Digital Commons Network^™

Sustainability In The Fashion Industry: Two Case Studies Highlighting Consumer Purchasing Actions Related To Brand Sustainability, Allison Zhang

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The rise of competition in the fashion industry has called for companies to differentiate themselves. One way of differentiation that has been seen in recent years is an increase in sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. This paper explores the use of press releases by fashion companies to see if the releases impact the companies’ bottom line. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if sustainability related press releases impact consumers in the United States decision making in purchasing products or supporting certain brands or companies. To conduct this study, yearly and quarterly financial data was collected to find trends …

Reviewing Pesticide Impacts On Frogs To Suggest Management Applications In The Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor, Marc Gorman

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

For years, frog populations have been declining due to a variety of anthropogenic sources, including pesticide use. Pesticides work by inhibiting bodily functions in their target pest species, though they frequently have unintentional impacts on other life forms in an ecosystem. Some researchers have evaluated these effects, but their studies mainly focus on finding an LC50 - a concentration that will kill 50% of their test species sample. However, these LC50 levels are often higher than what would be found in nature, and pesticides have been shown to still impact species at lower concentrations. Thus, this study attempted to summarize …

Pollinator Habitat On The University Of Richmond Campus: Assessing The Success Of Pollinator Meadows In The Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor, Mary Berner

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Globally, many insect pollinator populations are declining in response to anthropogenic harms including habitat loss due to land-use change and urbanization, climate change, increasing pesticide use, invasive species introductions, and increased pathogen transmission. In order to protect these insects, and the benefits they provide through pollination, habitat must be protected. Much of the effort to protect insect pollinator habitat is occurring in urban areas, where pollinators may struggle to find the resources they need to survive. The purpose of this study was to assess the success of three pollinator meadows created within the Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor (Eco-Corridor) on the University …

Oil, Climate Change, And Human Rights: A Case Study Of Norway With Comparative Analysis, Kate Sjovold

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The Arctic region is simultaneously facing profound, negative ecological impacts of climate change and is also subject to expanding oil and gas exploration and extraction. Facing a critical decision involving Arctic oil expansion, Norway is contending with its position as a global leader in the environmental movement and its historic and continued economic reliance on the oil and gas industry. This research contextualizes Norway within the Arctic region, discusses Norway as a petroleum exporting country, and addresses how value and identity play a role in environmental policy creation. Recent human rights-based climate change litigation in Norway, People v. Arctic Oil, …

Brazil, Big Hydro, And A Beautiful Monster: “Green” Energy Generation In The Xingu River Basin, Ian F. Hirons

Student Works

Brazil is quickly becoming an influential actor on the world stage of geopolitics. The nation has achieved global economic and environmental recognition due to the extensive development of its hydrological resources in the form of hydroelectric power plants. As the world’s second greatest generator of hydroelectricity, Brazil has proven a staunch adherence to building dams in the large-scale. Though these dams have brought electricity to millions of people across the country, the socio-ecological toll inflicted by their construction has been devastating to natural biomes and local inhabitants. This article traces Brazil’s proclivity for large-scale hydropower to four motivational categories often …

Synergies Among Environmental Science Research And Monitoring Networks: A Research Agenda, J. A. Jones, Peter M. Groffman, J. Blair, F. W. Davis, H. Dugan, E. E. Euskirchen, S. D. Frey, T. K. Harms, E. Hinckley, M. Kosmala, S. Loberg, S. Malone, K. Novick, S. Record, A. V. Rocha, B. L. Ruddell, E. H. Stanley, C. Sturtevant, A. Thorpe, T. White, W. R. Wieder, L. Zhai, K. Zhu

Advanced Science Research Center

Many research and monitoring networks in recent decades have provided publicly available data documenting environmental and ecological change, but little is known about the status of efforts to synthesize this information across networks. We convened a working group to assess ongoing and potential cross-network synthesis research and outline opportunities and challenges for the future, focusing on the US-based research network (the US Long-Term Ecological Research network, LTER) and monitoring network (the National Ecological Observatory Network, NEON). LTER-NEON cross-network research synergies arise from the potentials for LTER measurements, experiments, models, and observational studies to provide context and mechanisms for interpreting NEON …

Uniformity In Place-Making: How A Focus On Image And Tradition Can Restrict Personal Expression And Repress Queer Identities, Julia Funk

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This study looked at the University of Richmond campus, a campus built in a collegiate gothic style of and comprised of uniform buildings and highly managed landscaping. Specifically, it surveyed queer students at UR to ask about their experiences and feelings being on the UR campus. The survey found that a majority of the 44 surveyed students felt pressure to be or act straight, felt there was a lack of queer visibility on campus, felt most uncomfortable in the settings such as the Business School and Greek Life locations and most comfortable in personal housing. Overall, students liked how the …

What Is Environmental Consciousness? A Thematic Cluster, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay serves as the introduction to this issue of Ecocene (December 2020, volume 1, issue 2).

