Digital Commons Network^™

Sending Gratitude, Amanda Kukunis

Honors Projects

Mindfulness practices involving gratitude have been shown to improve mental and physical health. Making short lists of people, things, and experiences that one is grateful for is a helpful habit for decreasing anxiety. Sending Gratitudeis an expansion of these lists guided by the research question:

In what ways does reflecting on past experiences where I was grateful that someone decreased my past anxiety help reduce current anxieties?

How can these experiences be shared with others in a way that will encourage them to practice gratitude?

The final installation imitated a greeting card wall and encouraged viewers to take a …

Displacement And Replacement: The Political History Of David Duke, Patrick Buchanan, And Racial Resentment, Dylan Weir

Journal of Hate Studies

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, David Duke and Patrick Buchanan drew on long-running discourses about White replacement and displacement in their political campaigns. Duke, former leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, used White displacement fears to earn elected office in the Louisiana state legislature. He then ran for governor, senator, and president, but was thwarted in these campaigns partly thanks to Black voters. Duke’s presidential ambitions were also undercut by the journalist and television personality Patrick Buchanan, who coopted Duke’s message to seize his base. Despite trying several times, however, Buchanan was also unable to …

On Liberation Psychology, Hate, Hope, And Healing, Aaron Edwards

Journal of Hate Studies

Entering the third year of the COVID-19 era, the United States faces myriad problems with hate speech, misinformation, racial and politically based violence, and deep-rooted institutional abuses. Oppression of minorities making up the majority of the population contributes to mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. The problem of hate has been an active study by psychologists since World War II, but as of yet publications uniting interdisciplinary hate studies and community psychology are sparse compared to other interests. This essay addresses one such theory, liberation psychology, and how its approach may guide clinicians and institutions to a …

Perceptions Of Varying Types Of Health Conditions Among Arkansas Tech University Students, Leala A. Sorrell

ATU Scholars Symposium

Attitudes towards minor ailments, psychological conditions, chronic illnesses, and disabilities were measured among students of Arkansas Tech University through an online questionnaire. 10 questions were asked for each condition type for a total of 40 questions. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreeance from 1-5, 1 being “highly disagree” and 5 being “highly agree”. High scores (higher response rate of “strongly agree”) represented attitudes of Talcott Parsons’ sick role theory. Low scores (higher response rate of “strongly disagree”) represented attitudes of the ICF model and inclusiveness. The minor ailments/illnesses scale had the lowest mean score of 27.186. The …

An Apologetic For The Reliability Of Biblical Doctrine From Pornography Addiction And Recovery, Jacob A. Arrieta

Masters Theses

Sexual ethics (in general) and pornography (in particular) are incredibly hot topics in postmodern culture. The biblical sexual ethic, which was once normative across much of the Global West since the rise and spread of Christianity, is now viewed as outdated and oppressive in a postmodern culture that values individual freedoms above all else. No longer are institutions seen as trustworthy bastions of truth to help shape individuals into good people or proper citizens of a nation. Expert opinions are no longer sought out and used to shape and form the individuals’ thoughts on a given topic unless they support …

A Grief Intervention For Early Perinatal Loss, Dani M. Helm

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Early pregnancy loss has a multidimensional effect on patients, touching the body, soul, and spirit. This project addresses patients’ lack of spiritual and emotional support following early pregnancy loss, commonly called a miscarriage. The available research on the emotional impact of early pregnancy loss has grown stronger over the last three decades. However, there is a deficit of research exploring the spiritual implications of miscarriage and how faith is used as a coping mechanism for pregnancy grief. In modern culture, the term spirituality can mean many different things. With this awareness, Mercy Healthcare embraces and supports patients wherever they find …

Pcr Genotyping Of Physcomitrella Patens Crispr/Cas9 Ppcsld5/8 Ko Mutants, Kerrina Whelan, Kayleigh Kearney, Christos Dimos

