Digital Commons Network^™

Less Self, Less Fear: Manipulation Of The Self Using Virtual Out-Of-Body Experiences To Alter The Conscious And Unconscious Experience Of Emotion, Dillon Freed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated whether adopting an out-of-body perspective in virtual reality (VR) reduces subjective and physiological emotional responses to vicarious pain stimuli compared to inhabiting a first-person embodied avatar. Twenty-four participants experienced two counterbalanced VR conditions: (1) Avatar Embodiment (AV), in which they inhabited a photorealistic avatar from a first-person perspective, and (2) a Virtual Out-of-Body Experience (vOBE), in which they observed their avatar from a displaced third-person perspective. In both conditions, participants viewed a standardized series of vicarious pain images while electrodermal activity was recorded and self-report measures of embodiment (AV) and disembodiment (the vOBE state), emotional intensity (a …

Cecil Taylor, 1950–1976: Theory & Practice In His Own Words, Michelle A. Yom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cecil Taylor (1929–2018) was a poet, composer, pianist, and dancer who is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of Free Jazz. Despite this historical significance, Taylor has not been a subject of substantial archival research. Some scholars have written his name into music scholarship through explicitly or implicitly reiterating the notion of “freedom” that circulated among contemporary jazz critics of the late 1950s and the 1960s. Others have focused on analyzing Taylor’s solo piano music, often reducing Taylor’s musical theories and practices into the formal structures of the music itself. To date, the scholarship has simplified Taylor’s work …

Protein Allostery Probed By Ligands Across Sites, Virgil A. Woods

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Allostery is a pervasive regulatory principle throughout biology, yet the structural pathways by which distal inputs alter active‑site chemistry within protein structures remain incompletely defined and exploited. This dissertation uses protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) as a tractable model to map those pathways with complementary experimental and computational tools. I integrate high‑resolution hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), room-temperature crystallography, NMR, steady-state kinetics, crystallographic pseudo-ensembles, and machine-learning-guided ligand discovery. The working premise is that regulation reflects redistribution within a conformational ensemble rather than a binary switch. That orthogonal perturbations by small molecules, mutations, and protein partners can be used to both …

Courts Of New York: A Visual Atlas Of The City’S Public Basketball Spaces, Nathaniel Rattner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Basketball courts in New York City are recreation facilities, community anchors and part of the city’s cultural image. In the basketball capital of the world, New Yorkers are rarely more than a few blocks away from a court. The visual diversity of these courts, however, is not widely documented in systematic ways.

This project makes that diversity visible to the public, combining open data, aerial imagery and computational analysis to document this important public space across the five boroughs. It is a narrative story and digital atlas of New York City’s public basketball courts, using surface color as a way …

Precarious Status, Essential Work: Migrant Labor, Social Reproduction, And The Politics Of Regularization In Covid Quebec, Jessie Lauren Stein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how migrant justice struggles in Quebec during and immediately after the COVID‑19 pandemic challenged and reshaped the cultural politics of membership in a neoliberal welfare state under strain. The research is centered on an ethnography of the Status for All campaign, a coalition effort spearheaded in Montreal to secure permanent immigration status for all people with precarious status in Canada. I situate pandemic‑era regularization efforts within overlapping crises of border governance, social reproduction, and federal–provincial relations. I argue that Quebec’s growing reliance on migrants with precarious status to sustain essential public social reproductive functions in care work, …

Calculated Risks: The Power Of Predictive Risk Models To Regulate Families Of Color, Ashleigh Washington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines predictive risk modelling (PRM) in New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS), specifically exploring AI-enabled design features, practices, and encoded and racialized assumptions about risk in child welfare prevention services. Guided by Critical Race Theory and the Algorithmic Ecology framework, this study traces how PRM in ACS evolved from a service termination tool into a broader, largely internal surveillance apparatus that leverages families’ personal information, including health information, to assess risk of future maltreatment and to evaluate contracted service providers. Drawing on analysis of public records and in-depth interviews with Black parents, the findings describe how …

Local Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (Ace2) Enzymatic Activity Modulates Cholinergic Interneuron Function In The Dorsolateral Striatum, Aria R. Walls

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The renin angiotensin system (RAS) is an ancestrally ancient peptidergic signaling pathway best known for its role regulating blood pressure in the periphery. However, its presence and importance in the central nervous system has more recently been identified and is less well understood. Previous work shows RAS is expressed in the nigrostriatal pathway of the basal ganglia and has been implicated in basal ganglia disorders including Parkinson’s disease (PD) and levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). Interestingly, the canonical and noncanonical arms of the RAS pathway produce opposite effects on PD disease vulnerability and progression. The shift from the neurodegenerative canonical RAS to …

