Digital Commons Network^™

Desert Power: Exploring How Jordan Can Democratize Through Tribalism, Shahab A. Khan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This independent study project will analyze tribal institutions in Jordan to understand how conducive they are to democracy. In the wake of the Arab Spring and the collapse of many burgeoning democracies in the Middle East, it is important to find ways in which pro-democracy advocates can build strong democratic states in the Middle East. Democracy allows a polity to choose who rules them. Furthermore, it has proven that peopling living in a democracy live longer, more fulfilling lives than those who do not. Given Jordan’s unique history as a stable regime with a strong tribal tradition, the researcher has …

Step By Step: Understanding Perceptions Of Time And Space In Nepal, Lillian Norton-Brainerd

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Time and space are part of everyone’s daily life; however, these concepts are rarely explicitly discussed. Hegemonic interpretations of time and space are part of capitalist, colonialist structures, thus understanding alternative perceptions is important to resisting these structures. To understand perceptions of time in Nepal, I spent a month in Gre, a small village near Langtang National Park. I interviewed villagers and spent time observing how people spend their time, talk about time, and give directions to physical places. While there is not one perception of time and space, I learned how time and space influence each other. Geography and …

From Green To Gold: Community Along Lines Of Trade Between Dolpo And Mustang, Jack Cantor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mustang and Dolpo are at a tipping point of connectivity and community change as road development brings the districts closer to Nepal’s economic centers. In this independent study, I document contemporary trade relationships between Mustang’s Sangda and Dolpo’s Chharka, currently separated by three days of unmotorable trail. Through in person interview, archival research, and photography, I document methods of economy and community in three villages- Mustang’s Phelag and Sangda, and Dolpo’s Chharka. I focus upon future community prospects of Sangda and Chharka as road development between the two progresses.

As the two villages exchange goods, develop familiarity, and host traders …

Healing In The Himalayas: Mustangi Medical Practitioners’ Perspectives On Integrative Approaches To Chronic Illness, Lucia Morey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this Independent Study Project is to capture a snapshot of the opinions and experiences of 13 health practitioners from 7 villages and towns in Mustang. Specifically, I asked independent healers (IH), amchis and health post workers about their practices and perspectives on chronic illness, integrative medicine and the intersection of the two. I found that there is a flow of information in one general direction, with practitioners along a continuum of most to least globally recognized. Understandably, the least well known (independent healers) are aware of Traditional Tibetan Medicine (TTM) and conventional Western medicine (CWM). Subcategories of …

The Ethics And Philosophy Of Outdoor Education: Hidden Lessons Within The Leikskoli Curriculum In Isafjordur, Iceland, Cici Conroy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Icelandic curriculum structures itself amongst six pillars: “literacy, sustainability, health, and welfare, democracy, and human rights, equality and creativity” (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2014). The United States national standards for their state public schools focus on two central points: math and English language learning (Participant 6, personal communication, 2022). The way these structures are upheld reflect values, goals, and systems of knowledge. Depending on where a child is raised, the skills learned in the classroom will result in a completely different attitude toward environment, place, and success. In the United States, success seems to be defined by …

A Comparative Analysis Of Migrant Health Policies And Practices In The Us And Switzerland, Rebecca Mak

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Migrants compose a large proportion of the population in both the US and Switzerland. The social vulnerability of migrants has been well-established in literature, but few studies have attempted to compare healthcare policies and approaches that most effectively support migrant health using multiple measures.

To fill this gap in the literature, this study will comparatively analyze of the efficacy of US and Switzerland migrant health policies and services by assessing access to and quality of care for migrants in each country. Four main features of healthcare systems were analyzed: insurance policy, healthcare utilization, NCD outcomes, and patient perceptions of care. …

How Ultra Firms In Former Soviet And Yugoslav States Became Political Actors, Alex Pelletier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

When you go to a football match one of the first things that you will undoubtedly notice are the ultras. Their loud coordinated chants and movement fill the stadium with energy that would not be there otherwise, and their tifo and flairs add an artist’s touch to the stands. There are ultras for just about every club, and every city in the world, with each group having their own unique identity. The local standing of football clubs, paired with the devoted and organized structure of ultras has seen them become political and military actors across the world. Ultras based in …

