Digital Commons Network^™

What Comes After The Critique Of The Corporate University? Toward A Syndicalist University, Clyde W. Barrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

For the past three decades, university faculty have produced a cascade of contemporary protest literature that routinely criticizes the knowledge factory, academic capitalism, managed professionals, college for sale, the university in ruins, the corporate corruption of higher education, and University, Inc. University faculty are regularly warned about the fall of the faculty, the last professors, and the last intellectuals. This article reviews the historical development of the corporate and neoliberal university, but it takes the next step of asking what is to be done after the critique of the corporate university. It calls on faculty to engage in a variety …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

Welfare-Based Human Rights Diffusion In Global Social Policy: Examining An Extended Spiral Model To Survey Welfare Norms, Kendra L. Duran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study addresses a gap in research concerning welfare-based human rights diffusion, rights that are also referred to as Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR). This project finds that when states ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), global social policies are created, grow worldwide, and receive greater attention from advocacy organizations. Even so, it is not understood how global social policies affect a state’s compliance with its ICESCR commitment, nor how global social policies affect welfare-based human rights diffusion. Seeking to address this gap in theory and praxis, this research utilizes an extended case study …

Uniform Intelligence: The United States Military Liaison Mission And The Cold War 1947-1990, Frank Christopher Ofner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers, ending the war in Europe. As such, the Western Allies of Britain, France, and the United States came into direct contact with the Soviet forces in Germany, which they divided into four zones of occupation. With the potential of an armed conflict over Germany, the Western Allies and the Soviets agreed to use military liaison missions to help foster communication in Germany. The British and French maintained their units: British Commanders in Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) and La Mission Militaire Francaise de Liaison (FMLM …

Geopolitical Actions Of The German Empire Prior To The First World War – A Modified Dime Analysis –, Gregory A. Mauck

Masters Theses

It is said that the victors write the history. That adage is demonstrably true for the history of the First World War. The German Empire, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, has shouldered most of the blame for the war for most of the past century. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles declares this German guilt in no uncertain terms. But is this a fair assessment? A study of pre-war German diplomatic and military actions provides a method to partially assess the culpability of Germany for the Great War. A fair analysis of that geopolitical activity shows that the actions of the …

Cyberspace And The Jus Ad Bellum: The State Of Play, Michael N. Schmitt, Anusha S. Pakkam

International Law Studies

This article examines how States are interpreting one aspect of the international law governing cyber activities, the jus ad bellum. The article focuses on two issues: (1) the prohibition on the use of force found in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, and (2) the right of self-defense in Article 51. The critical unsettled question regarding the first issue is the threshold at which a hostile cyber operation can be characterized as a “use of force” subject to the prohibition of Article 2(4). Concerning the second issue, a number of unresolved questions plague the application of the right of …

"The End Is Near": Pop Culture Adaptations Of Premillennial Themes, Kelsey Samuelsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

March 1997: Thirty-nine people poison themselves, committing suicide in order to board an alien space ship allegedly trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet. December 2009: A fa iled cure for cancer sparks a pandemic which immediately kills most of the population and leaves the rest ravaged and cannibalistic. January 2000: The turn of the century threatens to crash the world's computers, wreaking havoc on civilized society. These scenarios, a mixture of fabricated and factual, represent the variety of apocalyptic myths in American culture. The popularity of end-of-the-world themes has risen in recent years. Numerous depictions of such events in well-known books, films, …

A Canadian Civil Affairs Officer In Italy: Lieutenant-Colonel H. S. Robinson, Provincial Commissioner For Brescia In 1945, Janet Sanders, Rolando Anni, Maria Paola Pasini

Canadian Military History

This article provides an overview of one Canadian Civil Affairs Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Homer Smiley Robinson, and his contribution to the rebuilding of the province of Brescia in north Italy and its eponymous capital after liberation from Nazi occupation. Robinson, as Provincial Commissioner, led the Civil Affairs team from April to October 1945 as the first Canadian to be appointed to the position. Traditionally, Civil Affairs has been studied predominantly as a bureaucratic structure. The human element in terms of staff and stakeholders has been almost entirely neglected. It is hoped that this account of a soldier-turned-governor will prove to be …

Preaching Peace, Selling Arms: The Evolution Of Canadian Military Export Policy, 1946-49, Paul Esau

