Digital Commons Network^™

Editor's Introduction

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Formation Of A Dialect: An Examination Of The History, Characteristics, And Evolutions Of Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish, Lianna Perry Fountain

Dissertations and Theses

Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish (L.A.V.S) or Español Vernacular de Los Àngeles is a non-standard regional dialect of Spanish rooted in the history and culture of Los Angeles Country, California. It is a sub-dialect of Chicano Spanish which has mainly existed in the Southwestern U.S for centuries. It relates to other varieties of U.S Spanish that have been influenced by macro-dialects other than Mexican Spanish. Like other forms of U.S Spanish, L.A.V.S has long been considered an imperfect manner of speaking or poorly formed Spanish instead of a dialect due to language contact with English. However, new dialects and languages are …

Systematic Literature Review On Parental Involvement In Digital Education, Dóra Szabó, Krisztina Győri, Panna Lajos, Gabriella Pusztai

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Today it is generally known that digital tools suitable for enriching education can benefit and hinder teaching-learning. To understand the reasons behind students’ behavior, one must take an ecological approach to digital education. It would be misleading to think that only teachers experience difficulties; Digital education raises many questions and is the subject of constant debate, to which the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed significantly. In our systematic literature review, using the PRISMA model, we aimed to explore parental techniques and the degree of parental efficiency revealed by the literature on the digital education of children in families. After the multi-step …

The Role Of New Media Literacy In Shaping Online Learning Satisfaction: Evidence From Egyptian Universities, Abdelmohsen Hamed Okela

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The pervasive adoption of online learning in educational systems worldwide has resulted in delivering this learning to digital natives, today’s university students. In this context, it is crucial to acknowledge the significance of students’ satisfaction in determining the success or failure of online learning. This study examines the impact of the four New Media Literacy (NML) dimensions on students’ satisfaction with online learning (SOL). A total of 640 university students from four universities in Egypt were included in the data collection process. The findings derived from structural equation modelling revealed that the four dimensions of (NML), namely functional consumption, critical …

What Kinds Of Personal Data Do Primary School Pupils Share With Whom? Children’S View Of Personal Data And Its Implications For Teaching About Privacy, Martin Hermida, Raffael Meier, Iwan Schrackmann, Nina Imlig-Iten, Eva Marinus

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Safeguarding personal digital data is crucial and requires appropriate training. However, privacy remains a novel topic, leaving teachers with limited guidance. This study investigates how elementary school students perceive personal data and assesses pre-service teachers’ accuracy in predicting children’s responses. Employing Nissenbaum’s contextual integrity framework, the outcomes of this research offer a nuanced perspective on privacy, considering different recipients and data types. The study surveyed 94 Grade 3 and Grade 5 students, asking them to indicate with which recipients (no one, parents, best friends, class, all other people) they would share specific information. In addition, 75 pre-service teachers were asked …

Analyzing The Legitimacy, Effectiveness, And Legacy Of The United Nations, Hunter Wade Calley

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the legitimacy and effectiveness of the United Nations since its establishment, while also exploring the shortcomings of its predecessor, the League of Nations. The legitimacy of the United Nations and the role the organization plays in the world of international politics, the flaws of the UN Security Council, and the impact of the Cold War on the legitimacy and processes of the United Nations are especially highlighted throughout this thesis.

The successes and shortcomings of the United Nations are best understood given the historical context of the League of Nations, the organization founded to bring world powers …

The Revival Of Buddhism, Chandrabhan P. Yadav

Popular Media

Book Review: Douglas Ober, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India (Stanford University Press 2023).

Lucien Labbe Finding Aid & Inventory, Spencer Davis, Jacob Albert

Finding Aids

Finding aid describing the Lucien Labbe Collection. Also included is a complete inventory of the newspapers included in the Collection.

