Digital Commons Network^™

Seating Charts, Connections, And Fostering Community, Mckenna B. Chow

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how fostering stronger connections in the high school ceramics classroom can create a more inclusive and collaborative community. I regularly changed seating charts to encourage new relationships and strengthen classroom culture as part of this effort. Historically, seating charts have enforced uniformity and promoted specific behaviors. My research challenges these traditional purposes and proposes that seating arrangements can instead serve a more meaningful and enduring goal: promoting connection and ensuring that all students feel seen. I found that while seating charts can contribute to this goal, achieving genuine connection and inclusivity also requires several additional factors to …

Flowing Progress: Transforming The Danube Through Infrastructure, Stefan Dorondel, Luminita Gatejel

Central European Studies

Flowing Progress: Transforming the Danube Through Infrastructure focuses on how different political regimes and forms of governance have imagined and technologically transformed the most international river in the world. Multidisciplinary and drawing on methodologies of history, anthropology of infrastructure, and science, technology, and society, this collection explores the tensions between the river and its natural pulses, the humans that populate its floodplains, state agencies, and infrastructure. The book engages the concept of disturbance to point out the circular and spiraling dynamics between hydrological processes and technopolitical and economic practices. Disturbance denotes a specific type of long-term dynamic between human attempts …

Housewerk: How Drag Performers Engage In Emotional Labor While Navigating Community Care, Steph O. Landeros

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines drag performance as a form of service labor shaped by emotional labor, community care, and identity-based inequality. Drawing on interviews with drag performers shows how drag labor blends artistic skill, emotional regulation, interpersonal care, and entrepreneurial labor. While these demands mirror service sector roles in other industries, drag remains underrecognized and undervalued, particularly for performers who do not conform to white, cisgender norms. The study introduces Housewerk—an adaptation of Marlon Bailey’s concept of housework (Bailey, 2013)—to describe the mix of paid and unpaid labor drag performers engage in. Housewerk captures how performers must balance self-preservation (branding, income, …

Guatemalan Maya Women’S Attitudes Towards Biomedical Contraception After Migrating To The United States, Shreenaya Prabu, Iris Parshley, Robert Malkin

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Medical providers in the United States who discuss the use of contraceptives with Maya women migrants might discover strong reluctance and complex beliefs about the social and physical benefits of biomedical contraceptive measures. This research report presents information about contraceptive usage among Maya in Guatemala and how usage or attitudes toward contraception might have changed while living in the United States. The research team, during 2024, interviewed six adult female Guatemalan Maya refugees over Zoom to understand their thoughts toward contraceptive use before and after migrating. Discussion points included: lack of sexual education in Guatemala, health concerns arising from using …

Full Issue - Maya America V7, I1, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Full issue of Maya America, volume 7, issue 1.

Scent Of The South: Fragrance And Identity In The 19th Century, Sarah Donahua Peters

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the role of personal fragrance as a cultural marker in the 19th-century American South, examining how scent reflected identity, status, and social norms in a region shaped by colonialism, capitalism, and religious influence. Drawing on historical sources, botanical knowledge, and public history practices, the project traces the evolution of fragrance from home-crafted perfumes to mass-marketed products, highlighting how access to scent was shaped by race, class, and gender. Central to the thesis is a public history exhibition designed for the Esse Purse Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, which invites visitors to engage with scent as a medium …

“Of Their Women We Hear Less”: Pride And Prejudice In The Tale Of ‘Aldarion And Erendis.’, Sara Brown

Journal of Tolkien Research

In discussing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age “Tale of the Mariner’s Wife,” past scholars have used descriptors such as ‘resentful’, ‘strong-willed’, ‘unhappy’ – even ‘misandrist’. There can be no doubt that this is a story of a deeply unhappy marriage between two people with irreconcilable differences, to use the modern parlance of the divorce courts, but it would also be true to say that Erendis seems to come out of the narrative with a more sullied reputation than her husband. In fact, Aldarion appears to have everything he could have wanted, such as his freedom to sail and an heir for …

