Digital Commons Network^™

Globalization And Geoblocking: Sustaining Nationally Bound Economic And Political Practices Of Media Distribution And Access On The Internet, Elaine Venter

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Where we access the internet dictates what we see or, more importantly, do not see online. Access to online media content and information on the internet is controlled worldwide by a process called geoblocking. The term geoblocking refers to the process whereby a website blocks a user's access to digital media content or other information based on their geographic location. While it is possible that openness can exist on the internet, this dissertation asserts that the internet is not a completely free and open space as it continues to be shaped and bordered by media corporations, governments, and audiences. This …

Dressing The Witch: Clothing, The Body, And Accusations Of Witchcraft In Puritan New England, Rachel Murrell

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Though this infamous period in American history has been examined numerous times, this paper aims to analyze the role in which “soft culture,” in particular dress and clothing, played in the search for witches amongst Salem women in 1692. Of necessity to this analysis is a thorough examination of early American material culture and the role in which early New Englanders interacted with newfound notions of materiality. This analysis examines two distinct points of contention at the crux of this cultural turn: the maintenance of and visual adherence to rigid social class standards through clothing and the visual interpretation of …

A City Of Angels: Philanthropy And The Public Good In The Fragmented Metropolis, Kelsey Picken

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation will examine philanthropy and capital in Los Angeles in two parts: the first to produce a breakdown of the ideological assumptions of the most dominant forms of philanthropy in the United States—big philanthropy, voluntary associations, and mass campaigns. The second part offers case studies for each of these forms to illustrate how the various institutional applications of philanthropy within the unique context of Los Angeles contribute to the transformation of the philanthropic model through the exchange of capital. Together, these chapters uncover distinct site-specific efforts that led to the successful active engagement of the citizenry in philanthropy, reducing …

"Beyond The Lines": A Reassessment Of Civil War Prisons, Beth Kruse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Beyond the Lines”: A Reassessment of Civil War Prisons, challenges the historical interpretations of Civil War military prisons. Specifically, it analyses the political, social, and economic conditions of these systems by not only adding omitted gender, class, and race scholarship but flushing out the power dynamics between these group and military administrations. The re-examination of primary source material by reading against the grain to find overlooked insights reveals these sources not only provide a wealth of information about omitted groups, but that they have been misinterpreted. Additionally, applying the concepts of historical memory establishes how the Lost Cause shaped not …

Now You See Me, Now You Don’T: Living With Deleuze, Intimating In The Dance Of Movements, Moments, And Sensation, Ken Gale

Plymouth Institute of Education

In this article, I argue that writing with intimacy through an animation of Deleuzian thought helps to destabilize the simply human practice of signifying, representing, and locating emotions within a metaphysics of being, which firmly ignores affective relationality and the emergence of posthuman practices of thinking and doing. By positing the practice of intimating, I argue that such an approach will prompt movement away from thinking about what a body is or what it might mean toward moving with and sensing encounters and engagements with what bodies can do. Continuing this line of thinking and writing with Deleuze will involve …

Writing With: Collaborative Writing As Hope And Resistance, M Diversi, K Gale, C Moreira, J Wyatt

Plymouth Institute of Education

Collaboration in scholarship holds the peculiar position of being expected, encouraged, and, in the process, somewhat taken-for-granted as monolithic academic practice. Collaboration is important for the cultivation of a rich ecosystem of ideas, thoughts, methods, theories, and experimentation. It seems safe to assume that most scholars would agree with the need and the possibilities of collaboration. Yet, collaboration in scholarship is often understood in reductionist and pragmatic ways: While ideas and thoughts flow in certain stages of the collaboration, labor is often divided among collaborators, authorship is ranked and quantified, and subjective lived experiences are most ignored or codified in …

Critical Media Literacy And Black Female Identity Construction: A Conceptual Framework For Empowerment, Equity, And Social Justice In Education, Petra A. Robinson, Ayana Allen-Handy, Kala Burrell-Craft

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the issues of knowledge production, which interrogate and disrupt dominant narratives that subjugate Black females related to their identity. We contextualize our discussion through the lens of critical consciousness and critical media literacy by exploring the role of popular media in identity development/imposition for Black females. We outline issues of Black female identity politics by framing them through the description of critical media literacy as a 21st century literacy, with Black Feminist Theory as our theoretical lens. Similar discussions have remained centered in the field of Media Studies and there has been inadequate attention to these issues …

2021 Faculty Accomplishments Reception, University Of Richmond

Faculty Accomplishments Reception Programs

Program for the 2021 Faculty Accomplishments Reception

In Honor of University of Richmond Faculty Contributions to Scholarship, Research and Creative Work, January 2020 - December 2020.

