Digital Commons Network^™

The Aesthetics Of The Mexican Public Garden And Its Photographic Compositions (1912-1982), Victor Hugo Rivera-Diaz

Masters Theses

In Mexico, there are currently several collections of photographs which depict the history and development of public gardens and ecological corridors under the management of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. By focusing on two exemplary collections—the Nacho López Collection and Vicente Luengas Collection—I apply a visual studies approach to the photographic archive in order to formulate the Mexican public garden as a branching set of aesthetic (sub-)categories, all of which take into account the creation of garden landscapes vis-à-vis land use policies and historical accounts during the rise of Mexican modernity. In so doing, the primary sub-categories of …

Breaking | Grounding | Growing: Expanding The Rhode Island Gardening Reentry Programs As A Pathway Towards Stability, Juliana Soltys

Masters Theses

What happens to the over two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails?

Changing in sentencing laws and policies have created a cycle of imprisonment, racially isolating and oppressing BIPOC communities. Reintegration and reentry programs are an avenue to break the cycle of recidivism. Through my work, I have developed hands-on, structured opportunities for justice-involved adults to rebuild a life for themselves by increasing the accessibility of gardening reentry programs. This project creates a space for mentorship and support for Rhode Island’s formerly incarcerated people with the goal of helping them to develop vital life skills through growing and …

Ports Of Entry, Forough Abadian

Masters Theses

Ports of entry are places where one may lawfully enter a country by crossing land and sea borders‭. ‬This thesis frames the space conceptually where the boundaries of place, time, culture, and identity are crossed through existing ports or by building new ones. ‬

As an Iranian immigrant in the United States‭, ‬displacement of identity informs my worldview and design practice‭. ‬I find myself between two worlds, one inherited and the other adopted. ‬Both worlds are simultaneously active and exert their forces on my thought process‭. However, their interrelated dynamic is ambivalent because their path intersects and diverges unforeseeably‭. ‬My …

Together: A Transformational Sequence Of Healing, Deborah Zhuang

Masters Theses

In June 2019, millions of people in Hong Kong took to the streets to voice their discontent with the extradition to Mainland China. Hong Kong was a former British colony and was handed back to China in 1997. Under the policy of “One Country, Two Systems”, Hong Kong has a separated legal system and judiciary from Mainland China. In 2019, the Hong Kong Government raised an extradition bill that allowed fugitives in Hong Kong to be sent to other jurisdictions, including Marco, Taiwan, and Mainland China, which resulted in the large-scale Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement with increasingly serious confrontations. …

Healing The Black Butterfly: Reparation Through Resources, Danasha Kelly

Masters Theses

This Baltimore-based project works to end mass incarceration in Black communities by reconstructing existing infrastructures in the criminal justice system that fail to address poverty, racism, and unequal access to resources through the untold stories of Black Baltimoreans prior to incarceration. In doing so, this thesis will strive to counter the lack of social and political justice around architecture as it pertains to black people by creating reparations in the form of resources for restorative justice and community before incarceration. Through exploring restorative justice through community-engaged design, the reformer Baltimore City Jail Complex will be used as both a site …

New Revelations, Ineke Lynne Knudsen

Masters Theses

This project imagines a not-so-distant American future where Christians and conservatives have triggered the Apocalypse. In my paintings of the Apocalypse, all the desires of conservative Christians have come to pass: the eradication of people of color and queer folks, a revitalization of the American frontier and wilderness, and the return of Jesus Christ in the form of the Rapture. I’m specifically painting White conservative Christian girls, and I’m interested in their unique intersectionality of being a White conservative (an identity rife with racist social implications), being female (an identity deeply abused within the Christian subculture), and being a child …

Material Illumination, Lauren Mikaela Glenn

Masters Theses

Design exists as a field within the domain of material, accompanied by art, engineering, and craft. Working in material allows the designer to develop material fluency, a language that is composed of matter in space. Material can be used to communicate - it can also be used to think. By engaging the body and its senses in the act of making one can connect the space around the body to the space of the mind, allowing ideas to exist in objects and thinking to happen through interaction with material. Through the documentation of a process of making in wood, glass, …

We Walk, We Live: Reclaiming The Rights Of Female And Other Gender Minorities To The Urban Commons, Wenxi (Hillary) Huang

Masters Theses

Urban street environments are often described as not being beneficial for persons who identify as female and other gender minorities. This thesis responds to the urgent call for further transformation of the public realm through a reimagination of walking environments in the city. It examines gender biases prevalent in realities within the female’s experience in urban settings, and more specifically on the streets, and explores intersectionality as a form of reclamation of the female and other gender minorities’ rights to the urban commons.

