Digital Commons Network^™

Cognitive Foundations Of The Absence Of Antisemitism In Japan: Towards A Civilizational Perspective, Chikako Takeishi

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper explores the gap between civilizations in the forms antisemitism takes and the cognitive modes on which it is based, given its significance for comparative civilizational analysis. Antisemitism is characterized by two features — the expressive nature of violence and an orientation toward the elimination of an entire group — which are particularly salient compared to other forms of anti-sentiment familiar in the age of nationalism. In the first section of this paper, I argue that antisemitism exhibiting these features has not been present in Japanese history. The subsequent sections, building on Greenfeld’s theory of civilization, examine existential envy …

The Family As A Mechanism Of Civilizational Continuity: Absorption, Localization, And Rejection Of Modern Values In The Indic Case, Monika Monika

Comparative Civilizations Review

Contrary to the common view that the family socializes the individual into a given culture, this paper insists that the family performs a far more profound, indeed, a constitutive function. It is not simply the first school of civilizational values; it is the primary institutional site through which a civilization reproduces its symbolic order and, in so doing, acts as the gatekeeper of civilizational continuity and change. It is here that a civilization’s foundational principles are first internalized; and it is here, too, that modern values, or new norms thrust upon it by encounters with alien civilizations ⎯ are first …

Liah Greenfeld And Civilizational Dialogue: For Continuing A Legacy, Manindra Nath Thakur

Comparative Civilizations Review

One fine morning, I dropped into my room at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Monika took an appointment to meet and discuss her project. I was curious to know about her work and wanted to see if there was anything to learn from it. Within no time, I discovered that she was influenced by a professor and that we had many common concerns. I listened carefully and was convinced by her impression. We decided to initiate a conversation. Suddenly, a few months later, she informed me about Liah Greenfeld’s sad demise. Our conversation could not take off.

Exploring Rural Culture And Gambling Harm Among Young Adults In Central Appalachia, Noah S. Anderson, James P. Whelan, Meredith K. Ginley

Appalachian Student Healthcare Research Review

Background: Gambling-related harms are increasing among young adults, yet limited research has examined how rural cultural identity shapes gambling engagement and associated harms. Appalachia is a predominantly rural region with distinct cultural values, limited behavioral health access, and increasing exposure to legalized and informal gambling opportunities.

Purpose: This study examined whether Appalachian self-identification and affective states are associated with gambling engagement and gambling-related harm among college students residing in central Appalachia.

Methods: Participants were 395 undergraduate students recruited from a central Appalachian public university who completed an online survey assessing Appalachian self-identification, gambling engagement, gambling-related symptom severity (Problem Gambling Severity …

Liah Greenfeld On Antisemitism As A Defining Characteristic Of The Monotheistic Civilization, Efraim Karsh

Comparative Civilizations Review

One cannot overstate the scholarly and intellectual loss occasioned by the untimely death of Boston University Professor Liah Greenfeld. Through her prodigious interdisciplinary research, Professor Greenfeld has established herself as one of the foremost social science theorists of our time and a worthy heir to the great firstgeneration nationalism scholars, in particular Eric Hobsbawm, Ernest Gellner, and Anthony Smith.

Parent Emotion Socialization And The Influence On Child Emotion Regulation In A Clinical Sample, Crystal Tracy

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to contribute to existing literature by examining parent emotion socialization (i.e., parent orientation to child emotion) and its influence on child internalizing symptoms. Prior research suggests that parent emotion socialization impacts child emotion regulation and internalizing symptoms; however, there is little research at present focused specifically on the influence of parent orientation to child emotion on child internalizing symptoms through child emotion dysregulation. This study adds to the literature by considering the association between parent orientation to child emotion and internalizing symptoms in a sample of children referred for an ADHD evaluation. Participants included 161 children ages …

