Digital Commons Network^™

Convergence Of Social Justice, Human Rights, And Artificial Intelligence (Ai), Sudershan Pasupuleti, Urmila Yadav, Susheelabai R. Srinivasa

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Artificial Intelligence and large data machine learning are transforming many areas, including healthcare, economic, political, and educational social institutions, at their best. Artificial intelligence can also be offered the moral and legal potential to safeguard human rights and social justice in society. For instance, human rights organizations scan public domain images for evidence of abuse, or software uses adversarial techniques to reduce bias in training data. At best, some organizations and businesses are tackling these challenges in a proactive manner, looking for methods to make sure they avoid or identify concerns before they arise; for others, this may be a …

"Art, Esthetics, Ideal": An Ethics For Literary Translators In The Age Of Translating Machines, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The advent of effective machine translation has raised several issues for translators, including the question of how a human translator ought to translate in this age of translating machines. In this context of new ethical questions, the present essay argues that an answer may be found in Pedro Figari’s (1912) philosophical essay on esthetics. Following Figari, the current essay argues that literary translation is art, that as such it can produce an esthetic emotion on readers and that the purpose of such art and esthetics is an ideal in the form of the continuous betterment of the human condition.

An Imperative For Leadership & Institutional Transformation: Going Back To Code, Jonikka Charlton

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Firm’S Operational Risk: Data Set And Empirical Evidence, Vivek Astvansh, Joseph J. Simpson

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Problem definition: A firm’s stakeholders would benefit from a quantitative measure of the managerial disclosure of its operational risk and the implications of this disclosure. However, a quantitative and scalable measure of a firm’s disclosed operational risk is unavailable. Thus, the firm’s stakeholders remain unaware of its disclosed operational risk and the risk’s implications. Methodology/results: U.S. law requires a public firm to textually disclose its operational and nonoperational risks in Item 1A of its annual report (i.e., Form 10-K). We train 64 transformer models on U.S. public firms’ Item 1A text to score 131,920 firm-years (16,959 firms, 2005 to 2024) …

Making Words Count: Computational Linguistics In Management Research, Joseph J. Simpson, Richard A. Hunt, David M. Townsend, Judy Rady, Elham Asgari, Mohammad Rady, Daniel J. Beal

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

In recent years, a rapidly growing number of management scholars are using computational linguistics (CL) to analyze vast corpora of naturally occurring organizational language. Yet the rapid adoption of CL methods has outpaced the development of shared standards for linking theoretical constructs, linguistic data, and computational measurement. We synthesize 353 articles published in leading management journals for 2013–2025, identifying four recurring challenges shaping the credibility of CL-based research: misalignment between constructs and textual corpora, unnecessary model complexity, the opacity of large language model workflows, and insufficient transparency in reporting. Building on these patterns, we develop four integrative design principles—construct-language fit, …

Advancing Culturally Sustaining Stem Instruction For Latinx Secondary Students: From Research To Practice Through The Monarch Migration, Maryam Saberi, Noushin Nouri

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This chapter presents the development of a research-based STEM curriculum for Latinx students using Monarch butterfly migration phenomenon as context. Based on a systematic review of 196 articles, the study first maps eight STEM research categories for Latinx populations. It then conducts a meta-synthesis of 23 successful interventions to create a Latinx-Affirming STEM (La-STEM) curriculum framework organized around Akker's ten curriculum elements. Finally, it translates these theoretical foundations into practical implementation through a detailed Monarch butterfly migration curriculum. The Monarch phenomenon, chosen for its deep cultural resonance and scientific richness, demonstrates how each curriculum element can integrate STEM concepts with …

Teaching Nature Of Science (Nos) Through Cultural Windows: A Framework For Latinx Preservice Science Teachers, Noushin Nouri, Maryam Saberi

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This chapter presents a comprehensive framework for teaching Nature of Science (NOS) to preservice science teachers through cultural windows, implemented through six targeted activities. The framework, developed through rigorous meta-synthesis of NOS literature and analysis of Latinx preservice teachers' autobiographies, integrates Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) and Rightful Presence (RP) theories with NOS curriculum elements. This theoretical foundation informs the design of activities: Dolores Huerta environmental justice, Tangram exploration, historical cases, cultural picture analysis, nixtamalization black box, and family-scientist interactions. Each activity systematically maps to curriculum elements while demonstrating how the framework enables cultural knowledge integration in NOS instruction for meaningful, …

