Digital Commons Network^™

“The Rubber Lung” - An Original Instrument Design, San Gonzalez

2026 Symposium

This project presents an experimental sensor-based instrument designed to produce unconventional sound textures for horror media. The device uses a flex sensor on a balloon that is then connected to an Arduino, which responds to bending and movement, sending data to a Max/MSP patch where the input controls sound processing such as filters and frequency. The physical motion of flexing the sensor on the balloon mimics the expansion and contraction of lungs, creating a breathing like interaction between performer and instrument. This design allows subtle gestures to alter the sound in real time. By using a bodily, breathing motion into …

Communication & Theater Association Of Minnesota Journal, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2026

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Volume 49, Issue 1 (2026) of the Communication & Theater Association of Minnesota Journal.

Clara S. Ludlow: Mississippi A & M Graduate And American Military Entomology Pioneer, Bradley Brazzeal

Midsouth Entomologist

The systematic study of the mosquitoes of the world did not begin until the early years of the 20^th century. Among the early entomologists to specialize in the field was Clara S. Ludlow, who graduated from Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College. Her research began in the Philippines in 1901, while American troops were still fighting in the Philippine-American War, and for over 20 years she researched mosquitoes in connection with the U.S. Army. This article explores Ludlow’s scientific career and the legacy of her research.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Co-Opting Modernity: The Semantic Retooling Of Faith At The 1893 World’S Parliament Of Religions, Erik P. Palmer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago served as a high-stakes arena where the boundaries of religious legitimacy were redrawn through the intentional adoption of social science vocabulary. Staged within the Neo-Classical architecture of the White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the event was more than a civil gathering; it functioned as a “Museum of Faiths” where religious traditions were curated, categorized, and evaluated against the perceived benchmarks of Western civilization. The physical environment of the Fair, a monument to industrial triumph, was built to display things that worked. The organizers demanded that religions demonstrate they were useful …

Reshaping Home: Chinese Immigrant Women’S Adaptation And Family Transformation Under Exclusion, Chloe Nicole 零星 Isom

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1941, Jew Law Ying arrived at the port of San Francisco with her infant daughter, Bak Heong, seeking admission to join her merchant husband, Yung Hin Sen, in the United States. Upon arrival, immigration officials detained Jew Law Ying and her daughter and required both her and her husband to answer nearly two hundred detailed questions about themselves to prove their identities and relationship. Officials designed these questions to uncover inconsistencies and expose fraudulent relationships, and they were so intricate that, despite their legal and legitimate marriage, Jew Law Ying and Yung Hin Sen had prepared extensively, memorizing answers …

Mystical Revelation And Knowledge Of God: Reclaiming Spirituality In Theology Through The Mystics, Elizabeth A. Merski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the scholastic era, the pursuit of God has occurred preeminently through reason, leading to an imbalanced theology of God that persists to the present day in the form of intellect-centered theology. As a resolution, this work proposes that the mobilization of private, mystical revelation as a source of legitimized theological knowledge of God has the potential to close the existent epistemological gap between reason/belief and theology/spirituality, demonstrating the integral unity between authentic knowledge of God and the receiver’s personal acceptance of God in faith. After examining the required methodological components for the discipline of theology and identifying criteria for …

The Narrative In The Algorithm: Storytelling, World Literature, And The Smartphone, Chad Szalkowski-Ference

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I interrogate the role algorithms, artificial intelligence, and smartphone technology play in contemporary world literature. My analysis begins with the post-truth condition, which speaks to the contemporary era’s embrace of alternative facts, authoritarianism, and conspiratorial thinking. I draw on narrative theory and paradigms of world literature to show how “algorithmic reasoning” has led to a state of paranoid persecution. This reasoning has forged new collectivities across traditional borders. Additionally, I show that these new collectivities and new technologies have produced new narrative points of view: the algorithmic first- and third-person, allowing narratives to retain the intimacy and …

Professionalizing Folklore In Latin America: Four Paradigms Of The Musician And The Coloniality Of Music Education, Matias Recharte

Visions of Research in Music Education

In this article, I discuss the professionalization of folklore and its entanglements with coloniality through an analysis of four paradigms of the musicians I encountered in conversations with students, administrators and instructors at the Escuela Nacional de Folklore Jose Maria Arguedas in Lima, Peru. I contrast two pairs of paradigms, the empírico with the académico and the chivero with the professional in order to show how the “professional folklore musician” is constructed through similarities and differences with these paradigms. For my analysis, I use a coloniality theory framework (Casto-Gomez, 2021; Quijan, 1980, 2000, 2007; Segato 2011, 2022) which considers social …

