Digital Commons Network^™

Just Hillbillies: State Power, Private Militarism, Coal, And Constitutional Crisis In The West Virginia Treason Trials, 1919-1937, Ryan Gregory Fix

Masters Theses

In August 1921, roughly ten thousand armed coal miners marched toward Logan County, West Virginia, in the largest armed labor uprising in American history. When the fighting at Blair Mountain ended, the state prosecuted union leaders for treason against the state of West Virginia. This thesis examines that legal campaign of 1921–1923 and its long aftermath, arguing that the treason trials functioned less as a search for individual guilt than as an instrument for fixing the meaning of Blair Mountain before the miners could define it themselves. Where decades of gubernatorial proclamations and martial law had exposed the limits of …

Seasons That Speak: The Power Of Storytelling In Memoir, Pamela Snead

Masters Theses

Memoir bridges literature and lived experience, transforming personal history into shared meaning through storytelling. This creative-critical thesis examines memoir as a reflective narrative practice through which identity, resilience, and faith are shaped over time. Grounded in narrative theory and selected memoir readings, the primary site of inquiry is the original braided memoir Seasons That Speak, which explores faith, endurance, generational healing, and provision. The project also draws on world literature traditions to show how storytelling across cultures uses voice, structure, imagery, testimony, and reflection to preserve memory, question authority, and shape meaning. Through alternating scenes and reflective passages, Seasons That …

Beyond Social Disconnection: The Unique Relationship Between Existential Loneliness And Depression, Lauren Beatrice Edwards

Masters Theses

Depression and loneliness are among the most pressing mental health concerns in the United States, yet their relationship remains incompletely understood. Research has extensively examined social-emotional, or general, loneliness. However, existential loneliness (EL), the felt sense of being fundamentally alone in one's existence, has remained on the theoretical periphery. This study examined EL as a meaningfully distinct dimension of loneliness and explored its unique relationship with depressive symptoms in a sample of 301 U.S. adults recruited via Prolific. A joint exploratory factor analysis confirmed that EL and general loneliness are empirically separable dimensions of loneliness. Regression analyses revealed that EL …

The Relationship Between Self-Stigma, Psychological Inflexibility, And Help-Seeking Attitudes Across Three Different Groups: A Cross-Cultural Study, Mst Tajlima Tamanna

Masters Theses

Self-stigma of mental illness is one of the most important factors that influence people’s help-seeking attitudes. A higher level of self-stigma is associated with less favorable attitudes toward help-seeking. Additionally, psychological inflexibility may also contribute to this process by increasing people’s tendency to internalize the negative stereotypes associated with mental illness, which contributes to higher self-stigma. The present study examined the relationships between self-stigma of mental illness, psychological inflexibility, and help-seeking attitudes across three groups: Bangladeshi students living in Bangladesh (Group 1), Bangladeshi students living in the United States (Group 2), and United States college students (Group 3). A total …

Material Costs, Karima Weinman

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how migration fatality and disappearance data can be reinterpreted through material craft to create a more reflective encounter with information. Working with the Missing Migrants Project's dataset, this project asks how design can communicate dimensions of human loss that conventional data visualization cannot reach.

The work situates contemporary border violence within a longer colonial history, arguing that the logics of surveillance and quantification that structured European imperial expansion persist in the databases that govern mobility in the Mediterranean today.

Terrazzo is a 15th-century Venetian flooring technique built from discarded fragments bound together into a unified surface. This …

Kicau Kericau: The Chirps And Warbles Of A Bird-Human Story, Airien Ludin

Masters Theses

This thesis tells the tale of bird-human relationships and what it means to live alongside one another, subverting the hierarchical view of humans as above birds inherited from colonial history. It asks how the practice of illustration can function as a site of Two-Eyed Seeing, where scientific and local knowledge are held together as an entangled narrative. It also examines how mendongeng (storytelling), as I have experienced it within Indonesian culture and everyday contexts, can help us understand birds as a companion species with their own agency.

