Digital Commons Network^™

Regulated Victimization: The Rise Of Human Trafficking Within The Oregon Massage Industry, Hannah Beaulieu

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Illicit massage businesses are massage spas that appear to operate as legitimate businesses but facilitate commercial sex acts behind closed doors. Recent law enforcement investigations in Oregon have revealed that some illicit massage businesses have facilitated the human trafficking of multiple victims. The illicit massage industry has steadily grown across the country but has especially boomed in recent years in Oregon. This Note investigates how the illicit massage industry has evolved to be so prevalent in our communities and what factors have contributed to the growth. It goes on to recommend ways to protect victims, to prevent further harm, and …

A Scope For Survival: Creating A Path For The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Under A Conservative Administration And Supreme Court Bench, Emily Easton

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, representing a bipartisan congressional effort to fill the gaps in workplace protections afforded to pregnant workers. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) final rules interpreting the PWFA have generated significant legal and political controversy—especially around the broad interpretation of the definition of related medical conditions to include lactation, “elective” abortions, menstruation, infertility, and contraception.

Given the current political and legal climate presented by a conservative federal administration and Supreme Court bench, this Note proposes a pragmatic …

A Corporate Accountability “Turn” In International Climate Litigation, Jacqueline Peel

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Corporations are among the most significant emitters of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, which are responsible for the existential threat of climate change. Yet accountability for corporate emitting activities has been difficult to secure, particularly where companies operate across nation-state borders or have global value chains. This Essay looks at recent developments in international law, found in a series of climate-related advisory opinions issued by international courts and tribunals, which may signal greater corporate accountability for climate harms. It argues that the recent advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and …

Corporate Climate Litigation In Europe: Scaffolding From State Obligations And The Rise Of Polluter-Pays, Joana Setzer, Nina Koistinen, Catherine Higham, Lucas Biasetton

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Over the last decade, Europe has been the crucible of path-defining climate cases. Across the region, courts have been asked to define the limits of public and private responsibility. This Essay argues that corporate climate litigation in Europe has developed along two intersecting trajectories that together define an emerging framework of climate accountability. The first extends public-law standards to corporations, translating human rights and carbon-budget principles into private-law duties of care, due diligence, and disclosure that reach across entire value chains. The second trajectory sees the emergence of polluter-pays litigation, which seeks to proportionate damages and adaptation costs from major …

Relentless: The Pressures Shortening Law School Deanships And What Must Change, Katie Kempner, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Articles

It is no small thing when a law school loses its dean. The departure triggers a national search, stalls institutional momentum, disrupts fundraising, and requires rebuilding years of relationships with faculty, alumni, and university leadership, all while the institution navigates one of the most turbulent periods in legal education's history. Approximately 25 percent of the nation's law schools transition to a new dean in any given year. That reality prompted this study.

This study combined a survey of 624 current and former law school deans, which yielded 256 responses and data on 294 deanships, with 70 qualitative interviews conducted between …

Regulating For Birth Justice, Jamille Fields Allsbrook

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Impacted persons have shared accounts of traumatic birthing experiences, and advocates have raised the alarm on the urgent need to advance birth justice. Despite this raised awareness, women and birthing people are still dying and suffering unnecessarily. Even more, systems are still structured to impede birthing choices, particularly those from marginalized communities such as Black and Indigenous women. Notably, over 80% of U.S. maternal deaths are preventable, according to federal government data. Ironically, the same laws and systems that have created, perpetuated, and tolerated birth injustices can be leveraged to move the country towards birth justice. On the national level, …

Let Them Hear It: Peaceful Protests Near The Homes Of Supreme Court Justices, Srikanth Reddy

Lewis & Clark Law Review

All of us—not just attorneys and politicians—need to be more critical and skeptical of the Supreme Court. Criticism by ordinary people is good and appropriate, even if it hurts the Justices’ feelings. That includes public protests. When a case matters enough to them, members of the public can and should criticize the Court and its Justices, including by peacefully gathering and protesting near a Justice’s home, or when a Justice appears out in the world.