Canadian Military History

Recent sales of Canadian military equipment to Saudi Arabia have highlighted a contradiction between Canadian military export policy on paper and in practice. This contradiction is rooted in a series of policy decision made between 1946 and 1949, just after the Second World War. During this period Canadian policymakers accepted that military exports were economically and strategically necessary, and become an opportunistic exporter of military equipment to the non-communist world. The military export policies adopted during these years were flexible, pragmatic, and reactive; they incentivised risk-aversion and commercial competitiveness, but not internally consistency. Consequently, the defining principle of Canadian military …

From Zombie To Martyr: The Short Military Service Of Private Hector Sylvestre, Paul Marsden

Canadian Military History

This article outlines the brief military service of Private Hector Sylvestre, a young Franco-Ontarien paratrooper executed by the SS. His career began as a conscript in the Active Army, serving nine months prior to enlisting in the Canadian Active Service Force. From this point forward he made a series of fateful decisions, which ultimately led to his death as a member of the French Resistance. His path from Zombie to “martyr” is unique for a Canadian soldier during the Second World War.

The Vernon Military Camp And The Imperial Training Archipelago, 1939-45, Megan Hamilton

Canadian Military History

The Vernon Military Camp was one of the many interwoven institutions that fed trained soldiers into the vast armies of the British Empire in the Second World War. Beginning the war as a barren hill that lacked modern equipment, it was eventually developed into a professional training centre that both served and benefitted from national, Imperial and Allied war efforts. Taking a ground-level view of Canadian Army training and inter-theatre learning, this article argues that army training camps, even those in the periphery, played a vital role in strengthening Imperial and Allied interoperability by facilitating knowledge transfer away from active …

Pentecostal Hope In The Age Of Covid-19, Peter Althouse, Audrey E. Mccormick

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

This research sought to identify how Pentecostals and charismatics responded to the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, what role did eschatology play in provoking hope, and how did theologies on healing influence responses? Data revealed that Pentecostals were generally not casting their responses to the pandemic as a millennial expectation of a better future but were grieving their losses and seeking to provoke hope amidst suffering. While minimal miraculous healings were reported, healing was cast primarily as the ongoing presence of defiant hope amidst trauma, grief and suffering. We propose that grief and grieving is an eschatological response to loss and death.

How Generation Z Canceled The United States Government: An Analysis Of Trust, Corrine Hofmann

Politics Honors Papers

Gen Z, the generation of Americans born between 1997-2012, is notable for its lack of trust in political institutions. While older generations have dismissed members of Gen Z as “cynical,” “lazy,” and “argumentative,” it is important to understand the sources behind Gen Z’s lack of trust in government. Using data from the American National Election Survey, this thesis presents an empirical analysis of nine macro- and micro-level concepts that could account for this lack of trust: 1) Gender 2) Race 3) Education 4) Income 5) Religiosity 6) Congressional Approval 7) Media Consumption 8) Economy 9) and Party Identification. Only party …

Cmsi Translations #2: Dominating The Battlefield—The Advantages Of Unmanned Intelligent Combat Forces, Zhao Xiangang, Su Yanqin

CMSI Translations

In his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping emphasized the need to accelerate the development of unmanned intelligent combat forces. Looking at the practice of local wars in recent years, unmanned combat forces as represented by drones have become an important part of the joint operational force system, playing an increasingly prominent role as an effectiveness multiplier. Especially with the advent of artificial intelligence technology and its rapid development and widespread use in the military field, unmanned systems are becoming more intelligent and autonomous, and unmanned intelligent operations are showing advantages and …

Military Paradise: The Paradox Of Hawai‘I In The Vietnam War, Allie Jansen

Research Awards

Independently, there is an abundance of research into the path to Hawaiian statehood, the militarization of the islands, and the racism that has historically centered American discourse about Hawai‘i. There are very few scholars, however, that have sought to synthesize these ideas or investigate them in relation to the Vietnam War. The literature on Hawai‘i’s role in the war consists almost exclusively of a single book chapter: “Race War in Paradise: Hawai‘i’s Vietnam War” in Soldiering Through Empire by Simeon Man. Man provides a detailed account of the specific ways in which the Hawaiian Islands contributed to the US effort …

Artificial Intelligence And Film: A Journey In Public Perception From 1960 To The Present Day, Kayla Anderson, Andrew Roggeman, Joseph Fuller

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

An analysis of accomplishments in film from the 1960s-2020s that feature Artificial Intelligence to give a full picture of how public perception has changed towards these technologies over time, supplemented by historical and technological context.

