Digital Commons Network^™

Finding Luis: A Creative Nonfiction Account Of Law & Society, Jason M. Leggett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay explores the contradictions in legal theory and human experience through creative nonfiction. Its main purpose is to argue that a truly just society requires acknowledging the profound influence of individual narratives on the law. This is supported by blending personal narratives, critical analysis, and philosophical inquiry to reveal the gap between codified law and lived realities for marginalized individuals. This unique Legal Poetics methodology employs a series of six vignettes, such as the author's and Luis's shared experiences with traumatic brain injury and the denial of justice, as data. By integrating autoethnography, law as narrative, and performativity theories, …

Sometimes I Picture You Dreaming: How American Female Directors Use Women-In-Prison Films As A Pathway For Public Education And Activism In The Era Of Mass Incarceration, Nicolette Natale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the role of female directors in creating media that showcases how prisons perpetuate sexism or gender-based violence. As mass incarceration began to take off in the 1970s, this paper begins with an analysis of Jack Hill’s The Big Doll House (1971), which often served as the model for women-in-prison (WIP) exploitation films. While Hill perpetuated the white and male gaze in The Big Doll House, Stephanie Rothman subverts oppressive gazes in her WIP film, Terminal Island (1973), and demonstrates a concern with the historical gendered realities of prison – moving beyond representations of prison on the …

Right-Wing French Media Coverage Of The Rassemblement National’S 2027 Presidential Candidates, Amelinda Sundari, Myrna Laksman-Huntley

International Review of Humanities Studies

The 2027 French presidential election has become a contest over political legitimacy, and the media play a key role in shaping candidates’ images. Within the right-wing camp, Rassemblement National (RN) presents two potential figures, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. Le Pen faces legal threats that could prevent her candidacy, while Bardella is projected as a successor to represent RN in the contest. Drawing on framing theory Pan & Kosicki (1993) and Critical Discourse Analysis Fairclough (1995), this qualitative study investigates right-wing French media preferences between these two candidates. The analysis examines three articles each from Le Figaro and Le …

Ideologi Di Balik Pidato Kenegaraan Peringatan Masirat Al-Hadraa Ke-49, Muhammad Sidqon Siroj

Multikultura

This study examines the 49th anniversary speech of the Green March (Masirat Al-Hadraa) as an ideological instrument within the political framework of the Kingdom of Morocco. The research reveals that the historical narrative of the Green March is reproduced not merely as collective memory, but as a strategic mechanism to consolidate monarchical legitimacy and assert territorial sovereignty over Western Sahara. Utilizing a qualitative methodology grounded in Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the findings demonstrate that King Mohammed VI’s discourse serves three primary functions: first, reinforcing the monarchy’s historical-religious and institutional authority amidst domestic and regional political pressures; second, …

Sakdiyah Ma’Ruf’S Stand-Up Comedy: Humor And Social Critique In The Digital Age, Fitrizal Rahmadhian, Shuri Mariasih Gietty Tambunan

International Review of Humanities Studies

Stand-up comedy can challenge dominant discourses and dismantle stereotypes. This research focuses on an Indonesian female stand-up comedian, Sakdiyah Ma’ruf. Using textual analysis, the study investigates recorded performances available on YouTube between 2014 and 2025. Sakdiyah addresses critical social issues, including religious fundamentalism, terrorism, sexism, and gender-based violence. The study explores how she constructs her comedic persona through narratives of personal identity and social critique, and how she employs humor to negotiate sensitive topics while remaining acceptable to diverse audiences. Findings reveal that her themes remain consistent across performances, while her humor strategies, including structured narratives, deliberate word choices, and …

Between Stigma And Survival: Life Narratives Of Vietnamese Brides In China, Weikang Pu, Mina Elfira

International Review of Humanities Studies

The phenomenon of cross-border marriages between Vietnamese women and Chinese men is often reduced by mainstream media to simplified stereotypes—depicting them as victims of human trafficking, impoverished women seeking economic escape, or submissive "imported brides." Such depictions obscure the everyday realities through which these women confront and negotiate social stigma in a foreign socio-cultural environment. Drawing on narrative interviews with ten Vietnamese brides living in different regions of China, this study examines how stigma is experienced and negotiated through everyday survival strategies. Using a qualitative narrative approach, this research explores how participants respond to stigma through practices such as economic …

Preserving Cultural Memory And Identity Of Eviction Through Digital Archives: A Case Study Of @Tamansarimelawan Instagram Account, Zulfi Al Hakim, Himawan Pratama, Mochamad Aviandy