This project takes two forms: first, a picture book titled Sun Bird …

Tùn-Scene And A-Futurism: Biomythography, Opacity, And Posthuman Imagination, Minglu Du

Masters Theses

Grounded in the author’s position as a Chinese feminist, this thesis examines how East Asian women, as well as East Asian-coded femininity more broadly, are objectified and othered within futurist visual culture in the age of artificial intelligence. Through an engagement with ornamentalism, techno-Orientalism, and posthumanism1 , it argues that the persistent figure of the feminized humanoid cyborg continues to reproduce colonial and patriarchal structures of desire, rendering marginalized bodies as fetishized and violable surfaces. In response, the thesis develops Tùn-Scene, a biomythographic artistic framework and the first experiment in what the author provisionally names A-Futurism. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s …

I Miss My Computer: Online Artistry, Web Aesthetics, And Coming-Of-Age In A Digital Landscape, Catherine Capeci

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how young artists develop their creative practices in a world informed by digitality. Through survey research of 44 art students between the ages of 14 and 22, as well as a process of autoethnographic inquiry, I examine how artists in high school and college relate to digital imagery, web archives, online gaming, and social media platforms, and how these experiences inform artmaking. I believe that art educators should explore how the internet informs aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities, and how these sensibilities show up in young artists’ work, more so than focus on digital media as its own …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Menstrual Muses: Art, Storytelling, And The Care-Based Communication Of Menstrual Justice, Burcu Koleli

Masters Theses

Menstrual Muses is an artistic research project comprising a written thesis and a body of work developed across soft sculpture, ceramics, illustration, graphic memoir, digital media, and participatory workshops. The written component operates alongside the studio practice, outlining the project’s theoretical framework, methodology, and context while engaging questions of communication, accessibility, embodiment, and stigma. It situates menstruation within feminist discourse, examining how it has been culturally silenced, regulated, and shaped through systems of power.

The artistic work functions as research materialized through practice, responding to the central question of how my art can facilitate conversations around menstrual justice. It explores …

Finding A Way Out Of The Filter Bubble: The Confusion Of A Heavy Social Media User, Longwen Miao

Masters Theses

This thesis studies how algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and the construction of selfhood within contemporary digital culture.

Everything begins with the experience of repeatedly encountering algorithmically recommended content on everyday digital platforms. On these platforms, images, sounds, and social interactions are continuously selected, repeated, and reorganized by predictive systems, forming an environment in which perception is constantly structured and adjusted.

From this observation, the research raises two central questions: how do algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and self-recognition, and how might these systems be intervened in or made perceptible through artistic practice? Within …

I Believe, Rusudan Dushuashvili

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how products become believable and desirable through the stories that surround them, and how design enables the continuous cycle of desire that defines consumption. Drawing on  the underlying structures of myth-making, identity, and belonging that allow consumer culture to function, it argues that consumer culture operates through the same instruments older systems of belief have always used — narrative, ritual, sacred objects, and shared language — and that design is what makes the story stick to the object.

“I Believe” is an archive of objects collected from contemporary consumer culture. Half are products found in the marketplace; …

Meadowkeepers, Molly Lefanowicz

Masters Theses

New England’s cities cover the lowlands where meadows once dotted the landscape. These meadows were among the first spaces lost to development— hidden today beneath layers of concrete foundations, asphalt roads, and diligently mowed turfgrass lawns. Meadows are critical ecosystems: they support pollinators, act as seed banks for local plants, filter rainwater, sequester carbon, and build soil. But their steady disappearance is more than an ecological loss. As stewards and inhabitants of meadows, people hold a longtime cultural connection to their presence. Meadowkeepers is an effort to renew that connection.

Meadowkeepers introduces a community-scale model for meadow reestablishment in urban …

Within Boundaries: Collecting And Exhibiting Chinese Contemporary Art In M+, Hong Kong, Lei April Liu

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how M+, Hong Kong’s museum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century visual culture, collects and exhibits Chinese contemporary art under political and institutional constraint. It argues that M+ operates through adaptive autonomy, a condition in which curatorial and educational strategies transform limitation into method. By analyzing the museum’s formation, exhibition practices, and comparison with other Asian institutions such as the Asia Culture Center in South Korea, the Power Station of Art in China, and the National Gallery Singapore, the study reveals how M+ sustains visibility of Chinese contemporary art with political sensitive topic through 绥靖 (Sui Jing; subtle appeasement) …

Selling The Impossible: A Critical Study Of Nostalgia, Persuasion And Ethical Implications, Francois Elmaleh

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the psychological, cultural and iconic influence of mid-20th-century comic book advertising and its enduring influence on modern marketing. With a concentration on adolescent readership, it examines how advertisements in comics shaped consumerist behavior through aspirational discourse, gendered address and emotional manipulation. Through literature reviews, visual analyses and case studies—such as the Charles Atlas bodybuilding campaign, Sea Monkeys and X-ray glasses—this research investigates the rhetorical strategies and ethical ramifications of advertising to children.

