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May 6, 2026 Faculty Senate Minutes, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

No abstract provided.

When Disasters Trigger Cyber Vulnerabilities: Mapping Physical-Digital Interdependencies In Critical Infrastructure Systems, Dikshya Panta, Sicheng Wang, Aditya Sapkota, Prakash Ranganathan

Faculty Publications

Critical infrastructure (CI) systems such as power, water, communications, and emergency services are increasingly exposed to compound risks in which natural disasters and cyber incidents interact and amplify one another. Traditional risk assessments often isolate physical and digital threats, overlooking the cascading dependencies that emerge when operational stress, emergency reconfiguration, and adversarial exploitation coincide. This study conducts a 2019–2025 scoping review and introduces a Geographic Information System (GIS) driven six-stage disaster cyber compounding framework that characterizes, maps, and operationalizes compound risk across interdependent CI sectors. The framework integrates a common operating picture, analytic situational understanding, exposure mapping, threat-fingerprint encoding, detection …

Assessing Inclusion Within Naaee Affiliate Ee Associations And Where To Go From Here, Connor Chilton

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental Education (EE) has a history that has been typically defined by traditionally dominant identities (White, male, able-bodied, etc.). The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) offers a unique position as frontrunners for the field of EE and have the duty to provide an inclusive-minded education for and about the environments throughout the world. Through NAAEE’s affiliate network within the United States, this paper details a glimpse into the work towards inclusion by surveying its leadership position holders about the broad subject and several interconnections of inclusion. Upon completion of the survey, participants who opted to participate in a …

Reluctant Transitions: Place And Post-Extraction Politics In Southeastern Ohio, Jenna Lynn Haver

Theses and Dissertations

Based on a summer of ethnographic research in a subsection of Appalachian Ohio colloquially referred to as “The Valley,” this research challenges three narratives of this place that formulate a harmful Appalachian imaginary. The first narrative of industrycontrolled coal heritage is complicated by the way local people negotiate control over their own stories of coal and its existence outside of industry domain. The second narrative characterizes this as a space of extraction which is in tension with different social relations to varying types of energy – especially the discontinuity of the coal to fracking shift. The third narrative centers of …

Shedding Light On Inequities Of Power Outages Through Data Transparency, Kelly A. Stevens, Sanam K. Aksha, Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, Elizabeth Trader, Herbert Longenecker, Rebecca Entress, Thomas Wahl, Christopher Emrich, Kristopher O. Davis

Faculty Publications

In a changing climate, the electricity grid is increasingly exposed to more extreme weather that results in significant power outages. Further, lower income and racial-ethnic minority households are more likely to experience a higher frequency and duration of power outages compared to less socially vulnerable groups. The literature on the unequal impacts of power outages is a new, growing area of research that has been stymied in part due to the difficulty acquiring high spatial resolution, historical power outage data from utilities. In this Perspectives article, we review the availability of power outage data, and what can be learned from …

Shedding Light On Inequities Of Power Outages Through Data Transparency, Kelly A. Stevens, Sanam K. Aksha, Mohammed Siddiqur Rahman, Elizabeth Trader, Herbert Longenecker, Rebecca Entress

Faculty Publications

In a changing climate, the electricity grid is increasingly exposed to more extreme weather that results in significant power outages. Further, lower income and racial-ethnic minority households are more likely to experience a higher frequency and duration of power outages compared to less socially vulnerable groups. The literature on the unequal impacts of power outages is a new, growing area of research that has been stymied in part due to the difficulty acquiring high spatial resolution, historical power outage data from utilities. In this Perspectives article, we review the availability of power outage data, and what can be learned from …

Investigating The Use Of Socio-Scientific Issues As Phenomena Through A Storyline Framework In A High School Biology Course, Dana Marie Delpha

Theses and Dissertations

This action research dissertation investigates the efficacy of a socio-scientific phenomena-driven biology curriculum in a Title 1 Massachusetts High School. Grounded in social constructivism, culturally relevant pedagogy, and self-determination theories, the study explores the impact of socio-scientific phenomena on students’ perceived importance of science education, motivation, engagement, and achievement. A mixed-methods approach was used, and data was collected through student engagement reflection, Science Motivation Questionnaire, and pre- and post-assessments to holistically evaluate the efficacy of the curriculum. The findings include increased student engagement, motivation, and achievement after participating in the intervention, which supports the motivation-engagement-achievement feedback loop. Student agency was …

Limit Tests: Sociodemographic Representation In Public Organizations, Christopher Dee Eddy

Theses and Dissertations

Bureaucratic institutions are a critical yet often underappreciated nexus of democratic legitimacy. However, public agencies frequently fail to represent key constituencies of the American public, significantly influencing citizens' attitudes toward governing institutions and challenging effective governance. Research suggests that improving sociodemographic representation within political institutions can reinforce institutional support and citizen trust through symbolic processes and promote equitable policy outcomes through actions of bureaucrats from historically excluded groups.

