Digital Commons Network^™

Just Do Something: Framing A Movement To Fight Fascism, Heather-Ann Layth

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to better understand antifascist activism, in part to add sociological perspectives to the antifascist movement and better understand a group publicly maligned by negative portrayals by politicians and the media. This study is important because fascism is already doing real damage to marginalized Americans and represents a real threat of further identitarian and authoritarian oppression. Yet, the movement against growing fascism has been painted as a boogeyman in the public eye. Efforts to stop neo-Nazis and white supremacists from gathering are not discussed in terms of fighting fascism but rather in terms which criminalize and demonize antifascists. …

Unmasking Masculinities In Counseling: From Conformity To Connection, Kyle R. Rose

Dissertations, 2020-current

This dissertation explored the entanglements of professional counseling and masculinities across three manuscripts, to contribute to (1) healthier forms of gender expression within and beyond the spectrum of masculinities for individuals, (2) the counseling profession’s role in transforming hegemonic masculinity within communities, and (3) larger movements to subvert the patriarchy throughout society. The first manuscript is a conceptual article that presented the Relational Cultural Privileged Identity Counseling (RCPIC) model, an integrative framework designed to help counselors address hegemonic masculinity within the therapeutic relationship. Drawing from Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) and Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE), this model provided a roadmap for compassionate …

Misidentified Bodies And Missing Data: Exploring Forensic Disempowerment And Skeletal Narratives Of Transgender And Gender-Diverse Individuals In The United States, Taylor M. Flaherty

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The bodies of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals represent a physical nexus of contempt and scrutiny. In the United States (U.S.), TGD people experience disproportionate levels of violence and premature death, contributing to a persistent epidemic of harm. Institutionalized anti-TGD biases have reinforced systemic neglect, leading to the routine exclusion of TGD individuals from research, data collection, and historical archives. The absence of state or federal initiatives to track mortality trends and risk factors among this population further exacerbates their systematic erasure. In particular, forensic scientists have traditionally relied on dichotomous indicators of sexual expression which may fail to account …

Experiential Learning Through Service Learning -- Integrating The Social Inequality Classroom, Mehmet Soyer, Mike Spence, Zach Johnson

Utah Conference on Community Engagement

This session explores the role of service-learning in social inequality education, highlighting an experiential learning assignment that engages students with local non-profits. Participants will learn how structured reflections and community engagement deepen students' understanding of inequality and civic responsibility. The session will provide practical insights into implementing service-learning to foster critical thinking and social change.

Hybridity In Amazigh Language, Culture, And Literature, Jas Editorial Staff

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

A Case Of Racialized Organizations: Black-Owned Vegan Restaurants In St. Louis, Missouri, Antonia M. Roach

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

How does functioning as a racialized organization impact a restaurant’s ability to advance the goals of a social movement? This paper highlights the role organizations play in the vegan social movement. In recent years, veganism has developed into a social movement with purported health and ethics benefits, though one in which Black members are not necessarily widely represented. The research that exists on Black veganism focuses on the ideological reasonings behind why some make the decision to adopt a plant-based diet, or spell out the fact that community and culture rank as top priorities when considering what foods to eat …

Jim Crow Medicine: Race In Jama, 1883-1982, Han Koehle

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Using a historical approach I examined race discourse within the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) between 1883 and 1982 to better understand how race concepts connect to the production of medical knowledge and ignorance; how they influenced the production of legal and medical policy; how they related to the production and maintenance of health injustice; and how oppressions and injustices are interrelated. I found a clear differentiation between Jim Crow era and post-Jim Crow race discourse. Jim Crow era race discourse was characterized by a nested, bio-nationalist construct of race, an explicit commitment to White supremacy, a sense …

Stranded In Transit: Migrants' Borderland Experiences En Route To Europe, Ibrahim Emre Yanik

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of migrants stranded in prolonged transit amid the intensifying securitization of the European border regime. While contemporary policy frameworks aim to deter unauthorized migration through externalized controls, digital surveillance, and restricted legal pathways, these measures have instead produced new forms of precarity, immobilization, and liminal existence. Focusing on Istanbul as a key site of transit and containment, the research examines how migrants navigate conditions of legal uncertainty, economic marginalization, and social isolation while resisting the structural constraints imposed upon them. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Istanbul—including semi-structured interviews and participant observation—this study adopts …

Exploring The Landscape Of Animal Advocacy In Egypt: Insights Into Stray, Wildlife, And Farmed Animal Rights, Yara Moussa, Wasseem Emam

