Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying Helium Emission-Line Stars With The Condor Array Telescope, Julia Stewart

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Helium emission-line stars, including cataclysmic variables (CVs), AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) binaries, symbiotic stars, and X-ray binaries, are tracers of compact object binary populations in the Milky Way, and may be viable progenitor systems of Type Ia supernovae. Their space densities are not well constrained - just over 100 AM CVn stars are known out of a Galactic population that may be closer to 100,000. Identifying such systems in large numbers requires wide-field, narrow-band photometric surveys capable of detecting faint emission-line sources across significant sky areas.

In this thesis, I present a narrow-band photometric search for helium emission-line stars …

Building On Rented Land: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Women’S Digital Homeplace-Building On Tiktok, Monica Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) examined the lived experiences of seven Black women TikTok users, exploring how they describe and make meaning of TikTok as a space of digital expression amid algorithmic constraint and platform precarity. Grounded in Black Cyberfeminism, Critical Race Theory, and hooks’ (1990) homeplace theory, the study asked three questions: how Black women describe their use of TikTok; how they make meaning of the platform as a space of expression; and how they navigate platform instability, political threats, and content restrictions while maintaining authentic expression. Drawing on semi-structured Zoom interviews and analyzed using Smith et al.’s (2009) …

Reexamining The Croton Aqueduct: A Ward-Level Microhistorical Analysis Of Infrastructure And Cholera Mortality In 1849 New York City, Alexandria R. Toothman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work reexamines the Croton Aqueduct’s role in public health by shifting analysis from the citywide level to the ward level, revealing that infrastructure expansion did not produce uniform benefits across New York City. When the Croton Aqueduct opened in 1842, it was celebrated as an achievement that would deliver pure water and eliminate disease. However, only seven years after its opening, in 1849, cholera returned with greater force in the Sixth Ward. This work shows that the uneven distribution of Croton infrastructure corresponded with uneven cholera mortality rates, challenging narratives that present Croton as a singular triumph of urban …

Identifying Textual Predictors Of Early Termination In Clinical Trials In Medicine: An Explainable Machine-Learning Study, Rohan Ramnarain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

About one in five clinical trials in medicine ends early, wasting valuable resources and reducing the evidence available for developing life-saving medical treatments. This project uses a method called Trial2Vec, which is a self-supervised machine-learning method that converts clinical trial documents into dense numerical representations that capture their key design and clinical characteristics, to turn each proposed clinical trial’s written protocol into a compact numerical profile (a process referred to as embedding). These profiles are then paired with a predictive machine learning models to identify the words and phrases in the trial documents that can signal a higher risk of …

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems And The Principles Of Distinction And Proportionality, Nicholas Cromie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) challenge the core principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), distinction and proportionality, by delegating life-and-death decisions to algorithms rather than human judgment.  This dissertation examines whether LAWS can conform to these principles and, if so, under what conditions.  Through process tracing, the study traces the historical integration of disruptive weapons technologies, including chemical, biological, nuclear, and armed drones, into IHL-compliant frameworks or their exclusion via prohibition.  Each case reveals distinct pathways: outright bans for indiscriminate or inherently inhumane systems (chemical and biological weapons), normative restraint and limited acceptance despite destructive power (nuclear weapons) and phased …

Discovery Of Newly Resolved Filament And Extraplanar Gas In M33 With The Local Group L-Band Survey, Emma Taylor Kleiner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The proximity of the Local Group allows for unparalleled resolution of the structure and kinematics of the ISM while simultaneously observing the overall rotation of the galaxy. These nearby galaxies present the opportunity to probe stellar feedback processes in various galactic environments. M33 in particular, offers insight into the nature of the extended neutral gas and its relationship with the star-forming disk and the surrounding CGM, by way of its classic star-forming spiral and relatively undisturbed system. Outside of M33’s distinguished warp, the galaxy offers little evidence of satellites and shows few signs of interaction, begging the question of how …

