Digital Commons Network^™

The Red Devil Is In The Details: Formalizing Buss Transport In Panama City, Panama, Adam Smith

Transportation Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How Does Culture Influence Housing Choices And Behaviors Of Residents Of The Pine Ridge Reservation? Preliminary Results, Dana Denise Tell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study used a case study research design to investigate how the culture on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota affects housing choices and behaviors. After a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation, the principle investigator observed the housing situation and became inspired to examine the relationship between the culture and the housing conditions. An interview was set up with a resident on the reservation using a structured interview protocol with probes. The interview protocol was developed after a careful review of the existing literature on culture and housing. The findings revealed three important themes: 1) family cohesion, …

A Bottle Half Empty: Bottled Water, Commodification, And Contestation, Daniel Jaffee, Soren Newman

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bottled water has rapidly been transformed from an elite niche market into a ubiquitous consumer object. Yet the literature on drinking water privatization has largely neglected the growth of bottled water and its emergence as a global commodity. This article draws on Harvey’s analytic of accumulation by dispossession to explore how commodification unfolds differently across multiple forms of water. Based on ethnographic interviews with participants in two conflicts over spring water extraction in rural U.S. communities by the industry leader Nestlé, we make three arguments. First, contestation over bottled water commodification is refracted through competing framings regarding control over local …

Taking Nonprofits At Their Word: The Role Of Conflict Over Mission In Organizational Change And Response To Environmental Pressures, David Gregory Berlan

Public Administration - Dissertations

Central to any nonprofit is a mission; a defining purpose and set of values that provide its exempt purpose, differentiate it and motivate action by the organization and others on its behalf. Even the most formal and established mission is subject to redefinition, interpretation and different ideas over achieving it. This dissertation addresses the question of what role these interpretations of mission play in the processes by which nonprofits change, not just mission but also leadership, strategy and structure. Two distinct theoretical models are examined for fit with empirical results: (1) change processes as a response to external pressure moderated …

Pushing The Pictorial Turn: Mitchell, Benjamin, And Religion Online, John William Borchert

Religion - Theses

This thesis asserts a visual ontology as a way of understanding religious practice online. W.J.T Mitchell argues twenty-first century humanities are shifting away from text and towards an interest in the meaning of images. However, he denies digital images a place within this pictorial turn, judging them banal. Mitchell's theorization of new media is a postmodern rereading of Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". I argue that Mitchell's utilization of Benjamin's aura in his constructions of the human relationship to new media misinterprets the role of these technologies in relating the image to the …

Alumni Journal: : Remembrance -- One Lucky Guy, Mark Sullivan, Heather Wood Rudúlph, Christine Yackel, Eileen Jevis, Amy Speach, Keith Kobland, Jingnan Li, Andrew Clark

Syracuse University Magazine

Alumni news

Weighing In On Heavy Issues: Exploring Race, Nativity, And Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index In Relationship To Preterm Birth And Low Birth Weight, Karyn Alayna Stewart

Sociology - Dissertations

Black women in the United States occupy a unique position of disadvantage in our social strata. This dissertation explores the health consequences associated with race, nativity, and pre-pregnancy body mass index among Black and White women giving birth in the Central New York region using data from the 2004 through 2010 New York Statewide Perinatal Data System. It examines the likelihood of the occurrence of a preterm birth or low birth weight birth. This study also examines racial disparities in birth outcomes between Black women and White women overall in addition to nativity disparities in birth outcomes among Black women. …

Can't Escape From The Memory: Social Media And Public Sector Labor Law, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

The Web 2.0 communicative revolution is impacting many fields of law, including labor and employment law. This article focuses upon the application and impact of statutory and constitutional doctrines on the use of social media in public employment in the United States. As part of that analysis, it will compare and contrast developments under the National Labor Relations Act, state collective bargaining and tenure laws and the First Amendment concerning social media. Through this comparative analysis, the article will highlight the distinctions and similarities of public sector labor law and their implications for the future.