African, American, And Southern: The Survivors Of The Clotilda And The Wanderer, Kirsten Chaney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life experiences of first-generation enslaved Africans illegally brought to the United States of America after the passage of the 1808 Act Prohibiting the Importation of Enslaved Persons to the United States of America. The life experiences of those brought to the United States on board ships such as the Clotilda and the Wanderer create a stark contrast to the life experiences of multigenerational enslaved persons. The difference and Americanization can be viewed through the organization of the freedmen towns founded by each group, the education level achieved by the descendants of …

Wars Of Position: The Construction Of An Antifascist Public Sphere In Spain, 1931-1939, Carter David Barnwell

History ETDs

This dissertation explores antifascist culture in Spain during the decade of the 1930s, and the ways in which it was developed and disseminated by a host of intellectuals and activists under the Second Republic from 1931-1939. In considering parliamentary addresses, performative speech acts, election propaganda, public demonstrations, newspaper and journal articles, multi-media art, and photographs, the study demonstrates how political and cultural leaders came to define and understand “antifascism” and what they hoped to achieve by embracing this term. An antifascist culture developed amongst broad elements of the Spanish political left and center under the Second Republic, which came to …

Looking To The Past And Abroad To Enhance U.S. Presidential Debates, Jacob W. Justice, Talya P. Slaw, John Koch

Studies in Debate and Oratory

Presidential debates are a valuable, but flawed, method of educating voters about policy issues and candidates. Growing dissatisfaction with presidential debates, and polling evidence suggesting they are failing to inform audiences, creates exigence to reconsider the format of future debates. In this essay, we propose modifications to the format of United States presidential debates, in the interest of facilitating greater clash and audience education. To improve U.S. presidential debates, we draw upon two sources of inspiration: the history of U.S. presidential debates and international experiences with political debates. We recommend exploration of new debate formats that include (1) a narrow …

Rupert Murdoch: Altruism Inverted, Elizabeth Summerfield

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

American entrepreneur, television producer, media owner and philanthropist, Ted Turner, once described Rupert Murdoch as “the most dangerous man in the world” (Beahm, 1). This is not an unusual judgement. But it is also one which may contribute to sustaining the Murdoch “brand”, his notoriety and appeal to supporters.

This article examines the deep origins of Murdoch’s cynical worldview, and the source of an ambition that drove him from ownership of a small provincial Australian newspaper to global media mogul. What compelled the need to disseminate often dangerously divisive views on as large a stage as possible, while purporting to …

Atrocity Prevention In The Digital Era: Adapting Norms, Laws, And Code To Changes In The Ways Atrocities Are Committed, David J. Simon, Samhitha Josyula, Joshua Lam, Julian D. Melendi

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Emerging digital technologies have changed some of the ways that genocides are planned and executed. This paper examines those differences, calling attention to how changes in the execution of genocide should prompt a shift in the approaches to atrocity prevention. It develops a conceptual framework addressing how atrocity prevention efforts might adapt to new technology within three realms of potential prevention efforts: the ethical (norms), the legal (laws), and the digital (code).

Security Or Vulnerability? The Optics Of Data In The Humanitarian Sphere, Nicole M. Bennett, Hamid Ekbia

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Governments, humanitarian agencies, and non-government organizations increasingly resort to data-driven techniques to meet the challenges they face in dealing with growing mobile populations such as refugees. Such techniques originate in bureaucratic administrations of the 19th century and, even earlier, in slave trade and plantation accounting methods. They were then perfected in logistics and global supply chain management of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially with the advent of information technology. We examine the application of these techniques in humanitarian cases, seeking to contextualize them within the framework of logistic security. To understand the drivers of this trend, we introduce the …

Pol 241 Globalization Syllabus, Jeannette Graulau

Open Educational Resources

The syllabus offers meaningful, open-access academic texts, art expositions, interactive maps, timelines and conferences that introduce students to the study of the 16th-century birth of globalization. This was a period in which for the first time after A.D. 1492, trade connected Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, creating dynamic and enduring change everywhere. The Columbian Exchange took off and Spain became a global superpower. Europe spread 'Western civilization' to the rest of the world, carrying xenophobia, wars, and economic exploitation everywhere it went. Military conquests and crusading campaigns against aboriginal peoples of the Americas and religious and ethnic minorities gave …

