Digital Commons Network^™

The Voices In Our Heads: Interrogating And Unsettling Internalized Ableism In/For Music Education, Juliet Hess

Visions of Research in Music Education

In this article, I grapple with the internalized ableism I have been navigating upon becoming disabled in 2023. The task of this article is to consider the external forces that shape our ideas about disability with particular attention to socialization processes and larger oppressive systems such as neoliberalism. I specifically consider the messages that different representations, ideologies, and structures communicate to the population at large about disability in order to address why these messages are so often internalized in detrimental ways. Exclusion, I argue, is the societal default for disability and I historicize the different movements that have contributed to …

A Unified Approach: Culturally Responsive Teaching And Afrocentricity In Music Education, James H. Lyle Jr.

Visions of Research in Music Education

I

In contemporary society, students from ethnically diverse backgrounds are frequently confronted with racial barriers and disenfranchisement even in music education. To provide these students with the best environment for learning, researchers suggest that it is imperative that educators ensure an all-inclusive and impartial education system for these learners. Students of the African diaspora and students of color frequently experience societal injustices and harm in the U.S. education system, thereby resulting in discrepancies in academic accomplishments. This literature review critically evaluates the methods, approaches, and pedagogical practices of music educators and theorists, aiming to specify how teacher training programs can …

Author Biographies, Obsculta Editors

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

"They Will Put You Out Of The Synagogues”: An Exegesis Of John 16:1-4a And Its Application To The Persecuted Christians In Northern Nigeria, Chiemeka Iwuagwu

Obsculta

This paper offers an exegesis of John 16:1-4a, a pivotal passage in Jesus' Farewell Discourse that warns the disciples of impending persecution, including expulsion from synagogues. Situating the text within the historical and literary context of the Johannine community, it explores how this forewarning reframes suffering as an integral aspect of faithful witness rather than divine abandonment. Drawing on key scholarly works, the analysis engages literary structure, historical reconstruction of community experiences, and theological motifs such as dualism and Christology. The paper then applies these insights to the plight of Christians in northern Nigeria, a region marked by violent persecution, …

Developing Robust Human Formation For Ministerial Training, Mary L. Parks

Obsculta

The Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis recognizes that effective ministerial formation is holistic, attending to all aspects of a minister’s being. The document therefore outlines four pillars of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. In Co-Workers In the Vineyard of the Lord, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) extends the same four pillars of formation to the development of lay ecclesial ministers. The USCCB also applies these pillars to diaconal formation in The National Directory for the Formation, Ministry, and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States of America.

The Incomprehensible God Who Wants To Reveal: Exodus 40 And Sirach 24, Gilbert Perez

Obsculta

God's transcendence above everything is present in many theological traditions, who recognize and answer in a diverse number of ways the question of how to approach the incomprehensible. Using the Historical Critical Method of exegesis with examples from the works of the recently deceased Walter Brueggemann, two completely different contexts in the Old Testament: Exodus 40 and Sirach 24, are presented to show how scripture itself often responded to the question of how God is made comprehensible.

I Cry At Night Before You: Theologies Of Depression In The Psalms, Travis Spillum Osb

Obsculta

This work looks to the Psalms to discover theologies that resonate with experiences of depression. If one struggling with depression feels as if God is angry with them, that their condition is oppressing them, that loved ones have abandoned them, or that God's love for them is wavering, they can utilize the psalmist's words to voice their feelings and express their anguish in prayer to a God who is seemingly deaf to their groaning.

Assessing The Needs Of A Church’S Older Adults To Promote Their Flourishing, Royston Terrell Booker Iii

DMin Project Theses

The purpose of this project was to lay the groundwork for creating a holistic Senior Adult Ministry to support the flourishing of older adults through the activities of God’s people, the church. This approach to help older adults’ well-being is best accomplished through holistic support to enhance well-being, but many churches have not considered a holistic approach or developed a supportive capability. To create a holistic Senior Adult Ministry, I assessed the needs of senior adults in the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ (BHCC) in Nashville, Tennessee, within the United States. The findings and conclusions of this dissertation provide a …

