Digital Commons Network^™

Public Preferences For Critical Mineral Mining In The U.S.: Evidence From A Discrete Choice Experiment, Bamidele Ajiga, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Mahelet G. Fikru

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Even though there is widespread recognition that we need to mine more critical minerals for national security and energy needs, concerns about environmental impacts often lead to public opposition to proposed new mining projects. The literature lacks sufficient data from communities with proposed mineral projects to assess drivers of differences in support. This study investigates public preferences for mining projects in three states in the United States with proposed critical minerals projects, using a discrete choice experiment. Respondents evaluated projects that vary in job creation, state tax revenue, tailings reprocessing content, groundwater impacts, and surface water impacts. We also randomly …

Erosion And Accretion: Mobilities Of Sand, People, And Memory At Queer Riis Beach, Jah Elyse Sayers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York, is a vibrant place of queer and trans public-space placemaking—and especially Black and working class queer and trans placemaking. A distinct queer ecology emerges in the interplay of the dynamic movement of the barrier island, queer and trans—especially queer and trans Afro-diasporic—mobilities. This queer ecology, while articulated with, also defies and exceeds logics and workings of private property. In response to a convergence of pressures on Black, queer, trans, and working-class placemaking on the beach site in the 2020s, beachgoers have mobilized longstanding provisional socialities …

What To Expect When You’Re Expecting Passenger Rail: How Central Valley Communities Are Preparing For High-Speed Rail, Josephine K. Hazelton-Bpyle, Naomi Bick

Mineta Transportation Institute

Approved by California voters in 2008, the California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) project is a planned 800-mile rail corridor across California aimed at delivering intercity passenger rail service to the state’s largest metropolitan areas. This was the first voter-approved high-speed rail project in the United States and remains one of its most contentious. The first phase of the project’s construction is currently underway in California’s Central Valley, including many communities that initially opposed CAHSR. While supporters champion increased connectivity and the provision of environmentally sustainable transportation alternatives, critics contend the project’s benefits will not outweigh its environmental costs and economic disruptions. …

The City As Showroom: Singapore And The Rise Of The "Urban Solutions" Industry, Sol Andrew Stokols

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article uses the concept of the “city as showroom” to describe an emergent logic shaping urban development that stems from the growing importance of “urban solutions” as an industry. Focusing primarily on Singapore, the article examines how certain urban districts and high-profile sites are conceptualized as “showrooms” for the infrastructure and urban technologies they aim to export around the world. The idea of the “city as showroom” combines aspects of the curation of a city’s image through showcase districts, as well as “testbed urbanism” seen in certain smart-city projects. Singapore's need to reproduce itself as a model of urban …

Access Denied: Financial Aid Inequalities And The Economic Impact On Daca Students, Teresa D. Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project argues that financial aid policies in the United States create a system of structural inequality that systematically denies Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients’ equitable access to higher education. Drawing on peer-reviewed scholarship, federal policy data, and large-scale survey research, this paper demonstrates how the categorical exclusion from federal financial aid, inconsistent in-state tuition laws, and recurring DACA renewal fees form an interlocking barrier with profound psychological and economic consequences for a population that is deeply integrated into American society. These compounding barriers force students into a framework of constrained rationality, distorting their academic major choices …

Gramsci’S ‘Democratic Philosopher’ And The Concept’S Foundations In Marxian Social Ontology, Eli Recht-Appel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis deals with the term ‘democratic philosopher’ from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. In order to lay the groundwork for my distinct interpretation of the ‘democratic philosopher,’ I begin by providing an overview of Gramsci’s theory of the role of intellectuals in civil and political society. I then argue that the ‘democratic philosopher’ emerges from Gramsci’s typology of intellectuals but is a category which is both temporally and ontologically distinct from his more well-known concept of ‘organic intellectuals.’ ‘Organic intellectuals,’ intellectuals who co-develop alongside their fundamental social group or class, occupy a variety of cultural and political roles in …

Wageless By Design: Dependency In U.S. Visa Regimes, Cristina Ochoa Echeverri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone examines how U.S. dependent visa regimes create a population of migrants who are legally present but structurally excluded from paid work and independent legal status. Focusing on visa categories such as H-4, F-2, M-2, O-3, P-4, R-2, and TD, it argues that wagelessness is not incidental but structurally embedded in the legal design of temporary migration governance through employment restrictions, derivative legal status, and the tethering of dependents to a principal visa holder.

