Digital Commons Network^™

Towards Digital Art In Information Society, Montse Arbelo, Joseba Franco

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Towards Digital Art in Information Society" Montse Arbelo and Joseba Franco propose the development of the platform of a Network of Experimental Centers be formed by small groups of people who are qualified and who seek optimal operational effectiveness and who dedicate their resources to the production of digital content and we offer artechmedia <http://www.artechmedia.org> as a base point of departure. Such an international network in a collaborative structure based on national networks would make possible to coordinate existing resources to develop social networks, generate and promote content, engage in forums of discussion and creativity workshops, and …

Qatari Foreign Policy And The Arab Spring: From Mediation To Intervention, Basma Mahmoud Eletreby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the controversial role that Qatar has been playing in the Arab Spring, specifically from 2011 to 2013. Evidently, Qatari foreign policy will be assessed to comprehend the power this small state has been gaining in Middle East politics in a region plagued by never ending manifestations of power struggles and turbulent developments. The case studies of Egypt, Libya and Syria in which Qatari foreign policy involvement deployed the same rationale will be investigated to examine the increasing involvement of Qatar in Middle East politics. It concludes that the foreign policy of Qatar was both opportunistic and pro-Islamist …

In Vietnam, A Chinese Skytrain Sheds Light On Tough Bilateral Ties, Chau Ngo

Capstones

The article looks into a skytrain being built by a Chinese company in Vietnam, which represents China's troubled projects in the country. At a time of tensions between China and Vietnam over territorial disputes, the story shows how the tensions have affected these projects and what could be next for them. The skytrain story also sheds light into the tough bilateral ties between China and Vietnam, despite the two communist countries' similar political systems, economic model and cultural proximity.

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program: Fiscal Year 2014 Report & Evaluation, Susan Jeghelian, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Kaila O. Eisenkraft

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The Community Mediation Center Grant Program, funded by the commonwealth and administered by the state’s office of dispute resolution, was established to “promote the broad use of community mediation in all regions of the state” by awarding operating grants to eligible community mediation centers. This annual report describes the progress made in broadening access to community mediation by the grant program under the challenge of reduced state funding in FY 2014. Due to the funding cut, fewer centers were funded in FY 2014 compared to FY 2013, which reduced the quantity of services provided. However, the amount of money per …

Gender Matters: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Media Coverage And Images Of Female Politicians, Katherine Virginia Ross

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The representation of women in media, specifically the way in which political women are represented in news coverage, can have a significant impact on how consumers view political women. This study analyzed the online newspaper articles and images of two women who are active in politics, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. While there are many women in the political arena, these two are perhaps the most well-known. This study is grounded in the theory of framing, and also applies Tuchman’s (1978) theory of symbolic annihilation. This study used coding, image analysis, and critical discourse analysis to attempt to uncover gendered …

Eelgrass Meadows Return To Frenchy's Cove, Anacapa Island: Recovery Ten Years After Successful Transplantation, Jessica Altstatt, Richard Ambrose, Jay Carroll, James Coyer, Joseph Wible, John Engle

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

A large eelgrass (Zostera pacifica) meadow was present at Frenchy’s Cove, Anacapa Island, prior to the late 1980s. Extensive grazing by white sea urchins (Lytechinus anamesus) in the late 1980s eliminated the meadow by 1991, when a 60-m transect (10-m depth) was established; no natural recovery was observed from 1991 to 2002. In 2002, approximately 450 eelgrass shoots were transplanted to Frenchy’s Cove from 2 large meadows at Santa Cruz Island (Smugglers Cove, Prisoners Harbor), and a second transect (7-m depth) was established in 2004. Shoot planting densities ranged from 0.11 m^–2 to 11 m …

Reintroduction Of Historically Extirpated Taxa On The California Channel Islands, Scott A. Morrison, Kevin A. Parker, Paul W. Collins, W. Chris Funk, T. Scott Sillett

