Digital Commons Network^™

Proclaiming The Suppressed Truth: Romans 1:16-25, Michael D. Royster

Sermon Studies

When Paul wrote about “suppressing the truth,” he remembered the tactics used on those who proclaimed the Word of God. Before Paul’s conversion, he approved of Stephen’s public execution by stoning. After Paul’s conversion, he on more than one occasion fled the scene to escape persecution and attempted murder. Like Stephen, Paul became a proclaimer of the truth and faced an imminent threat of violence to further suppress his message. There exist possible homiletical directions the preacher may take and a range of collective illustrations that can bridge the ancient with the modern world concerning matters of the heart and …

Framing Tragedy: Discourse And Influence In Us Media Coverage Of The 1994 Rwanda Genocide, Andrew P. Young

Journal of 20th Century Media History

There is little doubt as to the mark left by the 1994 Rwandan genocide on historical discourse and perhaps even the American cultural consciousness. U.S. evening news broadcasts carried images of suffering and death into homes across the US, and in the process made Rwanda the site of one of the most recognized traumas in human history. While cultural proximity in mass media coverage played a role, the characterization of media coverage of the genocide, often defined in the press as explicit and constant, requires analysis. This project analyzes US evening network news broadcasts to address the actualities and implications …

Human Wisdom And Artificial Intelligence: Role Of Liberal Arts Education In A Neoliberal World, Purna Chandra Bhusal

Critical Humanities

Neoliberalism is an economic and political ideology that originated in the 1930s and 40s, gained momentum in the late 70s and 80s, and peaked in the 90s and 2000s. Since its inception, neoliberalism has promoted a free-market economy with minimal state intervention, granting individuals the freedom to compete and succeed. Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the neoliberal system has invested in, incorporated, and promoted Artificial Intelligence (AI), valuing an AI-enhanced corporate ethos. As a result, the success of higher education is generally measured by the quantity of technologically sound, market-ready, AI-trained human capital it produces for industry. …

Why Literature Matters: Perpetrator Portrayal, Cultural Imaginaire And Poetry Of The Taliban, Inayat Ullah

Critical Humanities

The question of how perpetrators of violence are identified, represented and understood has become a central concern of Perpetrator Studies, an interdisciplinary field that emerged in the early twenty-first century. This article analyzes The Poetry of the Taliban in a bid to examine how the selected poems construct and negotiate multiple figurations of the perpetrator rather than presenting it as a singular or fixed category. While the poems frequently identify perpetrator through recognizable political, military and ideological structures, they also reveal the complexities involved in reducing the perpetrator to a clearly identifiable form or kind. In exploring these tensions, the …

20260529: Geography Materials, 1938-1982, College Of Liberal Arts

Guides to University Archives

These items include materials from the Geography Department at Marshall University from 1938-1982. Items were received in 1982 and include notable materials from professor Frances C. Burgess, Professor Sam Clagg, Mack Gillenwater, GEO 206 Geography of WV; some student papers, and geography department brochures and promotional materials.This is not an exhaustive list. Please download the finding aid for a full list of contents.

Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Honors College

Honors Convocation

The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation Awards Program for Spring 2026, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

An Integrative Description Of Euscorpius Diagorasi Sp. N. From Rhodes, Greece (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae), Konstantinos Kalaentzis, Francesco Frigioni, Eliza Kaitetzidou, Alessio Iannucci, Alexandros Triantafyllidis

Euscorpius

The genus Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 comprises a diverse and taxonomically challenging group of scorpions in the Mediterranean, with Greece representing one of its principal centers of diversity. In this study, we provide an integrative description of Euscorpius diagorasi sp. n., a new species from Rhodes Island, Greece. The new species is described on the basis of adult male and female morphology and mitochondrial COI sequence data. It is a small oligotrichous species characterized by a total length of approximately 21–25 mm, pale yellow to light brown coloration with darker reddish-brown pedipalps, pectinal tooth count of 8 in the male …

