Digital Commons Network^™

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

Pestilent Air, Contagious Evil: Infectious Disease In Early Modern Poland, Danielle Marie Airola

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The individuals buried in the cemetery of Czysty Square and the population of the vanished village of Gać lived and died during the early modern period in what is now modern-day Poland. Epidemics broke out repeatedly during this time, and the skeletal remains of several individuals buried in Czysty Square’s cemetery display pathological changes suggestive of infectious disease. These non-specific morphological changes created a need for DNA testing to search for pathogens associated with these lesions. In contrast, Gać’s population declined over time until the village’s abandonment. This has led to a hypothesis of an epidemic having contributed to the …

Promoting Hope And Resilience: Measuring The Psychological Effects Of An Undergraduate Climate Change Education Course, Clare Bridgett Maguire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The psychological effects of climate change are increasing, which has led to an increase in advocacy to research these effects. Current literature has included a focus on categorizing and understanding the psychological impacts, creating psychometrically sound instruments to measure the effects, and education as a tool to enhance coping strategies. However, limited research exists on measuring the emotional outcomes for students who engage in climate change education at the post-graduate level.

This dissertation explores the effects of an undergraduate-level climate change course on participants’ experiences of eco-anxiety, ecological grief, resilience, and hope to better understand the psychological effects of climate …

Seven County Infrastructure Coalition V. Eagle County, Craig A. Rigdon

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 is a landmark in United States environmental law. For more than half a century, under its authority, all federal agencies contemplating proposed actions that pose significant environmental impacts have incorporated an analysis of those impacts into their decisions. These analyses provided an avenue for opponents to challenge an agency’s final decision in federal court. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a “course correction” to rein in the disparate approaches that the lower courts had applied to cases challenging federal agency decisions on NEPA grounds. The unambiguous guidance the Court lays out for …

Becoming A Social Worker: A Journey Through Community, Justice, And Recovery, Willow Coefield

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This portfolio is the culminating project for the Master of Social Work program at the University of Montana and demonstrates advanced integrated practice through coursework, practicum, and professional experience. It is organized into an introduction, theoretical orientation, and focused sections on trauma‑informed care and rural and Indigenous contexts of practice, followed by a mapping of portfolio artifacts to core elements and competencies, a conclusion, references, and appendices of key graduate assignments. Drawing on artifacts such as positionality work, case studies, diagnostic assessment, group design, program evaluation, policy analysis, and leadership projects, the portfolio illustrates growth in ethical and professional behavior, …

Healing, Together, Courtney Cleek

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This portfolio reviews the topics of mutual rehabilitation and the human animal bond (HAB) as a holistic approach to addressing topics of mental health, suicide prevention, and innovative services. Displaying work through the Ten Specialization Year Competencies and the Five Elements of Advanced Integrative Practice, we examine ways to expand social justice, amplify voices, and promote healing within our communities.

Learning, Becoming, And Practicing: My Msw Portfolio, Mario G. Colucci

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Social Work In Practice, The Final Stretch, Madison M. Fernandez

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This professional portfolio reflects what I have learned in the MSW program at the University of Montana.

Sb18-24/25: Resolution Establishing The 2025 Legislative Priorities, Maya Anderson, Buddy Wilson

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB18-24/25: Resolution Establishing the 2025 Legislative Priorities. This resolution passed 20Y-0N-0A on a roll call vote (RCV) during the November 13, 2025 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

November 2025 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

University Of Montana Staff Senate Bylaws October 2025, University Of Montana--Missoula. Staff Senate

University of Montana Staff Senate Governing Documents

Revised Articles and Bylaws of University of Montana Staff Senate. Passed October 9,2025.

Major changes include:

• Allowing Contract Professionals and Letters of Appointment to participate and be represented by the Staff Senate (with some limitations, including Senior and Executive Levels positions).
• Adding an Informed Consideration requirement so that Senate nominees (with the expansion of representation) will best represent their constituents and meet the eligibility for consideration.
• Eliminating EEO categories to help determine representation
• Changing "Chair" to "President" and "Vice Chair" to "Vice President" with "Chair" and "Vice Chair" Reserved for their positions on the Executive Committee.
• Specifying when a Senator …

Documents From The October 8, 2025 Meeting Of The Associated Students Of The University Of Montana (Asum), Associated Students Of The University Of Montana, Kate Austin Payne

Senate Meeting Agendas and Minutes, 2007-Present

Agenda and meeting minutes from the October 8, 2025 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Part 2: Sailor On The Seas Of Infinity, Luis Moreno-Armella, Corey Brady

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Mathematics is the result of a long process of research with the instruments of rationality that each age makes available to its members. Euclidean geometry crystallizes an impulse of deductive rationality. But this impulse has not always been the dominant one. At other times, such as the one we are going to explain in this part, a form of inductive reasoning has been given primacy. We will see the development of ideas that today constitute the foundations of the Calculus and that indicated the future task of its deductive consolidation. Our protagonist, the bold sailor, was identified as one who …

Part 3: Mathematical Thinking And Rigor, First Steps, Luis Moreno-Armella, Corey Brady

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Agustín thus sought to abandon the unsafe use of inductive methods in algebra, as Leonardo had employed them, and to rather recover Euclid's ideal that is crystallized in the Elements of Geometry. Nevertheless, his idea of a limit is grounded in the dynamism of motion or a process: It is an embodied idea. From here, a conceptual exploration of functions and their possible properties begins. The effort of conceptual reorganization that Agustín undertakes is remarkable, and it prepares the ground for the in-depth research suggested by his work. With this arose a tangible need need to review the forms of …

David Tall And Advanced Mathematical Thinking, Keith Weber

The Mathematics Enthusiast

I discuss David Tall’s influence on advanced mathematical thinking.