The objectives are fivefold: (1) to inventory and analyze dominant advertising strategies employed in comic book ads, (2) to explore how they reinforced cultural and …

The Final Boys' Club: Conceptualizing A Final Boy Of 1980s Horror, Ej Newton

Masters Theses

Carol J Clover’s (2015) Final Girl, the female slasher protagonist who survives to the end of the movie, has become a staple of horror scholarship, providing insight into the function of gender within the genre as well as our cultural beliefs surrounding femininity. Given the attention paid to horror’s leading ladies, however, another fascinating figure has gone unexplored: the Final Boy. This project analyzes nine horror films from the 1980s with young male protagonists in order to conceptualize and critique this previously unidentified trope. Utilizing McKerrow’s (1989) critical rhetoric as a guide, this research not only provides a thorough definition …

It Takes A Village: Residents’ Perceptions Of Mount Prospect’S Place Branding, Jenna Strauss

Masters Theses

The Village of Mount Prospect has heard a fair share of negative critiques about the village’s branding; however, officials have not yet taken the initiative to rebrand. As stated by a village official, the village needs to understand what residents think about the branding before considering a rebrand. This knowledge offers valuable insight into what branding elements are liked/valued by residents, but also whether a rebrand would cause resistance or a mini crisis. Place branding literature highlights that residents determine the authenticity of a place brand (Braun et al., 2013), so Mount Prospect officials seek to make future branding decisions …

Hollywood, Ai, And The Moral Universe: An Analysis Of The Terminator And Battlestar Galactica, Lara Sumera Samms

Masters Theses

This thesis defends the argument that depictions of artificial intelligence in Hollywood film and television point to a moral universe. Films The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), as well as the television series Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) are analyzed to find clues of moral facts. This research paper submits that these stories add weight to the moral argument and provide evidence that humans implicitly recognize a moral universe. Such acknowledgment of moral structures cannot be adequately explained within a secular framework such as utilitarianism or evolutionary ethics. However, the Christian worldview frames reality around the existence of God, …

An Axe To The Funny Bone: Curated Instability And Horror-Comedy Intersections In American Storytelling, Samantha Box

Masters Theses

Funny. Terrifying. Subversive.

Horror-Comedy twists and bites at the intersection of two incredibly reactive genres— with both Horror and Comedy being well known for the political and social discourses they embody and reinvent through story. While prevalent in American popular culture, scholarly analysis of this hybrid space barely exists beyond a small number of Film Studies investigations. Despite this lack, Horror-Comedy works continue to be successfully produced. This thesis unpacks the vibrant relationship between fear and laughter in contemporary American storytelling through Horror-Comedy, maintaining a focus on structural dynamics and the audience-disarming results of simultaneously applying horror and humor to …

Celebrating Their Voices: The Recognition Of African American Female Songwriters In Worship Music, Robin D. Henderson

Masters Theses

The worship community has been profoundly shaped by the contributions of numerous songwriters, many of whom remain largely unknown despite the widespread impact of their music. While enjoyed by the congregation, songs performed during corporate worship services are very rarely credited to/known by the songwriter(s). Songs heard on the radio are known by and often credited to the artist and not the songwriter. This research study, “Celebrating Their Voices: The Recognition of African American Female Songwriters in Worship Music,” explores the influence of 20th-century African American female Gospel songwriters whose compositions have become integral to African American worship experiences yet …

The Influence Of Wisdom Literature On The Epistle Of James, Erik Swartzwelder

Masters Theses

The epistle of James is considerably unique within the canonical setting of the New Testament. Its distinct nature is at least partially responsible for the polarized nature of its reception. The same characteristics that created the appeal of the epistle of James have also left it susceptible to criticism. Critics of the epistle have targeted its style, content, and lack of gospel message. A proper understanding of the influence of wisdom literature on James and his letter will alleviate many of the critical ideas of James. One does not need to look far to see the evidence of this influence, …

Silent Witnesses: Reconnecting Landscape Through Lost Narratives, Abeer Aljohani

Masters Theses

In the heart of the vast Arabian desert, a forgotten tale of tragic love unfolds. Aja and Salma, figures from two different tribes in pre-Islamic Arabia, embody a romance that has long faded into obscurity. The two mountain ranges in Hail, Saudi Arabia, bear their names, standing as silent witnesses to a love story that ends in tragedy—one in which each is killed on separate peaks. Over time, the story has faded, leaving a gap between the landscape and its cultural significance. Could a narrative-based tourism experience revive this link, blending the mountains’ natural beauty with their forgotten story?

This …

The Sixth Interface: The Integration Of Drone Infrastructure With Low-Altitude Landscape, Shicheng Tang

Masters Theses

This project focuses on the design of outdoor vertical space in Hong Kong in response to the development of China’s Low-Altitude Economy. It explores the integration of these spaces with drones. Through site design and planning, the project uses existing rooftops, parks, and public plazas to create multi-functional drone infrastructure. These spaces enable low-altitude logistics while providing additional social benefits such as public recreation facilities. These landscape enhancements create a harmonious synergy between technology and ecology.

