Digital Commons Network^™

No. 09: Emerging Digital Technologies And Cross-Border Food Remittances Of Zimbabwean Migrants In Cape Town, South Africa, During The Early Covid-19 Pandemic, Sean Sithole, Daniel Tevera, Mulugeta F. Dinbabo

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper examines the emerging unexplored synergies between digital-mobile technologies and cross-border food remittances in Southern Africa. Cell phones and apps or applications for smart mobile devices offer migrants new formal ways of sending food remittances. With large volumes of cash and non-cash items flowing through it, the South Africa-Zimbabwe remittance corridor is a priority market for these new fintech companies. However, recent discussions on digital remittances have focused largely on cash transfers. Similarly, limited attention has been paid to food remittances in the broad discussion on remittances, even though cross-border food transfers are crucial for food and nutrition security …

Contributors, David Law, Nora Domínguez

Making Connections

List of contributors for Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia.

Holy Cross Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 2, Spring 2023, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Magazine

How Women’s Studies Opened Minds and Scholarship at Holy Cross
In 1993, Holy Cross graduated its first students with a concentration in Women’s Studies, a discipline that has since impacted generations of faculty and students.
By Megan Bard

A Professor’s Fascination Leads to a Nationwide Book Smash
Leila Philip’s latest book has struck a chord with readers and reviewers, showcasing how beavers have not just helped shape American history and culture, but also the species’ crucial role in helping humans face environmental challenges.
By Maura Sullivan Hill

The Insider’s Guide to Aspire: Holy Cross’ New Strategic Plan
The hows, whys …

Human Diversity In Molecular Sexual Dimorphism And Gender Disparities In Health, Adam Z. Reynolds

Anthropology ETDs

Although males and females exhibit an extraordinary range of diversity in sexual dimorphism across populations, prior work on the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human physiology and health has focused on ostensibly universal differences that owe to sex chromosomes and steroid hormones. This dissertation argues that sexual dimorphism in humans is not adequately captured by species-wide sex differences in mean trait values, but instead varies greatly as a result of: (i) our ability to adapt physiologically to a broad range of social and physical environments, and (ii) molecular diversity acquired by different populations over the course of their unique evolutionary …

Birthing Reimagined: Perceptions Of Safety And Autonomy In Birth Experiences Among Postpartum Individuals During Covid-19, Beldina Orinda

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Background: Safety during childbirth is a priority for care providers, but patients' perceptions of safety may differ from those of providers, especially in biomedical settings.1–4 This can influence health outcomes and satisfaction with the birth experience.5–7 We hypothesize that autonomy, defined as the ability to make decisions about care during childbirth, may enhance feelings of safety and positive mental health outcomes.9,15

Methods: Surveys via REDCap v11.1.29 captured the experiences and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores of pregnant and postpartum women. Participants (n=49) included 15 pregnant and 34 postpartum individuals, aged 18 and older, who had given …

Prevalence, Sociocultural Risks And Protective Factors Of Suicidal Behaviors: A Cross Sectional Study Of Middle School Students In The Greater Accra Region Of Ghana, Enoch Kordjo Azasu

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is a serious public health issue with more deaths worldwide than malaria, and HIV/AIDS in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Almost nine out of 10 adolescents who died by suicide in 2019 were from low- and middle-income countries. In Ghana non-fatal suicide rates are higher among middle school and high school students yet the data we have is about a decade old. Using a sample of 800 middle school students in the Greater Accra Region and applying a theoretical-driven analytic approach, this dissertation seeks to understand the prevalence, sociocultural correlates, risk, and protective factors of adolescent suicidal …

Honesty Is Not Always The Best Policy: Defending Against Membership Inference Attacks On Genomic Data, Rajagopal Venkatesaramani

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Over the last decade, there has been a sharp surge in the collection, sharing and use of genomic data in a broad array of settings - including but not limited to direct-to-consumer (D2C) products such as ancestry and genetic testing kits sold by 23andMe and AncestryDNA, clinical applications including personalized medicine, as well as for broader research purposes in repositories like the 1000 Genomes Project. Further, several open-access repositories where consumers may upload their sequenced genomes, such as the Personal Genome Project and OpenSNP, are becoming increasingly popular. Users of said repositories are motivated either by altruism or by a …

