Digital Commons Network^™

One Family Under Kim:, Jared Johnson

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K. or the state), as one of the most isolated and controlled states in Asia, has since its founding attempted to shape the culture and ideology surrounding the family construct to support the rule of the socialist regime and its leaders, the Eternal President, Kim Il Sung, and his successors. In Korea, like the rest of East Asia, the traditional family unit has been a central societal structure for centuries. Largely based upon Confucianism, the nuclear family—referring generally to the biological family unit of parents and children—has determined not only the lifestyle and livelihood …

Choco Pies, Economic Gains, And The Opening Of North Korea:, Quinci Rasband

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Since the armistice was signed putting a hold on the Korean War (July 27, 1953) and officially created two separate entities, has there ever been a time when North Korea and South Korea—two diametrically opposed countries— worked together towards a common goal? If there really was such a time when North Korea and South Korea collaborated, one can wonder how this was received in the minds of North Koreans and South Koreans. While it is challenging to understand North Korean citizens’ perceptions of events, delving into accessible sources can shed light onto South Korea’s viewpoint of inter-Korean relations. One such …

Silencing The Party, Amplifying The Music:, Brian Lewis

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The 2024 dissolution of the MFP marked a turning point in Thai electoral politics, catalyzing a cultural contest over political expression through music. The court’s decision to dissolve the MFP was perceived as a direct attack on free political discourse, intensifying state-led censorship efforts against musicians who critiqued the establishment. In response, political music became not only a means of protest, but a crucial space for youth to form their political identities and express dissent. This escalation in censorship and the concurrent surge in musical activism cannot be directly attributed to long-standing political trends; rather, they were significantly increased by …

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Colonial Legacy And National Identity:, Nina Harris

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The island of Taiwan occupies an unusual political position in the world today. Taiwan is viewed primarily in relation to its complicated relationship with the People’s Republic of China. While Taiwan considers itself distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically elected leaders, China’s government claims the island is an inalienable part of China and has been for centuries. Taiwan’s history, however, is more complicated and diverse than China allows. Unbeknownst to many, Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, and it was an era of highly significant change for Taiwan. The Japanese occupation was …

The Jevons Filter: Why Civilizations May Fail Before Reaching “Type I” Status, Giray Fidan

Comparative Civilizations Review

Humanity’s accelerating energy use poses profound questions about the long-term viability of technological civilization. This paper introduces the “Jevons Filter” hypothesis: a self-reinforcing feedback loop between efficiency improvements and rising aggregate consumption, rooted in the classical Jevons Paradox that systematically drives civilizations toward resource depletion and environmental thresholds. Here we argue that this feedback constitutes a critical developmental barrier, hindering sustainable progression toward Kardashev “Type I” energy mastery. We develop a simplified thermodynamic model linking energy efficiency, economic expansion, and civilizational dynamics, and engage with counterarguments regarding absolute decoupling and transformative technological innovations. Building on the classical Jevons Paradox, this …

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

“Which Side Are You On?”: The Historical Creation And Political Implications Of An Appalachian White Other, Zoe Davin

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

A Cold War Story: The Emigration Of Soviet Jews 1967-1980, William Bernstein

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Postmodern Frontier: Richard Prince And The Neoliberal Spectacle Of The American Dream, Taïs Khassanova

MA Theses

This thesis examines the oeuvre of Richard Prince’s as a sustained allegory of contemporary American visual culture, beginning with his Cowboys series as the point of origin from which his later appropriations, including Girlfriends, Spiritual America, and New Portraits, unfold. Through the recursive gesture of appropriation, Prince’s Cowboys expose the myth of rugged independence as a corporate fiction, revealing how the frontier ethos was redeployed under the Reagan presidency to naturalize neoliberal ideology. Building on this premise, the thesis traces how such logic extends throughout Prince’s subsequent body of work, as his Girlfriends refigure the cowboy’s masculine autonomy as the …

