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Towards The Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison: How Civilizations Work Case 2: The Indic Civilization, Monika Monika

Comparative Civilizations Review

Building on Liah Greenfeld’s (2024) framework of Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison, as outlined in her Spring 2024 CCR essay, this paper examines the cultural realities of the Indic civilization. Civilizations differ at both the individual level, including cognitive aspects (the structure and content of thought), moral dimensions (values and principles guiding behavior), and emotional patterns (typical emotional responses); and the societal level, i.e., distinct institutions, institutional systems, and historical trajectories (Greenfeld 2024).

In each civilization, these modal dimensions stem from and are shaped by the first civilizational principles — the foundational ideas framing the reality unique to that civilization. In Indic …

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Good Vibrations: Folk Circles As Communication Environments, Missy Alexander

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

For over 25 years, I have participated in the creation of music and community through what are commonly called folk circles. Typically run as monthly gatherings, participants who range from complete beginners to seasoned pros, join together and share their favorite songs. These environments have clearly defined rules for participation (although rarely stated overtly), a strong ethos of mutual support, and frequently function as a path to friendships for people new to a community. This essay examines the folk circle as a communication environment and posits an explanation of why it is impervious to digital invasions.

The God Prompt And Deus Ex Machina: Techno-Theological Tropes And Operational Metaphors In Generative Media, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This study reframes two durable tropes—the ―God Prompt‖ and the deus ex machina—as analytic lenses for understanding how contemporary generative systems stage beginnings and endings of cultural production. The ―God Prompt‖ denotes command-driven synthesis in which minimal textual instructions instantiate content on demand, crystallizing a production loop of input, model execution, and post hoc evaluation that orients anticipation toward instantaneous yield and controllable variation. The deus ex machina names an externally imposed resolution that interrupts causal development—historically a crane-borne god, functionally an algorithmic override—thereby concentrating attention on closure mechanics rather than world-building continuity. Read together, the pair offers a compact …

Local Identity In The Lives Of The Fathers Of Mérida: When Ethnicity And Religion Aren’T The Point, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

While scholarship on early medieval Europe often centers ethnicity or religion over other forms of identity, they were not always the most relevant form of identification for contemporaries. In the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (late sixth-early seventh century), ethnic and religious identity were actually deployed to construct a local identity around the space and people of the city. This article explores how the text did so by closely analyzing terms used and their context, and by applying social scientific theories of boundary construction to illuminate the strategies of identification behind it. It argues that such an approach …

Sociological Dichotomies Of Mława, Poland, Over Time: Misplaced Concreteness, Individual Triumph, Social Tragedy, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

For many years, I have been an active member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations and Editor-in-Chief of its journal, the Comparative Civilizations Review. Since the 1960s, I have also been a university administrator and a professor, globe-trotting to learn about societies near and far, their rises and falls. Yet even though I lived and worked in Prague, as president of a university, not far from the Polish border, I had never set foot in that country, notwithstanding that my paternal grandfather came from there.

Massachusetts' Latino Population: 2020-2040, Phillip Granberry

Gastón Institute Publications

Latinos have been a vital component of Massachusetts’ population growth since 1990. Their younger age structure has helped to offset the older age structure of the much larger non-Latino White population. As Latinos’ population crosses the 1 million threshold by 2030, their growth (even as it slows) will be faster than the commonwealth’s overall population change.

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Webster, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Chelsea, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Revere, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Saugus, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Newton, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Lynn, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Boston, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

The City of Boston Planning Department has found that Boston’s population was undercounted in the 2020 Census by as many as 25,000 people and that subsequent population estimates continue to understate the population.1 The Planning Department’s Research Division has developed a tool to display limited demographic data, but these population estimates are insufficient for purposes of this report.2 Therefore, this report uses 2019-2023 American Community Survey and may therefore undercount Boston’s population. Boston, the largest city in the Commonwealth, is home to an estimated 126,647 Latinos. This is the largest Latino population in the state, though other smaller cities (Lawrence, …

A Security Worth Having: The Pursuit Of Happiness Through Reading Burney, Radcliffe, And Austen, Samantha Meeks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the works of three female authors of female protagonists in the long 18th century: Frances Burney’s Camilla and Evelina; Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian; and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. By following the paths to security the female protagonists of these novels fashion, and identifying the elements of Stoicism and related Hellenism and the aspects of cybernetics, this dissertation delves into the choices female protagonists make along the way regarding their security and how such choices lead to agency and self-fashioning for these women. Emotional, economic, and …

Speaking From The Underground: Notes On Lois Elaine Griffith & The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Aesthetic, Joseph Anthony Cáceres