“A Chill Wind Sweeps The High Places”: Audre Lorde’S And June Jordan’S Black Feminist Pedagogies For Remaking Higher Education, Maddie Albanese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this paper, I center the University as one site for radical pedagogy towards social justice.  This paper examines texts written on anti-racist, anti-sexist educational movements within the City University of New York, as well as archival materials from CUNY professors on the topic of radical, social justice-oriented learning. Conor Tomás Reed’s 2023 book New York Liberation School is one recent text on how CUNY activists dismantled the distinction between the University and its surrounding community, inextricably linking academic work with social-political activism. I take his extensive history of CUNY in tandem with various pedagogies developed by CUNY feminist educators …

Supramolecular Assembly In Short Peptide Systems For Selective Metabolite Recognition And Drug Nanoencapsulation, Maithreyi Ramakrishnan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Short peptides can form adaptive supramolecular assemblies, and understanding how minimal sequences organize around neurometabolites or hydrophobic cancer drugs enables the rational design of functional materials. This thesis combines molecular dynamics with experimental validation to establish design rules linking peptide sequence to emergent structure and function. Chapter 1 outlines the molecular determinants governing peptide assembly. Chapter 2 reviews computational workflows that reveal sequence-dependent conformations and supramolecular organization. Chapter 3 applies these principles to Dynamic Peptide Libraries which identify tetrapeptides that selectively interact with neurometabolites. Chapter 4 extends the same interaction-driven framework to design tryptophan-rich pentapeptides that co-assemble with kinase inhibitors …

Le Féminin-Fantastique: Entre Construction Symbolique Et Figuration De L’Altérité. Étude Des Figures Féminines Surnaturelles Dans La Littérature Fantastique Française Du Xixe Siècle, Ivana Prelevic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the féminin-fantastique in nineteenth-century French literature, arguing that supernatural female figures—vampires, animated objects, and revenantes—form a symbolic system through which the century negotiates anxieties surrounding sexuality, materiality, subjectivity, capitalism, mortality, and historical memory. Drawing on theoretical frameworks including Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, Barbara Creed’s monstrous-feminine, Marxist analyses of commodity fetishism, Freudian mourning, Derridean hauntology, and Georges Bataille’s theory of eroticism, the study analyzes works by Gautier, Féval, Mérimée, Maupassant, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, and Nodier. Through three thematic axes—the female vampire, the animation of feminine objects, and the female revenant—the dissertation demonstrates how the supernatural feminine destabilizes …

The Impact Of Multi-Brand Promotions On Visual Distinctiveness And Consumer Choice, Melanie Isabel Paul Austin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In cluttered retail environments, marketers must often decide whether to showcase a brand alone in a single-brand promotion, or alongside other brands in a multi-brand promotion. Prior research has explored the role that different retail promotions play in consumers’ choice contexts. This research explores how multi-brand promotion versus single-brand promotions impact consumers’ purchase behavior. Study 1 uses secondary scanner data to show that multi-brand promotions lead to significantly higher sales of the promoted product compared to single-brand promotions. Study 2 replicates our secondary data findings in a quasi-field study with actual choice behavior. A series of lab studies again confirm …

Managing Migration And Political Change: Lessons From Sweden’S 2015 Asylum Crisis For South Korea’S Emerging Immigration Era, Sean Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project is to analyze how two nations that have little in common in terms of geography or politics have been required to deal with immigration issues in ways that their institutions did not anticipate. One nation has been dealing with immigration-related issues for some time now, while the other nation has yet to do so. In 2015, when Sweden received approximately 162,000 asylum applications in one year alone, Sweden’s housing systems were strained, many of the municipalities were unable to keep up with the demand, and the political climate began to shift in ways that …

New Age Spirituality In Post-Secular Turkey: Navigating Secular Sensibilities And Class Privilege, Zeynep Ozbarlas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The conflict between religion and secularism has been one of the major forces shaping Turkey’s socio-political landscape since the late nineteenth century. With the radical secular turn during the founding of the Turkish Republic, secularism remained the dominant force until the rise of political Islam in the 1980s. This dissertation, grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, argues that New Age spirituality, adopted by the secular upper-middle class, has become an alternative venue for the reproduction of secular sensibilities and socio-economic privilege in contemporary Turkey, at a time when the two-decade tenure of the Erdoğan regime has undermined secular hegemony.

