Digital Commons Network^™

Ambiguous Bodies: Third Gender Expressions In Ancient Maya Art, Jayme Horne

Theses

This thesis examines the interpretations of Lintels 23, 24, and 25 from Yachilán, Drawing 18 from Naj Tunich, and Stela H from Copán, with a specific focus on third gender expression. These artworks depict figures that blend masculine and feminine attributes, from costuming to actions, to present intentionally ambiguous representations of the body that all ancient Maya people would have understood. Third gender expression is defined through the blending of masculine and feminine signifiers. It is a gender identity for people who do not identify as male or female, but rather as neither, both, or a combination of male and …

The Lack Of Representation Of Black Women In The Sports Industry & Media, Rylan A. Harvey

Theses (2016-Present)

This thesis examines how Black women navigate and thrive within white, male- dominated sports media and industry spaces, utilizing the frameworks of Black Feminist Rhetoric and Co-Cultural Communication Theory. Using rhetorical and media discourse analysis of public figures, including Jemele Hill, Maria Taylor, Pam Oliver, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams, the study examines how Black women employ communicative strategies such as assimilation, accommodation, and separation, alongside rhetorical acts of voice, resistance, and representation, to navigate systemic inequities. These cases illustrate how language, credibility, and identity function as tools of survival and empowerment within institutions designed for exclusion. Findings reveal that …

Subsistence As Resistance: Reconceptualizing The Theory Of Progressive Property To Incubate Resistance To Consumerism, D.S. Pensley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article reconceptualizes the theory of progressive property by juxtaposing legal theory with the empirical study of a subsistence economy in the U.S. Subarctic. Progressive property holds that owners are bound by obligations to non-owners as a means to achieve human flourishing. The theory is constrained by the primacy of private property in Western thought, and it also lacks the ecological ethic required for sustainability. Drawing from my fieldwork, I suggest that human flourishing must additionally incubate resistance to consumerism.

Federal statute, 16 U.S.C. § 3113, defines subsistence as “the customary and traditional uses by rural Alaska residents of wild, …

From Disruption To Renewal: Harnessing Divine Interruptions And Strategic Leadership For Transforming Church Culture, Ryan Johnson

Great Commission Research Journal

Church revitalization is a field that addresses refreshing the church’s mission and vision by leaders who assess internal and external factors affecting the congregation’s current state. However, researchers in organizational culture argue that refreshed strategies will be ineffective without also addressing underlying cultural issues. This essay addresses the need for and the process of transforming church culture during the revitalization process. Pastors and leaders bring about cultural change by disrupting the status quo. This disruptive leadership is achieved through two approaches. First, leaders proactively and incrementally disrupt the status quo to influence cultural change through faithful pastoral practices. Secondly, leaders …

Book Review: A New And Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering The Ways God Calls And Sends By Judith Paulsen, Rhonda Haynes

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Fall 2025 Complete Issue, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Walking Moai Hypothesis: Archaeological Evidence, Experimental Validation, And Response To Critics, Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

The transport of Rapa Nui's (Easter Island) monumental moai statues has been debated for over a century. Based on a systematic analysis of 962 moai, with a focus on 62 road statues, combined with 3D modeling and experimental trials, we demonstrate that these multi-ton megaliths were designed for transport vertically in a controlled "walking" motion facilitated by their carved shapes. Our evidence includes distinctive morphological features of road moai (wide, D-shaped bases and forward lean), archaeological road characteristics (4.5m wide, concave cross-sections), non-random breakage patterns, and successful experimental validation using a precisely-scaled 4.35 metric ton replica based on road …

Keepin' Up With Popular Culture, David Arditi

Mavs Open Press Open Educational Resources - Archive

In Keepin’ Up with Popular Culture, Dr. David Arditi introduces students to popular culture as a way to view and understand society, politics, and culture. This book demonstrates to students the overall importance of popular culture in their lives. It explores the ways that language is used (and the way that we use language) to construct the world around us through popular culture.

To view the original version of this book, please go to its Pressbooks site: Keepin' Up with Popular Culture.