University Of Illinois School Of Veterinary Medicine Wildlife Clinic, Maci Oelschlager

A with Honors Projects

An account of what the author learned by volunteering project at the University of Illinois' Wildlife Medical Clinic.

C-U Canteen Run, Emily Scott

A with Honors Projects

Powerpoint presentation describing student's volunteer work with C-U Canteen Run, a program run by the Salvation Army which provides people throughout the community with food, water, clothes, and other basic necessities.

Japanese Expatriate Youth And Developing Peer Relationships In U.S. Schools, Jinsoon Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Many Japanese corporations relocate their employees overseas for a period of time. In some cases, the relocation is for an extended period of time, in which case, employees have the option of moving members of their immediate family with them. This phenomenological study explored how the early adolescent-age children of these employees assimilate to life in the U.S., particularly in regards to making friends and adjusting to their new school. The data fell under 3 broad domains: (a) assimilation to host culture, (b) social inclusion, and (c) disharmony with peers. The fear of the unknown was a common theme reported …

The Design, Enactment, And Impact Of An Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Astronomy Laboratory Learning Environment, Steven A. Stewart

Science Teaching - Dissertations

This study investigated the design, enactment, and impact of an undergraduate, inquiry-based astronomy laboratory learning environment. The professor, Richard, adopted laboratory materials from the Center for Astronomy and Physics Education Research [CAPER] which were described by the group as inquiry-based. Students worked through these laboratory materials under the supervision of teaching assistants [TAs], and Richard led weekly TA meetings to monitor and instruct the TAs on his expectations. This study suggests that Richard was unsure of laboratory materials' learning goals and had received limited guidance on how to use and implement CAPER's materials. TAs also received limited guidance on how …

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative And Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

This article presents a case study of adapting the Socratic Method, popularized in American law schools, to teach critical thinking skills underemphasized in Chinese universities and group competency skills underemphasized at U.S. institutions. As we propose it here, Multilevel Socratic teaching integrates various levels of individual, small group, and full class critical inquiry, offering distinct pedagogical benefits in Eastern and Western cultural contexts where they separately fall short. After exploring foundational cultural differences underlying the two educational approaches, the article reviews the goals, methods, successes, and challenges encountered in the development of an adapted “Multilevel Socratic” method, concluding with recommendations …

Creating Cayman As An Offshore Financial Center: Structure & Strategy Since 1960, Tony Freyer, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

The Cayman Islands are one of the world's leading offshore financial centers (OFCs). Their development from almost a barter economy in 1960 to a leading OFC for the location of hedge funds, captive insurance companies, yacht registrations, special purpose vehicles, and international banking today was the result of a collaborative policy-making process that involved local leaders, expatriate professionals, and British officials. Over several decades, Cayman created a political system that enabled it to successfully compete in world financial markets for transactions, participate in major international efforts to control financial crimes, and avoid the political, economic, racial, and social problems that …

The Global Slavery Index, Monti Narayan Datta, Fiona David, Kevin Bales, Nick Grono

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Global Slavery Index report is published by the Walk Free Foundation (“Walk Free”). Walk Free is committed to ending all forms of modern slavery in this generation. Modern slavery includes slavery, slavery-like practices (such as debt bondage, forced marriage and sale or exploitation of children), human trafficking and forced labour, and other practices described in key international treaties, voluntarily ratified by nearly every country in the world.

Walk Free’s strategy includes mobilising a global activist movement, generating the highest quality research, enlisting business, and raising unprecedented levels of capital to drive change in those countries and industries bearing the …

Property: Human Right Or Commodity?, Sandra F. Joireman, Jason Brown

Political Science Faculty Publications

There is currently in international law an overstatement of the tie between property and identity. International conventions have folded property into a set of immutable human rights. There needs to be greater flexibility and nuance in this perspective. In this paper we identify two approaches to property rights: the first, which argues that property and identity are necessarily bundled together and considers property to be a human right; and the second which understands them as explicitly separate and views property as a commodity. Empirically, we observe a transition between these two competing ideas. We posit that this transition happens voluntarily, …

