Digital Commons Network^™

Ai And Racism: 6 Reasons Black People Need Digital Literacy, Brianna A. Baker

Publications and Research

Key Points

• AI often reflects racial bias in its training data, which can distort how Black people are represented.
• Psychological stress increases when digital tools misunderstand or misinterpret Black experiences.
• Digital literacy strengthens emotional wellbeing by helping users recognize and counter biased outputs.

Government Regulations-Consumer And Worker Protection Laws Business Law, Lorelei Salas

Open Educational Resources

This assignment challenges the students to dive deeper into consumer and worker protection laws, by expanding their knowledge base or exploring personal experience with these issues.

French 124 Assignment: Film Review, Jovensel Ngamaleu

Open Educational Resources

This assignment will help students discuss a film by focusing on cinematographic and narrative techniques as well as the personalities and worldviews of the main characters. Students will thus be able to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills.

Propuesta Curricular Para La Asistencia Médica Bilingüe Orientada A La Concordancia De Lenguas Y La Interpretación Médica En Español, David Sanchez-Jimenez, Noemi Rodriguez, Justin Harnandan, Margarita Perez, Melissa Garcia

Publications and Research

Resumen: El presente trabajo describe el proceso para establecer una especialización secundaria bilingüe centrada en la comunicación y la interpretación médica en una universidad de Estados Unidos designada como Institución al Servicio de los Hispanos. Este nuevo título universitario brindará a los estudiantes bilingües de español e inglés especializados en el área de la salud la oportunidad de mejorar sus destrezas comunicativas para convertirse en competentes profesionales de la salud concordantes de lengua.

Abstract:This paper details the process to establish a new bilingual academic minor in health communication and medical interpretation at a United States university designated as a Hispanic-Serving …

Understanding Mental Health Crisis Response Through The Lens Of First Responders, Ella Gibson

Student Theses

Responses to mental health crises are becoming an increasingly contentious topic as cases of extreme police violence or fatality during a crisis are publicized in the media. Although first responders’ experiences with mental health crisis response have been explored in prior literature, there remains a lack of research that gathers data from multiple first responder roles and compares their experiences across groups. There is also a significant gap in research examining the perspectives of co-response teams. This study sought to gather qualitative data on the experiences of police officers, EMTs/paramedics, and co-response team members, and to explore their perceptions of …

Early Conceptual Sketches Of Blended Reality And The Precursor To The Bbs Quad (2022), David Smith

Publications and Research

This document contains two original hand-drawn conceptual sketches created in early 2022, representing the earliest visual formulations of what would later evolve into the Balanced Blended Space (BBS) framework. The drawings predate my first conversations with ChatGPT and were produced as part of my independent sabbatical research into blended environments, mediated performance, and human–machine interaction.

The first drawing examines human–computational mediation, perception, and internal mapping. The second sketch—later referred to informally as the “BBS Quad”—extends this idea by reconciling cognition–computation symmetry with physical–virtual spatial relationships. Published together, these images document the conceptual foundations of the BBS framework prior to its …

Eyewitness Consent To Be Video Recorded: Implications For Identification Accuracy And Confidence, Sarah Argüelles

Student Theses

Recently, a recommendation has emerged for law enforcement to record the full eyewitness identification procedure, recognizing the critical role eyewitness testimony plays in the justice system (Wells et al., 2020). However, in some states, such as New York, law enforcement is required to seek consent from witnesses before recording (Municipal Police Training Council & Division of Criminal Justice Services, 2017). Since this practice is relatively new, there has been limited research on how obtaining consent may affect eyewitness accuracy. It was hypothesized that obtaining consent to video record could be linked to a witness’s confidence in their identification, with higher …

A Protectorate Divided: The Otjimbingue Petition And Settler Contestations Of Railway Construction In German Southwest Africa, 1897–1902, Marta Millar

Publications and Research

Supporters of the State Railway in German Southwest Africa heralded its construction as ‘the dawn of a new era for the protectorate’ (Windhoeker Anzeiger, 27 October 1898). While railways did enable the expansion of colonial communities, not all settlers wrote as optimistically about this change as did the Anzeiger’s editor. Between 1897 and 1902, familial correspondence and debates in the protectorate’s first newspaper, the Windhoeker Anzeiger, reveal how various settlers negotiated the railroad’s transformative impact on colonial society and their everyday lives. Opposition voices argued that the railroad would harm the fragile colonial economy, serving only …