A Preliminary Investigation Of Research Collaboration Through Scientific Paper Co-Authorship In The Gulf Of Mexico, Juliet Vallejo, Evelyn Roozee, Dongkyu Kim, Andrew M. Song, Christopher A. Gabler, Jasper R. De Vries, Antonia Sohns, Gordon M. Hickey, Owen Temby

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

It is well known that publications with collaborators from external institutions increase citations. This effect scales with spatial distance. There are also many barriers to long-distance collaborations, including linguistic differences, funding constraints, and the incremental costs of remote collaboration. This paper uses the Gulf of Mexico as a case study to examine long-distance research collaboration because it consists of three countries with diverse development levels and two prominent diplomatic languages, within a singular regional ecosystem of tremendous natural and economic value. This paper uses bibliometric network analysis to examine scientific research article co-authorship in the Gulf of Mexico from 2000 …

‘The Way We Do Our Translation’: A Case Study Of Translation Policy For Spanish Speakers In The Public Parks Of Sonoma County, California, Gabriel González Núñez, Ángel María Casas Grageab, Christina Guerrero Harmon

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Signs in public spaces can provide essential information. Especially at times of crises, and in places where there are large populations who speak a minoritized language, translation is often employed to create multilingual signage for the benefit of the community. After all, translated signs appear because some authority considers that a certain message is important enough to be visibly communicated to the public, including those who do not speak the State’s preferred language. The decision as to whether to translate or not certain signs may seem arbitrary, but one would hope that it is the result of a guided policy …

Breaking The Resistance: A Narrative Review Of The Evolution From Traditional Drugs To Precision Therapies In Epilepsy, Tirath Patel, Fathimathul Henna, Ashfaq Ahmed, Ayesha Ahmad, Noor Ul Huda, Syed Aaraiz Ul Hassan, Aiman Muhammad, Amna Javed, Maryem Filal, Nikhilesh Anand

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, affecting approximately 50 million individuals globally. While conventional antiseizure medications (ASMs) control seizures in 70-80% of patients, about 30% experience drug resistance or intolerable side effects, necessitating alternative approaches.

Objective: To critically compare the efficacy, safety, and accessibility of conventional and emerging therapies for epilepsy, particularly in the context of treatment-resistant cases and global disparities in care.

Methods: This narrative review synthesized evidence from 120 peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025. Literature was retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus using predefined search terms related to epilepsy …

Using The Practice Based Coaching Model For Professional Development In Head Start Programs, Julia Cuevas Guerra

Human Development and School Services Faculty Publications

A mixed-methods descriptive single-case research design explored the effects of implementing the Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) model at a South Texas Early Head Start Center. Three bilingual coaches used the Practiced-Based Coaching model to provide professional development on emergent biliteracy instruction for three bilingual teachers of 2- to 3-year-olds. Coaches and teachers used reflexive journals, focus groups, pre- and post-observation checklists, and surveys to share their views and experiences with the Practice-Based Coaching model. Results showed the Practice Based Coaching model is effective teacher and coach training. The model’s ripple effect fostered a coach-teacher collaboration via social learning, boosting teachers’ emergent …

Implementing The Practice Based Coaching Model For Inclusion In Early Childhood Education, Julia Cuevas Guerra

Human Development and School Services Faculty Publications

This mixed method descriptive single case research explored the effects of implementing the Practice-Based Coaching (PBC) model at an Early Head Start Center in South Texas. The Practice-Based Coaching model provided professional development by three bilingual coaches to three bilingual teachers of young children ages 2-3 about emergent biliteracy instruction. Data was collected from coaches and teachers through reflexive journals, focus group interview, pre and post observation checklists and surveys to get their perceptions and experiences with the Practice-Based Coaching model. The findings showed the Practice Based Coaching model is an effective learning practice for teachers and coaches. The model …

