Digital Commons Network^™

"If I Knew Then What I Know Now": Analyzing Online Narratives Of Regretful Parents, Marina Binti Mohd Hamdan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This exploratory study seeks to understand the extent to which parenthood affects individual self-actualization by identifying the trade-offs, compromises, and sacrifices that parents make within the context of family life. Using a thematic analysis of 221 archived posts from the Reddit community r/regretfulparents, this study examines how social pressures surrounding parenthood may be related to experiences of parental regret. Specifically, it identifies two domains: pressures to be parents, including social norms, familial coercion, and interpersonal conflict, and pressures of parenting, including issues of labor, number of children, and challenging children. Across these domains, this study explores how tensions between personal …

Bringing Patriarchy To Looksmaxxing: Identification And Exploration Of Strategies To Restabilize The Patriarchy In The Looksmaxxing Community, Mackenzie Grace Freeman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research literature on looksmaxxing is subsumed under the incelosphere, which is acknowledged as a white and male supremacist space. Yet, researchers fail to attend critically to the structure of patriarchy, choosing instead to base their analyses within the mainstream hegemonic masculinity paradigm. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this project fills a gap in the literature by transcending the mainstream paradigm to explain how the looksmaxxing community uses the body as a site of crisis management in response to patriarchal backlash, with the ultimate goal of restabilizing the patriarchy. This project uses a community-led survey from a popular online looksmaxxing community. This …

“Black Students Matter”: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Student Experiences At A Predominately White Institution In Appalachia During The Dual Pandemic Of Covid-19 And Systemic Anti-Black Racism, Toni Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As the spread of COVID-19 escalated into a global pandemic in 2020, simultaneously, the nationwide media in the United States (U.S.) highlighted coverage of the country’s ongoing incidents of longstanding systemic anti-Black racism in America, another pandemic. In the Summer of 2020, a collective of Black students at West Virginia University (WVU) signed and publicly submitted a petition to the university’s leadership with a list of demands to address their needs as they were further exacerbated by the dual pandemic. This study is guided by the question, “What are the lived experiences of Black Students at West Virginia University during …

Statistical Abstract, Fiscal Year 2026, Tennessee. Department Of Correction

Annual Statistical Abstract

This document is the annual statistical report for the Tennessee Department of Correction during the fiscal year.

Lunch Shaming And The Right To Privacy, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Lunch shaming is the practice of penalizing students who cannot afford to pay for their meals, resulting in them being denied food, served alternative meals, or publicly identified. The origins of lunch shaming can be traced to the financial pressures faced by school districts that struggle to balance tight budgets with the mandate to provide free or reduced-price meals to eligible students. Despite legislative efforts and advocacy campaigns aimed at mitigating the problems associated with lunch shaming, the practice persists, exacerbated by rising food costs and the expiration of pandemic-era food programs.

Many law journal and other articles have correctly …

Environmental Degradation And Food Systems In Ghana: Gold Mining And Synthetic Pesticides, Da'mirah Vinson

Honors Theses

This research examines the relationship between environmental degradation and food systems in Ghana. Although sociological research has explored how extractive practices like gold mining dispossesses farmers of land (Gilbert and Albert 2016; Agariga 2021; Kwang and Blagogie 2025), the consequences for food sovereignty and security remain understudied. Research that considers food and land from a sociocultural perspective is even more limited. My research addresses these gaps by asking: How do environmental degradation practices—specifically gold mining and chemical use—affect food production, distribution, and security in Ghana? And how does the decline of arable land reshape cultural food identity? To explore these …

Into The Fire: An Examination Of Violence In Reconstruction Texas, 1865-1868, John Gorman

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

This article examines the scale, patterns, and political implications of racial violence in Texas between 1865 and 1868, arguing that white terror functioned as a systematic effort to suppress Black freedom and restore antebellum racial hierarchies. Drawing on Congressional testimony, Freedmen’s Bureau records, and the 1868 Report of the Special Committee on Lawlessness and Violence in Texas, the study reveals that violence was not random but structured along social, labor, and political lines. Murders, whippings, intimidation, and organized attacks—such as the Millican riot—intensified when freedpeople asserted labor autonomy or political rights. Despite nearly 900 reported murders, convictions were exceedingly rare, …