Evaluating Gender Equity In The Berenstain Bears Picture Books, Christy Tisnawijaya, Geni Kurniati

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

Picture books serve as a foundational medium in early childhood education, utilizing interrelated visual and verbal elements to foster linguistic, cognitive, and social development. Despite their pedagogical utility, certain literary works inadvertently perpetuate traditional gender roles, constraining children's conceptualizations of identity. This study evaluates gender representation within eleven selected titles of The Berenstain Bears series. Employing a qualitative multimodal content analysis, the study integrates Butler's gender performativity framework (1990), Callow's multimodal narrative approach (2020), and Adam and Harper's evaluative criteria (2021) to examine how domestic, social, and recreational roles are constructed. This study offers novelty by establishing a dual-lens multimodal …

Self-Maintenance And The Evidence For Artificial Sentience, Mads J. Hansen, Christoffer Lundbak Olesen

Animal Sentience

Birch aims to remain neutral about whether life is necessary for sentience. We argue that life can be given a role while maintaining neutrality. Markers of sentience have been identified in living systems, where some contribute to the system's self-maintenance. When such a marker is reproduced in an artificial system that is not self-maintaining it is not clear that it is as reliable as in living systems.

Atomos Komiks - Making Learning Fun With Science Entertainment, Jerome Aizpuro Suplemento Ii, Julius Noah Hernandez Sempio

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

With portable digital devices imposing themselves on the already precarious attention span of the Filipino youth, and with raising concerns about degrading literacy of schoolchildren, it is imperative to find creative and entertaining means to inspire the young studentry to engage in dedicated educational materials. This paper explains the methods being used by a small group of artists, scientists and writers to create content for “science entertainment” in comics format. By combining principles of conceptual compression, knowledge indexing and low-elaboration persuasion techniques to develop knowledge “anchors”, the team aims to generate participatory engagement among readers and stimulate their cognitive innovation. …

Indigenous Pedagogies As An Arts-Based Framework For Education 4.0, Andylyn Simeon

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

While Education 4.0 promises to cultivate 21st-century skills like creativity and critical thinking, the reality often falls short. Current frameworks are heavily technocentric, prioritizing digital tools and measurable data over the communal, emotional, and spiritual depth that true learning requires. This paper argues that we can restore balance to this digital shift by looking toward Indigenous Pedagogies (IPs). Far from being “obsolete” relics of the past, these are sophisticated, arts-based systems rooted in storytelling, ritual, and land-based creation that can offer a creative blueprint for the human-centered goals that Education 4.0 claims to value. Through a qualitative synthesis, I deconstruct …

Teaching China Beyond Eurocentrism: Intercultural Pedagogy And The Case Of The República Del Reino De La China By Jerónimo Román Zamora, Miriam Diaz Belizon

Comparative Philosophy

Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching China in Western academic contexts often reproduce Eurocentric frameworks that reduce Chinese philosophical and cultural traditions to subordinate objects of analysis. This article proposes an alternative model grounded in intercultural philosophy and the Filosofías del Sur, arguing that China should be approached not as a distant object of representation, but as an epistemic interlocutor capable of transforming philosophical education. The article develops this argument through the recovery of the República del Reino de la China, included in the 1595 edition of Repúblicas del Mundo, as a key example of early intercultural mediation from the European South. …

Intercultural Questioning: Teaching Report On A Question-Oriented Pedagogy In Teaching Chinese Philosophy, Sai Hang Kwok

Comparative Philosophy

Language and cultural barriers pose major obstacles to teaching Chinese philosophy to Western philosophy students. Without a cultural and linguistic background, students often struggle to read the original Chinese philosophical texts. Translation also involves issues of interpretation that are difficult to be settled in undergraduate-level courses. To address this situation, this paper introduces a question-oriented pedagogy called “intercultural questioning”. Instead of aiming at a comprehensive understanding of the entire Chinese philosophical tradition, the question-oriented pedagogy reveals the implicit assumptions in one’s conceptual frameworks and unexamined questions in Western philosophy through the East-West dialogue. Students can obtain philosophical insights from Chinese …