The “Dread Sex Cases:” Community, Citizenship, And The Regulation Of Adult Theaters In The 1970s, Erin Barry

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Through an innovative examination of scale (local, state, and national regulatory structures), space (the location of theaters, the spatial arrangements inside them) and place (the cities and suburbs in which these battles took place), my dissertation on the regulation of adult theaters in the 1970s raises compelling questions about sexuality, space and the various levels at which citizenship is enacted and policed. I utilize three Supreme Court cases, Paris Adult Theater v. Slaton, which dealt with consent and the application of community standards, Erznoznik v. Jacksonville, which addressed bans on nudity and pornography at drive-in theaters, and Young v. American …

Re-Membering The Living Earth: A Year In Rural Sri Lanka, Samuel C. King

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The following thesis tells the story of my year in rural Sri Lanka. After college, I traveled from suburban New York to the highlands of the island country with the hopes of writing an ethnography on agrarian Buddhism. I soon realized, however, that I was not just embarking on an academic project, but an inner journey to explore ways of being that had been lost in the modern culture I had known. My narrative recounts how immersion in a rice cultivating village deepened my sense for what it means to live in reciprocity with the more-than-human world—a world of plants, …

Solo Dance In Greek And Roman Comedy, Marleigh Anderson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In the first full-length study focusing exclusively on comic solo dance, I argue for the presence and significance of solo dance in both Greek and Roman comedy. My dissertation aims to answer two driving questions: where does solo dance (broadly defined as dance by actors) occur in extant Greek and Roman comedy, and how does such dancing contribute to the plays? The introduction lays out my methodology for approaching these questions. My study then moves from what can be known with certainty (definite solo dance scenes and references to dance) to what requires more speculation (likely dance scenes). Chapter one, …

Pastoralism As Institutions: Modeling The Pastoral Landscape In Tibet In The Second And First Millennium Bc, Xinzhou Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Previous archaeological research has made significant advances in our understanding of the chrono-spatial patterns of ancient human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau based on archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and material cultural analysis. The surge of archaeological data in prehistoric Tibet calls for further analysis of the potential social and environmental forces that shaped the prehistoric landscapes of Tibet. This dissertation presents a synthetic analysis of the role of pastoralism in shaping the economy, materiality, and mobility of Tibetan societies in the second and first millennium BC. Based on both previously published archaeological evidence and my own analysis of newly documented archaeological data, …

The Evolutionary And Comparative Elements Of Social Roles, Jake A. Funkhouser

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In human societies, individuals who hold social roles are recognized by others as possessing context- or task-specific proficiencies and skills. The social roles that are arguably unique to our societies confer many functional benefits, however multidisciplinary interests in the topic lack an evolutionary framework that allows for the comparative elements and emergence of social roles to be investigated. In this research, we put forth four elements of social roles in societies that can be compared across species: those that are context-specific, expressed over time, offer functional advantages, and individuals who hold social roles are recognized by conspecifics as possessing characteristics. …

Evolutionary History Of Populations Of Pleistocene Homo With A Focus On East Asia, Catherine Mclean

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the evolutionary history of our species is a key objective of paleoanthropology, yet the pattern of hominin evolution in East Asia remains uncertain. This research aimed to evaluate the relationships and evolutionary history of East Asian hominin paleodemes through the Pleistocene. Recent descriptions of Pleistocene East Asian hominins reveal a high degree of morphological variability, mosaics of primitive and derived traits, regionally predominant characteristics, and late surviving archaic morphologies. This study tests two hypotheses explaining the complexity of the East Asian hominin record: 1) Continuity with Hybridization, and 2) the existence of Multiple Hominin Lineages. These models were tested …

The Politics Of Care: An Analysis Of The Lives And Stories Of Black Birth Workers In New York City, Mayannah Beauvoir

Theses - ALL

“The Politics of Care: An Analysis of the Lives and Stories of Black Birth Workers in New York City'' examines the complex relationship between Black birth workers and the state. Black birth work, traditionally, has existed as resistance to state policies and actors that limited Black women’s reproductive freedom. In New York City, where Black maternal mortality and morbidity outcomes are comparable to the national average, the state has mobilized to produce the Citywide Doula Initiative, a program designed to provide free birth worker support to families in financial need. Considering the violent relationship between birth workers and the state, …