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Speaking from the Underground explores the work of Lois Elaine Griffith, an Afro-Caribbean diasporic visual and literary artist of Barbadian descent and one of the last surviving founders of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a Puerto Rican cultural institution grounded in Afro-Caribbean traditions located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In the common, cultural parlance, the Cafe has become synonymous with spoken word and slam poetry. Since 1973 it has been the place where artists of mostly African, Caribbean, Latinx descent gather to craft works centered around lived experiences to shape a language to counter a conventional understanding of history and a …

Disability Theatre Communities: Engaging Artists And Audiences In Contemporary International Performance, Joseph Paul Hill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Disability Theatre Communities” examines how communities are constructed in, through, and around contemporary international disability theatre performances. It explores ideas of community formation and intersection across three case studies to elucidate the various ways in which disability theatre artists, productions, companies, and organizations attract, engage, and educate variable artist and audience communities. The project analyzes Rome, Italy’s Teatro Patologico and its Integrated Theatre of Emotion, a theatrical training program for neurodivergent performers; Wales-based writer, theatre-maker, and dramaturg Kaite O’Reilly, whose international collaborations center d/Deaf and disabled performers and foreground audience accessibility; and the biennial BIT (Blind in Theatre) International Festival …

Re-Envisioning Digital Agency: From Representationalism To Interpretant-Driven Epistemology, Michael C. Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the epistemological and ethical foundations of digital technologies, particularly code and algorithmic systems, by considering their entanglement with representationalism. Arguing that code now functions as a dominant social agent and epistemic subject, through the concept of the Code’s-eye view, I explore how automated datafication reduces human experience to quantifiable inputs, reinforcing epistemic closure and social fragmentation. Drawing on pragmatist philosophy, including Peirce’s semiotics, Dewey’s democratic ethics, and Rorty’s conversational inquiry, I propose an interpretant-driven epistemology grounded in communal inquiry and interpretive openness. This alternative framework resists the binary logic of algorithmic rationality by emphasizing conflict and the …

Shaping Youth Ministry: Exploring Influences On Youth Pastors’ Approaches To Programme Design, Timothy A. Mullen, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The literature on youth ministry practices is mostly anecdotal, and empirical research into the practices, goals, and meanings of youth ministry to youth pastors is rare, especially in Australia. In this study, 20 youth pastors in Perth, Western Australia, were interviewed about their goals, priorities, practices, training, and what influenced them. This study forms part of a larger doctoral research project. The interview data were analysed utilising a phenomenological approach, drawing upon Goffman’s framing analysis to examine the link between ‘meaning making’ and explicit and tacit motivations for youth ministry practice. The research found that youth pastors were most often …

What Are The Limits To Smart Innovation? The Digital Underground Initiative And New Frontiers Of “Smartness” In Singapore, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper argues that the emergence of new frontiers of smart transformation, such as underground spaces, can pose significant challenges to the implementation of “smart” technological solutions. Exploring the case of Singapore’s Digital Underground initiative, we show that elements such as material complexity, co-ordination between stakeholders, and the availability of appropriate regulatory and administrative frameworks can problematize the implementation of subterranean smart initiatives. By considering multistake-holder perspectives on these “more-than-technological” factors, this paper offers lessons for urban planners, policymakers, and developers in cities around the world that are keen to leverage technology to unlock the potential of underground space.

Longing For Transcendence: Olympic Gold And Christian Virtue, Matthew Vos, John B. White

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

From Homeland To Hostland: Language Ownership Of Heritage Dialect And Narratives Of Third Culture Kids Of The Gulf, Maryam Aref

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this study is to examine Arab Adult Third Culture Kids’ sense of heritage language ownership and their identity constructions in relation to their transnational Arab Gulf context. The present study has three main aims: to ascertain their sense of ownership towards their heritage dialects, to understand the basis for their claimed or denied ownership, and to investigate the positions they ascribed to themselves and others in relation to their belonging and transnational and linguistic experiences. The study aims to fill the gap where there is a scarcity of sociolinguistic research around Arab Third Culture Kids in …

Charles Coughlin: Conspiratorial Radicalization And The Making Of A Fascist, Rachel D. Thompson

Graduate Masters Theses

This paper traces the radicalization of Father Charles Coughlin, a radio populist radio preacher from the 1930s who is most well known today for the extreme anti-Semitism and fascist tendencies which defined the later parts of his career. It seeks to determine why Father Coughlin became a fascist, as well as examining how much of his fascism was evident in his earlier years. Major areas of focus include: 1) A conspiratorial anti-Communist worldview that would align Coughlin with right-wing authoritarianism and was present from his early days. 2) His ascent to becoming a national figure as a populist radio preacher …