The Minutes Of The Marshall University Graduate Council Meeting, February 27, 2026, Marshall University Graduate Council

Graduate Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

A Revision Of The Psammophilic Genus Liobuthus Birula, 1898 (Scorpiones: Buthidae), With A Description Of Four New Species From Central Asia, Victor Fet, František Kovařík, Graeme Lowe, Matthew R. Graham

Euscorpius

The rare Central Asian psammophilic scorpion genus, Liobuthus Birula, 1898 (Scorpiones: Buthidae), is revised. Five species are delineated according to results from three species delimitation approaches using mitochondrial DNA. Results are supported by diagnostic morphology, including an assessment of the distinctive neobothriotaxy. The type species, L. kessleri Birula, 1898, is confirmed for Iran (northeast), Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (south). Four new species are described: L. atamuradovi sp. n. (Turkmenistan),  L. danovi sp. n. (Kazakhstan, northern Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), L. shukurovi sp. n. (southwestern Tajikistan), and L. vachoni sp. n. (southern Kazakhstan), The unique additive neobothriotaxy (on both pedipalp femur and patella) …

The Minutes Of The Marshall University Graduate Council Meeting, January 30, 2026, Marshall University Graduate Council

Graduate Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Mapping Coastal Vegetation To Evaluate Salt Marsh Decline From 2016 To 2025 In South Carolina, Usa, Zak Henry Bartholomew

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Accelerating sea-level rise and storm surge events pose a substantial threat to salt marsh ecosystems, which provide critical ecosystem services. Classification and mapping of coastal vegetation through remote sensing can identify marsh dieback events and provide spatial context for patterns of marsh vulnerability. We used a multi-sensor approach that incorporated LiDAR data, multispectral imagery, and field-derived cover estimates to classify Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass) dominated marsh types on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island (MCRDPI), a sea island in South Carolina, USA. In summer 2025, surveys were conducted within marsh classes to collect training and validation data. We used random …

Using Remote Sensing Technology To Develop A Framework For Improving Hydrologic Models, Marissa Cook

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

With increased storm intensity due to climate change and urbanization, flash flooding has become an increasingly significant issue globally and regionally. Although the factors influencing urban flash flooding are well-known, there is a growing need for technology to accurately and remotely predict the chance of a flash flood occurring from any given rain event to give people time to prepare. This study aims to use multispectral satellite imagery to provide a framework for improving near real-time flood predictions in an urban area of a high gradient, fourth order stream impacted by flooding. Specifically, we utilize satellite imagery to create the …

Absolute Extraction: Utilizing Rural Critical Criminology To Examine Appalachia’S Toxic Dependence On Extractive Industries, Andrew Kennedy

The Mid-Southern Journal of Criminal Justice

Brought forth by common rhetoric, Appalachia is often viewed as the closest space to that of an empyrean domain. Separated from the sleepless city, its allure rests in its created identity of a quiet, green escape from the city, which offers serenity on all fronts. Although Appalachia can fulfill this profile, such an ascension ignores the burning yellow grass below. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the destruction of Appalachia through the lens of extractive industries and the region’s designation as a sacrifice zone. Through the application of rural critical criminology, this paper holds that …

Bridging The Gap Between Substance Use Treatment Barriers In Rural Areas, Dakota Baker

The Mid-Southern Journal of Criminal Justice

The purpose of this paper is to examine the continued concern about substance abuse/misuse and limited access to treatment in rural areas. Rural areas lack the adequate treatment needed to combat substance use disorder (SUD), mainly due to the lack of sufficient providers trained to identify, treat, and support those dealing with SUD. Additional barriers such as the high cost of treatment, stigma surrounding substance use disorders, geographical barriers, and the criminalization of substance abuse are other barriers that will be discussed in this paper (Griffin & Botvin, 2010; Hargons et al., 2023; Khazaee-Pool et al., 2024; National Center for …

The Parthenon, November 12, 2025, Baylee Parsons, Kaitlyn Fleming, Ashton Pack, Nate Harrah, Caden Adkins, Scott Price, Lilli Ross, Wade Sullivan

The Parthenon

No abstract provided.