The Geopolitics Of Refuge And Reproduction: Maternal Health And Healthcare Of Congolese Refugees In Flight, Displacement, And Resettlement, Julia Mcdaniel-Bouley

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this anthropological research is to examine and analyze the intertwined geopolitical complexities of the lived sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and healthcare experiences of female Congolese refugees in flight. These experiences are examined at three pivotal points of refugee flight: during protracted conflict and violence, in displacement, generally in neighboring East African countries, and during resettlement in Western contexts. Data were collected using two anthropological methodologies - targeted life history interviews and semi-structured qualitative ethnographic interviews. Supplemental data from related studies, reports, and literature reviews were also used for population-level information. Collected data were analyzed through the …

Predictors Of Future Physician Practice Location, Allegra Latimer

Honors Theses

Healthcare disparities exist throughout the United States. While Mississippi does not stand alone in the maldistribution of physicians and medical practices across the state, it does exist as a state that has been historically medically underserved. According to data collected by The County Health Rankings Model developed by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, in 2019, the ratio of population to primary care physicians in Mississippi was 1860:1. This is nearly 30% higher in disparity than the national average. It is also important to note that of Mississippi’s 82 counties, 79.3% are considered rural with the majority of physicians …

Hydropower Development In South Asia: Data Challenges, New Approaches, And Implications For Decision-Making, Thomas Hennig, Tyler Harlan, Bryan Tilt, Darrin Magee

Urban and Environmental Studies Faculty Works

In recent years scholars have advanced our understanding of the biophysical, socioeconomic, and geopolitical impacts of dams and hydropower infrastructure around the globe. Databases and maps have emerged that allow global comparisons between countries and river basins. However, reliable and freely available data do not exist for many regions. As a result, data limitations and quality issues persist, which limit the quality of analyses based on these datasets. This is particularly true in regions where hydropower infrastructure development is proceeding most rapidly, including South Asia's Third Pole region. We identify and describe serious quantitative and qualitative data dilemmas of existing …

Sexual Scripts And Sex Tips: Construction Of The Spiciest Subject Through Sex Educational Content On Tiktok, Ashley G. Hay

Theses - ALL

This thesis investigates the changing shape of sex education online, particularly sex education that is pointed toward young audiences in algorithmically-constrained communities on TikTok. Drawing from rhetorical theory, critical sexuality studies, and critical algorithm studies, I situate sex education on TikTok within a broader paradigm of sexual scripting and sexual subjectification processes that participate in the cultural neoliberal sphere. I explore how sex educational TikToks rhetorically construct technosexual agents through digital pedagogies while navigating complex algorithmic constraints—and to do so, I analyze two emergent sexual scripts in these videos: that of orgasm and aftercare. While orgasm discourses fold neatly into …

Historical Archaeology At The Chalmers Institute, Mississippi's First University, Antosia Briggs

Honors Theses

This study presents a basic description and analysis of the artifacts collected from the 2015 archaeological excavation conducted in Holly Springs, Mississippi at the Chalmers Institute site. The thesis includes history and background on Holly Springs as a city to orient the reader. This text also includes information regarding the program, Preserve Marshall County, as their work regarding the building and site ties directly into the ability of the student archaeologists being able to excavate in 2015 as well as the future of the building. This study analyzes the artifacts found based on the frameworks of the archaeology of institutional …

Traumatization Resulting From Interpersonal Disclosure: Developing A Measure Of Disclosure-Induced Neo-Trauma, Sarah D. Wolf-Gramzow

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this study was to introduce a new construct into the field of traumatology: disclosure-induced neo-trauma (DINT). DINT is conceptually defined as a negative disclosure experience that entails traumatic stress, disrupts the relationship between the discloser and the person(s) to whom they disclosed, and is appraised by the discloser as a new traumatic event. Participants (N = 167) identified a stressful event in their lives and reported whether they had ever disclosed that event. The majority (59%) of participants who had disclosed the event had experienced a difficult disclosure, and 15% strongly agreed that the disclosure in and …