Despite these insights, past research is divided on if, how, and when descriptive or passive representation leads to beneficial symbolic or active effects. While the existing body of representative bureaucracy theory offers …

The Daily Gamecock: April 2025, University Of South Carolina, Office Of Student Media

2025

No abstract provided.

Revitalizing Passenger Rail: A Sustainable Solution To Environmental And Public Health Challenges In South Carolina, Benjamin Cochran

Theses and Dissertations

South Carolina, a historic leader in passenger rail, has become a heavily vehicle-dependent state. As the population rapidly grows, so does the number of vehicles, vehicle miles traveled, and vehicle emissions, including the greenhouse gas pollutants carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and particulate matter (PM2.5), significantly contributing to air pollution and deteriorating health and environmental outcomes. Despite this, mass transit is nonexistent for the three largest cities in South Carolina, Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville, forcing residents and travelers to drive. This study evaluates the feasibility and the environmental, public health, environmental justice, and economic implications of a passenger rail …

The Daily Gamecock: March 2025, University Of South Carolina, Office Of Student Media

2025

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Seas Of History In International Law, Valentina Vadi

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

Inquiries into questions of time, history, and international law have recently come to the fore. So far, however, many studies have only examined developments in international law from a temporally and thematically fragmented, brief, and narrow perspective. Due to international law’s growing normative and institutional fragmentation and emphasis on specific crises, episodes, and events, many analyses focus on transient trends and particular facets of international law. This study suggests an alternative to these constrained viewpoints: a thorough, multilayered, and broad perspective to questions of international law, drawing on Fernand Braudel’s tripartite theory of time.

Braudel’s theory of time provides valuable …

Femtech In Context: A Critical Conceptual (Re)View, Danica Facca, Jodi Hall, Gail Teachman, Joanna Redden, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan

Publications

Emerging as a commercial category in 2016, ‘femtech’ has been publicly celebrated as a category of consumer-based digital health technologies designed to support the unmet and systemically marginalized health needs of women in areas such as menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause, through data-driven apps, wearables, and self-diagnostic tools. Since its emergence, the term femtech has become culturally significant and has taken on a life of its own across commercial, public, and healthcare discourses. Despite the growth of femtech scholarship, clarity is lacking on how different disciplines have challenged the assumptions about sex, gender, health, technology, and innovation that shape …

Libraries On The Front Lines: The Imperative For Disaster-Ready Information Professionals, Feili Tu-Keefner Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Libraries, particularly local public libraries, have evolved into hubs for community-first services, extending beyond traditional roles. Library personnel are now expected to act as first responders and crisis leaders during times such as natural disasters. This report documents the critical crisis leadership qualifications required for library personnel, identified through comprehensive research from 2015 to 2023. Findings from these situation-specific case studies call attention to the community’s needs for library services during emergencies, underscoring the requirement for LIS education to include disaster management. Continuing education (CE) is also critical in preparing information professionals for these essential roles.

How Has Health Literacy And Digital Health Literacy Scholarship Evolved? A Global, Qualitative Study, Brooks Yelton Ma, Lmsw, Mayank Sakhuja, Simone Kavarana, Lauren Schaurer, Michelle Angelique Arent, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Mark M. Macauda, Samuel Noblet, Daniela B. Friedman

Publications

Health literacy (HL) is a key social determinant of health (SDoH) and is of increasing importance in public health research and intervention for improved health outcomes. Definitions of HL and digital health literacy (DHL) have evolved over time as the field has expanded conceptualization from an individual focus to the broader community and organizational levels. Careful consideration of HL and DHL for a variety of contexts and audiences is critical given increased global adoption of digital technologies and responses to emerging public health challenges. This study aimed to capture researchers' conceptualizations of HL/DHL and their motivations to engage in this …

Perception Of Recreational Water Quality In The Scholarly Literature: Where Have We Been & Where Should We Go, Xavier Alberto Basurto Cendeno

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores existing literature and research themes between water quality and recreational participation through use of a bibliometric analysis with content analysis. It identifies key researchers, institutions, and themes that have shaped the field. Despite the growing body of research, gaps remain in understanding the state of the research on this important topic. By analyzing trends and how these trends have changed over time, this study aims to offer insights for future research agendas. Ultimately, the findings will inform strategies for improving water quality management and fostering more resilient, timely water-based recreational research.