The European Case For Kosovo, Serbia, And North Macedonia: A Western Balkan Focus, Logan Michael Kase

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

European integration of Western Balkan territories currently faces high-tension ethnic and religious antagonism between Serbia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. The Balkans have been dealing with a cauldron of simmering ethnic internal battles that have lingered for decades. Years of Serbian and Kosovo contention severely setback the accession timeline, therefore, affecting further the integration of its neighbor North Macedonia. The European Union demands all disputes and corruption measures settled, per regulation standards set by the enlargement package from the commission. Key regional players’ sphere of influence becomes an interesting variable during policy discussions leaving a path to full European integration reliant …

The Importance Of Dialogue Between The United States And North Korea: How Can The United States Respond To The Nuclear Issue With North Korea?, Unbi Choi

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The nuclear issue with North Korea could create even more danger in currently tense international relations. In reality, a long-standing economic sanction is a factor in North Korea's continued hostile attitude toward the United States. The Trump administration chose negotiation instead of economic sanctions. Negotiations succeeded in temporarily easing tensions between the United States and North Korea. However, the Biden administration put economic sanctions back on North Korea. Since then, North Korea has increasingly cultivated hostility, even more than in the last few years, and is further developing nuclearization. As this example indicates, economic sanctions would have negative consequences. The …

Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots: Investigating The Chinese Government’S Relationship With The Uyghur Population To Determine The Potential For Terrorism And Genocide, Anya Veinberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

History is wrought with war, crime, and persecution. After nearly every conflict, world leaders vow to never let something similar happen again. Yet, history seems to repeat itself, and so do its conflicts. The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews and seemed to set a precedent of a modern threshold of evil. How many people would argue that an event strikingly similar to the Holocaust is happening right now in China?

The Chinese government is currently committing acts of violence and faith and race-based discrimination against the Uyghur population.

This work analyzes the interaction between the Chinese government …

Analysis Of Sun Tzu's Art Of War, Hannah Marchiny

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

America faces troubling times with various countries presenting unique threats. Few are more troubling than China. Now more than ever the U.S. needs effective strategies to combat global threats. To that end, I use Sun Tzu’s book Art of War as my main source for strategic wisdom. Sun Tzu’s principles have endured as long as they have because of their continued relevance in every generation and situation. In my paper, I discuss a few of the main tenets of Sun Tzu’s famous Art of War and how China is currently employing them against the U.S. I explain how China’s masterful …

The Moral Evils Of Open Borders, Carl D. Rehberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Since January 2021, the U.S. federal government, through the executive branch, started supporting de facto open borders with its stated and unstated policies by illegally and systematically ignoring and not enforcing numerous laws, rules, and regulations regarding the border and immigration enforcement writ large. In the last three years, the open borders have gotten worse, and now many describe the open borders crisis as an invasion. By all appearances, these open borders were intentionally planned, funded, and executed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations (UN) through our government. Ironically, the Christian community (including Evangelicals) has been divided on …

Cmsi Translations #1: The “Cans” And “Cannots” Of The Military Application Of Artificial Intelligence, Zhang Long

CMSI Translations

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military field is an important force for promoting improvements in military technology and progress in the revolution of military affairs and is a key driver changing operational patterns and disrupting the form of war. In the upsurge of military applications of AI, we must think carefully about future decisions, deeply understand the technological hub (jishu shuniu) role of AI, dialectically view the functional boundaries of military applications of AI, and accurately grasp what AI "can" and "cannot" do. We must oppose both contemptuous and omnipotent theories of AI military application, …

Photojournalism: Values And Constraints, Aestheticism, And Aftermath Photography, Ioannis Kontos, Ioannis Galanopoulos Papavasileiou

