Digital Commons Network^™

State Of The Climate In 2024: The Arctic, R. L. Thoman, T. A. Moon, M. L. Druckenmiller, Thomas G. Askjaer, Thomas J. Ballinger, Uma S. Bhatt, Logan T. Berner, Germar H. Bernhard, Siiri Bigalke, Jarle W. Bjerke, Multiple Additional Authors

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Arctic environment in 2024 continued on a trajectory that has put it in a state far different from that of the twentieth century. Ongoing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to quickly warm the Arctic, resulting in rapid changes in the cryosphere that are driving cascading impacts to climate, ecological, and societal systems.

A New Approach To Probabilistic County Population Forecasting With An Example Application To West Texas, David Swanson, Jeff Tayman, Mike Cline

Publications, Reports and Presentations

This paper shows how measures of uncertainty can be applied to existing subnational population forecasts using the 107 counties that make up West Texas as a case study. The measures of forecast uncertainty are relatively easy to calculate and meet several important criteria routinely applied by state and local demographers. We also report the results of two independent comparisons supporting the argument that our approach is valid. The paper concludes it is well-suited for developing probabilistic population forecasts in the United States and elsewhere.

Sabin Cdc Affordable Infill Initiative, Andrew Lindstrom, Casey Dobbert, Josh Miller, Laura Fleming, Menodora Roos-Lemaster, Nick Flowers

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Grounded Growth Planning Cooperative partnered with Sabin Community Development Corporation (CDC), a non-profit affordable housing developer in North/Northeast Portland. The project goal was to examine 11 sites in their Scattered Sites Portfolio for the possibility of infill development to increase the portfolio’s financial performance and to provide additional housing to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) were the primary focus of the evaluation, as they can be constructed without modifying the existing housing and displacing existing tenants. The report identifies opportunities for Sabin CDC to take advantage of Portland zoning code changes that allow increased …

Teaching With The Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4, Rui Torres, Kathi Inman Berens, Maria C. Zamora, Lyle Skains, John Murray

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article surveys the four ELCs – Electronic Literature Collections (2006- 2022), reviews pedagogical approaches to teaching ELCs, and situates ELCs and electronic literature pedagogy into higher education’s course management systems. ELCs’ increasing accessibility serves its global audience and centers the ethical values of diversity, equality, and inclusion. The ELC4’s user experience design manifests these values. The article discusses the history of the Collections’ experience design. Volume Four (2022) expanded reader accessibility and linguistic diversity by including video playthroughs and collecting 132 works from 42 author nationalities in 31 languages. This article surveys those evolving design changes. It engages a …

The Art Of Memory: The Medieval Peutinger Map, Amber Shrewsbury

Dissertations and Theses

The Peutinger map is an enigma: a twelfth-century map of the Roman Empire, it is secular and oddly shaped, its dimensions distorted to show Rome at the center of the world. Its creator, purpose, and provenance currently remain lost to history. Long considered by classicists to be a copy of a lost Roman original, the map has not been seriously examined by medievalists, possibly because it does not adhere to the Christian "T-O" style of medieval mappaemundi.

While other scholars have focused on what the Peutinger map reflects about ancient Rome, I have chosen to explore how the Peutinger …

I, As In We, Cj Maruyama

Dissertations and Theses

I, as in We is a hybrid collection of poems, essays, fictional letters, documents, and photographs through which the author revisits ancestors and explores their multiracial roots. Drawing on stories, interviews and research grounded in the Japanese American experience, the collection develops a call-and-response polyvocality that spans generations and geographies. In its use of white space, form experimentation, and tonal shifts, the work confronts the fluid, often ambiguous boundaries that shape identity. The compiled written and visual materials evolve into an original document--one that reaches toward heritage, belonging, and truth.

