Digital Commons Network^™

Languages Of Marginalization: Educational Inequality And Identity Formation Among Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh, Md Khalid Rahman

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research paper investigates how language-of-instruction policies shape educational inequality and identity formation among Rohingya refugee children living in protracted displacement in Cox’ Bazar, Bangladesh. Analyzed from a human right–based framework, the study examines whether existing educational policies align with international legal standards on the right to education, including the UDHR, ICESCR, Child Convention and SDG 4. While these frameworks guarantee non-discriminatory and inclusive access to education, the reality in Cox’s Bazar reveals a persistent gap between normative commitments and policy implementation. Moreover, the study explores how the exclusion of both the host language (Bangla) and the native Rohingya language …

Community Resources For Older Adults With Age-Related Disabilities And Chronic Conditions: A Scoping Review, Oejin Shin, Sojung Park, Soobin Park, Sarah Sunghye Kang, Sunghei Han, Eunsun Kwon, Seoyeon Ahn, Borin Kim

Faculty Publications - Social Work

Community resources are essential for supporting older adults with disabilities and chronic conditions, yet how these resources are conceptualized and evaluated across the empirical literature remains unclear. This scoping review synthesizes U.S.-based research on community resources for older adults with age-related disabilities and chronic conditions, guided by the PAGER framework. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science, ultimately including 21 peer-reviewed studies. Findings reveal four primary resource domains: healthcare-based services, home- and community-based services (HCBS), behavioral health supports, and environmental or structural resources. Accessibility and utilization emerged as the most consistently examined dimensions, while quality …

Creating An Abortion Safe Harbor Using The Doctrine Of Double Effect, Evelyn M. Tenenbaum

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

[INTRODUCTION] In the three years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs) holding that women no longer have a constitutional right to an abortion, many family physicians, obstetricians, and gynecologists have refrained from—or delayed—providing abortion services to pregnant women, even when that restraint created a substantial risk of causing serious injury or death. This reluctance to provide care is labeled physician hesitancy, which is defined as physicians acting in their own professional or personal interest to deny or delay care that would otherwise be provided under the prevailing standard of care.

It …

Cohabitation And Child Educational Outcomes: An Examination Of Family Stability And Transition In Australia, Shana Pribesh, Emily E. Pulsipher, Mikaela J. Dufur, Jonathan A. Jarvis, Ashley Weisman, Yuanyuan Yue

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Cohabitation has become an increasingly common context for childrearing, yet children living with cohabiting parents often exhibit poorer academic outcomes than peers with married parents. This study examines whether these disparities stem from cohabitation itself, subsequent family transitions, or underlying mechanisms related to resources, stress, or selectivity. Using data from the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), we follow 920 children born to cohabiting parents and track family structure changes alongside teacher-rated literacy and mathematics performance from ages 6 to 11 years. Generalized estimating equation models show that, although children whose parents transitioned to single-parent or …

System Disparities: Racial Criminalization And The Risk Of Coerced And False Confessions In Youth, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Black youth may be even more vulnerable than other youth to admitting to crimes they did not commit in the context of police interrogations. In support, analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations indicates that 65% of people who were wrongfully convicted on the basis of false confessions they gave when under 18 years old are Black, whereas only 14% of the U.S. population is Black. In this chapter, I seek to understand the overrepresentation of Black youth in samples of juvenile false confessors by examining the cultural stereotype about Black criminality in relation to both investigators and …

Breaking The Glass: Jewish Identity Through A Sociological Lens, Shayla Mostyn

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

This project uses Charles H. Cooley’s theory “The Looking-Glass Self” to magnify the depth of Jewish identity. As a Jewish student, I have firsthand experience in experiencing society normalize acts of antisemitism and it having a negative impact on my Jewish identity. Within my research, 200 Jewish college students from around the world were provided with a platform to anonymously reflect and report on what being Jewish means to them and how their social surroundings impact their Jewish identity. This concept tells that one’s identity or concept of identity is based on how others see them or how they believe …