March 4, 2020, 3:30 - 4:00 p.m. via Zoom.

Owning Frida Kahlo, Lario Albarrán

Emory International Law Review

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo died a feminist, anti-capitalist, queer, disabled, gender fluid, revolutionary. Today, Kahlo continues to captivate the public through her art, her life, and—her Barbie. Released in 2018, Mattel’s Frida Kahlo Barbie faced its harshest criticisms from none other than Kahlo’s family. Turning to social media, the family showered Mattel with questions on its audacity to release a Barbie in Kahlo’s likeness. Enraged over the Barbie’s features, complexation, and design, Kahlo’s family rushed to a court in Mexico where a judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the Barbie’s sale in Mexico. The resulting media coverage pit Kahlo’s family …

Psychological Distress And Affective, Behavioral And Cognitive Experiences Of Stuttering, Randy W. Panzarino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Adults who stutter (AWS) are vulnerable to the development of various psychopathological symptoms, although prevalence data are mixed, and even less clarity exists as it relates to the factors that potentially influence their occurrence. The current study sought to shed light on the prevalence of self-reported psychopathology in AWS and aimed to identify relationships between affective, behavioral and cognitive (ABC) experiences of stuttering and psychological distress. This was based on AWS' reports of speech situation-specific anxiety and speech disruption, the use of behaviors to avoid or escape stuttering, and one's communication attitude. The self-reports administered to 40 AWS via Qualtrics, …

Anxiety Explains Self-Differentiation: Implications For Bowenian Approaches To Marriage And Family Therapy, Reagan Thomas, John Shelley-Tremblay, Harvey Joanning

University Faculty and Staff Publications

This study examined the Bowenian construct of Self- Differentiation (SD), defined as the degree to which a person can think according to their personal beliefs while remaining emotionally connected to the family. This study examined the degree to which negative emotionality accounted for the relationship between SD and Relationship Satisfaction (RS). Emotional Cutoff (EC) emerged as the sole predictor of RS. When Trait Anxiety (TA) was entered into the model it mediated between EC and RS. We discuss the importance of treating anxiety of the individual in family therapy and that SD may best be understood when taking anxiety into …

Dietary Variation Of Social Elites Within A Late Horizon Cemetery (A.D. 1470-1532) At Túcume, Peru: Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis Of Huaca Las Abejas., Dylan Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Food choices can create and maintain group membership, also distinguishing groups based on dietary preferences and the perceived social value of foods. The food behaviors of social elites within complex societies are often governed by differential access and cultural factors determining the menu within a regional ecology. This study employs bioarchaeological and stable isotopic analyses to investigate the evidence for dietary variation of social elites within the Late Horizon (A.D. 1470–1532) cemetery of Huaca Las Abejas at Túcume using stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes. Paired teeth (early life diet) and bones (later life diet) were sampled from 23 individuals to …

Shifting Critical Approaches To The Elusive Jewishness Of María By Jorge Isaacs, Naomi Lindstrom

Decimonónica

This study examines and evaluates the ways in which critics have dealt with the question of a Jewish thematic current, self-awareness, or perspective in the much-reprinted 1867 novel María by the Colombian writer Jorge Isaacs (1837-1895). While scholars have long exhibited an awareness of Isaacs’s paternal Jewish descent and at times made observations concerning Jewish references or a Jewish outlook in the novel, it was Doris Sommer’s 1989 article “El mal de María: (Con)fusión en un romance nacional,” later included in her influential Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (1991), that launched the current discussion over Jewish themes …

The Role Of Nutrient Availability In Therapeutic Response Of Leukemia, Rohiverth Guarecuco Jr.