First-Year University Students’ Mathematics Capital And Identities, Paola Valero, Lisa Österling, Nhu Truong, Anna Danielsson, Bruna Nunes, Maria Berge

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Based on a survey of 150 respondents and 16 timeline interviews with first-year university mathematics students in Sweden, we explore how the material resources and conditions available to them —mathematics capital— connect to their mathematical identities. We found that mathematics capital has bearing on how early in life students start to consider doing mathematics. We also found individually different trajectories among students with low mathematics capital into university mathematics. The study expands both existing theoretical and methodological ways of researching the material bearings of identity and opens up for new ways of understanding and exploring the conditions that may facilitate …

Rethinking Equality In Mathematics Education With Category Theory, Kelly Paton

The Mathematics Enthusiast

To provide an alternative to the flattening operations of equality, which are prevalent not only in mathematics but also in our everyday world, I introduce the relational structures of category theory and their more nuanced notions of equivalence. Instead of defaulting to a binary assignation of equal or not-equal, equivalence posits that contextual relationships are integral to how we conceive of ‘same’ and ‘different’. I draw upon the ideas of philosophers who work against the erasure of diversity and offer ways to uphold difference while searching for commonalities. As I trace the sociopolitical implications of embracing an ontological framework built …

Portfolio And Appendix Chris M. Larson, Chris M. Larson

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Abstract:

This is a collection of assignments and reflections of my work throughout the course of the Masters in Social Work program at the University of Montana. Included are assignments reflecting on the Indian Child Welfare Act, housing, barriers to care for Non-White and female veterans within the VA clinic, the quality of care in nursing homes, American Drug policy, confidentiality in the YWCA, training on interventions based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, cost benefit analysis of in home care programs, and a proposal for my practicum site Missoula Aging Services. It has reflections on the five elements of advanced practice, …

Tribal Sovereign Immunity: Absolute Authority Or Accountability, Kekek Jason Stark

Faculty Law Review Articles

In the wake of the recent United States Supreme Court decision of Trump v. United States, the Court determined that the President as Chief Executive is immune from conduct associated with official acts. The question that emanates from this opinion is how will this decision affect Indian Country and tribal court determinations of tribal sovereign immunity? This article will attempt to address this question. I begin with the Anishinaabe story of Bebaamosed miinawaa Gawigoshko’iweshiinh (The Trickster and the Little Scary Bird) in an attempt to understand the complicated nature of tribal sovereign immunity. As we reflect upon this story, …

Tribal Sovereign Immunity: Absolute Authority Or Accountability, Kekek Jason Stark

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In the wake of the recent United States Supreme Court decision of Trump v. United States, the Court determined that the President as Chief Executive is immune from conduct associated with official acts.3 The question that emanates from this opinion is how will this decision affect Indian Country and tribal court determinations of tribal sovereign immunity? This article will attempt to address this question. I begin with the Anishinaabe story of Bebaamosed miinawaa Gawigoshko’iweshiinh (The Trickster and the Little Scary Bird)5 in an attempt to understand the complicated nature of tribal sovereign immunity.

Discovering The Doctrine Of Discovery, Douglas Lind

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The doctrine of discovery is a concept in crisis. A principle of public international law associated with the so-called Age of Discovery, the doctrine of discovery is commonly said to have authorized European nations to claim the lands of indigenous peoples and establish settlements on the basis of “discovery” alone. Today, with good reason, the doctrine is widely condemned. The United Nations has denounced it as “the very foundation of genocide.” Describing its manifest injustices against indigenous cultures, dominion, and sovereignty as “devastating, far-reaching and intergenerational,” the UN Economic and Social Council has called for the doctrine to be categorically …

Uses And Abuses Of Johnson V. M’Intosh In Native American Land Rights Cases: Investigative Insights From The Indian Law Justice Files, John P. Lavelle

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The 200th anniversary of the foundational Indian law decision Johnson v. M’Intosh has come and gone, with many scholars contributing criticism and commentary. The dominant focus has been the case’s notorious embrace of the so-called “doctrine of discovery,” an odious theory for rationalizing European nations’ claims of superior rights to lands occupied by Indigenous Native American peoples. Commanding less attention, however, is the Johnson decision’s core protective legal feature, i.e., its reinforcing the United States government’s duty to guard against the alienation of Indian lands through private, unauthorized acquisitions.

Indian Casinos Under The Big Sky: Why Tribes In Other States Have Been More Successful With Gaming And The Path Forward For Montana’S Tribes, Trevor Funseth

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The most successful method of economic development for many Indian tribes in the United States has been gaming. Tribes across the country have risen out of poverty through their casino operations and have been able to use the profits to diversify their investments and improve tribal infrastructure, education, and social programs.

Damned If You Do, Dammed If You Don’T: Solutions For The Snake River And The Nez Perce Tribe, Meridian S. Wappett

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Water Rights Settlements And The Animas-La Plata Project: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of Dependency, Sidney Paulina Williams

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Casinos Under The Big Sky: Why Tribes In Other States Have Been More Successful With Gaming And The Path Forward For Montana’S Tribes, Trevor Funseth

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Significant Montana Cases, Isabella Fossum, Emily Howke

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribal Sovereign Immunity: Absolute Authority Or Accountability, Kekek Jason Stark

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Reciprocity: Off-Reservation Treaty Hunting Rights, Sarah K. Yarlott

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Water Rights Settlements And The Animas-La Plata Project: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of Dependency, Sidney Paulina Williams

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.