Digital Commons Network^™

Dialogic Communication And Digital Fandom: The Role Of K-Pop In Shaping Global Artist–Fan Relationships, Huanchun Xu

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how K-pop artists use Instagram and Weverse to communicate with fans, and how platform-specific affordances shape the relational dynamics of contemporary fandom. Using a mixed-method content analysis of four artists—Seventeen, Babymonster, Lee Sung-Kyoung, and Kim Myungsoo (L)—this study compares 2022–2024 posting patterns across both platforms. Quantitative findings show that highly curated promotional photos and videos dominate Instagram, whereas Weverse contains far more text-based, casual, and relational posts.

This study further reveals that Weverse fosters dialogic communication, personal disclosure, and multilingual fan interaction, unlike on public-facing platforms. Drawing on dialogic communication theory and computer-mediated communication (CMC) interaction frameworks, …

Creating A Radical Social Change Campaign To Restore Rational Thinking: A Theoretical Framework, John S. Long

Student Theses and Dissertations

Rational thinking is a skill and mindset that is under siege in modern society, becoming increasingly endangered as we devolve into increasingly hyper-partisan communities rife with echo chambers and confirmation biases. The most basic processes of analyzing issues and facts to develop clearly thought-out and defendable positions have been abandoned in favor of a zealous devotion to toe the party line, no matter the evidence or implications. What we are witnessing firsthand is the fast-approaching culmination of the post-truth era.

One might assume that an issue with such far-reaching implications across our entire society would generate a significant amount of …

Understanding Asynchronous Learning For Moana Communities By Moana Educators In The Digital Vā, Theresa Pamela Onesemo-Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic shift from face-to-face learning to an online learning modality for learners globally. Moana (Pacific) communities of all ages were affected by the change due to the existing digital divide that remains an issue today. Research on culturally responsive learning pedagogy for Moana communities prior to the pandemic focused on in-person experiences. Navigating the vā (the relational space between all things) to engage with Moana communities was difficult for teachers during pandemic lockdowns. Online learning in Moana communities is an emerging field of research and has typically focused on synchronous learning. Instead, in my research …

Language Attitudes And Maintenance Within Latino Families In Utah County, Megan Elise Magleby Townsend

Theses and Dissertations

While there has been research done on Latino individuals' and parents' language attitudes and maintenance practices, there is little known about children's language attitudes and their perceptions of their parents' views towards both Spanish and English. This thesis looks at what the current picture is in terms of Spanish maintenance in Utah County's immigrant families as well as those factors that affect the parents' language attitudes and maintenance efforts. This study also seeks to fill the gap in the literature concerning what children (ages 8-13) think of English, Spanish, their respective cultures, as well as their possible plans to pass …

I Am Mentorship: Hip-Hop As A Mirror For Belonging And Becoming, David J. Berg

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

This paper presents MENTEE-SS (Mentorship, Engagement, Nurturing, Trust, Empowerment, Excellence-Systems of Support for Students and Families), a practitioner-focused reimagination of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) through the lens of hip-hop pedagogy, mentorship, and culturally sustaining practices. While traditional MTSS frameworks often emphasize compliance and deficit-based intervention, MENTEE-SS situates support in student identity, creativity, and voice.

Grounded in relational trust and arts integration, the framework uses the author’s original song I’M HIM as a case study in identity reclamation. Three tiers bring this vision to life: co-designed classroom rituals (Yo DJ, Spin That Class!, Tier 1), lyric-writing groups for recovery (The …

Remixing The Integrative Model Of Pedagogy Through Varied Hip-Hop Contexts, Colleen A. Wilkinson, Caitlin Riegel, Elizabeth Falzone

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

Embedding literature which promotes positive views of disabilities into teacher preparation programs is not an uncommon practice (Hansen et al., 2023; Yu & Meyer, 2024). However, multimedia, such as music and television, allow a more inclusive approach to disability studies. Hip-Hop music serves to represent the underrepresented in society and the overrepresented in disability categories. This paper describes how to incorporate three multimedia projects utilizing an Integrative Model of Pedagogy and Hip-Hop into teacher preparation programs for more inclusive, strategic and reflective teacher candidates. Within each project the instructor embeds specific High-Leverage Practices for students with disabilities and culturally responsive …

Interrupting Empire: Playing With Concealment And Pedagogy In The Meme ‘For The Better, Right?’, Amy N. Sojot