Student Theses and Dissertations

Tumor environment influences the response to anti-cancer therapy, but which extracellular nutrients impact drug sensitivity is largely unknown. In this work, we used functional genomics to identify metabolic modifiers of the response to L-asparaginase (ASNase), a therapy that depletes plasma asparagine and targets leukemic cells with insufficient asparagine synthesis. Our approach revealed thiamine pyrophosphate kinase 1 (TPK1), which converts vitamin B1 (thiamine) into the cofactor thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), as a metabolic dependency under ASNase treatment. In glutamine-anaplerotic leukemia cells, we found that TPP availability enables asparagine synthesis from extracellular glutamine. Mechanistically, TPP is critical for the activity of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase …

A Translational Approach To Modeling Unique Aspects Of Germ Cell Development During Self-Organization Of The Primate Embryo, Rohan R. Soman

Student Theses and Dissertations

The specification of germ cells during embryonic development is vital not only for the development of an organism, but quite literally for the survival and propagation of its entire species. Recent work has demonstrated that several aspects of human primordial germ cell (hPGC) development are specific to primates, necessitating model systems and in vivo validation that is also species specific. In this work, a synthesis of in vitro and in vivo techniques is used to investigate hPGC specification within a human embryonic stem cell model of a gastrulating embryo known as a gastruloid. An hPGC transcriptomic signature that indicates migratory …

No Future For Academic Crips: An Autoethnographic Crippling Of Academic Futurity, A. Adams

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

No Future for Academic Crips attempts to situate crip theory, critical disability studies, and communication theory squarely in the context of academia, problematizing the constraints placed on autistic identity by the demands of a graduate education. Utilizing autoethnographic vignettes along with theoretical writings regarding the creation and consolidation of crip identity, this thesis theorizes what a “neuroqueer future” looks like for academics. Six vignettes are presented to demonstrate strategies for survival employed in academic spaces, followed by analysis contextualizing and criticizing those strategies. Finally, implications for neuroqueer futurity and identity are discussed.

The Effects Of Iloprost And Beta3 Receptor Agonist On Trpa1 And Trpc1 Immunreactivityin An Experimental Lower Extremty Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Model, Lati̇f Üstünel, İbrahi̇m Murat Özgüler

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of antioxidant iloprost (ILO) and ß3 adrenergic receptor agonist (BRL) on transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) and transient receptor potential canonical 1 (TRPC1) ion channels on an experimental ischemia and reperfusion injury model in 30 male Wistar albino rats aged 8-10 weeks. Materials and methods: Wistar Albino rats aged were divided into 5 equal groups. Group I Sham operation, Group II IR (ischemiareperfusion) procedure, Group III IR + intravenous ILO administration, Group IV IR + intraperitoneal BRL administration, and Group V IR + intravenous ILO + intraperitoneal BRL administration …

Preparation Of Glutathione Loaded Nanoemulsions And Testing Of Hepatoprotectiveactivity On Thle-2 Cells, Ozan Yeşi̇ltepe, Emi̇ne Güler Çeli̇k, Caner Geyi̇k, Zi̇nar Pinar Gümüş, Di̇lek Odaci Demi̇rkol, Hakan Coşkunol, Suna Ti̇mur

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

To improve bioavailability and stability of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds, nanoemulsions are good alternatives as delivery systems because of their nontoxic and nonirritant nature. Glutathione (GSH) suffers from low stability in water, where its encapsulation in nanoemulsions is a powerful strategy to its stability in aqueous systems. The aim of this study was to obtain nanoemulsions from the hydrophobic/hydrophilic contents of N. sativa seed oil so as to improve GSH stability along with bioavailability of N. sativa seed oil. Then, the prepared nanoemulsions were tested for in vitro hepatoprotective activity against ethanol toxicity. To the best of our knowledge, there …

