Digital Commons Network^™

Why Should Universities Contribute To New Utopias?, Geert Bouckaert

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

What would the ideal society look like, and its university? In 1516 the English humanist Thomas More tried his hand at imagining a perfect society on a distant island. His Utopia was first published in the Flemish town of Leuven, home of a university that was established almost a century earlier in 1425. Five hundred years later, university scholars revisit More’s exercise in an interdisciplinary range of science-based utopias.1 Like More’s Utopia, later and new utopias have to be read in the light of their own times. Utopias are connected to and embedded in their social realities. They belong to …

Are Secular Politics Possible?, Gregory C. Melleuish, Susanna G. Rizzo

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Contemporary political analysis makes a distinction between politics that are secular in nature and politics that are religiously based. This article questions whether there is such a thing as secular politics. Firstly, it examines the roots of the secular/religious dichotomy in Western thought and concludes that it is the creation of particular intellectual developments in the West. And then it argues that modern politics is best viewed in terms of a number of “sacred projects” that are generated out of the supposedly secular nature of the modern West. There can be no real politics without such projects, only administration. Even …

Helen De Cruz And Ryan Nichols, Eds. Advances In Religion, Cognitive Science, And Experimental Philosophy, Jovino G. Miroy

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Helen de Cruz and Ryan Nichols, eds. Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy

The Practice Of Hermeneutics: The Legal Text And Beyond, George H. Taylor

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This article attempts to show the continuing practical relevance of hermeneutics through the example of legal interpretation. The article begins with the very concrete nature of legal hermeneutics that forms everyday legal practice—the interrelation of meaning and application— and expands at a more theoretical to show how legal hermeneutics, and hermeneutics more generally, offers what Ricoeur calls an interpretive “choice in favor of meaning.” The choice in favor of meaning underscores the restorative character of hermeneutics that legal hermeneutics can epitomize. The article concludes with some of the challenges facing contemporary legal hermeneutics.

An Epic Vision Of Christianity, Olivier Abel

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In the late 1950s Paul Ricoeur wrote a programmatic essay on his vision of Christianity. Out of this essay could be gleaned an epic tone that has seemed to turn inaudible. This article seeks to make such epic tone audible. First, it situates the context out of which the epic strand in Ricoeur’s “theology” has emerged and asks why he would even dare to speak of theology as epic. Second, the article dwells on the kind of reader, author, and character the epic genre generates and asks who is capable, not only of reading and heeding the epic, but also …

Exemplarity And The "Law Of Superabundance", Roger W. H. Savage

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Paul Ricoeur’s critique of social emancipatory projects that claim to be absolutely radical sets the stage for my investigation into the exemplary value of esteemed moral and political acts. Like works of art, such acts reform or revolutionize praxis through refashioning the world from within. By placing textual hermeneutics under the theme of the increase in being evinced by the work of art, Ricoeur’s analysis on the way that metaphor as a work in miniature iconically augments reality forges a link between the imagination’s productive power and the “law of superabundance.” This law inheres in the logic of hope. The …

Cognitive Ethology, Animals And Society, And The American Sociological Association, Arnold Arluke

Animal Sentience

Griffin’s The Question of Animal Awareness (1976) and Animal Minds (2001) enabled and emboldened other disciplines to expand their research to include non-human animals. The creation of a dedicated section on human-animal relationships in sociology’s national professional organization is but one example.

Humphries, Tara, Fatima Hagi

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Tara Humphries uses they/them pronouns. They identify as queer, trans, nonbinary, and lesbian. They were born in Portland, Maine, but grew up in North Yarmouth and Durham. Tara Humphries received their bachelor’s degree in sociology at Bates College. They completed their Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School, a program to prepare people for ordination to the Christian ministry. They work as a Minister at the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine. In this interview, Humphries shares how their Unitarian Universalist faith has shaped their perspective on their queer identity in their personal life and professional settings. They …

Resilience Of A Palestinian University Instructor Surviving War: A Grounded Theory Study, Hassan El-Nabih, Sadek Firwana

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

This qualitative study addressed the devastating impacts of war on civilians by giving voice to a Palestinian university instructor who had a life-threatening experience during the Israeli aggressive war on the Gaza Strip in 2014. The data for the study were gathered from two different sources: (i) a narrative written by the instructor shortly after his recovery and (ii) a semi-structured interview conducted with him three years after this harrowing event. In order to explore and theorize the salient themes in the data, we adopted a three-phase grounded theory methodology. The initial coding phase yielded 30 important codes, which were …