Cross-Border Initiatives Border Fellow Report 2025-2026, Elise Free Ma, Tori Luna Ma, Jonathan De Vicente Encarnación Ma, Yolanda Viridiana Chávez Flores Phd, Korina Odet Cortés Uribe Edd, Jessie Valcin, Cristina Solano Díaz, Etienne Mulumeoderhwa Mufungizi Phd

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

The 2025–2026 Border Fellows Report documents six community-led projects carried out across the Tijuana–San Diego region under the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice's Border Fellows Program. Working in academia, civil society, and the public sector, the fellows addressed distinct challenges shaped by a common context: firearms trafficking and armed violence against women and LGBTQIA+ people; youth violence and suicide risk in a public middle school; discrimination in a federal preparatory school serving more than 4,300 students; the organizational capacity and language rights of Indigenous communities in Baja California; academic accompaniment for Haitian adolescents excluded from formal schooling; and intercultural …

Impact Of Chronic Stress And Nutrition On Functional Connectivity And Neural Networks In Young Kichwa Children From The Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, Matthew L. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Early childhood is a critical period for brain development. Positive and negative experiences during this time can have lasting effects on learning, health, and well-being. However, most research on children’s brain development has been conducted in wealthy, industrialized nations, leaving important gaps in our understanding of how children develop in other cultural and environmental contexts.

This study examined brain development in Indigenous Kichwa children living in two rural communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. The goal was to better understand how chronic stress and nutrition may influence a child’s developing brain during early childhood. Children participated in noninvasive brain assessments …

Challenges To Longevity Among Native Americans In The Four Corner States, Ashley Lenarz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Previous research has shown that Native Americans within the Four Corners States of the United States experience poor health outcomes and premature mortality. The Four Corners States include Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Research examining COVID-19 pandemic outcomes has also suggested that Native peoples within the Four Corners States have been especially hard hit with high rates of infection and mortality. Our research seeks to (1) understand how life expectancy trends and differences changed among non-Hispanic Native Americans and Whites in the Four Corners States during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) examine how much of these trends and differences …

Issue 26: Labour, Poverty, And Health Concerns Of Migrant Women And Girls Working As Kayayei In Ghana's Urban Centres, Comfort Baidoo, Robert Mcleman

International Migration Research Centre

Over the past four decades, growing numbers of women and girls have left northern Ghana for the country's cities, drawn by the promise of work, independence, and a chance to support their families. Many end up as kayayei, head porters who carry goods through Accra's crowded markets for a negotiated fee. Their labour keeps the informal economy moving, yet it comes at a steep personal cost: unpredictable earnings, punishing physical strain, unsafe housing, and a healthcare system that too often leaves them out. This brief draws together the available evidence on the economic and health conditions of kayayei in Greater-Accra. …

Content Mapping: An Experimental Analysis Of Missing Message Content, Jeannette Sutton

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

The Warning-Response Model recommends the inclusion of five key content areas in warning messages to reduce information seeking that can lead to warning response delay: the message source, hazard (including its impact), affected location, recommended guidance, and time. Research has found that complete messages, that is, those that include all of five recommended content areas, help people make decisions about the protective actions they may take.  Unfortunately, a large majority of WEA messages omit information from one or more of the recommended content areas. This study examined the impact of omitting each of the five recommended content areas on message …

Issue 25: Beyond Blame: Gender-Based Violence Prevention And African Diaspora Communities In The Waterloo Region, Halima Ahmed, Valdrin Dragusha, Stella Omonigho, Fadhilah Balogun

International Migration Research Centre

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a critical social, public health, and governance challenge in Canada, particularly for migrant and refugee women (Tastsoglou, 2025). This is increasingly prominent at the local level in the Waterloo Region, particularly for African and racialized diaspora communities navigating settlement, integration, and institutional access. While multi-level governance and frameworks exist at the city, regional, provincial, and federal levels to address GBV, they tend to work in silos, and local implementation gaps persist. The gaps are shaped by cultural stigma, fragmented service delivery, precarious immigration status, formalinformal networks of support, and unequal access to culturally responsive support systems. …

Rural And Urban Availability Of Substance Use Treatment Facilities, Aaron P. Smith, Tyrone F. Borders

Rural & Underserved Health Research Center Publications

Overview of Key Findings

• Rural counties have higher per capita numbers of substance use disorder treatment facilities than urban counties on average, but also greater variability and large pockets of unmet need.