Cancel Culture: A Battle Of Headlines, Not Meanings, Nataliia Sapyrkina

MA Theses

This work explores the phenomenon of “cancel culture”, with a specific emphasis on the repercussions for Russian art, artists, and cultural institutions following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. The study examines “cancel culture” as a reputational sanctions mechanism functioning across the modern media landscape. By analyzing selected case studies this paper addresses cases of performance cancellations, institutional distancing, the termination of cooperation with donors, and the revision of artwork attributions. Crucially, Russia’s exclusion from the dialogue is driven both by direct legal grounds, namely sanctions, and by indirect technical factors or those arising from the internal structure …

Reclaiming Presence: An Anthropological Study Of Digital Disconnection And Meaning-Making, Leslie De Paz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Human attention is increasingly at risk in an unregulated digital ecosystem where overconsumption shapes neurological function, social interaction, and the ways people make meaning of everyday life. Dominant discourse around digital overuse tends to medicalize the problem, framing it as individual addiction or clinical dysfunction. In this thesis, I argue that such framing obscures what a cultural phenomenon is fundamentally, one in which people are actively questioning their relationship with technology, building awareness, and developing practices that help them slow down and reclaim agency within algorithmically mediated environments. This study draws on 22 semi-structured interviews with Gen Z and millennial …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Shared Words, Divided Worlds: Moral Language And The Struggle For Meaning At The Claremont Colleges During The Vietnam War, 1965-1969, Haley Freeth

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the Vietnam War-era campus conflicts at the Claremont Colleges as a profound struggle over the meaning and ownership of moral and political language. Rather than interpreting antiwar and prowar activism as expressions of fundamentally opposed value systems, this study argues that students and administrators alike engaged in an ongoing contest to define ideals such as democracy, responsibility, and conscience. Through a micro-historical lens, the project analyzes how these contested vocabularies were invoked, reinterpreted, and performed in protests, counter-protests, and administrative policies. Drawing from a wide array of archival sources—including student newspapers, protest ephemera, administrative records, and visual …

The Suppression Of The Opelousas Massacre Of 1868: The Blackleg Hunt Or “La Chasse A’ La Jambe Noire”, August Malveaux

The Griot - Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc.

This article examines the suppression of the 1868 Opelousas Massacre—also known as “la chasse à la jambe noire” or the Blackleg Hunt—and situates it within the broader landscape of Reconstruction-era racial violence in Louisiana. Malveaux argues that the massacre was not an isolated riot but a premeditated act of political terrorism designed to eliminate Black electoral participation and reverse Reconstruction gains. Triggered by Black political mobilization and white supremacist resistance, the violence unfolded over several days in September 1868 and resulted in widespread murder, intimidation, and property destruction. The essay challenges the historiographical minimization of the event, emphasizing how organized …

0897: William A. “Red” Dawson Collection, 1915-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

William Alfred “Red” Dawson, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, led his high school football team to a state championship and played for four years at Florida State University. Dawson briefly played professional football for the Boston Patriots in the AFL and the Orlando Panthers. He was serving as an assistant football coach at Marshall University when a fatal plane crash killed seventy-five players, coaches, staff, and prominent citizens of Huntington. Dawson was essential in restarting the Marshall University football program, serving as acting head coach and coached through the 1971 season. He then began working in the construction industry and …

A Wound Upon The Union: John Quincy Adams And The Treaty Of Indian Springs, Spencer Peacock

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis examines the crisis that developed after US president John Quincy Adams signed, then disavowed (allegedly over moral concerns), the fraudulent 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs with the Creek Indian Nation. The thesis probes Adams' motives during the Treaty of Indian Springs crisis, and seeks to connect the crisis to the evolution of US federal Indian policy in the 1820s, prior to the mass Indian removal of the 1830s.

