Digital Commons Network^™

Stigmatic History: The Advancement Of Accessibility In U.S. Museums, 1960-2010, Misty A. Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation represents an overlap between disability history and public history by examining how museums in the U.S. became more accessible between 1960 and the early twenty-first century. Utilizing an expansive cross-section of primary and secondary sources, this study unravels the complexities of social and legal pressures that resulted in accessibility becoming a priority in museums. Changes in social expectations, new legal measures, and activism contributed to a shift in the status and treatment of people with disabilities. With these changes came a need for public spaces to adapt and provide disabled peoples with the same access and experiences as …

Assembling A Vignette Of Irish Police Masculinities Through Socio-Historical Rural Crime Research, Clay Darcy

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This paper assembles a vignette of Irish police masculinities from the 1940s and 1950s. Based on historical analysis of a volume of crimes compiled by members of An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s police and security service), and Irish newspaper records, this paper reveals how policing practices and masculinities converged through the detection and recording of rural crimes. An Garda Síochána was exclusively male at the time, and police officers were dominant instrumental figures in rural communities, operating within a tight culture of Catholic religiosity and state censorship. These circumstances allowed them to maintain an assemblage of masculinity that was built on …

Lesson Plan: What Is Mei?, Jennifer Jolley

Open Educational Resources

This lesson plan provides background on the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) and the process for converting digital .wav files from the Deborah Pacini Hernandez Bachata Music Collection housed at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute to .mei using the application Sonic Visualizer.

A Proposal To Establish An Institute For Applied Social Analysis, Institute For Applied Social Analysis

Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements

No abstract provided.

Unsustainable Stories: Agricultural Knowledge On The Great Plains, 1880-1934, Philomena Shuffelton-Sobe

History Honors Projects

This thesis explores stories about how people farmed and learned about farming on the Great Plains from 1880-1920 through three inter-connected narratives: the Allotment system, agricultural education programs at federal Indian Boarding Schools, and the rapid rise and fall of the Dry Farming movement. These systems were built on stories about how people should live with and on the land that promoted unsustainable, destructive ways of farming and knowledge production. This scholarship places Assimilation Era agricultural education for Native and non-Native farmers within the context of the increasing reliance on systems and science and the institutionalization of agricultural knowledge.

The Etsu Historian, Tyla Melkonyan

The ETSU Historian

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Combat Veterans Residing In Rural Communities Who Have Experienced Suicidality After Discharge, Kelly Muratorri

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of combat veterans residing in rural communities who experienced suicidal ideation following discharge from military service. The central research question guiding this study was, What are the lived experiences of combat veterans who reside in rural areas and have contemplated suicide since discharge? The theories guiding this study were Joiner’s interpersonal theory of suicide, which emphasizes perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability for suicide, and Shneidman’s theory of psychache, which highlights the intolerable psychological pain that often is an underlying factor of suicidal behavior. Although there …

American Mythology: The Western, The American, The Christian, And The Intersection Of The Three In "The Sins Of Tom Budd", Brandon Kopp

Masters Theses

Close to the turn of the 19th century, Frederick Jackson Turner famously proclaimed the death of the frontier, and extolled the lapsed era for the virtues and qualities which it championed - qualities which he claimed defined the American cultural identity. The Western genre of fiction carries on the traditions and values of that era to past, present, and future generations of Americans and partakes deeply in the rich tradition of human storytelling in a way that examines universal human conditions from the unique perspective engendered by frontier living and the American West. Just as Homer's work created and built …

Redefining Bryan: Populism, Reform, And The Fight For The Common Man, Tracey Perilloux Drake

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation looks at the political career of William Jennings Bryan and argues that he was more than just a supporter of free silver during the 1896 election. While many historians focus mainly on his “Cross of Gold” speech and his views on silver, this study shows that Bryan had a much broader set of ideas. He supported reform in many areas, including the economy, government power, and moral issues, and believed the federal government should do more to help ordinary people. Using both historical studies and primary sources, this dissertation places Bryan in the context of the major economic …

Switching Sides: A Grounded Theory Study Of Transition From Christian To Atheist, Joel C. Furches