Book Review On Epistemology Of Modality And Philosophical Methodology (Edited By Anand Jayprakash Vaidya And Duško Prelević), Kumar Rajan

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Moral And Ethical Nature In Confucian Liang-Zhi And Islamic Fitra: Comparative Perspectives On Innate Morality, Yanrong Shi

Comparative Philosophy

This article offers a comparative philosophical analysis of Confucian liang-zhi (innate moral knowledge) and Islamic fitra(primordial nature), focusing on their accounts of innate morality and moral epistemology. Drawing on classical Confucian sources—especially the praxis-oriented interpretation of Wang Yangming—and foundational Islamic texts and commentary, the study demonstrates that both traditions posit an inborn moral faculty grounding ethical universality and responsibility. Wang Yangming’s liang-zhi is conceived as an innate moral principle that, under the imperative of zhi (to actualize or extend), is continually activated through moral practice. In parallel, fitra is understood as a God-given orientation to truth, cultivated and safeguarded through …

The Conventional Emptiness Of Human Beings: Reviewing Archer’S Theory Of Agency Through Nagarjuna’S Looking Glass, Federico Podestà

Comparative Philosophy

Margaret Archer is probably the critical realist who has most significantly affected the debate around the relationship between social structure and agency. In the volume, Being Human: The Problem of Agency, she aims to better define what is meant by the properties and causal powers of agency itself, i.e., self-consciousness and reflexivity. In this paper, this theoretical attempt is reviewed through the critical standpoint of Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna’s philosophy appears to be a particularly compelling tool for criticizing Archer’s theory. Claiming the emptiness of everything, the founder of the Buddhist Madhyamaka school provides a critical perspective for revising the distinctiveness of …

How Theravāda Buddhism Enriches The Language Of Thought Hypothesis: Beyond Syntax, Juanjuan Cheng, Sumanasara Sandamadulle

Comparative Philosophy

The Language of Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) posits that mental states operate through a language-like representational system physically implemented in the brain. However, this purely symbolic approach faces a significant limitation: certain mental phenomena—such as intuitions, emotions, and intentions—lack the syntactically compositional structure required by LOTH and therefore cannot be adequately explained within its symbolic framework. To address this theoretical challenge, we turn to Theravāda Buddhism (TB), an early Buddhist tradition that integrates rigorous philosophical inquiry with meditative practice. Remarkably, TB began to prefigure a solution to LOTH’s limitations over 2,300 years ago. Although LOTH and TB differ …

Under The Sea And Into The Future With Darwin, Verne, & Wells: Evolutionary Ideas In Early Science Fiction Literature And Atomic Age Adaptations, Suzette K. Forston

Theses and Dissertations

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin's theories challenged traditional ways of thinking about the world so dramatically that his writings inspired the formation of a new genre: science fiction. Two pioneering authors, Jules Verne and H. G. Wells drew from Darwin's writings in their classic novels, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Time Machine (1895). Though the two authors are often compared because they were both early science fiction authors, they approached Darwinian theory in different ways. Verne uses a more extrapolative approach and focusing on specific details of Darwin's texts to tell a …

Visio Dei, Vision Pro: Beatific Vision And Technological Singularity, John Paul Arceno

Liberty Theological Review

This paper offers a retrieval of the classical Christian theology of beatific vision. The reason behind this is the challenges posed by the progress of digital technology, including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and robotics, which are prevalent today. This rapid progress somehow threatens the classical view of beatific vision with its version of technological singularity. Hence, the retrieval of the beatific vision, which is grounded in divine ontology, is much needed. The paper is divided into three parts: (1) Visio Dei, which discusses the doctrine of beatific vision, (2) Vision Pro, which discusses technological singularity, and (3) conclusion, which …

Black Americans’ Strategic Disengagement In Digital Protest: A Thematic Analysis Of Youtube Responses To Latino Deportation Appeals (2025), Professor Meya E. Hargett

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

This qualitative study, grounded in digital discourse theory, investigates Black Americans’ responses to the Latino community’s calls for protest support against federal deportation policies under the current U.S. administration. Twelve publicly available YouTube videos from Spring 2025 were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify key patterns in Black discourse, including themes of strategic withdrawal, political disillusionment, solidarity fatigue, and historical tension.

