Digital Commons Network^™

Race-Conscious Jury Selection, Anna Offit

Faculty Publications

Among the central issues in scholarship on the American jury is the effect of Batson v. Kentucky (1986) on discriminatory empanelment. Empirical legal research has confirmed that despite the promise of the Batson doctrine, both peremptory strikes and challenges for cause remain tools of racial exclusion. But these studies, based on post facto interviews, transcript analysis, and quantitative methods offer little insight into Batson’s critical impact on real-time decision-making and strategy in voir dire. If we increasingly know what kinds of juries are produced in the post-Batson world, we know very little about how they are produced.

This …

War Powers Abrogation, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Faculty Publications

The United States’ peacetime security is based entirely on its all-volunteer armed forces. These volunteers, split equally between full- and part-time servicemembers, risk not only their health and safety, but also their economic stability when they are called away from home for training or active duty. Servicemembers’ duties also interfere with the demands of employers, creditors, and government agencies—which can result in job losses, financial difficulties, and other costs. As a result, the federal government has long used its constitutional war powers to enact legislation protecting servicemembers from many of these hardships. These statutes provide employment leave and antidiscrimination protection, …

Teaching Italian Romanticism Through Philately And Choral Works, Ilona Klein

Faculty Publications

Philately and choral works can be excellent integrative pedagogical tools when teaching Italian Romanticism at the undergraduate level. In the classroom, postage stamps provide an historical narrative for students and can help clarify the political, artistic and cultural mood of the time. The intrinsic symbolism of stamps represents the way a nation wants to be seen by the rest of the world. Instrumental and choral music, in their infinite combination of tones, combine sound with sung words, creating an artistic subtext that reveals the complexity and variety of human aesthetic expression. For the current generation of students accustomed to visual …

Beyond Midpoints: Vowel Dynamics Of The Low-Back-Merger Shift, Joseph A. Stanley

Faculty Publications

Conclusions

Summary:

• Here, as the vowels lowered/retracted, their trajectories changed too.
• This is not always the case! (cf. Stanley et al. forthcoming)
• Not an artifact of modeling! Each cohort had independent model fits.

Take-away:

• There is more to a vowel shift than its midpoints.
• More work needed on vowel trajectories to better describe change.

Sociolinguistics of vowel formant trajectories?

• What kind of sociolinguistic meanings are associated with trajectories?
• Yes, surrounding consonants affect trajectories
• They affect midpoints too but they still carry sociolinguistic meaning.
• Are we comfortable assuming trajectories are 100% phonetic?
• Are these trajectory differences perceptible?
• Stay tuned for experimental …

An Editing Process For Blind Or Visually Impaired Editors, Matt Baker, E.M. Nightingale, Suzy Bills

Faculty Publications

In the US, hundreds of thousands of individuals with visual disabilities work in occupations that typically entail editing text. Editing technologies for blind or visually impaired people have been analyzed by researchers for usability, accessibility, and feasibility. However, a tutorial is needed to provide blind or visually impaired workers with information on how to use these technologies. Key concepts: Technologies that blind or visually impaired individuals can use for editing text present challenges. Such challenges include the lack of usability in word processors’ text-editing features, navigational and sense-making issues with screen readers, limited text displayed by refreshable braille displays, and …

The Effect Of Prompt Accent On Elicited Imitation Assessments In English As A Second Language, Jacob G. Barrows, Troy L. Cox

Faculty Publications

Elicited imitation (EI) assessments have been shown to discriminate well between speakers across proficiency levels, but little has been reported on the effect L2 accent has on test-takers’ ability to understand and process the test items they hear. Furthermore, no study has investigated the effect of accent on test-taker perceptions of EI tests. This study examined the relationships among accent, accent familiarity, EI test item difficulty and test scores. To investigate, self-reports of students’ exposure to different varieties of English were obtained from a pre-assessment survey. An EI test (63 items) was then administered in which English language learners (n …

Crowdfunding Deception Perception: What Makes Would-Be Contributors Perceive Fakeness In Crowdfunding Campaigns?, James Gaskin, Mark J. Keith, Thomas O. Meservy, Nathan W. Twyman, Taylor M. Wells

Faculty Publications

This study illuminates the signals that cause contributors to perceive realness and fakeness in a crowdfunding campaign. A grounded theory approach involving 818 human evaluations of 225 COVID-19-related charitable crowdfunding campaigns identified the validity of the campaign’s stated need, its descriptive detail and writing quality, and having a reputable campaign sponsor as important signals of realness and/or deception, as well as other factors. Commonly used NLP measures have heavy overlap with these reported signals, but by themselves reflect roughly half of the variance explained. Crowdfunding platforms can use this information to help campaign organizers improve public perceptions.