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study developed a data driven, six stage model of deconversion, defined as the transition from publicly identifying as a Christian to publicly identifying as an atheist. Using a Grounded Theory approach for analysis, and an archival approach for data collection, the research analyzed 35 autobiographical accounts of deconversion to identify common psychological, social, and behavioral processes underlying religious-deidentification and atheist identification. The findings revealed six background features characteristic of religious environments with higher likelihood of producing deconverts, four categories of objections that precipitate dissonance, and six coping strategies individuals employ in response to that dissonance. Central to the model …

Safe, Secure, And Affordable? The State Of Household Water Insecurity In California, Melissa Beresford, Wendy Jepson, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Kristin Dobbin, Amanda Fencl, Silvia R. González, Gregory Pierce

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

California's efforts to advance the Human Right to Water are constrained by limited household-level data on water insecurity. Using the 2021 CalSpeaks statewide probability survey (n = 628) this study offers the first representative look at water insecurity across California households. Results reveal significant water-related struggles: approximately 23% of respondents worried about having enough water to meet their household needs, 15% worried about perceived health impacts from water quality, and 7% struggled with affordability. Negative binomial regression models show that water insecurity is not randomly distributed: households with non-white residents, households which rely on private or small water companies for …

A Survey Of Open Educational Resources Appropriate For Constructing And Teaching An Upper-Level, Undergraduate Course In The History Of Music Prior To 1800 For Music Majors, Jamie Weaver

Faculty Publications

Many open education resources are available for the study of music history. Yet, the majority ofsources I discovered are intended for students who are not music majors or who are at thebeginning of their historical study. The purpose of my study of open educational resources is tolocate and evaluate resources that would facilitate the creation and instruction of the first-semester survey course of an undergraduate survey in music history for music majors, the focusof which is the study of music before 1800. What follows is a broad, preliminary survey ofsources that could be used, mixed, reworked, or adapted to fulfill …

The Hope College Department Of Biology: The First 50+ Years, Christopher C. Barney

Faculty Publications

The Hope College Department of Biology was founded in 1899 with the appointment of the first Professor of Biology at Hope, Samuel Mast. During the first 50+ years of the Biology Department, there were eight total faculty members in the department, including Frances Koeman, the first female faculty member in the natural sciences. Four faculty members, Mast, Frank Patterson, Oscar Thompson, and Teunis Vergeer were primarily responsible for developing the department’s curriculum and programs, with Mast and Vergeer also carrying out published research. The department was housed primarily in Van Raalte Hall and the Science Building (now Lubbers Hall) for …

Third Butte Rmap Biomonitoring (Phase 3) Report, Ramboll, Atlantic Richfield Company

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Rethinking African Security In The Anthropocene: An Alternative Framework, Hamdy A. Hassan

All Works

Introduction – Traditional approaches to African security often treat neocolonialism, governance failures, and terrorism as isolated issues, obscuring their systemic interconnections under Anthropocene conditions of human-induced environmental change. This study argues that African security should be reconceptualized in light of climate change, resource depletion, and ecosystem degradation, as these dynamics reshape the continent's collective security arrangements. Methods – This research combines critical analysis of African collective security mechanisms, focusing on the African Union and the African Peace and Security Architecture, with qualitative evidence from 15 unstructured interviews conducted in Mali, Nigeria, and Egypt between July and October 2025. Thematic qualitative …

Predicting Urban Heat‐Related Illness Across U.S. Climate Regions And Demographics, S. E. Brown, Vivek Shandas

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We still know relatively little about how climate, demographics, built environment, and behaviors interact to drive hospitalizations during extreme heat events (EHEs). To address this paucity in understanding, we draw on extant literature to develop a transdisciplinary discrete event system dynamics (SD) modeling approach to address two research questions about the relationship between EHEs and heat‐related illnesses (HRIs): (a) How will changes in EHE frequencies, intensities, and durations in major Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) across the contiguous United States (CONUS) Climate Regions drive HRI morbidity across demographic, health‐status, and household groups over the coming decades? and (b) What are the …

What About R&B? The Undefined American Music Genre, Asha Brown

Masters Theses

The research presented in this thesis seeks to provide insight into the value and representation of R&B music in American culture, history, and scholarly works. To advocate for the accurate classification of Rhythm and Blues as a distinct musical genre? Data collected throughout the research process explores the sociological factors that influence tastes in particular music. While the American and music history of the thesis provide foundational evidence of the genre’s influence and relevance, input from research participants supports a hypothesis on the sociological aspects. The conclusion suggests that, though there are multiple factors to consider, many popular music genres …