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

Most invasive alien vertebrate populations on the Channel Islands of California have been eradicated over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, removal of these introduced herbivores or predators came too late for some native flora and fauna, and numerous populations are now extinct. Here, we describe a systematic approach to reintroducing extirpated native taxa as a means for rebuilding natural communities and enhancing the resiliency of island ecosystems. Reintroduction efforts typically focus on a single species or site. In contrast, we propose that if reintroduction is a shared conservation goal of managers across the islands, the associated planning, implementation, and monitoring …

Experimental Planting Of Native Shrubs On Santa Cruz Island From Small Nursery Stock, Matthew L. James, David M. Hubbard, Coleen Cory

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

The natural vegetation of Santa Cruz Island was severely disturbed by nonnative herbivores for well over a century. As the livestock and feral ungulates (primarily sheep, cattle, and pigs) were removed from the island over the last 30 years, many of the native plant communities began to recover naturally. Recovery has been extremely slow in other areas, especially where nonnative annual grasses and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) dominate several hundred hectares that were under intense agricultural use (pastures and farmed lands). We experimentally tested the feasibility of speeding up the recovery process in a postagricultural area of the island’s …

Status Of The Santa Catalina Island Fox Thirteen Years After Its Decline, Julie L. King, Calvin L. Duncan, David K. Garcelon

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

Santa Catalina Island was home to an estimated 1342 adult island foxes (Urocyon littoralis catalinae) in 1990. Nine years later, fox sightings declined and reports of dead or dying foxes increased. An island-wide trapping effort was initiated after a fox carcass tested positive for Canine distemper virus (CDV). In 1999, only 10 foxes were captured east of the Two Harbors isthmus during 1046 trap-nights. A multifaceted conservation plan was implemented in 2000 to conserve the Santa Catalina population of island fox. Initial recovery actions took place from 2000 to 2005 and resulted in the translocation of 22 juvenile …

Surprising Commons, Carol M. Rose

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Isolated Wetland Commons And The Constitution, Blake Hudson, Mike Hardig

BYU Law Review

Isolated wetlands provide great ecological and economic value to the United States. While some states provide protection for isolated wetlands, a great many do not. These wetlands are also left outside the ambit of federal wetland regulatory protections under the Clean Water Act, with its murky jurisdictional reach. Notwithstanding jurisdictional questions under current federal statutes, the U.S. Supreme Court has gone so far as to call into question the constitutionality of federal isolated wetland regulation. This Article makes a normative argument that, in the absence of state or local programs providing holistic isolated wetland protection, federal action is needed. The …

Intermedial Strategies Of Memory In Contemporary Novels, Sara Tanderup

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Intermedial Strategies and Memory in Contemporary Novels" Sara Tanderup discusses a tendency in contemporary literature towards combining intermedial experiments with a thematic preoccupation with memory and trauma. Analyzing selected works by Steven Hall, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Judd Morrissey and drawing on the theoretical perspectives of N. Katherine Hayles (media studies) and Andreas Huyssen (cultural memory studies), Tanderup argues that recent intermedial novels reflect a certain nostalgia celebrating and remembering the book as a visual and material object in the age of digital media while also highlighting the influence of new media on our cultural understanding and …

Queer Hybridity And Performance In The Multimedia Texts Of Arroyo And Lozada, Ed Chamberlain

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Queer Hybridity and Performance in the Multimedia Texts of Arroyo and Lozada" Ed Chamberlain examines the unconventional writing of Puerto Rican writers Rane Arroyo and Ángel Lozada. Arroyo and Lozada craft texts which can be interpreted as performances and these performative texts blend internet-based writings with more traditional genres including the novel and poetry. Arroyo's and Lozada's stylistic approaches exhibit a queer sensibility which resembles the way in which Latina/o queer people construct and perform their cultural identities. Chamberlain argues that these queer performances suggest we can neither create nor identify absolute truth in matters of identity …

How Toni Morrison's Facebook Page Re(Con)Figures Race And Gender, Beatriz Revelles-Benavente