One Health Policy Communities’ Perspectives On Zoonoses Risk Factors And Management: A Multiple Qualitative Methods Approach, Lisset M. Dumet, Erin Kenzie, Julia M. Goodman, Veronika Merino Osorio, Vanessa Cruz Chavez, Ruth Atto, Percy Vilchez Barreto, Seth O’Neal

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Zoonoses emergence and endemicity are serious global public health problems that disproportionately affect low-resource settings. One Health (OH) serves as a framework to understand the interconnection of zoonoses risk factors and incentivizes collaboration, coordination, and communication among sectors. However, OH encounters barriers related to power imbalances, gaps in coordination, and conflicts of interest among diverse communities of practice, which are groups that share a problem and domain of interest and engage in collective learning. This research aims to elucidate the mental models of policy communities, which are representations of the environment, and how humans explain and predict their surroundings to …

Building Belonging Infrastructure In Cities: Arts/Culture-Based Critical Participatory Action Research And Youth, Kimberly Rae Nightingale

Dissertations and Theses

Belonging is a critical human need. Urban planning's history of bureaucratic expertise continues to champion the powerful, resulting in structures and procedures that still separate and damage city communities. This research challenges the current hegemony of urban planning that centers geography--the container of land--in its practice. Instead, centering the belonging of people to each other is the essential quality of healthy urban planning. A people-centered urban planning practice where the community's people are the experts and decision-makers of their own cities--and belonging is the primary objective--is long overdue.

Arts/culture-based critical participatory action research (PAR)--where the research questions, design, data collection, …

Exploring The Composition Of Forest Collaboratives In Northeastern Oregon, Lee K. Cervany, Rebecca J. Mclain, Kristen Wright

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

Community-based collaboration has been touted as an effective model for forest governance because it promotes democratized decision-making and stakeholder engagement to address landscape-scale problems. Forest collaboratives are assumed to be heterogeneous, consisting of stakeholders with a diverse range of interests. Few studies have systematically explored variables associated with collaborative composition. We identify six elements of collaborative composition for investigation: size, stakeholder diversity, balance, locality–diversity, core attendance, and cross-participation. This exploratory study examines five forest collaborative groups in eastern Oregon (USA). We analyzed meeting minutes over an 18-month period to track attendance and evaluate who shows up and at what frequency. …

Who Bears The Burden? An Assessment Of Vulnerability And Resilience To Consecutive Disasters In The Portland Metro Region, Idowu Ajibade, Jason Sauer, Matthew Walter, James M. Done, Ming Ge, Elliot Gall, Aswatha Raghunathasami, Paul C. Loikith, Chris Lower, Heejun Chang, Arun Pallathadka, E Mae Sowards

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climate-related disasters threaten urban areas worldwide, yet gaps remain in understanding how multiple stressors interact to shape resilience. This study examines exposure, vulnerability, and resilience across three consecutive extreme events in the Portland metro area: the September 2020 wildfire-related air pollution, the February 2021 snowstorm, and the June 2021 heatwave. We used geographically weighted regression and Spearman rank correlation analysis to investigate relationships between hazard impacts, the social vulnerability index (SoVI), Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC), and proximity to community-based organizations (CBOs) in 416 census tracts. Our analysis reveals strong spatial correlations between wildfire-related air pollution, winter storm impacts, …

Working Paper No. 100, Social Realism And Socialist Realism, Amanda F. Worman

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry sees to establish that as a genre, “social realism” reflected values of the American system of market capitalism out of which this art style emerged. During the same timeframe, what has been categorized as “socialist realism” reflected values of the Soviet system out of which this art style also arose. The “Great Depression” that dogged the American economy and society through the 1930s, as well as the “Iron Fist” rule characteristic of Joseph Stalin’s heavy industrialization drive for Soviet Russia, appears to have promoted and shaped these two distinct but similar art styles under consideration, as responses to …

So Who Gets To Be Modern? Jadidism And Reform In Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Russia, Grant Douglas Linville

University Honors Theses

Jadidism was a sociocultural reformist project from the 1880s to 1920s developed by Muslim intellectuals in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The Jadidist movement derives its name from the "new-method" (usul-al Jadid) schools that spread Jadid pedagogy, which revolved around the inclusion of secular topics and Western knowledge as well as instruction in local, Tatar, and Russian languages, in addition to the already present religious studies accompanied by Arabic and Persian taught in the Islamic educational institutions the maktab and madrasa (primary and higher education respectively). Over time Jadidism grew to encompass a host of societal …