Napoleon Iii, Bimetallism, And The Latin Monetary Union In The European Movement For Universal Coinage, 1865-1878, Jack Salerno

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Between 1865 and 1878, Emperor Napoleon III of France attempted to use the Latin Monetary Union (LMU) to attain power via a universal, bimetallic European coinage system, but ultimately failed due to the preference for the gold standard within the wider movement for a universal coinage. In my research, I examine the International Monetary Conferences of 1865 and 1867, and explore the political landscape of France in the years leading up to the creation of the LMU, focusing on the Napoleonic echoes of the Second French Empire as instrumental factors in the LMU’s design. I argue that Napoleon III’s Empire …

Unveiling The Complexity Of Post-Roman Polity Formation In Pannonia Using Ancient Dna, Yijie Tian, István Koncz, Norbert Faragó, Corina Knipper, Ronny Friedrich, Deven N. Vyas, Levente Samu, Olga Spekker, Tamás Szeniczey, Tamás Hajdu, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Péter Tomka, Ildikó Katalin Pap, Dávid Czigány, Rita Radzeviciute, Luca Traverso, Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone, Paolo Francalacci, Bernd Schöne, Gábor Tóth, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Petrus Le Roux, Kurt W. Alt, Zuzana Hofmanová, Walter Pohl, Johannes Krause, Tivadar Vida, Patrick J. Geary, Krishna R. Vereramah

Ecology & Evolution Faculty Publications

The transformation of the Roman world [fourth to ninth centuries common era (CE)], culminating in the Western Roman Empire’s fall, marked a fundamental transition in European history. Key questions persist regarding the regionally specific nature of this transformation. We generated a paleogenomic dataset to reconstruct post-Roman organizations in the Little Hungarian Plain at microregional resolution. Genetic and archaeological analyses of two Roman (n = 68) and five post-Roman (n = 246) sites reveal a rise in Northern European ancestry, reflecting large-scale population movements into this region. Moreover, despite post-Roman sites sharing similar genetic profiles, material culture, and burial …

Long Term Evaluation Of The Safety And Efficacy Of Local Cooling Anesthesia During Intravitreal Injections: The Cool-2 Trial, Arshad M. Khanani, Samir N. Patel, Charles C. Wykoff, Gun-Ho Kim, Ajay E. Kuriyan

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a medical device providing cooling anesthesia to the eye as local anesthesia for intravitreal (IVT) injections.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: As a multicenter, open label, dose escalation clinical trial, subjects receiving at least 3 IVT injections in the study eye were recruited to participate. All patients received subconjunctival lidocaine as their anesthesia for previous IVT injections. Subjects receiving IVT injections were assigned (non-randomized) to four groups in which the cooling device was applied to the conjunctiva at the location of the intravitreal injection: Group 1: -10˚C for 20 seconds; Group 2: -15˚C for 10 seconds; …

Social Media Is A Juggernaut: Lagged Correlation Analysis Using Ngram Data On “Internet” And “Social Media” With Amplification By The Advent Of The “Iphone”, William Zywiak, Gao Niu, Nicolas Petrell, Victoria Nichele, Kirsten Hokeness

Mathematics and Economics Faculty Journal Articles

The amount of new information transmitted per day can be overwhelming. The data available through Ngram Viewer allows statistical examination to determine the most salient topics, as well as lagged correlation and lagged variance to support possible causal connections between concepts. Using this database, we determined that COVID, crypto, microplastics, and especially social media are important topics of the last few years. We also present results that suggest the development of the internet and the iPhone fueled the prominence of social media, and the access of the iPhone also increased access to the internet.