Autism And Homelessness: An Intersectional Case Study In Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Nicole J. Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Homelessness is a growing crisis in Canada, with literature suggesting autistic traits as over-represented within this population. Literature addressing intersectional experiences of autism is emerging, however there are gaps in the research surrounding intersectional experiences of autism and homelessness. Research suggests that autistic individuals may be more vulnerable to experiencing homelessness and face difficulties in exiting homelessness. This qualitative case study utilizes a Disability Justice framework to explore intersectional autistic experiences of homelessness, social service usage, and suggests recommendations on improving support for autistic individuals at risk of and experiencing homelessness. Four autistic participants with experience of homelessness and accessing …

Eat With Understanding: A Um Student Guide To Food Systems, James Deacon, Cora Johnson, Lucas Dymit, Kaeli Rackham, Elsie Danyo

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The industrialized food system creates environmental harm, reduces food sovereignty, and contributes to growing food insecurity. These problems oftentimes are overlooked in higher education. To address this gap, our project examines how access to sustainable food education and campus-community partnerships can improve well-being and informed decision-making amongst University of Montana students. This collaborative project connects partners within UM Wellness, PEAS Farm, the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center, and the Big Sky Culinary Institute. Our research includes applied learning with these organizations by hosting a variety of speaker series presentations and coordinating a cooking workshop. We collected quantitative and qualitative …

The Influence Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Female Violent Offending: A Scoping Systematic Review, Alexis M. Wolgemuth

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Female-perpetrated violence has exhibited concerning data trends in recent years. Prior scholarship indicates that past victimization and trauma in childhood, known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), are highly prevalent among women offenders. However, the research concerning ACEs and violent females is scattered. This thesis provides a scoping literature review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) updated 2020 guidelines. A systematic database search was conducted using Academic Search Complete, SAGE Journals, Springer Nature Link, and HeinOnline to identify relevant peer-reviewed journal articles. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are established, focusing on studies published after January 2015. These …

Social Engagement Moderates The Relationship Between Cognitive Functioning, Depressive Symptoms, And Restless Sleep In Older Black Adults, Sunkanmi Folorunsho, Olufunmilola Abraham, Darlingtina K. Esiaka

Pharmacy Practice and Science Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Older Black adults face higher dementia risk, but it is unclear whether social engagement offsets the effects of depression and restless sleep.

METHODS: We analyzed 1,905 Black adults aged 50+ from the 2016-2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Linear mixed-effects models tested how depressive symptoms, restless sleep, and social engagement predicted baseline cognition and cognitive decline.

RESULTS: Higher depressive symptoms and restless sleep were associated with lower baseline cognition (about 0.2 and 0.5 points lower) and faster decline (β×time ≈ −0.07 and −0.05). Greater social engagement predicted higher baseline cognition (about 0.6 points higher) and slower decline (β×time ≈ …

Understanding Workplace Psychological Safety Among Latina Professionals: An Exploration Of Intersectional Experiences, Michal Tapia

Theses and Dissertations

Latina professionals represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. workforce, yet they remain disproportionately underrepresented in executive and C-suite roles. This disparity reflects structural conditions that shape access to voice, support, advancement, and decision-making authority.

This mixed-methods study examined psychological safety among 145 Latina professionals across the United States, defined as the belief that one can speak up, ask for help, disagree, or raise concerns without fear of negative consequences (Edmondson, 1999, 2019). The study explored how identity, relationships, leadership, workplace support, inclusion, mentorship, and structural barriers shape psychological safety at work.

Quantitative analyses showed that workplace support …

Mythology Of Whiteness: Constructing Black Girls As A Bully, Kathleen O'Brien, Pamela Twyman Hoff

Faculty Publications - College of Education

This analytical essay uses data from a qualitative study by O’Brien (2017) that explored the social construction of bullying. O’Brien interviewed 16 high school students enrolled in alternative and college-preparatory high schools. Although the study did not focus specifically on Black girls, their narratives surfaced a distinctly different story—one that exposed how whiteness, intersectional power, and cultural ways of knowing construct Black girls as quintessential bullies in schools. This re-analysis explores how Black girls are cast within the mythology of whiteness as archfoes—not merely as disruptive, but as symbolic antagonists whose existence threatens the normative order of whiteness …

