Digital Commons Network^™

No One To Save, And Everything To Learn: Decolonial Possibilities For Global Ngos Facilitating Education In Emergencies, Megan N. Patterson

Master's Theses

The field of Education in Emergencies is an emerging field which aims to offer solutions for the continuation of learning in humanitarian settings, but also navigates dynamics of global development in the pursuit of delivering quality learning and universal learning access. In this study, qualitative content analysis is used to examine the beliefs, values, and motivations of three Education in Emergencies (EiE) programs implemented by NGOs. These were selected to offer insight into programming designed for global, regional, and local implementation, as well as nuanced dynamics of power, agency, and saviorism through seven criteria: (1) Purpose of learning, (2) Instructional …

Abolition Ecologies And The Making Of Freedom As A Place In Bayview-Hunters Point, Spencer Daniel O'Hara

Master's Theses

In this paper, I critically explore the subjectivities of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS), part of the largest redevelopment project in San Francisco since 1906. Applying an abolition ecologies framework, I ask what explains the duplicity of the Shipyard as a site of radioactive contamination and capital accumulation, and in the same time-space one that creates the conditions for radical place-making. Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is a former commercial and military shipyard located on a peninsula in southeastern San Francisco. Motivated by its desire for a major shipbuilding and repair facility to project maritime power in the Pacific, the Navy …

The Central American Minors Program: Advocating For Private Sponsorship, Magaly Velasco-Escobar

Master's Theses

Under this recommendation, minors would be interviewed by qualified officers at resettlement agencies in their home countries to assess credible fear, those deemed eligible but lacking an eligible relative would be referred for a private sponsorship pathway. Sponsors would be vetted and qualified using protocols currently in place by the Welcome Corps and Refugee Foster Care. Ideally, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) would coordinate between the private sponsors and overseas resettlement agencies, given they already do the work of vetting eligible sponsors for minors. ORR could create a program staffed with qualified individuals to coordinate this program or provide …

Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante, Augusto Martin Rivero

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ambigú Trashumante Barra de Café Ambulante is an applied research project which took shape over the course of a calendar year from May 2022-2023. A six-person team evolved including the personified project itself, united as one communal entity in collaboration. The project entailed creation of a bicicargo, or cargo bike–useful art becoming a mobile coffee bar and literal vehicle embodying justice through coffee offered freely in México, as facilitated through decolonized ethnography and Mesoamerican Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR). The project’s theoretical framework centers on Bruguera’s (2012) arte útil conceptualization. Five core patterns emerged, including the right to thrive in …

Massive Misunderstood Menace: Gojira (1954), An Allegory For Coping With Trauma, Marc-Antony Martinez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

In my essay I will be examining whether exposure therapy is an effective method of those coping with PTSD. This is an idea which circulates around the original 1954 Gojira film, where its ending can be interpreted as supporting the idea that coping with trauma must necessarily involve some form of exposure therapy. In the end my research concludes that exposure therapy is effective for those suffering with PTSD under a select few circumstances. This is because trauma can spur symptoms, including borderline personality syndrome, that can negatively affect the outcome of exposure therapy. Despite this, exposure therapy is …

Must China Pay? How Claims Against China For Covid-19 Reveal Flaws In The International Legal System That Make Accountability Impractical, Talia Danielle Sturkie

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

The Jus Ad Bellum In Cyberspace: A New Framework, M. Walker Brunner

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Innovator - Spring 2023

Innovator

03 - The President’s Column

06 - Time Machine: Fabric of the Heart

10 - The Nexus: News at Jefferson

20 - Student to #Philebrity: Influenced by Jefferson

24 - The Light Fantastic

30 - We Are One Jefferson

34 - Question & Innovate

36 - Reimagine

40 - Ram Roundup

44 - Class Notes

56 - In Memory

58 - Trivia

A Geometrical, Reachable Set Approach For Constrained Pursuit–Evasion Games With Multiple Pursuers And Evaders, Olli Jansson, Matthew W. Harris