Although New Age …

Assessing The Influence Of Disability Views On Perceptions Of Hearing Aids Among Older Korean Adults, Stasha Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background

Age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis, is highly prevalent among older adults, yet hearing aid adoption remains low, in part due to concerns about stigma and negative social perceptions. This study aimed to examine whether attitudes towards disabilities influence perceptions of individuals wearing hearing aids among older Korean adults. It also explored the potential effects of cultural identity and the age of the individual wearing the hearing aid on these perceptions.

Methods

Ten participants completed the Attitudes and Perspectives on Persons with Disabilities (APPD) questionnaire and rated 8 different images of individuals (one younger male and one older …

Goddess In A Trash Can: Religious Ritual Disposal In New York City Public Parks, Zoe Oro-Hahn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religions, including Santería, Vodou, Espiritismo, and Las 21 Divisiones, utilize the New York City Public Parks system to hold rituals, connect with spirits and ancestors, and dispose of religious remains leftover from trabajos (workings) and brujería (witchcraft). Utilizing photos from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, my thesis considers the religious, political, social, and practical rationale behind this phenomenon, explores the rituals occurring, and provides policy suggestions that balance religious needs of practitioners with the safety and wellbeing of New York City’s parks.

Revolutionary Petunias In The Hallways: Adultification, Identity, And Black Girls’ High School Experiences, Renee Niles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how adultification, the racialized misperception of Black girls as more mature, responsible, and self-sufficient, shapes high school experiences and identity development. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory and Black feminist epistemology, the study draws on interviews with eight Black women to explore how these experiences are interpreted over time. The study conceptualizes adultification as a form of developmental governance, an ongoing structural process that regulates perception, behavior, and identity from adolescence into adulthood.

Reimagining Puerto Rican Sonic Identity: Musical Style And Creation After Hurricane María., Gabriel E. Bouche Caro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the manifestation of Puertorriqueñidad (Puerto Rican identity) in concert music composed after Hurricane María (2017), a catastrophe that catalyzed a profound shift in Puerto Rico's cultural consciousness. Focusing on four composers whose early careers were shaped by this period—Johanny Navarro, John Rivera Pico, Iván E. Rodríguez, and Christian Quiñones—the study combines close readings of scores and recordings with extensive original interviews to understand how musical identity is constructed in the wake of collective trauma. The analysis reveals that while the composers share a generational bond, their aesthetic practices are strikingly diverse: Navarro preserves Afro-Caribbean rhythmic structures, Rivera …

Algorithmic Problems In Automorphic Orbits Of Free Groups, Siobhan B. O'Connor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

One of the fundamental problems in the field of combinatorial group theory is telling when two group presentations represent isomorphic groups. Since applying a free group automorphism to the set of relators of a presentation gives an isomorphic group, we want to be able to quickly decide when looking at a relator whether a given word can be sent to it via an automorphism. We give a hands-on introduction to the automorphisms of free groups using patterns of colored beads. We show that you can make this decision correctly in constant time on average by looking for "orbit-blocking" words that …

Erosion And Accretion: Mobilities Of Sand, People, And Memory At Queer Riis Beach, Jah Elyse Sayers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York, is a vibrant place of queer and trans public-space placemaking—and especially Black and working class queer and trans placemaking. A distinct queer ecology emerges in the interplay of the dynamic movement of the barrier island, queer and trans—especially queer and trans Afro-diasporic—mobilities. This queer ecology, while articulated with, also defies and exceeds logics and workings of private property. In response to a convergence of pressures on Black, queer, trans, and working-class placemaking on the beach site in the 2020s, beachgoers have mobilized longstanding provisional socialities …

Whitney Extension Problem For Fractional Sobolev Spaces And Besov Spaces, Han Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the dissertation, we go through the development of the Whitney extension problem and prove a type of results for the Whitney extension problem for homogeneous fractional Sobolev spaces and homogeneous Besov spaces.