General - Animal Protection

This article examines the landscape of animal advocacy in Egypt, a nascent and growing field in one of Africa’s largest economies and most densely populated countries. It focuses on three types of animal advocacy: 1) stray animal welfare, 2) wildlife conservation, and 3) farmed animal welfare. The paper critically analyses current practices and trends in each of these areas, highlighting the main challenges and opportunities facing the growth of the movement. Our research draws on insights from interviews with active animal welfare organizations, situating their practical experiences, daily operational struggles, as well as instances of success, within Egypt’s wider socio-economic …

A Raced Theology Of The Human Person: An Expanded Theological Anthropology, Cary W. Dabney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on race as a critical, yet largely unaddressed, topic in Catholic theological anthropology. In Catholic colleges and universities that are recognized as members of the Cardinal Newman Society, theological concerns about race are deemed irrelevant for theological education in the faith and are altogether absent from the theology of the human person. As a result, this collection of institutions treats race as a specialty within pastoral theology, one that is significant to groups, but not a part of the fundamental theology of the human person. This ‘un-raced’ theological anthropology results in the institution’s inability to respond effectively …

The Small Worlds Of Childhood: Philosophy, Poetics, And The Queer Temporalities Of Early Life, Lauren Shizuko Stone

Gender & Sexuality

The Small Worlds of Childhood argues that prose representations of bourgeois childhood contain surprising opportunities to reflect on the temporality of experience. In their narratives of children at home in their everyday worlds, Adalbert Stifter, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Walter Benjamin are not only able to shed a unique light on key issues in the history of philosophy. They also offer a queer critique of the normative expectation that the literature of childhood is oriented toward the future.

Stone shows that when writers engage in philosophical storytelling, showing children tarrying in quotidian experience, they dislodge childhood from its nostalgic value …

Emotional Labour In The Boundary Work Of Filipino Transnational Workers In Indian Cities, Jozon A. Lorenzana

Department of Communication Faculty Publications

This article examines the boundary work undertaken by Filipino transnational workers in globalizing Indian cities. While the ‘practice turn’ in boundary studies has shed light on boundary work's mundane and performative dimensions, the role of emotions in performing such work needs to be ascertained. To account for both the performative and emotional dimensions of boundary work, I present an ethnographic study on Filipino professionals in India that engages Hochschild's concept of emotional labour. Since the mid-2000s, local and multinational companies have hired Filipino professionals to set up businesses and manage operations. I examined their practices of boundary work through in-depth …

The Business Of Domesticity: Homemaker Influencer Content And The Depoliticization Of Women's Gender Roles, Kathryn Andronowitz

Undergraduate Fellows' Research

Social media platforms have seen a rise in content created by female influencers who display their domestic and family lives, from “homefluencers” and “mommy bloggers” to media sensationalized “tradwives.” Among these content creators, “homemaker” influencers curate and present their lifestyles in ways that reflect and question broader discourses on gender roles, women’s labor, and traditionalism. This study analyzes the content of ten self-identified “homemaker” influencers on Instagram to understand how they construct and maintain a self-brand amidst adjacent online communities like crunchy and far-right networks, and in a wider neoliberal, postfeminist cultural context. This paper explores how Instagram’s platform features …

Tapestry Of Culture: The Power Of Storytelling Among Native American Cultures: The Search For History, Culture, And Identity, Maurysha Cuttino

Master's Theses

Storytelling is a centerpiece within cultures to remember the past, find faith, and establish comfort within a community setting. This thesis will explore how storytelling has become a means of entertainment and much more. This paper will focus specifically on how storytelling works for the inner workings of Elders in Native American communities, as well as how multifaceted storytelling can be understood in the importance of its culture and people. Further, we will see how these stories create moral lessons for communities and act as guidance for individuals. We will look at the way storytelling has evolved and changed with …

Cartoon Kinship, Kelsey Bell Quinn

Master's Theses

Most people view cartoons as mindless entertainment exclusively for children. They dismiss the genre as if it only contains zany and overzealous characters who deal with simple, predictable challenges, easily resolved by the end of the episode. The negative attitude towards cartoons—or seemingly anything animated—undermines the importance of the lessons and the themes many shows do impart on their viewers, regardless of their age. Shows like Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender cover a plethora of complex themes, but due to its status as an animated work, it has been disregarded as a show for children rather than being appreciated as …

Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch, Cassandra Haskell

Master's Theses

This thesis explores motherhood from a perspective that seeks to inform and challenge the patriarchal definitions of motherhood in order to simultaneously confront its restrictions and create new meanings from its institutionalized definition. The main text that this thesis analyzes is the 2021 novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, as well as the 2024 film of the same name, critiquing how it successfully queers motherhood by questioning, challenging, and defying the impractical expectations placed upon mothers by society. Some secondary scholars whose works that I utilize to support my argument are authors such as Audre Lorde, Jessica Calarco, Adrienne Rich and …