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "How Toni Morrison's Facebook Page Re(con)figures Race and Gender" Beatriz Revelles-Benavente explores Morrison's Facebook page and comments on it. In 2010, Morrison opened a Facebook page where she received a large amount of comments and created debates and Revelles-Benavente analyses how these comments navigate questions of race and gender. Based on theoretical considerations about issues of race and gender in cyberculture and applied to the narratives posted on Morrison's Facebook page, Revelles-Benavente argues that the problematics of race and gender are relational and the question needs to be centered on the object of study as the relation …

Electronic Literature In China, Jinghua Guo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Electronic Literature in China" Jinghua Guo discusses how the reception and the critical contexts of production of online literature are different in China from those in the West despite similar developments in digital technology. Guo traces the development of Chinese digital literature, its history, and the particular characteristics and unique cultural significance in the context of Chinese culture where communality is an aspect of society. Guo posits that Chinese electronic literature is larger than such in the West despite technical drawbacks and suggests that digitality represents a positive force in contemporary Chinese culture and literature.

The Canon And Shakespeare's Plays On The Contemporary East Asian Stage, I-Chun Wang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Canon and Shakespeare's Plays on the Contemporary East Asian Stage" I-Chun Wang argues that although globalization often refers to the phenomenon of international trade and (im)migrants, globalization has made strong impacts in all aspects of culture and literature. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar have attracted attention of East Asian playwrights and directors in the last several years. By juxtaposing the trends of local cultural performing arts with representations of local cultural legacies, Wang discusses the staging of these two Roman plays in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. By probing into the imperial themes represented …

Well-Born: Black Women And The Infertility Crisis No One Is Talking About, Kaara Baptiste

Capstones

Black women are twice as likely to experience infertility than white women, but are less likely to seek treatment or to have successful fertility results once treated. Despite this alarming number, this topic is not often discussed, even among the black community. My narrative piece t tells the story of a black woman confronting her infertility diagnosis and the role her race played in her fertility treatment, while exploring the role racism and sexuality have had in keeping this issue in the shadows.

Happiness Is A Black Gun, Terence Cullen

Capstones

The AR15 is one of the most hated guns in the nation because all the mass shootings it is involved in. I set out to see how the gun was made, what it's like to shoot it and why people in the gun world loved it so much.

When You Can't Watch What You Eat: Examining The Fda’S Recall Process For Food Allergies, Jacob Passy

Capstones

Over a third of all recalls for food products in the United States occur due to an undeclared allergen. In these situations, a food product is often mislabeled or contaminated in some way, resulting in the unknown presence of allergen. For food-allergic consumers, a company's mistake can become life-threatening. By investigating data from the Food and Drug Administration, I found that supermarket chains are responsible for about a fifth of all recalls, and that many recalls occur past the product's expiration date. These factors point to the need to improve the FDA's handling of food allergies in food manufacturing.

Drugs, Depression, And Dating Violence: Partnering With Schools To Collect And Use Data On Adolescent Risky Behaviors, Rebecca H. Donham, Shari Kessel Schneider

The Foundation Review

In 2005, the MetroWest Health Foundation launched a 10-year initiative to conduct the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey biennially with every high school and middle school student in the foundation’s 25-town region. The survey asks students about substance use, violence, sexual behaviors, mental health, and nutrition.

In the first year of the initiative, about two-thirds of public high schools and half of the middle schools in the region participated. By 2012, every public high school and middle school participated. Encompassing some 40,000 students, the survey is considered to be one of largest, if not …

Redefining Expectations For Place-Based Philanthropy, Katelyn Mack, Hallie Preskill, James Keddy, Moninder-Mona K. Jhawar

The Foundation Review

This article discusses how The California Endowment has used a midcourse strategic review to refine Building Healthy Communities, aiming to provide insight for other place-based initiatives and to add to the body of knowledge about how to support transformative community change.