Bail Reform, Large Language Model Risk And Reasoning, William Wyatt

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation contains three studies. Each asks how rules or language change the choices people and machines make when outcomes are uncertain. The first study, written with Kiran John, evaluates California’s 2020 cashless bail reform. We use propensity score matching on arrestee records from the windows before and after implementation, and we test whether the shift away from cash bail produced any effect on subsequent offending. It did not. Matched comparisons yield small, statistically insignificant differences across every window we examined. That null result cuts against both sides of the public argument. The reform did not drive a spike in …

The Diasporic Cookbook As Chronotope. [Review Of The Book Kitchens Of Hope: Immigrants Share Stories Of Resilience And Recipes From Home, By I. S. Svitak, C. J. Eaton, And I. S. Dean (Eds)], Marcella Prokop

English Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Edited by Linda S. Svitak and Christin Jaye Eaton, with Lee Svitak Dean, and published by the University of Minnesota Press, Kitchens of Hope: Immigrants Share Stories of Resilience and Recipes from Home (2025) fits neatly into the popular genre network of cookbooks that blend essay with recipe, mixing memoir with meals perfected over generations. But this book doesn't simply share the legacy of Liberian rice bread or summer beat soup. It explores the migration of these dishes and their cooks, contextualizing stories of displacement and development. Because of the breadth of this book, Mikhail Bakhtin might describe this …

The Role Of Education In Reducing Social Inequality: A Systems-Level Analysis Of Socio-Technical Infrastructures And Policy Governance, Aisling O'Shea, Batzorig Dashnyam, Ximena Quintanilla

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Social inequality remains one of the most persistent challenges to global systemic stability, threatening the robustness of democratic institutions and economic sustainability. Education has long been theorized as the primary mechanism for social mobility and the mitigation of disparate life outcomes; however, its role within modern socio-technical infrastructures is increasingly complex and often contradictory. This paper provides a comprehensive systems-level analysis of the relationship between educational architecture and social stratification. By examining the structural trade-offs inherent in contemporary pedagogical deployment, the research evaluates how institutional governance, digital infrastructure, and policy mandates either facilitate or hinder the reduction of inequality. The …

An Academic Civilization?, Inbar Gotlib-Rivkin, Uri Cohen

Comparative Civilizations Review

Can institutions of higher education be defined as constituting a civilization that has emerged from modern civilization? This theoretical study defines a new concept of academic civilization and demonstrates how prominent characteristics that define the collective identity of modern civilization are manifested in institutions of higher education. The study focuses on six specific characteristics: expansion, flexibility and diversification, center-periphery relations, academic culture, autonomy and academic freedom, and the monopolization of professional training and the professional middle class. The conceptual analysis presented here provides a significant addition to sociological discourse, offering a refined conceptualization of civilizations. The goal is to expand …

Artificial Intelligence And African Studies, Gloria Emeagwali

Comparative Civilizations Review

African Studies is a conglomerate of multidisciplinary academic fields that include paleontology, history, literature, linguistics, philosophy, African Traditional Religion and theology, art, and Afrofuturism, as well as African Indigenous Knowledge Systems. This paper focuses on the latter, namely African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), and African Studies, in general, from the viewpoint of two chatbots, namely, ChatGPT-4, and DeepSeek v.3. Do these models make a break with Eurocentrism and prevent unbiased information on AIKS? Are the underlying conceptual issues underpinning AIKS fully grasped, and if so, what are some relevant examples of this accomplishment? How do these programs respond to specialized …

Morals Without Movement: Veganism, Contentious Politics, And The Lifestyle Politics Constraint, Luke M. Carfaro

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines whether veganism constitutes a social movement through Social Movement Theory frameworks, emphasizing Sidney Tarrow's Power in Movement. Through analysis of veganism's empirical properties (collective challenge, common purpose, collective identity, and sustained interaction) and key procedural mechanisms (framing, mobilizing structures, and repertoires of contention), this thesis determines that veganism fails to meet the empirical criteria of a social movement and is more accurately classified as a lifestyle movement—a movement in which political participation is expressed through private consumption rather than sustained collective contention. Using the Make America Healthy Again movement as a counterexample, this thesis comparatively illustrates …

