Digital Commons Network^™

Finding Luis: A Creative Nonfiction Account Of Law & Society, Jason M. Leggett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay explores the contradictions in legal theory and human experience through creative nonfiction. Its main purpose is to argue that a truly just society requires acknowledging the profound influence of individual narratives on the law. This is supported by blending personal narratives, critical analysis, and philosophical inquiry to reveal the gap between codified law and lived realities for marginalized individuals. This unique Legal Poetics methodology employs a series of six vignettes, such as the author's and Luis's shared experiences with traumatic brain injury and the denial of justice, as data. By integrating autoethnography, law as narrative, and performativity theories, …

Introduction To Phonology Ling 323, Ibrahim Abu Elrob

Open Educational Resources

The sound system of languages and underlying representation of the sound structure and lexicon. Analysis of data from different languages; investigation of the differences and similarities in the sound systems of different languages. Exploration of language universals.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Hie 337 Modern Russian History, Rhiannon L. Dowling

Open Educational Resources

The 19^th and 20^th centuries in Russia were a time of unprecedented creation and destruction. During this period the Russian Empire—arguably the most politically backward nation in Europe—transformed into the Soviet Union—the most radical modern political experiment in history. The life of the Soviet Union is itself bookended by the two most unlikely and unexpected moments in world history: the Russian Revolution at one end, and the collapse of the Soviet empire on the other. And decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, experts are still debating what finally precipitated the sudden death of an empire that seemed for …

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.

Advanced Experimental Learning And Behavior Analysis Lab Manual, Holly R. Weisberg, Sally Izquierdo

Open Educational Resources

Classroom and online lab exercises for a learning and applied behavior analysis course.

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.

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, …

Livestreaming A Doitocracy: Platform-Jumping Participatory Practices In Modular Synthesis Gear Cultures, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Earth Modular Society (EMS) is a cross-platform community dedicated to live hardware modular synthesis, with their primary efforts going into a 24/7 modular “radio station” that livestreams on Twitch and YouTube, and a supporting Discord chat server. Although part of the broader modular synthesis gear culture (a large-scale social formation that coalesces around specific classes of fetishized technical objects), EMS represents a new development in gear cultures as it foregrounds live performance and minimizes the accrual of status via conspicuous consumption. The normative governance structures of platform-specific gear culture communities preclude all but one or a handful of users from …

Urgent Expertise, Explored Together: A Scholarly Communication Peer-Mentoring Group, Alex Crowley, Lily Susman, Rosemary Farrell, Michael Kahn, Caroline Jedlicka, Eric Silberberg, Michelle Ehrenpreis, Marta Bladek, Jill Cirasella

Urban Library Journal

In Spring 2025, the authors participated in a structured peer-mentoring program designed to deepen their knowledge of scholarly communication topics and issues. In this article, based on our panel at the 2025 LACUNY Institute, we share our perspectives on the program and discuss how current events are making scholarly communication expertise more essential than ever.

Notes From The Editor, Derek Stadler

Urban Library Journal

I am very pleased to welcome you to the second issue of the 31^st volume of Urban Library Journal, which is a collection of proceedings from the LACUNY Institute held on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 as a hybrid event at City College of New York. The theme of the Institute was “The Persistent Record: Preserving Knowledge in an Uncertain World.” It explored challenges faced by librarians and information professionals across our profession. Presentations delved into the preservation of politicized data, intellectual freedom, censorship, and how information professionals can navigate these challenges in an ever-changing world.

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.

Following The Thread: Maria Lai’S 1981 Legarsi Alla Montagna, Claire Borre

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Maria Lai’s (1919-2013) Legarsi alla montagna (1981), a three-day, relational project in which seventeen miles of ribbon were wound through the Sardinian town of Ulassai. In its conception, execution, and legacy, Lai’s project represented a significant challenge to traditional monumentality.

Negotiating Sacred Space: Monastic Endurance And The Spatial Politics Of Sistematizare In 1980s Bucharest, Symantha G. Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

Under Ceaușescu's 1980s Sistematizare program, Bucharest's Orthodox monasteries sustained sacred life through "negotiated resilience": ritual repetition and spatial adaptation under surveillance and constrained visibility. Văcărești, Mihai Vodă, and Antim map a spectrum—erasure, relocation/concealment, and institutional negotiation—complicating binaries of resistance and collaboration.

Retroactive Eligibility Waivers: Innovative Or Ineffective?, Mohamed Kacem Benyamine

Theses and Dissertations

Medicaid’s retroactive eligibility provision covers medical expenses for beneficiaries up to 90 days before the application date. Retroactive eligibility insulates uninsured, low-income households from expensive healthcare emergencies. New Hampshire, Arkansas, and Iowa recently obtained waivers to end retroactive coverage. Using a difference-in-differences design and data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, I evaluate whether changes in retroactive coverage affect enrollment rates and self-reported health. Removing retroactive eligibility has no statistically significant effects on insurance enrollment or self-reported health. However, it does increase rates of access to a doctor by 1.0% overall and by 1.6% for women. Removing retroactive eligibility …

Fugitive Formalisms: Strategies Of Dissemblance And Dissent In The Work Of Queer-Identifying Artists, 1970–Present, Rowan Diaz-Toth

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing case studies of works by Hélio Oiticica, Scott Burton, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres as points of departure, this thesis puts forth a speculative historical framework for reconsidering queer art practices up through the present day in opposition to regimes of visibility and transparency, exploring the subversive, fugitive potential of non-representational formalisms.

