Digital Commons Network^™

One Family Under Kim:, Jared Johnson

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K. or the state), as one of the most isolated and controlled states in Asia, has since its founding attempted to shape the culture and ideology surrounding the family construct to support the rule of the socialist regime and its leaders, the Eternal President, Kim Il Sung, and his successors. In Korea, like the rest of East Asia, the traditional family unit has been a central societal structure for centuries. Largely based upon Confucianism, the nuclear family—referring generally to the biological family unit of parents and children—has determined not only the lifestyle and livelihood …

Cultivating Seeds Of Virtue:, Sarai Brown

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Human beings have long been concerned with the question of human nature. Countless media—both academic and creative— have devoted much time to the pursuit of whether humans, at their very basic core, have inherently good or evil natures. While many in the Western world are familiar with the debates between the likes of Hobbes and Rousseau, this topic has also been a major theme of Chinese philosophy. Of the two choices between good and evil, which is the natural inclination of humanity and which is a deliberate deviation from our original position? This is the approximate question that Chinese philosophers …

Motherhood In K-Drama:, Rebecca Dewitt

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Memory is a funny thing. We look back on the past experiences in our lives and some appear crystal clear to us, others murky. The truth is, every memory is warped by time and shifting perspective, and it is rare that our memories are truly and entirely accurate to the actual events that occurred. The same can be said with history and peoples—–the collective memory of a group works much in the same way as the memory of the individual. Past events and experiences are somewhat warped through current ideas, emotions, and experiences. This is not wrong per se, it …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The State Of The State: Teacher Edition, Rena Lesué

The Utah English Journal

Mr. Cox clears his throat.

Do we have someone who can take the minutes?

Mrs. Weber? Please?

She tap-taps some papers into order

and pauses to peer down at

a dirty sketch on the surface

of the student desk she occupies.

One hand snakes into her canvas tote

and retrieves a hanky.

She spits into it and smudges

the drawing

into a grotesque

fingerprint.

The Future Of The English Class Essay: Reimagining Multimodal Composition In The Chatgpt Era, Taylor Rose-Dougherty, Christy Goldsmith

The Utah English Journal

As English teacher educators, we are on the frontlines of navigating the technological elephant in the 2025 writing classroom: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini that can produce pages of text in mere seconds. English teachers’ philosophies on GenAI are as diverse as their preferred novels or their favorite poets. But, as the two dozen publications in major English education journals1 in the past two years suggest, what is at stake is not the end of high school English (Herman, 2022), but the opportunity to give it a makeover (Herman, 2023) by reimagining what writing experiences …

Teaching Students To Write For The Future By Writing For The Present, Amber Jensen, Meridith Reed

The Utah English Journal

“When you get to eighth grade, you’ll need to know how to write a topic sentence.”

“The five-paragraph essay will prepare you to write in high school.”

“College professors expect you to accurately cite your sources in MLA format.”

“When you graduate from college, you need to be able to write a professional email.”

Perhaps you heard messages like these from your writing teachers as you moved through middle school, high school, college, and into your careers. We certainly did. And perhaps, like we have, you have been a writing teacher in a middle school, high school, or college classroom …

Challenging The Stereotypical Latina In Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land And The Poet X, Victoria Olsen Yates

The Utah English Journal

Book banning has become a trigger phrase in the United States, and schools have become book-banning hubs. In the 2023–2024 school year, PEN America recorded 10,046 book bans. Among the most commonly banned books, 44% included people of color (BIPOC) and 39% included LGBTQ+ individuals (Meehan, Baêta, Markham, & Magnusson, 2024). Banning books harms marginalized youth because they will not see themselves in literature, causing them to have a distorted view of the world. Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) explains this further in her idea that books can serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Bishop illustrates how books can …

After All, Megan Russell

The Utah English Journal

After all the voices of the day have quieted down,

I think.

After all the pencils have been lost, some sharpened

to nubs, others scattered through the hall,

I wonder.

After all the paper has been crumpled and used up,

I ponder.