This study defines 'stand down' as a deliberate, non-antagonistic decision to refrain from participating in another group’s protest movement. Findings indicate that disengagement is not rooted in apathy but is shaped by long-standing racialized experiences, ideological misalignment, and …

Relational Design For More-Than-Human Narratives, Margaret Rynning, Lene Utigard, Annette Briest Kriszat

Nordes Conference Series

This workshop explores the intersection of relational design, storytelling, and more-than-human perspectives to challenge anthropocentric assumptions and foster deeper ecological awareness. Through speculative and sensory-based design interventions, participants will engage with local edible wild plants, highlighting their agency and cultural significance. By addressing the phenomenon of "plant blindness" and incorporating multimodal storytelling, the session aims to reframe human-nature relationships, cultivating empathy and care for non-human entities. Participants will co-create speculative narratives, experiment with sensory engagement, and develop ethical frameworks for more regenerative design practices. The workshop encourages designers and researchers to rethink their roles, embracing interdependence, sustainability, and justice in …

Is It About Time? On The Meanings Of Temporal Representations In Object Art, Patricia Ciobanu, Ylva Fernaeus

Nordes Conference Series

Perspectives on time within interaction design research have extended beyond material embodiments, such as standard clocks, to exploring alternative designs and situating these in cultural practices and relations. We investigate examples of how time has been expressed in a series of object-based artworks that represent time otherwise, highlighting how they use a variety of material forms to engage with social, political, and contextually performative issues. Through a critical analysis, we illustrate how such works engage with topics of social negotiation, hidden labour, gender, power, and technology-supported disruptive living. We end with a reflection on how these expressions of meaning-making cultivate …

Tangible Theory As Tool For Attuning To Non-Human Voices In Domestic Gardens, Mette Gislev Kjærsgaard, Tau Lenskjold, Mathilde Buskbjerg Madsen, Asbjørn Krüger Mønster, Giocchino Matteo Maniscalco

Nordes Conference Series

This paper introduces a design research tool that integrates anthropological perspectives on non-human agency to reimagine biodiversity in garden design. While gardens comprise a minor portion of global biomass, they are critical sites for urban biodiversity and multispecies interaction. A central challenge lies in learning to attune to non-human actors. Building on theories of ecological inter-dependence in the Anthropocene, we ask how such perspectives can be operationalised in design practice. Grounded in the "Patchy Anthropocene" framework (Tsing et al., 2019), the tool translates theoretical insights into an actionable prototype. Drawing on interviews with garden owners in six European countries, it …

Exploring Design Fieldwork Dilemmas In Mental Healthcare Through Foucaultian Mechanisms Of Power, Eva Liisa Kubinyi, Jeanne Sintic

Nordes Conference Series

Design scholars are advocating for building a deeper and more nuanced power literacy when applying participatory approaches in mental healthcare. Although actionable frameworks have been developed to identify risks, these approaches rely heavily on designers’ analytical skills and do not offer ways to understand power through multiple scales that simultaneously influence individuals and populations. If this concern is not addressed, designers might inadvertently reproduce harmful power structures. Therefore, this paper builds a Foucaultian lens of disciplinary and bio-power to reflexively analyze design fieldwork dilemmas in mental healthcare contexts from France and Estonia. It contributes to deepening designers’ power literacy by …

Expanding Environmental Discourse Through Practice-Led Research: From An Experimental Pavilion To Mainstream Architecture, Maiju Suomi, Sofie Pelsmakers