An Assessment Of Drinking Water Equity In South Carolina: Access, Affordability, Quality, And Private Well Resources, Catherine Lippert Min

Theses and Dissertations

Universal access to good quality, affordable drinking water is a goal that has not yet been reached in the United States. Recently, national studies have investigated drinking water burdens including lack of access to complete plumbing, unaffordability, and poor quality individually. However, no study has examined all of these drinking water burdens together to identify communities facing multiple burdens. This study addresses this gap by analyzing disparities in access to complete plumbing, affordability of public water sources, and drinking water quality of community water systems in South Carolina and identifying communities that face multiple burdens. This study also provides the …

Reading Ecogothic Memory In Contemporary Southern Swamp Novels, Megan Caroline Brockhard Knight

Theses and Dissertations

The ecogothic is a lens through which to engage memory, southern constructivism and identity, environmental intervention, and the literature of the American Southeast. This project establishes a framework of literary criticism that defines the ecogothic, interprets memory as truth imagined, and identifies the position of memory in the environment as a construction with which it is necessary to grapple to understand identity. This framework, compiled of existing and original scholarship, is then applied to three contemporary swamp narratives written by three different southern women writers. The swamp setting creates a unique microcosm of gothic liminality, neither fully land nor water, …

Housing Buyouts At The Intersection Of Flooding And Toxins: A Case Study Of Cheraw, South Carolina, Victoria Ponds

Theses and Dissertations

As climate change increases extreme weather events, efforts of managed retreat will also increase, particularly through housing buyout programs. The largest scale housing buyout programs are run through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These buyout programs focus primarily on flood hazards and exclude anthropogenic hazards. This policy is problematic in the modern technological age where compound hazards, including those involving toxin releases, are occurring more frequently. In this thesis, I investigate how disaster policies account for the intersection of these hazards in Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation buyouts in Cheraw, South …

College Athletes, Social Justice, And The Role Of Social Workers In Advocating For Change, Lauren Mccoy, Evie Oregon, Dana J. Sullivan

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Social justice activism from college athletes is considered a rare occurrence often due to the intensity of negative public response and the possibility of athletic repercussions. The likelihood of negative reactions did not stop the unique, highly publicized protests at Grambling State University and the University of Missouri. These protests set the tone for college athlete unionization and a new era of college athlete activism. College athletes recognize their power as corporate brands and standing as a group made it so their voices had to be heard or else face financial consequences. While these protests achieved their initial goals, their …

Identifying Multilevel Predictors Of Behavioral Outcomes Like Park Use: A Comparison Of Conditional And Marginal Modeling Approaches, Marilyn E. Wende, S. Morgan Hughey, Alexander C. Mclain, Shirelle Hallum, J. Aaron Hipp, Jasper Schipperijn, Ellen W. Stowe, Andrew T. Kaczynski Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This study compared marginal and conditional modeling approaches for identifying individual, park and neighborhood park use predictors. Data were derived from the ParkIndex study, which occurred in 128 block groups in Brooklyn (New York), Seattle (Washington), Raleigh (North Carolina), and Greenville (South Carolina). Survey respondents (n = 320) indicated parks within one half-mile of their block group used within the past month. Parks (n = 263) were audited using the Community Park Audit Tool. Measures were collected at the individual (park visitation, physical activity, sociodemographic characteristics), park (distance, quality, size), and block group (park count, population density, age structure, racial …

Pfas In Charleston S.C.: A Review Of Pollution, Regulatory Issues And Potential Solutions, Jackson D. Vause

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Association Of Dietary Antioxidants And The Inflammatory Potential Of The Diet With Poor Physical Function And Disability In Older Australian Men: The Concord Health And Ageing In Men Project, Daniela Wizgier, Ying Meng, Arpita Das, Vasi Naganathan, Fiona Blyth, David G. Le Couteur, David J. Handelsman, Louise M. Waite, Rosilene V. Ribeiro, Nitin Shivappa, James Hébert Scd, Vasant Hirani

Faculty Publications

Our objective was to evaluate the association of antioxidant intake and the inflammatory potential of the diet with functional decline in older men. A diet history questionnaire was used to collect dietary intake data from men aged ≥ 75 years (n 794) participating in the Concord Health and Aging in Men Project cohort study. Intake of vitamins A, C, E and Zn were compared with the Australian Nutrient Reference Values to determine adequacy. The Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DIITM) was used to assess the inflammatory potential of the diet. Physical performance data were collected via handgrip strength and walking speed …