A Call To Study The Bidirectional Relationship Between Healthcare Accessibility Issues And Medical Gaslighting For Marginalized Groups With Chronic Pain, Nikki Harnage

Honors College Theses

Chronic pain is an epidemic in its own right. Affecting 21% of American adults and costing $300 billion each year, chronic pain rivals cancer, diabetes, and hypertension combined. From psychological impacts on patients to worsening health outcomes further burdening the healthcare system and billions of lost productivity stressing the economy, chronic pain can affect all Americans. However, chronic pain disproportionately afflicts marginalized groups including non-whites, women, and disadvantaged socioeconomic classes. For decades, research has demonstrated disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and management of chronic pain are associated with accessibility issues in healthcare, a link that is likely the result of systemic …

Dismantling The Dogma Of Dot: A Human Rights-Based Review Of Directly Observed Therapy For Tuberculosis, Brian Citro, Dr. Jennifer Furin, Rhea Lobo, Ingrid Schoeman, Timur Abdullaev, James Malar

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

The global tuberculosis (TB) response is at a crossroads. In recent years, new ideas, technologies, and political commitments have reinvigorated the fight against this age-old disease that kills more people each year than HIV and malaria combined. But with key indicators just beginning to recover after moving in the wrong direction during the COVID-19 pandemic, hard-earned gains are at stake. In this rejuvenated yet challenging context, we critically review an idea and practice at the heart of the TB response—directly observed therapy or DOT. First, we explore DOT’s controversial method and history as a component of the World Health Organization’s …

Developing Linguistic Patterns To Mitigate Inherent Human Bias In Offensive Language Detection, Toygar Tanyel, Besher Alkurdi, Serkan Ayvaz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

With the proliferation of social media, there has been a sharp increase in offensive content, particularly targeting vulnerable groups, exacerbating social problems such as hatred, racism, and sexism. Detecting offensive language use is crucial to prevent offensive language from being widely shared on social media. However, the accurate detection of irony, implication, and various forms of hate speech on social media remains a challenge. Natural language-based deep learning models require extensive training with large, comprehensive, and labeled datasets. Unfortunately, manually creating such datasets is both costly and error-prone. Additionally, the presence of human-bias in offensive language datasets is a major …

Harmon, Stephen, Collection, 1960-2020, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

The Stephen Harmon Collection consists of the career and professorial works of Stephen Harmon consisting of his papers, classes, bibliographies, journals, magazines, leading up to his career at Pittsburg State University.

Stephen A. Harmon was born on June 15, 1945 in St. Louis, MO to Jim and Alice Harmon. In 1968, after marrying Fritzi Drosten, Harmon and Drosten moved to San Francisco. Dr. Stephen Harmon received his B.A. from San Francisco State University in the Spring of 1979 and he received his Master’s degree in June 1981. At SFSU, he spent a year in Madrid, Spain, studying at the Complutense …

Successful Asian Immigrant Businesses’ Strategies, Claretta Taylor Stokes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Asian immigrant entrepreneurs face significant challenges, including difficulties accessing capital and overcoming language barriers, which can lead to higher failure rates in some cases. To succeed, they must develop effective strategies and identify key resources to grow their businesses and mitigate the risk of failure. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to identify and explore the strategies used by Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to expand and sustain their businesses beyond the five-year mark. The participants were nine immigrant entrepreneurs from the Commonwealth who successfully applied strategies that enabled their …

Socioeconomic Status, Obesity, Breast Cancer, And 5-Year Survival Among Men, Taye Oloruntobi Olabode

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although male breast cancer (MBC) is rare, affecting 2,000 men in the United States each year and comprising approximately 1% of all breast cancer diagnoses, mortality for those diagnosed with MBC is significantly higher than for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Recent research on the disparities in mortality rates between men and women revealed that there may be unexplained factors for the diagnostic disparities between men and women. Bandura’s (1986) SCT was used as the theoretical framework for this quantitative study.The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to determine whether there was an association between socioeconomic status, obesity, stage …

Organizational Intentionality: Enhancing Business Engagement With Black Entrepreneurs Through Purposeful And Inclusive Strategies, Willye G. Shaw

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Motivated by demands for greater business diversity and proactive efforts of organizations to improve their inclusive engagements with minority stakeholders, this research contributes to the academic body of knowledge related to Black-owned business value by highlighting the impacts of organizations committed to shifting the conventional approach to diversity with this business community. The objective is to delve more into the need for enhanced relationships between organizations and Black-owned businesses, offering insights into the intentional actions, decisions, and strategies that lead to purposeful initiatives by the organizations to refine their business practices, with a focus on sustainable success for Black entrepreneurs. …