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a solution strategy for deterministic time-optimal pursuit–evasion games with linear state constraints, convex control constraints, and linear dynamics that is consistent with linearized relative orbital motion models such as the Clohessy–Wiltshire equations and relative orbital elements. The strategy first generates polytopic inner approximations of the players’ reachable sets by solving a sequence of convex programs. A bisection method then computes the optimal termination time, which is the least time at which a set containment condition is satisfied. The pursuit–evasion games considered are games with (1) a single pursuer and single evader, (2) multiple pursuers and a single …

The Newport Manual On The Law Of Naval Warfare, James Kraska, Raul "Pete" Pedrozo, David Letts, Wolff Heintschel Von Heinegg, Rob Mclaughlin, James Farrant, Yurika Ishii, Gurpreet S. Khurana, Koki Sato

International Law Studies

This first edition of the Newport Manual has been superseded by the Newport Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare, Second Edition, published as Volume 105 (2025) of International Law Studies.

Silent Voices, Stolen Imagery, And Subjected Violence: Plains Native American Women In Historiography, Bobbie J. Roshone

Great Plains Graduate Review

This paper delves into the historiography of Indigenous women’s history and experiences on the Great Plains have been recorded. The main question when approaching this subject was, “what does a review of the historiography reveal about how historians have addressed Indigenous women’s history in the Great Plains?” The overwhelming consensus was that Indigenous women’s history of the Great Plains was minimal in regard to articles, however, there was a growth of autobiographies and other historiographical works throughout the same time period. This would lead to a directed look at how individual women in Indigenous Plains history had a larger impact …

Liberty And Justice For Some - Experiences Of Marginalized Children On The World War Ii United States Home Front, Courtney Polak

Great Plains Graduate Review

Many scholars have discussed the experiences of the home front and its significant contributions to the war effort. However, the study of children in World War II home front has not been widely examined. Even more so, the experiences of minority children are rarely discussed. Youth of African Americans, those of German and Japanese descent, and the poor classes experienced a drastically different home front than the mainstream culture. The experiences of children, especially, are not addressed widely as they are further ignored as a group without political or economic power. Yet, numerous primary source accounts explain how these marginalized …

Bura Ura, Kendu Waiyo (Rain Falls, Water Rises): The Tyranny Of Water Insecurity And An Agenda For Abolition In Kodi (Sumba Island, Indonesia), Cynthia Twyford Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the dynamic links between transformations in freshwater ecosystems and social changes in the Kodi region of Sumba (Indonesia). Insights into the politics surrounding changing hydrosocial systems are generated by using a feminist anthropology approach together with critical development studies and intersectionality theory. In aligning with fellow feminists whose advocacy sometimes takes the form of scholarship, I lay out a five-prong strategy for collecting empirical evidence from persons who are vulnerable when hydrological systems change and offer eight principles for future development interventions. The argument related to the five-prong toolkit is that by conducting intensive, extensive, opportunistic, and …

Societal Structure, Family, And Masculinity In The Bildungsroman: An Analysis Of The Great Santini And Portnoy's Complaint, Aaron Salzman

English

This thesis considers the idea of Becoming as presented in post-World War II American novels. As a model, the Hero's Journey is presented as a structure in which an individual can achieve freedom and satisfaction through discipline ,according to internal psychological forces in combination with external narratives. In the body of this piece, I present two narratives: Ben Meechum's successful journey to adulthood under the cruel tutelage of his father, and Alex Portnoy's journey to an unstable adulthood after choosing a life different from what was modeled by his overbearing parents, who followed strict cultural rules. By comparing a successful …

Americans And The Dragon: Lessons In Coalition Warfighting From The Boxer Uprising, Mitchell G. Klingenberg