Analyzing Alternative Spaces: Queer Social Networks And Notions Of Belonging In Morocco, Adam Griffin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Because of the presence of both legal and cultural discrimination in Morocco, the Moroccan queer community operates largely in secret and is unable to occupy public space. Additionally, the patriarchal structure of Moroccan society creates a culture of toxic masculinity that limits queer expression. This paper examines how queer Moroccans operate in the face of this discrimination. It also explores the extent to which alternative spaces, or spaces that subvert the norms and practices of mainstream society, contribute to the creation of LGBTQ+ social networks. Alternative spaces can be physical spaces—such as bars, cafes, and live music venues—or virtual spaces—such …

Free-Ing Criminal Justice, Bennett Capers

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Free Justice: A History of the Public Defender in Twentieth-Century America. By Sara Mayeux

Lasting Lessons And Legacy Influences: Christian Leadership Characteristics Of Southern Baptists Who Overcame Jim Crow, Aabram G. Marsh

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The legacy of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement was the social change its protests inspired. However, its leadership and moral compass were set by Christian theologians and ministers. These leaders moved the nation to recognize the humanity of African-Americans, demonize the sin of racism, and motivate their fellow Americans to oppose Jim Crow segregation. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to examine and identify the Christian leadership characteristics of influential legacy leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (Henlee Barnette, Billy Graham, Thomas Maston, Acker Miller, and Foy Valentine) who supported desegregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Further, …

Britain's Extraterrestrial Empire: Colonial Ambition, Anxiety, And Ambivalence In Early Modern Literature, Mark Edward Wisniewski

Dissertations (1934 -)

This project uses the context of early modern English colonialism and empire building to examine five British authors whose fiction focuses on extraterrestrial spaces: Edmund Spenser, Margaret Cavendish, Francis Godwin, Aphra Behn, and John Milton. I frame the relationship between extraterrestrial settings and British colonialism through Jeffery Knapp’s conception of trifling, that even though early imperial England had little geopolitical power, the nation could differentiate itself as an otherworldly empire, both in origin and aim. Additionally, I build upon the connections drawn between colonialism and early modern literature by theorists such as Richard Helgerson, David Quint, and Stephen Greenblatt. I …

As We Trudge Through: An Autoethnography Of My College Experience, Destiny R. Samuel , '22

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Prayer, Leadership, And Church Planting Movements : Learning From The Prayer-Lives Of Western Renewal Movements And Their Leaders, Matthew Porter

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Phenomenological Study On Career Ascension And Advancement Of African American Women In Senior Academic Leadership At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Meka Francis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The U. S. Department of Labor Statistics (2018) reported that there were more than 10 million (53%) African American women in the civilian labor force. However, there is a growing concern of African-American women who are underrepresented in higher educational leadership. There are only few studies that focus on the barriers and challenges that African American women encounter. These barriers prevent them from advancing and ascending in positions of higher education leadership. This phenomenological study explored their perceived personal and professional challenges regarding race and gender, as well as highlighted strategies, employed by African-American women in senior academic leadership positions, …

Reading From Cutouts: The Aesthetics Of Alienation In The Photos Of Chinese Factory Workers, Heangjin Park

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

This essay explores the tensions, oppression, and alienation in factory workers’ relationship with their company and commodities registered in photographic aesthetics. Comparing product, portrait, and ID photos I took at a Chinese kimchi factory, I analyze how aesthetic dispositions in those photos were differentiated in the processes of preparation, review, editing, and publication. On the one hand, commodities are photographed to celebrate their virtues and value with the significant investment of time, resources, and attention to every detail. Their relationship with workers, who spend 14 hours a day making kimchi, is effectively effaced while the products are rendered appealing and …

Reading The Signs Of The Time: Three Voices In The Confessional Lutheran Church As They Relate To Segregation, Racism, And Apartheid In South Africa From 1900–1978, Christoph Dietrich Weber

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Weber, Christoph, Reading the signs of the time: “Three voices in the confessional Lutheran Church to segregation, racism, and apartheid in South Africa from 1900–1978.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2022. 425 pp.