Education Studies Faculty publications

‘For the better, right?’ is a Star Wars meme that depicts a scene from Episode II—Attack of the Clones. Although the scene and dialogue never occur in the actual film, the meme provides a concise fourteen-word analysis of how Empire conceals itself. Using postfoundational inquiry, this article examines the meme’s pedagogy through Brian Massumi’s work on play in relation to politics and affect. Concealment and interrup- tion are identified as two characteristics of these relations. Author-created iterations of the meme demonstrate how play, as theorized by Massumi, can rework these tactics of concealment and interruption, enabling them to imagine alternative …

From Disciplinary Silos To Cyber-Transdisciplinary Networks: A Plural Epistemic Model For Agi-Era Knowledge Production, Cristo Leon, James Lipuma

STEM for Success Resources

This article extends a keynote from the 16th IMCIC 2025, offering a framework for academic institutions navigating the epistemic shifts prompted by artificial general intelligence (AGI). It argues that traditional disciplinary (Mode 1), interdisciplinary (Mode 2), and transdisciplinary (Mode 3) approaches are increasingly insufficient to address the complexity and plurality of AGI-era knowledge production. Drawing on critical communication theories—such as the Kuhn–MacIntyre thesis on incommensurability, the Bataille–Lyotard notion of invention, Nicolescu–Ostrom's governance frameworks, and Haraway–Scholz's situated knowledge—the article introduces Mode 4: cyber-transdisciplinarity.1 This mode conceptualizes AGI as an epistemic co-agent, enabling real-time mediation, synthesis, and redistribution of knowledge between human …

Scout 07, Austin Roberts

Theses

Throughout my tenure at RIT, I have produced multiple short films, undertaken gaming co-ops, and pursued an independent study centered on gaming assets to expand my technical and creative skills. For my thesis film, I sought to merge these experiences by concentrating on environmental storytelling—a deliberate challenge, given faculty concerns that narratives lacking strong character focus may struggle to engage audiences emotionally. With these considerations in mind, I crafted a film featuring a secondary character within a rich environment, designed to immerse viewers and provoke curiosity about the story’s temporal and spatial context.

Alberta Hutterite Colonies: An Exploration Of Past, Present And Future Settlement Patterns, Simon M. Evans

Communal Societies

No abstract provided.

Anticolonial Study: Anton De Kom And We Slaves Of Suriname, Jonneke Koomen

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

In 1933 Anton de Kom set up an advice bureau in his family’s yard in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, then a Dutch colony. After years of living in The Netherlands, De Kom wanted to hear the klachten (complaints) of Surinamese workers and the unemployed. Thousands responded to De Kom’s invitation; the descendants of African slaves and Asian indentured workers, Indigenous peoples, and Maroon leaders traveled from the South American plantations and forests to share their experiences of exploitation and abuse. After a month, police arrived to shut down De Kom’s listening project, hundreds of Javanese workers squatted in his …

Etymolgy And Phallocentrism, Renae Redling

Student Scholar Symposium

Historically, linguists view etymology as a distorted and frivolous practice. In the past, Etymology was used irresponsibly to devalue current usage. Etymology reveals the formation of words over time, providing context for language’s current meaning. The history of words, their etymology, has created the words we use today, curating present usage. Words are not simply signs but formed symbols with significance and history. The association of the English language with structures of power, and its firmly rooted context in a patriarchal culture has resulted in limited access to linguistic study for women. A history of patriarchal influence does not make …

“You Are The Potter I Am The Clay” … Tracing Egyptian Creation, Cult, And Ritual Power Motifs In The Pentateuch., Christopher Jenkins

Student Scholar Symposium

This paper explores the profound influence of Ancient Egyptian culture on the Pentateuch. It challenges the traditional Documentary Hypothesis, which dates the Pentateuch to the Persian and Hellenistic periods, by presenting evidence that many biblical narratives, themes, and motifs are rooted in the cultural and religious milieu of Ancient Egypt, that could not be older than the 1st Millennium B.C.E. The study highlights parallels between the creation narratives in Genesis and Egyptian cosmogonies, such as the concept of primordial watery chaos and the emergence of order through divine command. It also examines the presence of Egyptian religious practices and deities …

The Creation And Continuation Of The Elvish Language, Megan Gables

Student Scholar Symposium

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, published in the 1950s, stands apart for its use of Constructed Languages. Tolkien graduated from Oxford University and pursued a career as a professor of philology and linguistics. Tolkien loved using his linguistic expertise to create realistic cultures and communities within his fantasy worlds. One of Lord of the Rings most famous Constructed Languages is Elvish. Tolkien’s inspiration for the sound of Elvish with Welsh and Finnish as both languages are highly phonetic. Welsh inspired the stress syllables, while Finnish influenced Elvish’s sound and writing. Since Tolkien’s death in 1973, the Tolkien estate …

English Loanwords And Their Sociolinguistic Impact On The Japanese Language, Zoe Macgill

Student Scholar Symposium

No abstract provided.