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines how the Instagram account @tamansarimelawan plays a significant role in preserving collective memory and the identity of marginalized groups through digital archives. In the context of the Taman Sari urban village community, which resisted land eviction for the construction of row houses in Bandung, this research explores how Instagram as a social media platform contributes to the formation and maintenance of collective memory and community identity. Using content analysis of the @tamansarimelawan account, the study investigates the mechanisms through which social media functions as a digital repository, a medium for fostering a sense of belonging and continuity, …

Queer Perspectives In African Politics And Socialisation, Samuel A. Nuamah

FIRE Fund Bibliographies

The research guide provides a spectrum of department relating to the debate of queer identities. The concept of queer identity has been considered as not of African indigene but a European import. The guide provides different authors and their argument of queer presence and marginalization.

Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Wei Xiqin’S Evolutionary Plan For Modern China, Nianhong Qiu

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

This study examines the thinking, practices, and significance of Wei Xiqin (1882- 1952). Born in Germany and educated in various European countries, Wei was a musician and educator who played an active role in the educational reform of the Republic of China. Wei was equipped with modern European thoughts but held deep reverence for Confucianism and other traditional Chinese classics. Examining this contentious figure in the wake of “Chinese Evolutionism” trend, this study investigates the differences between Wei’s evolution theory and the dominant evolution theory during early 20th-century China. Wei’s evolutionism, which I call a type of “Cyclic Evolution,” implies …

Dwelling In Parallel Worlds: Esoteric And New Age Milieus In The Soviet Period And Afterward, Edited By Birgit Menzel And Anna Tessman: A Review, Alexander John Paul Lutz

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Birgit Menzel and Anna Tessmann, eds. Dwelling in Parallel Worlds: Esoteric and New Age Milieus in the Soviet Period and Afterward. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2025. 320 pp. €34.90 (paperback). ISBN: 978-3-643-91580-1.

"More Boldly I Shall Go:" Jacobites, Hanoverians, And The Fabrication Of Nostalgia, 1745-1766, Jacob Louis Shropshire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigates how Jacobites and Hanoverians constructed competing forms of nostalgia, identity, and political meaning in the decades after the rebellion of 1745. Although the defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden ended any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration, it sparked a cultural struggle in which both supporters and opponents of the Stuarts depicted the Highlander as a symbol of heroic resistance or barbarism. A psychic struggle emerged as a result, and the Highlander became beloved by Jacobites and loathed by Hanoverians. These representations circulated through paintings, engravings, clothing, glassware, newspapers, pamphlets, and verse, which became central …

Science Fiction Cinema And The Technological Sublime: Spectacle And The Infinite From Early Cinema To Digital, David Jackson Dr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines how science fiction cinema constructs and reimagines the technological sublime in the twentieth century: the experience of awe, terror, and admiration provoked by human-made power and scale. Drawing on the philosophical foundations of the sublime in Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant and extending through Leo Marx’s and David E. Nye’s theorization of the technological sublime, I propose an aesthetic mode in which representation inflected with affect translates technological spectacle into examinations of humanity’s role and agency in the face of overwhelming technologized worlds and in some cases, even the universe itself.

Through three distinct historical periods …

Religious And Cultural Dimension Of The "Ringing Cedars Of Russia" Movement In The Context Of Hybrid Warfare, Oleksandr Lukyanenko, Vitaly Dmytrenko, Vita Dmytrenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive religious analysis of the neo-religious movement “The Ringing Cedars of Russia,” based on the works of Vladimir Megre and the image of the prophetess Anastasia. The study covers the ideological and doctrinal foundations of the movement, its socio-cultural practices, the functioning of tribal settlements, as well as mechanisms of influence on individual and collective consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of “Vedrussia”, the sacralization of “Russian space” and the mythologization of Russia’s calling to revive the “primitive civilization of harmony.” The analysis shows that the movement, while declaring ecological and humanistic …

Performing Brazilian Identity: The Cultural Politics Of Carmen Miranda, Nicole M. Pineiro Serrano

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This honors undergraduate thesis examines how Carmen Miranda’s performances shaped Brazilian national identity in both Brazilian cinema and Hollywood in the mid-twentieth century. Through film analysis, historical research, and cultural theory, the study examines Miranda’s public persona and the symbolic significance of the Baiana costume, with respect to Brazil’s Estado Novo regime, and Hollywood’s own depictions of Latin America. Overall, it argues that Miranda’s image functioned as a site of cultural negotiation, where Brazilian cultural expression met Hollywood’s exoticizing portrayals, but the encounter did not always stay as a fixed stereotype. The study also examines the tensions between authenticity, commodification, …