Frontier Healthscapes: Competing Narratives Of Disease, Environment, And Wellbeing In Early Minnesota, Aidan Reynolds

Geography Honors Projects

Across settler societies, health narratives were shaped by evolving tensions between lay and expert knowledge, frameworks of disease causation, and perceptions of the environment as both a source of health and a threat. In the decades following Euro-American settlement (1860-1900), Minnesota became a focal point for these debates, with its landscape fostering complex and competing narratives on health, wellbeing, and disease. This paper explores how public health discourse developed in Minnesota through the perspectives of institutions, the public, and economic interests. Combining environmental history with critical discourse analysis of archival materials, this study examines shifts within the Minnesota State Board …

A First-Generation 4-H Youth Member Intervention Framework To Support Members To Enter, Engage, And Persist In The Program, Jeremy Elliott-Engel, Nicholas A. A Morris

Journal of Youth Development

The First-Generation 4-H Youth Member (FG4-HYM) Intervention Framework is an organizational management perspective for preparing 4-H youth programs that supports the welcoming of youth and families that have no previous experience with the organization. Using the Bronfenbrenner ecological model, we explore the multiple layers of 4-H program management that support the participation of FG4-HYM in the 4-H club program. This framework provides a tool for 4-H professionals to use when assessing their program’s readiness to provide high-quality programming to all audiences, regardless of their families’ previous experience with the organization. This framework represents the foundational requirements that an organization must …

Enhancing The Eden Alternative Model With Well Standards: A Case Study Analysis, Mariah Stoner

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

This thesis investigates the potential for improving the Eden Alternative Model, a person-centered approach to elder care that emphasizes creating a homelike environment and meaningful relationships, using WELL Standards, a building certification system focused on enhancing human health and well-being through improvements in environmental quality. Through a mixed-methods approach involving quantitative data analysis and qualitative case studies, this research examines how WELL Standards, which cover aspects such as air quality, water quality, lighting, and thermal comfort, can improve environmental quality and resident satisfaction within the Eden Alternative Model. This research introduces a tailored approach to elder care by combining these …

Who Gets To Have Fun? The Alternative Earmarking Of A Memecoin Marketplace, Mia Tanner

Sociology Honors Projects

Past research on cryptocurrency has highlighted its sociotechnical aspects, framing crypto projects as community-grounded movements disrupting traditional state and market structures through technological advancements. What happens when these disruptive promises are absent or only playfully invoked? Cryptocurrencies known as “memecoins” have grown their own followings without pledging future legitimacy that would seriously challenge existing institutions, instead linking their value to the meme they brand themselves with and vague democratic promises. That new scheme of valuation is especially evident in coins launched on the site pump.fun, which has lowered the barriers to crypto-coin creation. The platform's accessibility provides a new dimension …

Living Heritage Along The Ganges: Building Resilient Communities In Varanasi And Kolkata, India, Ritu G. Deshmukh

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

This doctoral research proposes an integrative theoretical framework for understanding and managing living heritage in riverine contexts, specifically focusing on the historic cities of Varanasi and Kolkata along the Ganges River in India. The study develops a new paradigm for living heritage conservation that embraces the fluid, dynamic nature of cultural landscapes through what the author terms the “Adaptive Fluid Living Heritage Continuum” (A.F.L.H.C).

Traditional approaches to heritage management often treat cultural landscapes and living heritage as static entities requiring preservation rather than living systems capable of adaptation. This research challenges this perspective by examining how communities along the Ganges …

Understanding The Need For Gender Inclusiveness: A Case Study In Kolkata, India, Nilasree Dutta

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research focuses on examining the status of women in the selected Wards of Kolkata, India: Ward 59, 64, 65, 66, and 69. Three indicators are used to evaluate the status of women: education, nutrition, and religion. Data for this study was collected with the help of a Kolkata-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) named Ek Tara. A complete questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions was followed to conduct the survey. 353 households were interviewed to obtain the data. Several statistical analyses have been conducted using STATA software to address research hypotheses. To assess the nutritional status of women, hand grip strength …

Echoes Of Radicalization: The Political Right And The Internet Through The Lens Of Moral Panic, Gabrielle Renee Mathus

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In the past decade, the prevalence of social media has become a part of everyday life. Alongside this, these issues have gained a unique venue for discussing identity-based political issues that were not previously given mainstream attention and, ultimately, contribute to panic among portions of the American public. In this study, I conducted a digital ethnographic content analysis to explore how Reddit and X act as venues for discussions of transgender issues, immigration, and racial discrimination and how these issues have manifested in mainstream discourse. Using Stanley Cohen’s moral panic theory and grounded theory practices, I found that these spaces …