Assessing Multilingual Learners: Necessary Reforms In Language And Literacy Evaluation, Victoria Gibson

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Assessing multilingual learners can look different for every student, teacher, and school. Assessing multilingual learners presents challenges because traditional tools often fail to capture students’ true abilities, with scoring inconsistencies, cultural bias, and teacher assumptions further affecting outcomes. Early identification tools, like the frequently used Home Language Survey used by Salerno and Andrei (2024), can misclassify students, impacting placement and support. Research highlights more equitable alternatives, such as formative, classroom-based, and culturally responsive assessments, that better reflect students’ full linguistic abilities and promote fair, accurate evaluation.

Factors Influencing The Choice Of Neurology As A Specialty Among Medical Students And Physicians In Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study, Muhannad A. Alahmadi, Moath M. Alomairi, Aseel O. Banasir, Omar Babateen

Saudi Toxicology Journal

Neurological disorders represent a substantial global health burden and contribute to the rising demand for neurologists. In Saudi Arabia, the shortage of neurologists underscores the importance of understanding how medical students and physicians perceive neurology as a career. This study aimed to explore the level of interest in neurology and identify factors influencing specialty selection. This cross-sectional study was conducted between November and December 2024 among undergraduate medical students and medical graduates (residents, fellows, specialists, and consultants) in Saudi Arabia. First-year students and those without prior exposure to neurology were excluded. Data were collected through a structured online questionnaire distributed …

Large Language Model Utilization For Speech-Based Culinary Recommendation System In The Indonesian Language, Mohammad Mauludin, Joan Santoso, Hartarto Junaedi

Bulletin of Culinary Art and Hospitality

This study presents the development of a conversational culinary recommendation system in Indonesian using a Large Language Model (LLM). The system aims to generate personalized restaurant recommendations through natural language interaction while addressing the limited availability of Indonesian language conversational recommender systems. Data were collected from the online platform and enhanced with synthetic conversational data to train the model’s dialogue understanding and reasoning capabilities. The proposed architecture consists of four main components: Input/Output, Recommender Agent, Tools, and Memory, which collaborate to process user input, retrieve relevant restaurant information, and generate contextually appropriate responses. The Mistral 7B model was fine-tuned using …

Workplace Dignity Amongst Clinical Nurses, Jennifer De Beer, Hawazen Rawas, Wadea Beheri

Individual Articles

Background: The workplace environment plays a pivotal role in employees’ lives as they spend many hours there. Recently, greater attention has been placed on workplace conditions as a key social determinant of health. One way through which workplace conditions may affect health is workplace dignity. This study aimed to describe clinical nurses’ workplace dignity.

Methods: The study design was descriptive and cross-sectional. Clinical nurses within a tertiary institution were randomly sampled. Data collection included the Workplace Dignity scale which is an 18 item-seven-point Likert scale consisting of dignity and indignity questions (α.98, and 0.95, respectively). Data collection commenced with a …

The High Hallow: Tolkien’S Liturgical Imagination (2025) By Ben Reinhard., Tom Emanuel

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Tom Emanuel, of The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (2025) by Ben Reinhard.

Esperanto: A Universal Or Minority Language, Anna Summerville

Student Scholar Symposium

When created languages develop a community and culture, they begin to imitate the elements of natural languages. Esperanto, a language created to unite the world under one lingua franca, demonstrates this process as it shifts from its original intention to a minority language in characteristic. “Esperanto: A Universal or Minority Language” explores the dichotomy between a language created to be spoken by all, and one that has isolated itself within its own community and customs. In discussing the history of Esperanto’s creation and structure, its evolving and loyal community, and its parallels with natural minority languages like Maori, this essay …

"Let Your Body Do The Talkin'": An Investigation Of Aesthetic Experience Through Phenomenological Psychology, Tone Roald, Anders Essom-Stenz

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

How does the experience of one’s own body contribute to aesthetic experience? This article answers the question from the point of view of phenomenological psychology by portraying how the body is lived from within in intense experiences with works of visual art. Based on descriptions of aesthetic experiences juxtaposed with phenomenological insights about the body and, in particular, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s thoughts on concrete and abstract movement, it is shown how the lived body gives form to the experience. The experience of one’s own body reflects the expressions of the works of art and comprises not only movement, and with it …

Atmospheres Create Interest: Experiencing And Utilizing Shared Situations, Andreas Rauh

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

Even though atmospheres are usually only subtly perceived in the manner of a felt body in everyday life, they possess a specific efficacy. They hold the potential to address people in their felt-bodily constitution and to arouse interest in the shared situation. In the following, the phenomenon of atmosphere is explored through case analyses from an art education project and defined as a shared situation in contrast to affect and mood. This is followed by an examination of the fundamental importance of atmosphere for learning environments. With a focus on pedagogical relationships, the role of atmospheres in educational contexts and …

