Digital Commons Network^™

Bodies Collapsing Together... Together As Dust., Catherine J. Wang

Masters Theses

I welcome you to a pedagogy of collapsing bodies: the teaching and learning practice between surviving occupants of Institutions.

From the villainizing of trans- bodies in K-14 public schools to the bodily removal of Palestinian discourse from universities, the 2025 presidential takeover of the Department of Education unearths systemic urgencies over the fragility, complicity, and agency of academic institutions—survivors of wars, recessions, shootings, climate disasters—that have always been collapsing. As long as educational campuses stage political and industrial performances, Institutional marriage to capitalism collapses the future of the university. Our architectural pedagogy shoulders this weight of confrontation: design education as …

More Than Her Othering Narrative, Jiayi Zhang

Masters Theses

Following feminist theory and spatial critique, this thesis challenges the kitchen’s traditional function as an enclosed site of invisible domestic labor. It reclaims the kitchen as an open, public, and empowering space. In so doing, it reframes it as a critical site of collective resistance, care, and community building.

Fall River, MA is a post-industrial city marked by disinvestment and food insecurity. This thesis integrates existing food pantries and public landscapes into a network of community kitchens using repurposed vacant lots and an existing bike path. These multi-functional spaces where food is grown, cooked, and shared, become an infrastructure of …

Almost Architecture, Almost [ Other ] : Examining Approximative Methods Of Design Through The Lens Of Hydrologic Structures, Pateton Gonzales

Masters Theses

This thesis is centered in Gallup, NM, a border town to the Navajo Nation Reservation. The town exists amidst a growing water crisis in the four corners region, with around 1/3rd of the reservation not having a reliable source of running water within their homes. The entirety of the area relies heavily on stored groundwater in subterranean sandstone aquifers, with little to no surface water sources to replenish the water that gets extracted. Gallup itself sits in a small pocket, landlocked by the reservations checkerboard of ownership. Amidst an overall increase in scarcity and misuse, this thesis proposes approximation as …

Till Tender, Karli R. Ehl

Masters Theses

Vulnerable, young, sensitive to pain, immature, not tough. These are some of the words and phrases that come up when you do a quick search of the definition of tender. I have felt every single one of these emotions over the past two years in depths I have not before. I have worked tirelessly, back and forth and in between, to try and figure out what it means to become oneself, while slowly untethering myself from the devotion to my Southern family. Trying to find the visual language for this process has transformed me into a tender being with no …

Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love, Jonathan Erick Guzman

Masters Theses

“Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love” is an interdisciplinary thesis that explores the intersections of queer Chicanx identity, photography, and performance as technologies of survival and self-construction. I construct a speculative archive of Chicanx queer experience through my tripartite personas: Barbí, Luke, and myself—collectively, the Guzman Triplets.

Through these embodied avatars, I embrace rasquachismo, camp, Catholic iconography, and hybrid photographic processes—including Polaroids, AI-manipulated imagery, anthotypes, and installation—to investigate visibility, fragmentation, and ancestral memory. Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s frameworks of la herida abierta and nepantla, José Esteban Muñoz’s concepts of disidentification and queer futurity, and bell …

Covered In Snow, Katelynn M. Rogers

Masters Theses

Covered in Snow is a photographic exploration into the ripple effect of maternal loss and environmental decay in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. In the wake of a miscarriage, the woods I had grown up within began calling to me, urging me to return. Unbeknownst to me, a series of accidental deaths of women had been happening throughout these trees my entire life, their stories only coming to the surface as I looked to the trees for solace. This series of inexplicable deaths in the woods I so desperately loved began to alter my relationship to the trees, a distrust …

The Navel Of The Dream, Ella C. Baum

Masters Theses

The images in The Navel of the Dream evoke a state of groundlessness. In this body of work, photographs act as thresholds between what is seen and what is felt, between daydreams and nightmares, and memories and myths. The camera is used as a means to engage with feelings of loss, and reenact the mythos of childhood, as well as the deep waters of the subconscious.

Created in Southern Sweden between 2022 and 2025, these photographs investigate the fallow winter landscape, the liminal space of deep, dark Scandinavian nights and the transformative qualities of ice, snow and …

Silent Veins, Yinghan Zhang

Masters Theses

My art is founded on the scholar stones in my home in China. These are rocks once collected by ancient scholars and poets, who admired their natural forms for their aesthetic beauty and philosophical qualities. These silent creations of nature are at the heart of my creative inspiration. They serve as spiritual vessels, connecting natural philosophy with personal memory. I listen to the whispers of time within the textures of stone and paper through the contemporary expression of traditional techniques such as rubbing and water-based woodcut, allowing otherwise silent materials to speak a language spanning centuries. In this thesis, Silent …