Design Of Lithium-Based Battery Electrolyte Compositions For Extreme Operating Conditions Using Alternative Solvents, Co-Solvents And Additives, Michael J. Keating

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lithium-ion battery utilization is widespread due to relatively high capacity and long cycle life. Advanced technologies have specific demands of their energy storage devices that traditional Li-ion batteries are unable to meet. Lithium-ion batteries utilize a graphite anode which has a limited theoretical capacity. Traditional lithium-ion batteries also utilize flammable solvents in their electrolyte mixtures. Due to the flammable electrolyte, lithium-ion batteries are not considered practical for large scale applications. Additionally, the lithium-ion battery has a narrow optimal operating temperature window. The temperature limitation of lithium-ion batteries leads to issues for many applications such as operating in extreme temperature environments, …

The Rhetorical Agency Of Student-Parents: Assembling, Archiving, And Naming Practices And Interpretations That Transform Worlds, Dhipinder Walia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary project that uses interview data collected from six student-parents attending Bronx Community College during 2024 to 2025. Using rhetorical and critical discourse analysis, this dissertation argues student-parents enact their rhetorical agency to transform their college experience. Specifically, student-parents use their rhetorical agency to interpret time and place in a way that centers their own wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of their children. This dissertation focuses on interpretations and ordinary practices that reimagine what time and place can look and feel like on a college campus. Additionally, student-parents enact their rhetorical agency through ordinary practices …

Revolutionary Governance, Culture, And The Party-State In Postcolonial Guinea: Political Thought And Practice Under Ahmed Sékou Touré, M. Sekani Corbie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis reexamines the political thought of Ahmed Sékou Touré by taking seriously the theoretical ambition of the Guinean revolution. Rather than treating Touré as either a failed democrat or a mere ideologue, the study reads his writings and political interventions as a sustained attempt to resolve a core postcolonial problem: how to construct collective power and mass participation in societies fractured by colonial rule, economic dependency, and weak institutional capacity.

Through close readings of Touré’s major texts and the ideological materials of the Parti Démocratique de Guinée, the thesis reconstructs his theory of the Party-State as a distinctive …

Voices Of Agency: Unpacking Student Insights On Nysed Content Standards, Local Curricular Practices, Pedagogy In New York State Schools, And Their Educational Implications, Alprentice Ashanti Talibudeen Mccutchen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research sets out to explore the concept of agency in the context of education, including my distinction between passive agency and active agency, and how these distinctions have been taken up by scholars, educators, and policy makers. The core approach is based in an expansive inclusion of various perspectives on agency as a basis for developing a comprehensive framework of active agency as well as its opportunities for educational practices and outcomes. I am arguing that there is a gap—an agency gap—between the passive and active employment of agency. I am also arguing that there is an agency in …

The Correlation Between Racial Inequality And Rent Stabilization Apartments In New York City, Juan G. Mayancela

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The federal, state, and local governments have enacted policies to address housing issues in New York City. But have African Americans and Latinos benefited from these policies? To explore this, we conduct a case study of the history of rent-stabilization policy and use data from New York City agencies to contextualize these developments. We also apply Claire Jean Kim’s racial hierarchy framework to examine how White supremacy has shaped housing policy and its effects on communities of color. Our analysis shows that African American and Latino communities face disadvantages both in the number of rent-stabilized units and in access to …

New Fast Polynomial Root-Finders, Soo Go

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Univariate polynomial root-finding has been studied for four millennia and very intensively in the last decades. Our {\em black box root-finder} involves no coefficients and works for a black box polynomial, defined by an oracle (that is, black box subroutine) for its evaluation. Such root-finders have various benefits, e.g., are particularly efficient where a polynomial can be evaluated fast, say, is a sum of a small number of shifted monomials (x-c)^a.

Our root-finder approximates all d complex zeros of a dth degree polynomial p(x) (aka roots of equation p(x)=0) by using Las Vegas expected number of bit-operations within a factor …

The Radical Political Possibilities Of Asexuality And Aromanticism, Kirty Singh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the radical political potential of Asexuality and Aromanticism within queer theory, emphasizing their roles in destabilizing normative constructs of sexuality and romantic relationships. Employing mixed methods, including literature review, digital ethnography of online communities, and analysis of graphic narratives, the research examines how these identities challenge systemic systems such as compulsory sexuality, amatonormativity, and racialized discourses. Findings reveal that Asexual and Aromantic communities utilize flexible definitions and taxonomies to assert their identities, disrupt hegemonic gender and sexual norms, and foster coalitional politics that advocate for systemic change. The study underscores the importance of recognizing Asexuality and Aromanticism …

The Constant Cause Of Friction: Maud Mosher And Gendered Authority In The Indian Service And At Ellis Island, Ella Morton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the federal career of Maud Mosher, who, from 1893 to 1907, worked as an Indian Service boarding-school teacher, then a matron at Ellis Island. By analyzing Mosher’s extensive, complaint-driven correspondence and personnel files, as well as an unpublished memoir, I claim that her grievances represent a rare form of agency available to women in maternalist roles at Progressive Era federal agencies. Though Mosher’s superiors branded her complaints trivial, the substance of them reveals gendered hypocrisy and institutional contradictions inside two federal institutions dealing with racialized populations.