The inquiry is divided into two parts - research inquiry and design implementation. The study investigates and …

World Settings, Elizabeth Meiklejohn

Masters Theses

Acoustical building materials, with their ability to absorb and diffuse sound, can reshape the character of interior spaces in profound ways. Woven textiles often perform as acoustical materials, whether by coincidence or by design; strategic use of textile structure and dimensionality can yield specific experiential qualities in homes, offices and shared spaces. The way certain materials manipulate sound can feel otherworldly, as if they break the laws of physics or the familiar parameters of one’s surroundings. The same properties can be found in emergent visual patterns and illusory lighting conditions, which provoke an investigative, deliberate way of looking.

In this …

Accidental Commensality Eating, Belonging, And Mazaa On The Streets Of Jaipur, Rini Singhi

Masters Theses

Commensality is more than just eating together at a shared table. "Who can eat with whom and what" is a divisive issue in India, where food and eating serve as functions of inclusion and exclusion. In this paper, I examine street food stalls in Jaipur as sites of eating together with strangers and ask, What forms of commensality do street food stalls enable? Can eating together on the street expand ideas about eating together in public? As part of my fieldwork in Jaipur, I observe the surroundings of street food stalls, participate in heritage food walks with guides, and document …

!, Nick Larson

Masters Theses

This thesis uses the exclamation point to represent a way of thinking and working methodology. The exclamation point in mathematics represents a factorial function, an operation for determining all possible orders of a set. Colloquially, the meaning of the exclamation point relies entirely on context. Within a yellow triangle, it means caution or danger, but at the end of a sentence delivering good news, it means excitement. In the context of this thesis, the exclamation point represents enthusiastically and exhaustively reordering objects, words, and processes to highlight shifting meaning.

Other Realms, Louis Rakovich

Masters Theses

Can a system existing in rigid order be taken back to a state of malleability, a space of potential not yet actualized?

If creation reduces the infinite to produce the finite, then in the simplest sense, creation is the process of bringing something tangible, real, out of the ether—out of the primordial chaos of possibility. The technique of defamiliarization can be viewed as an agent of de-creation, the active reversal of creation, in order to make creation possible once again. As such it holds spiritual power in its own right.

In pursuit of this state of renewed potentiality, I use …

Openness, Qiwen Ju

Masters Theses

We perceive the world as flat when we close one eye. When both eyes are open, the world takes on a three-dimensional quality.

Our childhood, education, family, and environment form and bind our cognitive perspective. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes: “You can’t see Mount Tai by blinding your eyes with one leaf.” Truth is exceedingly difficult to discern. Like the obscuring leaf, there are blind spots in our vision. Prejudice is often the narrow leaf that obstructs perception, preventing us from seeing with greater dimension.

For actual comprehension, we can only see through the eyes, hearts, and minds of …

Anybody Home? Figural Studies In Architectural Representation, David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Architectural figures are charged with the task of bringing an architectural drawing, rendering, or model to life. They speak to us in ways that other elements of a drawing cannot, or rarely ever do. This is their charge, their vitality, their animacy, which can turn without moment’s notice, from the opening of a projective narrative in the tune of an invitation to live, to the swallowing of this extradimensionality by the overdeterminations of scale, proportion, order. I don’t want to assume that architectural figures serve a completely transparent, banal, self-evident role in architectural representation — the trope of human-as-scale. Instead, …

Inquiry-Based Teaching And Learning As A Tool For Achieving A Scientifically Literate Future: Combating A Post-Truth World, Lauri Elizabeth Davis

Masters Theses

Truth is under attack across the world. This can be seen in the lies spread by Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine to the misinformation spread about combatting the COVID-19 virus. The authoritative and trusted nature of science is being undermined by unfounded beliefs and opinion. Many Americans lack an understanding of how science is done nor have basic knowledge about common scientific information. What is needed is to increase the level of scientific literacy in the United States. Inquiry-based teaching and learning has been touted as a way for developing more scientifically literate citizens, because inquiry-based teaching and …

Un-Done: The Historiographical Dialogue Between Past And Present, Rachel Cobler Wollert