Exploring The Curriculum Potential Of The Welsh Word Cynefin By Examining Its New Materialist And Contemplative Pedagogical Resonances, Dylan Adams

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Cynefin is a key word in the new curriculum for Wales. Yet it is a word that is difficult to define. It has no direct English translation and originates from Welsh hill farming where it was used by farmers to describe how sheep would form a mysterious attachment to different parts of common land. Subsequently, it has come to be associated with a person’s relationship to a place, where they feel at home. This article examines how the concept of cynefin potentially resonates with posthumanist and contemplative pedagogical perspectives. In doing so, it aims to answer the question, “how could …

Gwayak Ateg Onaakonigewi Dibenjigewin: Decolonizing Jurisdiction In Anishinaabe Tribal Courts, Kekek Jason Stark

Faculty Law Review Articles

It is generally understood as a matter of federal Indian law that determinations of tribal law should properly be interpreted by tribal courts. This is because tribal courts do not always adhere to the same legal philosophy as their settler colonial counterparts. Many tribal courts subscribe to traditional law, which is an “essential source” of tribal jurisprudence. Anishinaabe communities have maintained a rich body of traditional tribal law since time immemorial. However, these customary law principles are only recently being included in modern day Anishinaabe tribal court determinations. This article builds upon the Anishinaabe law principles articulated in recent opinions …

Chimes: November 25, 2024, Calvin University

Chimes

Survey finds that sexual harassment, other crimes on campus often go unreported by Maya Oeverman

Student advocates concerned about continuing disruptions to campus recycling by Sarah Sparling

“A whole world below”: Outdoor Rec holds first caving trip by Ethan Meyers

What Is Dressember? by Ashley Hamons

Student Senate set to invest $5,000 in Morren Fitness Center weight room by Ian Tjoelker

Men’s and women’s cross country teams both punched their tickets to nationals by Dillion Baumchen

Homosexuality in the Bible: A Q&A with scholars who disagree by Elisabeth Stephens

Narratives Of Resilience: The Power Of Creative Expression And Community Support During Familial Incarceration, Alana Alexander

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Existing literature stresses that the far-reaching effects of mass incarceration extend beyond prison walls, profoundly shaping familial experiences. Despite this, families remain consistently overlooked in criminal justice discourse, leading to heightened stress and diminished resilience. This thesis is a program review of a community-based program, referred to here as the Storytelling, Creativity, and Care (SCC) program, to protect the confidentiality of its participants and activities. The SCC program integrates neuroscience and narrative theory to explore how storytelling influences cultural perceptions, shapes lived experiences, and supports psychological and physiological healing. Additionally, this work investigates the socio-political narratives that perpetuate stigma and …

Ioc Consensus Statement: Interpersonal Violence And Safeguarding In Sport, Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu, Kirsty Burrows, Kari Fasting, Mike Hartill, Ken Hodge, Keith Kaufman, Emma Kavanagh, Sandra L. Kirby, Jelena G. Macleod, Margo Mountjoy, Sylvie Parent, Minhyeok Tak, Tine Vertommen, Daniel J. A. Rhind

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Interpersonal violence (IV) in sport is challenging to define, prevent and remedy due to its subjectivity and complexity. The 2024 International Olympic Committee Consensus on Interpersonal Violence and Safeguarding aimed to synthesise evidence on IV and safeguarding in sport, introduce a new conceptual model of IV in sport and offer more accessible safeguarding guidance to all within the sports ecosystem by merging evidence with insights from Olympic athletes.

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 9

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 9.

Rethinking Human-Autonomy Teamwork In The Context Of Design And Robotic Fabrication, Iremnur Tokac Celikyay, Caja Thimm, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan

Human-Machine Communication

The integration of autonomous agents in design is challenging due to its unstructured nature. The increasing focus on human-robot interaction (HRI) is driven by its potential to address this issue, enabling human-robot teams to effectively manage creative design tasks. This paper aims to identify interactive processes among the agencies of humans, robots, and materials. We explore how HRI can shift robotic fabrication from a linear deterministic process to an iterative co-creation one. Through reflective analysis of robotic fabrication studies, we illustrated how interaction interfaces can distribute agency among humans, robots, and materials while negotiating the design intent with material and …

Accomplishing Robotic Autonomy: The Complexities Of Sociotechnical Care And Agency In The Laboratory, Yifan Xu, Elliott Hauser