Social Policy And Redistribution: Chile And Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble, Evelyn Huber

Political Science Faculty Publications

In this chapter we ask two questions: First, we ask whether these governments, exemplifying best-case scenarios in Latin America, have embarked on a viable path toward a sustainable social democratic welfare state. Second, we ask whether and why they differ in their approaches and progress on this path, paying close attention to how the parties' organizational characteristics influence this variation. In their introduction, Levitsky and Roberts classify the left parties in Chile and Uruguay as an "institutionalized partisan Left," distinguished between an "electoral-professional" Left and a "mass-organic" Left. Uruguay's FA is an example of a mass-organic left party, while Chile's …

Undergraduate And Graduate Teaching Assistants' Perceptions Of Their Responsibilities - Factors That Help Or Hinder, Alena Moon, Hyunyi Jung, Farshid Marbouti, Kelsey Joy Rodgers, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Effective teaching assistants (TAs) are crucial for effective student learning. This is especially true in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, where TAs are enabling large programs to transition to more student-centered learning environments. To ensure that TAs are able to support these types of learning environments, their perspectives of training, their abilities, and other work related aspects must be understood. In this paper a survey that was created based on interviews conducted with eight TAs is discussed. The survey has four primary categories of content that are critical for understanding TAs' perspectives: (1) background, (2) motivation, (3) training, …

Restorative Justice And The Rule Of Law: Rethinking Due Process Through A Relational Theory Of Rights, Bruce P. Archibald

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Restorative approaches to criminal justice can be reconciled with fundamental notions of the rule of law through a relational understanding of rights. Firstly, the paper demonstrates how theories of rights have evolved from a liberal understanding in representative democracies, where individual rights holders can trump the interests of others, to a relational theory where rights embody values which structure appropriate relationships among citizens. Second, the paper shows that relational theory can explain how formal criminal justice and restorative justice in a deliberate democracy interrelate, while embodying different, though compatible, rights, duties and remedies among wrongdoers, victims, communities and justice system …

Racial Justice, Hegemony, And Bias Incidents In U.S. Higher Education, Glyn Hughes

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Formal administrative protocols for responding to bias incidents are now the norm in higher education. This article considers these developments by posing critical questions about racial justice work on campus, identifying key features of an under-acknowledged institutional racism, and contributing to discussions about ways that diversity and social justice efforts often reproduce rather than challenge systemic inequities.

Sustainable What? An Overview And Assessment Of "Sustainable Development", Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Occasionally an academic term becomes a meme in broader media and popular discourse. Among such terms are "stagflation", "globalization", and the concept that this chapter and volume addresses: "sustainable development". Like many other such terms, this concept implies an important subject and broad outlines of research programs and policy initiatives. Yet while provoking consideration of important and often uneasy issues, such a term can also mystify or deflects attention from other related issues. Given the clear evidence of global warming trends and the costs of environmental degradation, the eventuality of peak oil and increasing demand for increasingly scarce fossil fuels …

Political Culture Of Post-Soviet Economic Change: The Case Of Financial-Industrial Groups, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Beneath the seeming chaos and conflict of Russia's post-socialist experience were structured dynamics of contentious reconstruction of fields (collective relations of power and culture institutionalized as authority and definitions of "normal"). This essay argues that the Russian experience was driven in no small part by contention over remaking core meanings and authority of field relations, practices, and boundaries. Contention over field reconstruction emerged as three groups' interests and taken-for granted meanings of normality collided: those of Soviet-era managers, a new class of financial entrepreneurs and elites, and state elites and officials. Post-socialism has been a story of competing elite culture …

Credit/Skills Recovery Pilot Project: Documentation Report For The Boston Public Schools, Terry Grobe, Bedelia N. Richards, Cheryl Almeida