Field Journal: The Excluded Middle, Carrie E. Kouts

Masters Theses

What does it look like to engage with organisms and landscapes at the periphery of anthropocentric value structures? How does one break the internalized myth that the “built” environment is excluded from the natural world? When does a hyper-mobile and hyper-commodified society confront the exponential crisis of animal death? Within this series of journal entries, field notes, collection observations, weird prose, and sensory musings, one will find questions on the nature of being human and the complex narratives of care we encounter in a world shared with more-than-humans. Each handwritten vignette and photograph from daily life weaves a non-linear and …

Transplant Transplant(Ed) Transplant(Ing), So Jung Yoon

Masters Theses

Boundaries shape our lives and identities. The tangible presence of boundaries becomes a medium for engaging with the world—such as who occupies a space and how, or what tools are deemed valid in a design process. These boundaries aren’t always visible; they’re embedded in systems, habits, and assumptions that shape how we move, create, and are recognized. They extend far beyond fixed geographies and the specific positions we occupy within them.

Transplanting is the process by which things are moved or move across boundaries in hopes of being planted, finding a place to stay. Though it can be a search …

The Afterlife Of Walls / Reimagining The Museum Beyond Possession, Bensu Girgin

Masters Theses

When artifacts are returned, whether to their original sites or to communities with enduring cultural and ancestral ties, what might museums become in their absence? Once defined by possession, these spaces could shift toward empathy: not through institutional authority, but through shared presence and living memory.

This thesis critiques how Eurocentric museum practices have long sustained a colonial logic by detaching artifacts from the cultural, spiritual, and embodied contexts that gave them meaning. In doing so, museums render objects static, symbols of conquest rather than continuity, and reinforce historical narratives rooted in domination and erasure. Centering the British Museum as …

Giving Space To Equity: Creating Modular Mentorship Spaces For At-Risk Youth, Helei Gomariz-Robertson

Masters Theses

The built environment is a physical manifestation of a society’s values and priorities. The way space is allocated reflects what a society deems significant, shaping how communities and cities function on both a practical and symbolic level. In Washington, D.C., this relationship between space and meaning is particularly evident. The city’s layout was carefully designed to emphasize national identity, with monuments and memorials occupying central locations that highlight their historical and symbolic importance. However, not all spaces receive the same attention or resources. For example, the only youth rehabilitation center serving the Washington, D.C., area is built to accommodate just …

From In To Out, Jaeyeon Shin

Masters Theses

In contemporary Korean society, where uniform ideals and social pressure often dominate, individuality—especially emotional individuality—can be difficult to maintain. This loss of personal agency has real consequences: mental and physical health challenges, including eating disorders, are on the rise.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 3 percent of the global population is affected by such disorders—roughly 1.55 million people in South Korea—despite the country having the lowest obesity rate among OECD nations. The increase, particularly among women in their teens to thirties, reflects the emotional toll of conforming to rigid societal standards.

Architecture is not merely a backdrop …

Naming People, Making Bodies: Reflections On Tukano Onomastics, Geraldo Andrello

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article discusses the topic of names and naming among Amerindian peoples, in particular among Tukano speakers on the Uaupés River, northwestern Amazon. After reviewing the analytical contrast between endonyms and exonyms (i.e., internal transmission of names taken from ancestors versus the capture of names from extra-human sources), I explore endonymic systems through an examination of differences between the Jê and Tukano, considered to be exemplary cases of this naming regime. The Tukano case, explored in more depth towards the end of the article, provides elements that indicate an articulation between both regimes as well as a complex dynamic between …

Relatos Corporales Con Ajustes Epistémicos De Cuando Un Cuerpo Humano Se Transformaba En Bufeo En El Río Napo, Nehemías Pino

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Es inusual ver a un ser humano transformándose en delfín y mucho menos lo es el tener una conversación con este en el proceso. Este texto explora el momento de una transformación corporal en la Amazonía peruana desde una experiencia etnográfica en la que divergentes aproximaciones ontológicas contribuyeron a definir un espacio en un bosque de naturalezas múltiples. Mi reflexión se construye alrededor de una tímida, silenciosa y no menos común pregunta de si algunas transformaciones corporales u otras experiencias sensoriales durante labores etnográficas son reales o no. Sin pretender un ejercicio analítico sobre el cuerpo en el bosque …

Do Myths Ever Die? Social-Cultural Changes And Mythical Transformations In Indigenous Amazonia: A Dialogue With Peter Gow, Aparecida M. N. Vilaça

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This is the first Peter Gow Memorial Lecture, given at the University of St Andrews in February 2024. Based on the analysis of different versions of Wari’ myths (Rondônia, Brazil) collected over forty years, the paper has two central objectives. The first is to engage with Peter Gow’s analysis of the mythical transformations resulting from the historical changes experienced by the Piro/Yine Indigenous people of Peru. The second is to discuss Lévi-Strauss’s suggestion that a myth can “die” after successive transformations, exhausting itself, taking the form of romantic tale or legendary tradition.