Observing Cairene Narratives And Subjectivities Towards Covid-19: Reflections On The First Year Of The Pandemic, Sarra Moneir

Future Journal of Social Science

Theoretical and methodological toolkits already existing in the field of political science and social science in the grand sense have been challenged by the tremendous impacts of waves and movements of social change since 2010 in the Arab Region. While political and social scientists were, and still remain, engaged in unravelling questions of how to apprehend the forms of social movements (re-)born, not just in the Arab world but also through the Occupy movements in the US and Europe, they soon had to redirect their focus on issues of migration and refugees, only to find themselves once again confronted with …

Caitlin Clark And History, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the past several weeks one of the major stories in sport in the United States has been Caitlin Clark’s quest for the all-time scoring title in women’s college basketball. Clark with her high-level skills: shooting, passing, rebounding, and defense were a source of amazement to many, especially those for whom women’s basketball and women’s sport have been of marginal interest.

From “Defilement” To “Modernity”: How Japan's Encounter With The West Brought Beef To The Table, Ying Yi Tan

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The long Tokugawa – Meiji transition (1850s – 1880s) is arguably one of the most profound socio-economic transitions that Japan underwent in its history. This paper uses beef consumption in Japan as a lens to further investigate the players involved in this transition. Historically more eschewed than other types of meat and tightly associated with the notion of the “other,” beef became an embodiment of progress and modernity during the Meiji Period. Through tracing the historical shift in the Japanese perception of beef, this paper argues that the evolution of beef consumption corresponds to the radically shifting attitudes of the …

The Potomac Ploy: George Washington’S Secret Scheme That Shaped The Nation’S Capital, Benjamin A. Savel

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

For over 200 years, historians have glossed over blemishes on George Washington’s reputation, transforming the president into an almost mythological figure of the United States’ national identity. This paper brings into focus one of the more overlooked narratives about the president, revealing that his choice of Washington DC and the Potomac River as the location for the national capital was driven by financial self-interest and not by a prescient vision of future national unity.

Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that Washington knew the Potomac River could not serve as a national waterway; he was well aware of impassible rapids, sudden drops that …

Two Houses Divided? The Parallel Histories Of The Casa De Contratación And The Casa Da Índia, 1500-1580, Gustavo L. Romero

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper seeks to investigate the histories of the Spanish Casa de Contratación and the Portuguese Casa da Índia in relation to one another, identifying possible ways in which each drew inspiration, or imitated the other during the period from 1500 to 1580. Though there is existing research into the individual Casas, comparative approaches have generally been avoided. This work synthesizes the literature and tracks interactions or trends between the Iberian empires from both an institutional and interpersonal perspective. Through analysis of bureaucratic charters, letters, and other documents, it outlines the time periods, possible reasons, and results of this …

Poles And Puerto Ricans: Immigration And Assimilation In The Pioneer Valley, Gabriel S. Proia

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper attempts to explain why Polish immigrant farmers who came to the Pioneer Valley around the turn of the century assimilated more fully into the dominant culture and achieved on average greater economic success than Puerto Rican immigrant farmers who engaged in similar work in the same region roughly fifty years later. I begin by reviewing American Studies literature on assimilation dynamics to develop a framework for qualitatively evaluating how both groups changed over time. The evaluation is thereafter based on local newspaper articles and secondary ethnographic and historical literature from throughout the twentieth century, as well as interviews …

“Students Find Corporate Reforms Absurd”: Bryn Mawr Student’S Mobilization For Divestment From Apartheid South Africa, Madeline Rose Kessler

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

In 1986, Bryn Mawr College’s endowment held $8 million or 8.33% of its $96 million endowment in investments tied to Apartheid in South Africa. In line with other major US institutions who believed they must act moral in the face of violent and exploitative system of racial discrimination, the Board of Trustees, the governing body that oversees college operations and finances, proposed a plan in 1985 to divest from subsidiaries of their stock in South Africa if Apartheid was still in place 24 months later in 1987. This came at the tail end of the international movement to oppose and …

