Digital Commons Network^™

Ada News - 06/02/2025, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

The German Defense-Industrial Zeitenwende: Implications For Transatlantic Security, Brett Swaney

INSS Strategic Perspectives

The Zeitenwende, or “watershed moment”—announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2022, days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—outlined a set of policy shifts, including the development of Germany’s first-ever National Security Strategy, that appeared to signal a greater role for Germany in the defense and security of Europe. The German National Security Strategy draws a clear connection between the need for a robust defense-industrial base and the foundation for the capabilities needed to meet North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense and deterrence commitments, support Ukraine, and provide for the recapitalization of allies and partners. To date, however, there has been …

On The Linguistic History Of The Swiss Amish In Indiana, Tobias Frick

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Between 1789 and 1914, about half a million Swiss citizens left their country to find new opportunities abroad.1 By 1880, more than 88,000 Swiss had settled in the United States of America.2 These immigrants carried not only their earthly possessions and their knowledge to the foreign lands, but also brought their Swiss German dialects i.e. their linguistic varieties with them. In most settlements, the Swiss vernaculars were replaced by the majority language of English at some point. The Swiss settlers in New Glarus, Wisconsin, for example, upheld their linguistic variety for several generations before shifting to English.3 An exception is …

From The Ambassador’S Desk, C. Naseer Ahmad

Swiss American Historical Society Review

An ambassador is an official representative appointed by a country’s government to manage diplomatic relations and promote its interests in a foreign nation or international organization. This role is as vital as it is diverse, involving a wide array of responsibilities that go beyond traditional diplomacy. Ambassadors must deftly juggle numerous tasks, all essential to the development and maintenance of peaceful international relationships. They serve not only as representatives of their nation’s government but also as stewards of its interests, charged with boosting economic, cultural, and political ties with their host country.

"Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow": Disneyland, Science, And The Cultural Cold War, Emily Searson

Master's Theses

Disneyland, the popular Anaheim-based theme park in California, opened its doors during heightened Cold War tensions in 1955. In this thesis, I trace the origins of Tomorrowland, one of the five original themed lands in Disneyland that included futuristic rides and attractions to depict Walt Disney’s imagining of the year 1986. I examine Tomorrowland in particular to argue that WED Enterprises (Disneyland, Inc.’s research and development arm) and Disney’s vision of scientific progress aligned with U.S. Cold War policy goals, especially containment. Disney and WED Enterprises meticulously planned Tomorrowland with the help of notable American defense contractors, including the Monsanto …

Balancing Power And Influence: U.S.-Brazil Foreign Relations In The 20th Century, Thais Russo Goncalves

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper explores the intricate dynamics of U.S. foreign policies directed toward Brazil during the 20th century. The paper examines Brazil’s unique role in Latin America as the only country in the region to actively participate in both World Wars, which led to its emergence as a key ally of the United States. This partnership influenced U.S. foreign policy, particularly in economic and military aid, fostering Brazil’s dependency on the U.S. while simultaneously granting it regional significance. The paper acknowledges four schools of thought: exclusion, reactionary, parental, and economic-political, to analyze the motivations and implications of U.S. policies. The exclusion …

Cuny In The News: A History Of Reporting On The Humanities At The City University Of New York, Jacqueline R. Cahill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project compiles newspaper articles concerning humanities at the City University of New York, placing them on a timeline to establish patterns and changes within media reporting and public perception. The archival research of this project explores four distinct eras, grouped around major events in the history of the university: 1961-1971, for the founding of the university and open admissions struggle; 1980-1990, for the response to the ‘70s fiscal crisis and introduction of the Board of Trustees; 2000-2010 for the post-open admissions era and the centralization of CUNY; and 2020-present, for COVID and a new fight for racial equity. Examining …

Land Access As Liberation: A Qualitative Study On Faith, Food, And Farming Of Urban And Rural Black Land Stewards In The United States, Dominique Edwards

Dissertations

Since 1920, Black farmers in the United States have held less than 2% of the nation's farmland, a direct result of race-based discriminatory policies embedded within federal, state, local, and county-level institutions (Daniel, 2013). Structural barriers—ranging from exclusionary lending practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the systematic dispossession of land through legal loopholes, heirs’ property laws, and violent racial terror—have contributed to this staggering decline in Black land ownership (Gilbert et al., 2002). The erosion of Black agrarian landholdings intensified in the latter half of the 20th century, as government programs, civil rights legislation, and technological advancements, …