Where's The Dim Sum? Art, Oral History, And The Chinese American Diaspora In Portland, Or, Rayli Dornan

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the history, transformation, and contemporary significance of Portland's Chinatown through an oral history framework, emphasizing the voices of Chinese American artists. Beginning with a comprehensive historical overview from the mid-nineteenth-century Gold Rush migrations and railroad labor to twentieth-century exclusion, dispossession under urban renewal, and the late-twentieth-century dispersal into suburbs, the thesis traces how structural racism and policy shaped both the physical landscape and communal life of Oregon's Chinese diaspora. Through in-depth interviews with local artists, this research aims to illuminate how individual experiences of identity, belonging, and creative expression navigate the tensions between heritage and adaptation.

Drawing …

Germanic Identity And Othering At The Inception Of Modernity: A Critical Translation Of The Geographic Addendum Of The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), Nina Martin

University Honors Theses

The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) is a late medieval humanist world chronicle compiled in its original Latin by Hartmann Schedel and translated into vernacular German by Georg Alt in the same year. It features exquisite woodcut illustrations from the studio of Michael Wohlgemut which bolstered the text's contemporaneous popularity among scholarly and lay audiences along with the unauthorized cheaper editions released by Johann Schönesperger within the decade. This project investigates depictions of collective identity as presented in the Geographic Addendum, a section of the endmatter discussing the peoples and lands of Europe which Schedel compiled from the writings of humanist scholar …

The Intersection Of Education And Empowerment: How Comprehensive Sex Education Equips Adolescents To Navigate Complex Relational Dynamics, Joleigh Wood

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the impact of comprehensive sex education (CSE) on adolescents' understanding of consent, personal boundaries, and relational competence. Drawing upon social learning theory, intersectionality, and relational-cultural theory, the study employs a multidisciplinary framework to analyze how CSE functions as both an instructional practice and a sociocultural intervention. Utilizing an integrative thematic review of empirical studies, policy analyses, and national curriculum standards, the research evaluates the extent to which CSE promotes emotional literacy, fosters ethical relationship skills, and addresses structural inequities in educational access. Findings indicate that well-implemented, inclusive CSE contributes to healthier developmental outcomes by enhancing students' emotional …

Adolescent Preventive Care Outcomes Before And After Covid-19 Onset: What Is The Role Of Telehealth?, Sarah Hayden Knipper

Dissertations and Theses

Adolescents are a developmentally distinctive population with unique primary health care needs; they comprise about 10% of Oregon's population and more than half are covered by the Oregon Health Plan (OHP). This dissertation investigated significant declines in preventive care utilization (well visits and HPV immunizations) among adolescents enrolled in OHP during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relationship between the decline in utilization and the rise in telehealth availability. The study focused specifically on the role of race/ethnicity, geography, and access to health systems in mitigating or exacerbating decreases in preventive care. A mixed methods approach was employed to understand not …

One Health Integration To Control And Prevent Zoonoses: Application Of Organizational Theory Literature, Lisset M. Dumet Poma, Sherril Gelmon, Julia M. Goodman, Seth E. O’Neal

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmitted between animals and people that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The One Health (OH) approach aims to integrate systems, incentivizing collaboration among animal, human, and environmental systems to address zoonoses and improve health. Innovative solutions for effectively and sustainably achieving systems integration are needed. Organizational theories can facilitate the study of the context of OH implementation, applying comprehensive approaches that recognize the interconnections among organisms, the environment, and social systems, including the diverse entities needing integration (e.g., policy, community, public organizations). This narrative review examines organization and systems literature to provide recommendations for …

A Fifty-Year Assessment Of Historical Planning Processes And Green Space Distribution (1975-2025): A Case Study Of Portland, Or, Usa, Quadri Olatunbosun Taiwo

Dissertations and Theses

The Portland study examined past planning regulations and greenspace distribution over the period of fifty years, with particular attention given to neighborhood differences between invested and non-invested neighborhoods. This research utilized a mixed-methods approach through the synthesis of qualitative themes from oral narratives and archival records. Furthermore, I examined spatial greenspace using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery. I tested the study hypothesis using the GIS Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression test to predict how key sociodemographic characteristics affect the provision of greenspace in non-white disinvested neighborhoods. The key findings indicated a consistent trend of inequity in greenspace, heavily shaped …