20251027: Wmul, 1968-1996, College Of Liberal Arts

Guides to University Archives

These items include materials from the College of Liberal Arts at Marshall University from 1969-1996. Items were received sometime in the late 1990s but were not processed until 2025. Materials in this collection include items about Marshall's radio and television broadcasting (W-MUL WMUL). Items include pamphlets, closed circuit television programs, some department program listings, an article write up from the Herald-Dispatch, some reprints, and concepts of what they aired. This is not an exhaustive list. Please download the finding aid for a full list of contents.

0896: John F. Smith Collection, 1978-2017, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

John F. Smith was a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and former director of the Big Green Scholarship Foundation at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

The collection includes records of the Big Green Scholarship Foundation, research and papers of John F. Smith, and framed Marshall University basketball and football memorabilia.

Directional Poetics: An Interview With Ed Simon On Pittsburgh, Appalachia, And The Memories Of Geography, Ed Simon, Scott C. Mcdaniel

Critical Humanities

An Interview with Ed Simon

Fire In The Hole: Appalachia’S Elemental Narrative In Harlan County, Usa And King Coal, Somak Mukherjee

Critical Humanities

In Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s documentary King Coal (2023) coal is being referred to as a matter that is “not dirty or clean, but elemental.” The acclaimed film centers on the complex histories and cultures of coal in Central Appalachia, based on the perspective of Sheldon, a coal miner’s daughter, and a West Virginia native. The elemental nature of coal is explored in the film by situating coal less as a resource and more as a mythic foundation for the community's cultural history. This article puts King Coal in conversation with Barbara Kopple's seminal Harlan County, USA (1976) which narrates the …

Appalachian Archipelagos: "Writing From Measureless Location” In C.S. Giscombe’S Geopoetics, Jay Butler

Critical Humanities

This essay begins with a speculative gesture: what if we read Appalachia not as a bounded, landlocked region, but as an archipelago—where coherence lies not in contiguity, but in multiplicity and geopoetic drift? Drawing on the poetry of C.S. Giscombe, which spans the Caribbean to Appalachia and unsettles geographic conventions by inhabiting “measureless location” – not as a metaphor but as a method, materially grounded yet elusively meaningful – and guided by R.A. Judy’s Sentient Flesh and its theory and practice of para-semiosis and poiesis-in-black, this essay follows Giscombe’s pragmatic and prismatic geopoetics as it upends dominant frameworks of …

“Here’S To The Long Haul: Dark Green Religion And Planetary Thinking In Appalachian Environmental Movements”, Joseph Witt

Critical Humanities

Environmental humanities scholars have worked to develop alternative frameworks for understanding and relating to Earth’s systems in the hope of reforming the exploitative and extractive practices and attitudes characteristic of the Anthropocene. For example, Dipesh Chakrabarty argued that addressing climate change necessitated appreciating the entanglements between global (human) and planetary (Earth systems) scales. While Chakrabarty noted that ancient and Indigenous cultures may have retained approaches necessary for this work, he was skeptical of the ability of modern secular intellectual traditions focused on global justice perspectives to ultimately facilitate a planetary non-anthropocentric ethic. However, by only briefly engaging with themes of …

Book Review: River Fiction Of India: Intersectional Flows Of Narratives, Geographies, And Histories, Nilay Patel

Critical Humanities

Book Review of

River Fiction of India: Intersectional Flows of Narratives, Geographies, and Histories,

edited by Subhadeep Ray

London & New York: Routledge, 2025

306 pp.