Pronunciación, Repetición E Identificación De Los Sonidos Del Español Por Aprendices Qataríes De E/Le En Su Primer Semestre, Ramsés Ortín, Javier Sánchez-Mesas

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Este estudio explora las dificultades en pronunciación y percepción de sonidos del español por un grupo de estudiantes qataríes en su primer semestre. Las participantes completaron tres actividades (lectura, repetición de palabras, identificación de palabras) que requieren diferentes tipos de conocimiento (producción de sonidos con y sin presencia de ortografíae identificación de sonidos) al inicio y final de su primer curso. Los resultados revelan que esta población presenta dificultades con los contrastes de vocales medias y altas, la nasal palatal, las consonantes oclusivas bilabiales y las vibrantes. Estas dificultades no aparecen de igual manera en actividades con y sin presencia …

Autoethnography, Poetic Performance Narratives, And Pláticas As Dialogues Of Radical Love, Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This piece examines Autoethnography, Poetic Performance Narratives, and Pláticas as decolonial methodologies that challenge the coloniality of knowledge and center voices historically excluded from academic discourse. These approaches honor traditions rooted in community, solidarity, and radical love, presenting lived realities without oversimplification while inviting readers to inhabit contradictions and imagine ethical possibilities for equity. Grounded in Latin American and Chicana/Latina/Indígena feminist scholarship, this work situates these practices within a legacy of decolonial epistemologies that resist dominant Western paradigms and affirm lived experience as a site of theory-making. Through this lens, the piece seeks to: (1) bear witness to shared experiences, …

Naamkaran At The Border: Reflections On Naming, Identity, And Belonging, Vejoya Viren

Human Development and School Services Faculty Publications

Names serve as primary anchors of identity, carrying histories, cultural markers, and personal significance. Yet individuals with non-Western names frequently encounter mispronunciation, abbreviation, or simplification— practices that subtly diminish or erase aspects of identity. This article employs an autoethnographic lens to explore the complex terrain of naming across personal and professional contexts. Drawing on lived experience from India to the U.S.–Mexico border, the essay examines the emotional and social labor associated with names, the negotiation of linguistic difference, and the ethical imperative of respectful pronunciation. It situates personal narrative within scholarship on microaggressions, identity construction, and linguistic justice, demonstrating how …

Beyond Binaries, Bridging Divides: Centering Identity, Resistance, And Educational Justice Along The Texas-Mexico Border. A Critical Autoethnography Of Underrepresented Intersectionality, Invisibility, And Transformation In Education, Alexander Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs solo autoethnography and counter-storytelling to examine how intersecting identities, queer, neurodivergent, bilingual, and fronterizo, shape lived experiences within U.S. educational spaces along the Texas–Mexico border. Grounded in Critical Race Theory as a historical foundation and guided by the braiding logic of Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), the study integrates Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), Disability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit), and Queer Theory to analyze how race, language, ability, and sexuality converge within systems of schooling.

Using memory-work, poetic autoethnography, and narrative vignettes as primary data, the dissertation traces how educational institutions discipline identity through racio-linguistic policing, behavioral surveillance, and …

Exploring Factors That Contribute To The Success Of Latina Superintendents In South Texas, Juanita D. Ybarra-Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID 19 pandemic brought forth many new challenges to the K-12 public schools. Superintendent turnover rates reached concerning levels in Texas and nationwide. This study explored the relationships between Latina superintendent’s success and the superintendents’ experiences with the school board, the community, their own health and safety and experiences related to maintaining superintendents’ role. Success is defined as a participant who acquired the superintendent role and maintained it for at least three years. Participants in this study were selected from Hispanic female superintendents within the Region One Education Service Center (ESC) in South Texas who had acquired and remained …

Voices Of Resistance: Multilingual Identity Formation Through Translanguaging In Dual Language Bilingual Education, Fernando W. Milmo

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored how students navigated their evolving multicultural and multilingual identities in a setting with varying emphases on English and Spanish in the context of a fourth-grade dual language classroom where the teacher employed translanguaging pedagogy. This study is grounded in a theoretical framework that integrates decolonial, raciolinguistic, and translanguaging perspectives. The study examined students' perceptions of linguistic hierarchies and the ways they utilized their full linguistic repertoires to negotiate meaning, identity, and a sense of belonging. This study included pláticas as a culturally grounded narrative method, classroom observations, and interviews, and used a qualitative case study …