Human-Machine Communication

Effective ethical interventions in emerging technologies such as robotic autonomy demand situated understandings of the practices that shape them. Drawing upon a year of participatory ethnography, this study examines the sociomaterial practices used to accomplish robotic agency in an engineering research laboratory. Ironically, the robot was often a helpless, even pathetic, figure. Roboticists displayed an attitude of surprisingly genuine, diligent, and self-effacing care toward the robot as they helped enable it to perform basic competencies such as picking up a bottle. Using a practice theory, we show how roboticists’ care practices, motivated and sustained by anticipatory narratives of robotic agency, …

Between Autonomy And Automation: Mapping Practices Among Syrian Delivery Drivers In Beirut, Blake Atwood

Human-Machine Communication

This article studies the tension between autonomy and automation as it is experienced by Syrian refugee food-delivery drivers who work on the Toters app in Beirut, Lebanon. Central to this study are the freedom narratives these drivers construct, which reflect their ambivalent relationship with digital labor platforms. These narratives highlight how the algorithmic nature of the Toters app provides opportunities for self-employment and flexible work, crucial for refugees facing employment barriers and limited physical and social mobility in Lebanon. However, in these narratives, the drivers’ sense of autonomy is also often compromised by the app’s increasing automation, which imposes surveillance …

Autonomy And Agency In Farming: Exploring Human, Machine, And Animal Dynamics, Ricarda Drüeke, Corinna Peil

Human-Machine Communication

Human-Machine Communication is reshaping the agricultural sector as digital technologies and automated systems transform farms into complex communicative environments. Farms, which serve as both workplaces and living spaces, uniquely integrate these technologies, yet their impact on farmers’ daily practices, labor, and decision-making remains underexplored. Through an ethnographic approach involving qualitative interviews and farm visits in Austria and southern Germany, the study investigates the interactions among farmers, automated technologies, smart devices, and animals. Using Actor-Network Theory, the redistribution of labor and agency in smart farming is explored. This analysis examines two forms of human-machine relations: the dynamics of automation and autonomy …

"There Is No Such Thing As A Machine That Acts Outside Of Relations With Humans”, Lucy Suchman, Caja Thimm

Human-Machine Communication

Starting with her early works on “Talk with Machines” (1986, republished in 2021) and her books Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication (1987) and Human-Machine Reconfigurations (2007a), Lucy Suchman not only opened up a new domain of scientific interest in humans and technology, but also showed how the scope of human machine relations needs to be reconceptualized. With her most recent works (2023a, 2023b), she not only widens the perspective on the contexts for machine usage, particularly by the military, but she also gives insights on how to conceptualize AI in terms of its ontological status and …

From Automation To Autonomy: Human Machine Relations In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Caja Thimm, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Maximilian Mayer, Frank T. Piller

Human-Machine Communication

The shift from automation to autonomy marks a new chapter in human-machine relations, especially in the context of the expanding and diversifying applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As machines gain capabilities that resemble autonomous agency, the boundary between human and machine autonomy blurs, challenging traditional concepts of agency, control, and independence. This special issue examines the multidisciplinary perspectives on autonomy in the digital age, addressing the complexities of attributing autonomy to machines and AI systems. Philosophical, sociological, and technical approaches converge to explore how emerging forms of machine autonomy impacts human agency, freedom, and decision-making, with applications spanning from autonomous …

How Are We To Think About The Knowledge That We Should Know?, RaúL Fornet-Betancourt

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

As a precondition of philosophical dialogue among different cultures, this essay forwards a series of questions regarding the epistemological presuppositions of the current dominant knowledge culture, which is characterized by a capitalistic, technological, and colonial ethos. By stating its presuppositions, situating these in the historical context of its development, and drawing their consequences, the essay opens up the possibility of overcoming this dominant ethos of knowledge through the recuperation of epistemological plurality by way of exchanges among a multiplicity of knowledge cultures. The essay proposes that it is philosophy’s task today to resist the dehumanization of knowledge by asking what …

Dwelling Near In Mountains Farthest Apart: A Conversation, Remmon E. Barbaza

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In November 2012, Amsterdam-based Spanish visual artist Paloma Polo came to the Philippines for the initial phase of her project on land use and vulnerability. She was hosted by the Department of Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University, with some of whose members she began collaborating, including Remmon E. Barbaza, an associate professor of philosophy who is currently working on an interdisciplinary project on disaster risk management. Polo is currently based in Manila to develop a research project and to work on a film project on the topics mentioned earlier, and is collaborating and teaching as an adjunct professor …