Digital Commons Network^™

One Stone's Journey, Satoko Saito

Theses and Dissertations

One Stone’s Journey is a participatory, experiential thirty-minute documentary about uranium. By using an embroidered world map and appealing to participants’ senses—especially touch—the project explores the possibility of telling the story of radiation, which is invisible, intangible, and silent. Uranium is a radioactive material used by the United States in the development and production of the atomic bombs during the Manhattan Project. This year, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011 was on a scale comparable to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and the threat …

"Catching Up": Christian Walker's Critical Lens, Noam Parness

Theses and Dissertations

“Catching Up” examines three bodies of photographic work that artist, critic, and curator Christian Walker (1953-2003) generated between 1984-1991. By reading each series against a corresponding text, “Catching Up” furthers an understanding of how Walker’s works reconstruct experiences and histories of race and sexuality in the United States.

Capturing The Spirit Of Childhood: An Analysis Of Robert Henri’S Portraits Of Children, Alex C. Maccaro

Theses and Dissertations

Robert Henri (1865-1929) is perhaps best known as the prominent leader of the turn-of-the century American movement The Eight, commonly known as “the Ashcan School,” and as a leading teacher in the United States during the early twentieth century. However, his artistic output as a portrait painter, particularly of children, is also significant. Beginning in 1904 and throughout his career as an artist, Henri painted hundreds of images of children in the various foreign or remote locales to which he traveled, often depicting the same subject in multiple instances. These portraits range from the roughly painted, rosy-cheeked Dutch youth of …

Exploring The Role Of Occupational Therapy In The Delivery Of Trauma-Informed Services To Hospital-Based Clients Ot, Frank Czuba

Journal of Applied Disciplines

Hospitalization can traumatize clients and impact overall health outcomes, leading to increased hospital readmission rates and resulting in a negative impact for both clients and providers. Limited information exists regarding how hospital-based occupational therapists evaluate and address trauma, even though incorporating trauma-informed principles into professional practice can enhance the occupational therapy process. The study explored the comprehension and perceived significance of trauma-informed tenets among occupational therapists delivering services in hospital-based settings. A quantitative research study with an exploratory design was implemented to explore how occupational therapists (OT) understand and utilize trauma-informed practices with their clients in a hospital setting. An …

Making Sense: Envy In Libanius' Declamation 30, Andrew Scholtz

Middle Eastern and Ancient Mediterranean Studies (MEAMS) Faculty Scholarship

Declamation, a genre famous for its sometimes extravagant fictions, has lately been approached as a vehicle for declaimers to reflect on realities familiar to them and their audiences. Reading Libanius' rarely discussed Declamation 30 in just such a self-reflective key, I argue that it explores the mindset of the phthoneros, the "envious man," as a way to make sense of risks posed by unscrupulous rivals. To shed light on this sense-making, I analyze High- and Late-Imperial emotion scripts foregrounding envy’s power to catalyze the formation of dysfunctional networks within and around competitive situations.

Enjoying The Golden Screen Of Asian American Representation In A Colorblind Era: Neoliberalism, Narrative, And Negotiation, Jered Mabaquiao

English Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation contributes to Asian American studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Critical Theory by interrogating how contemporary Asian American representation is shaped by the intertwined pressures of racial politics, neoliberal market demands, and psychic life. Working across race studies, media studies, psychoanalysis, and phenomenological questions of ontology and being, the project argues that Asian American film and television cannot only be understood  through the language of popular culture representation, narrative progress, media visibility, or political inclusion. Instead, I combine such angles to examine how popular culture media participates in the contradictory production of Asian American subjectivity as culturally present …

Laila: A Doll Memoir Of 1947 Partition Of India And Pakistan, Maleeha Malik, Maleeha Fatima Malik

Children's Literature (MFA) Theses

This abstract examines a creative and critical work centered on the 1947 Partition of India, which displaced approximately fourteen million people and caused one million deaths. The narrative introduces Laila, an anthropomorphized doll who functions as both witness and archive, embodying the memories and traumas of multiple child survivors. Through Laila’s journey across India, Pakistan, and the diaspora, the text explores themes of identity, belonging, loss, and intergenerational memory.