Making The Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Mindset Indispensable In The Lis Classroom Through Design, Content, Communication, And Assessment, Kim M. Thompson, Clayton A. Copeland

Faculty Publications

When we incorporate diversity and inclusion into Library and Information Science course design and content and build communication and learning frameworks in the classroom on inclusive principles, we build a cohort of students who cannot “unsee” these basic principles as they engage in practice. By designing lecture and activity materials that allow students to read and engage with different perspectives about professional values and content, we create opportunities for awareness building and prepare students to engage with the same practices as they join the profession. This chapter provides insights for and examples of how to create courses that bring diversity, …

Automatic Categorization Of Lgbt User Profiles On Twitter With Machine Learning, Amir Karami, M. Lundy, F. Webb, H. R. Boyajieff, M. Zhu, D. Lee

Faculty Publications

Privacy needs and stigma pose significant barriers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people sharing information related to their identities in traditional settings and research methods such as surveys and interviews. Fortunately, social media facilitates people’s belonging to and exchanging information within online LGBT communities. Compared to heterosexual respondents, LGBT users are also more likely to have accounts on social media websites and access social media daily. However, the current relevant LGBT studies on social media are not efficient or assume that any accounts that utilize LGBT-related words in their profile belong to individuals who identify as LGBT. Our …

Covid-19 Vaccine And Social Media In The U.S.: Exploring Emotions And Discussions On Twitter, Amir Karami, Michael Zhu, Bailey Goldschmidt, Hannah R. Boyajieff, Mahdi M. Najafabadi

Faculty Publications

The understanding of the public response to COVID-19 vaccines is the key success factor to control the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the public response, there is a need to explore public opinion. Traditional surveys are expensive and time-consuming, address limited health topics, and obtain small-scale data. Twitter can provide a great opportunity to understand public opinion regarding COVID-19 vaccines. The current study proposes an approach using computational and human coding methods to collect and analyze a large number of tweets to provide a wider perspective on the COVID-19 vaccine. This study identifies the sentiment of tweets using a machine learning …

Mother Goose As A Resource In Teaching Historical Linguistics, Dallin D. Oaks

Faculty Publications

Mother Goose and other nursery rhymes as authentic texts are valuable resources that can be used effectively to illustrate historical English language change. Even though these nursery rhymes contain some forms, structures, and word meanings that differ from the language of today, the texts are sufficiently recent that they are intelligible to modern audiences. This article will illustrate the relevance and usefulness of nursery rhymes in teaching about principles of language and language change, such as voicing, phonological processes, factors motivating phonological change, as well as actual changes in the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon of English.

Person-Marking In Máku, Chris Rogers Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

In Máku (an extinct language isolate), person marking is encoded by pronominal elements that are attached to bound pronominal roots, possessed nouns, and as subject and object argument agreement reference on verbs. However, when the contrasts between the various person-markers and their behaviors in the language are considered the system does not fit easily into the traditional analysis of three persons and two numbers. Rather, the organization of and relationships between the pronominal elements in Máku reveals a system based on the distinction of three persons (first, second and third), a two-way quantitative distinction (singular and non-singular), and a two-way …

Disclosure Sentiment: Machine Learning Vs Dictionary Methods, Richard Frankel, Jared Jennings, Joshua A. Lee

Faculty Publications

We compare the ability of dictionary-based and machine-learning methods to capture disclosure sentiment at 10-K filing and conference call dates. Like Loughran and McDonald (2011), we use returns to assess sentiment. We find that measures based on machine learning offer a significant improvement in explanatory power over dictionary-based measures. Specifically, machine-learning measures explain returns at 10-K filing dates, while measures based on the Loughran and McDonald dictionary only explain returns at 10-K filing dates during the time period of their study. Moreover, at conference-call dates, machine-learning methods offer an improvement over the Loughran and McDonald dictionary method of a greater …

A Perceptual Study Of Cross-Language Influence On Vocal Fry Use In Women Exposed To Two Languages, Todd A. Gibson, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