Nordes Conference Series

This practice-led research paper explores how the making of a temporary architectural intervention with a transformative sustainability aim can expand environmental discourse in mainstream architecture. The paper explores the case of Alusta, a pavilion to enhance urban biodiversity and encourage multi-species encounters and environmental discussion in the context of Finland. Through the case, architecture emerges as a practical environmental act and a cultural representation of lower impact living. Findings show how an experimental pavilion can bypass some constraints of large-scale architecture and become an agile tool in discussing topical sustainability issues. Small-scale projects enable testing and showcasing experimental solutions, lessons …

Entangled In The Design Of A Relational Materiality: Beyond Smart Textiles, Anne Louise Bang, Delia Dumitrescu, Malene Harsaae, Inger Marie Ladekarl, Hanna Landin, Erin Lewis, Mika Latusaari, Alicja Lawrynowicz, Kati Miettunen, Mithila Mohan, Mikael Nyberg, Lena Pedersen, Pedro Silva, Maija Vaara, Jaana Vapaavouri, Linda Worbin, Zahraalsadat Madani, Kristian Rödby

Nordes Conference Series

Nowadays, ethics and care for the environment have shifted paradigms in smart textile design towards responsible energy use and preservation of natural resources. In this research, we aim to relate material science and engineering to textile and interaction design in discovering a vibrant responsive materiality triggered by ultraviolet (UV) energy. The research addresses a bottom-up approach entangling scientific development in material science, textile craftsmanship, and design to the understanding of human use and the capacities for change of this natural phenomena. Compared to a conventional textile design processes where material and form composition connect in a final expression, in this …

Designing Speculative Probes: Narrating Menstruation With Cultural Sensitivity And Care, Canan Akoglu, Sofie Kinch, Linda Domke

Nordes Conference Series

This paper explores the design of speculative probes as a situated, exploratory, and critical practice for engaging with intimate and stigmatized topics in specific socio-cultural contexts. It examines how designers navigate cultural sensitivities with care, demonstrating how speculative design can foster alternative spaces for dialogue rather than directly confronting taboos. Drawing on a case study in Tunisia, which addresses cultural stigmas around menstruation among young men and women, the paper highlights the importance of narrative-driven and culturally sensitive speculative design in fostering non-judgmental spaces for dialogue and mutual learning, thereby supporting systemic and cultural transformation. This paper advocates for design …

Pollino: A Research-Through-Design Approach To Pollinator Conservation, Kitti Butter

Nordes Conference Series

This paper examines how design can foster multispecies cohabitation in urban environments by supporting wild pollinators, specifically solitary wild bees. Grounded in theories of more-than-human design and multispecies care, the project challenges conventional human-centric urban planning by integrating ecological insights into practical interventions. Using a Research-through-Design approach, the project “Pollino” was developed as an experimental urban intervention that incorporates pollinator-friendly nesting habitats into public infrastructure. The interdisciplinary project draws on stakeholder interviews with ecologists, urban planners, and municipal decision-makers, along with a one-year pilot study deploying twelve prototypes in diverse urban settings and monitoring their impact on urban biodiversity and …

Becoming Compost: Fostering Soil Care Through Design Practices, Annarita Bianco

Nordes Conference Series

Soil is a complex and interconnected entity, essential for life yet constantly threatened by intensive human practices. Inspired by the Environmental Humanities, this contribution illustrates the experience of two workshops that, by immersing participants in the exchange of soil matter, aim to shed light on the fragility of our planet’s balance and promote greater ecological awareness. Through mixing soil samples, radial chromatography, and augmented reality technologies, Becoming Compost emphasises the importance of soil as a site of biopoiesis, chemical element transformation, and interspecies exchange. It also encourages participants to reflect on the significance of one of life’s fundamental elements, fostering …

Lighting A Public Thing? Organizing Design Things In Public Bureaucracy, Christina Vildinge, Elena Raviola