According to August Vilmar, reading the signs of the times was an essential task of all pastors and theologians. It was a part of their prophetic task to interpret the world and its context with the word of God and to proclaim the voice of the church in law and gospel. The three theologians analyzed in this dissertation: Karl Meister, Hermann Sasse, and Friederich W. Hopf respected Vilmar …

Queering Pina Bausch: Tanztheater For Queer Bipoc Artists, Lu Chen

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater (“dance-theater” in English) revolutionized global dance theater performance. From a feminist perspective, Bausch mixed movement with theatrical design elements and film techniques to express emotions and sentiments of women-men relationships, and the boundary between performing and being displayed. Inspired by German Expressionist Dance and post-World-War-II avant-garde movements across Europe and the United States, her movement language and text were visceral in expressiveness through repetition, alienation, montage technique, and emotive gestures (Helden 134). In this essay I explore how Bausch’s approach to dance-theater can welcome dancers who stand outside of the German choreographer’s identity as a white European …

Seeing Double: Tolkien And The Indo-European Divine Twins, Kristine Larsen

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The archetype of the Divine/Celestial/Heavenly Twins as described in Donald Ward’s 1968 The Divine Twins: An Indo-European Myth in Germanic Tradition has been used to argue for Greco-Roman literary precedents for the sons of Elrond. However, the genesis of the mythological trope of the Divine Twins in Indo-European scholarship originated a century before, for example, in the work of Max Müller. This essay briefly reviews the history of the trope of the Divine Twins that was argued by some late 19^th and early 20^th century authors to exist within so-called Indo-European mythology before tracing parallels between the trope …

“That Was Denied Thee On Earth”: An Intersectional Bioarchaeology Of Institutionalized Euro-American Women Throughout 19Th And 20Th-Century America, Madeline Maria Atwell

Theses and Dissertations

In the mid 19th-century, American state-supported insane asylums, later renamed state mental hospitals in the 20th-century, were constructed to house and humanely treat individuals perceived to be socially deviant or mentally and physically ill. Women were particularly vulnerable to undue institutionalization because of the prevailing patriarchal gender ideology within medical and colloquial spheres that contributed to the perception that they were biologically pathological. This dissertation interprets the findings of combined archival, historical, and osteological analysis from two U.S. skeletal collections: The Colorado State Insane Asylum (CSIA) Collection and the Hamann-Todd Human Osteological Collection (HT), to examine the embodied, physiological impact …

Mining For Progress: Copper, Conflict, And Corporate Social Responsibility, Fritz Culp

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines how transnational mega-mines efface non-Western ways of knowing and being from the Andes. A growing branch of research is questioning the socio-environmental impacts of mining and the influence of regulatory institutions. Despite remarkable scholarship on the ongoing environmentalism of modern-mining, little critical attention has been given to the industry’s pivot to ‘sustainable’ development and its objectives that remain epistemologically centered on the West. My project addresses these gaps by examining Las Bambas—a large-scale copper mine located in South-Central Peru—and its contrasting objectives that emphasize both environmental ‘conservation’ and the ‘modernization’ of non-Western spaces. Building upon the critical …

African Seminole Settlement Ecologies Of Early Nineteenth Century Florida, Jordan E. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

For over three centuries prior to the outbreak of the Second Seminole War [1835-1842], peoples of African and Native American descent independently and collectively formed multiple communities throughout what is now Florida. During the early 1990s, several ancestral African Seminole (otherwise known as “Black Seminole”) settlements were identified across Central Peninsular Florida, many of which were founded by self-emancipated Africans commonly referred to as maroons. Previous archaeological research at the African Seminole settlement of Pilaklikaha, or Abraham’s Old Town, has greatly stimulated both scholarly and public interest in tracing the historical trajectories of individual African-Native American communities while remaining attentive …

The Pursuit Of Good Food: The Alimentary Chronotope In Madame Bovary, Lauren Flinner

Theses and Dissertations

The imagery in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is crucial to the structure of the novel due to Flaubert’s insistence on observations of le quotidien or daily life. Daily activities, mundane tasks, and precise descriptions take as much precedence within the chapters as the actions of Emma herself, putting focus on the importance of these activities as readers try to discern meaning from their inclusion. One such daily activity that features in many scenes and varies widely is the presence of food within the novel. As Lilian Furst, Jean-Pierre Richard, and Victor Brombert observed in their analyses of Madame Bovary, …