Human Freedom And God’S Image In Undocumented People, An Nguyen

Obsculta

This article explores the relationship of human freedom in the theological perspective and undocumented immigrants in the United States: how immigrants embody the divine image, Imago Dei, despite legal and social constraints. I will begin with the theological foundation—freedom as a distinguishing characteristic of God’s image in humanity—and analyze the complex nature of freedom as both a divine gift and a human responsibility. Additionally, I will demonstrate that the Church has a special responsibility to recognize and affirm the inherent dignity of undocumented people by drawing from Catholic social teaching, migration studies, and theological anthropology, ultimately calling for pastoral practices …

Reading Echoes Of Homer In Plato: Finding Philosophical Insights By Reading Plato's Dialogues As Poiēsis, Stephen R. Lasse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reading Echoes of Homer in Plato: Assessing the legitimacy of the macro-level thesis that approaching Plato from the poetic tradition starting with Homer generates philosophical insights not available when reading his dialogues as the first installments in the Western tradition of philosophy. It begins by identifying equivocal nuances in the dramatic content of Plato’s dialogues that are left unexplored by the current standard approach that attributes a progressive developmentalist approach to Plato’s authorial intent before suggesting an alternative unitarian approach to Plato as an author who maintains an unchanged point of view throughout his corpus of work. It then identifies …

An Analysis Of Teacher Quality And Primary School Students’ Learning Achievements In Cambodia, Sreymech Hoeun

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

The relationship between teacher quality and student learning achievement remains complex and somewhat inconsistent across the literature. For example, Roorda et al. found that the association between teacher–student relationship quality and student achievement was positive in most studies, but negative in others. Similarly, Yang and Kaiser reported that teaching quality showed significantly positive, non-significant, and even significantly negative relationships with student learning outcomes. In the Cambodian context, Chhin and Tabata examined the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement and found that teacher economic status, job satisfaction, and teaching experience significantly influenced student learning outcomes; however, these variables explained only …

Optimizing Human Capital In Ai-Enabled Architectures: A Systems Constraint And Capability Analysis, Jeremy A. Schlegel, Jennifer Daffinee

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

Artificial intelligence (AI) comprises not only models, but full socio-technical systems involving data pipelines, instrumentation, human-machine interfaces, deployment architectures, and organizational processes for design, monitoring, and evaluation. Using a systems-oriented analytical framework, this paper argues that despite accelerating advances in AI capabilities, human capital remains the enduring and dominant system constraint. Human interfaces define throughput limits in areas such as prompt engineering, data-stream curation, adjudication of model outputs, and the orchestration of hybrid automation workflows including robotics, scraping, and digitization. Synthesizing emerging research across human-AI interaction, machine-learning lifecycle management, organizational adoption, and adult learning theory, we present a socio-technical evaluation …

Branding, Catalogs, And Institutional Identity: The Libraries Of Edfu And Alexandria In Historical Perspective, Patrick Roughen

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article examines library catalogs as brand artifacts in the context of two ancient libraries: the Library of Alexandria and the library of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Egypt. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital and brand theory, this research argues that the catalogs of these two institutions functioned as early branding instruments. The Pinakes, the catalog of the Library of Alexandria, projected a brand of universal knowledge and intellectual prestige, and the inscribed wall catalog at Edfu reflected a brand focused on sacred authority and the sustaining of cosmic order (Ma'at).  Together, they illustrate two opposing …

Heritage As Performative Sovereignty: Situated Agency And Environmental (In)Equity In The Arkansas Delta, Faisal Mohammed

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the materiality of heritage as a proactive and strategic resource for ensuring survival and reshaping justice in rural places. Set in Phillips County, in the Arkansas Delta, a region where environmental neglect and economic marginalization are visibly apparent in the landscape, this research interrogates how a community responds to environmental crises in a contested landscape using locally driven, art-based initiatives. By centering the Water Story Project in Phillips County, funded by One Nation One Project, a national art-based initiative, I explore a ‘thin institutional ecology’ where the scarcity of regulatory oversight and intermediary civic support has …

Natural Behavior Vs. Subjective Experience In Fish Welfare Assessments, Ronald G. Oldfield

