Digital Commons Network^™

Lack Of Access To Maternal Healthcare In Sub-Saharan Africa, Sierra Flake

Ballard Brief

Maternal healthcare provides essential care to keep women and newborns healthy during pre-birth visits, delivery, and after birth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, factors inhibiting women from receiving quality maternal care include distance, poverty, quality of maternal healthcare, family dynamics, and cultural beliefs. Lack of access to maternal healthcare has led to severe maternal and neonatal mortality, morbidity, and lack of family planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though lack of maternal healthcare is still an issue, significant improvement has been made since 2000 due to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Midwifery and mobile outreach services for family planning are prime examples of practices …

Wash Practices In Mozambique, Karsyn Britsch

Ballard Brief

Although there has been improvement over the years, Mozambique severely lacks basic access to WaSH facilities. WaSH is a collective term for water, Sanitation and Hygiene - which refers to access to clean water, improved sanitation facilities, and basic hygiene materials like soap for handwashing. WaSH is an issue in Mozambique due to a declining number of natural water sources, a high amount of contaminated water resources, a lack of proper toileting facilities, and issues with governmental corruption hindering individuals from having access to clean water resources. These hindrances result in water-borne diseases. unsafe drinking water, bacteria ridden agriculture, and …

The Female Stigma: Menstruation Attitudes In The Women's Liberation Movement, Kayla Becknuss

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Equity In Education: Fixing Compensatory Education For Students With Disabilities, Melia Cerrato

BYU Education & Law Journal

In March 2020, the United States went into lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, school districts were given little guidance on whether to cancel classes, provide distance learning, or give a mix of both. There are over 7 million students with disabilities, and while it is unknown how many of these were denied access to their statutory right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE)1 under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the multitude of class action lawsuits that arose out of the shutdown demonstrate how wide-spread the problem was for families. However, the denial of …

Three Common-Sense Measures To Limit The School-To-Prison Pipeline In Maryland, John Marinelli

BYU Education & Law Journal

In 2016, a Salisbury, Maryland eighth grader left class without permission and ran through the halls of his middle school. As punishment for his adolescent defiance, the boy was not sent home or suspended but rather pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, and criminally prosecuted.

This episode exhibits the harsh realities of a school-to-prison pipeline that annually funnels thousands of Maryland students into the criminal justice system as a consequence of in-school misbehavior. Criminal interaction of this sort negatively affects children in numerous well-documented, often disastrous ways. To improve these circumstances in Maryland, three contributing factors stand out as ripe for change: the state’s …

Foul Play: A Comparative Look At Community Fragmentation And Gender Roles Through Internment And Relocation Of Japanese Canadians And Japanese Americans, Maryn J. Rolfson

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

The Political Legacy Of Māori Women And Beyond, Taylor Johnston

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Education Abroad For Students With Disabilities: Legal Implications, Heidi Fischer

BYU Education & Law Journal

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, United States (U.S.) student participation in education abroad (EA) programs increased by more than thirty percent over a ten-year span.1 During the 2018-19 academic year, more than 36,000 students studying abroad identified as students with disabilities (nearly ten percent).2 The steady rise in U.S. student participation in EA programs in the past decade not only suggests renewed post-pandemic growth, but it also supports the idea that greater quantities of students with disabilities will study abroad during their postsecondary education than in previous years. With nearly one in five undergraduate students identifying as having a dis-ability,3 …

Review: Thomas G. Alexander. Brigham Young And The Expansion Of The Mormon Faith. Norman: University Of Oklahoma Press, 2019., Nicole Kirk

Mormon Studies Review

In Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith, Thomas G. Alexander delivers a new study of the second prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as an account of Young’s leadership of the Mormon migration and settlement in the Intermountain West. A part of the Oklahoma University Press’s Western Biography series, the collection employs the genre of biography to illuminate the history of the American West. Written by leading scholars for a general audience, the series excludes notes. The Western Biography series has included a wide range of figures, from Annie Oakley, Billy …

Adolescent Girls' Mental Health, Amanda Hardy

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

"Yours For The Indian Cause": Zitkala-Sa's Expansion Of Indigenous Rights Through Female Correspondence, Maya Brimhall

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Lehi And Nephi As Trained Manassite Scribes, Noel B. Reynolds