Out Of The Office: Market Impacts Of Institutional Investor Distraction, S. Owen Davidson, Michael S. Drake, James R. Moon Jr., James D. Warren

Faculty Publications

Research has long recognized that institutional investors possess significant information processing advantages. Yet even these investors face limited attention constraints, implying that periods of distraction may attenuate their advantage. We examine the effects of a plausibly exogenous shock to institutional attention arising from the annual buy-side focused Equity Research and Valuation (ERV) conference for Chartered Financial Analysts on institutions’ information processing. Validation tests using conference call data indicate that fewer buy-side analysts are present on calls during ERV conferences and that questions are shorter, consistent with the presence of substitute or backup analysts. In our main analyses, we find that …

Developmental Themes Associated With Religious Activity After Early Return From A Latter-Day Saint Mission, Samuel E. Hancock, Sam A. Hardy, Michael Goodman, Camron Angell, Jenae M. Nelson

Faculty Publications

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, qualified young men are expected (and young women are given the option) to complete extended missionary service during the transition to adulthood. Some youth end their missionary service short of the anticipated duration, which is associated with markedly lower rates of religious activity post-return. This study is a qualitative inquiry into the developmental themes associated with early returned missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who chose to remain active (be consistently involved with the church), sampling from areas with high rates of Latter-day Saint activity, where stigmatization …

Flowers Of Petra: The Identification Of Floral Motifs On Nabataean Painted Fine Wares, Jacob Samuel Blood

Theses and Dissertations

The Nabataeans are notable for their eggshell-thin fine ware pottery on which they often painted plant motifs. Since the discovery of these painted fine wares, several archaeologists have attempted to identify some of the plants depicted on the vessels. However, these attempts have often been incidental and not explicitly systematic. The purpose of this study is to apply the principles of plant taxonomy to identify eleven flower motifs that are depicted on Nabataean fine wares and to then determine what significance these flowers held for the Nabataeans. By using the principles of plant taxonomy, this thesis was able to confidently …

The “Four Concentric Circles Of Russian”: Toward A Model, Timothy G. Reagan

Russian Language Journal

Braj Kachru suggested that one way of understanding the role and use of English around the world was to distinguish among three concentric “circles”: the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle. In this article, I will use Kachru’s model as the foundation for the development a similar model for positioning the Russian language in the contemporary world. The historical differences in Anglo-American linguistic expansion and Russian linguistic expansion lead to somewhat different divisions among speakers of the respective languages. The model proposed here has four concentric circles: an inner circle (consisting of the Russian …

Spotlight: Resources For Ukrainian, Margaret Godwin-Jones

Russian Language Journal

The Digital Resources Corner (DRC) offers reviews of new digital resources that could be beneficial in the teaching and/or learning of Slavic languages. It is intended for instructors looking for or evaluating different materials to use in the classroom.

Teaching Russian Verbs Of Motion Through Russian-Language Cinema: A Cognitive Perspective, Sergei Motov

Russian Language Journal

The practice of foreign language teaching is paradoxical in nature. On the one hand, such teaching is communicative; on the other hand, it often continues to rely on structuralist linguistic theory, which contradicts its communicative nature. In the case of teaching Russian verbs of motion to second-language learners, the dynamic nature of these verbs is often considered not dynamically, but statically—in the form of abstract textual examples or static images—which is also paradoxical. Such an abstract treatment of verbs of motion contradicts a number of postulates of modern cognitive science and certain areas of cognitive linguistics. From the perspective of …

Perspectives Of Russian Language Educators On Meeting The Needs Of Heritage And L2 Learners In Mixed Classes, Maria Goebert

Russian Language Journal

In less commonly taught languages, such as Russian, heritage and non-heritage learners often share the same classes. Teachers in these settings must differentiate instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students. Online teaching adds an additional layer of complexity that instructors must address in their course design. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of 12 Russian language educators, working across various educational settings, on the language learning needs of heritage and non-heritage learners in mixed classes. It examines how these teachers adapt their instruction to support their students and meet the demands of different teaching modalities. The study also …

Dynamic And Stable Motivation Patterns In Intensive Second Language Learning: Insights From A Russian Summer Immersion Program, Dmitrii Pastushenkov

Russian Language Journal

Understanding what shapes student motivation is essential to improving second language (L2) programs. While motivation is among the widely studied individual differences (IDs) in second language acquisition (SLA), research has largely focused on commonly taught languages, limiting broader applicability. This mixed-methods study, grounded in Dynamic Systems Theory (DST), explores the motivational development of learners studying a less commonly taught language (LCTL), Russian, during an eight-week summer immersion program. Data were collected from 52 students across four instructional levels. Motivation was assessed through two brief online surveys, developed based on research by Gardner, Dörnyei, Lanvers, Thompson, and others, and administered during …

