets efficiency gains, while economic and behavioral barriers hinder systemic change. Technological innovation alone is insufficient; circular design, regulatory enforcement, and reduced overproduction are essential for sustainable transformation.

Voices | Risd Mfa Illustration Anthology 2026, Illustration Department, Illustration Mfa, Jaleen Grove, Minglu Du, Manuela Guzman, Rhea Hu, Faith Huang, Burcu Koleli, Airien Ludin, Ranran Ma, Mervin Miao, Nayyab Naveed, Rhea Pradeep, Pingfan Que, Mot Tuman, Skye Wang

Illustration MFA Anthologies

Illustration has often been dismissed as just a mechanical art, concerned with technique more than intellect. In fact, illustration is a theory of something’s essence, expressed and communicated visually. Craftsmanship – or a playful, mindful lack of it – is always in service to a concept and a purpose. The Masters theses summarized in this book are the result of struggles to give form to more than the tangible world. As writers and visualizers our students picture new meanings and refreshed experiences for the familiar; they define things previously unnamed.

‘It’S The Best Person For The Job’: Gendering Logic And The Hiring Practices Of Music Organisations In Ireland, Yvonne Kiely Dr

Irish Communication Review

Despite calls for reform in the allocation of jobs in music industries, little is known about how music organisations operate internally and the day-to-day realities that male and female workers must navigate. Findings of bullying and harassment in the arts sector by the Irish Theatre Institute prompted the Irish government in 2022 to issue a set of recommendations aimed at reforming the working conditions and gender divisions of labour of arts sector organisations under its remit. These recommendations were made in the absence of academic studies of music organisations in Ireland, and in the absence of centralised data about these …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 2, Spring 2026, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Clothing, Comportment, And Court Femininity In Domenico Ghirlandaio's Portraits Of Elite Florentine Women (C. 1475-1490), Emmerson Stephens

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a focused group of Domenico Ghirlandaio’s portraits of women from the Medici–Tornabuoni–Sassetti circle in Florence (c. 1475–1490), arguing that these works construct, rather than simply represent, an ideal of courtly femininity. Situating portraiture within systems of social regulation, it demonstrates how comportment, dress, and visual conventions disciplined the female body. Clothing functioned as a material technology that structured posture, gesture, and movement, shaping how women appeared both socially and pictorially.

Through analysis of panel portraits and fresco cycles, particularly in the Tornabuoni Chapel, the study shows how controlled formats, gestures, and surfaces produced figures that embody modesty, …

Behind The Suit: How Recovering A Biblical Worldview And Implementing Spiritual Formation Practices Can Improve The Mental Health Crisis In The Legal Profession, Makayla G. Johnson

Senior Honors Theses

A Biblical worldview is the foundation upon which the United States government and legal system is built, however in recent years the understanding of a Biblical Worldview has been in decline. This shift has had a profound impact on the legal field, causing a loss of purpose and meaning in the profession, which research asserts has in part caused many mental health issues found in the legal field. With this in mind, the following study will include information regarding the extent to which the implementation of spiritual formation practices, when practiced specifically by those in the legal profession, could impact …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumer Behavior In Circular Fashion: Cognitive, Normative, And Behavioral Pathways Shaping Purchase And Participation Intentions, Mahmudul Hasan Sabuj

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The increasing environmental impact of the fashion industry has intensified the need for a systemic transition from linear to circular production and consumption models. Despite growing interest in circular fashion, there remains a limited understanding of the underlying behavioral dimensions that drive consumer engagement in sustainable practices. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Norm Activation Theory (NAT), this study examines consumer behavior through an integrated framework capturing cognitive, social, and normative influences.