Police Supervisor Selection Process And The Need For Uniformity In Practices To Improve Police Leadership In The Usa, Catrina M. Rhatigan

Theses and Dissertations

Effective police leadership is crucial to sustaining the culture shift in law enforcement. Leaders need to lead, and how the executive staff assess their leadership capabilities will determine whether they are up to the task. Police executives need to determine first what their motives are: to fill open supervisory spots? Promote the best leaders? This study and the results highlight the need to focus on the latter, identify the leadership qualities that best fit your department's needs, and work from there. A lack of oversight and inconsistent standards for police supervisors leads to poor policing and inadequate responses to significant …

Commercial Off-The-Shelf Electronic Warfare Threats To Global Positioning System Receivers, Matthew P. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

This research evaluates the feasibility of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware developed into an electronic warfare (EW) system used to degrade or deny Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. All 16 critical infrastructure sectors rely on GPS signals to operate safely and effectively. Millions of Americans rely on GPS signals and the services they provide in their daily lives, so the loss of these vital services would dramatically impact our society. Our nation’s reliance on the GPS network makes it a potential target for COTS EW threats. The ways and means to develop COTS hardware into EW systems to interfere with GPS receivers …

When Words Flow Like Water: How The Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Environmental Impact Statement Failed To Prevent Hydrogeologic Harm In Minnesota, Carly Gutzmann

Journal of Earth and Life Science

For the aquifers of Minnesota, the environmental impact statement (EIS) was a promise of protection that never left the page. An environmental impact statement is meant to be an aid in the decision making process in order to ensure that projects consider potential environmental harms that may occur. However, they are often used instead as another regulatory box to check, rather than as active considerations when planning. As such, a project plan can be flawed from the start—if project developers only consider environmental impacts after they have already put considerable time, effort, and funding into their project as-is, they may …

Guidelines For Community Engaged Health Research, Carrie Leach, Hayley Thompson, Alex Sass, Patricia Wren, Rodlescia Sneed, Rhonda Dailey, Elizabeth Towner, Maha Albdour, Carla Caringi, Alyssa W. Beavers, Theresa A. Hastert, Vanessa Rorai, Peter A. Lichtenberg, Angulique Outlaw, Ijeoma Nnodim Opara

Institute of Gerontology

Executive Summary:

Wayne State University’s Guidelines for Community Engaged Health Research provide a practical framework for designing, conducting, and evaluating ethical, equitable, and impactful health research that engages community experts in projects that advance health equity in Detroit.

Purpose 

Developed for WSU faculty, staff, and research teams, the guidelines support the meaningful involvement of community experts across all phases of research. They respond to common challenges in community-engaged work, including limited experience with engagement approaches, the need for reflexive and equitable practices, and the time and coordination required for authentic collaboration.

The document defines Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) as collaborative work …

Teachers, Dispositions, And Classroom Management: Social Origins, Professional Development, And The Datafication Of School Discipline, Paul L. Poggemeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

How do teachers’ social backgrounds and professional orientations shape the disciplinary and relational dimensions of their work? This dissertation takes up that question across three related but self-contained studies in the sociology of education, set in Central School District, a public school district in the southeastern United States. Each study examines a different facet of how teachers establish authority, manage behavior, and exercise care: the social origins of their orientations toward classroom management, the experience of becoming professionally competent in the early career, and the use of digital tools that increasingly govern how school discipline is recorded. Drawing broadly on …

Confucian Thought As A Strategic Veil: How Western Strategy Should Correctly Compete With China, Owen Miller

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The rise of the People's Republic of China as a peer competitor to the United States constitutes the defining geopolitical challenge of the twenty-first century, but even so, Western strategic analysis has consistently failed to engage China on its own terms. The recurrent pattern of Western misinterpretation results from projecting Western assumptions onto a state whose institutional and cultural drivers operate under fundamentally different premises, where key elements of Chinese strategic culture and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) instrumentalization of Confucianism as a moral veil are instruments of domestic legitimacy and external strategic narrative. The United States must recognize that …

Experiences Of Marginalization At The Intersection Of Race, Ethnicity, And Disability In Higher Education, Nora L. Portillo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Black and Latine college students with disabilities navigate higher education at the intersection of racism and ableism, yet their experiences remain underexamined. Autism and ADHD are particularly underrepresented in research and public discourse; moreover, unlike other disability categories in which students of color are overrepresented, Black and Latine children are less likely than white children to be accurately identified, and both disabilities are often framed around white prototypes. Guided by Disability Critical Race Theory, the present exploratory qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with ten undergraduates identifying as Black and/or Latine and with ADHD and/or on the autism spectrum attending a …