Using a qualitative, interpretive approach, this study draws on documentary and secondary sources as well as digital narratives from platforms such as Reddit. This capstone …

Understanding Formal Financial Access In Indonesia: Evidence From Micro Data, M. Aulia Rachman, Yozi Aulia Rahman, Maulida Dewi Pangestika, Risanda Alirastra Budiantoro

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study examines the determinants of access to formal financial institutions using secondary household survey data from Indonesian Family Life Survey, Wave 5 (IFLS-5). Logistic regression analysis reveals that loan amount, savings, education level, age, housing status, and internet usage are positively and significantly associated with greater access. Individuals with higher savings, higher education, and homeownership exhibit a higher probability of utilizing formal financial services. Although the significance of internet usage varies across models, it remains a strong predictor when properly controlled, particularly due to its role in enhancing digital literacy. In contrast, income and health insurance ownership do not …

Long-Term Mine Planning: A Survey Of Classical, Hybrid And Artificial Intelligence-Based Methods, Nurul Asyikeen Azhar, Aldy Gunawan, Shih-Fen Cheng, Erwin Leonardi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The aim of long-term mine planning (LTMP) is two-fold: to maximize the net present value of profits (NPV) and determine how ores are sequentially processed over the lifetime. This scheduling task is computationally complex as it is rife with variables, constraints, periods, uncertainties, and unique operations. In this paper, we present trends in the literature in the recent decade. One trend is the shift from deterministic toward stochastic problems as they reflect real-world complexities. A complexity of growing concern is also in sustainable mine planning. Another trend is the shift from traditional operational research solutions — relying on exact or …

To Wait Or To Transfer? A Three-Level Optimization Framework For Intermodal Transfer Coordination In First Train Timetabling And Bus Bridging Services Management, Hao Li, Liujiang Kang, Norman Weik, Huijun Sun, Qingying Lai, Zhiguang Cao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This study addresses the integrated optimization of the first train timetabling and bus bridging service design (FTT-BBSD) for morning transfer challenges, two critical but interdependent passenger services in the public transit system. In contrast to most existing studies and conventional approaches, this study explicitly models the influence of passenger path choices and transfer mode selections on FTT-BBSD. Through a novel dual-level network representation that integrates subway and bus systems, we formulate the FTT-BBSD problem as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. The model simultaneously determines subway and bus timetables and bridging line deployment to minimize total travel time for all first …

From Institutions To Families: Assessing The Progress Of Egypt’S National Strategy For Alternative Child Care Reform, Yasmine M. El Hagry

Theses and Dissertations

This study serves as a critical mid-term review of the Egyptian National Strategy for Alternative Care for Children and Youth without Parental Care (NACS) (2021-2030). The 10-year strategy overall goal is to shift from institutional care, such as orphanages, to family-based care, such as kafala, the Islamic alternative to legal adoption, for children deprived of parental care. While the global literature strongly advocates deinstitutionalization, empirical research on the operational risks and unintended harms that can arise during such complex transformations remains scarce.

Adapting the International Civil Service Effectiveness (InCiSE) Framework, this research uses a qualitative approach to diagnose the …

Well-Being, Resilience, And Trauma During Migration: A Mixed Methods Study Of Venezuelan Migrants In Transit, Margaret S. Port

Dissertations

A substantial body of research has examined the psychological impact of experiences preceding and following migration, yet comparatively little attention has been given to the psychological toll of the migration journey itself. Moreover, due to the relative novelty of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and the community’s arrival in the United States, the psychological impact of Venezuelan migrants’ unique migration experience has been underexamined. This study utilized an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to investigate the relationships between well-being, resilience, and trauma among Venezuelan migrants in Chicago, Illinois, while also exploring their lived experiences of the migration journey. Study participants (n …

Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education: A Snapshot In Time Of Faculty Perspectives And Institutional Adaptation, Alexander Levine

Journalism

The purpose of this research is to examine where higher education currently stands in relation to artificial intelligence, how it arrived at this moment, and where the future may be heading. More specifically, this study seeks to document a snapshot in time of how faculty members, university administrators, and educators perceive the role of artificial intelligence in higher education and how they believe it may shape the academic landscape moving forward.

By examining how artificial intelligence currently influences teaching, learning, and institutional decision-making, this study aims to create a record of perspectives during a period of rapid technological change. As …

Purposefully Black Interactional Systems: Disrupting Punitive School Discipline Models Through Banter, The Funk, And The Black Aesthetic, S. M. Wilson

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This empirical study seeks to understand the narratives of four Black men teachers and two Black women teachers about how they implement school discipline and classroom management in their K–12 contexts. This track draws on interdisciplinary perspectives from education, linguistic anthropology, and African American studies to understand how banter and ritual insults function as alternatives to traditional discipline. Phenomenology and thematic analysis of six semistructured interviews demonstrated Black teachers’ beliefs that outdated and punitive orientations should be challenged. These teachers enacted discipline through talk—particularly banter, ritual insults, and what I call “purposefully Black interactional systems,” which embed discipline within them, …