It’S An Old Song, But We’Re Gonna Sing It Again: The Myth Of Orpheus & Eurydice In Modern And Postmodern Theatrical Performance, Tiffani Brooks Hagan

Theses and Dissertations

Since theatre was established as an art form, productions have adapted myths into performance, creating an array of theatrical texts based on the oral practice of storytelling of ancient civilizations. This concept of adaptation, where playwrights draw from stories of the past in new works, has expanded in recent years to include new scholarship regarding the dramaturgy of theatrical adaptations and what it means to adapt a work, whether originally for theatre or not, into a text meant for theatrical performance. One such myth that has captivated audiences since its first recorded utilization has been the myth of Orpheus and …

Life In The Time Of Covid-19: The Everyday Impacts Of The Pandemic In Amman, Jordan, Patrick Mckenzie

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic and the responses taken to combat it caused enormous changes to the everyday lives of people around the world. Jordan, in its early success against the virus and with its large refugee population, represents a unique country in which to study these everyday impacts. From May to August of 2021, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the Jordanian capital city of Amman while working with the refugee nongovernmental organization the Collateral Repair Project. In this thesis, I explore the COVID-19 Spectacle, examining the ways in which policies and discourses at the national and international scales bled into the …

Race And Technology In Southern Literature, Civil War To Civil Rights, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers the intersection of technology and race in the literature of the American South from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though narratives about technology in American literature often promise democracy, equality, improvement, and progress, the role of technology in southern literature is more complex and ambivalent. Literature from and about the South from the Civil War to the civil rights era, by Black and white southern authors like Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty reveals technology’s ability to uphold and naturalize southern white supremacy, but also to subvert it. Southern literature traces a pattern …

Critical Pedagogy For Health Professions And International Learning Experiences

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Teachers Of Color And American Indian Teachers In Suburban Schools: Retaining Through Resilience And Community Cultural Wealth, Dua Yang

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The capstone question in this paper was: How can a Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) Model be used to develop the resilience, resistance, and retention of Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers (TOCAITs) in suburban school districts? The paper addressed the contextual challenges in the suburban school districts and ways to retain Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers (TOCAITs) in this context. The literature reviewed how suburban school districts responded to demographic shifts. It highlighted issues around systems and practices that were colorblind and inequitable to the diverse learners it served. In addition, these contextual problems were connected to …

The Impact Of French Cultural Beliefs And The French Philosophy Of Eating On The Structure Of Lunch In French Public Schools, Colline Roland

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone is to explore the guiding question of how the French cultural beliefs of food impact public elementary school lunches in France so that administrators of French immersion schools can better understand how the French philosophy of eating directly impacts/contributes to the structure of school lunch. This capstone analyzes contemporary French culture, food and eating culture in France, school lunches, and the socialization and time structure of lunches. It illustrates how French culture has shaped the French lunchroom and the impact these elements have on the health of students. To communicate this research, this project involved …

Duty To Rescue In The Digital Age: A Comparative Analysis, Cameron Kellett

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The article advocates for the enactment of state legislation establishing a duty-to-rescue doctrine, arguing that the absence of such a legal duty leads to preventable harm and undermines societal solidarity. It critiques the arbitrary nature of the special relationship exception under current law and proposes Minnesota's duty-to-rescue statute as a model for reform. The analysis emphasizes that requiring bystanders to provide reasonable assistance, without endangering themselves, is both feasible and morally justifiable, as it aligns with human tendencies to help others in distress.

Which Original Public?, James C. Phillips

Chapman Law Review

Original public meaning originalism 1 seeks to know what the Constitution would have meant to an ordinary person at the time a specific provision was enacted. So originalist scholars tend to look to see what the Constitution’s words would have meant to an ordinary, average, or competent user of American English at the time a specific constitutional provision was adopted. In District of Columbia v. Heller (“Heller”), however, Justice Scalia’s majority opinion took a more specific view of exactly who qualified as the ordinary person of interest. At one point Heller declares that the “Constitution was written to …