American Utopia: The Evolution Of David Byrne’S Viewpoint Of America From 1977 To Present, Morgan A. Prince

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

David Byrne is a multimedia artist known primarily as the lead singer and main songwriter for the new wave band Talking Heads. Throughout Byrne’s career he has continually written about America and Americans. This thesis traces his writings about America from the beginning of Talking Heads to his most recent projects. In doing so, the thesis puts forward that Byrne’s opinion on America has changed from one that is centered on the American people to one that is instead focused on American institutions. Additionally, the thesis traces how Byrne’s work has evolved from idealization to realism, as his early work …

Carolyn Parker's Electronic Frequencies, Charnell Chasten Long

Faculty Publications

The chapter illustrates what it meant for Carolyn Beatrice Parker (1917–1966) to be a Black woman physicist in the US during the Jim Crow era. Her father, a physician, and her mother, a teacher, shepherded her into Fisk University, an historically Black college. As a physics major she studied infrared spectroscopy with the Black physicist Elmer Imes, graduating with a BS in 1938. She later attended the University of Michigan, obtaining an MA in physics in 1941. But like many Black women, she spent time before and after graduate school teaching in the K–12 system. In 1943, she became a …

Creating Possibilities: The Ethelind Pope Brown Collection: An Overview Of Who May Have Illustrated America's Oldest Naturalist Paintings, Maksym Dedenko

University Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the Ethelind Pope Brown Collection at the University of South Carolina, a rare assembly of hand-illustrated naturalist artworks depicting an assortment of flora and fauna from the eighteenth century. Despite its artistic and educational value, the creator of the collection remains unidentified. Through close textual and visual analysis, archival research, and comparative stylistic study, this project explores several potential authorship theories while providing background to the necessity of evolving science that facilitated its creation.

American Consumer Culture And Social Media Polarization: Analyzing Twentieth Century Trends And Their Effects On Twenty First Century Politics, Max Lally

University Honors Theses

The emergence of social media as a mainstream communication technology during the early twenty first century has had an outsized impact on the United States' political system. By analyzing trends in American culture and economics beginning in the decades following the end of World War Two, the circumstances that shaped social media during its development can be tied to long term historical changes. Shifts away from traditional models of community and towards rising individualism reshaped communication with both political allies and opponents. Generational shifts in political attitudes have heightened these divisions as well, as younger and liberal perspectives challenge traditional, …

Controlling Corsets: Commerce, Dress Reform, Medicine, And Misogyny In Nineteenth-Century Women's Dress, Emily Klesch

University Honors Theses

In the nineteenth century, women's dress depended on the usage of the corset. Without it, a woman's outfit was uncomfortable to wear and largely impractical. Because of how necessary the garment was to women's clothing, it became the focus of criticism from many different angels, including but not limited to the medical field, dress reform, and businesses which manufactured and sold corsets to consumers. These criticisms, although directed at the corset, were often thinly veiled insults to the female sex, and reflected larger societal fears about women's places in society as women's liberation movements began to gain more traction. It …

Re/Inventing Desire: Asexuality As A Tool For Utopian Intimacies, Amaranta Martinez Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Asexuality became widely known in 2001 when David Jay, launched the Asexuality, Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), however, it’s been just throughout the last decade that it has gained popularity among LGBTQ studies. This thesis explores asexuality beyond its conventional framing as a sexual orientation, positioning it instead as a theoretical framework with the potential to challenge hegemonic understandings of sexuality. It does so by tracing the historical construction of sexual desire through the discipline of sexology, demonstrating how its discourses helped reinforce compulsory sexuality—the expectation that individuals must experience and act upon sexual desire (Emens 2014). Building upon this …

A Symbol For The Masses: Sergei Chakhotin And The Modern Crisis Of Propaganda, Benjamin J. Diehl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an intellectual biography of Sergei Chakhotin, a Russian biologist whose most famous work, The Rape of the Masses (1939), represented an insightful, pioneering analysis of modern propaganda as it arose during Europe’s “Age of Catastrophe” (1914-1945). In this work and others, Chakhotin used the psychological theories of Ivan Pavlov to develop a system of thought that emphasized the scientific possibilities and political inevitability of mass conditioning through propaganda. In addition to Pavlov’s theory, Chakhotin also used other intellectual frameworks, such as Taylorism and microbiology, to buttress his own firsthand experience during World War I, the Russian Revolution, …