Nordes Conference Series

This study takes an interdisciplinary approach to the design of the night city, by exploring how, through complex scripting processes, the relational aesthetics of light is translated in processes of urban planning. This exploration is based on our study of lighting design in the city of Gothenburg and highlights the multiplicities of designing light through dimensions of aesthetics, sustainability, safety, environment, biodiversity, work and more. The question we ask is how the relational materiality of light as a design material is translated in the organizational process of urban planning and how light in this process is made a matter of …

Shaping Space And Forming Dimensionality Through Origami Practice, Laureen Mahler

Nordes Conference Series

Space surrounds and enfolds the breadth of our doings. It is vital in relational perspectives on designing because relations exist both in and because of space. This is especially apparent in practice-led design research, in which world-building is predicated on repeated flows that form becomings. Through diverse documentation of the author's origami research, this exploratory paper investigates how engagement with space in the making process provides a rich medium for new perspectives on relationality. Specifically, when space is perceived as alive and dynamic — physically made alongside the artifact — its activation reveals new potentialities for identifying relations and interdependencies. …

Towards Eco-Social Contracts Through An Entangled Manifestation Of Digital Litter, Seda Özçetin, Ylva Fernaeus, Şeyda Özçetin, Larissa Pschetz

Nordes Conference Series

Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as …

The Bread Without Form: Attuning To Relational Ways Of Making Through Convivial Baking Practice, Gianluca Giabardo, Luis Vega, Maarit Mäkelä

Nordes Conference Series

This paper investigates the notion of form as a relational process rather than a fixed attribute of things. Through the lenses of contemporary design theory and symbiotic conviviality, we present a snapshot of the first author’s bakery practice, where the ever-emerging form of sourdough bread is used to discuss ways of attuning differently to dominant understandings of design, making, and materiality. The case presented here follows a practice-led research approach, with different sources of data captured through documentation and reflection. Our findings illustrate the methodological potential of baking to explore form-making as a convivial and symbiotic process. We conclude by …

Reclaiming ‘Autonomía(S)’: Governance Through Design, Pamela Gil-Salas

Nordes Conference Series

Data has become a central resource shaping political economies, extracted through digital infrastructures that operate across borders and often reinforce existing inequalities. This paper examines the fragmented nature of data governance across multiple levels and argues for centering governance on data itself rather than solely focusing on platforms, algorithms, or industry compliance. To ground this analysis, the paper frames data governance within the context of data colonialism—that is, as a continuation of extractive practices that commodify human life. It then introduces 'autonomía(s)', or collective agencies, as both a counter-narrative to dominant data regimes and a praxis for 'comunalidad', or communal …

Transforming Complex Environments: Applying Systems-Oriented Service Design In Complex Built And Digital Environments, Sari Kotaniemi, Mari Suoheimo, Satu Miettinen, Birger Sevaldson

Nordes Conference Series

The built environment includes all man-made spaces for activities like living and urban development, organised via zoning and land use planning. To enhance sustainability, Finland's environmental administration launched the Ryhti project to centralise data systems, optimising the accessibility and consistency of land use and construction information. This research investigates how systems-oriented service design, specifically gigamapping, supports the strategic implementation of complex digital built environments. Through literature review and a case study, it showcases gigamapping’s role in the strategic-tactical spectrum of organisational decision making, applying the four levels of design management and the iceberg model of design problems to contextualise decision …

Poetic Layers: Exploring The Aesthetics Of Bias, Young Suk Lee, Johan Redstöm

Nordes Conference Series

As new technologies enter everyday life, designs have to address new interactions between ethics and aesthetics as new possibilities also come with new consequences. A current example concerns Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the issues of bias that seem to come with its predictive and generative capacities. To explore bias further, we start with the question that if bias is present (and perhaps cannot be completely eliminated), what could it be like to instead work with its expressions? And could exploring an ‘aesthetics of bias’ allow us to come closer to where bias comes from in the first place, in how …