Lessons From Tiktok: Using Popular Social Media Platforms To Engage Gen Z, Debra Bernstein

Urban Library Journal

This study looks at how academic libraries in the New York City metropolitan area are using TikTok to engage with their communities, particularly students. It analyzes the most popular videos from five active library accounts, categorizing content types and measuring engagement through TikTok’s built-in metrics. Results indicate that humorous and lighthearted content consistently receives the highest engagement, while instructional or “how-to” videos tend to underperform. These findings suggest that while TikTok may not be the most effective platform for instructional outreach, it holds potential as a tool for visibility, community engagement, and humanizing the library’s presence. As students increasingly turn …

Global Development Theories At Your Doorstep, Jorge A. Alves

Open Educational Resources

This resource is an assignment for a course on the politics of international development (PSCI 230). This assignment will likely be a summative assignment either at the end of the first unit (where I discuss the different theories / approaches to development over time) or perhaps a substitute for the midterm exam. The goals of the assignment are A) for students to localize and critically ground existing global theories of development in their own lived experience / communities, and B) critically reflect on core assumptions and implications about the different conceptualizations of development (especially to see how these approaches might …

Queens College Paranormal Investigation, Ash Marinaccio

Open Educational Resources

This two-week module for MEDST 343W (Nonfiction Forms) invites students to explore the “paranormal” as a nonfiction form through experiential, critical, and creative engagement. Framing paranormal investigation as a documentary and narrative practice, the module examines how the genre functions across media (particularly television, podcasts, and documentary film) and how it intersects with questions of belief, storytelling, evidence, and place.

Through a site-based paranormal investigation on the Queens College campus, students will engage directly with the conventions and techniques used in nonfiction media to construct truth-claims, stage suspense, and shape narrative authority. Students will document, interpret, and reflect on their …

Place, Space, And Landscape: Discovering Queens Through Community Music And Performing Arts, Claudia Calì

Open Educational Resources

Place, Space, and Landscape: Discovering Queens through Community Music and Performing Arts is a graduate-level course designed to explore how music, dance, and theater can engage, reflect, and transform local communities through a critical pedagogy of place (Gruenewald, 2003) and service-learning experiences (Mitchell, 2008).

Intended for graduate students in music, visual, and performing arts, this interdisciplinary course blends theory and practice to help students: (1) gain awareness of the spatial dimensions of their artistic experience; (2) build meaningful connections and relationships of care with local communities; and (3) engage with the concept of reinhabitation (Gruenewald, 2003), situating learning within specific …

Queens Mindscapes: A Digital Field Research Project, Shonelle George

Open Educational Resources

This Open Educational Resource (OER) is designed for an undergraduate Introduction to General Psychology course at Queens College, CUNY. Titled “Queens Mindscapes: A Digital Field Research Project,” this assignment is part of a module that engages students in real-world psychological research grounded in the diverse communities of Queens, New York. Drawing from the Noba module from the course textbook, “Conducting Psychology Research in the Real World”, this resource emphasizes experiential learning through ethical, place-based inquiry.

Students will select a Queens neighborhood undergoing social, economic, or cultural change and use real-world research methods such as diary entries, experience sampling, or oral …

Queens: An Urban Palimpsest, Lee Norton

Open Educational Resources

Overview:

“Queens: an Urban Palimpsest” is a 2-3 week module about community archives, primary source research, and the importance of place in collective memory. It is centered around the digitally-accessible archival documents hosted by the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, NY.

This resource is offered in three parts: most substantially, five class sessions, written up as instructor scripts; second, a list of additional resources to scaffold the module, which, in its initial design and implementation, kicks off the second of three units in my College Writing I course; and, lastly, an outline of several possible ways of continuing beyond this …

Creating An Ofrenda, Sara Hinojos

Open Educational Resources

You do not need to be Mexican to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). What you need however is a deep and thoughtful cultural understanding of the practice. This lesson plan teaches students what Dia de los Muertos is, the influence of colonialism (past and present), how mainstream media understands the celebration in the U.S., and how local communities honor the celebration. This approach is from a media studies perspective and a particular focus on art, specifically altar making or making an ofrenda. Writer, philosopher, tejana Gloria E. Anzaldúa details that altars are “‘the sanctuary of the …

Notes From The Editor, Derek Stadler

Urban Library Journal

I am very pleased to welcome you to the first issue of the 31^st volume of Urban Library Journal. This issue includes articles about history and archives, training programs in librarianship, recommendations on how to improve the onboarding of librarians, and the social media platform TikTok.