The Mediating Role Of Positive Psychology: Mindfulness And Learner Beliefs In The Russian Language Classroom, Kelly Knickmeier Cummings

Russian Language Journal

Language learning is an inherently emotional process, shaped by both positive and negative experiences that influence the individual difference of learner beliefs. This article explores the mediating role of positive psychology (PP) in second language acquisition (SLA), with a particular focus on mindfulness and its potential to reshape learner beliefs in the Russian language classroom. Drawing on theories such as Seligman’s PERMA model and Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory, as well as evidence-based interventions, the article argues that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) provide practical tools for cultivating positive learner beliefs and inclusive, growth-oriented classroom environments. Examples of MBIs—including practices of noticing, savoring, exploring …

Replanteando Wash: Vías Innovadoras Para Abordar El Agua, La Salud Y La Pobreza, Erica L. Jensen, Emma Indart, Faith Manchester, Sebastian Dorantes, Isabelle Stoddard

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

El acceso al agua potable y a un saneamiento adecuado (WASH) es un tema fundamental para la salud global y la dignidad humana, pero millones de personas aún carecen de estos servicios esenciales (National Geographic Society, 2025). En 2024, UNICEF estimó que aproximadamente tres cuartas partes de la población mundial tienen acceso a servicios de agua potable "gestionados de forma segura", dejando a unas 2,100 millones de personas sin agua potable confiable(UNICEF, 2025). La cobertura de saneamiento está aún más rezagada, ya que aproximadamente 3,400 millones de personas carecen de servicios de saneamiento gestionados de forma segura y 1,700 millones …

The Nonlinguistic Factors That Predict Spanish Oral Proficiency, Merrie Kay Ames

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the predictive power of self-assessment and nonlinguistic factors in determining Spanish oral proficiency among university learners. Drawing on data from 2,475 undergraduate students enrolled in a third-year Spanish course at Brigham Young University, the research examines how self-assessed speaking ability and experiential background variables--including age of acquisition, mission service, dual immersion, and study abroad--influence Oral Proficiency Interview - Computer (OPIc) scores. A one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant but modest relationship between students' calibration (self-assessment minus actual ability) and their OPIc ratings, suggesting that learners can generally approximate their speaking proficiency within two sublevels. A multiple regression …

Structural Framework And Tectonic Implications From Field Investigations In The Ramelau Mountains, Timor-Leste, Tanner A. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in petroleum exploration off the southern coast of Timor-Leste and emerging mineral discoveries onshore have underscored the need for a more comprehensive structural understanding of the nation's geology. Although new structural models have been proposed for other parts of Timor, limited progress has been made toward developing detailed models for the Ramelau Mountains, which presents the highest structural relief of the Timor Ranges. Previous mapping in this area has been largely reconnaissance in nature and focused primarily on surface bedrock geology. This study presents a new 1:62,500-scale geologic map and a geometric structural analysis of the Ramelau region …

Three Case Studies Of Transformative Learning In A Service-Learning Anthropology Course, Elizabeth S. Schulte

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the processes of personal transformation of three students enrolled in a service-learning based course that I taught at Brigham Young University. Informed by my observations as instructor of the course, in the analysis below I draw upon these students' weekly personal reflection essays to describe the process of individual transformation of these three students across the semester. This accounting provides insight into aspects of and contributing factors to that growth. I propose that a service-learning based course design with a framework of anthropological theory is a good way to facilitate transformational educational experiences. Aspects of service-learning such …

Understanding Asynchronous Learning For Moana Communities By Moana Educators In The Digital Vā, Theresa Pamela Onesemo-Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic shift from face-to-face learning to an online learning modality for learners globally. Moana (Pacific) communities of all ages were affected by the change due to the existing digital divide that remains an issue today. Research on culturally responsive learning pedagogy for Moana communities prior to the pandemic focused on in-person experiences. Navigating the vā (the relational space between all things) to engage with Moana communities was difficult for teachers during pandemic lockdowns. Online learning in Moana communities is an emerging field of research and has typically focused on synchronous learning. Instead, in my research …

Language Attitudes And Maintenance Within Latino Families In Utah County, Megan Elise Magleby Townsend