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

The moss Physcomitrella patens is an attractive model organism due to its small genome and dominant haploid phase. P. patens has eight genes that form a family known as the Cellulose Synthase-Like Ds (CSLDs). A previous study using global knockdown of the entire PpCSLD family by RNA interference (RNAi) showed a decrease in protonemal tip growth, indicating that PpCSLDs play a role in protonemal growth. In order to study the roles of specific CSLDs in P. patens development, potential double KO mutants for PpCSLD5/8 were generated by CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis. The goal of this project was to screen potential ppcsld5/8 KO …

The Genetic Role Of Alcoholism, Madelyn Rice

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

Alcoholism is an urgent public health issue concerning certain populations who may be at greater risk of experiencing the disorder. By studying the genetic role of alcohol addiction, medical professionals may be able to establish new protocols to treat addicts and aid in preventing vulnerable demographics from developing alcoholism. In the Genetic Role of Alcoholism, I explore the genetic mutations that contribute to an individual’s addiction to alcohol and identify the particular genes and proteins that undergo aforesaid mutations. As the level of alcohol increases within the bloodstream, so too does the risk of behavioral problems and mental alterations. Moreover, …

The Blind Scientist: A Critique Of Neo-Darwinism's A Priori Assumptions, Alexander James Bonitto

Masters Theses

This paper investigates neo-Darwinian fallacies specifically regarding a priori presumptions, leading to weak scientific methodology and praxis. It was found that five concepts must be true for neo-Darwinism to be true. These are gradualism, the tree of life hypothesis, the evidence of micro-evolutionary change accounting for macro-evolutionary change, time and chance, and methodological naturalism. Prima facie, these concepts have tremendous explanatory power. However, with an attempt to carefully examine these concepts, all five seem to be assumed a priori in order to dictate the outcome of neo-Darwinism rather than letting the evidence speak for itself. Coincidentally, it appears that the …

Dismantling Dualisms: Jane’S Liminal Agency In Charlotte Brontë’S Jane Eyre, Nicole Baniukaitis

Masters Theses

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a complex and, at times, seemingly paradoxical novel. Through Jane’s journey, I argue that Charlotte Brontë offers possibilities that can be explained and understood through Val Plumwood’s ecofeminist lens of dismantling or escaping dualisms in order to make these crucial changes and rewrite the traditional story. Jane’s liminality throughout the novel empowers her, offers her access to alternative modalities, and allows her to notice the oppressive dualistic structures governing all aspects of life. Due to her unique liminal positioning, Jane is aligned with nature and fights against oppressive dualisms to shape her life in a …

Efficacy Of A Christian Intervention To Promote Posttraumatic Growth In Women Recovering From Intimate Partner Violence, Jerra L. Dooley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative pretest-posttest design evaluated a biblically based personal development program (PDP) for promoting PTG in Christian women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). A convenience sample (N = 7) of volunteers included women within a large county in the Southeastern United States. Participants were recruited through numerous large and small Southern Baptist churches. Qualifications included being female, at least 19 years old, and having experienced IPV but not within the last 12 months, to reduce the possibility of reinjury by rumination. Participants completed pretest assessments, attended the 3-hour personal development program, and completed a posttest assessment. Data was …

C.S. Lewis Manuscripts At The Lanier Theological Library, Charlie W. Starr, Crystal Hurd

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

In addition to a substantial collection of Lewis first editions, the Lanier Collection contains several handwritten Lewis manuscripts. Previously published Lewis pieces in the Lanier collection include eleven letters or excerpts from letters, a manuscript draft of “Learning in Wartime” from the collection The Weight of Glory, an early version of the poem “A Cliché Came Out of its Cage,” and a penciled outline of notes for Beyond Personality, later included in Mere Christianity. Fourteen Lewis manuscripts in the Lanier Collection are published here for the first time.