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

©2023 Mitchell G. Klingenberg

Drawing from archival materials at the US Army Heritage and Education Center and the United States Military Academy at West Point, numerous published primary sources, and a range of secondary sources, this monograph offers an overview of the China Relief Expedition from June 1900 to the moment of liberation in August. Its considerations range from the geopolitical to the strategic and down to the tactical levels of war. US forces partnered alongside the combined naval and land forces of multiple nations, thus constituting the first contingency, expeditionary, and multinational coalition in American military history. In the …

Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency And Racial Re-Valuing In Education Governance, Kathleen Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen M. Sellers

Democracy & Education

We examine school governance in populist era, using contemporary readings of pragmatist philosophy. We are in a “populist moment,” a time of uprisings and movements of the demos making political claims (Mouffe, 2018). School officials in the U.S. are subject to an array of political demands in the form of protests and campaigns. We focus on the struggles around critical race theory in K–12 schools. Glaude (2017) has advocated pragmatism’s use in light of racial revaluing and democratic struggle. Rogers’ work (2009) has highlighted inquiry, founded on contingency, in the face of disagreement and power struggles. These scholars show us …

Breaking Me Down And Lifting Me Up: An Autoethnography Of Being A Black Autistic Woman Online, Morgan Harper-Nichols

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This autoethnography investigates the diverse challenges associated with being a Black, undiagnosed autistic woman coming of age on the internet, and examines how online experiences shaped my identity over the past twenty years. Early encounters with racism and cautious self-expression on platforms such as forums, GeoCities, Myspace, and YouTube are explored as my initial efforts to "fit in" in virtual spaces. I discuss how engaging with platforms like Instagram and Etsy enabled my participation in the gig economy while grappling with my pre-diagnosis social struggles. I also share how I navigate post-2020 experiences as a Black autistic online creator, how …

Book Review: The Strategic Use Of Force In Counterinsurgency: Find, Fix, Fight, José De Arimatéia Da Cruz

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Miles Kitts

Reviewed by Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, professor of international relations and comparative politics, Georgia Southern University, and visiting professor, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College

Focusing on the use of force and insurgency, the reviewer assesses the author’s question, “Does either neoclassicism or revisionism adequately address how to evaluate the utility of force in counterinsurgency and the prescriptions which should come from it?”

Due Process Discontents In Mass-Tort Bankruptcy, J. Maria Glover

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

Creativity Training Needs Assessment For Homeland Security Enterprise: A Case For Creative Thinking, Alexis L. D'Amato, Samuel T. Hunter

Reports, Projects, and Research

Creativity, specifically creative problem solving, is often excluded from Homeland Security Enterprise efforts to train and develop their workforces. To determine if this lack of training was a key knowledge gap in the communities, we drew on organisational creativity literature. Using the personnel databases O*NET and Careers in the Military Database, we conducted a training needs assessment by identifying relevant job tasks, knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) that align with the creative process. More specifically, we sought to identify the need for creative problem-solving training and designated creative thinking time (e.g. red teaming) to influence innovative intelligence capabilities. Based on …

From Instability To Civil Liberties: Nonviolent Resistance In Afghanistan, Rachel L. Knowles

Master's Theses

When people have a fundamental issue at stake, giving in is not an option. For these types of conflict, when people’s rights are being violated, when their countries are occupied, or when they are oppressed and humiliated, they need a powerful way to persist and fight back. Oftentimes when people are left with no choice they will use the terrible and destructive nature of violence. For decades nonviolent resistance (NVR) movements have been associated with Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but people have been using nonviolent action for years. In fact, NVR has been a part of political life for …

Influence Of Environmental Gradients On Genomic Variation In Pediatric Commensals And Pathogens, Sanjam Sawhney

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Microbes interact with humans in a myriad of ways. They come together in the human gut to form complex communities that collectively transform and individually evolve in response to changing environmental conditions. Individual microbes can also cause human infection and escape antibiotic clearance through acquisition and development of novel resistance mechanisms. In this thesis, I chronicle the relationships between microbes and humans across two axes: from complex communities to single isolates, and from targeted studies of pediatric populations vulnerable to microbiome perturbations and pathogen challenge, to broader human and animal cohorts spanning colonizing and diagnostic environments.In Chapter 2, I extensively …