What Happens When We Face The Harm? Reflections On Restorative Justice, Conflict, And Accountability (And A Flyer On Practical Steps), Renate Alant

A with Honors Projects

This project explores conflict resolution, restorative justice, and meaningful apologies through reflections on Dr. Mikhail Lyubansky’s workshops hosted by the Psi Beta club at Parkland College. The paper examines how restorative justice focuses on accountability and repair rather than punishment, while the accompanying flyer encourages students to learn practical conflict resolution skills.

Policy Recommendations And Ways Forward, Rachel Locke, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Book Chapters

This chapter discusses how the transformative ideas presented by the contributors can be applied in concrete and meaningful ways to policy, practice, and research. The chapter begins with a discussion of principles that were both crucial to the articulation of the recommendations and are similarly crucial to any proposal to address identity-based mass violence. The human-centered values of this volume demand a focus not only on outcomes but also on process, as these principles attest. The chapter then focuses on practical areas of action, from capacity building to funding to shifting narratives, and more. This chapter shifts from prescriptive policy …

Spirituality And Psychological Well-Being In College Students: Does Resilience Mediate This Relationship, Kevin C. Snow, Jessica Starken, Lindsay A. Phillips

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Given continued challenges of college transition and recent changes (e.g., COVID) leading to increased use of college counseling services and past studies exploring spiritualty/religion and resilience pertaining to psychological well-being (PWB), this study explored the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Three scales, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, were used to measure the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB. Results of this study showed support for the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Results also lend support for future research exploring therapeutic incorporation of spirituality …

Experiencing Objectification In Platform Work: Food Delivery Riders’ Accounts Of Organizational Absence And Self-Valuation, Emerald Jay D. Ilac, Ma. Tonirose D. Mactal, Clarisse Aeaea M. Kilboy

Leadership and Strategy Faculty Publications

This study aimed to explain how food delivery platform riders experience objectification in the context of platform-based work, with particular attention to how organizational practices and leadership shape experiences of marginalization, dignity, and voice. A qualitative design was employed using Descriptive Phenomenological Analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine food delivery platform riders to describe the essential structures of their lived experiences of objectification. Subaltern Theory was used as an interpretive lens in making sense of the findings. Five experiential themes were identified: (1) leaders’ non-presence resulting in perceived abandonment, (2) leaders’ devaluing of food delivery riders, (3) social devaluation …

Beyond War: Building Wisdom Civilization To Rescue Humanity, Andrew Targowski

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper presents a comparative civilizational analysis of humanity’s transition from a War Civilization to the emerging Wisdom Civilization. Drawing on the works of Toynbee, Sorokin, Quigley, Huntington, Spengler, and Koneczny, it interprets the present global disorder — marked by the tension between Western, Chinese, Russian, and Muslim civilizations — as a transformative moment in human history. War and militarism, once adaptive mechanisms of civilizational growth, have become self-destructive in an era of technological interdependence. It is proposed that the next evolutionary stage of civilization must integrate knowledge with conscience to form a Wisdom Civilization founded on empathy, sustainability, and …

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.

Love & Mercy: Records Of Self, Change, And Relationship, Jessie Perryman

Sociology Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Talking Black: The Construction Of Blackness In Film, D'Andre M. Person

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Media, such as film, plays a pivotal role in representing marginalized groups to general audiences. The portrayal of Black people in advertisements, novels, art, and film has perpetuated harmful stereotypes which associate Black men and women with negative traits that justify their marginalization, such as the "Coon" stereotype that frames Black men as lazy or the "Mammy" stereotype that positions Black women as subservient. Stereotypes in film are produced through images, but language plays a vital role in constructing general audiences' understanding of Black people as well. Through a rhetorical analysis of seven films released between 2016 and 2026, I …

Measuring Civic And Citizenship Education Through Large-Scale Assessments: Insights From The International Civic And Citizenship Education Study (Iccs), Wolfram Schulz, Valeria Damiani