War, Wounds, And Strategy: Patient Movement Lessons From The World Wars For Great Power Competition, Phillip R. Jenkins

Faculty Publications

This thesis examines the evolution of the U.S. military's patient movement system during World War I and World War II to evaluate how well it may perform under the conditions of future large-scale combat operations. It asks whether the United States can move, treat, and sustain wounded personnel at the scale and pace required to preserve combat power in a prolonged, high-intensity conflict. Using detailed case studies of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, the analysis focuses on how transportation platforms, organizational structure, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) shaped patient movement under conditions of attrition, disruption, and …

Returning Into The Deep Forest--A Methodological Practice Around Memory, Asianness, And Speech, Yu Ye

Masters Theses

">">The title of this thesis is borrowed from the Tang dynasty poem Deer Enclosure by Wang Wei: “Empty mountain, no one in sight—only the echo of voices. Returning sunlight slips into the deep forest, shining once more on moss.” I feel like my essay is responding to this kind of sensation: light does not shine head-on, but folds back, glancing sideways through dense branches, illuminating what is often overlooked. In that gesture of return—quiet, angled, persistent. This thesis unfolds in three chapters, each following a distinct path—image (Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes), movement (The Rings of Saturn by …

The Stream Of Life, Yitao Yuan

Masters Theses

The repetitive engagement with technological objects erases the depth of emotion by creating habits that bypass embodied and erotic pleasures and lead to a de-sexualized form of technology fetishism. The stimuli produced by machines that humans engage with are not able to convey the strength of intimacy between humans. Such virtual stimuli as the words and images produced and mediated through modern machines continuously shape conscious perception. This thesis book is split into two sections: a theoretical text and a series of images and explanations about my installation practice and process. They both seek to investigate the intersection of human …

For The Time Beings, Tori Hong

Masters Theses

For the Time Beings is a socially engaged installation and artist book exploring the material consequences and future possibilities of sociocultural time theories. Time, in the West, is typically associated with Newtonian linearity, while in the East, time theory relies on Buddhist principles. These epistemologies reinforce hierarchical and patriarchal structures. Centered on Indigenous Asian and Asian American perspectives, For the Time Beings challenges dominant ideologies of existing in time and space.

For nearly a year, I’ve burned handwritten prayers on new and full moons. The ashes of these prayers are incorporated into reverential drawings of chosen ancestors, made with charcoal …

The Silk Butterfly Effect: Japan And The United States 1853-1941, Melodee Birlew

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the rise and fall of the silk industry in both the United States and Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. While silk had been a valuable commodity for millennia for royalty, aristocrats, and the extremely wealthy, the opening of Japan's ports in 1853 soon made silk more accessible to lower classes around the world.

Consequently, Japan's newfound wealth catapulted her status among other rich and powerful nations. Japan's military might, financed in large part by the silk trade and displayed by her victory over Russia in 1905, earned her even more prestige on the …

Archaeological, Pxrf, And Gis Analyses At The Trestle Bridge Site (8ja186), Northwest Florida, Victoria Marie Freitas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Trestle Bridge Site (8JA186), located on an eroding riverbank of the upper Apalachicola River in northwest Florida, represents a significant multi-component precontact site with occupations that date from the Early Woodland (~800 B.C.–A.D. 300) and the Fort Walton periods (A.D. 1000-1500). Previous research has broadly classified the site based on ceramic and lithic assemblages, but a detailed investigation into pottery production and environmental changes over time at the site remains unexplored in the understudied Apalachicola valley region. There also appears to be over a thousand-year gap in occupation at the site, as no Middle or Late Woodland ceramic or …

The Rainbow War: Ballot Measure 9 And The Fight Over Gay Rights In Oregon, Patrick Douglas Lasalle

Dissertations and Theses

On November 3, 1992, Oregonians were asked to vote on Ballot Measure 9, an amendment to Oregon's constitution that would prohibit anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals, prohibit the use of public funds and facilities to "promote" homosexuality, and require schools to actively discourage homosexuality as "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse." In this narrative history, I will explore Measure 9 and the ways in which it divided the state, beginning with its introduction in May 1991. I examine the history and reasoning of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, the Christian Right organization behind the measure, as well as the gay and lesbian community’s …