Unsettling Home: Traces Of An Unrepaired Settler-Colonial Past In "Redding, California," 1846-1924, Celeste Hegy

University Honors Theses

This thesis critically reads primary documents from the settler-colonial past of "Redding, California," my hometown. In this paper, I sketch out a series of moments of historical trauma which continue to cry out for repair. Through a series of episodes from the mid-nineteenth through the early-twentieth centuries, I examine how original settler thirst for land wrought a contested hegemony in principally genocidal flows of power between the settler-state and its settler inhabitants and the pre-existing local Indigenous nations and peoples. In the first chapter, I argue for an understanding of the dispossession of the northern valley as genocidal. In the …

Identifying The Drivers Behind The Decline Of Douglas-Fir And True Fir Species In Sw Oregon, Alexander Bryant Bentley

Dissertations and Theses

Increased levels of Pseudotsuga menziesii (DF) and Abies species (TF) decline throughout dry forests in the Klamath Mountains and Western Cascades ecoregions have been recorded in recent years, with preliminary evidence suggesting that factors influenced by changing climatic conditions and encroachment from fire suppression policies are primarily to blame. Yet, the physiological and environmental mechanisms of drought-driven tree decline are poorly understood across biophysical and spatial gradients. Given the complex relations that drive decline, determining the degree of influence of specific drivers is difficult, creating unique challenges for modern forest management. To elucidate the most important factors driving DF and …

Death To Comphet: A Chapina Southern Lesbian Story, Doraly Oneida Perez-Valdez

University Honors Theses

This paper is a counterstory that fights narratives that have been placed upon Latina Lesbians by everyone but us. The main topic is compulsory heteronormativity also known as "comphet". This autoethnography explains how "comphet" may affect different identities but specifically a Latina Lesbian from the South. There are nine chapters that explain how each topic affects a different aspect of identity but centers lesbianism. Societal reasons, cultural reasons, "date to marry" culture, Southern upbringing, sex education received, racial and gender stereotypes, and capitalism are all of the topics being explored through the lens of a Southern Latina Lesbian. These topics …

Sunrise At The Salton Sea: Environmental Justice, Land Use Change, And Hydrosocial Dynamics Of Solar Energy Transitions In The Imperial Valley, California, Dustin Mulvaney, James J. A. Blair, Alida Cantor

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

California's Imperial Valley, with lithium-rich geothermal brines, extensive flat agricultural fields with abundant desert sunshine, and access to transmission lines, is a leading case to explore interconnected themes around just energy transitions. Despite being the poorest county in California and one of the smallest, Imperial already provides 15% of the state’s solar electricity, and the region as a whole represents on the order of 25% of the state’s electric power capacity. This paper brings to light frictions over solar energy development that have emerged over the history of solar power development in the southern Salton Sea region. It describes the …

Convergence Research For Microplastic Pollution At The Watershed Scale, Heejun Chang, Elise F. Granek, Amanda Gannon, Jordyn M. Wolfand, Janice Brahney

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microplastics are found in Earth’s atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, pedosphere, and ecosphere. While there is a growing interest and need to solve this grand challenge in both the academic and policy realms, few have engaged with academics, policymakers, and community partners to co-identify the problem, co-design research, and co-produce knowledge in tackling this issue. Using a convergence research framework, we investigated the perception of microplastic pollution among different end users, delivered educational materials to K-12 teachers and practitioners, and identified key sampling points for assessing environmental microplastic concentrations in the Columbia River Basin, United States. Three community partner workshops identified regional …

Race, Reflection And Resistance: An Autoethnographic Journey In Social Studies Curriculum Development, Jesse Nicholas Hendryx-Dobson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this qualitative, self- study, autoethnography is to explore my instructional practices, strategies and decision making as I navigate my attempts to build a more anti-racist, racial justice social studies curriculum in a predominantly white school environment. Critical Race Theory as well as racial literacy provided me with a conceptual framework, but also with the language I need to articulate the research problem and my findings. Three research questions guided how I collected and analyzed my data: 1) How do I plan social studies lessons that address the topic of race/racism? 2) How can I use social studies …