Blending personal family history with historical analysis, the author situates Laila within lived experiences of migration, silence, and religious marginalization, particularly as part of the Ahmadi Muslim community. The narrative foregrounds …

Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time - 1 February 2026, Errol Lobo

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Ramadan Hardcore By Hicham Habchi E Mehdi Yassire, Sarah Nesti Willard

Books and Book Chapters

This article examines Ramadan Hardcore, a graphic novel by Hicham Habchi and Mehdi Yassire, through a visual and contextual analysis. It explores how the novel’s raw illustrative style reinforces its title and narrative, creating a powerful emotional impact while presenting an authentic, and at times deliberately exaggerated, representation of reality. Using visual semiotic analysis, the study demonstrates how the artwork reflects the authors’ lived experiences and contributes to the novel’s gritty, direct atmosphere. The article also discusses the controversy surrounding the graphic novel’s provocative title, noting that although it initially attracted considerable attention, interest quickly declined and copies have …

The Ai Revolution In Virtual Try-Ons: A Means-End Chain Model Perspective, Ju-Young M. Kang, Ji Young Lee, Dooyoung Choi, Sumin Helen Koo, Jeehyun Song, Youngjin Bahng

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Leading brands have begun to implement artificial intelligence-driven virtual try-on (AI VTO) technology, which helps reduce returns and increase conversion rates, repeat purchases, and customer loyalty. This research aimed to examine how retail user experience with specific perceived quality factors of AI VTOs influences users’ value equity and downstream loyalty and to investigate the moderating effects of clothing in relation to the self as structure and concern for physical appearance, based on a Means–End Chain model. Data were collected from 509 U.S. online apparel shoppers using a consumer panel. Structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis were used for data analysis. …

Neanderthals And Their Exhibitions Of Fine Art: Unpacking Neanderthal Art On The European Continent, Jacob T. Simpson

UROP Posters

This research project aims to bridge the gap between anatomically modern humans and our closest genetic relative, Neanderthals. By analyzing research literature on artistically symbolic artifacts potentially created by these ancient humans (focusing on populations in Europe) I hope to offer a superior speculation of Neanderthal intellect. Neanderthals potential capability to create artistic objects could transform our understanding of them and their cognitive abilities, and raise philosophical questions on what it means to be human.

Ideology And Iconography In Gustav Machatý’S Ecstasy (1933), Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.

Revisiting Bandura’S Self-Efficacy Performance Accomplishments In Pwi And Hbcu Students: A Sign Of Persistence, Britine Perkins, Douglas M. Butler, Jerrel Moore

The Griot - Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc.

This study revisits Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy by examining performance accomplishments among students attending a predominantly White institution (PWI) and a historically Black college or university (HBCU). While academic self-efficacy has long been linked to college success, much of the existing research centers on students at PWIs and often overlooks the cultural contexts shaping students’ beliefs about their academic abilities. Using the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES), the authors compare self-efficacy perceptions across institutional type and explore how performance accomplishments influence persistence. Findings highlight the importance of culturally responsive frameworks when assessing self-efficacy, particularly for minoritized and first-generation students. By incorporating …

Not Like Us: Afro-Germans And The Myth Of The "Germanness", Kahron Gaul Blakley

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Closest Yet Farthest: Zhou Li And The Boundaries Of Contemporary Chinese Art, Langcheng Zhou

Pomona Senior Theses

The global visibility of contemporary Chinese art has been formed by politically legible or culturally identifiable styles, which often explicitly reference social critique, political history, or traditional Chinese visual elements and media. Because of the rapid expansion of the global art market, these visual identifiers quickly became the most effortless and efficient determinants for an artwork’s representativeness of the contemporary Chinese art scene. This framing undeniably helped international audiences to establish a recognizable narrative, but has also narrowed the range of practices that define the field. This thesis argues that Zhou Li’s abstract practice expands the boundaries of what contemporary …

The Importance Of Mental Health Education In The Black Church: Exploring Mental Health And Trauma Through A Biblical Lens, Navita Kj Johnson-Belcher

Doctor of Ministry

The Black church has historically served as a cornerstone for African American spiritual and communal life yet faces significant challenges in addressing mental health needs rooted in generational trauma and systemic oppression. This dissertation explores the crisis of silence surrounding mental health in Black church contexts, where stigma, pastoral limitations, and historical mistrust of institutional systems create barriers to healing. Through examination of biblical perspectives on suffering, church-based mental health programs, and emerging digital ministry models, this study demonstrates that online platforms can effectively integrate trauma-informed care with theological education.