Transdisciplinary Approaches To Community Engagement, Research Translation And Science Communication Through Application Of The Socio-Environmental Report Card Process And Product In Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Ekaterina Negodyaeva Altman

Theses and Dissertations

Public health and environmental sustainability are interlinked. Three pillars of sustainable development are society, environment, and economy are supported and reinforced by healthy populations. Balancing these values in a long-term vision and application requires active involvement of communities and stakeholders in decision-making process of management of environmental resources and personal health choices. Transdisciplinary sustainability science provides a framework for addressing complex issues in sustainability and generates actionable knowledge to link science and policy and involved stakeholders in the scientific process. Transdisciplinary research processes use co-design, co-production, and co-implementation framework to create and re-integrate useful knowledge into practice on a local …

Replenishment Of Essential Natural Resources: An Assessment Of The Ability Of Freshwater Algae To Enhance Crop Quality And Soil Health, Lala Christina Ek

Theses and Dissertations

Disregard for soil, an essential natural resource, hinders global food production. Food insecurity is a major concern for both public health officials and environmental scientists due to soil quality decline, pollution, and climate change. Alternatives or targeted additions to chemical fertilizers can bolster soil quality, improve crop yields, lengthen crop shelf life, and mitigate environmental pollution. One potential alternative to chemical fertilizers is replacement of them with biological soil amendments, including algae, to enhance crop growth and improve soil health. Research was conducted at the University of South Carolina-Columbia campus garden to determine impacts of non-toxic freshwater algae on crop …

Unlocking Population-Specific Treatments To Render Equitable Approaches And Management In Cardiovascular Disease (Upstream Cvd): African American Emerging Adults, Shannon Bright Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in America. African American people have disparate CVD outcomes, and African American emerging adults (AAEAs) aged 18-25 have CVD risk factors. This study aimed to examine the state of CVD risk factors in AAEAs, assess upstream and population factors in AAEAs attending a southeastern historically black college/university (HBCU), compare their perceived and objective CVD risk, explore their level of CVD knowledge, and examine responses when they learn their objective CVD risk.

Chapter 1 presents background literature on CVD in AAEAs and the research plan. Chapter 2 presents a newly synthesized situation-specific …

The Clinic As A Site Of Grounded Pedagogy, Madalyn K. Wasilczuk

Faculty Publications

Legal education tends to focus on teaching students federal law from hefty casebooks, inculcating the ability to "think like lawyers." In a sea of Socratic lectures and hypotheticals, students often take refuge in clinics as an island of practical skills-building, client centeredness, and individual fulfillment. Yet even clinics sometimes fail to highlight for students how the place where they practice, with its particular political context and history, shapes their clients' lives and legal problems. This Article describes the law school clinic as a site of grounded pedagogy: a teaching method that centers the con­nection between local history and the present …

The Long Voyage Home, India M. Whaley

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

This research paper (“Paper”) examines the international, constitutional, legal history, and current rights to housing in the United States (U.S.), Jamaica, and South Africa. This Paper addresses the federal and sub-national systems regarding affordable housing initiatives that drive policies associated with poverty and homelessness. Moreover, the following thesis addresses the need for affordable housing and discusses the substantive right to housing. It examines the legal avenues and obstacles that must be overcome given the division of powers in each country. This Paper will discuss significant influences such as colonialism that shape current housing policies to eradicate poverty and homelessness. Colonial …

Scott’S Reparative Land Ethic, Nigel Leask

Studies in Scottish Literature

A review essay discussing Susan Oliver's "important and convincing" book Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland: Emergent Ecologies of a Nation (Cambridge University Press, 2021), noting Scott's land ethic and active role in managing his estate at Abbotsford and in afforestation, and suggesting that Oliver's book presents "a cumulative literary history of Scotland’s ecologies," so that Scott's poetry and novels "assume a new relevance for 21st century readers".

Greenspace Across The United States: Exploring Equity And Associations With Physical Activity, Obesity, And Health-Related Quality Of Life, Ellen W. Stowe

Theses and Dissertations

Neighborhood greenspace is important for health and well-being but may not be equitably present in neighborhoods across the United States. Also, many adults are physically inactive, have obesity, and report poor health-related quality of life. Greenspace has been tied to these health conditions, but with mixed findings. The purpose of this study was to 1) use an environmental justice perspective to examine variations in 11 measures of greenspace by neighborhood race/ethnicity, income, and rurality in block groups across the contiguous United States and 2) examine 11 greenspace measures in connection to physical activity, obesity, and health-related quality of life in …