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This paper brings together contemporary Ancient Near East scholarship in several fields to construct an updated starting point for interpretation of the teachings of the Book of Mormon. It assembles findings from studies of ancient scribal culture, historical linguistics and epigraphy, Hebrew rhetoric, and the history and archaeology of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant, together with the traditions of ancient Israel to construct a contextualized perspective for understanding Lehi, Nephi, and their scribal training as they would have been understood by their contemporaries. Lehi and Nephi are shown to be the beneficiaries of the most advanced scribal training available in …

The Body As The Temple Of God, Lareina Hingson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Metaphors occur when there is a contradiction in the senses of the words used that cause the text to be interpreted non-literally, as Paul Ricoeur has noted. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians describing the body as a temple has been taken to be one such scriptural metaphor: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? … know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). As a metaphor, it is a strong one. The supposed …

Serpents Of Fire And Brass: A Contextual Study Of The Brazen Serpent Tradition In The Book Of Mormon, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The story of the Israelites getting bitten in the wilderness by “fiery serpents” and then being miraculously healed by the “serpent of brass” (Numbers 21:4–9) is one of the most frequently told stories in scripture — with many of the retellings occurring in the Book of Mormon. Nephi is the first to refer to the story, doing so on two different occasions (1 Nephi 17:41; 2 Nephi 25:20). In each instance, Nephi utilizes the story for different purposes which dictated how he told the story and what he emphasized. These two retellings of the brazen serpent narrative combined to establish …

Understanding How The Scriptures Came To Be, Jennifer Roach

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A new book by Mike Ash examines to what degree the human mind is involved in receiving revelation. Ash sums up his view by saying, “prophets have a special calling, but not a special brain.” He then spends 700+ pages describing what that means and how it works. In essence, prophets do not go into a trance-like state, put a pen in their hand, and engage in a process of automatic writing only to wake from the trance and read what has been given. Instead, Ash helps us see how God uses the brains and personality of any particular prophet …

There Is No Beauty That We Should Desire Him, Loren Spendlove

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In two separate passages Isaiah appears to describe the mortal Messiah as lacking in physical beauty and perhaps as even having some type of physical disfigurement (see Isaiah 52:14 and 53:2–4). On the contrary, Joseph, David, Esther, and Judith — portrayed in the biblical text as physical saviors or deliverers of Israel — are represented as beautiful in form and appearance. In fact, their beauty seems to be a significant factor in the successful exercise of their power as physical saviors of Israel. Unlike Joseph, David, Esther, and Judith, Christ may have been foreordained to descend to his mortal state …

A Comet, Christ’S Birth, And Josephus’S Lunar Eclipse, Charles Dike

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A comet seen by the Chinese in 5 bc has been considered by some authors as a possibility for the Star of Bethlehem. This article starts with that premise and argues that Book of Mormon evidences reinforce that likelihood. The comet path can account for all events surrounding the Star of Bethlehem. Based on typologies in the scriptures, eyewitness reports, and the comet’s timing, the date of Christ’s birth can be determined. A proposal can then be made as to when and why the wise men began travelling to Jerusalem. The comet left a trail of debris the wise men …

Financially Constrained Mortgage Servicers, Darren Aiello

Faculty Publications

Financially constrained mortgage servicers destroyed substantial MBS investor value during the financial crisis through their management of delinquent mortgages. Servicers advance to investors monthly payments missed by borrowers. In order to minimize this obligation to extend financing to distressed borrowers, constrained servicers aggressively pursued foreclosures and modifications at the expense of investors, borrowers, and future mortgage performance. When agency frictions between the servicer and the investor are higher, the servicer’s financial constraints matter more. IV regressions suggest that, on average per defaulted loan, servicers’ financial constraints are responsible for 20% of the total investor value reduction during the financial crisis.

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

What In Chinese Culture And Political Philosophy Makes It Difficult To Share Power At The Top?, Natalie Lyman Shields

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

天高皇帝远, Tiān gāo, huángdì yuan, is an ancient Chinese proverb that translates to “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.” Starting anciently in the Shang Dynasty, China typically had an emperor who ruled over his subjects, yet in a far away manner: “For two thousand years China had an emperor figure who was state power and spiritual authority rolled into one” (Wild Swans, 261–262). The most notable emperor was the first blazing Emperor Qin Shi Huang who unified the land around 247 B.C. Many emperors followed, claiming the Mandate of Heaven, until the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty …

The Developing Global Crisis And Survival Of Human Civilizations, Michael M. Andregg Ph.D.