Theses and Dissertations

While there has been research done on Latino individuals' and parents' language attitudes and maintenance practices, there is little known about children's language attitudes and their perceptions of their parents' views towards both Spanish and English. This thesis looks at what the current picture is in terms of Spanish maintenance in Utah County's immigrant families as well as those factors that affect the parents' language attitudes and maintenance efforts. This study also seeks to fill the gap in the literature concerning what children (ages 8-13) think of English, Spanish, their respective cultures, as well as their possible plans to pass …

A Systematic Study Of Passkey User Experience Consistency, Bernhardt Ramat

Theses and Dissertations

Passkeys have emerged as a more secure authentication method than passwords, providing a passwordless alternative resistant to phishing and credential theft attacks. Despite their growing adoption, a systematic study into the user experience of passkeys across various websites has yet to be conducted. Usability heuristics suggest that users transfer their expectations from one product to another, and therefore, inconsistencies in passkey deployments can increase cognitive load, resulting in frustration and possible rejection. To address this knowledge gap, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the external functional consistency of the passkey user experience across 111 websites. Our research reveals that …

Cybernest: A Step Forward For Training Cybersecurity Professionals, Justin Mott

Theses and Dissertations

The growing complexity of cyber threats has exposed a critical gap between academic cybersecurity education and the operational demands of the workforce. This thesis presents a pilot study for a use-case of CyberNEST, a simulation-based training platform that integrates adversary emulation and threat-informed learning to create realistic, hands-on experiences for cybersecurity students.(17) The system was designed to replicate Security Operations Center (SOC) environments and incident response workflows, allowing participants to investigate, analyze, and respond to simulated attacks under authentic conditions. This pilot-study performed training simulations using the CyberNEST platform, developed by Brigham Young University, with students, collecting data from pre- …

Exploring The Individual Relationships Of Mothers' And Fathers' Parenting Styles With Emerging Adults' First-Term Gpa, Tiffany Fox Okeke

Theses and Dissertations

Parenting styles have most often been studied through the lens of adolescent academic outcomes but less is known about how mothers' and fathers' parenting styles influence academic performance separately, especially during the critical transitionary period to post-secondary education. This study examines how mothers' and fathers' parenting styles distinctly shape emerging adults' first-term academic outcomes during their postsecondary education, with a focus on the dimensions of parental warmth and control. The study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 dataset and the NLSY97 Post-Secondary Transcript Data focusing on the 1997-2005 cohorts (N=3,478) along with OLS regression analyses to predict emerging …

The Role Of Dust Inputs And Sediment Phosphorus Diffusion Into Utah Lake, Utah, United States Of America, Kristen E. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Human activities have led to excessive nutrient enrichment which is greater than lake systems can naturally assimilate. This process is known as eutrophication and it is driving significant algae growth resulting in the more common release of harmful toxins. Utah Lake, located in Utah County, UT is one such water body that even after major reductions in anthropogenic phosphorus influent, continues to experience frequent, harmful algal blooms. The extent to which natural processes, like atmospheric dust deposition and sediment recycling, contribute to the lake's phosphorus budget is still poorly understood.

To address this gap of knowledge, this study quantified phosphorus …

Kuleana Mākua: Native Hawaiian Parents' Exercise Of Agency In K-12 School Selection, Joseph Piikeha Kahaka`Ulamaikalaniki`Eki`E Hao

Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative study the author investigates how Native Hawaiian parents on Hawai`i Island navigate educational choices for their children amidst a history of centralized, Western-dominated schooling and systemic cultural suppression. Grounded in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the research explores parent perceptions of different K–12 school types and the complex factors that drive their selection. Through semi-structured interviews and a card sort activity with sixteen Native Hawaiian parents (n = 16), the study confirms that parental choice is fundamentally an act of indigenous self-determination defined by Kuleana Mākua (parental responsibility, authority, and privilege). The findings reveal that parents’ choices …

An Analysis Of Ukrainians' Language Attitudes And Ideology: A Conflict-Catalyzed Language And Identity Shift, Kateryna Kravchenko

Theses and Dissertations

On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. According to Vladimir Putin's speech, the main goal of the war was to protect the Russian-speaking population of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Many Ukrainians indeed speak Russian on a daily basis, largely due to the long and complicated history between the two countries. Recently, there has been an increase in pro-Ukrainian ideologies (Kulyk 2016); however, as the full-scale invasion began, people started advocating for Ukrainian usage in all public domains, and many even vowed to never speak Russian again. Since then, there has been a profound change in language …