Masters Theses

Art critic for The Nation and professor of at Columbia, Arthur C. Danto led the charge with his essay “The End of Art” in 1984 to declare the end of art. Thirty-eight years later, the awareness of colonial problematics in the elite institutionalism of art history today warrants a reanalysis of art historical ontologies of progress (and their ties to colonialism), which have seemingly disbanded in the discipline’s current rhetoric. Because Danto’s historical framework to end art focuses on progress through artistic means, does it fall short or even negate itself by missing the deconstruction of colonial afterlives still present …

Discovering “God Almighty”: An Exploration Of Kurt Vonnegut’S Mythmaking In Sirens Of Titan, Cat’S Cradle, And Slaughterhouse-Five, Megan Joy Kehoe

Masters Theses

In an interview with Charlie Reilly interview, Kurt Vonnegut argues, “The Christ story is marvelous, but it’s not really about people like us” (“Two Conversations” 20). Vonnegut makes clear his appreciation for Christ, though he critiques the gospel’s relevance to humankind. In his own novels, Vonnegut takes from popular religion and creates his own stories, mythologies that are carefully catered to the human experience. In this evaluation of three of Vonnegut’s, I offer a new reading of the author which highlights his use of mythology, his parodies of God Almighty, and his hope for the direction of mankind. I begin …

Engaging Urban Music Students Through Elements Of Rap And Culture, Jasmine Christian Jackson

Masters Theses

Teaching in the urban community requires an undertaking of counseling, constant understanding, and helping advance students’ prior knowledge to provide future comprehension. The goal as an educator is to guide the student along their journey in learning and practicing information that they receive throughout. Giving students the opportunity to see that they are capable of comprehending a subject they never thought they could is the main goal. Teaching the urban community can be a big challenge. The educator must take on learning the specific history of the demographic they instruct, and focus educate themselves on the challenges that the students …

Aesthetic Implications Of Using The Computer Medium In Music, Rodrigo Valente Pascale

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I reflect on the relationship between the materiality of computers and computer music. Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler had a fundamental role in unraveling how media shape discourse and influence their conveyed message and history. These were important discoveries that built the foundation for the field of Media Studies. Throughout this thesis, I will revisit reflections of researchers who contributed to this field and point out how the medium molds computer music’s history and aesthetics. After reviewing the role of the materiality of computers, I will indicate some aesthetically compelling directions of computer music, which consider features …

The Weight Of The Interaction: An Exploration Of Fat Women's Experiences In Healthcare Settings, Danielle Snow

Masters Theses

Despite making up a large portion of the United States population, fat people are stigmatized, discriminated against, and treated as deviant. Though there is a large body of interdisciplinary literature on obesity and health, and a large body of sociological literature on stigma, there is little literature on fat stigma. Thus, using a Goffman’s stigma theory with the added contribution of Foucault’s concept the medical gaze and medical anthropological concept delegitimization, this qualitative thesis explores the health care experiences of 13 White and 2 Black fat women in the U.S. First, context for fatness and health is explored within chapter …

Microbial Experience Increases Cytotoxicity Of Tumor-Infiltrating Cd8+ T Cells And Controls Tumor Growth, Nicholas Aaron Bunda

Masters Theses

Cancer immunotherapy research is traditionally conducted with specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice, which most accurately mimic the immune system of a human newborn. This makes translational research challenging, as this mouse model is not an accurate reflection of the adult patients who ultimately receive newly developed treatments. It is necessary to further develop a mouse model that bridges this gap and increases translatability of current cancer immunotherapy research.

By cohousing specific pathogen-free mice with regular pet store (PS) mice, we have generated a cohoused (CoH) mouse that reflects the microbial experience of an adult human immune system. We investigated antigen experience, …

Resiliency In The Shadows Of The Ivory Tower: Examining The Strategies Utilized By Undocumented Students To Succeed In Higher Education, Estefany Paniagua-Pardo M.Ed

Masters Theses

Undocumented students experience uniquely distinctive barriers in their pursuit of postsecondary education. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which undocumented students make meaning of their lived experiences by examining the various dimensions of their educational journey outside of the broader legal and political context. The study specifically highlighted undocumented student stories to investigate the strategies used by individuals to survive, persevere, and navigate institutions of higher education. Rooted in Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Model, this qualitative study used semi-structured interview methodology to unveil the ways in which undocumented students utilize numerous and intersecting forms …

Police Education And Its Influence On Traffic Enforcement Performance, Shatavia Monique Kennedy

Masters Theses

In demanding occupations, the preference for formal education is presumptive when improving competency and workmanship. This study assesses the correlation between college education and traffic enforcement performance within a local police department in Aberdeen, North Carolina. In this study, performance strictly refers to issued traffic citations and traffic enforcement. The research consisted of a secondary analysis (public records) using qualitative data. Data were collected to determine which officers issued the most traffic citations from the highway patrol unit from January to June 2021. Second, qualitative data were collected via an interview with one of the department officers to obtain demographic …

A Convention To Save America, Andrew Todd Looker, Jr.