In both the Indian Service and the Immigration Service, Mosher …

Fbi National Stolen Art File: Lost Artifacts And Missing Data, Allison N. Arnold

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This data exploration project studies the FBI’s National Stolen Art File (NSAF). The NSAF is a repository for information on stolen artistic and cultural objects. By design, the objects in the NSAF should have distinguishing features and some monetary value, with a present minimum of $5,000 USD. As a public awareness tool, the objects in the NSAF should have a reasonable chance of being identified and potentially restituted in the future.

Using object data taken from the NSAF on August 25, 2024, my data exploration work includes a narrative of the data preparation process and a series of data visualizations. …

The Experiences Of The Transfer Of Learning Path: Msw's Perceptions Of Organizational Influences, Alexis Howard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public child welfare agencies make substantial financial and organizational investments to support workforce members returning to school to obtain advanced degrees, most notably the Master of Social Work (MSW); however, challenges remain in ensuring that newly acquired knowledge and skills are effectively and continuously applied into practice settings, a process known as transfer of learning. The work environment plays a critical role in shaping organizational conditions that either support or impede successful transfer of learning, yet empirical research remains limited in guiding public child welfare organizations to develop strategies that sustain educational investments and contribute to improved outcomes for children, …

Regional Geography And Tuning Systems Of Traditional Georgian Folk Music, Alex Kutubidze

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The project focuses on the traditional folk music of Georgia, mapping the geographical distribution of singing traditions across the country’s historical regions. Because vocal traditions and stylistic features of Georgian folk music vary significantly across historical regions, the project highlights these differences for the audience, which might be interested in learning Georgian folk music, seeking a basic understanding of its structure, or planning to visit the country for cultural or educational purposes related to folk music.  In addition, this work examines the tonal organization of Georgian traditional music, drawing on recent ethnomusicological research. It engages with ongoing scholarly discussions regarding …

Culture And Its Discontents: Versions Of Matthew Arnold From The 1860s To The 1980s, Jarrett Moran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between the 1860s and the 1980s, the concept of culture articulated by Matthew Arnold provided a widespread and persistent language for making claims about who was ready for inclusion in British politics and identity and who was not yet ready or even incapable of being included. Scholarship on Arnoldian culture has often focused on presenting just one version of Arnold, whether as a cultural elitist, a progenitor of literary studies, or proponent of “doing away with classes.” This dissertation instead shows that Arnold’s concept of culture was so pervasive and persistent because he could be appropriated and redefined by people …

A Critical Lens On Emotions And Learning: Shame, Loneliness, And Alienation In Community College, Mike Rifino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores how community college students make sense of and navigate their emotions related to learning. Community colleges are two-year public higher education institutions that primarily serve working-class and students of color, enrolling almost half of all current undergraduates in the United States, yet their experiences are rarely addressed by researchers. Drawing on critical theories (e.g., feminist politics of emotions, Black feminist/queer women of color theorizing), emotions in this study are conceptualized as socio-politically situated, shaped by institutions and ideologies distributed through power across intersecting social identities. Although emotion research in higher education has grown substantially in the past …

Typeface: Machine-Viewing Gentrification On Storefront Imagery In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Alexander Mcquilkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Gentrification—broadly, the replacement of a less powerful group by a more powerful one in an urban context—is oft-discussed in the popular press, but its definition is much-debated in the urban planning literature. Furthermore, academic treatments of displacement understandably focus on measurable yet fairly abstract indicators like changes in rent or income, whereas neighborhood change is often registered by residents on the ground using visual, but difficult-to-quantify markers like retail turnover. This project uses image recognition technology on a set of storefront photos to index the visual streetscape of a neighborhood, as well as to track changes to that portrait over …

Cartels As Foreign Terrorist Organizations? How Mexican Americans Think About U.S. Security Policy, Jesus J. Garcia-Gomez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the political, social, and security implications of the U.S. government’s designation of cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), with a particular focus on its effects on U.S.–Mexico relations and Mexican American communities. While existing research has extensively analyzed counterterrorism and cartels, there is still an open debate regarding the justification to designating cartels as FTOs. Additionally, there is a gap in the scholarship focus on Mexican American communities’ opinion. This study addresses both gaps by analyzing how terrorism labels reshape security cooperation, legal authorities, and public perceptions of cartels, violence, and drug addiction in Mexico and the …