Racial Identity And Belonging Among Asian American Undergraduate Students In The Midwest, Seema M. Dahlheimer

Dissertations

Asian American students are often deemed overrepresented in higher education, leading to inequities in admissions, scholarships, and student support. This perception feeds and is fed by the model minority stereotype, which characterizes Asian Americans as hard-working and high-achieving and creates intense pressure to succeed academically (Poon et al., 2016). In addition, Asian American college students often experience racism and xenophobia, which can undermine their sense of belonging on campus. However, in the Midwest, where their immigration is more recent and conversations about race are often framed in terms of Black and white, Asian Americans often feel invisible and othered (Lee, …

Subsidiarity In The Shadow Of Sovereignty, Loren King

Political Science Faculty Publications

Subsidiarity frustrates. It admits of clear articulation as an ideal (‘vest authority as close as feasible to those most affected’) but then invites conflicting interpretations and elaborations. As a workable principle, subsidiarity seems to founder exactly when we need it: when we ask what, precisely, that principle regulates. As a regulative moral precept, subsidiarity promises a politics sensitive to diverse needs and responsive to local knowledge, yet in practice any implementation of the ideal pulls us back toward an authoritative center to regulate disputes and coordinate all of this local wisdom. I love subsidiarity for these frustrations and ambiguities. In …

Institutionalized Bullying In Tertiary Institutions In Nigeria And Perceived Mental Health Impacts: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, Chika Bosah, Casey Mace Firebaugh, Tara R. Zolnikov

The Qualitative Report

Institutionalized bullying is when bullying moves beyond individual instances of bullying and is culturally embedded in an institution, such as a school or workplace. This type of bullying has not been thoroughly examined in tertiary school settings in Nigeria. This phenomenological qualitative study examined the experiences of tertiary students (from four different institutions in Nigeria) and their experiences of institutionalized bullying to determine if and to what extent this practice is occurring. There were (n=48) tertiary students engaged in open-ended, semi-structured interviews in Nigeria in 2022. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed. Overall, this study found that institutionalized bullying …

Troubling Trigger Warnings: Toward An Informed Praxis Of Care Within Intercollegiate Forensics, Grace P. Smith, Mallory L. Marsh

Studies in Debate and Oratory

In light of widespread (mis)use of trigger warnings, content warnings, and content notes in intercollegiate competitive speech, in this essay we interrogate the implementation of these devices and propose an intervention to ensure the activity moves toward a better-informed praxis to accomplish its goal of community care. By identifying the activity’s current propensity for misused warnings, missed messages, a misrepresentation of safety, and misguided performances, our intervention aspires to ensure these important warnings are more thoughtfully employed so as to limit potential harm to our messages, our community members, our activity, and our collective educational aim toward advocacy.

The Layers Of Trauma In Gisella Perl’S I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz, Tiffany Sidders

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Contemporary trauma theory argues that trauma operates in a binary, linear fashion that represents healing from a crisis. As one of the foremost trauma theorists, Cathy Caruth situates trauma within a binary framework of either victim or perpetrator but does not fully account for victims who became perpetrators or those who perpetrated for survival—or for the survival of others. One example of such a figure is Gisella Perl. In her memoir I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, Perl describes multiple layers of trauma that create a deeper connection to her emotions and her lived experience in Auschwitz. Unlike other …

Representation Of Terrorism After 9/11 In Kathryn Bigelow And Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty Movie, Mela Maulina Putri, Bunyamin Faisal Syarifudin, Deni Suswanto

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Terrorism, as a global phenomenon, has been widely represented in various media, particularly in films. One of the films that represent terrorism is Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal. This research aims to discuss the representation of terrorism in Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty, employing a qualitative approach and an analytical descriptive method. To achieve the research objectives, the author employs John Fiske's Semiotics theory, which is divided into three levels: the reality level, the representation level, and the ideological level. The results and discussions in this study are presented through visual and …

Water Pollution In Yogyakarta 1926–1942, Nur Aini Setiawati, Edy Supratno, Santi Muji Utami, Krisnanda Theo Primaditya

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Water pollution in Yogyakarta has a long history dating back to the colonial era in 1926. Therefore, the main issue addressed in this writing is why water pollution occurred in Yogyakarta from 1926 to 1942. Basically, there are two factors influencing water pollution, namely natural factors and human factors. Using a historical research method, this study aims to examine water pollution in the Yogyakarta region, so that the government and the community can seek solutions. The sources used include collections from Algemeen Handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie, De Locomotief, De Nieuwe Vorstenlanden, De Preanger Bode, and contemporary newspapers. The research findings …