This dissertation consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1: We recall the history of the Whitney extension problem and talk about some early works which have been done for the Whitney extension problem. We also mention our new results.

Chapter 2: We introduce some basic notations, definitions and preliminary results.

Chapter 3: We show the existence of a bounded linear extension operator for homogeneous fractional Sobolev space L …

Exploring The Influence Of Ear-Level Devices On Adult Perceptions Across Professional, Social, And Educational Settings, Lucia R. Berry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: The hearing aid market is continuously advancing to address the increasing prevalence of hearing loss and the barriers to obtaining hearing aids. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Apple AirPods Pro 2 devices to function as over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. This is an alternative option to manage hearing difficulties; however, it presents secondary complications related to headphone use and stigma.

Objective: Limited research is available regarding attitudes towards individuals wearing Apple AirPods Pro 2 as OTC hearing aids. This study intended to analyze if people’s pre-established perceptions of Apple AirPods shift once they learn they are being used …

An Absolute Manner Of Seeing: Flaubert, 1848, And The Development Of Modernist Style, Nicholas Olson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines Gustave Flaubert’s Sentimental Education as a key work in the emergence of literary Modernism from the tradition of Realism. I begin by exploring the intellectual background of Realism in the works of Honoré de Balzac and the ties between this aesthetic theory and the theory of representative government: here I discuss the work of François Guizot, Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, J.W. Goethe, and Walter Scott as well as later thinkers like György Lukács, Pierre Bourdieu, Jürgen Habermas, and Jacques Rancière. From this, I demonstrate a commonly held theory of the social as a discreet totality, which makes …

How Temporal Integration And Complexity Drive Musical Enjoyment, August Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Music is a type of aesthetic stimulus that unfolds dynamically over time. Combining approaches from previous research on musical preferences and research on spatial integration as a driver of visual aesthetic appreciation, we investigated how the integration of musical percepts over time influences listener enjoyment and the level of agreement between the enjoyment ratings of each listener. We used a DNN tool to quantify temporal dependencies in 32 music clips and also computed complexity scores for them. Subjects listened to each music clip while using a rotating dial to provide a continuous enjoyment rating, changing the dial’s position at the …

Gramsci’S ‘Democratic Philosopher’ And The Concept’S Foundations In Marxian Social Ontology, Eli Recht-Appel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis deals with the term ‘democratic philosopher’ from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. In order to lay the groundwork for my distinct interpretation of the ‘democratic philosopher,’ I begin by providing an overview of Gramsci’s theory of the role of intellectuals in civil and political society. I then argue that the ‘democratic philosopher’ emerges from Gramsci’s typology of intellectuals but is a category which is both temporally and ontologically distinct from his more well-known concept of ‘organic intellectuals.’ ‘Organic intellectuals,’ intellectuals who co-develop alongside their fundamental social group or class, occupy a variety of cultural and political roles in …

Wageless By Design: Dependency In U.S. Visa Regimes, Cristina Ochoa Echeverri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone examines how U.S. dependent visa regimes create a population of migrants who are legally present but structurally excluded from paid work and independent legal status. Focusing on visa categories such as H-4, F-2, M-2, O-3, P-4, R-2, and TD, it argues that wagelessness is not incidental but structurally embedded in the legal design of temporary migration governance through employment restrictions, derivative legal status, and the tethering of dependents to a principal visa holder.