Long Non-Coding Rna Meg3 Deficiency Impairs Glucose Homeostasis And Insulin Signaling By Inducing Cellular Senescence Of Hepatic Endothelium In Obesity, Xiao Cheng, Mohamed Sham Shihabudeen Haider Ali, Matthew Moran, Martonio Ponte Viana, Sarah L. Schlichte, Matthew C. Zimmerman, Oleh Khalimonchuk, Mark W. Feinberg, Xinghui Sun

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Obesity-induced insulin resistance is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanisms underlying endothelial senescence in obesity, and how it impacts obesity-induced insulin resistance remain incompletely understood. In this study, transcriptome analysis revealed that the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) Maternally expressed gene 3 (Meg3) is one of the top differentially expressed lncRNAs in the vascular endothelium in diet-induced obese mice. Meg3 knockdown induces cellular senescence of endothelial cells characterized by increased senescence-associated β–galactosidase activity, increased levels of endogenous superoxide, impaired mitochondrial structure and function, and impaired autophagy. Moreover, Meg3 knockdown causes cellular senescence of hepatic endothelium in …

On “Ur-Contempt” And The Maintenance Of Racial Injustice: A Response To Monahan's “Racism And ‘Self-Love’: The Case Of White Nationalism”, Grant J. Silva

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

This article offers a response to Michael J. Monahan’s engagement with and criticism of Grant Silva’s article “Racism as Self-Love.” So as to demonstrate how Monahan’s idea of “ur-contempt” fits alongside the author’s project and supplements his attempt to challenge the variety of forms of moral obfuscation employed by white nationalists and other racists today, this response begins with an overview of the central critique of moral responsibility for racism that Silva’s work offers. At stake is the attempt, by unabashed white supremacist and others, to bank on historical acts of racial oppression and reap the benefits of elevated social …

Beyond Subculture The Meaning Of Style: Chronicling Directions Of Scholarship On Dress Since Hebdige And Muggleton, Monica Sklar, Jessica Strübel, Katharine Freiberg, Sara Elhabbassi

Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design Faculty Publications

Youth and music-oriented subcultures use dress to embody lifestyle, ethos, individuality, and showcase their perspectives. This literature review analyzes academic writing on dress in conjunction with subculture that has emerged since Dick Hebdige wrote a defining text, Subculture: The Meaning of Style in 1979 and David Muggleton wrote a reaction book, Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style in 2000. Twenty years later, at the same interval between those volumes, and using Joanne Eicher’s comprehensive definition of “dress,” this article reviews the current topics, methods, theories, and priorities. Findings indicate that academic literature on dress and subculture as joint primary variables …

Introduction To Doing Fieldwork At Home: The Ethnography Of Education In Familiar Contexts: In The Field At Home; Onward, & Bibliography, Loukia K. Sarroub, Claire Nicholas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this volume, we attempt to better understand ethnographic research on education in local contexts wherein the researcher has regular contact and social relationships with the intended research participants. Recent disciplinary trends find ethnographers increasingly engaged in research in settings familiar to them, such as their own workplaces, leisure spaces, neighborhoods, and communities. The study of such practices illuminates interconnected methodological, ethical, and analytical dilemmas. It also offers opportunities for methodological innovation, explicates and challenges the effects of educational policies and practices, and interrogates and develops theories about educational structures, policies, and experiences. Our aim is to highlight the agency …

The ‘Peripheral’ Student In Academia: An Analysis, Maria Savva, Lynn P. Nygaard

Publications and Research

Pulling together the various themes that emerged within and across the narratives, this chapter explores four broad categories of challenges and opportunities:

1. Demands associated with being a ‘peripheral’ student and the function of social networks in developing a sense of belonging.
2. Issues related to supervisory and other faculty relationships.
3. Struggles related to identity, language and/or culture.
4. The role of expert, novice and ‘impostor’ labels in internalizing a scholarly identity.