All Works

This article delves into the essence of photojournalism, focusing on values and constraints and scrutinizing specific works by Yannis Kontos through the prisms of aestheticism and aftermath photography. Drawing on photojournalist methods, personal experiences, and literature, the authors articulate the nuanced nature of photojournalism at the convergence of aesthetics and aftermath. The core value of photojournalism, resembling forensic documentation, is explored, emphasizing the gathering of evidentiary material in adherence to practical mandates of objectivity, detachment, and neutrality. The discussion extends to practical dimensions, addressing challenges in environments such as war zones concerning time, logistics, technology, and ethics. Contemplating the potential …

Islam, Education, And Freedom: An Uncommon Perspective On Leadership, Melanie C. Brooks, Miriam D. Ezzani

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Islam, Education and Freedom explores six key areas of freedom: identity, acceptance, pedagogy, conflict, trust, and love. Based on a qualitative case study of a progressive Islamic school in Southern California, North Star Academy, the book illustrates through the voices of the participants how each particular freedom was applied in the school. The authors show how the six freedoms were understood, taught, and practiced with the aim of developing courageous and confident American Muslims. It explores the ways the school leaders facilitate and impart each freedom and the influence this has on the development of American Muslim students’ identity. The …

Influences Of Social Media, Samuel Whatley Ii

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The Internet is a double-edged sword because it provides easy access to information of both good and bad intentions. Censorship justifications under whoever deems something misinformation, provide little oversight on being a neutral public forum. For instance, the influence of elections by not covering a story and censoring opposing views does not promote the notion of being a neutral public forum. Artificial intelligence being applied to many technological applications have fueled the censorship machine. In some instances, artificial intelligence can generate stories to media sites (i.e., ChatGPT) with no verification of the details. From science fiction to science reality, taking …

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The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Bluegrass Grays: Confederate Sons And Unionist Fathers In Civil War Kentucky, Elise Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

After clinging for four months to a futile neutrality policy, the Commonwealth of Kentucky officially pledged loyalty to the Union in September 1861. Though Federal officials welcomed the state with enthusiasm, expecting her to provide significant aid to the Union army, state commanding officer William T. Sherman was soon frustrated by the astonishing one-quarter of Kentucky volunteers who flocked, instead, to the Confederacy. Hardly lonely in his disappointment, Sherman's woes were echoed by thousands of fathers across the Bluegrass State-for these Kentuckian Confederates were, overwhelmingly, young sons of men who passionately supported the Union.

The World Of Marubia: A Writer’S Perspective Into Building Worlds Using Transmedia Aesthetics, Diego Lucca Espinosa

Whittier Scholars Program

This Senior Project is a Generative and Research Thesis based around the techniques and aesthetics of Transmedia storytelling that are used when dabbling in World Building. It includes three interconnected creative pieces: 2 flash fiction stories and a short screenplay, all revolving and connected to the story world of my creation, Marubia. These stories exist in a world going through a technopoaclypse; Robotic creatures wield magic against their Human brothers in arms, slaved to the command of a Dark God. The Transmedia Aesthetics coined by Professor Geoffrey Long, specifically Resonant Simple-Story Myths, Fractal Storytelling, and World-Centric Narrative Design were pivotal …

Applications, Challenges, And Research Issues For Enabling A Uav Swarm, Jennifer Hahner

Senior Honors Theses

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms have the potential to be useful in numerous applications due to their versatility and ability to operate without human intervention. However, this promising technology still requires further investigation, research, and testing before UAV swarms can be implemented extensively. The level of human intervention needed to control the system determines the differing levels of autonomy for UAV swarms. For swarms to become more independent, efficient algorithms for task and path planning are essential. In addition, accurate communication is essential for swarms to be able to coordinate and accomplish tasks successfully. This paper seeks to provide a …

"The Most Hopeful Time": A Contextualization And Evaluation Of Northern Irish Student Activism On The Cusp Of The Troubles, Sadie M. Deshon

Senior Honors Theses

Many Americans are familiar with the history of student riots in the U.S. in the late 1960s—from marches against the Vietnam War, to those advocating civil rights for African Americans. Far fewer Americans, however, realize that nearly the entire western world was concurrently embroiled in similar student-led movements, most of which converged in 1968. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom that seems to defy definition as a political entity (particularly among its own people, who may describe it as a country, region, or province, depending on their respective political ideologies), was not immune to this trend. The Catholic …