First two paragraphs:

For its second issue Ecocene welcomed cross-disciplinary contributions on what it means to be environmentally conscious in the world today, what it might have meant in diverse social-environmental pasts, or indeed what it may mean in our shared futures. The ambition of the cluster has been to engage with some key reassessments of the ways in which ecologies, identities, communities, temporalities, heritage, spatiality, risks, or agencies have been rethought in recent years, or in new waves of research, scholarship, theory, …

Rethinking Race In The 21st Century, A New Approach For Future World-Making: Looking Back To Move Forward, Dylan Tarleton

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Color blindness, the end of race, and white privilege are but a few phrases that begin to capture the messy confusion of a zeitgeist that is 21^st century discussions on race. At a time when race is such a necessary topic to delve into, it seems that there is a lack of history injected into the conversation. Race becomes an external motor of history, racism pathological and immovable. An unthinking decision. In other words, race and racism, from the standpoint of an organizer or academic in the 21^st century, becomes near impossible to break down and work against. …

Gentrification And Racial Transformation In One Neighborhood In The City Of Cincinnati During The Great Recession, Evelyn D. Ravuri

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This article examines the process of gentrification and racial transition in one neighborhood in Cincinnati between 2000 and 2016. Madisonville (Tract 55) was defined as a racially integrated middle-class neighborhood in the 1970s. In the early 2000s, substantial private and public investments in the neighborhood initiated the process of gentrification and an in-migration of wealthier (mostly white) residents. This revitalization of Madisonville coincided with the Great Recession of 2008 and with a massive exodus of the middle-class African American population. Median housing values and median rent in Madisonville increased significantly between 2010 and 2016, indicating that cost of living had …

Colonizationism Versus Abolitionism In The Antebellum North: The Anti-Slavery Society Of Hanover College And Indiana Theological Seminary (1836) Versus The Hanover College Officers, Board Of Trustees, And Faculty, J Michael Raley

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In March 1836, nine Hanover College and Indiana Theological Seminary students, almost certainly including Benjamin Franklin Templeton, a former slave enrolled in the seminary, formed an antislavery society. The society’s Preamble and Constitution set forth abolitionist ideals demanding an immediate emancipation of Southern slaves with rights of citizenship and “without expatriation.” Thus they encountered the ire of Hanover’s Presbyterian trustees—colonizationists who believed instead that free blacks and educated slaves, gradually and voluntarily emancipated by their owners, should leave the United States and relocate to Liberia, where they would experience greater opportunity, equality, and justice than was possible here in the …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

100 Years After Suffrage: Just How Far Have Women Come?, Laura Merrifield Wilson

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Women earned the right to vote 100 years ago with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, effectively ending the suffrage movement that had transpired over generations. Their hard-won victory doubled the American electorate and provided women with an essential right of citizenship of which they had long been deprived. Not all women were welcomed at the polling place, though, and the exclusion of women of color, particularly in the Jim Crow South, revealed yet another barrier to eventually be struck down. In the 100 years since women earned their right to vote, they have begun “outvoting” their male counterparts and …

Senior Editor's Note, Kenneth D. Colburn Jr.

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Self-Control Measures And Drug And Alcohol Use Among College Students, Brooke E. Mathna, Jennifer J. Roberts, Marthinus C. Koen

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Research has shown a link between drug and alcohol behaviors and self-control; however, much of the research focuses on only the general theory of crime (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990), without regard to Hirschi’s (2004) self-control theory. The purpose of the current study is to examine three measures of Hirschi’s self-control theory and to understand the link between Hirschi’s self-control theory and drug and alcohol behaviors. This study draws from a sample of undergraduate college students (N = 640) to examine the role of Hirschi’s self-control in the explanation of drug and alcohol behaviors. The current study uses a previous measure …

A Terror To The People: The Evolution Of An Outlaw Gang In The Lower Midwest, Randy Mills

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The details of the heretofore unexamined Reeves Gang may serve as an important case study of violence and lawlessness in the Lower Midwest in the decades following the Civil War. Unlike the “social bandits” such as the Jesse James and Dalton Gangs of the Middle Border region, most outlaw gangs made little attempt to get along with locals. These groups ruled by fear and typically fell afoul of vigilante hangings and shootings— a one-act play, if you will. The Reeves Gang, the focus of this study, would come to be atypical, their tale turning into a three-act play, moving from …

Documenting Current Practices Of Accommodating Linguistic Needs Of Deaf Defendants, Beau Shine

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Deaf defendants are an underexamined population in criminal justice research, and very few studies have examined their involvement in the criminal justice system. In addition, research on accommodating the linguistic needs of deaf defendants is sparse. Failure to accommodate the linguistic needs of deaf defendants presents several concerns, including disparate treatment and violations of ADA-guaranteed rights that may lead to inadmissible evidence, dismissals of cases, and not-guilty verdicts, as well as lawsuits and litigation, all of which create additional strain on an already overburdened system. The current study combines previous research on deaf defendants with the findings of data gathered …