We Buried The Curriculum And Called It Holy, Charles E. Becknell Jr., Johnna Rocker-Clinton

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track develops the concept of apocalyptic pedagogy by situating it within Africana studies and classroom rituals, illustrating how curriculum itself can be examined, buried, and reimagined through practices rooted in Black educology. Drawing on ancestral knowledge and collective memory, the track envisions ritual as curriculum, where libation and remembrance become practices of mourning and reclamation. Rather than centering institutional reform, the track frames education as a ritual circle enacting pedagogy as remembrance, mourning, and rebirth, honoring Black life as sacred.

Kong Koch: An Autoethnography On Jieng Indigenous Wisdom And Ethos Of Leadership, Dau D. Jok

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

In this track, I argue that Jieng (Dinka) epistemology reshapes leadership by foregrounding restraint (achin te lui ye), emotional regulation (kong koch), and social harmony (wel tuc). These Indigenous approaches challenge dominant trait-based leadership models by exposing their limits in confronting social and contextual diversity. To illustrate these ideas, I draw on personal accounts and member checks with my grandmother (Aboba) to show how Jieng wisdom reframes concepts of leadership, disposition, and practice. Building on this, the track advances Afrocentric leadership literature by defining leadership as communal accountability. Furthermore, it stresses the urgent need for scholars and practitioners to engage …

Harriet Tubman’S Underground Railroad As Ancestral Technology For Black Futures, Julia Lynch

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track draws on BlackMothering to frame Harriet Tubman not only as a conductor of freedom but as an architect of ancestral technology, designing strategies of survival that continue to instruct contemporary struggles. Tubman’s praxis—relational, anticipatory, and collective—illuminates the enduring power of Black knowledge systems to chart pathways through systems of violence and oppression. In conversation with Tiffani Marie and Kenjus Watson’s theorization of Apocalyptic Education and what Django Paris and H. Samy Alim describe as culturally sustaining pedagogy, this track explores how Tubman’s Underground Railroad praxis offers a blueprint for Black sustainability using (a) health and survival, (b) spatial …

Dancing In The Wake | Like Moss Over Modernity, Simple Ant

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This offering is a meditation on existing and thriving in the wake of civilization. For centuries, we have educated one another to believe in, and glorify, the insatiable desires of our modern way of life. I begin with the premise that what we call “civilization” is a system predicated on death, violence, and exploitation, because it requires the endless extraction and consumption of the living Earth. Living in this way guts the Earth to feed our ideas of “progress” and “prosperity.” The effect now is that our civilization, our society, our way of life is rotting—bringing with it decay and …

Shrinking Sovereignty: By Land, Sea, And…Air?, Cynthia R. Harris

Pace Environmental Law Review

Atlantis was a mythical State destroyed by the gods as an object lesson to humanity. The complete destruction of a State, as a political entity, does have precedent in historical reality. The complete and permanent loss of a State’s physical territory, however, is a problem humanity has never faced—until now. Today, climate change-driven sea level rise is bringing the future sovereign status of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in question. A growing body of legal scholarship argues for maintaining these States’ maritime jurisdictions but has not yet extended the question skyward to SIDS’ jurisdiction over airspace.

This Article addresses that …

The Impact Of Road Quality On Nearby House Prices, Michael Cary, Brad Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper estimates the impact of road quality on house prices in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA which includes the city of Cincinnati. We use a hedonic regression framework using road segment level international roughness index (IRI) data as a measure of road quality. We find that rougher roads decrease house prices, with a one standard deviation increase in road roughness from the sample mean decreasing house prices by 3.5%. This equates to a $6,700 decrease in the value of an average priced home in our sample, demonstrating the importance of road quality and maintenance for local economic development.

The Dialectics Of Governance – Navigating Institutional Complexity, Trust, And Innovation In Indonesia, Muhammad Ramaditya, Rijal Ramdhani

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

No abstract provided.

May 2026 Table Of Contents Newsletter - Accessibility, Victoria Peters

Table of Contents Newsletter

This month, the Library joins institutions worldwide in celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The goal of this day is to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion for the more than one billion people globally who live with disabilities or impairments. Whether you are designing a new syllabus, uploading course readings, or creating lecture slides, digital accessibility ensures that every student can engage with your content.