Why Minds Need Bodies: Organismic Unity And Limits Of Artificial Consciousness, Renée Snow

Comparative Philosophy

This paper argues that functional organization alone is not sufficient for phenomenal consciousness or the existence of a unified subject of experience. While many contemporary accounts of artificial consciousness assume that replicating the causal or computational structure of the brain would be sufficient for subjective experience, this paper identifies a deeper constraint: consciousness depends on organismic unity. The argument proceeds through a triangulation of conceptual, empirical, and metaphysical considerations. First, Zuboff’s thought experiment shows that functional organization can be preserved while the unity of the subject dissolves, suggesting that causal pattern replication alone cannot secure subjectivity. Second, findings from neuroscience …

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

Introduction To Liah Greenfeld’S Scholarship On Nationalism, Civilizations, And Humanity, Zeying Wu

Comparative Civilizations Review

This introduction to the special issue of Comparative Civilizations Review, dedicated to the late Professor Liah Greenfeld, summarizes her original approach to the study of nationalism, civilization, and humanity. It describes her groundbreaking contributions across multiple disciplines ⎯ including sociology, political science, anthropology, economic history, and psychiatry ⎯ and introduces Greenfeld’s comparative civilizations project, an ambitious endeavor to which she dedicated her final years. The introduction concludes by examining examples of her influence on the work of scholars around the world featured in this special issue and how her intellectual legacy provides vital frameworks for understanding the world in …

Temporal Legitimacy And Civilizational Logic: A Sociological Perspective On The Foundational Principles Of Chinese Civilization, Yuk Man Cheung

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article departs from the recent social-scientific analytical framework for comparative civilizations proposed by the sociologist Liah Greenfeld (2024a, 2024b, 2025) and puts forward several basic conjectures regarding the analysis of the characteristics of Chinese civilization, with the aim of assisting our understanding, execution, and integration of empirical studies. Precisely because these are conjectures, they differ from conventional academic research–especially the case-study-oriented research style dominant in contemporary Anglophone academia. Accordingly, this article can only be regarded as an attempt that, starting from sociological theory, offers preliminary conjectures and tentatively constructs a theoretical framework within which specialists from different fields may …

The Concept Of A ‘State-Civilization’ In Russia: The Contest For National Dignity In The Form Of A Civilizational Analysis, Ivan Nokhrin

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article examines the contemporary Russian concept of the “state-civilization” as articulated in official discourse, educational materials, and nationalist thought. It argues that the notion of Russian civilization functions primarily as a symbol of national dignity and exceptionalism rather than an analytically coherent concept. Through analyzing narratives surrounding traditional values, state-centrism, family, and patriotism, the study demonstrates that these themes largely reproduce longstanding patterns of Russian nationalism and its opposition to the West. Drawing on Greenfeld’s theory of civilization, the article contends that Russia is best understood as part of the broader monotheistic civilization rather than a distinct civilization of …

The Family As A Mechanism Of Civilizational Continuity: Absorption, Localization, And Rejection Of Modern Values In The Indic Case, Monika Monika

Comparative Civilizations Review

Contrary to the common view that the family socializes the individual into a given culture, this paper insists that the family performs a far more profound, indeed, a constitutive function. It is not simply the first school of civilizational values; it is the primary institutional site through which a civilization reproduces its symbolic order and, in so doing, acts as the gatekeeper of civilizational continuity and change. It is here that a civilization’s foundational principles are first internalized; and it is here, too, that modern values, or new norms thrust upon it by encounters with alien civilizations ⎯ are first …

Liah Greenfeld And Civilizational Dialogue: For Continuing A Legacy, Manindra Nath Thakur

Comparative Civilizations Review

One fine morning, I dropped into my room at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Monika took an appointment to meet and discuss her project. I was curious to know about her work and wanted to see if there was anything to learn from it. Within no time, I discovered that she was influenced by a professor and that we had many common concerns. I listened carefully and was convinced by her impression. We decided to initiate a conversation. Suddenly, a few months later, she informed me about Liah Greenfeld’s sad demise. Our conversation could not take off.