Using data collected from a structured online survey (N = 575), the study employs Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), reliability analysis, and multiple regression techniques to …

Stakhanov Lives Forever: How Art And Culture Outlasted Politics In The Communist World, Samuel Shewmake

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The Stakhanovite movement and its long term consequences has been heavily debated in the field of Soviet history for several decades. The dominant scholarly narrative is that the Stakhanovite movement and Stakhanovism were largely extinguished during the period following the buildup to the Second World War. Previous works have relied heavily on solely political analysis of the movement, presuming that its character was primarily state-driven with little social component. This paper analyzes the social and artistic legacy of the Stakhanovite movement through novel analysis of film, music, and art of the Stakhanovite period and following decades. Contrary to what has …

An Eschatological Investigation Of Fatherlessness Through A Christological Lens: Exploring Identity, Hope, And Restoration In A Fatherless Generation, Derrick Marshall

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

This dissertation analyses the relationship between fatherlessness across generations and selected indicators of cultural development and social stability in contemporary society. It also evaluates how a local church context may function as a site of intervention to address the relational, emotional, and spiritual consequences associated with father absence. The study is conducted within LIFEchurch in El Paso, Texas, and is situated within theological reflections on sonship, identity, and restoration. The research employed a multi-method descriptive design and utilized a single Qualtrics survey instrument comprising both structured quantitative items and open-ended qualitative questions. Participants were adults affiliated with the LIFEchurch community. …

Collaborative Ministry Leadership: A Mixed-Methods Study Into The Application Of Collaborative Leadership In United Pentecostal Churches In The Southeastern United States., Omar A. Williams

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

This dissertation examines how collaborative leadership, grounded in theological and practical applications, impacts ministry effectiveness in United Pentecostal Churches (UPCI) in the Southeastern United States. It employed a mixed-methods design, with in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with twelve senior UPCI pastors, and quantitative surveys administered to 63 members of their core leadership teams. Although collaborative leadership is a widely held ideal in ministry, a gap often exists between its theory and its practical implementation. The findings reveal a significant convergence in the relational, visionary, and developmental dimensions of collaboration. The pastors are theologically committed to rejecting autocratic models. They are perceived …

Essays Of Culture Economics: The Economic Consequences Of Cultural Change, Javier Gonzalez

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to the field of Cultural Economics by exploring the relationship between cultural transmission and economic outcomes. Across three distinct essays, this research investigates how mass media narratives shape economic preferences and labor decisions, and conversely, how economic fundamentals drive the evolution of cultural markers like language.   The first two chapters focus on the cultural and economic impact of television in Latin America, utilizing a novel dataset of telenovelas aired between 1960 and 2024. Chapter 1 extends the analysis of media influence to labor economics, studying the effect of televised female empowerment on female labor market outcomes. By …

America’S First Comic Role, “The Negro”: An Analysis Of Historical Caricatures And Their Influence On African American Characters And Archetypes, Skyla A. Praylow

Senior Theses

A stereotype is defined as “a set of ideas that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong.”1 Even though stereotypes are understood to be harmful, “contributing to prejudice and discrimination,” they are still believed to have some “kernel of truth,” and are viewed as “overgeneralized beliefs about social groups in society.” These stereotypes are then used as propaganda to reinforce oppressive systems in the US.2 Stereotypes create the basis of opinions that are used to create caricatures. A caricature is “a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking …

Voices Of Motherhood: A Comparative Analysis Of Feminist Commentary On Law In Margaret Atwood’S The Handmaid’S Tale And Celeste Ng’S Little Fires Everywhere, Addison Elaine Scott

Senior Theses

This South Carolina Honors College senior thesis provides a detailed comparative literary analysis of the depiction of motherhood and the legal system in two selected novels: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere (2017). Feminist women writers have used narratives to articulate and represent marginalized experiences suppressed by systems of power. By reading these narratives, readers can emotionally connect with the perspectives shared while engaging with the underlying feminist commentary. This explores how Atwood and Ng illustrate the failure of American legal and social systems to understand or fully protect motherhood and fertility—complicating, confounding, and …

The Extension Newsletter, Issue 119, Spring 2026, Wright State University Retirees Association

The Extension Newsletter

This issue of The Extension shares updates from the Wright State University Retirees Association, including upcoming events, member news, and organizational developments. It features sections such as book recommendations, obituaries, poetry, and an oral history interview highlighting a retiree’s career. The newsletter emphasizes community engagement and ongoing connections among retirees.