Factors Influencing Teacher Professional Autonomy And Career Satisfaction: The Effects Of Unrealistic Professional Expectations Surrounding Student-Centered And Technology Implementation Tropes, Karla Gabriela Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

The research problem is to investigate to what extent unrealistic professional expectations stemming from a predominant emphasis on the tropes of student-centeredness and technology integration impact teachers’ experiences of professional autonomy and career satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to find out what factors impact teacher autonomy and career satisfaction while also considering how teachers can be effectively supported to improve these areas. Utilizing a narrative inquiry approach, this qualitative study will be held in the Rio Grande Valley and will analyze interviews of both current teachers and teachers who have recently left the profession. Therefore, this study will …

Hispanic Academic Leadership In The Health And Human Services, Gabriela Elizabeth Rangel

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, there are 63.7 million Hispanics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023), making them the largest racial or ethnic minority in the country. National data from 2019 indicates that only 6% of tenured faculty in the U.S. were Hispanic, highlighting a significant underrepresentation of leaders in academia (NCES, 2024). This study employed a phenomenological approach with purposeful sampling, utilizing semi-structured interviews with ten participants who had leadership experience in academia within Health and Human Services (H&HS). The interviews served to explore various aspects, such as what were their aspirations to become leaders, their perceptions of the characteristics and qualities …

Navigating Cultural And Professional Identities: A Study Of Hispanic Women's Experiences In Aerospace Internship Programs, Jennifer Becerra

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study investigated how Hispanic women navigated cultural identity and professional development during National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) internship programs, examining the role of culturally responsive mentoring in supporting retention. The research question was, How do Hispanic women in aerospace-internship programs navigate the intersection of cultural identity and professional development as they transition from academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs to aerospace careers, and what role does culturally responsive mentoring play in supporting their retention?

Using Anzaldúa’s nepantla concept, Duncan-Andrade’s critical-hope theory, and Ladson-Billings’ culturally relevant pedagogy as theoretical frameworks, in this study, I employed semistructured …

Burdened By Conviction: The Pressures Within, Dulce M. Perez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how religious and political systems, particularly Catholic influences in the Rio Grande Valley, limit and silence women. By employing historical and alternative photographic techniques such as cyanotype, gum bichromate, and photo transfer, I express how these systems control and shape women’s lives. Combined, the materials serve as a metaphor for the oppression and damage which power can inflict. In these works, fabric represents the potential for manipulation of the human mind; the red thread stitched through cloth and paper symbolizes control; and fragmented images are a reference to the collapse of humanity. Throughout this exploration, I reflect …

Decolonizing The Whitexican: Reclaiming Identity Through Nahuatl And Mesoamerican Motifs, Laia Ivanna Vite Cano

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersection of art, linguistics, and ideography through the lens of personal and cultural heritage rooted in the Huasteca region of Central Mexico. Drawing inspiration from familial connections to the pueblos of Huazalingo and Huejutla in Hidalgo, Mexico, the research examines the cultural complexities of bicultural and binational experiences. It is grounded in the theoretical framework of Nepantla, a concept introduced by Gloria Anzaldúa to describe the unseen space of the border life as one of existing between worlds, identities, and cultures. Included and essential to this work is the Coyolxauhqui Imperative, which informs the process of …

Efficient Self-Supervised Representation Learning For Large-Scale Time Series Classification, Kevin Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, there has been a significant advancement in designing Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) frameworks for time series data to reduce the dependency on data labels. Among these works, hierarchical contrastive learning-based SSL frameworks, which learn representations by contrasting data embeddings at multiple resolutions, have gained considerable attention. Due to their ability to gather more information, they exhibit better generalization in various downstream tasks. However, when the time series data length is significant long, the computational cost is often significantly higher than that of other SSL frameworks. In this paper, to address this challenge, we propose an efficient way to train hierarchical …

Interpretable Alignment Of Textual Weather Reports With Local Sensor Time Series For Extreme Weather Event Visualization, Juan Luis Garza

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an automated and interpretable pipeline that links natural-language weather narratives with local meteorological sensor time series. Using large language models, NOAA-style event reports are transformed into structured records capturing event type, timing, descriptive context, and uncertainty. Each extracted event is aligned with harmonized temperature, precipitation, and wind measurements from nearby weather stations, enabling systematic comparisons between narrative evidence and observed atmospheric conditions.