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In support of Boston Superintendent Carol Johnson’s Acceleration Agenda and call for “graduation for all,” the Boston Public Schools launched a pilot Credit/Skills Recovery Program in the summer of 2008. The pilot targeted a population of young people—18 years and older— who were one to four courses short of graduation and sought to help them gain needed credits to graduate and build career and college success skills. An analysis conducted by BPS with the Parthenon Group had identified this group—youth who are “old and close to graduation”—as being at high risk of dropping out of high school. To reach this …

(Re)Presentin' The Tragic Mulatto: An Analysis Of Multiracial Identity In Rap Music, Matthew Oware

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Extant research on racial identity formation among multiracial individuals with one black parent focuses on the determinants of a multiracial versus monoracial identification (Harris and Sim 2002) and the negotiation of racial identification with peers, family, or friends (Rockquemore and Brunsma 2002, Khanna and Johnson 2010, Khanna 2010). In addition, a fair amount of research examines whether multiracial identification harms or promotes the psychological well-being of these individuals (see Binning et al. 2009 and Cheng and Lively 2009 for contrasting findings). This chapter analyzes these debates within the popular genre of rap, focusing on rap artists who have one black …

Debt, Theft, Permaculture: Justice And Ecological Scale, Gerry Canavan

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Ethics And International Law: Integrating The Global Justice Project(S), Steven R. Ratner

Articles

Academic discourse on global justice is at an all-time high. Within ethics and international law, scholars are undertaking new inquiries into age-old questions of building a just world order. Ethics – political and moral philosophy – poses fundamental questions about responsibilities at the global level and produces a tightly reasoned set of frameworks regarding world order. International law, with its focus on legal norms and institutional arrangements, provides a path, as well as illuminates the obstacles, to implementing theories of the right or of the good. Yet despite the complementarity of these two projects, neither is drawing what it should …

Public Understanding Of Local Lead Contamination, Jill Mcnew-Birren

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Residents of Herculaneum, Missouri have been influential in shaping the management of contamination challenges resulting from the community’s proximity to the last primary lead processing plant in the United States. This paper provides a nuanced examination of two perspectives of resident activist groups involved in lead-related controversy in Herculaneum. Ethnographic data collection and storyline analysis were used to trace the evolution in local views from resembling an industrialist–environmentalist dichotomy to more compromising positions associated with ecological modernization. Implications for characterizing public environmental perspectives in the US as beginning to entertain certain aspects of the ecological modernist paradigm are discussed.

Societal Factors Perpetuating The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Elizabeth Kuchenmeister

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

C.A.R.R.O.T. / G.A.R.D.E.N.S.: Communities About Resource Responsibility Of Tomorrow Growing A Resource Dense Environment In Schools, Joel Cambell, Jessica Dake, Breanna Dubanik, Marisha Ibrahim

LIB 322: Wicked Problems of Sustainability

Tackling the issue of getting healthier food options into the hands of children presents multiple barriers. For example, with almost one out of three items on the supermarket shelf coming from a genetically modified organism, with school lunches decreasing in nutrition, and with the U.S. Environmental protection agency allowing nearly 1,400 pesticides to be spread throughout our nation, 40 of which have been classified as carcinogens (Epstein, M.D., and Leibson 28-33), this task is becoming progressively more difficult. In order to slow this vicious trend, we propose the long-term goal of creating blueprints for a large community event targeting the …

Cross‐Campus Collaboration: A Scientometric And Network Case Study Of Publication Activity Across Two Campuses Of A Single Institution, Jeremy Birnholtz, Shion Guha, Y. Connie Yuan, Geri Gay, Caren Heller

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Team science and collaboration have become crucial to addressing key research questions confronting society. Institutions that are spread across multiple geographic locations face additional challenges. To better understand the nature of cross‐campus collaboration within a single institution and the effects of institutional efforts to spark collaboration, we conducted a case study of collaboration at Cornell University using scientometric and network analyses. Results suggest that cross‐campus collaboration is increasingly common, but is accounted for primarily by a relatively small number of departments and individual researchers. Specific researchers involved in many collaborative projects are identified, and their unique characteristics are described. Institutional …