Animal Sentience

Several commentaries on the Oldfield & Bonano (2024) target article proposed that natural behavior should play a larger role in assessing the welfare of fishes in zoos and aquariums. However, the natural-behavior concept of animal welfare has been widely criticized because natural behaviors do not necessarily improve welfare, and unnatural behaviors do not necessarily reduce it. I review the three major concepts of animal welfare — physical health, natural behavior, and affect/feelings — and argue that behavior patterns, whether natural or otherwise, should be evaluated according to their effects on health and subjective experience. Using the affect/feelings concept and the …

Darkstar: A Memoir In Essays, Sophie Hawke Isham

ETDs from 2020-2029

Darkstar: A Memoir in Essays is an essay collection that follows the last four years of my life. These essays vary in length, format, and material. The themes these essays tackle range from heavy subjects like deteriorating mental health from bipolar disorder and grief over the loss of pets and family members, to lighter subjects such as gender expression and identity, and the love surrounding me from friends, family, and relationships. While each essay can stand alone, they are more fleshed out and connected in the context and structure of this thesis. This body of work explores the various ways …

Affect And Identification In Hereditary And Huesera: A Critique Of Neoliberal Motherhood In Post-Horror, Jared M. Lamanati

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the implications of affect and identification in post-horror and the consequences they present for motherhood. Specifically, I argue Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018) and Huesera (Michelle Garza Cervera, 2023) make use of their maternal protagonists to complicate spectatorial identification and critique the cruel attachments of neoliberalism which idealize a heteronormative, homogenous vision of mothering. Following David Church’s postulation of affect, neoliberalism, and the maternal melodrama as central to “post-horror,” I look towards Linda Williams’s and Lauren Berlant’s paradigms of pathos and sentimental politics. While Williams addresses the complicated pains and pleasures of pathetic identification in the maternal melodrama, …

Testing The Impact Of Sexual Minority Stress On Endorsement Of Prospective Behaviors Related To Borderline Personality Disorder Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Queer Adults, E. Elisa Carsten

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual minority individuals face increased risk for numerous forms of psychopathology compared to heterosexual individuals, including borderline personality disorder (BPD). Previous investigation into the causes of these mental health disparities highlights several sexual minority-specific factors that may render sexual minority individuals uniquely vulnerable to meeting criteria for a BPD diagnosis, including chronic exposure to minority stressors, such as sexual orientation-based discrimination and stigmatizing beliefs. Some scholars have argued that the relevance of these minority-specific stressful experiences hampers the utility of a BPD diagnosis among members of this historically marginalized population. The present study experimentally tested the influence of minority stressors …

[2026 Honorable Mention] Impact Of Chicana Rewritings Of La Virgen De Guadalupe And La Malinche, Destiny Villarreal Quintero

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This piece elaborates on the cultural significance of La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche in Mexican/ Chicanx communities and how they impact women's gender roles.

Beyond Commemoration To Reparations: A Media Representation Analysis Of The Elaine Massacre Of 1919, Oyeronke Oyindamola Afolabi

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the evolving public memory of the Elaine Massacre of 1919 through a critical analysis of media representation, commemorative practices, and descendant-led advocacy. Situating the massacre within the broader history of racial violence in the United States, the study argues that its significance extends beyond the events of 1919 to include the long-term processes of historical silencing, narrative distortion, and contested remembrance that have shaped its afterlife. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from memory studies, critical heritage studies, and media discourse analysis, the research employs a qualitative thematic analysis of contemporary media publications from 2018 to 2024. Guided by …

Satellite Of Mu'lysa, Ryan Christopher Miller

Masters Theses

My thesis proposal details the ways in which my early ideas for my novella, Satellite of Mu’lysa, came about amidst a time of personal despair. The early 2012 draft was darker, and emotionally draining, lacking a positive ending. In the course of over a decade of reworks and personal growth, both as a writer and as a person, the story is becoming a metaphorical diary of hope and forgiveness. Many movies, authors, as well as religious and philosophical texts have helped inspire and shape my story over the years, as I’ve revised my plotline and characterizations. Although I have always …