Pragmatic Elements In Efl Learners’ Request E-Mails To Teachers: A Study Of Learners’ Communicative Success, Hamzah Ahmad A. Kuriri

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Language is a tool for communication. People use it when they converse with each other. One way to comprehend what is being said is based on understating the intended meanings of the conversation, or what is called the underlined meanings (pragmatics). Pragmatic studies how different meanings are conveyed, depending on the utterances provided. A case study to investigate the phenomenon of pragmatics is selected as the methodology to specifically examine English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors’ perceptions of EFL students’ e-mails sent to their instructors. Qualitative methods are used to examine data for a period of almost three months …

The Affective Landscapes Of Herbalism In New Mexico, Samantha Angelou Stroud

Geography ETDs

Herbalism, or practices which use plants for medicinal purposes, is tied to traditions in several cultures of the American Southwest, including Indigenous herbal medicine, Mexican-American curanderismo, and Western herbal traditions. Herbalism has been steadily gaining mainstream popularity since the late 1960s, alongside counterculture, holistic health, and back-to-nature movements, introducing many newcomers to the practice. This study asks: How does herbalism create and attach meaning to plants, cultures, and place in New Mexico? What are the affective landscapes produced by herbalism in New Mexico? And, to what extent do meaningful attachments manifest in ethics and actions of care? I argue that …

University Of Mississippi 170th Commencement, 2023, University Of Mississippi, Glenn F. Boyce, Noel E. Wilkin, Stephanie Hickman

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

2023 Ursinus College Commencement Progam, Ursinus College

Ursinus College Commencement Programs

This Ursinus College Commencement program from 2023 contains the list of speakers and order of events for the day.

Reframing Culture: The Decolonization And Repatriation Process In The Italian Museum System, Leila De Gruy

Honors Theses

In 2022, the collections of the former Museo Coloniale, Colonial Museum, were reopened to the public as a part of the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome. This reopening, viewed by many as an exhumation of fascist dictator Mussolini’s former collection, in the neighborhood he built for the World Fair, reinvigorated the debate surrounding museum decolonization and brought Italy into the spotlight for this topic. This thesis seeks to explore the conversation surrounding the topic of Italian museum decolonization, using the Museo Coloniale’s collection as the primary example of a colonial museum in a post colonial world. Through this, it asks …

Our Mothers Are Dying: How Economics Affect Maternal Mortality, Kendall Wheelock

Honors Theses

One of the primary goals from the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality on a global scale. It is well documented that economic success has a strong correlation with maternal mortality (Kirigia et al 2014, 1-3). There is ample research on how one’s health affects their ability to participate in society, furthermore protecting women within the sphere of medicine is a key part of advancing society. This thesis aims to give qualitative and quantitive backing to a deeper investigation of the correlation between economic success and maternal health.

To focus this research, the thesis focuses on …

The Existence Of Stuttering-Like Disfluencies In American Sign Language, Katherine King

Honors Theses

For over a century, data have documented fluency disorders and stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs) in multiple expressive modalities outside of speech, including musical expression, writing, and American Sign Language (ASL). The presence of SLDs in multiple expressive modalities presents the argument that SLDs are not limited to speech. This study specifically surveys fluent ASL signers relative to SLDs, analyzes SLD manifestations, and documents specific examples of stuttering behaviors in ASL.

This study analyzes SLD manifestations in ASL by conducting a survey developed from all known research within the SLD paradigm. Based on all previous research, SLD manifestations are categorized and represented …

Language Laws And Regional Identity: A Case Study Of Euskera In The Basque Country, Jenna Ebel

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the interconnectivity between language laws and regional identity, focusing on education, public health, and transnational systems. Through this case study of the Basque Country, the context and wording of the language laws in the subregions within the Basque Country are utilized to understand how they affect the usage and understanding of the Basque language, “Euskera.” Through this, the study is then focused on the Spanish autonomous community of the Basque Country to understand the effects of a minority language on educational systems, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the connections to both the EU and the UN. Through a …

Child Soldiers & Juveniles In Gangs: Opposite Sides Of The Same Coin With Dissimilar Legal Liabilities In International And American Constitutional Law, Jason Blevins

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.