Simulation Of Quantum Walks For Secure Data Access Patterns, Arslan Ahmad Janjua

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum computing is revolutionizing computational science, offering fundamentally new approaches to information processing that surpass classical limitations. One of the most versatile and powerful tools in this emerging field is quantum walks. Quantum walks are quantum analogs of classical random walks that leverage superposition and interference to explore complex spaces efficiently.

This thesis will explore how discrete-time scattering quantum walks can be simulated and analyzed to investigate patterns of secure data access. By modeling quantum walks on a variety of graph structures and studying the dynamics of marked vertices, the project aims to demonstrate how quantum interference and graph topology …

O Esqueleto De Um Romance, Lanna Leite

Theses and Dissertations

In O Esqueleto de um Romance: The Film (2025), a Berlin legal dispute between a mayor and evangelicals sparks filmmaker Lanna Leite’s reflection on faith, memory, and belief. Using archival, 16mm, and 8mm footage, the experimental film frames filmmaking as an ephemeral, performative practice resisting closure and conventional narrative finality.

Qualitative Exploration Of Hallucinations Among Adolescents With Suicide Ideation And/Or Attempts, Rebecca E. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative study exploring and characterizing how psychotic experiences (PEs), specifically hallucinations, may affect suicidal behaviors in adolescents. Thematic analysis revealed eight key themes within the connection, capturing unique perspectives and nuanced meanings. Exploring this intersection may increase the understanding of adolescent PEs and help inform more targeted interventions.

Interpreting Novel Metaphors - A Test Of The Perspective Identification View Of Metaphor Comprehension, Symmetra J. Roane

Theses and Dissertations

This study provides initial evidence for the Perspective Identification View of Metaphor. It proposes metaphor comprehension involves reliance on vehicle properties to shift the perspective of how the topic is conveyed. This is especially true when the perspective shift relies on a property the vehicle has a principled connection to.

"Catching Up": Christian Walker's Critical Lens, Noam Parness

Theses and Dissertations

“Catching Up” examines three bodies of photographic work that artist, critic, and curator Christian Walker (1953-2003) generated between 1984-1991. By reading each series against a corresponding text, “Catching Up” furthers an understanding of how Walker’s works reconstruct experiences and histories of race and sexuality in the United States.

The Effect Of Medical Aid In Dying On Health Outcomes And Risky Behavior Of The Elderly, Jacky Wu

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) legalization on health outcomes and behavior among elderly U.S. adults using BRFSS data from 2005-2022. Using staggered difference-in-differences, this paper finds that MAiD increases exercise, lowers BMI, and reduces blood pressure medication use.

Capturing The Spirit Of Childhood: An Analysis Of Robert Henri’S Portraits Of Children, Alex C. Maccaro

Theses and Dissertations

Robert Henri (1865-1929) is perhaps best known as the prominent leader of the turn-of-the century American movement The Eight, commonly known as “the Ashcan School,” and as a leading teacher in the United States during the early twentieth century. However, his artistic output as a portrait painter, particularly of children, is also significant. Beginning in 1904 and throughout his career as an artist, Henri painted hundreds of images of children in the various foreign or remote locales to which he traveled, often depicting the same subject in multiple instances. These portraits range from the roughly painted, rosy-cheeked Dutch youth of …

Confronting The “Green” Discourse Of Librarianship, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

Set against the backdrop of resurgent right-wing populism and drawing on Sam Popowich’s critique of democratic discourse in librarianship, this article outlines a crisis of imagination within liberal climate activism—particularly its essentially unquestioned commitment to “green growth,” or the notion that economic expansion can continue indefinitely alongside ecological sustainability. The American Library Association (ALA), despite its progressive public image, uncritically promotes these same market-oriented solutions to climate change and aligns itself with international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, both of which are grounded in growth-centric frameworks and market mechanisms like carbon credits. These frameworks and …

An Autoethnographic Study Of A Technical Services Librarian’S Teaching Journey During The Tenure Track: “Define Myself For Myself To Both Survive And Thrive”, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This autoethnographic study explores the disorienting dilemma that a technical services librarian experienced while alternating between working behind the scenes to fulfill professional responsibilities and teaching in the library to meet organizational expectations as a faculty member. The analysis of personal data accumulated during the tenure track period reveals three themes: teaching as learning to become, teaching as learning to challenge the system, and teaching as learning to research. Reflection focuses on three themes interconnected by the concept and practice of mindful learning. With the acknowledgement of limitations, this autoethnography concludes it was the self-reflective lifelong learning mindset that helped …

Toward A Speculative Librarianship, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

(Academic) citation is a representational practice of hollow, ruined potential professional accumulation of intellectual capital. Critical librarianship finds itself in the same situation as Saint Anthony: beset by interpretive demons (Freud, Nietzsche, Marx), nearing total evaluative exhaustion, wandering in a theoretical desert of its own creation. “Where am I?” the lonely figure shouts as he’s lifted into the air. Prayer, even as a last resort, seems intolerable. What happens when critique loses its way?

Marshall Shulman: Bridging The Gap Between The Academic And Policymaking Worlds And Building Transnational Communities, Cynthia A. Roberts

Publications and Research

This essay examines Marshall D. Shulman’s legacy as a scholar of Soviet foreign policy, a scholar-practitioner who moved between academic and policymaking worlds, and a builder of transnational expert communities. It highlights Shulman’s early challenge to essentialist interpretations of Soviet foreign policy, his conception of the U.S.-Soviet relationship as a “limited adversary relationship,” and his emphasis on managing nuclear competition while avoiding catastrophic war. The essay also traces Shulman’s role in arms control, Track II diplomacy, scientific and expert exchanges, and the development of Russian and Soviet studies at Columbia University. Drawing on the author’s experience as Shulman’s student and …