Cross-linguistic influence has been observed across all domains of language. However, nothing is known about the role of cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers’ use of vocal fry. Several recent studies have identified an upsurge in the use of vocal fry among female speakers of American English. We sought to identify cross-linguistic influence in vocal fry use by women living in the US and exposed to both English and Spanish. Participants were categorized as functionally monolingual in English (n = 25), functionally monolingual in Spanish (n =23) and relatively balanced bilingual (n = 10) based on responses to language experience questionnaires. …

“I Can Do Things Because I Feel Valuable”: Authentic Project Experiences And How They Matter To Instructional Design Students, Jason K. Mcdonald, Amy A. Rogers

Faculty Publications

This paper examines how authentic project experiences matter to instructional design students. We explored this through a single case study of an instructional design student (referred to as Abby) who participated as a member of an educational simulation design team at a university in the western United States. Our data consisted of interviews with Abby that we analyzed to understand how she depicted her participation in this authentic project. In general, Abby found her project involvement to open up both possibilities and constraints. Early in her involvement, when she encountered limitations she did not expect, those constraints showed up as …

“Exploring The Composition Of The Pentateuch" Project And Book, Roy Gane

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Weaving Strands Of Knowledge: Leaning About Environmental Change In The Bhutan Himalayas, Sameer Honwad, Andrew D. Coppens, Greg Defrancis, Marcos Stafne Montshire, Shivaraj Bhattarai

Faculty Publications

Climate change is a complex phenomenon, so much so that even those with expert knowledge on the scientific data struggle to understand the impacts of climate change on their everyday lives. Contradictions across systems of knowledge make clear that climate change is not just a problem of scientific understanding but is also simultaneously a problem of global coordination as well as a sociopolitical problem of connecting domains of knowledge that are seldom valued equitably. The project described in this paper is a prototype effort to put knowledge from community members in two culturally distinct rural areas of the world at …

Cultural Identity Formation: A Personal Narrative, Jose Carbajal

Faculty Publications

This paper provides an autoethnography of personal experiences and perceptions of being a minoritized individual. This is the story of a professional social worker learning to adapt to social norms and expectations of self. I discuss the struggles I experienced as an adolescent and as a young adult attending college. This narrative highlights the intersection of faith and social work at moments in my professional development. It is at this intersection that this social worker learns to live a holistic life without feeling discriminated against or ashamed of his identity. I begin to actualize a reality with imperfect beings who …

Proving Our Maternal And Scholarly Worth: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Textual And Visual Storying Of Motherscholar Identity Work During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth Spradley, Sarah S. Leblanc, Heather Olson-Beal, Lauren Burrow, Chrissy Cross

Faculty Publications

Pivoting to remote work as female academics and to schooling our children from home as mothers in March 2020 marked a dramatic shift in how we enact our MotherScholar identities. This collaborative autoethnographic study employs a modification of interactive interviewing and photovoice to produce verbal and visual text of COVID-19 MotherScholar identity work for analysis. Thematic analysis results in themes of maternal interruptions, professional interruptions, maternal recognition, and professional recognition. Of note, our MotherScholar interactivity functioned as identity work as we sought and granted legitimacy to one another’s’ COVID-19 MotherScholar identities. Of particular concern to us is how institutions of …

Eager To Follow: Methodological Precedent In Statutory Interpretation, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

An important recent development in the field of statutory interpretation is the emergence of a movement calling for "methodological precedent"--a regime under which courts give precedential effect to interpretive methodology. In such a system, a case would establish not only what a particular statute means but could also establish binding rules of methodology--which tools are valid, in what order, and so on. The movement for methodological precedent has attracted sharp criticism on normative grounds. But both sides of the normative debate agree on the premise that the federal courts generally do not give precedential effect to interpretive methodology today.

This …

Variedades: Intermediate/Advanced Spanish Conversation, Carmela V. Mattza

Faculty Publications

VARIEDADES is a Spanish conversation book for the student at the intermediate / advanced intermediate level (DELE nivel B2). Through audiovisual activities, the student is expected to put their previous knowledge into practice and continue to develop their ability to understand, write, listen and speak in Spanish.

VARIEDADES offers communicative activities that can be easily adapted into courses of different levels. In addition, it offers an appendix of activities with films and a Spanish grammar section that by subject directs the student to electronic databases that are freely accessible or are part of the Open Access platform

¿Existe Un Español Antillano?, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

El objetivo fundamental de esta exposición consiste en demostrar, con el apoyo de más de 80 audio-clips y desde una perspectiva sociolingüística, que, a pesar de las conocidas semejanzas existentes en su modo de hablar, Cuba, República Dominicana y Puerto Rico mantienen su propia identidad lingüística.