An X-Ray Of Mẽbêngôkre Houses In Terms Of Matrimonial Alliance, Vanessa R. Lea, Leandro Mahalem De Lima

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article examines the matrimonial implications of the Houses, or matrihouses, of the Mẽtyktire subgroup of the Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó-Jê) with the assistance of Puck (Program for the Use and Computation of Kinship Data) and Pajek software. In accordance with the greater legibility of graphics, statistical results have been converted into graphics whenever possible. The analysis is based on a revised version of a dataset spanning the years 1978 to 1982 and published on the site Kinsources. What began as a village census later morphed into genealogies, which served as the basis for the digital dataset. The matrihouses …

Ser Nhande’I Va’E, Da Concepção Aos Primeiros Passos: Uma Abordagem Etnográfica Sobre A Permanência, O Movimento E A Palavra, Maria Inês Ladeira

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

O evento do nascimento, assim como os ritos de passagem, são temas recorrentes na literatura etnográfica, com destaque aos resguardos, condutas e preceitos. Neste artigo, ao versar sobre o ato de nascer, refiro-me a alguns princípios referenciados na cosmologia guarani, na qual esse acontecimento é também um marcador – marco espaço/temporal – dos lugares habitados – isto é, ação de territorialização. Determinadas condutas pré e pós-parto são fundamentais para os Guarani Mbya e os Ava Guarani se socializarem com os demais viventes nas matas/terras que conformam seu território (Yvyrupa). A partir desse prisma, ressalto algumas propriedades e combinações …

Enactive Narrativities: Rubber-Times Historicity And Indigenous Media In Peruvian Amazonia, Gabriel Torrealba Alfonzo

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article analyzes the intersection between historicity and politics expressed in Kukama media-making practices. It examines the political and enactive dimensions involved in the Indigenous mediatization of rubber-era narratives in Peruvian Amazonia. I focus on the case of Radio Ucamara, a Kukama radio station from the Peruvian town of Nauta, and the ways in which they confront private and state powers through the production of digital and non-digital media. I specifically analyze Indigenous media-makers’ instrumentalizations of rubber-times narrativity by virtue of aesthetic mastery. Radio Ucamara media relies on a polyphonic strategy that encapsulates both narrative and meta-narrative discourses aimed to …

Outras Antropologias E Seus Desafios Cosmopolíticos: Reflexividades Indígenas, João Paulo Barreto

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Este texto é resultado “Dueto”/keynote com Tânia Stolze Lima do Congresso da Salsa em Letícia, intitulado: “Outras antropologias e os seus desafios cosmopolíticos”, proferida no dia 29 de novembro de 2023, onde propõe uma reflexão sobre os desafios enfrentados pelos estudantes indígenas no campo da Antropologia, especialmente no contexto universitário de pós-graduação. Como também discute os limites e tensões entre o pensamento indígena e a lógica ocidental acadêmica, marcada pela pretensão de universalidade e pela classificação redutora dos conhecimentos dos povos indígenas. Coloca-se em pauta a desconstrução dos corpos e pensamentos que os indígenas são submetidos ao adentrar na universidade, …

Baniwa Speculative Kinship, João Vianna

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article discusses the dynamics of Indigenous kinship in the Amazon, based on the autobiographical narrative of Mr. Júlio Cardoso, a ninety-year-old man of the Baniwa people. From his account, I develop an ethnographic discussion on the Baniwa, speakers of an Arawak language and inhabitants of the Upper Rio Negro, with a particular focus on the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Júlio’s life is highlighted due to his extended period living with patrões from the regional aviamento system between the 1950s and 1970s. One of Júlio’s most recurrent formulations regarding these non-Indigenous bosses is that they were “as if” …

The Prospect Of Geospatial Analysis In The Prediction Of Surface Quality In Machining, Prithbey Raj Dey, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This research underscores the prospect of geospatial analysis in machining operations to enhance precise prediction and robustness, offering a comprehensive framework of spatial modeling for advanced manufacturing processes. Geospatial analysis not only provides accurate predictions but also estimates the uncertainty associated with these predictions, offering valuable insights for process optimization. The surface quality in the machining processes is expressed by the estimation of the average surface roughness. While machining parameters are extensively analyzed for their influence on surface quality, the roughness profile parameters are inadequately explored. This work integrates these underexplored parameters into geospatial predictive models and evaluates their impact …

Designing Between Worlds, Levon Kostandyan

Masters Theses

This thesis reimagines design as a means of cultural continuity—an act of memory, resistance, and transformation. Rooted in the diasporic Armenian experience, it explores how identity is carried not only through storytelling, but through materials, rituals, and objects that evolve across time and place. Through the transformation of pomegranate skin from waste into a meaningful design material, the project navigates the space between symbolism and substance, honoring both the fruit’s ancestral weight and its potential as a living material language.