The Paradox Of Federal Oversight In Police Misconduct Investigations, Ilana M. Friedman

Denver Law Review

This Article examines the relationship between state prosecutors, federal prosecutors, and the Civil Rights Division inside the United States Department of Justice in conducting police misconduct investigations and prosecutions. While previous literature documents prosecutors’ enormous concentration of power, they remain an understudied population in the criminal legal system, particularly in how they investigate and prosecute police officers accused of crimes. To remedy this gap, I conducted over fifty interviews with prosecutors, civilian investigators, and other legal professionals working in the domain of police misconduct investigations and prosecutions in multiple field sites around the United States. This Article is one of …

Freshman Comp Ii Eng 24xx, Joao M. Da Silva

Open Educational Resources

This course uses a memoir to elicit themes related to addiction, family and interpersonal relationships. Additionally, it invites students to develop their own voices as they engage with academic discourse in the disciplines of psychology and addiction studies.

Immersive Art, Nature, And Afrofuturism: Cultivating Wellness And Cultural Awareness, Jojo Abenaavi Wright

Theses

This research demonstrates how Afrofuturistic art, combined with nature and scent, enables powerful methods to transform African Diaspora perceptions and support holistic wellness through sensory-emotional engagement. The project introduces The Next Narrative: An Immersive Journey Through Black Time as a multisensory immersive exhibition that combines Afrofuturistic aesthetics with Harlem Renaissance cultural elements. The exhibition presents salons as a sequence that allows visitors to experience time through visual, sonic, and atmospheric transitions. The three senses of touch, scent, and sound operate as fundamental tools for grounding and transformation, which disable analytical thinking while using bodily experiences to perform decolonial memory work. …

Tensions Between Education Policies And Standards And Educators’ Multilingual Practices: Two Case Studies From India And The United States, Natalia M. Rojas, Jessica Chandras

UNF Faculty Research and Scholarship

Through two case studies from India and the United States, we explore how educational policies and standards focused on multilingualism are interpreted and enacted within early childhood education classrooms. Recent education policies in both contexts are aimed at fostering culturally responsive and linguistically inclusive pedagogy for greater academic success for students whose home language(s) differs from the language of instruction. However, the policy implementation varies significantly based on educators’ language ideologies and cultural beliefs. We examine a critical gap between policy intentions and classroom realities. Our findings suggest that while broad educational policies provide important frameworks, their effectiveness relies upon …

Remote Sensing Of American Revolutionary War Fortification At Butts Hill (Portsmouth, Rhode Island), James G. Keppeler, Marcus Rodriguez, Samuel Koontz, Alexander Wise, Philip Mink, George Crothers, Paul R. Murphy, John K. Robertson, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, Alexandra Uhl

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The Battle of Rhode Island in 1778 was an important event in the revolutionary war leading to the international recognition of U.S. American independence following the 1776 declaration. It culminated in a month-long campaign against British forces occupying Aquidneck Island, serving as the first combined operation of the newly formed Franco-American alliance. The military fortification at Butts Hill in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, served as a strategic point during the conflict and remains well-conserved today. While LiDAR has assisted in the geospatial surface reconstruction of the site’s earthwork fortifications, it is unknown whether other historically documented buildings within the fort remain …

Perceptions Of Skiing And Gender In The Alps And Carpathians In The Interwar Period, Eleanor Millard

Mountains and Modernity

The present paper analyzes two texts set in the mountains of central Europe in the 1920s and 30s. Arnold Fanck’s film The Holy Mountain, filmed in the Swiss Alps and released in 1926, and Mihail Sebastian’s novel The Accident, published in 1940 and set partially in the Southern Carpathians, both depict women engaged in mountain sports from a male point of view. However, the two differ in their presentation: whereas The Holy Mountain treats women as a decorative aspect of the film and women’s skiing as a product of necessity rather than enjoyment, The Accident allows its female protagonist to …

Noise Law, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The rumble of traffic, the drone of air conditioners, the blast of construction equipment. These are the mundane sources of noise pollution that we all experience but rarely think about. Or, if we do think about noise pollution, we don't think of it as a central piece of federal environmental law. This Article, however, demonstrates that noise law is, or was, central to American environmental law, and it offers insights into how environmental protection and administrative governance work today.