History 102- History Of Modern Europe, Stephen F. Haller Phd

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

¡Salud! Sacrificing The Sacred Sip: A Critical Analysis Of The Impact Of The Spiritual Conquest On Alcohol Traditions In Central México, Elizabeth Vilchis

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

By thoroughly investigating the available primary sources, this thesis will convey the importance of the Mesoamerican inebriating drink pulque in both the ethos and mythos of ancient Nahua society, examining how the ritual use of pulque became problematic in the eyes of the Spaniards, by investigating the cultural and ideological contradictions or double standards that enabled the tensions, struggles, and violence with which the Spanish colonial regime repressed the ritual use of pulque. This thesis compares the Nahua ethos and mythos of pulque to the Christian ethos and mythos of wine, highlighting the parallels perceived by Spaniards in Central México …

The Religious Landscape Of Ukraine During The War: Consolidation Potential And Destructive Imitations, Vadym Dyiak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the transformation of religion’s functional role in the context of the russian-Ukrainian war. The author analyzes how the extreme circumstances of armed conflict catalyze the polarization of Ukraine’s religious landscape, clearly distinguishing between authentic religiosity and its ideological imitations. The main focus is on conceptualizing the differences between churches that serve as a resource for spiritual consolidation and social therapy (the OCU, the UGCC) and religious institutions that are used as instruments of hybrid aggression. To describe the latter phenomenon, the author introduces and adapts Oswald Spengler’s concept of “historical pseudomorphosis.” It is argued that the activities …

The Symbolic Language Of Militarized Orthodoxy In Patriarchal Sermons, Architecture, And Pseudo-Historical Memory, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive cultural and religious analysis of the processes of militarization of religious worldview in modern Russia using the example of public speeches of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as the symbolic space of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the study of the mechanisms of sacralization of war through the integration of historical memory, Orthodox rhetoric and the state ideology of the “Russian world”. The study analyzes the peculiarities of the interpretation of World War II as the sacred foundation of modern Russian …

Against Audiepistemic Injustice: Claiming Deaf Futurity, Pamela R. Conley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation proposes a new theoretical framework: Audiepistemic Injustice (AEI). Expanding upon existing theories of epistemic injustice (EI), I identify AEI as the systemic marginalization and dismissal of deaf ways of knowing. AEI is a multidimensional phenomenon rooted in the nineteenth century, when auditory and linguistic biases became codified across education, law, and literature. This interdisciplinary study interrogates three nineteenth-century literary narratives as primary case studies to examine AEI: (1) Ivan Turgenev’s “Mumu,” (2) Guy de Maupassant’s “The Deaf Mute,” and (3) Abigail Bradley Hyde’s “The Deaf and Dumb Child: A True Narrative.” I synthesize these literary works with legal …

From Chinese Folk Religion To Tridharma: The Trajectory Of Chinese Religion In Indonesia, Refan Aditya

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article explores the trajectory of Chinese folk religion and the institution of klenteng (Chinese temple) within the broader discourse of Chinese religion in Indonesia, spanning from the colonial period to the post-reform era. Employing a historical and anthropological approach, this study examines Chinese religious discourse through Chinese-peranakan publications from the colonial era. It presents contemporary practices of Chinese folk religion and temple life as part of that evolving discourse. Historically and anthropologically, Chinese folk religion has been deeply embedded in the religious life of Chinese communities. However, its resonance has gradually degraded under the dominating religious narratives, particularly due …

Revitalizing St. John Nepomuk Church, Elizabeth Fischer, Hannah King, Hunter Rust, Grace Desjardins, Patrick Clover, Kyle Ater

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Our project focuses on the Czech immigrant community of St. John Nepomuk Church in St. Louis, one of the oldest historically Czech parishes in the United States. To promote awareness of the church’s cultural and historical significance, we are creating a dedicated website, informational pamphlet, and social media presence that highlight its history, architecture, and ongoing role in the community. We are also producing a video tour led by a prominent church member to introduce the site, alongside a testimonial video that preserves a personal perspective on the church’s legacy. Through these efforts, we aim to support cultural preservation and …

Shared Space, Contested Space: Enslaved Women In The Contested Space Ofwhite Texas Baptists, 1840-1860, David Wilkie