• The highest proportions of residents living in counties without any treatment facilities are concentrated in rural areas within the Midwestern and Southern United States.

• Rural and urban treatment facilities offer medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) at similar rates, with inpatient facilities most likely to provide MOUD, followed by residential and outpatient settings.

Oak Savanna Expansion: Indigenizing Psu's Urban Landscape, Ash Herb

University Honors Theses

Since time immemorial Indigenous Peoples have resided in what is now named Portland of the Pacific Northwest in the Willamette Valley. For hundreds of years, this forested Land has been colonized, razed to stumps and covered in cement in order to build the urban landscape. Due to such destruction on a broad scale, we are experiencing the results of climate catastrophe. By finding ways to reclaim our relationship with Land and returning to Indigenous epistemologies, our urban landscape has the opportunity to shift towards restoration and prosperity. Indigenous plants have existed here, supporting humans in a reciprocal relationship, for thousands …

When Your Neighbours Are A Reminder Of Your Ageing, Cynthia Tan, Yi Wen (Chen Yiwen) Tan

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

In a commentary, Cynthia Tan, a retired senior corporate leader, and Tan Yi Wen, a Senior Research Fellow at SMU’s Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA), questioned whether the low demand for community care apartments is because seniors do not want only other seniors for company. They noted that most older people do not spend their days dwelling on ageing until everyone around them reminds them that they are growing old. They added that prolonged exposure to such an environment may carry subtle emotional and psychological consequences. Citing a national survey by ROSA, the writers mentioned that eight in …

Impunity: A Case Study Of Sex Trafficking In Nevada Brothel Prostitution, Christen Price

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

It is well-documented that legalization and other forms of official protection for prostitution lead to an increase in sex trafficking, including by encouraging demand for prostitution. This paper will consider the relationship between official protection, organized crime, and sex trafficking in pro-prostitution legal regimes, both historical and contemporary. Prostitution is legal in rural counties in Nevada that have fewer than 700,000 residents, if prostitution occurs within a brothel. There is significant overlap between sex trafficking and legal brothel prostitution in Nevada, as well as a nexus to corruption and organized crime, illustrating the normalization of coercion that occurs within legalized …

The Confluence Of Conflict-Induced Vulnerability, Organized Crime, And Sex Trafficking In Receiving States: A South African Civil Society Perspective, Monique Emser

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The crime-conflict nexus has been well-documented in conflict-affected and post-conflict states. Criminal networks make use of manifold methods and strategies to exploit individual and structural vulnerabilities, particularly those affected by war, displacement, and precarious migration journeys, forming the backbone of most conflict-induced trafficking ecosystems, whether in countries of origin, transit, or receipt. This article examines the intersection of sex trafficking, diaspora communities, and organized crime within South Africa as a receiving state from a civil society perspective. It underscores the deficiencies in traditional, reductionist, enforcement-based approaches to counter-trafficking by the state, where nested subsystems, such as those produced by endemic …

Behind The Screen: Online Sex Buyer Networks And The Organized Criminal Promotion Of Exploitation, Ava Kamdem, Vanessa Bouché, Ben Silver, Nick Freeman, Justin Euteneier

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This study investigates the extent to which online sex buyer communities in the United States function as organized criminal networks pursuant to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’s definition of organized criminal groups. Drawing from theories of organized crime, social network analysis, and digital ecosystems, we conceptualize sex buyers not as isolated actors but as participants in coordinated, mutually reinforcing networks that share information to facilitate exploitation, mitigate risk, and sustain criminal behavior. To test this framework, we scraped over 1.2 million posts from a publicly accessible sex buyer forum, comprising 72,974 unique users and nearly 800,000 direct …