Comparative Civilizations Review

For over thirty years, we have used a phrase “the Developing Global Crisis” to identify a cluster of recurring causal factors of chaos that are especially difficult to deal with. These are: population pressure (not simply growth), corruptions of governance (hard to study in democracies much less in police-states), authoritarian political systems, and militant religions. The West has failed to control these recurring causes of chaos, often by imperial patterns of behavior instead of more enlightened governance. Civilizational scholars in Japan might be able to find better solutions to these problems for Asia and the world if they try hard. …

Strategy Vs. Humanity? American Corporations May Be Facing A Momentous Paradigm Shift In The Age Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion, Mark Rennella

Comparative Civilizations Review

The business discipline of strategy was born at Harvard Business School in the America of the 1970s, an era of disorienting economic fluctuations and sometimes naked vulnerability that was punctuated by disturbing events like the OPEC oil embargoes and the Iran hostage crisis. By the end of the decade, strategy claimed the imaginations of business executives and relegated its predecessor, marketing, to a distant second place. Marketing, whose focus was serving customer needs to grow demand, was neither tough enough nor quick enough to deal with the sudden appearance of economic and cultural monsters invading American life.

End Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

On The Necessity Of Loss, Shamae Budd

BYU Studies

The second night in the hospital after our son was born, I crept out of bed, hobbled a few feet across the linoleum, and curled up on the stiff pleather couch where Daniel was sleeping. Our son was in the NICU with a mild case of pneumonia, so it was just he and I in that little room. My body hurt. My heart, too. Daniel pulled me close on the little green hospital couch, and I wept. It felt like nothing would be good again—like we would never be the same.

Book Review: Furia, Katie Romrell

The Utah English Journal

This beautiful story of an Argentinian young woman who desperately wants to play futbol (soccer) pulls no punches in its complex exploration of latent and explicit sexism, abuse, and of breaking the cycle with a tenacity dutifully shown on-and off-the field.

Book Review: Punching The Air, Jennifer Stewart

The Utah English Journal

Through art and music, 16-year-old Amal Shahid tries to break the boxes that he is constantly confined to by his peers, family, and his art teacher, but mostly by a racist system that is always pressing down on him. Eventually, these boxes get progressively smaller and darker as Amal is blamed for his friends' poor behavior and is wrongly convicted. While incarcerated, Amal feels suffocated until he realizes that he can find peace and healing both in his art and his words.

Book Review: Somewhere Between Bitter And Sweet, Emily Brown

The Utah English Journal

Laekan Zea Lemp's debut novel, Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet, is a story about dreams and fears in a vibrant Latinx community. Penelope Prado dreams of opening her own pasteleria next door to her father's restaurant, Nacho's Tacos, where she currently works. However, her parents have different plans for her life--plans that involve college and leaving their struggling family business behind to find greater opportunities. Now, she not only fears disappointing them but also fears her own weaknesses will keep her from ever realizing her dream. When she reveals a disappointing secret to her parents, Pen is immediately forced to …

Book Review: Race Against Time, Amanda Burrows

The Utah English Journal

US Supreme Court, 1923. More than 50 years after the ratification of the 14th amendment and the end of the Civil War, the promise of" equal protection of the laws" was under attack. Moore vs Dempsey was the first case where the federal court overturned the ruling of a state court; more significantly, it was the first case to rule in favor of a black defendant. Four years earlier, in Elaine, Arkansas, a meeting of sharecroppers at a local church had been bombarded with gunfire. After a few days of rioting, -five white men and an uncounted number of black …

God Is Not Fragile Coping With The Intensity Of Hosea’S Imagery And Life’S Most Severe Challenges, Seth N. Hord

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The book of Hosea is not for the faint of heart. Like many of the writings of ancient Israelite prophets, it is complex and intense and deserves a focused, serious study to fully appreciate the intensity of Hosea’s message. Anything less may leave the reader somewhat confused or even scarred by what Hosea says about God. But Hosea’s message is particularly powerful in helping us deal with life’s most intense and troubling circumstances. This paper attempts to address some of the striking images of Hosea in a way that will assist religious educators with helping students navigate some of the …

Highlights From The Spring 2022 Prospective Missionary Devotional, Marcus B. Nash

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This article is a transcription of the Spring 2022 Prospective Missionary Devotional featuring Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Seventy, with two future missionaries, Hannah Bingham and Carter Boswell, serving as hosts. The semiannual Prospective Missionary Devotional is presented by BYU Religious Education and the Utah Valley Institute of Religion. During the devotional, Elder Nash asked several current and future missionaries to answer questions about their experiences and the challenges they were facing. Following this portion, Elder Nash answered questions that the audience had submitted. The devotional concluded with Elder Nash giving prospective missionaries some crucial tips on how to …