Short Communication: Multiscale Topographic Complexity Analysis With Pytopocomplexity, L. S.-H. Lai, Adam Booth, A. R. Duvall, E. Herzig

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

TopoComplexity is a Python package designed for efficient and customizable quantification of topographic complexity using four advanced methods: two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform analysis, fractal dimension estimation, rugosity index, and terrain position index calculations. This package addresses the lack of open-source software for these advanced terrain analysis techniques essential for modern geomorphology and geohazard research, enhancing data comparison and reproducibility. By assessing topographic complexity across multiple spatial scales, pyTopoComplexity allows users to identify characteristic morphological scales of studied landforms. The software repository also includes a Jupyter Notebook that integrates components from the surface-process modeling platform Landlab (Hobley et al., 2017), facilitating …

Is Ride-Hailing A Potential Solution For Older Adults After Driving Cessation? The Role Of Objective And Perceived Accessibility, Minju Kim Song

Dissertations and Theses

Due to age-related physical and cognitive changes, older drivers have a greater risk of crashes and are restricted by age-dependent regulation. Nonetheless, many older adults in the United States maintain a car-dependent lifestyle and still prefer driving. When driving cessation or reduction becomes necessary, a primary concern is finding suitable alternative transportation modes. However, the availability of alternative transportation modes does not guarantee their actual use of these options.

As a relatively new transportation mode, ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, offer on-demand, door-to-door transportation and may be a feasible transportation solution for older adults who stop driving. While …

Just Places And Paths: Equitable Transit-Oriented Development In Vancouver, Washington, Hannah Althea, Jesse Tapia, Ken Yoneda, Blessie Saoit, Hayley Still

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Southwest Washington Equity Coalition (SWEC) has been actively engaged in multiple efforts to uplift BIPOC communities in the City of Vancouver and Clark County. SWEC has partnered with Rhododendron Planning for a project to develop a toolkit to guide future Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) that considers the specific needs and desires of BIPOC communities, which can be used for current and future policy initiatives. This work comes at a time of escalating development, inward migration, and diversification, putting pressure on present and burgeoning BIPOC communities. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of BIPOC communities living in Vancouver, Washington, has …

Discovering Sri Lanka: Examining The Marketing Strategies Behind Successful Tourist Destinations, Victoria Powell

University Honors Theses

Building on the observation that Sri Lanka is emerging as a tourist destination, this thesis compares the national destination marketing campaigns of Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to identify how their strengths have contributed to their success. Using a comparative analysis, the research examines each destination’s brand positioning, distribution channels, campaign messaging, visual identity, and brand consistency. A deeper analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) is conducted on Sri Lanka's destination marketing campaign to present the study's findings and communicate recommendations. Ultimately, the analysis is used to recommend strategies for Sri Lanka's destination marketing efforts to …

Objects Against Convention: An Objective Study Of Claude Cahun's Overlooked Works, Zuzu Longstreth

University Honors Theses

The French artist and writer Claude Cahun (1894-1954) is best known for her early self-portraiture. These photographs take place in theatrical spaces and witness the artist donning costumes and masks, playing out different identifiers and gender roles. Beginning with the discovery of Cahun's work in the 1990s, the scholarly conversation has focused entirely on the artists early work based on a perceived kinship with postmodern notions of identity. While this early body of work is fascinating, attention to it has been singular, shaping how the rest of Cahun's work is understood. To trouble this one-dimensional view of Cahun as an …

Access To Healthcare For Rural Transgender Adults In The United States, Devon Smith

University Honors Theses

Urban and rural healthcare differ significantly in the amount of facilities, providers and kinds of specialty care that are offered in each environment. The United States is split into urban and rural counties in any given region, and based on those population sizes, are the allocation of healthcare resources for residents. In rural areas in the U.S., transgender adults lack access to gender-affirming care and encounter a lack of gender-affirming care providers due to workforce shortages, discrimination, and a lack of cultural competency. To determine if these residents lacked access to care compared with their urban counterparts, I performed a …