Transnational Social Protections And The Market: Seeking Support From The Global Cruise Industry, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Migration studies have mostly portrayed employers as paternalistic or exploitative, creating the very conditions that make migrants’ lives insecure and unstable. This paper challenges this view by showing how the market can also be an unlikely source of protections, where extractive work conditions co-exist with a certain degree of social support. Drawing on interviews with 45 Filipino cruise workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, I discuss how migrants used a logic of employee rights to claim benefits such as food, housing and insurance. Cruise lines willingly provided such protections, but only while workers maintained active contracts onboard their ships. Rather than …

The Effects Of Working With Unidentified Migrant Remains: Caregiving, Border Security, And Human Rights On The U.S.–Mexico Border, Jennifer Delaine Huddleston

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores how migrant death and the handling of unidentified remains operate within U.S. border governance, focusing on caregivers, forensic anthropologists, and volunteer search-and-recovery teams who recover, document, and try to identify the dead along the U.S.–Mexico border. Using classic grounded theory and reflexive visual ethnography, the study includes interviews, field observations, and documentary photography conducted in South Texas, covering Brooks, Maverick, and Webb Counties.

Instead of viewing migrant deaths as accidental humanitarian tragedies, this dissertation situates caregivers’ daily work within a historical trajectory of deterrence-based border policies, from Prevention Through Deterrence to modern state-led enforcement regimes. It demonstrates …

De Facto Captivity In The Land Of The Free: Exploring The Confining Effects Of Network And System Avoidance, Brianna Ovalle

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Encroaching state surveillance has primarily targeted people of color living in urban, inner cities, resulting in both much higher likelihoods of encountering state agents and the consequences of such contact. The ceaseless surveillance has led some individuals to engage in protective behaviors aimed at minimizing encounters with agents of the CLS. These behaviors are adaptable to present risks of surveillance and contact with the system. While there are various types of avoidance, the focus of this research is system avoidance and network avoidance. Previous literature for both types of avoidance focuses on the experiences of lower SES men. Further, as …

The Internet Did This To Me: Forms, Consequences, And Coping Strategies Of Cyberbullying, Isaac Oppong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined self-reported cyberbullying experiences recounted in a subreddit (r/cyberbullying) to identify forms of cyberbullying, its effects, and ways to cope with it. The findings indicate that there are several types of cyberbullying, such as verbal aggression, deceptive manipulation, privacy invasion, and coercive control. These experiences led to emotional, social, and behavioral consequences, including fear, anxiety, withdrawal, and decreased online activity. Based on concepts from Social Information Processing theory and Symbolic Interactionism, this study reveals how cyberbullying can produce the same or similar consequences as traditional bullying. People experienced disturbances in their self-presentation, contended with spoiled identities, and dealt …

Marital Stability And Intrahousehold Inequality, Tomoki Fujii, Xirong Lin, Jacob Penglase

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study what predicts marital instability using a unique dataset from Japan with detailed measures of spouses’ consumption, savings, labor supply, satisfaction, and marriage-market conditions. We combine descriptive survival and event-study analyses with several econometric and machine-learning approaches, including Cox proportional-hazards models and DynForest, a method designed for survival data with time-varying covariates. Across these approaches, match quality, household resources, time use, stated satisfaction, and marriage-market conditions all contain predictive information. Our main contribution is to show that intrahousehold consumption allocation matters, highlighting information that is missed by standard demographic, time use, and income measures. We relate these findings to …

“We Want To Make You A Better Man”: African American Men With Dual Membership In Black Greek Letter Organizations And Prince Hall Masonic Lodges, Lakesha Rae Denton