The Artist's Arsenal: Hiv+ Women Artists, The ‘War On Aids’, And Reclaiming Illness Narratives, Mekha Varghese

Art and Art History Honors Papers

This work uses the methodologies of both art history and medical sociology through the ‘syndemic’ framework to engage in close readings of two selected artworks, Exit (1997) by Nancer LeMoins and Violation of Africa (1984) by Affrekka Jefferson. An interdisciplinary approach to these works enables consideration of how multiple marginalized identities—i.e., living with a stigmatized illness, being a woman, being LGBTQIA+, being a person of color—appear in visual art and shape illness experience; these ideas are investigated through a formal and iconographic reading of the selected artworks. Placing art as the foundation of this analysis reveals its astounding impact and …

Woman, Queer, Jewish: The Sociopolitical Importance And Impact Of Identity Labels, Megan Polun

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

In this thesis, I trace and analyze the historical, social, and political uses of three identity labels: woman, queer, and Jewish. These three identity categories are personally important to me because I identify as a queer, Jewish woman. The questions motivating this analysis are as follows: How have these words been defined and who gets to define them? What has it meant historically to move through the world with one of these labels, and what does it look like today? What qualifies someone to identify with one of these labels, and what experiences or qualities do we share? What challenges …

Female Politicians And The Way That Gender Stereotypes And The Male-Dominated Power Structure Influence The Way They Run Their Campaigns, Morgan Marckres

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Women only make up 28.5% of Congress even though they make up 50.5% of the population of the United States. This disparity indicates that there are significant barriers that female politicians face when they are running for office. To look for why, an extensive literature review was conducted that gave context about the gender stereotypes that female candidates face and how they navigate the male template of power. Using the material from the literature review, the campaigns of three women and three men who won their election in the recent 2022 midterms were analyzed. The candidate’s campaigns were then compared. …

Working-Through Traumatic Memory In Young Adult Fiction, Amanda Charles

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing presence of trauma and abuse narratives in young adult literature (YAL), adolescent traumatic memory has largely been left out of the conversation. To better understand how contemporary memory scholarship is manifested in YAL, the following essay will offer a close reading of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (1993) by Chris Crutcher and Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson in conjunction with adolescent memory research. The accuracy of traumatic memory representation in these novels confirms the value of YAL as a means for youth to interact with and learn about traumatic memory, its processes, and its effects.

Old Dominion University Flute Choir, Old Dominion University Flute Choir, Patti Watters (Director)

Ensemble Performances

No abstract provided.

Plant Sentience: "Feeling" Or Biological Automatism?, Andrea Mastinu

Animal Sentience

Sentience refers to the ability of an organism to have subjective experiences such as sensations, emotions and awareness. Whereas some animals, including humans, are widely recognized as sentient, the question of whether plants are sentient is still debated among scientists, philosophers, and ethicists. Over the past 20 years, many scientists such as Trewavas, Baluška, Mancuso, Gagliano, and Calvo have reported interesting discussions about memory, behavior, communication, and intelligence in plants. However, the reported conclusions have not convinced the entire scientific community. In this commentary, I would like to focus on two critical aspects related to sentience: cognition and emotion

Review Of The Cambridge Companion To C.S. Lewis, Mark J. Hamilton

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Mark J. Hamilton: Review of Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward, eds., The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (New York, 2010). xx + 326 pages. $29.99. ISBN 9780521711142.

The Lewis-Anscombe Debate: A Philosophical Reformulation, James E. Taylor

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

This paper will not examine the evaluative and historical questions that have arisen about this debate. Instead, it will provide an extensive reformulation and explanation of the philosophical arguments employed by both Lewis and Anscombe which are contained in their published works that are directly related to the debate. These works are the first edition of Miracles,3 which contains the argument that forms the basis of the debate, the essay that Anscombe read at the Socratic Club, and Lewis’ second edition of Miracles. Hopefully, this will serve to clarify the concepts, issues, and arguments employed in the debate and its …

Review Of C. S. Lewis: Views From Wake Forest. Essays On C. S. Lewis By Walter Hooper, James Como, And Many Others, David G. Clark

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Michael Travers (ed.), C. S. Lewis: Views from Wake Forest. Essays on C. S. Lewis by Walter Hooper, James Como, and many others (Wayne, PA: Zossima Press, 2008). 288 pages. $23.00. ISBN: 9780972322157.