In the 1970s, during the height of environmental activism and policymaking, lawmakers recognized noise as a serious pollutant alongside issues we …

Gender And Tax Scholarship As Critical Method, Bridget J. Crawford

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Essay offers an overview of the legal scholarship that laid the intellectual foundation for the field of gender and tax scholarship. Part II briefly recaps the organization of the symposium and the work presented. The collective work arising from the symposium reflects both the breadth and complexity of contemporary thinking on gender and taxation. In many cases, the symposium essays push the boundaries of the field in new and generative directions. Part III then turns toward the future, identifying areas of inquiry that remain underexplored, with an eye toward paths for continued research. This Essay closes …

Indigenous And Online: Implications For Contemporary Zapotec Language Acquisition And Heritage Learning In Central Oaxaca, Esénia Bañuelos , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Within the Indigenous communities of the United States and Mexico, combating language loss in a moment of exponential language loss is one of working in conjunction with contemporary tools – or creating the future of language preservation itself from them. Technological advances of the 21st century– including the expansion of instant messaging, video streaming, and photography sharing platforms– have sometimes been considered antithetical to language reclamation practices and Indigenous cultural maintenance more generally (Chibrow and Meighan-Chibrow, 2021; Warschauer, 1998). One example of this is made visible in concerns expressed by First Nations Elders in that technology may be depended upon …

Teaching Holistic History With Purpose: Developing A New Curriculum For A Unit On The World Wars, Brandon R. Katzung Hokanson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone project addresses problematic elements of high school World History education, specifically textbook-centrism and the exclusion of marginalized voices. The current pitfalls of textbook-centered history often include a perpetuation of a narrow, Eurocentric narrative that fails to represent communities of color. Textbook-centrism in history classes has also contributed to student disengagement with the historical past and offers few opportunities for students to practice desperately needed critical thinking skills. The central research question addressed in this capstone is: How can we teach high school history classes using diverse perspectives and primary sources to develop students’ critical thinking skills? The final …

Wooster Magazine: Annual Report Edition 2024-25, Caitlin Paynich Stanowick

Wooster Magazine: 2021-2030

The fall Annual Report Edition 2024-25 of Wooster magazine highlights a year of meaningful progress and shared achievement across campus. The annual financial review reports on the College’s operating revenues and expenses and showcases the ways donors contributed to the ongoing success of Wooster and its students in the past year. New endowments honoring beloved professors Ralph Bangham of biology and Nancy Ditmer of music are highlighted. Members of the Class of 2025 share their new paths in graduate study, research, and fulfilling careers. Wooster’s new minors in climate studies and humanities, arts and creative computing broaden curricular opportunities, providing …

The Leadership And Organizational Traits Of Healthy Church Cultures, Stephen Blandino

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

The leadership and organizational cultures of local churches are crucial. Over the centuries, these cultures have been shaped by various factors, from the teachings of the Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter in the New Testament to the behaviors and practices of the Catholic Church, the influence of the Reformation, and insights from modern research. This dissertation identifies ten leadership and organizational traits that have influenced the culture of New Testament, historical, and modern-day churches. These traits were used in a quantitative survey to assess their presence in contemporary churches. Based on the research, eight strategies are presented to help pastors …

Mems 4110: N1 Precise Water Distribution System, Lillian Salter, Ye Huang, Elaine Wang, Joy Luo

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The aim of the project is to construct a precise water distribution system for anthropology graduate student Christina Youngpeter, who is studying the impact of hydration levels on the growth of quinoa plants. As her experiment grows in scale, she increasingly needs a system that can measure and distribute water for her, saving hours otherwise spent meticulously measuring water for 36 plants and counting. The system must measure water accurately and distribute it to the plants cleanly and efficiently. It should also be scalable and autonomous, requiring minimal human intervention.

Evaluating Community Satisfaction With Cultural Educational Projects Through Neutrosophic Plithogenic Iadov, Claudia Yadira Cuenca Macas, Jack Franck Jaramillo Herrera, Isaac Roger Martinez, Rudy Garcia Cobas, Nayade Caridad Reyes Palau

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This study addresses the gap of assessing the Kawymeno indigenous community's satisfaction with an interdisciplinary teaching project which was designed to enhance cultural identity for these children at risk of cultural loss due to other identity-possessing persons' facilitation. Preservation of cultural identity is important because with indigenous people and non-indigenous persons, for example, globalization might facilitate the loss of the ancestral tongue and age-old activities, thus, it's important to know whether such communities approve or not of such teaching endeavors. Relative to the international findings about intercultural education, very few studies exist that assess the phenomenon from a multicultural perspective …

Care As The Primary Motivation In Home Birthing Among Mothers In Panukulan, Quezon, Leslie A. Lopez, Marie Angelie Molina

Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC)