Rapture "At A Distance": Searching For Pathic-Atmospheric Aesthetics, Tonino Griffero

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

The paper proposes a rethinking of the role of aesthetics as a theory of sensory experience as it is encountered in the lifeworld (and only secondarily in relation to art). Accordingly, pathic and atmospheric (bottom-up) aesthetics, which centers on the ability to expose oneself to intense experiences without attempting to control them and conceives feelings as atmospheric powers that permeate a particular space without being reduced to projections of the perceiver’s moods, should replace the idealistic (top-down) approach.

Fixation Duration As Effective Biomarker For Cognitive Function: A Developing Systematic Review, Nicholas Kurtz

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Eye-tracking technology has transformed psychological research by providing a non-invasive, real-time window into attention, perception, and cognitive processing (Ahlstrom & Friedman-Berg, 2006). Fixation duration—defined as the length of time the gaze remains stable between saccades—has been continually utilized as a key biomarker of cognitive function, providing measurable insights into variant populations and their stage of cognitive development (Negi & Mitra, 2020). This ongoing systematic review synthesizes research examining fixation duration in relation to constructs such as attentional control, working memory, processing efficiency, and effortful or inhibitory control. The current review aims to answer whether longer fixation durations equate to better …

Lutheran Music And The Thirty Years War: Confession, Politics, Devotion, Thomas Marks

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Lutheran Music and the Thirty Years War: Confession, Politics, Devotion, authored by Derek L. Stauff, by Thomas Marks.

Kalunga Crossings: Waterscapes Of Terror And "Teachment" In The African Atlantic World, Dianne M. Stewart, Tracey E. Hucks, Solimar Otero

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

In this article, we think alongside historian of religions Charles H. Long to analyze the relationship between water and empire, explore theoretical approaches to water and modernity, and probe the significance of water in Africana ecologies and spiritual cultures, highlighting its suggestive contributions to restorative epistemologies of ecological co-habitation. Our investigation advances an Africana religious framework of “waterscapes of terror and ‘teachment’” that centers diaspora bodies of water as loci for analyzing history, materiality, and ecological regard. Teachment is an anti-colonial linguistic irruption, an all-encompassing term for Africana pedagogies and epistemologies that defy antiblack and anti-African colonial instruction. Examining how …

Byzantine Theories Of Scale And Arab-Byzantine Chant Practices: A Comparative Analysis Proposing A New Resolution To The Theoretical System Of Chrysanthos Of Madytos, Rosy Azar

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

In 2015, Amine Beyhom published a book on Byzantine chant, in which he summarised all the existing theories, paying particular attention to the problematic reform of the Byzantine chant theory in 1881, and guiding the reader through the steps that led to that reform. Driven by the first ever comparison between Byzantine and Arabic modes that he had found in Mīkhāʾīl Mashāqa’s epistle, Beyhom first studied Chrysanthos of Madytos’ insight. He documented this research in detail and followed it with a practical comparison to demonstrate if theory is indeed applied or it acts only as prescriptive guide. He recorded and …

'Coming Here, It’S Just Weird': 'Making The Familiar Strange' Through Exploring Experiences Of Sexism And Feminisms, Emilia A I Little

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper explores personal experiences with gender and how these experiences changed whilst attending university as an undergraduate student. The paper uses gender and feminist theory to guide a critical and auto-ethnographic exploration of personal experiences of a young woman within a patriarchal system. The paper uses journal excerpts to recount past and current experiences through feminist lenses. Through exploring gender theory, binary and performativity, personal experiences are validated and explained. The force of patriarchal oppression and privilege were illuminated as personal conceptions of gender were disrupted. The paper argues for much-needed feminist education in schools, centring around: avoiding the …

Examining The Role Of Early Bilingualism On Interference Suppression And Prefrontal Connectivity, Matthew L. Cook, Lisa K. Boyce, Allison S. Hancock, Mackenzy S. Turner, Spencer D. Bradshaw

Human Development and Family Studies Student Research

Inhibitory control is a core cognitive function that is primarily associated with activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is the cognitive function that inhibits impulses, thoughts, and suppresses irrelevant information to an identified goal or task. Prior research suggests that bilingualism may affect brain activity related to inhibitory control, yet few studies have compared functional activity between monolingual and bilingual children. The current study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine region of interest comparisons and task-state functional connectivity across the PFC during an interference suppression Simon task with 13 bilingual (East Asian or Ibero-romance paired with English) and …