Review Essay: C. S. Lewis On The Final Frontier: Science And The Supernatural In The Space Trilogy, Sørina Higgins

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Sanford Schwartz, C. S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). 256 pages. $27.95. ISBN: 9780195374728.

From Vocal Agnostic To Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis And C.E.M. Joad, Joel Heck

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

After a brief consideration of Joad’s life and career this essay will examine the events that led to his return to the Christian faith, and the extent of Lewis’ influence on it. As we will see, Joad and Lewis’ interest in philosophy and the world of ideas, their reading of one another’s work and the mutual respect that emerged out of that effort, their published debate over the issue of theodicy in 1941, their lively debate over the merits of Christianity at the Socratic Club in 1944, and their exchange over the troubling issue of animal pain in 1950, comprise …

A Fake Future: The Threat Of Foreign Disinformation On The U.S. And Its Allies, Brandon M. Rubsamen

Global Tides

This paper attempts to explain the threat that foreign disinformation poses for the United States Intelligence Community and its allies. The paper examines Russian disinformation from both a historical and contemporary context and how its effect on Western democracies may only be exacerbated in light of Chinese involvement and evolving technologies. Fortunately, the paper also studies practices and strategies that the United States Intelligence Community and its allied foreign counterparts may use to respond. It is hoped that this study will help shed further light on Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns and explain how the Intelligence Community can efficiently react.

Pippin Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Angell Blackfriars Theatre

Pippin, Book by Robert O. Hirson, Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

April 21-23 & 27-30, 2023, 7:30pm & Sundays, 2pm

Director, Jimmy Calitri

Choreography, Jennifer J. Hopkins

Lighting Design, Elissa Cerros

Sound Design, Gabriel Luxton

Intimacy Coordinator, Patrick Saunders

Musical Direction, Lila Kane

Scenic Design, Ali Strelchun

Costume Design, Jaimy Escobedo

Vocal Coach, Megan Chang

Makup & Wig Design, Leslie Ford

Cast:

Leading Player - Mariama Bandabaila; Leading Player - Madelyn Rich; Leading Player Understudy/Arlecchino - Caitlyn …

The Santa Clara, 2023-04-21, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Volume Cxlii, Number 19, April 21, 2023, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Diversity In Times Of Adversity: Sounding A Horn In Narnia, D. G. Kehl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Why, one might ask, does Lewis go to such great lengths to specify twelve different varieties of animals—“all you variety of creatures”—if not to stress diversity? In Letters to Malcolm Lewis wrote: “If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when He made them.”

Transubstantiation And Physics: Validity In Science Vs. Validity In Religion, Martha Stein, Emily Grace

Celebration of Research

Catholics believe Transubstantiation is the process of converting bread and wine into Jesus’ body and blood. There are no physical signs of change, but the substance changes. From a scientific perspective, there is no application of heat or light and no physical sign of change, therefore there is no change. Physics as we understand at an undergraduate level assumes Earth is a closed system. This assumption no longer applies if there can be substance change without physical modification from an energy source. I refuse to believe that science and religion are unrelated entities, yet I accept that this unexplainable phenomenon …

Masculinity, Empire, And The Boyhood Companion In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein And Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Ruth Rempart

Campus Research Month

In 19th-century Britain, rigid social hierarchies and gender roles play a largely unseen role in the rise of the empire. In a society that relies upon the myths of heroic or self-sustaining masculinity to maintain the public sphere, how a “nontraditional” gentleman decides to affirm their masculinity can have a significant impact on the country’s cultural consciousness. As seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, young men tend to reassert their gender identities by pursuing careers that further British imperialist agendas. This paper examines the intersection between gender studies and postcolonial theory in 19^th-century …