The Effect Of State Abortion Restrictions On Female Labor Force Participation And School Enrollment, Elena T. Albano

Graduate Masters Theses

This paper examines the causal effect of state-level abortion restrictions on young women’s labor force participation and school enrollment following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Using a difference-in-differences design that exploits the cross-state variation in post-Dobbs abortion policies, I estimate that abortion bans led to a decline in combined school and labor force participation among young women by at least 1 percentage point. This effect is qualitatively robust to a triple difference specification that uses men as a within-state control group, confirming that the results do not reflect broader economic shocks specific to …

Rewarding Risk: How Political Health Messaging Drives Virality And Controversy On X, Hiba Ali

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

From Process Retrieval To Understanding: A Look Into Curiosity And Metacognition In My Physics Classrooms, Nahuel Acosta Burroso

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In the modern high school physics classroom, the rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has created a unique educational challenge. While these tools can solve complex problems quickly, they often lead to cognitive offloading, where students bypass the internal dialogue and deep thinking needed for true understanding. This project follows an action research journey that shifts the focus from restricting technology to cultivating curiosity and metacognition. I define curiosity as the gap identifier that appears when a student realizes they do not know something, while metacognition acts as the navigator that helps them decide what to do next. By …

Significant Crash Characteristics Associated With E-Scooter And E-Bike Crashes, Aimee Jefferson

Dissertations

Micromobility devices—namely e-scooters and e-bikes—have rapidly gained popularity in the United Sates, rising from 35 million annual shared rides in 2017 to over 133 million in 2023 (NACTO 2024). But also increasing is the number of injuries associated with these devices; however, most research emphasizes injury and demographic patterns rather than crash characteristics that would inform prevention strategies. Most existing crash research also relies on small sample sizes, lacks nuance distinguishing between involved parties (motorists, pedestrians, single device), and fails to distinguish between bicycle and micromobility crash patterns despite micromobility devices often being instructed to use conventional bicycle facilities. These …

The Cultivation Of Public Perception: Cultivated Meat Narratives And Misinformation On Tiktok, Anna M. Balkus

Graduate Masters Theses

Cultivated meat is an emerging tissue engineering technology that has the potential to address major issues threatening food systems, including climate change, rapid population growth, and the spread of disease. Among technical challenges, public perception remains a significant barrier for the widespread adoption of cultivated meat. While social media has transformed communication globally, it has simultaneously contributed to corrupt online environments infected with misinformation—unintentional inaccuracies that differ from disinformation, which is spread with the intent to mislead. The way the public receives and digests information regarding new food technologies, like cultivated meat, will be shaped by their social media environment. …

Critical Geopolitics And The Reconstruction Of Meaning: A Discourse Analysis Of The 'Terrorism' Label Applied To Hamas By Western Hegemony, Cahaya Mulyani Sakti, M.Hamdan Basyar

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The emergence of Hamas in 1987 cannot be separated from the configuration of modern colonialism and the continuity of occupation that shaped the political reality. Hamas’s early phase was rooted in socio-religious activities through education and community empowerment programs, before evolving into armed resistance against the occupation. The labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization began in the mid-1990s in U.S. legal documents, which subsequently generated debate and gave rise to counter-narratives. This study employs the frameworks of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail & Agnew) and the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak) to analyze the labeling of Hamas as “terrorist” by Western hegemony. …

Digital Communication And The Evolution Of Ideological Narratives In Indonesia: Insights From Social Media Platforms, Tia Mariatul Kibtiah, Muhammad Fikri Fawazi

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study examines how pro-caliphate and anti-democratic narratives are articulated and normalised within YouTube comment spaces in Indonesia. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with high levels of digital engagement, Indonesia provides an important context for analysing how political-religious discourses circulate through everyday digital interaction. The research analyses 1,354 YouTube comments related to the caliphate, governance, and democracy. Data were collected using Google Apps Script, manually filtered for relevance, and examined through qualitative content analysis informed by Social Network Theory (SNT) and the Radicalisation Factor Model (RFM). The findings show that 34.49% of comments endorsed ideological pro-caliphate narratives, while 35.97% …

Governance Structures And Conflict Mitigation Strategies In Food Supply Chains: Evidence From Niger State, Nigeria, Araoye Olarinkoye Ajiboye, Aminu Kandi Suleiman, Habila Daniel Diko, Tayo Moses Adebayo

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Food supply chains in fragile and semi-institutionalised economies continue to experience persistent instability driven by weak governance structures and recurring conflicts among market actors. However, despite extensive studies on food system challenges in Nigeria, there remains limited empirical understanding of how governance structures interact with conflict mitigation mechanisms to shape system stability at the local market level. Available literature tends to treat governance and conflict management as separate processes, thus overlooking their interdependent dynamics within everyday market operations. This study addresses this gap by examining governance structures and conflict mitigation strategies in food supply chains in Niger State, Nigeria. Anchored …