The research presents a digital, trauma-informed, biblically-based, mental health education …

Good Grief: Implementing Solace And Support Of Bereavement Ministry Within A Resource-Constrained Church In Chicago, Illinois, Celeste Haynes

Doctor of Ministry

Grief is a universal human experience that occurs at some point in everyone's life. This body of work explores the various benefits of implementing a bereavement support ministry in a resource-constrained church in Chicago, Illinois. The research will outline how a bereavement ministry can offer emotional support, spiritual guidance, and provide educational resources, community building, outline a budget proposal, and a grant opportunities, partnership with local agencies, training for volunteers, and practical help to bereaved members in a church, as well as the bereaved community.

Bereavement is an inevitable part of the human experience, and churches have historically served as …

Everyone's Table: Growing Polycultural Leadership Through Mutually Facilitated Peer Learning, Joel Bert Zantingh

Doctor of Leadership

Despite multiculturalism being an official policy in Canada since 1971, significant challenges remain in achieving genuine belonging among immigrant communities, particularly within leadership structures. This project responds to the marginalization of diasporic and newer-to-Canada leaders within evangelically aligned Canadian organizations, focusing specifically on leadership culture.

Grounded in biblical and theological scholarship that advocates for unity amid cultural diversity, this project articulates a normative and interpretive framework rooted in the Christian theological tradition. It also integrates insights from sociological and organizational studies that examine power, ethnocentrism, and the psychological experiences of visible minorities within dominant cultural contexts. I found how implicit …

Wellspring For Renewal And Transformation In Ministry, Deborah Cundey Owen

Doctor of Leadership

Ministry leaders increasingly experience burnout and isolation within performance-driven leadership cultures in the United States that fail to cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and spiritual formation. This Need/Problem/Opportunity (NPO) emerged through stakeholder engagement, expert interviews, and academic research, revealing that leaders are not primarily lacking ministry skills but the emotional, spiritual, and relational capacity to sustain those skills in healthy ways.

Several key insights shaped the project. Burnout is less a function of workload than of identity; leaders operating from performance rather than belovedness are spiritually and neurologically vulnerable. Emotional regulation functions as spiritual formation. Concepts such as differentiation, non-anxious presence, undefended …

5.4.1. Cultivating Cross-Generational Leadership, Shela Ammani Sullivan

Doctor of Leadership

Need Problem Opportunity (NPO) Statement

In the current corporate landscape, there is a lack of effective leadership models for the developing Millennial and Gen Z leaders.

Key Benefits from Research

Research and prototype testing yielded several key discoveries. While digital formats such as vlogs and ePlaybooks offer accessibility and relatability, the strongest outcomes emerged from in-person engagement. Stakeholders’ feedback emphasized the importance of relational depth, experiential learning, real-time feedback, and recommended digital supplements to enhance accessibility and reduce costs. These findings confirm that leadership development initiatives must integrate adaptability with relational practice to achieve sustainable and meaningful impact. The project …

Beyond Rugged Individualism: A Narrative Intervention For Men Languishing In Isolation, Chad Edward Warren

Doctor of Leadership

My NPO (Need, Problem, or Opportunity) addresses the problem that an exceptional number of men in Northwest Montana languish due to prolonged social and emotional isolation.

Across my research, the key insight was that isolation is sustained not only by personal circumstances but also by the cultural narratives that form men’s identities and expectations. Stories function as “maps of meaning,” shaping what men perceive as strength, weakness, and the good life. In this context, rugged individualism, understood as a self-reliance and isolation narrative that prizes toughness and minimal dependence, can foster admirable grit while also reinforcing shame around vulnerability, help-seeking, …

Cultivating Trust, Communication, And Collaboration: A Relational Leadership Design For Intercultural Collaboration In Nouakchott, Mauritania, Elysse Audrey Burns

Doctor of Leadership

Foreign-led initiatives operating in Nouakchott, Mauritania, encounter challenges in collaborating effectively with local communities, hindering the growth of sustainable, locally driven leadership and contextually relevant initiatives. This doctoral project investigates how relational dynamics shape intercultural collaboration and responds through the development of a structured relational leadership certificate program grounded in the Mauritanian context.

