Digital Commons Network^™

Patriots And Protestant Dissenters: Early Religious Disestablishment In Revolutionary South Carolina, Nathan James Shull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

In 1778, the newly independent government of South Carolina broke with more than a century of precedent and disestablished the Church of England by enacting Article XXXVIII of its State Constitution. This thesis weaves together the interconnected stories of Patriots such as William Tennent, Christopher Gadsden, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Oliver Hart, Richard Furman, and William Henry Drayton, demonstrating how they converged on disestablishment. While the historiography has focused on one or another religious or political group, this thesis asserts that an array of South Carolinians from across the political spectrum coalesced around disestablishment as a pragmatic solution to a variety …

Preserving The Past, Opening The Doors: Digital Accessibility In Archives, Gabrielle Halcomb

Public History Symposium

No abstract provided.

Wesleyan Hall Work Preserves Part Of University's History, The Timesdaily

Documents

Preserving Wesleyan Hall at UNA

An Exploration Of Third Spaces In China, Clare J. Hummer

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Exploring Third Spaces in China in a multimedia format.

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 8, 2026, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes for April 8, 2026.

The Sensationalizing Of Presidential Assassinations In Mass Media Throughout American History, Lindsay E. Smith

Undergraduate Theses

This project explores how mass media has shaped the public response to presidential assassinations across American history. By examining the deaths of Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963), we can trace how evolving media technologies – such as newspapers, yellow journalism, radio broadcasts, and live television coverage – have sensationalized violence, politicized tragedy, and transformed periods of national mourning into mass spectacles. The thesis analyzes reporting methods, narrative framing, and the news industry to show how each has influenced emotional response, political landscapes, and eventual presidential legacy. Ultimately, we find that …

Advancing The Study Of Politics And The Brain: Targets For Research On Neurology And Political Behavior, Glenn W. Rainey Jr.

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

In this paper I argue that advancing research on neurology is creating important opportunities for political scientists to integrate its findings into their research, particularly with regard to the effects of emotional processes on political behavior.  I provide a general background on neural anatomy, genetics, and neurobiological chemicals, and I briefly review techniques of neurological research, the findings that have been developing, and the limitations on the research. I provide an overview of selected key neural anatomy, and neurotransmitters and hormones, that play a role in neurological functions, and particularly in the development and expression of emotions.  I then suggest …

Interview No. 1841, Rubén Casas

Combined Interviews

This interview with El Pasoan Rubén Casas reflects on his childhood both in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, as well as his experiences growing up in Segundo Barrio. Casas describes his early life in Juárez as centered around family, where relatives lived together on his grandmother’s property and spent time together daily. In 1959, when he was around ten or eleven years old, his family moved to El Paso after his mother wanted a different life for the family. The transition was difficult because he struggled to adapt to a new culture, environment, and language. Despite the challenges, he gradually …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Courts Closest To The People: The Battle Between Populism And Democracy In The U.S. District Courts, Shruti Rana

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The U.S. district courts have emerged as a critical site of contested terrain amid the chaos and controversies consuming American law and politics since the start of the second Trump administration. This article examines these frontline courts through the theoretical lens of populism, arguing that they have become a critical institutional flashpoint in the populist assault on constitutional democracy in the United States. As the courts closest to the people, the district courts occupy a unique structural position: They are the fact-finding courts, the most geographically dispersed and professionally diverse tier of the federal judiciary, and often the first institutional …

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

That Of God In Everyone: The Importance Of Indiana And Ohio Quakers In The Abolition Of Slavery In America, 1787-1865, Ryan P. Dreibelbis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Traditional conceptions of the abolition of slavery in America revolve around notions of the Underground Railroad thriving as a Northern operation, significantly in states such as Indiana and Ohio. While it operated extensively in Northern states, albeit not exclusively, due to the criticality of those states, it is important to understand why it existed in the manner it did in those states. Understanding this requires an analysis of the major proponents of the antislavery movement, the activities abolitionists organized and participated in, the beliefs on which they founded their efforts, the lengths they were willing to go to ensure African …

‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’: The Religious And Political Missions Of The American-Catholic Military Chaplaincy During The Mexican-American War, Daniel Thomas Louis Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The historical community has neglected to deeply analyze the American-Catholic military chaplaincy in the Mexican-American War, 1846-1848. With exceptions, most historians, who have discussed this chaplaincy, have run the spectrum of dedicating an entire chapter to a few sentences on it. “‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’” offers a first, in-depth monograph of this chaplaincy. “‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’” argues that the political mission from President James K. Polk to the chaplaincy, which was to help reconcile Americans and Mexicans, did not truly suffer the failure or the mediocrity that certain historians have portrayed it to be. Instead of analyzing the chaplaincy’s …

Cultivating Empathy Through Exhibit Design To Engage Students In The Ai And Handheld Tech Era - Three Case Studies, Angela R. Whitlock

The Primary Source

This article examines how exhibition environments can foster empathy, participation, and meaningful connection among student visitors within an increasingly digital and technologically mediated cultural landscape. Through a comparative multi-site case study, it analyzes three exhibition environments that engage students through immersive design, participatory technology, and interpretive framing: the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; the Ulysses S. Grant exhibit space within Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi; and the in-progress redesign of the Southern Literary Trail exhibit, also located within Mitchell Memorial Library and scheduled for completion within the next year. While each site …

Total Resistance: The Conditions For Non-State Actors In Colonial States, Devin Walker '26

Honor Scholar Theses

If one can pardon the hyperbole, the argument that colonialism was one of the defining eras of human history is one that comes with a notable amount of merit. From the 1600s to the late 1990s and beyond, colonial empires that spanned the globe were engaged in a seemingly endless competition driven by a mixture of desire for resources and an intense battle for prestige on a truly global stage. Countless people were subjugated, exploited, oppressed and exposed to all manner of injustices that have had long lasting effects on their native populations, even into the modern day. However, to …

Manufacturing Collapse: American Power And The Dissolution Of The Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia, Jonah Michael Hillmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This thesis argues that the United States systematically worked to destabilize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and initiate regime change through economic sanctions, propaganda campaigns, funding of political opposition movements, and the facilitation of NATO bombing campaigns. Through an examination of recently declassified U.S. government documents, National Security Council briefings, and diplomatic correspondence, a more complicated reality of U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia emerges. Evidence reveals that the Clinton Administration leveraged the real humanitarian crisis in Kosovo to advance post-Cold War strategic interests, particularly the political and economic unification of Europe under NATO. Organized into three thematic chapters: Militaristic Involvement, Economic …

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 14, April 6, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 60, August 4, 2025 – April 20, 2026

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Opium Of The Masses: An Analysis Of Archeobotanical Research In The City Of Tábor, Czechia And How It Potentially Influenced Forms Of Radical Hussism, Sasha Gladding

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Opium of the Masses performs in depth analysis of the Hussite Wars–a time period lasting from 1419 to 1436, Jan Hus, Hussite factionalism, and archeobotany. This analysis proposes that there are numerous possible contributing factors to the development of the radical Hussite teachings and ways of life. The instability of the Catholic hierarchy and the dissenting teachings of Jan Hus also likely were contributors to the development of the unique sociopolitical and spiritual practices of the radical Hussites. It is also possible that the Hussite factions residing in the Czech (then Bohemian) town of Tábor utilized opium as an entheogen …

Florence S.T.C. Building Starts, Birmingham News

Documents

Student health at Florence State Teachers College to be enhanced with new gymnasium for the school

Media Center Gets New Studio, Name, Timesdaily

Documents

New Media Center and grand opening for the new Communications Building (former Gymnasium) in 1988

Mass Communication Floor Plans, Architect Hill, Howard, & Nix, Muscle Shoals

Documents

Floor Plans for Communication Department at University of North Alabama

Health, Physical Education Program At College Will Be Aided By New Gym And Pool, The Florence Times