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the rationale and experiences of Black men who have initial membership within a black Greek letter organization as an undergraduate, who also join Masonic Lodges. The study was guided by one research question: 1) what the rationale is pertaining to Black men, who are initially members of Black Greek letter organizations as an undergraduate, that also join a Masonic lodge, therefore granting them dual membership status. The study was important because the value of BGLO’s has declined due to hazing and lack of leadership and guidance. Black men are not being developed as they should and while …

Lgbtq People's Lives Post-Incarceration: A Multi-Method Study, Hayley Jackey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

LGBTQ people are disproportionately targeted by the criminal legal system and overrepresented in the carceral system. Despite current research in queer criminology examining the impacts of the carceral system on the community, there is a dearth of literature examining LGBTQ people’s experiences or identity disclosure once released from the Prison Industrial Complex and into the Prisoner Reentry Industry. Using unique methodologies of photo-elicitation interviews and in-depth interviews, the current study examines how ten formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people navigate returning to society post-incarceration. The study found two distinct experiences. The first group was selective about who they shared their LGBTQ identity …

Hunger, Famine, And Eating Habits, Robert Dirks

Faculty Publications – Sociology and Anthropology

This paper explores how hunger and famine affect various eating habits, including commensal relations within households, shared attitudes toward eating with unfamiliar people, and typical ways of expressing appetite. Drawing on data collected from 124 societies worldwide, it provides a comparative perspective on the influence of food insecurity and nutritional stress on common, everyday eating habits. Analysis shows that chronic nutritional deficiencies and historical experiences with famine are associated with less inclusive, less amiable mealtime behaviors. Discussion offers explanations for the occasional persistence of such patterns despite ample food supply and considers the impact of nutrition alongside other factors likely …

A Qualitative Study Of Immigration Trauma, Posttraumatic Growth, And The College Experience Among Mena Immigrant Students, Braa A. Elkhidir

Dissertations

Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) immigrant students who are seeking to earn a higher education in the United States have to navigate acculturative stressors and systemic barriers. Prior research has focused primarily on the challenges MENA immigrant students experience without deeply exploring how these students adapt and grow. The focus in this qualitative study was to understand how MENA immigrant college students experience and make meaning of their academic journeys. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the academic experiences of seven MENA immigrant college students in the United States and assess how acculturative stressors, personal strengths, coping strategies, and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Juvenile Offending: Client-Factor Variations And A Novel Intervention Approach, Madison M. Dobreff

Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences have consistently been identified as risk factors for juvenile offending. However, this relationship is complex and varies based on individual factors. This critical literature review not only examined the current research on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and juvenile offending but also identified client factor variations that influence the relationship. Client factors examined throughout include race/ethnicity, gender, age, internalized and externalized mental health symptoms, positive internal factors, familial and external social support, educational engagement, environmental factors, and positive childhood experiences. The relationship is further complicated by examining the effects of multiple client-factor variations on the adverse …

Pathways To The Streets: A Proposed Model Examining The Factors Influencing Gang Affiliation And Involvement Among Young Black Men In The United States, Ceauna L. Juarez

Dissertations

This literature review examined gang involvement among young Black men in the United States and explored the factors that contribute to joining gangs and the consequences that may follow. The first chapter provides a brief history of gang involvement in Black communities and introduces Erikson’s development model, self-determination theory, and the minorities’ diminished returns as the three theoretical frameworks. The second chapter discusses common challenges faced by young Black men who are currently involved in gangs or are at risk of joining. The chapter explores issues such as life expectancy after gang involvement, adverse childhood experiences, mental health concerns, and …

Oral History With John Barry, Dan Royles

History Faculty Scholarship

Oral history interview with John Barry, who has served as Executive Director of the Southern Tier AIDS Program (STAP) since 2008. He was born in Endicott, New York in 1966, grew up in Vestal, and attended high school at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton before serving in Germany with the United States Army during the early 1980s. When he returned to Broome County in 1987, some of his friends had been affected by HIV/AIDS and, while earning a degree at SUNY Binghamton, Barry became involved in mutual aid efforts to help people affected by the disease. He went to work …