Thinking Machines: Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence, And Technological Anxiety In The American Cold War, Erin Mae Wilcox

Theses and Dissertations

Following the Second World War, cybernetics emerged as a cross-disciplinary study in philosophy, neurophysiology, electrical engineering, and mathematics. Cyberneticists proposed the formal study of the man-machine analogy; that is, to equate biological structures to a complex mechanical system. Drawing from this analogy, cyberneticists used programmable digital computers to emulate the functions of the human brain. The study of artificial intelligence emerged within this cybernetic discourse in the early 1950s; yet, by the mid-1960s, the two disciplines suffered a methodological fracture. Drawing from a tradition generated by this fracture, historians have traditionally examined cybernetics and artificial intelligence in isolation from one …

Countryside Aflame: Fire As A Hazard In The Rural Philippines, 1850–1950, Greg Bankoff, Marie Beatriz D. Gulinao, David O. Lozada Iii, Mary Donna Grace Cuenca

History Department Faculty Publications

Fire has shaped human evolution, social organisation, and technological development, yet modern fire science remains anchored in categories derived largely from Western experience: wildland fires, the wildland–urban interface, and urban conflagrations. These frameworks obscure a fourth, largely overlooked regime– village fire– rural settlements that lack the structural protections, materials, and services characteristic of urban areas. In the Philippines, where rural settlement dominated into the twentieth century, village fire was the principal way people encountered fire risk. Using evidence from the Historical Data Papers (1951), this study reconstructs a village fire regime marked by highly combustible construction, new technological sources of …

Fashioning The Body Politic: Explorations Of The Political Semiotics Of Fashion In France And England During The French Revolution, Annika F. Gauthier

Scripps Senior Theses

In the midst of the French Revolution, women’s fashion underwent a complete revolution, moving from the multi-layered elaborate gowns of the ancien regime, to light, form-fitting dresses. These gowns reveal the way clothing reflects the political positions of women and the ways the French and the British used clothing to construct national identity and politics. Following research on the political symbolism and role of clothing across France and Britain, this thesis reviews fashion’s overarching connection to politics, revealing its role in the early French Revolution’s conception of women and patriotism, women’s responses to political exclusions, and rival nations’ adaptations of …

The Theological Tradition Of The Orthodox Church In The Aspect Of The Formation Of Military Leadership In Ukraine, Olga Dobrodum, Andrii S. Zborchyi, Tetyana Kondratyuk-Antonova, Oleksandr L. Kolomiiets

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Analysis of the Orthodox theological tradition as a moral foundation for military leadership in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the full-scale war. The study moves beyond pragmatic managerial models, exploring Orthodox categories such as service (diakonia), sacrifice, and spiritual warfare. Drawing on patristic heritage and modern theologians, the authors examine leadership motivation, the role of faith in professional resilience, and the integration of Orthodox anthropology into military training. Special emphasis is placed on the Orthodox Church of Ukraine's chaplaincy as a key mechanism for actualizing these values while addressing challenges like secularism and multiconfessionalism.

“The Irishmen – Immigrants, Soldiers, And The Spark Of Revolutions”, Joshua Hanscheck

History Theses

The Irish, as a people and a revolutionary inspiration, have been the subject of research and discussion for much of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A trope has emerged that the Irish could take over the world, if they were not so busy chasing the bottom of their pub glasses, but the trope – stereotypes about Irish drinking aside – is grounded in some truth. The diaspora encouraged many things: a revival in Gaelic culture, a general disdain among outsiders for the Irish as a people group, and, most importantly, a revolutionary fervor that seemed almost infectious. This fervor …

Bitcoin And The American Conflict Over Money And Property, Jacob Smagula

CMC Senior Theses

I argue that Bitcoin is the latest expression of the recurring American conflict over who controls the terms of money and property, and that the political coalition formed around Bitcoin shares the same characteristics as earlier coalitions formed around this struggle. I review three historical cases that each produced a coalition opposing the existing monetary order: the Bank War of the 1830s, the Free Silver movement of the 1890s, and the populist backlash against the Federal Reserve during the 1979 Farm Crisis and the 2008 Great Recession. I find that Bitcoin’s architecture, which allows for self-custody, permissionless access, and an …