Using documented discovery workshops and one-on-one interviews with Mauritanian and international practitioners, the research identified recurring concerns regarding decisionmaking authority, communication clarity, and the distribution of responsibility within foreignled initiatives. Participants described patterns in which expectations were inconsistently communicated, local voices were unevenly integrated into decisions, and …

Schelling & Spinoza, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

Schelling is notorious for having a fluid vision of systematic philosophy and its methods. In an age where philosophy is expected to result in one or two books, not years of discussions with students and colleagues--and certainly not a distillation of one’s way of life--Schelling’s thought has been called protean or restless, or in Hegel’s snarky verdict “an education pursued in public.” The same could be said of Socrates. But there is a truth in these comments; it is difficult to find in fifty-six years of publications, addresses and abandoned manuscripts the single argument that is Schelling’s philosophy. What provokes …

Music Interventions For Critically Ill Patients: Evaluating Effects Of Music On Psychoemotional Symptoms In Critically Ill Patients Receiving Respiratory Support, Allyson Crighton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Critically ill adults receiving respiratory support in intensive care units (ICUs) frequently experience psychoemotional disturbances such as agitation, anxiety, and delirium, which contribute to prolonged ventilation, increased sedative use, and adverse patient outcomes. While pharmacologic management remains standard practice, associated risks including oversedation and delirium highlight the need for safe, complementary interventions. Emerging evidence suggests that music-based interventions may offer a non-invasive, cost-effective strategy to reduce psychological or emotional distress in this vulnerable population. This integrative literature review examined the effects of music interventions, including passive music listening and structured music therapy, on agitation and related psychoemotional outcomes in critically …

Racial Concepts, Dei, And Social Equity, Yan Lei

A with Honors Projects

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) often deviates from the original goal of “equality of opportunity.” By institutionalizing identity labels and the protection of “vulnerability,” it reduces individuals to group identities, transforms historical injustices into contemporary obligations, and solidifies fragility. This not only fails to achieve genuine fairness but also weakens individual agency, distorts incentive mechanisms, and damages society’s long-term resilience, efficiency, and trust.

Storm Of Elysium: How The Most Afflicted Minds Of History And Fiction Made Legacies, Pierce Thompson

A with Honors Projects

Honors project involving historical/fictional characters and how they made history/created legacies with their afflictions/mental health conditions. Historical/book context will be provided, and the condition will be covered through psychiatric research for the particular character.

All She Ever Wanted Was The World: The Emergence Of Vocal Methodology, Pedagogy, And Opera Performance For Women In The Nineteenth Century, Emma Hawkinson

Dissertations and Theses

Important music methods books began to emerge in the 1750s with instrumental treatises for flute, piano, and violin. By the end of the nineteenth century, there was a multitude of treatises for a variety of instruments, including classical voice. This study investigates and analyzes the content of treatises from four individual women who performed, taught, and published vocal treatises in the nineteenth century: German Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), Italian Virginia Boccabadati (1828–1922), Spanish Matilde Esteban (1841–1915), and English American Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844–1931). These methods books are set in the historical context of the music industry before and during the nineteenth …

Rural Black Church Leadership And Community Development In Midwest Illinois, Derrick Smith

Dissertations of Practice

This qualitative study examines the role of a rural Black church in leadership development and community sustainability within a Midwestern Illinois town. While extensive scholarship documents the historical significance of the Black church in civil rights, political mobilization, and social advocacy, limited research explores the founding of contemporary Black churches and the intentional processes through which they develop leaders and support community sustainability in rural or small-town settings. This study addresses that gap by investigating the establishment and evolution of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church (NHMBC) in DeKalb, Illinois, and its impact on leadership development and Black community development.

Guided …

Neuroaesthetic Frequency Tuning For Neurodivergent Populations: A Network-Informed Theory Of Music For Emotional Memory And Cognitive Regulation, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Neuroaesthetic frequency tuning posits that deliberate selection of musical parameters can modulate large-scale neural systems to support emotional memory retrieval and cognitive regulation in neurodivergent populations. Drawing on contemporary evidence from network neuroscience, cognitive musicology, and affective science, the article synthesizes how rhythmic, harmonic, and lyrical structures align with Default Mode (DM), fronto-parietal control, salience, motor, and limbic systems, and how these alignments can be targeted to balance internally oriented mentation with task engagement. The theory further integrates autonomic and cellular mechanisms, describing how tempo and spectral energy shift arousal and heart rate variability, and how astrocytic ensembles contribute to …

Children Past Curfew: Surveillance, Resistance, And Childhood In Philippine Martial Law Children's Literature, Krisna Marie T. Balolong

Children's Literature (MA) Theses

This paper examines how two Philippine children's books depict state surveillance and its effects on a child's perspective of family, authority figures, and childhood. Through analysis of Augie Rivera's Isang Harding Papel and Sandra Nicole Roldan's At the School Gate, this project makes a connection between children's literature and surveillance studies, offering new framework to engage with children’s literature depicting authoritarian regimes and state violence, especially in cases where children were targets of their governments. Each book is examined by their representations of state surveillance during the Martial Law era of the Philippines, as well as each characters’ individual …