Theaters Of The Intimate: The Feminine Culture Of Self-Care On Tiktok, Rayana Weller

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I study the feminine culture of self-care on TikTok as it exists in prominent digital genres: skincare and soft living. These two genres represent the aspiration toward a soft perfection of both the physical self and the space around it. Situated within the theories of the female complaint (Berlant, 2008) and the paradigm of perfection (McRobbie, 2015), I argue that feminine culture on TikTok reframes the demanding and unending labor required to approximate standards of feminine perfection as a pleasing and satisfying experience of self-care. Self-care rhetoric on TikTok disguises the discipline required to pursue cultural definitions …

Blue Water Navy Veterans And The Agent Orange Rulings: A Lifeboat For The Veterans; A Storm Warning For The Vba, Jennifer Howley

Catholic University Law Review

Agent Orange was a herbicidal chemical used by the U.S. military for tactical use during the Vietnam War. Although initially told by the government not to worry about exposure to the chemical, veterans, their wives, and their offspring began having severe health and reproductive issues. In the early 1990’s, Congress passed the Agent Orange Act and the government directed the Institute of Medicine to report on the health effects of Agent Orange. Through this approach, Vietnam Veterans could claim benefits for illnesses listed in connection with Agent Orange. But only some Vietnam Veterans.

Initially, only veterans who served on-shore or …

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 …

If I Can't Predict My Future, Why Can Ai? Exploring Human Interaction With Predictive Analytics, Phoebe Anne Smith

Theses - ALL

This research study seeks to understand how AI-based chatbots can potentially be leveraged as a tool in a PSYOP. This study is methodologically driven as it employs validated scales concerning suggestibility and human-computer interaction to assess how participants interact with a specific AI chatbot, Replika. Recent studies demonstrate the capability of GPT-based analytics to influence user’s moral judgements, and this paper is interested in exploring why. Results will help draw conclusions regarding human interaction with predictive analytics (in this case a free GPT-based chatbot, Replika) to understand if suggestibility (how easily influenced someone generally is) impacts the overall usability of …

Un País Invertido: The Current Immigration Regime Of Colombia, Magdalena Hendrickson

Honors Theses

Throughout its turbulent history, Colombia has seen drastic changes in structure and administration. From military coups to shaky coalitions, the country’s infamous instability has long forced its citizens to find better prospects elsewhere. However, with the rise of the Maduro administration in Venezuela, Colombia faced a massive new flow of migrants and was forced to rectify current circumstances without properly addressing its internal issues beforehand. Despite its historical status as a nation of emigrants, Colombia marks a new norm for the rest of the globe. As new issues like climate change and increased armed conflict grow worldwide, countries on the …

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 …

Chinese Political Rhetoric And Ideology: Tension And Pretension, Israel Paredes

Honors Theses

This changing nature of the Chinese government’s ideology leads one to believe that its core beliefs are not dogmatic, despite the foundation for their ideology being rooted in specific societal and economic theories. Starting with Mao Zedong to modern day, the Chinese government officials will continue to support the original tenets (and, no doubt, future presidents’ additions to the tenets). However, the interpretation of their ideology over time is fluid and is used to support policies and actions during a political cycle. Chinese political leaders are unlikely to disagree with a past leaders, and will rather use their own interpretation …

¡Si Nicaragua Venció, El Salvador Vencerá!: A Comparative Analysis Of The Nicaraguan Revolution And The Salvadoran Civil War, Edrei Pena

Honors Theses

This thesis compares the history of the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Salvadoran Civil War in order to understand why Nicaragua had success, unlike El Salvador. I analyze the history by focusing on four factors I believe are important for a successful revolution. These factors are broad multi-class alliances, military strength and strategy, the role of the Church, and external influences. Through this, I find that the factor of class alliances is the most crucial for a successful revolution to take place. The Sandinistas in Nicaragua had these broad class alliances while the FMLN in El Salvador did not.