A Pageant Of Spectacles: Chromolithography In America, Matthew H. Edney Phd

Osher Map Library Exhibition Catalogs

Chromolithography was used in the nineteenth century to create full-color and realistic images of the world. A Pageant of Spectacles: Chromolithography in Nineteenth-Century America, an exhibition at the Osher Map Library from November 30th, 2023 - June 29th, 2024, explained the printing process and explored some of its particular applications to maps and bird’s-eye views. This exhibition catalog features the companion article Mapping, Printing, and Color, which explores the history of different printing processes used in mapmaking throughout history, as well as a catalog of the items displayed in the exhibition.

A digital version of exhibition is available …

Between Commodity And Culture: Tea Advertising As A Site Of Imperial Ideology And Anti-Colonial Resistance In India, Sydney Pascal

Honors Theses

Between the late nineteenth century and Indian independence in 1947, tea advertising became a key site through which imperial authority and Indian nationalism were negotiated. Drawing on advertisements, trade journals, and visual marketing campaigns produced from the 1880s through the 1950s, this honors thesis argues that tea advertising was a cultural and political mechanism through which the British Empire attempted to normalize imperial consumption and legitimize colonial authority. British campaigns framed tea as modern and routine while obscuring the exploitative labor systems and landscape transformations that sustained plantation production in Assam. As nationalist movements expanded in the early twentieth century, …

Blood And Belonging: Remembering Massacres Of The American West In The Twentieth Century, Mountain Meadows And Sand Creek, Kenzie Burns

Honors Theses

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marked a turning point in mainstream America’s sense of national identity. A wave of nostalgia for the American Frontier enshrined the region’s idealized nineteenth-century past as myth. A key part of the story is romanticized violence—often depicted through cultural imagery of cowboys, gunfights, and battles with American Indians. This project seeks to understand more about how violence is represented in the cultural memory of the American Western past. Within the past twenty years, scholars of the American West have begun to incorporate the study of memory into their scholarship, frequently with how cultural …

Mykhailo Hrushevsky And The Church, Vitalii Telvak, Ihor Hyrych, Volodymyr Nakonechnyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Abstract

The article examines the place of Christianity in the personal life and creative activity of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. On the basis of a wide range of archival and published sources (memoirs, diary, and correspondence), the spiritual evolution of Hrushevsky as a Christian has been reconstructed – from the rigorous observance of religious duties in his youth to a fairly secular attitude toward the Church in his mature years. Faith in God helped him overcome the spiritual crisis of his youth, caused by the search for his life’s vocation, and to choose the path of serving the people through scholarly work. …

The Canonical-Legal Status Of Autocephaly And Autonomy In The Context Of Pan-Orthodox Dialogue, Ivan Yovchev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Historical procedures for granting autonomy and autocephaly are not strictly standardized in canonical law and often rely on local traditions, agreements, and specific historical-political circumstances. This leads to a diversity of practices – from unilateral tomoses (decrees) of autocephaly issued by the mother church to decisions supported by a broader pan-Orthodox consensus. At the pan-Orthodox level, the question of how new autocephalous and autonomous churches are proclaimed has been under discussion since the Pan-Orthodox preparatory commissions of the 20th–21st centuries. Preparatory documents envisage the need for a pan-Orthodox agreement, with autocephaly to be granted through a tomos signed by the …

The Weaponization Of Religion, Culture, And Politics During The Troubles In Northern Ireland, Erika Holmberg

Undergraduate Symposium

From 1968-1998, Northern Ireland experienced a wave of sectarian violence known as The Troubles. During this period, the fighting between Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups caused countless civilian casualties, economic hardship, and social turmoil. This presentation will explore how each side justified their violent actions through promotion of cultural ideals, religious division, and political manipulation. Both sides of the conflict gained and lost public support based on how they presented each of these issues, and to this day, historians are uncovering their impact.

Finding Aid For The Mississippi Politics Collection (Mum00316)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Artificially created collection on individual Mississippi politicians and the state’s politics in general.