Each category is unpacked, while also examining the personal characteristics and institutional features that helped the authors along the journey to becoming scholars. After each section, implications for institutional policy and …

A Tale Of Two Trans Men: Transmasculine Identity And Trauma In Two Fairy-Tale Retellings, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Transgender identities in fairy tale retellings are rare, but can reveal much about gender fluidity. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Boy, Snow, Bird conflates transgender identities with mirrored falsehoods and fairytale spells, pathologizing a trauma victim who turns out to also become an abuser, while Gabriel Vidrine’s novella “A Pair of Raven Wings” depicts a queer transgender man with dignity, making it clear that the trauma he suffers is at the hands of bigots rather than being an invention of a sick mind or the cause of his transition. Pairing these fairy-tale retellings illuminates the topic of gender fluidity in fairy tales …

Technology And Law: The Use Of Artificial Intelligence And 5g To Access The Courts In Africa, Thabo Magubane

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The application of the latest technological advances has the potential of giving the disadvantaged African persons the ability to have their matters heard and resolved by the courts of law. Access to justice is fundamentally important to the injured party, and it is a vital component of the protection, recognition and enforcement of human rights. Many African persons still lack the ability to afford legal fees due to poverty. This paper is to explore the use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Fifth-Generation Cellular Network (5G) to provide economically disadvantaged African people with the ability to access formal and informal institutions …

Yaljod Full Issue 3.1, Prince Ifoh

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The Young African Leaders Journal of Development (YALJOD) is a biennial journal and an official publication of the Young African Leaders Forum (YALF). It was established in 2015 to host scholarly analysis and competing viewpoints about the development of Africa; and it’s multidisciplinary approach makes it more formidable. YALJOD accepts papers from varied disciplinary areas — including Social Sciences, Physical Sciences and Humanities — that show direct relevance to the development of Africa. It publishes researches understood as the social, economic, political, cultural and technological processes of change in Africa. The intended audience of the journal remains the entire African …

Education Towards Attaining Sustainable Development In Developing Nations: Nigeria As A Case Study, Ezeifekwuaba Tochukwu Benedict

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This Research Paper is a contribution towards highlighting the underdevelopment challenges in Nigeria by applying Education as a tool. In the present decades, there has been a Paradigm Shift in emphasizing on Sustainable Development and the way it been practised. All over the country, there is evidence of a failed leadership attributed by a dwindling economic, educational, political and social fortune. All these challenges are due to the incapability of the leadership to effectively plan for development and apply the necessary educational tools that can produce great leaders that can control the helms of Government and the private sectoral industries. …

A Regional Comparative Analysis On The Role Of Electoral Politics In The Decline Of Africa's Public Sector, Mark Opoku Amankwa, Kofi Agyabeng

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The early post-independence periods saw Africa have efficient Public Sector Institutions. Over a decade, there seems to be a decadent in the public sector. The study examines the regional analysis of government effectiveness in Africa. The study uses data given by the World Bank's Governance Indicator from 55 African countries from 2002 to 2018. The study uses Panel Regression Analysis Model of Random Effects and Pooled Ordinary Least Squares to assess government effectiveness in the five regions of Africa. The findings indicate that Southern African countries performed best as compared to its counterpart regions, followed by North Africa. However, East, …

Power Is Not Served As A La Carte: Rethinking The Social Contract In Nigeria, Chinedu Samuel Ogbuze

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Social contract is central to the provision of public goods and social welfare. Good governance among other things derives from strong institutions of government and citizen engagement in the political process. This study focuses on reshaping the relationship between the government and the governed in Nigeria. Using functionalism theory, the paper argues that political and economic success is not automatic in a democracy but proportional to the extent that the people can hold their leaders accountable. The study concludes that changing the prolonged ethnoreligious narrative is critical to development and growth in Nigeria as the people are more united by …

Is Donor State 'Securitisation' A Threat Or An Opportunity For Humanitarianism?, Albert Mcbell Ninepence

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Since the end of the Cold War, a significant number of aid workers have been assaulted and killed, projecting humanitarian assistance as a precarious discourse. Given that humanitarian workers find themselves in dangerous environments and the threats they are exposed to, the need for security has become an exigent concern for most aid agencies and workers (Barnett, 2011 and VanBrabant, 2001). In view of this, security has now been implanted in the conceptualization, planning and delivery of aid. Though the Copenhagen School is associated with the theory of securitization which provides a framework for defining security as securitizingobjectsandreferentobjects(Watson,2011), differentschoolshaveconstruedsecuritizationin different …