Diabetes Care In An Urban Indigenous American Community: Challenges And Suggestions For The Future, Margaret Pollak

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Indigenous Americans living with type 2 diabetes in urban areas like Chicago face significant challenges to meeting the care recommendations of their medical providers. Based upon mixed-methods research, including both qualitative and quantitative measures, in Chicago’s Indigenous community, I have found that diabetes-care and -prevention challenges faced by individuals in this community include (1) the high financial and time costs of care, (2) lack of recognition of or response to acute symptoms of high glucose levels, (3) prioritization of other life responsibilities, (4) distrust of western medicine, and (5) fatalistic views about diabetes development and prognosis. If we are to …

Reviewers And Referees, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Authors' Biographical Notes, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 23, Full Contents, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Elfrieda Lang: The Difficult Career Path Of A German American Female Indiana Historian, Bruce Bigelow

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Despite not going to high school, a German American woman became a major published history scholar, an assistant editor of the state history journal, and curator of special collections at a prestigious library in an era of patriarchy in the American history profession.

Michael Lewis’S The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds, David Mcclough

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The Undoing Project examines the relationship between two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, whose work altered how we understand the functioning of the mind. In this book, Lewis embarks on a journey to understand and explain psychological research to a popular audience. Lewis is an expert writer who knows what sells books. The Undoing Project is an informative, entertaining, and quick read. Lewis has produced a well-researched book that is accessible to a broad audience.

The Right To Urban Streams: Quantitative Comparisons Of Stakeholder Perceptions In Defining Adaptive Stream Restoration, Chang-Yu Hong, Eun-Sung Chung, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Assuring healthy streams in the urban environment is a major goal for restoration scientists, urban planners, and city practitioners around the globe. In South Korea, many urban stream restoration efforts are designed to provide safe water to society and enhance ecological functions. We examined the extent to which the individual interests and different values of multiple stakeholders were considered in previous decision-making in two urban stream restoration projects. The relevant data on stream restoration were collected through the nominal group technique (NGT) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for the two stream cases of a populated inland area and a …

Odu Researchers Work With Pamunkey Tribe To Address Sea Level Rise On Its Lands, Amy Matzke-Fawcett

News Items

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Green Pond Conglomerate As Building Stone In Morris County, New Jersey, Gregory A. Pope

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Green Pond Conglomerate (GPC) is a maroon colored quartzite with white quartz pebbles, a classic “puddingstone”. GPC derives from a NW-SW-trending sliver of Paleozoic sediments, the “Green Pond Outlier”, surrounded by older metamorphic and igneous rocks of Morris and Passaic Counties. Buildings, retaining walls, field fences, and monuments incorporate the durable and attractive stone, in a distinct geographic area of Morris County. Several instances of structures completely constructed or faced with GPC occur in and around Morristown, limited to affluent houses and one prominent church. In these cases, GPC stones were dressed and faced, a labor-intensive effort. Elsewhere in the …

Advancing Best Practices For Aversion Conditioning (Humane Hazing) To Mitigate Human–Coyote Conflicts In Urban Areas, Lesley Sampson, Lauren Van Patter

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are now recognized as a permanent feature in urban environments across much of North America. Behavioral aversion conditioning, or humane hazing, is increasingly advocated as an effective and compassionate alternative to wildlife management strategies, such as trap and removal. Given a growing public interest in humane hazing, there is a need to synthesize the science regarding methods, outcomes, efficacy, and other relevant considerations to better manage human–coyote conflicts in urban areas. This paper was prepared as an outcome of a workshop held in July 2019 by Coyote Watch Canada (CWC) to synthesize the literature on …

The Quest For Greener Pastures: Evaluating The Livelihoods Impacts Of Providing Vegetation Condition Maps To Pastoralists In Eastern Africa, Elia Machado, Helene Purcell, Andrew M. Simons, Stephanie Swinehart

Publications and Research

The survival of millions of pastoral households in Eastern Africa has become increasingly at risk. Due to mounting socioeconomic and climatic stressors, pastoral households are faced with making migration decisions under increasing uncertainty about resource availability and limited coping strategies. We assess the potential of providing vegetation condition maps to support the migration decision of pastoralists in Ethiopia and Tanzania and the effect of map usage on their herd condition and size. The maps were generated from remotely sensed data using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for vegetation condition and overlain with pastoralists’ preferred grazing areas. …

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Paleontological Resources Management Plan (Public Version), Scott Kottkamp, Vincent L. Santucci, Justin S. Tweet, Jessica De Smet, Ellen Stark

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the basis for establishing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). The fossil remains from the Harrison and Anderson Ranch formations span a short, but important, time period within the Miocene Epoch. AGFO has provided science with an intimate look into North American mammalian evolution …