Documents

Construction of new Gymnasium and Pool at Florence State Teachers College

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Book Bans In U.S. Prisons: A Legacy Of The Prisoners' Rights Movement, Allison Jansen

Honors Projects

The 1950s-1970s saw an unprecedented spike in organized resistance by American prisoners. This long era of rebellion, along with thousands of judicial appeals, made up the “prisoners’ rights movement”-- a political, legal, and social struggle that challenged the conditions of American incarceration and its penological paradigm. The timeline of the movement is abstract and difficult to measure. Nonetheless, what is certain is that it lost its momentum by the 1980s due to overhauling policy changes that quelled prisoner activism without achieving meaningful progress. This research examines the evolution of prison censorship policies within that paradigm shift and how they sought …

A History Of Dance At The University Of South Carolina: Celebrating A 50-Year Legacy, Olivia Sherman

Senior Theses

Since its founding in 1976, the University of South Carolina’s Dance Program has developed from a small performance initiative into one of the nation’s leading collegiate dance programs. Despite its artistic achievements and community engagement, little scholarly work has traced the program’s evolution or its impact at USC and the broader South Carolina arts community. Existing documentation is largely preserved in departmental archival materials, most notably the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program Archival Binders, which compile decades of newspaper articles, programs, press releases, and commentary that chronicle the program’s first fifty years. This project investigates how the program has evolved in …

We're All Ramblers, Here: American National Identity As Articulated Through The Sounds And Stories Of Bluegrass Music, Greyson M. Sherman

Senior Theses

This creative thesis argues that bluegrass music, through its multicultural origins and its central "Rambler" archetype, articulates a distinctly American negotiation between freedom and rootedness — one that extends far beyond the genre's narrow popular image. Drawing on musicological scholarship and cultural history, the paper first recovers bluegrass's suppressed origins in the convergence of West African, Anglo- Celtic, and broader European traditions, complicating narratives that position the genre as exclusively white and Appalachian. It then introduces the Rambler — the restless, longing figure who haunts bluegrass lyrically and structurally — as both a product of that history and a metaphorical …

Bravery And Bayonets: The Nigerian Regiment And The Battle Of Bweho Chini, September 1917, Paul Cronin

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The First World War in East Africa spanned the entirety of the war, from 1914 to 1918, and by the end of the war nearly all of the personnel on both sides were African. Understanding how the war in East Africa was different geographically and militarily from the western front helps to shed light on the unique experience of the men who fought there. My thesis builds on the thesis of Ibiang O. Ewa, that the Nigerian Regiment was crucial to allied victory in the campaign, in his chapter in Africa and the First World War: Remembrance, Memories, and Representations …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 40. A Comprehensive Bibliography Of Books And Booklets About Alfred Russel Wallace, George Beccaloni, Jasper H. Pol, Charles H. Smith Editor

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

This bibliography presents the most comprehensive listing to date of books and booklets on Alfred Russel Wallace’s life and work, in all languages and editions, while excluding AI-generated works and most print-on-demand titles. It is based on a list compiled in 2023, which was expanded through searches of online catalogues and other resources. Analysis of the 160 works reveals a marked increase in publications since the late twentieth century, substantial linguistic diversity, and the growing use of manuscript sources in scholarly studies, particularly following the online availability of Wallace’s correspondence via EPSILON.

Made In Ireland: A Postcolonial Analysis Of Irish Cultural Revival And Its Impact On Ireland’S International Relations, Emma Boyd

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

This thesis examines the impact of how British colonial rule led to the decline of Irish cultural components, such as Gaelic (Gaeilge), and how postcolonial revival efforts have shaped Ireland’s modern identity and its use of soft power in international relations. Drawing on mobilization and postcolonial theories, this paper defines key concepts, mobilization, remobilization, and postcolonial identity, to provide an analytical foundation. The analysis explores how colonial policies eroded Irish culture and language, intensified by the Great Famine, and how the Irish Diaspora serves as a global network for remobilizing Irish identity abroad. The ongoing conflicts in Northern Ireland will …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 2, Spring 2026, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.