The Hows And Whys Of Gendered Grouping Practices In Primary Physical Education In England, Shaun D. Wilkinson, Annette Stride, Dawn Penney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Single- and mixed-sex grouping have long been a focus of attention in physical education (PE) and are matters often at the fore of discussions about curriculum planning, teaching, and learning. Nonetheless, there remains little consensus or guidance on which approach (or combination of approaches) should be preferred in PE in primary and secondary schools in England. Further, while single- and mixed-sex grouping have been extensively researched in PE in secondary schools, hitherto there remains an absence of research examining these practices in PE in primary schools. This research sought to address gaps in the literature to build a stronger …

Resilience For Whom? A Study In Pathways And Production Of Unequal Risk In The Rockaways, Aaryan M. Nair

Publications and Research

This paper investigates how climate adaptation policies in the Rockaway Peninsula of New York City produce unequal outcomes despite their ostensibly neutral design, framing resilience as an environmental and climate justice problem. Situated within a landscape marked by stark socioeconomic disparities, aging housing stock, and high exposure to coastal flooding, the study demonstrates that existing adaptation strategies—centered on uniform technical standards, insurance frameworks, and large-scale coastal infrastructure—systematically advantage actors with greater financial and institutional capacity while leaving low-income residents, particularly renters, disproportionately vulnerable.

The analysis identifies three core dynamics underlying this “unequal-by-design” resilience regime: (1) the stratified feasibility of compliance …

Emancipatory Research In Social Work: What Does Critical Realism Offer?, Shajimon Peter, Lynne Soon Chean Park, Liz Beddoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Summary: Critical realism offers a promising philosophical framework for emancipatory research in social work. Emancipatory research recognizes that people experience multiple realities and necessitates an inclusive participatory approach. However, these experiences are shaped by powers inherent in objectively existing structures, systems, and processes that must be identified and addressed for true emancipation. This theoretical article suggests a critical realism-informed methodology for emancipatory social work research. Findings: The critical realist framework acknowledges a stratified ontology and relativist epistemology that recognizes both subjective experiences and objective structures, bridging the subject–object binary created by objectivist and constructivist approaches. This allows for a radical …

Australian University Websites As Colonialities Of Gender, Emily M. Gray, Ampersand Pasley, Emma Fishwick, Mindy Blaise, Jacqueline Ullman, Maria Delaney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper offers analysis of the first phase of a research project, Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. This phase involved a critical content analysis of all 39 of Australia’s public university websites, focusing on how they represent gender, absences in relation to gender and the navigability of the websites in relation to gender equity policy. Drawing on Maria Lugones’s colonialities of gender, this paper demonstrates how university websites have the potential to reproduce or renegotiate inherited institutional everyday sexisms and broader gender inequities. Themes of reconfiguring acceptable gendering, conspicuous absences, and in-built obscurity that emerged from this …

Christianity As Coping Mechanisms For Migrants With Mental Health Challenges In Australia: Social Work Implications, Obed Adonteng-Kissi, Nnaemeka Meribe, Kathomi Gatwiri, Lillian Mwanri, Agness Tembo, Frank Darkwa Baffour, Edith N. Botchway-Commey, Aunty Kerrie Doyle, David Chisanga, Ahmed A. Moustafa, Uchechukwu Levi Osuagwu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Christian religion may be a powerful resource that can serve as a coping mechanism to resolve challenges and provide comfort to African migrants confronted with mental health challenges. We aimed to explore the coping strategies among African migrants in Australia. We undertook semi-structured interviews online with 11 participants with African backgrounds, comprising six mental health clinicians and five migrant service users living in Australia for at least the past 12 months. Literature exploring religious coping mechanisms, social support and acculturation was drawn on. The interviews were undertaken online via Teams, WhatsApp call, and zoom with participants whom we recruited through …

Facebooking Under Crisis: A Comparative Study Of Online French And American Mutual Aid Organizing During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Clare Reimers-Hejnal

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis studies the political discussions, practices, and projects that emerged through mutual aid Facebook groups based in France and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular interest is how these online spaces and the Facebook users that comprised them understood their mutual aid organizing in relationship to specific themes, including but not limited to: the COVID-19 pandemic as a "crisis", the role of government presence or absence in the wellbeing of the public, and the concept of collective yet differentiated struggle. Chapter 1 looks at four Facebook pages based in the greater Paris area: Entraide Danube, Clichy …