Celtic Catharsis: A Look Into The Emotional Appeal Of Irish Music In The United States, Coralyn M. Kutzner

Masters Theses

This research study investigates the emotional connection and interest in Irish music within the Irish musician community in America. The background for this study includes an in-depth look at the history of Irish and Irish music culture in America, as well as a brief overview of the connection between music and emotions. The study itself was conducted in various locations where there was live Irish music playing. Through the use of personal interviews and an emotional evaluation scale, participants were asked to recount their first encounters with Irish music and the emotional connection they feel because of and while playing …

Recommendations For Advancing Elementary Music Education For Students With Disabilities In Skyline Ridge School District, Dawn Marie Schafer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this applied research study was to provide recommendations to advance music instruction to students with disabilities at sixteen elementary schools in the Skyline Ridge School District (SRSD). The problem was that there was evidence of low musicianship and music participation in students with disabilities in the middle schools in SRSD. The rationale for this study was that students with disabilities may be capable of achieving musicianship as well as any other student. For this reason, music educators must be prepared to set them up for success. The central research question was: How can the elementary music teachers …

The Black American Women, Mental Health, Self-Stigma, And The Church, Sylvia D. Dorsey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of Christian Black American women who underutilize mental health services due to a perceived notion of self-stigma of Christian Black American women seeking mental health services and how the church may play a role. A transformational theory guides this study. In a transformative framework the study focuses on looking at marginalized groups that have power differentials and are viewed as being less important in society and to understand their life experiences. Stigma and self-stigma are the dominating factors that contribute to the underutilization of mental health services …

The Lived Experience Of Black Women With Depression In New Jersey, Ngozi Grace Igwe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of African American Male Baby Boomers Who Engaged In Teletherapy Post-Covid-19, Amber L. Dixon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

"An Unusual Experiment:" The Women Of The Oss, Adaline Mae Brenning

Masters Theses

As the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established America's first centralized intelligence organization under the leadership of Major General William J. Donovan in June 1942. The Office of Strategic Services marked the beginning of an established American intelligence community, but it also served as an entryway for women to join the war effort through intelligence work. Through the study of the recruitment, assessment, and training processes and women serving both domestically and abroad, it is possible to establish a more comprehensive view of the true scope of OSS operations during the war. Additionally, the stories …

In Search Of Whitman's "Real War": Soldier Recreations During The American Civil War, Rebecca C. Felton

Masters Theses

When most people think of the American Civil War, they recall the agonies and ecstasies of combat, envisioning the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the glorious folly of Pickett’s Charge, or the ravages of Sherman’s March to the Sea. What gets left out of the history books is what the common soldier experienced more than anything else: camp life. This study sheds renewed light on what the soldiers of the Union and Confederacy did to pass the time between battles. It focuses specifically on what they did for fun, addressing three categories of recreational activities: sports, music, and literature. It finds …

Don't Force Me To Explain: Rethinking Access Outside Of Compulsory Transparency, Rhea Ienni

Dissertations

My dissertation is concerned with better understanding the barriers disabled people encounter while attempting to procure access both at the institutional level, and in their everyday lives. Within disability and accessibility literature, there are many discourses on what disability is and what access means. However, there are few people who explore the harmful consequences of disabled people being forced to “prove” they are disabled to an ableist world to get their basic needs met, and my dissertation intervenes in this gap. Within current US policy, if a disabled person requires access support at the institutional level, they must provide medical …

The Meaning And Making Of Masculinity In Orthodox Jewry: A Transcendental Phenomenological Inquiry With Orthodox Rabbis, Elan A. Perchik

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe the experiences of Los Angeles Jewish Orthodox rabbis in working with male congregants with respect to their masculine identity, development, roles and responsibilities. The textual framework guiding this study is the gamut of Jewish literature, spanning the Bible, the Prophets and Writings, the Mishnah, Talmud, Midrashic literature, and ancient, medieval and contemporary rabbinic commentaries, as understood through the worldview of the Orthodox Jewish community. Eight Orthodox rabbis in Los Angeles were interviewed toward the aim of discovering the essence of experience for participants. Across the data, four themes emerged: (a) …