Masters Theses

Article V of the United States Constitution articulates the methods for amending the Constitution. Amendments are formally recommended by either a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress or by a vote of two-thirds of the state legislatures. This latter method is known as a Convention of States. Despite its inclusion in Article V, no amendment has yet been proposed for ratification by such a convention. This research aims to explain the history of Article V, the process for an Article V Convention, the current efforts to call such a convention, and amendments that should be considered at this convention. …

The Decline Of Middle School Music Programs In Major U.S. Inner-City Schools, Kuronde Washington

Masters Theses

This study examines the correlation of music programs in inner-city schools to affluent schools. This thesis will view the impact of socioeconomic status, living environment, retention of teachers, high-accountability testing, and how these factors affect the reduction of secondary music programs in inner-city schools. This research is intended to aid music teachers as well as administrative supporters improve the quality of music education in inner-city schools.

Next Gen: Guiding Dads As They Spiritually Guide The Next Generation, Deylan Michael Smith

Masters Theses

The spiritual development during the teenage years are pivotal in determining the religious and spiritual values as teenagers transition into adulthood. As serious as this stage of development is, there is a lack of involvement in the faith development of teenagers on the part of parents, specifically Christian fathers. With this lack of paternal support during faith development, the percentage of those leaving the church during adolescents and early adulthood is rapidly increasing. The aim of the research was to understand important milestones in spiritual development of teenagers, why Christian dads are uninvolved in this development, and best strategies for …

A Two-Part Rebuttal Of Probability-Based Arguments Against Christian Theism, David Keith Wilson

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses probability-based arguments (PA) from atheism against theism. This popular form of atheistic argument, rather than arguing that there is no such being as God, instead argues that God’s existence is very improbable. This would imply that the theist is unjustified in their belief, and therefore epistemically obligated to forsake their belief. By pairing a cumulative warrant with Alvin Plantinga’s inside straight argument, it is shown that the theist is under no such obligation. As there are many things that are unlikely as well as true, it can be that theism is both unlikely and true. Therefore, the …

Vaccine Hesitancy And Biden's Rhetoric, Samuel J.M. Bell

Masters Theses

Within the setting and context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study uses Ernest Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) framework to analyze fantasy themes which emerged from the rhetoric of the American President, Joe Biden, regarding vaccinations. The main question of this study is why President Biden’s rhetorical vision either chained out and was accepted among the American public resulting in increased vaccination or failed to chain out resulting in Americans refusing to become vaccinated. To answer this question, a selection of artifacts consisting of examples of President Biden’s rhetoric are gathered, and using those artifacts, SCT fantasy themes are developed. …

The Pastoral Connection - Examining Parallels Between Pastoral And Political Rhetoric During The Revolutionary War, Abigail A. Zedwick

Masters Theses

This paper examines the parallels between rhetoric in sermons preserved from the Revolutionary War period and rhetoric in political speeches and writings from the same period. The aim is to establish the extent of the parallels in rhetoric and to demonstrate that the rhetorical stances from the pulpit preceded the same rhetorical stances in political, secular work through establishing the date each document was published or presented. Studying these sources alongside reliable secondary sources on both the political and religious rhetorical themes will demonstrate, when put together to form a more complete picture of the period, that the political rhetoric …

Revisiting The Future: The Future Indicative And Perfective Aspect In Johannine Literature, Casey Lou Price

Masters Theses

As Greek aspectual studies continue to develop, there remains a significant gap in research on the future as it pertains to aspect. The nature of the future indicative is debated, especially as to whether or not it conveys aspectual value. Using Buist Fanning’s premise that aspect and Aktionsart interact to produce predicable outcomes, Mark O’Brien has shown that future STATIVE verbs consistently create an ingressive meaning that mirrors that of STATIVE verbs in the aorist tense. He has used this to demonstrate that the aorist and future share the same aspect-Aktionsart interactions and that they therefore both communicate perfective aspect. …