Land, Labor, And The Railroad In Industrial Appalachia: How The Baltimore And Ohio Railroad Engineered Space, 1843-1872, Lillian R. K. M. Austin

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

During the nineteenth century, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad reshaped the social, political, and physical environment of the mid-Atlantic around the needs of the industrial economy. The creation of industrial space, and the proliferation of communities to populate it, is seen retrospectively as an inevitable consequence of technological innovation, but engaging with contemporary corporate records reveals that this space, like the railroad, was engineered. In order to design a supply chain that would make industrialization economical, the railroad and coal industries engaged in political and social engineering to design the new locales of industrialism, exemplified in the Allegheny Mountains by …

Benjamin Lewis Interviewed By Juliann Mackiewicz, Benjamin Lewis, Juliann Mackiewicz, Stephanie Opperman

Collecting the Past

Juliann Mackiewicz interviews Benjamin Lewis, an active Milledgeville community member, about growing up as a young man during segregation and his family's connection to Milledgeville.

Listen to the podcast version here:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/fjXhZ6P6dkc

Spotify

To be posted

Rebecca "Becky" Brock Interviewed By Charlotte Aexel, Rebecca "Becky" Brock, Charlotte Aexel, Stephanie Opperman

Collecting the Past

Charlotte Aexel interviews Becky Brock about being the first in her family to attend college and what Georgia State College for Women was like in 1965.

Listen to the podcast version here:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/XgFDYm092tU

Spotify

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/By5r78iRgMb

Podcasts Reclaim Literature By Women: A Comparative Study, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

This presentation samples some prominent podcasts which highlight my longtime academic specialty, literature by women. At least three podcasts on Individual writers, Emily Dickinson, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Elizabeth Robins receive attention. At least two podcast series that examine collections of women writers deserve acknowledgment. These are: Lost Ladies of Lit hosted by Amy Helmes and Kim Askew in Los Angeles and one sponsored by Women's Fiction Writers Association, the Debut Author Podcast hosted by novelist Maggie Smith, "Hear Us Roar." I am interested in not only the content and how it is presented, but the ease of use and reach …

Recollections Of Old Friends: A Historical Account Of Rhode Island African American Community And Anti-Slavery Society Leaders In The Affairs Of The Dorr Rebellion, Caleb T. Horton

Dorr Scholarship

This article by Caleb Troy Horton accounts Frederick Douglass’s work with abolitionist allies and Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society leaders during the affairs of the Dorr Rebellion—with a particular focus on petitioning the People’s Convention in the autumn of 1841 to allow Black male participation in their referendum and to exclude a white-only clause in the new Rhode Island State Constitution (a.k.a. the People’s Constitution).

Mary Carpenter Interviewed By Charlotte Aexel, Mary Carpenter, Charlotte Aexel, Stephanie Opperman

Collecting the Past

Charlotte Aexel interviews Mary Carpenter, author of Flannery O’Connor: A Girl Who Knew Her Own Mind, on discovering O’Connor and the impact of Milledgeville on her life.

Listen to the podcast version here:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/Qc_iNAdUDNs

Spotify

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/R5UTAVATwNb

Breaking Silence: The Historiography Of The Bear River Massacre, Logan C. Romney

GLI MA in American History Student Works

This paper explores the historiography of the Bear River Massacre, analyzing its progression from historical silence and mischaracterization to recognition and nuanced interpretation. By addressing biases, evolving narratives, and modern efforts to commemorate the tragedy, this paper underscores the importance of preserving this complex and overlooked chapter of American history.

Using Oral History To Explore The Migration Experience A Series Of Activities For Eng103: The Research Paper, Demetrios Kapetanakos

Open Educational Resources

This paper describes how I will implement an oral history component into my "ENG103: The Research Paper" course.