At The Margins Of History, The Body Moves And Knows: Carmen As Myth, Flamenco As A Fugitive Form Of Knowledge Transmission, Inmaculada Zanoguera Garcias

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My research, grounded in decolonial historiography and performance studies, examines how Spain has historically relied on the exoticized Other for the construction of its national identity. At the center of my analyses is Carmen, the eponymous protagonist of French writer Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella Carmen. Through this dissertation, I attend to the process through which this fictional character turned into the enduring myth of Carmen—the Orientalized, quintessential Spanish woman—and the consequences that upholding this myth has on the real lives of women, historically and contemporarily. I depart from the assumption that this myth-making process emerged in response to Spain’s inability …

Voces Of Teachers And The Politics Of Literacy: A Case Study Of Multilingual Kindergarten In A Midwestern Urban District, Rachel Chapman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States is home to more international immigrants than any other country in the world with about a quarter of its children learning two or more languages while growing up. This study explored teachers’ experiences with children's home languages as they learned English for the first time in a kindergarten classroom. In kindergarten, children build their emergent literacy skills as they enter the beginning stages of reading, when children use letter sounds to decode words. Because teachers have largely been left out of the debate about policy formation and curriculum on teaching reading, this study focused on teachers’ experiences …

Good Mothers: Black Disabled Mothers & The Family Policing System, Siobhan Pokorney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Good Mothers: Black Disabled Mothers & the Family Policing System is a qualitative study utilizing 16 in-depth individual interviews with mothers who broadly identified as Black, disabled mothers who had at least one interaction with the family policing system as adults in or around NYC. The study examines the work these mothers engage in to navigate their identities and strategically present themselves as good mothers while facing state surveillance and oppressive systems (specifically the family policing system) which automatically frame them as “unfit mothers.” It traces their experiences and the identity work that they engage in through the anticipatory trauma …

Surviving Staten Island: Black Women’S Narratives Of Resilience, Motherwork, And Embodied Trauma, Jazmin Rivera

Student Theses

This oral history dissertation centers the experiences of six Black women who had formative experiences navigating hostile school and community-based settings on Staten Island during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Guided by a conceptual framework that draws on Black orality, Black feminist thought, and endarkened feminist epistemology, this study demonstrates how Black women were required to cross geographic and social boundaries to survive hostile conditions in Staten Island communities and schools. Findings from this study highlight Black women’s use of community cultural wealth to inform their survival strategies and resilience. At the same time, their experiences indicate the potential …

Micromobility In Nyc: 2025, Mike Owen Benediktsson Phd, Xuemeng Li Phd

Publications and Research

This report offers a statistical snapshot of micromobility across the city over a three-week period in late 2025. Our team of trained researchers systematically observed over 1,700 micromobility vehicles at 155 separate intersections across the five boroughs of New York City. Our primary findings describe overall patterns in the demographics of micromobility and vehicle behavior at city intersections, and show how this behavior is shaped by variations in infrastructure as well as individual-level attributes.

Oer Accessible Syllabus For Political Science 1100: Intro To U.S. Government, Carmen Melillo

Open Educational Resources

This is a sample OER accessible syllabus intended to create a cost-free Introductory level college course in Political Science and American Government.

Implementation Of The Framework For Great Schools: Lessons From New York City, Jay M. Langkamp

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the implementation of the Framework for Great Schools in the New York City Department of Education from 2015 through 2019. The study addresses a gap in the literature, specifically regarding NYC School Survey data and the relationship between it, school context, and student outcomes, at a time when families and district leaders regularly use publicly available school-level data to inform their decision-making, understanding how frameworks such as the Framework for Great Schools is essential. The Framework focuses on six elements: Rigorous Instruction, Supportive Environment, Collaborative Teachers, Effective School Leadership, Strong Family and Community Ties, and Trust. It …

Becoming Tricky In Measure For Measure: Isabella's Silences Revisited, Laura Kolb

Publications and Research

At Measure for Measure’s start, Isabella is presented as radically self-same, possessed of “no tongue but one.” By its end, she has helped orchestrate a bed trick and publicly lied about her sexual history. Measure for Measure presents trickery as a vehicle for truth-telling in the face of injustice that is both situationally specific—created by Angelo’s hypocrisy—and utterly mundane: a feature of being a woman in the world. Ultimately, the play suggests that trickery is woven into the fabric of femininity itself: into the repertoire of linguistic, embodied, and behavioral strategies women like Isabella develop in navigating masculinist systems, …