Central to this work is the concept of “The Sixth Interface”, a new spatial layer between the ground and the sky where drone-driven flows …

Gesture And Trace, Luisa M. Heindl

Masters Theses

I approach type as both gesture and trace: something made and something read, impulse and afterimage, formed through action, reception, and reuse.

My work focuses on the smallest components of written narratives: the shapes that form and encase letters, and the typography that enhances the emotional and cultural resonance of text. I explore how type and language encode meaning through various lenses, whether through the ideological ‘freight’ of reviving or using historical styles, the emotional charge of certain forms, the possibilities of variable font technology, or the curated (and sometimes instrumentalized) narratives embedded in nostalgic-feeling visual trends.

Typographic expression embodies …

Wooorrmmhooolleess, Kimberly Duck

Masters Theses

By now we all know that the internet is an integral part of our existence. One could argue that this online existence holds equal importance to our physical one. While the lines blur even further and Mark Zuckerberg can’t wait to cosplay the rich computer guy from Ready Player One, I choose to refrain from the existential dread that seems to be inescapable when thinking of the future nowadays. While we often associate the internet with portals (after all, we once called websites “Internet Portals”—in German at least), Wormholes more accurately capture the experience. Portals promise instant connection. But what …

For The Time Beings, Tori Hong

Masters Theses

For the Time Beings is a socially engaged installation and artist book exploring the material consequences and future possibilities of sociocultural time theories. Time, in the West, is typically associated with Newtonian linearity, while in the East, time theory relies on Buddhist principles. These epistemologies reinforce hierarchical and patriarchal structures. Centered on Indigenous Asian and Asian American perspectives, For the Time Beings challenges dominant ideologies of existing in time and space.

For nearly a year, I’ve burned handwritten prayers on new and full moons. The ashes of these prayers are incorporated into reverential drawings of chosen ancestors, made with charcoal …

Hyphenated Journeys: Identity Negotiations Of Multiethnic Vietnamese Americans Through The Lens Of Hybridity, Rheyna Leilahn Biu

Masters Theses

This study explores how Vietnamese Americans with mixed heritage navigate their identity. Through interviews and autoethnography, it examines how multiracial/multiethnic Vietnamese Americans maintain their Vietnamese identity while constructing their multiracial/multiethnic identity. The findings underscore the importance of several factors of identity maintenance, including seeking cultural security outside the home, language as a key to culture, and the importance of connection through cultural sharing in shaping and expressing multiracial/multiethnic identity. It uses Homi Bhaba's theory of hybridity to understand how these individuals view their hyphenated identities. The research highlights the role of verbal and nonverbal communication in this process. The researcher …

Women Spinning On The Edge: Finding And Redefining The “Spinster” In The Witches Of Discworld, Kathryn Ann Fitzmaurice

Masters Theses

The word “spinster” has undergone a series of evolutions over the past seven hundred years, first coined to describe the occupation of women engaged in the spinning of plant and animal fibers into thread and yarn in the Middle Ages and later a legal marital status designation used until the 21^st century. The connotation associated in social contexts became pejorative. This project’s tracing of the word spinster is used to set up the broader scope looking at how the spinster can be viewed as an archetype, what we can learn through the lenses of gender and feminist theory, and …

The Influence Of Family-School Communication On Junior High School Students’ Academic Success, Stephen Junior Amoah

Masters Theses

This study examines the influence of family-school communication on students' academic success in the context of Ghana, with a particular focus on Junior High School (JHS) students. While existing research emphasizes the importance of family involvement in educational outcomes, limited studies explore how family-school communication directly affects academic success in Ghana. By using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative and qualitative data collection. The quantitative component includes an online survey distributed to JHS graduates, assessing the frequency, impact, methods, and barriers of communication between families and schools, as well as their perceived effect on academic performance. The survey includes …

Enhancing Sunflower Regeneration: Molecular And Genetic Insights From Helianthus Eggertii, Owen West

Masters Theses

In vitro plant regeneration, particularly through organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis, is essential for plant transformation and crop improvement, especially in recalcitrant species like sunflower. In this study, we explore the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying regeneration in Helianthus eggertii, a wild sunflower species with high regeneration potential. Global gene expression profiling, conducted using Oxford Nanopore sequencing across multiple time points and genotypes, identified sixty-three core differentially expressed genes (DEGs) critical to regeneration. These DEGs are associated with critical biological processes such as cell proliferation, transcriptional regulation, and photosynthesis. Among them, a sunflower WUSCHEL-related homeobox transcription factor (WOX4) showed preferential expression …