Ethical And Legal Concepts For Pt, Clarence Chan

Open Educational Resources

This course introduces the topics of medical ethics and legal issues as applied to physical therapy practice. Students will have the opportunity to apply legal and ethical theories and concepts to analyze and discuss issues faced by healthcare practitioners. Ethical and legal standards set forth by the legal system in the United States, the Standard of Practice of New York State, and the American Physical Therapy Association core ethics documents will be explored. Students will also become familiarized with the various aspects of administrative, financial, quality improvement, and personnel management information as related to health care practice in the United …

Global Cities, Public Memories, Padmini Biswas

Open Educational Resources

I am attaching a lesson plan for a module in my URBST 206 Global Cities class, called “Global Cities, Public Memories.” Students will visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, then design a monument that honors their history here in Queens (or a place significant to them).

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of how global flows of capital, ideas, people, technology, and media impact and are represented in global cities like New York.
• Articulate the complex interplay between global events, local experiences, and the construction of public memory.
• Develop critical thinking skills regarding the design, purpose, and impact of memorials …

Finding Solutions: Meeting Essential Needs To Overcome Health And Educational Inequities Among College Students, Nicholas Freudenberg, Rashida Crutchfield

Publications and Research

Many economic, academic, and social factors influence college completion, and scholars have documented that a significant cause of students leaving school before graduation is that many do not have their basic needs for food, housing, and health care met. These barriers undermine their academic success by forcing students to reduce the time spent on their studies, work more hours, or stop out of school to support themselves or their families. Unmet essential needs jeopardize academic and life success for students in higher education across the United States and widen racial/ethnic and class inequities in college completion and health. Our review …

Clacls Reportage, Vol. 2, Tatiana Bertolucci Peixoto, Marcela Joya, Oscar Aponte, Ana María Granados Romero

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This second volume of the CLACLS Reportage Series is a testament to our ongoing commitment to public-facing scholarship that bridges academic research and the lived experiences of Latinx communities in New York and beyond. This edition brings together three distinct yet interconnected stories that speak to belonging, migration, and cultural transformation across generations.

Tatiana Bertolucci Peixoto follows the legacy of Marielle Franco, the Black, queer, favela-born activist whose political assassination in Rio de Janeiro reverberated around the world galvanizing a global network of resistance—from Brazil’s favelas to New York’s diasporic communities—turning her name into a living emblem of feminist, anti-racist, …

Enabling Coercive Drivers With Green Supply Chain Management Practices To Gain Performance Nexus Through External Collaboration And Monitoring, Aamir Rashid, Rizwana Rasheed

Publications and Research

Businesses primarily provide products or services, expand operations, and generate profits. However, they frequently disregard the environmental and economic consequences of their actions as they strive for profitability and growth. Consequently, the main objective of this research was to examine the impact of a multifaceted supply chain function on performance. Data were collected from 415 respondents employed in various manufacturing companies within a developing economy. The hypotheses were evaluated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS. The findings discovered that ten of the thirteen hypotheses tested were supported, while three were not. Coercive drivers were observed to significantly influence …

Writing Workshop Journal: A Student-Centered Guide For College Composition, Tanya Zhelezcheva

Open Educational Resources

This comprehensive OER workbook supports ENGL 101 (Composition) students through a structured journal-based writing system. The resource combines Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles with post-process pedagogy to offer diverse pathways for student learning and writing development.

The workbook features:

- 4-component journal entry structure (exercises, reflection, next steps)

- 40+ writing exercises across four categories (Foundation Skills, Reading Logs, Drafting, Growth Mindset)

- Extensive planning and organizational tools (weekly/monthly calendars, goal-setting frameworks)

- Metacognitive reflection exercises that build writing awareness - Backward planning and time management strategies

- Evidence-based approaches to developing thesis statements, integrating sources, and crafting arguments …

Rape Myth Acceptance, Pretrial Publicity, And Decision-Making: An Examination Of Perceptions Of Victim Credibility And Perpetrator Guilt In A Real-World Sexual Assault Case, Lindsey Strouse