This qualitative study examines how women in Panukulan, Quezon, a GIDA municipality, make decisions regarding childbirth in light of national and municipal policies that promote institutional delivery and discourage home births. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as an analytical framework, the study analyzes maternal intrapartum health-seeking behavior (HSB) through the following components: a) sociocultural and institutional context, b) intention formation based on attitudes toward facility and home birthing, perceptions of subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, and c) actual behavior. Findings reveal that while facility births are widely recognized for their clinical safety, women’s preferences for specific behaviors are …

Venezuelan Migrants In Prostitution: A Personal Decision?, Yazmin Maria Lucila Cadena Camargo, Izara Maite Mondragon Moreno, Isabela Osorio Jaramillo, Paula Angélica Suárez Álvarez, Andrés Duarte Osorio, Carlos Gómez-Restrepo

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper explores the multifaceted experiences of Venezuelan migrant women engaged in prostitution, framed through three critical moments: the “decision to enter in prostitution,” the unique abuses faced, and the resultant consequences on mental, physical, and social health. The study highlights how socioeconomic vulnerabilities—exacerbated by migration and poverty—significantly influence the likelihood of entering prostitution. It also shows how traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood and adolescence, coupled with a lack of support networks, contribute to a heightened risk of exploitation. Eleven life stories were collected through a phenomenological approach, revealing a common narrative of abuse, poverty, and the search for survival …

Mama, Appa, And Titi: What Makes Words Sound Parental? A Phonological Exploration Of Parental Terms In And Beyond The Gender Binary, Madeleine C. S. Kruckemeye , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This paper addresses the following research question: What phonological components make a word sound ‘parental’ cross-linguistically and (how) do those components relate to the social genders associated with the word? The goal in answering this question is to extend Jakobson (1960) and Murdock’s (1959) work to be inclusive of our current understanding of gender and gender roles, and to create more options for queer parents and other families that are recognizable as parental terms, an important factor as found by Frank et al. (2017). The research consists of a literature review, an analysis of cross-linguistic parental terms, and an online …

Climate Change And Human Migration, Jennifer R. Guzmán

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

Migration is one of the oldest human behaviors and among the most important of human survival strategies. Climate change has always been a significant driver of human migration because humans are interdependent with the ecosystems where they live. Today’s climate change is anthropogenic, and its harmful effects are made worse by social inequities. Millions are having to leave their homes, including internally displaced people, climate refugees, and labor migrants. Radical changes are needed in science, policy, law, and cultural narratives to minimize the harms of climate displacement.

Islams And Modernity In Cyprus And Turkey: A Comparative Perspective, Michael Todd Smith

School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies Faculty Publications

This article critically analyzes Aziz Al-Azmeh’s concept of Islams, while arguing for a contextbased analysis of the meeting between religious identity and modernity. It provides a loose framework for analyzing encounters between Islams and modernity in the cases of Cyprus and Turkey. Despite their close cultural and political connections at the rise of modernity, these two cases diverge, showcasing a high degree of public and private secularism in Cyprus and a contested public secularism and significant private religious identification in Turkey.

V.1 Fall 2025, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Fall 2025 issue contains articles on the intersection of the natural world and human experience, technology, identity, immigration, activism, divestment, institutional history, political resistance, decolonization, and the digital vs. physical realms. The issue contains experimental poetry, visual essays, and reflections on the "nature of publication".

Syllabus: Gen140 Gender, Activism, And Social Change, Ellie Bell

Open Educational Resources

This course introduces students to general topics in activism, gender studies, and justice. The course will draw connections between gender, race, sexuality and grassroots, community and organizational activism and social justice and change. Students will be expected to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom to observational and documentation projects focusing on the activism occurring on the college campus and in the larger community. The course will introduce key terms in the interdisciplinary fields of gender and activist studies and some of the important debates in these fields. It will then focus on a specific form of activism toward social …

Behind The Gens: A Bioarchaeological Study Of Kinship Structure And Social Change In Iron Age Latium, Italy, Andrea Noemí Acosta Caballero

Theses and Dissertations

The cemetery of Osteria dell’Osa is the only completely published Iron Age cemetery from Latium. Its research legacy continues as dietary, mobility, and biological affinity patterns were reconstructed through carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotope analyses and biodistance analysis using bone and dental samples for this dissertation project. The main hypotheses tested are:

a) The diet of people buried at Osteria dell’Osa during the Iron Age likely consisted of mostly grains like wheat and barley, which may yield low carbon isotope signatures;

b) The protein consumption of the diet of people at Osteria dell’Osa was mainly composed of terrestrial protein …