The work moves between personal narrative, historical research, and material experimentation, engaging with themes of displacement, hybridity, and embedded knowledge. …

The Red Thread: Objects As Medium, Hsin-Ning Alin Yang

Masters Theses

There are moments when people hesitate to speak their emotions or needs
—whether it’s love that feels too shy to articulate, needs that risk sounding too forceful, or feelings too vague to verbalize. By shifting the priority of emotion and communication factor ahead of pure functionality, this thesis posits that objects can serve as an alternative medium of communication.

This thesis begins by examining the root causes of communication difficulties and the coping strategies people use, ultimately identifying five situations in which objects can effectively substitute for verbal interaction. Building on these categories, the thesis explores how an object’s features, …

From Contamination To Consequence: Tracing Donna Lake’S Human Environmental History, Dean Kyne

Sociology Faculty Publications

The Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna Lake) in Texas has been a persistent source of environmental contamination for over a century, exposing surrounding communities to dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Originally built for agricultural irrigation, the system became a recreational fishing site before PCB contamination was discovered during public health investigations in the 1990s. This study examines patterns of demographic vulnerability, evaluates remediation efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and explores residents’ ongoing challenges related to toxic exposure. Using publicly available demographic data, EPA reports, and previous health assessments, the study analyzes variations in community characteristics …

Size Reduction Southward In Michigan's Mustard White Butterfly, Pieris Napi (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), W. H. Wagner Jr., Michael K. Hansen

The Great Lakes Entomologist

[Excerpt]

The mustard white, Pieris napi (Linnaeus) is generally considered to be a circumboreal species or species-complex. Much disagreement exists regarding the classification in this group, the members of which are extremely diverse, especially in Eurasia. There is evidently "a continuous range of differentiation, from local populations, through subspecies, to species, which nomenclature cannot fully reflect" (Bowden 1972). In North America the major controversy has been whether the so-called West Virginia white, P. virginiensis Edwards, should be separated as a distinct species. Most writers today agree that it should. Of the mustard white in the Great Lakes area, the local …

Strengthening Regulatory Standards For The Refurbished Medical Devices, Krishna Singh, Manan Sharma, Ashok Kumar, Sweety Sharma

Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU

Medical devices are essential in healthcare, with a wide range of over 500,000 types, from simple from simple tools like wheelchairs to complex machines such as pacemakers. These devices are categorized into four risk classes, from Class I (low risk) to Class III (high risk). Refurbished medical devices, which are previously used items restored to their original quality, offer a cost-effective solution, particularly in low-resource settings. However, they can pose risks such as contamination or worn parts if not properly maintained. Refurbishment involves repairs, reconditioning, software updates, and part replacements to meet manufacturer standards.

The global refurbished medical devices market …

An Old Law With New Tricks? The Prospects And Pitfalls Of Using The Antiquities Act Of 1906 To Shape Climate Policy On Federal Lands, Chick Hallinan

Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc

The Antiquities Act of 1906 empowers the president to declare a national monument on federally owned land, subject to constraints. As physical hazards enhanced by climate change endanger historically or biologically valuable objects and places, the Act can shape climate policy on federal land—extending the designation to new tracts and enhancing protections on existing monuments. This Note contends that climate change qualifies as a threat to federal public lands sufficient to trigger presidential authority to proclaim a national monument. Still, any such proclamation must account for the constitutional and statutory restraints that have some gravity on the president’s power to …

Address By His Excellency President General Mohammad Zia-Ul-Haq, Address By His Highness The Aga Khan On The Occasion Of The Aga Khan University Charter Presentation Ceremony

Charter of the University

No abstract provided.

The Management Of The Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) System And Its Impact On Mobility In Lagos State, Nigeria, Olukayode Lasisi, Mayowa Paul Obembe, Leke Kayode Onabanjo, Tolulope Oluwatosin Bamiro, Oluwatobee Omowumi Iyiola

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

Lagos is famous for its high traffic congestion and insufficient road infrastructure. This study examined the effect of BRT management and its influence on mobility in Lagos State. The study adopted a cross-sectional design involving data gathering through the primary data collection method using a closed-ended questionnaire purposively administered to 100 commuters of BRT buses in Lagos. The findings revealed a high positive relationship between managing the BRT system and mobility in Lagos State. Additionally, the findings indicate a robust and positive causal relationship between Lagos State’s BRT system and transportation development. The BRT system contributes to improving transportation infrastructure …