Unconventionality In Liah Greenfeld's Thought, Francesco Duina

Comparative Civilizations Review

As certainly all of her readers recognize and many of the contributions to this special issue will point out, Liah Greenfeld’s writings covered an almost unparalleled breadth of themes and empirical levels ⎯ from the very macro to the very micro. Hence, she produced seminal contributions to the study of empires, globalization, states in history, nationalism, economic systems, the arts, religions, groups and organizations, terrorism, animals and humans, the social sciences, science in general, mental illnesses, and the mind. Most recently, she had turned her attention to civilizations (Greenfeld, 2016, 2025). The rigor of her writing was equally impressive: it …

Listening, Stepping, Screaming: Feminist Interpretations Of Yoko Ono’S Art, Cordelia Lavender Mcphie

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Long before she spent her time promoting peace through music and her infamous bed-in honeymoon, Yoko Ono was breaking traditional conventions of art by creating and performing her pieces of instruction: art that requires a participating audience in order for it to be made. At the beginning of the 1960s, early in Ono’s art career and before her association with the Beatles, she was participating in new kinds of conceptual and communal art processes within (and without) the Fluxus art movement.1 She is not a solo artist in the traditional sense, because her artwork is unable to be fully realized …

The Legend Of The Bear Lake Monster, Melissa Anderson Asay

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Bear Lake Monster is a legend that has persisted for centuries. This monster is rooted in Shoshone oral traditions and hold the potential to be based off of fossils found in the Shoshone territory. This living legend was later amplified by Mormon settlers. One settler in particular, Joseph C. Rich, played a significant role in shaping its narrative. Though he eventually admitted to fabricating sightings to encourage settlement, belief in the creature remains alive today. The serpent’s presence in local lore has undeniably influenced the Bear Lake region, shaping both its identity and tourism industry. This legend serves as …

Land And Language At St. Joseph’S Indian Industrial School And Beyond, Ciera R. Tucker

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the impacts of the Indian boarding school era on Menominee people through using St. Joseph’s Indian Industrial School in Keshena, Wisconsin, as a focal point of study. Through analyzing the social and political contexts of the school, oral texts from St. Joseph’s survivors, and contemporary popular culture texts, this thesis examines the intergenerational impacts of the boarding school era on Menominee people and Indigenous people in general. I employ Indigenous methodologies from Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Anishinaabe), Kathleen Absolon (Anishinaabe), and Shawn Wilson (Cree) to ground my approach to research and engagement with survivor testimonies. Further, I draw …

Measuring Administrative Hiring Confidence Of Music Teachers In The Context Of Shallow Hiring Pools, Aaron M. Strum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and measure the confidence of K-12 administrators in hiring music faculty. This study also aimed to analyze administrators’ perspectives and confidence in key stages of the hiring process, including defining job expectations, posting, advertising, interviewing, and selecting highly specialized music teachers in K-12 settings. Confidence of K-12 administrators can be gauged through their understanding of how well an applicant aligns with the specific needs of the school’s program. Three research questions guided this investigation: (1a) How confident are K-12 administrators in their understanding of music teaching pedagogy when interviewing music teacher candidates …

Genocide As Patriotic Duty: The Outcomes Of Ultranationalism And Dehumanization From World War Ii Genocide Orchestrators, Corie R. Blais

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The thesis provides a contribution to the field of history how nationalism

often transforms individuals during wartime to become dehumanizing

ultranationalists through patriotism and its connection to genocide.  Also, it gives

insight into the many ways that genocide orchestrators during World War II,

relied on propaganda of racism, religion, and “othering” in order to justify their

incentives to expand territories and dehumanize victims through medical

experimentations and sexual violence.  While research materials in the context of

Nazi Germany were ample, one challenge in my research was finding

documentations on Stalin’s People Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)

police unit which carried …

Professor Greenfeld’S Last Class: Notes For Online Lectures On “The Science Of Humanity,” Delivered To Students And Scholars Primarily From India, July 2025, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The question for this class is: What is humanity?

We all believe we all know what it is, don’t we? After all, there is hardly any subject more important for us, a question on the answer to which other subjects depend — political, social, economic. Answers to questions such as: what are human economic needs and desires; what political structures are optimal for humans; is democracy, for instance, a universal human desire; should politics in every nation be democratic, or, perhaps, authoritarian governments are better; is freedom a natural need, does it make life better, does equality?

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 42: How Accurate Are The Transcriptions Presented At The Alfred Russel Wallace Page Website?, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

A look is taken at the level of accuracy displayed by the transcriptions of Wallace writings offered at the Alfred Russel Wallace Page website, as determined by a ChatGPT analysis.