Across roughly fifty stations and more than two thousand events, the analyses show that discrepancies between narrative descriptions and sensor behavior arise primarily from spatial separation rather than from temporal offsets, sensor preprocessing artifacts, or …

Acculturation, Values, And Acculturative Stress For Autistic Latino Emerging Adults And Spanish-Speaking Parents Participating In The ¡Iniciando! La Adultez Program, Antonio F. Pagán, Miriam Ortiz, Erin Bernal, Katherine A. Loveland, Ana Esparza, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Ron Acierno

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Latino families with emerging adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face unique challenges during the transition to adulthood, influenced by cultural values, acculturation, and systemic barriers. Acculturation and acculturative stress are particularly relevant in this population, as they navigate cultural adaptation while maintaining traditional values like familismo (family) and respeto (respect). These dynamics are further complicated by disparities in access to resources and culturally responsive interventions. This study explores the interplay of cultural values, acculturation, and acculturative stress among Latino emerging adults with ASD and their Spanish-speaking parents participating in a culturally adapted and translated intervention. Using a cross-sectional …

A Decade Of Knowledge Without Borders: Open Access And Global Reach Of School Social Work Research, Leticia Villarreal Sosa

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Journal for School Social Work (IJSSW), this article provides a reflection on a decade the last decade of breaking barriers and building bridges across practitioners, researchers, communities, and continents and looks forward to our responsibility for the future. This article discusses the benefits and challenges related to Open Access publishing, and addresses how Open Access is a public good—ensuring that practitioners, researchers, students, and policymakers can engage the best evidence regardless of geography, resources, or institutional affiliation. The impact of IJSSW is reviewed, including a summary of accomplishments, most downloaded …

Language Proficiency In Translation And Interpreting Programs: Insights From Administrators And Instructors, Julio Ciller, Sonia Colina

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This article examines the relationship between language proficiency and translation and interpreting (T&I) education in U.S. programs, focusing on language preparedness and development. This mixed-methods study investigates course prerequisites, proficiency requirements, and perceptions of administrators and instructors regarding students’ expected versus observed proficiency levels. Findings reveal a mismatch between expected and average proficiency when entering a program, with both groups acknowledging that T&I courses contribute to students’ language development but noting that current program practices often fail to align students’ actual proficiency with their needs. At the graduate level, instructors criticize proficiency requirements, and some administrators continue to view translator …

Dual Language In Higher Education: Assessing Student Success And Student Experiences, Katherine Christoffersen, Ramsés Ortín, Dania López García, Ming-Tsan Lu, Javier Cavazos Vela

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Although long-standing research has documented the many benefits of dual language (DL) education programs in the K-12 setting, there are few studies on the impact of DL in higher education. This study analyzes DL education at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) where certain classes are taught in Spanish or bilingually across diverse disciplines. In this mixed methods research study, we examine (1) how enrollment in these classes impacts student success through an analysis of cumulative grade point averages, retention, and time to degree and (2) how students perceive these classes through an analysis of course evaluations and surveys responses from current …

Unraveling Assumed Similarities: North Korean Defector Students’ Navigation Of Social Capital And Habitus In South Korean Education, Ini Kim, Younkyung Hong

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This study examines North Korean defector students’ experiences navigating social and cultural norms and expectations within South Korea’s educational systems and institutions. North Korean defectors often strive to acquire and perform cultural capital and establish valid habitus in the new context, which can lead to feelings of alienation, exclusion, and discrimination. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and habitus, we analyze how these norms and hierarchies are maintained and reproduced, particularly within the context of assumed cultural and linguistic homogeneity between North and South Korea. We employ critical discourse analysis (CDA), recognizing discourse as a social and socially influenced …