Using a qualitative, interpretive approach, this study draws on documentary and secondary sources as well as digital narratives from platforms such as Reddit. This capstone …

Policing Sex Trafficking: 'They’Re Never Taught, You Know', Anila S. Duro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research shows that victims of sex trafficking are most likely to first come in contact with the police (Baldwin et al, 2011; Twigg, 2017) and at times police have not been able to categorize cases of prostitution as trafficking even when trafficking elements were very clear (Dank et al, 2017; Dempsey, 2017; Farrell & Cronin, 2015). Despite the legal definition of trafficking, the terms prostitution, sex work, and sex trafficking are sometimes used interchangeably by law enforcement, whereas at other times, these words refer to different sets of circumstances and have different criminalization outcomes.  Research in this area is limited …

1d Crust-Magnetosphere Coupling Model For Magnetars, Kennedy M. Jeter

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Magnetars are the most extremely magnetized objects in the universe. Their strong magnetic fields generate high-energy magnetic flares with instantaneous luminosity that can outshine their host galaxy. Previous works have explored how Hall drift in the crust affects the dynamics of magnetic field lines in the magnetosphere. This work investigates how a change in the magnetosphere, such as a flare or an outburst, can excite Hall evolution in the crust. We investigate how the twisting and untwisting of magnetic field lines in a magnetar’s magnetosphere launches Hall waves through its crust using a one-dimensional numerical model. We use the Dedalus …

The Other Sodomites: A History Of Racial Queerness, Paris Shih

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Other Sodomites traces the "racial logic of sodomy" from the medieval to modern periods. Reading across a wide range of literary and cultural texts, including medieval tales, theological treatises, travel narratives, stage plays, topographical poems, and prose fiction, the current study explores the structural relationship between discourses of sodomy and pivotal moments of racialization in western history, from the Judaization of sodomy in the Middle Ages, through its Islamization and Catholicization during the global Renaissance, to the continentalization and orientalization of sodomy in the nineteenth century. Despite the shifting zones of sodomitic significance, there existed a persistent racial logic. …

Theatrical Agency In The Constitution Of Logical Space, Esther Marveta Neff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes advantage of our current moment of collapse and shifting episteme to move from resistance and critique into modes of position, prefiguration, and praxiocentricism, giving not only a critique of the colonial-modern logical space of Theatrum Mundi, but also aiming to configure the thetic consciousness that grounds “theatrical agency” in the logic of cognitive and social epistemological modelling.  In what ways do we “build our own worlds”? What does “theatricality” tell us about human agency, especially in the domain of “theoretical attitudes,” and “consciousness”? In what ways, and to what extent, are we responsible for constituting …

The New Middle Cinema: Aesthetic Restraint, The Urban Middle Class, And The Reconfiguration Of Mainstream Bollywood (2007–2017), Hasnatun Nabi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between 2007 and 2017, a distinctive wave of mainstream Hindi films, termed here as the “New Middle Cinema”, employed aesthetic restraint to reconfigure Bollywood’s identity in response to a rapidly changing India. Rejecting the industry’s traditional spectacle, melodrama, and visual opulence, these films embraced naturalistic visuals, grounded performances, character‑driven narratives, and a muted color palette. Drawing on industrial analysis, close textual reading, and audience reception data, this thesis examines seven representative films (Chak De India, Wake Up Sid, My Name is Khan, The Lunchbox, Piku, Kapoor & Sons, and Lipstick Under My Burkha …

Exploring Minor Feelings: Asian And Asian American’S Racialized Emotions, Identity, And Mental Health Amidst Covid-19, Kristina Mirasol Arevalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the central role of racialized emotions in shaping how Asians/Asian Americans (A/AA) experience, interpret, and respond to racism, yet these emotional processes remain underexamined in psychological research. Rather than treating emotions as outcomes of discrimination, this dissertation conceptualizes racialized emotions as dynamic processes through which structural racism is experienced, interpreted, and embodied in everyday life. This framework positions racialized emotions as a key mechanism linking racialized social contexts to identity development and mental health. Across three studies using qualitative and quantitative methods, I examine how racialized emotions shape racial meaning-making, ethnic-racial identity, and psychological well-being among …