ISBN: 978-1-032-66253-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-98346-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-003-59818-3 (ebk)

Towards An Indigenous Climate Epistemology: Bringing The Newa Literary Tradition Of The Swasthani Vrata Katha In Conversation With The Festival Tradition Of The Macchindra Nath Jatra, Shangrila Joshi Dr.

Critical Humanities

This paper brings into conversation two Newa cultural traditions to articulate notions of climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation, to illustrate how ways of knowing, ways of being, and ways of governing are inherently linked. These articulations offer a framework for developing what the author calls an Indigenous Climate Epistemology. The two cultural traditions reviewed include: a 17^th century Newa literary tradition that advocates for keeping oil in the ground, and that instructs ordinary people to engage in ritual acts seemingly designed to develop personal and community resilience; and a 1700 year old annual community festival designed to avert catastrophes …

On The Edge Of The Abyss: Cultural Responses To Extractivism In The Andes, Jack Martinez Arias

Critical Humanities

This work examines the contemporary cultural productions of Cerro de Pasco, a city in constant destruction due to an ever-expanding open pit mine that has grown to over a mile wide since the 1950s. Drawing on Latin American environmental humanities and discursive analysis, I conduct a close reading of poems, stories, performances, and audiovisual works by local artists responding to this largely overlooked apocalyptic scenario. By analyzing narrative strategies such as repetition and irony, I identify recurring themes and establish common concerns related to extractivism, urban extinction, illness, and death. This study seeks to understand how these cultural productions envision …

Introduction: Volume 3 Issue 2, Critical Humanities

Critical Humanities

An Introduction to Vol 3, Issue 2

Review Of Film Noir And The Arts Of Lighting, Casey Walker

Journal of 20th Century Media History

Review of the book Film Noir and the Arts of Lighting (Patrick Keating)

Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Honors College

Honors Convocation

The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation Awards Program for Spring 2025, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

An Ounce Of Prevention: Counselor And Health Teacher Perception On Substance-Abuse Prevention Curricular Effectiveness, Amanda Jill Knight

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study examined middle and high school health teachers’ and counselors’ perceptions of the effectiveness of skills-based substance use prevention curricula as a means of reducing the prevalence of student substance use/abuse. A mixed-methods, nonexperimental research design was incorporated to discern these teachers’ and counselors’ views on the extent to which students were able to acquire specific alcohol and other drug (AOD) refusal skills after their participation in a skills-based drug prevention education curriculum. These skills were identified and approved by the Ohio Association for Health and Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Analysis of the collected data using SPSS v29 …

Burnout In The Emergency Room: Corrective Measures Vs. The Absence Of Solutions, Zane Walters, Zachary Woodall

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: Physician burnout has become an increasingly prevalent and critical issue in healthcare systems worldwide, particularly among emergency room physicians who face high-stress, high-demand working conditions. Burnout manifests as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, leading to negative outcomes for physicians’ mental health, job satisfaction, and overall career longevity. This phenomenon not only threatens the well-being of physicians but also compromises patient care quality and contributes to costly turnover within healthcare organizations.

Purpose of the Study: The aim of this study was to systematically investigate the impact of burnout interventions on emergency room physicians. …

Assessing The Impact Of Financial, Educational, And Managerial Resources On The Success Of Minority-Owned Businesses: An Analysis Of Resources From The Perspective Of The Minority Business Owner, Clinton B. Arnold

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Minority-owned businesses (MOBs) in the United States have a failure rate that is 50% higher than that of their non-minority counterparts. Rectifying this imbalance and achieving parity could yield significant economic benefits, potentially adding $1.5 trillion to the nation's economy if resources—financial, educational, and managerial—are equitably distributed and effectively made available to support the goals of minority businesses. However, historical injustices, from Jim Crow laws to systemic discrimination, have granted certain groups multi-generational advantages, exacerbating the divide. Addressing these disparities is both an economic imperative and a moral obligation to ensure equal opportunity. Lending Tree (2023)

With 1.2 million MOBs …