Student Theses

This study explores how the media narratives and political perspective of pretrial publicity (PTP) can influence jurors’ perceptions in sexual assault cases, raising significant concerns about justice in courtrooms. Specifically, it examines whether media framing of a real-life sexual assault case — through varying media narratives, with media that either challenges or endorses rape myths, and media source (liberal vs. conservative) — affects mock jurors’ rape myth acceptance (RMA), views of victim credibility, and judgements of perpetrator guilt. Participants first completed a RMA scale, then read mock news articles varying in media narrative and political affiliations (media source), followed by …

Engagement By Design: Belongingness, Cultural Value Orientations, And Pathways Into Emerging Technologies, Daisuke Akiba, Michael Perrone, Caterina Almendral, Rebecca Garte

Publications and Research

This theoretical article examines how belongingness, defined as the sense that one’s participation is legitimate and valued, interacts with cultural value orientations to help explain persistent disparities in U.S. technology engagement, including emerging technologies, across racial and ethnic groups. While structural barriers (e.g., racism, poverty, linguistic bias, etc.) remain essential to understanding such inequity, we argue that engagement patterns in technology also reflect how different cultural communities may define and experience belongingness in relation to digital domains. Drawing on Triandis and Gelfand’s framework, and focusing specifically on educational contexts, we propose the Belongingness through Cultural Value Alignment (BCVA) model, whereby …

Designing Equity-Focused Pedagogy In Mathematics Teacher Preparation With Digital Data Tools, Nadia Stoyanova Kennedy, Boyan Kostadinov, Sandie Han

Publications and Research

This study examines the implementation of a course module that integrated computing and data analysis. The module aimed to engage prospective mathematics teachers in the practice of working with datasets and analyzing data to investigate questions related to local Brooklyn schools, as well as to gain deeper insight into the students and communities where they conduct their field experiences. Throughout the module, teacher candidates explored issues such as student learning opportunities, achievement gaps, school segregation, educational (in)equity, and other social justice concerns through readings, data analysis, and direct engagement. They shared and reflected on their findings with peers, deepening their …

Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project: Reflecting On Identity And Oral History At A Community College, Thomas Cleary

Publications and Research

In this article, I share narrators’ stories from the Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project based at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, to illustrate how Covid-19 and increased anti-Asian hate during the pandemic shaped Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identities in Queens, New York. Narrators’ stories shed light on how Black Lives Matter impacted their own understanding of race and racialization, particularly as AAPI identity and race relate to the Model Minority Myth. This project also laid the groundwork to develop a broader oral history culture at the college, developing faculty pedagogy to incorporate oral history interviews and interviewing into …

Observing Language & Literacy In Real-World Contexts: Applied Field Observation Assignment, Chanda Huston

Open Educational Resources

This assignment guides undergraduate early childhood education students through three structured observations of children’s language and literacy behaviors in authentic environments such as homes, classrooms, and community spaces. Students learn to record objective, descriptive notes; analyze communication through developmental and sociocultural lenses; and connect their interpretations to meaningful curriculum planning. The assignment emphasizes professional skills essential to early childhood educators, including documentation, theoretical application, and reflective practice, helping students deepen their understanding of how young children use language and engage with emerging literacy in everyday contexts.

Become A Crea(I)Tive Director: Working With A.I. (Digital Illustration, Art29526-2kn, Graded Assignment, Fall 2025), Broderick Shoemaker

Open Educational Resources

Students choose a brand to give a visual identity overhaul. They assume the role of creative director and are tasked with using a.i. chatbots – their "workers – to create the required assets.

The Case For Racial Literacy, Joni Schwartz

Publications and Research

Racial literacy is widespread in America, and as adult literacy educators our mission is to address illiteracy in all its manifestations. We teach literacies in reading and writing, numeracy, computer, speaking, listening, visual, health, and media, each vital to making sense of our world and functioning effectively in it. Racial literacy is just as vital and should be taught as well. I argue that racial literacy is critical to a meaningful civic and community life. Some scholars believe it is critical to the perseverance of democracy. At the very least, many adult learners do not possess an understanding of what …

Cross-Cultural Validity Of The Ppi-R In U.S. College Students, Cassidy Liang

Student Theses

Psychopathy has traditionally been studied using Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) but self-report measures like the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) have gained popularity due to comparative ease, speed of administration, and its broader applicability to the general population. However, the validity of the PPI-R across cultures has produced mixed results, particularly in non-Western and non-English speaking participants. This study examined racial/ethnic and gender differences in the PPI-R in a diverse sample of 536 college students. The internal and external validity of the PPI-R was good. The PPI-R correlated with the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), as well as trait anxiety, and empathy …