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Orthodoxy, Culture And Language: Alaska In Russia’S Religious Diplomacy Of The 21st Century, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the religious factor of the Russian foreign diplomacy in the light of Vladimir Putin’s high-profile visit to Alaska n August 15, 2025. The paper studies a special place of Alaska in the historical imagination of Russian political and church discourse. The status of this particular territory in Russian state worldview – the former “Russian America” – is indicative: it refers to the idea of an unfinished imperial legacy. The research doesn’t touch a main event that included a meeting with US President Donald Trump but an off-schedule meeting with Archbishop Alexei (Trader) …

Towards Inclusive Digital Futures Of Cultural Heritage: Insights From A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Unesco Dialogues, Shiqing Huang, Keng Siau, Xiaoting Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Digital technologies are shaping many aspects of cultural heritage, but very little research has examined the implications of digital transformation. Drawing on concepts from Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis, this research examines the discourse using seven online dialogues (available on the UNESCO website) between 18 professionals who have different backgrounds and cultures to identify social practices related to the digital transformation of cultural heritage. We identify four digital transformation discourse types in professional dialogues: documentation, management, interpretation, and interaction. We also identify seven main groups: memory institutions including libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs), governments, international organizations, art and creative supporters, …

Rise Above!! Second-Wave Post Punk/ Hardcore In Orange County, 1977-1983, Jessie Zepeda

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Post-punk and Hardcore played a pivotal role in creating a youth identity in Orange County that created a stark contrast to the more recognized Republican image of O.C. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. While historians view this era of California for its Republican ties with former presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, we overlook the much more underground, yet important, identity created by many of the adolescents and young adults during this time. Though it is essential to recognize these Republican ties as they play a key role in understanding political dynamics and cultural studies that …

Mountain Communities During A Time Of War: A Case Study Of The Hutsul Region In The Carpathian Mountains Of Ukraine, Pavlo Rybaruk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the ethno-ecological technologies employed by the Hutsul people within the highland agrarian economy of the Carpathian Mountains. Over centuries, the Hutsuls have developed ethno-ecological technologies that maintain ecological integrity while supporting community livelihoods.

The study addresses three primary research questions: What are the most important ethno-ecological technologies of the Hutsul highland economy? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be applied to economic, agricultural, and tourism development in the Hutsul region? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be combined with contemporary approaches to encourage sustainable development in the region?

The research explores the devastating impact of the Russian …

The Edge Of The World: An Examination Of The Wild West In California, 1840-1880, Chloe J. Cushing

Master's Theses

“The Edge of the World” revolves around the history of the Wild West in California through the lens of Richard Maxwell Brown’s Western War of Incorporation theory. Rather than being a mythology sensationalized by Hollywood and literature, for the Golden State, the Wild West was a very real and tangible part of its early-American era, characterized by U.S. imperialism, high murder rates, anti-authoritarianism, and other rampant forms of chaos that affected the state for generations. By examining the conditions and effects of the late Mexican period, the Gold Rush, Confederate sympathizers, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, this thesis highlights the …

Black On Black Sounds: Music, Migration, And The ‘Nu-K Blak’ Identity Formation In Early 21st Century Britain, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Examining literature on the under researched areas of Afrobeats and African migration to Britain, this article identifies significant internal shifts in the ethnic diversity of Black Britain —i.e., from Caribbean (predominantly Jamaican) to West African (Nigerian, Ghanaian) (ONS 2011). Interpreting literature and applying to the British context, it highlights how Afrobeats reshapes Blackness in Britain, particularly the incorporation of desirable Africanness through Afrobeats music. It argues that demographic and musical shifts in Britain result in a renegotiation of the Caribbean and US dominant 20th century Black Britishness — ‘UK Blak’ identity (as identified by Bradley 2013, Gilroy 1993 & Palmer …

Martial Arts Studies: A Commentary On The Exploration Of Consciousness In Modern Martial Arts, James H. Sutton

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The rapid globalization of martial arts has reconditioned how the beliefs, customs, and philosophies of traditionally based systems are interpreted and applied in modern practice. As contemporary scholarship struggles to accommodate the cultural histories, myths, and traditions that permeate the perception of martial arts in modern contexts, the focus of inquiry has shifted towards explaining cultural variations in practice rather than understanding the nature of self-awareness derived from self-practice. Consequently, the deeper meanings of martial arts as pathways to personal and transpersonal awareness are often invalidated in favor of objective and verifiable explications. In short, the role of consciousness is …