Cada isla manifiesta su propia idiosincrasia lingüística, tanto en el terreno objetivo, de la actuación, como en el subjetivo, de la percepción. En el plano objetivo, existen estructuras sintácticas y unidades léxicas que actúan como elementos distintivos. Asimismo, son notables las discrepancias fonéticas cuantitativas y cualitativas entre los dialectos de cada país. A esto …

Promoting Reading Achievement In Children With Developmental Language Disorders: What Can We Learn From Research On Specific Language Impairment And Dyslexia?, Suzanne M. Adlof

Faculty Publications

Purpose Specific language impairment (SLI; see also developmental language disorder) and dyslexia are separate, yet frequently co-occurring disorders that confer risks to reading comprehension and academic achievement. Until recently, most studies of one disorder had little consideration of the other, and each disorder was addressed by different practitioners. However, understanding how the two disorders relate to each other is important for advancing theories about each disorder and improving reading comprehension and academic achievement. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to integrate research on SLI and dyslexia as well as advocate for the consideration of comorbidities in future research …

Language Matters: Examining The Language-Related Needs And Wants Of Writers In A First-Year University Writing Course, Grant Eckstein, Dana Ferris

Faculty Publications

All writing involves complex linguistic knowledge and thoughtful decision-making. But where do students acquire the linguistic tools needed to write effectively? Many students come from diverse backgrounds and may need additional support and/or instruction in language and grammar. In order to better understand this situation, we conducted a qualitative multiple-case study to examine the experiences of 12 students in a first-year university-level composition course to understand the extent of their diverse learning backgrounds and language needs and expectations. We synthesized information from surveys, interviews, and written texts into narratives about each student’s attitudes toward language and writing and also examined …

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible, but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars. to be a key piece of Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, presents an explicit divine plan that existed before Abraham—even before the creation of the earth—which had as its purpose making eternal life possible for …

Truly, Madly, Deeply: Adverbs And Ells, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In this issue’s column focusing on adverbs and English language learners, columnist Kristin Lems explores some of the basic but not-so-obvious features about adverbs that readers and writers need to learn in order to take advantage of these powerful levers of language. The odds are very good that your native English speakers will also benefit from this information—and you might learn a thing or two as well.

Immoral Trademarks After Brunetti, Ned Snow

Faculty Publications

For more than a century, marks that were vulgar, profane, and obscene could not receive trademark protection. In 2019, however, the Supreme Court in Iancu v. Brunetti invalidated the statutory provision that had prevented such marks from receiving protection—the bars to “immoral” and “scandalous” marks. Those bars violated the First Amendment because they enabled the government to judge whether ideas in marks were inappropriate. Similarly, two years prior to Brunetti, the Court in Matal v. Tam struck down a bar to marks that could “disparage” others. The Court reasoned that to disparage is to offend, and the ability to offend …

International Reverse Transfer Students: A Critical Analysis Based On Field, Habitus, And Social And Cultural Capital, Yu “April” Chen, Ran Li, Linda Serra Hagedorn

Faculty Publications

Objective: International reverse transfer students are international students who begin their postsecondary journey at a four-year institution but subsequently transfer to a community college. In this qualitative study, we examine the lived experiences of international reverse transfers to understand the reasons for reverse-transfer and to understand the students’ learning experiences. Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, we recruited 10 international reverse transfer students attending one four-year university or one of the two community colleges. We conducted individual interviews with all participants and analyzed transcript data through Bourdieu’s sociological theory of field, habitus, and social and cultural capital. Results: We identified three …

The Identity Formation Process Of Immigrant Children: A Case Study Synthesis, Jose Carbajal

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Children who immigrate often have difficulties in adjusting to their host country. A single case study based on similar narratives is composed to develop the character of a child’s developmental cultural issues as he immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Attachment theory is reviewed to discuss how detachment and re-attachment affected him. A review of the literature on assimilation and acculturation is also provided. Objectives: The author synthesizes the work experience with the population with migration history to illustrate how attachment and loss impact these individuals, through a composed case study illustrated through the experience of Ramni, …

Access And Stratification: One City, Two Dual Enrollment Programs, Clancy Ratliff, Daniel A. Smith

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes and reflects on dual enrollment programs at a two-year college and a four-year research university in the same city and branches into a critique of dual enrollment and an argument for the need for inter-institutional collaboration toward goals of student access and opportunity.