Considering The Ethics Of Conserving American Art: White Nationalism And The Evolving Meanings Of Nineteenth-Century Genre And Landscape Painting, Evan M. Crocker

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the stylistic and conceptual qualities of American genre and landscape painting from the antebellum period and how these qualities acted in service to establishing white nationalism before the Civil War. The intricate and calculated system of typing in genre painting presented carefully crafted idealizations of quintessential Americans, defined by their whiteness and maleness. Landscape painters of the early- to mid-nineteenth century endowed their compositions with a sense of wondrous opportunity which justified and upheld westward expansion under Manifest Destiny. At the intersection of genre and landscape practices sits plantation paintings—specifically house portraits—in which the plantation serves as …

Editor's Note, Robert Rabe

Journal of 20th Century Media History

Editor's column for Vol. 3, Issue 1

Disability: A Dirty Word? How Language Historically Perpetuates Exclusion And Systemic Oppression, Kelly E. Imm

Graduate Masters Theses

In 1990, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) marked a pivotal moment in the American disability rights movement, which began in the 1960s and sought to secure civil rights for people with disabilities. Despite this monumental achievement, this thesis considers how the language used throughout American history and culture to describe people with disabilities, even within the confines of progressive legislation like the ADA, remains deeply rooted in ableist and oppressive historical attitudes. At the heart of this issue, this thesis demonstrates how the medicalization of disability, which has dominated American culture for centuries, continues to frame …

The Canadian Press Views The 1908 American Presidential Election, Harvey Strum

Journal of 20th Century Media History

"How many people appreciate the tragedy of the defeat of Mr. Bryan," asked the anti-Bryan Toronto World on 5 November 1908. This expression of sympathy for the Great Commoner's defeat by Republican candidate William Howard Taft, represented the opinion of a minority of the Canadian press. Newspapers representing western agrarian progressives, trade unions, militant Protestant nativists, independent reformers, and social reform Liberals regretted Bryan's defeat since he symbolized reform that might creep across the 49th parallel. If Bryan's third defeat did not prompt the majority of Canadian editors to dance in the streets it did prompt them to raise their …

“To Prepare The Mind For Wonder”: Popular Science And Mass Media In The 1920s, Alexander Olson

Journal of 20th Century Media History

This article examines the creation and development of the Science Service, a 1920s initiative aimed at popularizing science through mass media. Founded by biologist William Ritter and newspaper magnate Edward Scripps, the wire service sought to disseminate accurate scientific information to the American public via newspapers, radio, and other popular media. While Scripps favored a commercially viable, accessible style that used entertainment to hook readers, Ritter envisioned science journalism as a tool for democratic education and intellectual empowerment. These conflicting philosophies created lasting tensions within the organization around how to address challenges such as sensationalism, editorial independence, and public skepticism. …

Mother Sarah G. Ferell

African American Funeral Programs

Mother_Sarah_G_Ferell.pdf - Funeral program for Sarah Ferell

The Shared Roots And Divergent Paths Of African American Spirituals And Afro-Caribbean Music, Jana Jones

Masters Theses

The resilient perseverance of African culture manifested itself in the music of the diasporic communities of the transatlantic slave trade. This slave trade led slaves to two main areas: North America and the Caribbean. While there were common roots and shared experience of slavery that influenced similar growing musical traditions of African American and Afro-Caribbean music such as rhythmic and melodic elements, over time, their music evolved along distinct paths due to differing social, political and religious contexts. Through a comparative study of lyrical themes, melodic patterns, rhythmic characteristics and cultural functions, this research traces the influence of the African …

Cultural Heritage Informatics: Past, Present, And Future, Tyler Youngman, Sebastian Modrow, Isaac Meth

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

This paper briefly traces the informational history and contemporary formal establishment of Cultural Heritage Informatics as a distinct domain within IS/LIS, motivated by recent calls for more critical, ethical, and community-oriented interrogations of IS/LIS practices and professional identity. We unpack the conceptual history and disciplinary intellectual geography of cultural heritage and informatics to recount prior interpretations of the field. Next, we articulate a holistic domain-specific informatics model to guide the study of cultural heritage within IS/LIS. We conclude by articulating ethical imperatives and new directions for Cultural Heritage Informatics in research, teaching, and practice.