Apostle Patrick’S Orthodoxy: Selection From Hymn Of St. Secundinus (Sechnall), Ca. Fifth Century, Maksim Astashinskiy

Faculty Papers and Publications

The Latin text is drawn from “[13] Hymnus Sancti Patricii Magistri Scotorum,” in: F. E. Warren, ed., The Antiphonary of Bangor: An Early Irish Manuscript in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Henry Bradshaw Society Vol. 10. (London: Harrison and Sons, St. Martin’s Lane, 1895), 14–16, https://ia800105.us.archive.org/32/items/TheAntiphonaryOfBangor/TheAntiphonaryOfBangor.pdf; also, see: “Incipit Ymnus Sancti Patricii Episcopi Scotorum” in: Robert Atkinson and John Henry Bernard, eds. The Irish ‘Liber hymnorum’: Text and Introduction, Vol. 1 (London: Harrison and Sons, St. Martin’s Lane, London, 1898), 7, 11–12, https://archive.org/details/IrishLiberHymnorumV1.

Behind The Lines In The Balkans: U.S. Military, Intelligence, And Diplomatic Operations In Romania During World War Ii And The Early Cold War, Timothy W. Brophy

Masters Theses

U.S. involvement in Romania during World War II was significant. This involvement began with a U.S. Army Air Forces bombing campaign against the country’s oil refineries, which provided approximately 25% of Nazi Germany’s oil supply during the war. Initial bombing raids occurred in 1942 and 1943, but it was not until April 4, 1944, that the Fifteenth Air Force (15th AF) launched a sustained bombing campaign against Romania. By August 1944, the American bombing of Romania had successfully crippled Romanian oil production and export to Nazi Germany, paved the way for the Soviets to drive German forces out of Romania, …

Comparing Aesthetic And Praxial Approaches To Music Education: Effects On Newark, New Jersey High School Student Achievement And Engagement, Jayson Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Music education plays a vital role in a well-rounded educational framework, supporting the intellectual, emotional, and social development of students. Within this field, two prominent pedagogical approaches are the aesthetic and praxial methodologies. The aesthetic approach emphasizes the intrinsic value and expressive qualities of music, while the praxial approach focuses on music as a form of human activity, integrating practical, social, and contextual dimensions. Educators often aim to enhance students’ musical growth by developing skills and understanding through musical engagement. However, the predominance of one method over another has led to discussions about whether students are receiving a fully comprehensive …

“What So Many Millions Before Us Have Borne”: Loss, Grief, And The Revolutionary Turn Of The Founding Father, Michael S. Desmond

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Loss, instability and grief provided a crucial interpretative framework for understanding George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, particularly in the years surrounding their emergence as revolutionaries in the early 1770s. Rather than treating their political commitments to the Whigs as the product of ideology alone, this study argues that deeply personal experiences with setbacks and loss shaped the crucial timing of their decisions to become revolutionaries.

For Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, grief was not a single event followed by an emotional response; it was a formative process that began with the setbacks and losses of their childhoods. In adolescence, …

Serum-Derived Albumin As A Cryoprotective Agent For The Long-Term Storage Of Red Blood Cells: A Preliminary Examination, Thomas Bailey-Schmidt, Christine V Saunders, Chloë E George, Thomas G Scorer, Lynn M R Mccallum, Tracey E Madgett

School of Biomedical Sciences

BACKGROUND: Cryopreservation extends the shelf life of red blood cells (RBC) from weeks to years, offering major advantages for blood banking logistics, especially in remote environments. However, current glycerol-based methods, though effective, are limited in scope due to complex post-thaw washing and incompatibility with routine clinical workflows. This study evaluated plasma-derived albumin as a potential alternative cryoprotective agent (CPA) for human RBC.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Donor-derived RBC were suspended in 25% w/v bovine serum albumin (BSA) prepared in various diluents and tested for biocompatibility and cryoprotective efficacy under rapid freezing (immersion in liquid nitrogen) and gradual freezing with storage …

2016g_Lac02_Approved_Hist-6293, Graduate Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2016g_Lac03_Approved_Hist-6663_Revision1, Graduate Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

Ireland Since 1690, Stephen F. Haller Phd

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Great Graminoids! Quantifying Vegetation On Roan’S Western Balds Over The Last 80 Years (1936, 1956, 2016), James T. Donaldson

Faculty Open Access Works

PowerPoint originally presented at Friends of Roan Mountain Winter Naturalists' Rally 11 Feb. 2017.

Grant funding from Friends of Roan Mountain for resampling historic transects from Carvers Gap to Grassy Ridge. Revised 2021, 2022, & 2023 (technical features and diversity); edited for clarity 2026 (for written rather than oral presentation & added references slide).