With Building Healthy Communities, the endowment is taking a new approach to community change using a dual strategy to build community capacity in 14 places and scale the impact of its local efforts through statewide policy advocacy and communications. In 2013, it commissioned a strategic review to reflect on what it has learned from the first three years of …

What We Have Learned About Grassroots Philanthropy: Lessons From Mexico, Artemisa Castro Félix, A. Scott Dupree

The Foundation Review

Mexico is going through a transition from traditions of authoritarian, top-down social and political management that have tended to marginalize the efforts of community groups in addressing social and environmental challenges.

While there are many important questions about strengthening civil society organizations in general, grassroots groups in particular are challenged by the weak enabling environment for social action.

Despite this, the Action in Solidarity Fund has found that it is very possible for philanthropists to reach small grassroots groups with the support they need and to begin to strengthen the social fabric for communities to act on their own behalf. …

Giving Circles In Asia: Newcomers To The Asian Philanthropy Landscape, Robert John

The Foundation Review

Amid the rapid development of philanthropy across Asia, over the past 10 years a number of giving circles have appeared in the region.

This form of philanthropy, where individuals pool resources and provide grants to nonprofit organizations in their community, is well known and studied in the U.S. This article examines the phenomenon in Asia, and finds giving circles there to be either indigenous or based on models transplanted from the United States or Europe.

While ancient traditions of charitable giving have existed for centuries in Asia, the concept of organized philanthropy in order to effect specific societal benefit is …

#Notyourcostume, #Notyourmascot And #Nothappy: New Generation Of Native American Activists Use Social Media To Protest Cultural Misappropriation, Jaclyn Anglis

Capstones

My project profiles Simon Moya-Smith, a Brooklyn-based activist for Native American rights. He, alongside other young Native Americans, protests against the ubiquitous cultural misappropriation of Native American culture by people who are not Native by using social media like Twitter and Instagram to send his message to a broader audience now than Native Americans were ever able to reach before to speak out against misappropriation. This misappropriation includes offenses such as wearing a headdress as a fashion statement, using a Native American based mascot and dressing up like a Native American for Halloween. While activists like Moya-Smith are certainly not …

Black Seoul, Victoria Johnson

Capstones

The project explores the connections between Black culture and South Korean culture and how they are overlapping.

Riot - The End Of Violent Protests In New York, Rikki Reyna

Capstones

In New York City, following the death of Eric Garner, protests and rallies against police brutality were sustained for months. For the most part it was peaceful. But what happened to Eric Garner would have incited a very different response in New York City in a different time. There was a time when New Yorkers wouldn’t just protest. They would riot. Those riots seem incapable of happening in today’s New York. This narrative project explores the reasons why. What social, political and economic changes have come together to make riots in this city seem improbable.

Howard Dolgon: Ahl Juggernaut, Madeleine Perkins

Capstones

As the owner of the Syracuse Crunch, Howard Dolgon is coming up with big ideas that are taking the American Hockey League -- and the sport itself-- by storm.

Travails Of The Travestis, Kiratiana Freelon

Capstones

The Brazilian public has long accepted transgender people in the streets and in the media. In the 80s Roberta Close’s high cheekbones, and full cheeks became a standard of beauty for all Brazilian women. But this cultural acceptance of transgender people belies one fact—Brazil is one of the most dangerous places in the world for transgender people. Brazil has the highest number of murders in the world of transgender people every year. This capstone examines the issue in the country.

Are Indie Artist Better Off?, Chinwe Oniah

Capstones

This project is about underground musicians that either want to self-release their own music or release their music through and independent music label. They are rejecting that traditional model of being signed to a major label.

The Coops After The Storm, Caroline Lewis

Capstones

For many, Hurricane Sandy is either long forgotten or brings to mind thoughts of loss and destruction. But in Far Rockaway, there is a lingering struggle to use the momentum generated by the unique Occupy Sandy disaster relief efforts to create a new cooperative economy. The project dovetails with a larger experiment in scaling up worker cooperatives in New York City and raises questions about what can come out of future storms if the Occupy Sandy model is replicated.