The Economics Of Accountability: Learning From German Holocaust Reparations, Grace I. Gates

Scripps Senior Theses

Drawing on microdata from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe, this study compares European Holocaust survivors who received reparations with similar Europeans who did not. It finds that, decades on, recipients are not systematically better or worse off on core outcomes like life satisfaction, savings, and debt. This is consistent with the argument that reparations restore parity rather than create new advantages. Where differences emerge, they point to stabilization in more vulnerable settings (e.g., lower likelihood of high debt in parts of Eastern Europe). The main takeaway from effective reparations is applicable to the United States debate: …

Stitched In Precarity: Labor Exploitation, Immigration Policy, And Resistance In The L.A Garment Industry, Reyna Guadalupe Silva Carrillo

Scripps Senior Theses

Los Angeles hosts one of the largest garment manufacturing industries in the U.S., built on the labor of undocumented immigrants who often work under exploitative and unsafe conditions. This paper explores how the intersection of broken labor laws and punitive immigration enforcement creates systemic vulnerability for these workers. Despite recent reforms—such as California’s SB 62, which bans piece-rate wages and holds brands accountable—enforcement remains weak, and wage theft continues to persist. State-level protections for undocumented immigrants clash with federal policies that prioritize detention and deportation, leaving workers in a state of constant precarity. While grassroots movements have secured important legislative …

Food Stamp Participation And Health Outcomes In Ca Immigrants, Esther Kang

Scripps Senior Theses

The U.S. social welfare system includes programs aiming to increase access to nutritious food to reduce nutrition insecurity. However, studies suggest that immigrants continue to face disproportionate risks of nutrition insecurity and may face barriers to enrollment due to legal status. This study, using secondary data from the 2023 California Health Interview Survey, examines the associations between food stamp participation, food insecurity, and clinical diagnosis of diabetes among adult U.S.-born, naturalized, and non-citizen adults in California. The findings suggest that those enrolled in food stamps are more likely to report food insecurity than those who are not enrolled, and that …

On Saying Goodbye: Interactional Role Liminality & Post-Death Symbolic Interaction, Deborah Cobb

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Grief is often understood as a process that culminates in detachment, with "saying goodbye" positioned as both an emotional and social necessity. Yet many bereaved individuals describe a different experience, one in which supernatural post-death contact allows them to receive messages from their deceased loved one. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews and 47 anonymous open-ended surveys, this study explores how individuals who experience unsolicited post-death communication interpret these encounters and integrate them into everyday life. Analysis revealed three interconnected themes: resistance to saying goodbye, interpretation of encounters as specific messages from the deceased, and emotional stabilization following continued contact. These …

Watching Over Cold Waves: The Influence Of Social And Technology Surveillance On Independent Older Adults’ Safety, S M Ashfaqur Rahman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Cold waves pose a recurring and serious hazard for independently living older adults, yet the monitoring arrangements that shape their protective responses remain understudied. This study examined how social surveillance, defined as check-ins and support from family, neighbors, and community contacts, and technological surveillance, defined as weather applications, smart devices, and emergency alert platforms, jointly and independently predicted cold-wave safety behavior. A cross-sectional, exploratory mixed-methods design was employed. One hundred independently living adults aged 65 and older, residing in cold-prone U.S. states, completed a survey measuring monitoring frequency, source trust, perceived autonomy, concern across six cold-wave hazard types, and a …

Visual Aids And Numeracy In Healthcare: Leveraging The Drawing Effect, Zephyr J. Markley

Capstone Showcase

Healthcare decisions often require patients to interpret numerical risk information under stress, yet many struggle with low numeracy, which can distort comprehension and undermine informed consent. Well-designed visual aids can improve diagnostic inference, calibrate confidence, and support better choices, especially for patients with limited numeracy, but their impact depends on whether users can actually interpret the format accurately. Drawing may further enhance these tools by adding a tactile, generative layer that engages visual, semantic, and motoric processing while helping patients organize information into concrete models.

Passive visual aids appear useful but limited because they often position patients as observers rather …