The Origin Of Community As Experienced By Intercollegiate Athletes At Benedictine Institutions Of Higher Education: A Hermeneutical, Phenomenological Hybrid Study, Barbara Rezac

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This study focuses on the phenomenon of community experienced at Benedictine colleges and universities and its impact on the faith, character, and human development of recent alumni who participated in intercollegiate athletics on campus. Benedictine education, based on the 1,500-year-old Rule of Saint Benedict, is guided by ten hallmarks which seek to build wisdom cultivated in community. This study specifically examines the extent of the lived experience of community through the lens of former intercollegiate athletes (alumni from the past ten years) and the perceived influence of the hallmarks on their post-graduate lives. I contacted mission leaders, athletic directors, and …

"A Miniature Replica Of Life": Reality, Critique, And The Burden Of Representation In Oscar Micheaux's Body And Soul, Maria Lagomarsino

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

With the release of his controversial silent film Body and Soul (1925), filmmaker Oscar Micheaux elicited strong reactions from censors, critics, and audience members alike. While some praised the work as a triumph of Black filmmaking, others were horrified by Micheaux’s corrupt preacher storyline and supposedly negative characterizations. The creation of this film occurred during a particularly fraught period of history, which saw some Harlem Renaissance figures argue that only positive depictions deserved a place in the public discourse. With Body and Soul, however, Micheaux refused to be limited by this undue burden of representation. In this thesis, I further …

Improving Brain Health: Exercise As A Tool For Enhancing Executive Function And Reducing Stress In Older African Americans, Destiny Ellise Ramos

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Older African American (AA) adults face disproportionately higher risk of stress and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) compared to other racial and ethnic groups, yet they remain underrepresented in intervention-based research. Previous research has suggested aerobic exercise may reduce stress and benefit executive functioning, which is among the first cognitive domains to be affected in ADRD; however, no studies to date have directly tested the impact of aerobic vs. non-aerobic exercise in older AAs at high risk for developing ADRD. The current study evaluated the effects of a group-based cardio dance fitness (CDF) exercise intervention versus a strength, flexibility, …

Heartbeat Of The Heartland: Sonic Engagement With Hip-Hop In The American Midwest, Lauren R. Millhorn

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project analyzes Hip-Hop artists from the American Midwest through the context of the Midwest’s construction as a nostalgic, peaceful area where conflict seems nonexistent. This study applies Adam Ochonicky’s concept of nostalgic spatiality, or “instances in which nostalgia is projected onto a physical environment, thereby altering the perception, understanding, and/or experience of that space and its accompanying cultural sphere” (Ochonicky 29) to close readings on Midwest Hip-Hop texts. In the case of the Midwest, projected nostalgia is rooted in whiteness and propels the narrative that the Midwest is predominantly occupied by white people who maintain its peace and serenity …

Leveraging Historical Data For Estimating Genetic Gain And Implementing Genomic Selection In A Student Led Barley Breeding Program, Sydney Graham

Department of Statistics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In Nebraska, winter feed barley presents an emerging market for producers and an opportunity to diversify cropping systems. The University of Nebraska Barley Breeding Program aims to develop high-yielding, winter-hardy varieties. A unique aspect of this program is that doctoral students serve as barley breeders and are responsible for crossing, data collection, and advancement decisions. While this provides hands-on experience for the students, the impact of student leadership has not been examined.

This study used a historical data set to evaluate the realized genetic gain of the breeding program, and as a training population for genomic selection. The dataset consisted …

“But Where Are Those Good Old-Fashioned Values?”—The Racial Politics Of Animated Satire In Family Guy, Jordanne Greenidge

Master's Theses

Few animated shows have shaped American pop culture quite like Family Guy. Known for its rapid-fire cutaway gags and irreverent humor, the series has remained a television mainstay since its debut in 1999, despite frequent criticism and even two cancellations. Created by Seth MacFarlane and based on his 1995 student film The Life of Larry, Family Guy has built its reputation on pushing the boundaries of taste, especially when it comes to race, gender, and politics. Though often defended as satire, the show’s use of racial humor raises questions about its true impact: Do its portrayals of Black characters challenge …

The Adirondack Frontier: Reclaiming A Vital Role In Shaping The Nation, Peter Nelson

Master's Theses

The traditional version of Adirondack history from the revolutionary period to the middle of the nineteenth century, which portrays the region as unexplored primeval wilderness, is nineteenth-century romantic mythology. It ignores thousands of years of Indigenous habitation and misrepresents early Euro-American activity in the region as well. In fact, from the earliest days of colonial exploration of North America until the middle of the 19th-Century, New York's Adirondack region was a dynamic American frontier, as important in shaping the destiny of the nation as the Northwest Territory or, later, the West. Activities in the Adirondack frontier contributed to the decimation …