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

This chapter from the open access book ‘Promoting K-12 Civic Learning and Engagement Through Assessment’ edited  by Hamilton, Rikoon and  Kidd, discusses ways of measuring aspects of civic and citizenship education (CCE) cross-nationally with a specific focus on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) commissioned by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). The chapter starts with a brief overview of the main characteristics of the study, the legacy with previous IEA surveys of civic education, and the assessment design including a description of the cognitive and affective-behavioral dimensions that are measured in the …

Conch Gone? Examining Cultural Preservation Through Bahamian Menu Analysis, Adiah J. Saunders

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Social identity theory and acculturation theory expose how cultural practices, such as cuisine, can adapt due to external pressures. In The Bahamas, external pressure from the tourism industry shapes many aspects of public life, by analyzing menus we can see how cultural identity resists or succumbs to change. This study examined how Bahamian cuisine is represented on restaurant menus in Nassau, New Providence amid a dominating tourism industry. Using a stratified random sample of 30 restaurants, 1,155 menu items were coded for cultural origin, cultural language use, promotional features, as well as pricing. The results show that international dishes appear …

The Paradox Of Intellectual Property At The U.S. Supreme Court, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court is dramatically more politically polarized in the Roberts Court era, and the justices have been criticized for highly ideological and partisan decision-making. Yet, we show that there is one area of law that is becoming less ideologically divided and predictable: intellectual property (IP). In an earlier study, we showed that, prior to the Roberts Court, IP case outcomes were predictable based on judicial ideology, with more conservative justices embracing IP rights, as they do for real property. In the last two decades, IP has become more influential on the economy and society, through the increasing dominance of …

The Political Disconnect: Working-Class And Low-Income People On What Politics Means To Them And How They Might Be Mobilized, Daniel Laurison, Kelly Diaz, Monica Guzman , '25, Zachary Kreines , '25, Kaj Tug Lee , '25, Lydia Orr, Sahiba Tandon , '25

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Works

A functioning democratic society must involve all kinds of people in deciding who will hold the power to enact laws and allocate tax dollars. However, working-class and low-income people vote at significantly lower rates than the more privileged in the US, and their participation has been declining in recent elections. In order to understand why those with fewer resources are less likely to vote and how this might change, a diverse group of researchers interviewed 232 low-income and working-class people (in every major racial group) from across Pennsylvania – 144 of whom either did not vote, or voted only occasionally. …

“… It's Google That's Big Brother”: The Symbiosis Between Icac Investigators And The Private Sector Regarding Encryption And Privacy, Christopher G. Brewer, Kevin F. Steinmetz, Don Kurtz, Brian Schaefer

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Encryption technologies have become ubiquitous for both individual and commercial sectors. Perhaps no realm of law enforcement is so acutely affected by encryption than cybercrime, including internet crimes against children (ICAC) personnel. There exist a variety of encryption-based tools and authentication measures available to help online child sexual abusers and consumers of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) hide their activities and obstruct law enforcement efforts to gather evidence of criminal activity. Established here is the idea that ICAC investigative practice is ultimately shaped by these technologies as well as the relationship between the distributors of these technologies and private platforms …

Reclaiming Connection: Narrative Differences Between Traumatic And Positive Birth Experiences, Ryan O. Sesker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Traumatic birth experiences can disrupt mental health and maternal bonding between mother and infant. While clinical outcomes often prioritize infant health, less attention has been given to how birth experiences shape maternal confidence and feelings of confidence and adequacy as a new parent. This study examines what factors within birth experiences influence maternal self-perception and confidence during the postpartum period. Drawing on Maternal Role Attainment Theory and self-efficacy theory, this research explores how perceived loss of control, medicalization, provider interactions, and emotional support affect maternal identity formation. Using a qualitative approach, this research analyzes publicly available birth stories shared on …

Social Perception Of Rural And Urban Lgbtq+ High School Students, Jordyn Gerwig

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other gender/sexual identities (LGBTQ+) have been subjects of research throughout history, impacting the way they are perceived socially. Experiences of LGBTQ+ people vary not only by person but also by geographic area (rural, urban, and suburban). The focus of this study is the social acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities in high schools in these geographic areas. The overall research question is as follows: How do LGBTQ+ students’ perceptions of social acceptance differ across urban, suburban, and rural high schools? It was hypothesized that students who attended rural schools will feel lower levels of social acceptance …