Law And The Moral Geography Of Urban Education, Rebecca Horwitz-Willis

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In contemporary discussions, urban schools are often labeled as “bad,” while suburban schools are generally regarded as “good.” These assessments are typically based on achievement metrics, resource allocations, and the demographics of student populations. However, this Article offers a new lens through which to analyze the valuation of urban schools: the relationship between local vice regulation and what I term “educational geographies” in urban areas. Specifically, it argues that the location of vice institutions in cities has disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods, thereby devaluing the educational geographies within these communities. These distributions do not just impact market value, but rather, also …

Truth And Consequences: What Catastrophe Teaches Us About Homeownership And Underinsurance, Kenneth S. Klein

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The firestorms enveloping Los Angeles in January 2025 made yet more inescapable the reality of the increasingly overwhelming impacts that climate change is having on communities. Many thousands of owner-occupied homes were destroyed. Most homes have insurance, but many homeowners will be surprised to find themselves underinsured, meaning their insurance proceeds will be materially less than the insurer-reported, incurred cost of rebuilding their destroyed home. The human consequences on these homeowners, each of whom has lost everything in a single week, are a now sadly all too imaginable tragedy in real time.

How underinsurance happened and what could have been …

Catching The Forgotten: Repairing The Safety Net For Cofa Migrants In The United States, Brian Aguilar

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Citizens of the Freely Associated States—the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Belau—are permitted to live and work in the United States without a visa under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA). Yet, for nearly three decades, COFA migrants were excluded from the federal public benefits safety net. This exclusion, a product of legislative oversight in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, devastated communities like the Marshallese in Springdale, Arkansas, who endured dangerous working conditions, poverty, and severe health vulnerabilities without access to critical federal benefits programs. While …

The Lived Experiences Of Counselors Working With Adults Suffering From Major Depression In Nursing Home Facilities. A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Grounded In A Wellness Perspective, Melissa Arguelles De Jesus

All Student Theses and Dissertations

There is new knowledge that major depression disorder (MDD), specifically, is one of the most encountered mental health diagnoses assigned among older adult residents who live in a nursing home (NH) setting (Matos Queiros et al., 2021). Antidepressants are known to be the main improvement factor and optimal management for treating depression; however, consideration for other treatment modalities continues to be explored (Voineskos et al., 2020). Wellness counseling, which is known to foster a person-centered approach, may help NH residents develop coping skills to enhance both overall welfare and everyday functioning across multiple domains. Residents can be empowered as decision …

Developing Consumer Consensus On Remote Assessment And Management Of Physical Function In Older Adults (Ramp): International Modified Delphi Process, Elsa Dent, Christopher Hurst, Jack Dalla Via, Jackson J. Fyfe, Paul Jansons, Eleanor J. Hayes, Gary Skinner, Marc Sim, Mylene Aubertin-Leheudre, Sabine Britting, Fanny Buckinx, Gavin Connolly, Lora Giangregorio, Jennifer R.A. Jones, Pauline Kelly, Robert Kob, Suzanne N. Morin, Girish Nandakumar, Lucas B.R. Orssatto, Maria Pearson, Daniel Pinto, Esmee M. Reijnierse, Catherine M. Said, Mohamed Salem, Vina P.S. Tan, Rosanna Tran

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Remote health care delivery, including the use of digital health interventions, is emerging as a tool for assessing and managing physical function, but its design and implementation often overlook the needs and preferences of older adult end users. Objective: The primary aim of this modified Delphi process was to develop consumer consensus on preferences for remote assessment and management of physical function in older adults. Methods: Research and consumer experts of the Remote Assessment and Management of Physical Function in Older Adults (RAMP) Working Group co-developed the Round 1 Delphi survey, which was advertised to consumers (adults aged ≥60 …

Gender-Inclusive Language In Spanish: A Data-Informed Sociolinguistic Exploration Of Naming Variation, Silvia Rivera Alfaro, Jonathan Hanon

Publications and Research

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a data-informed sociolinguistic exploration of the variation in the names given to gender-inclusive language in Spanish. We use publicly available Google Trends (GT) data to describe the frequency of usage of different names over time and explore their geographical distribution. To account for the challenges and limitations of using Google Trends, we compare the data with information from two large linguistic corpora (CORPES XXI and Google Books Ngram Viewer). Using these tools, we generate small datasets to explore the intricacies of the topic addressed in this paper. In our literature review, we identified 17 names for …

Identifying Barriers To Black Student Participation In The Advanced Placement Program, Juan Ramon Jauregui Jr.

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the factors that encouraged or deterred students from enrolling in Advanced Placement (AP) courses during high school. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, the research reviewed how school systems, relationships with peers and adults, and individual student factors influenced the participants in this study. The researcher utilized semistructured interviews with seven Black students who were currently enrolled in college and had recently graduated high school, and identified the factors that influenced their decision-making process in enrolling in AP courses. Using a thematic analysis approach, data was organized, coded, and then the researcher identified multiple themes emerging from …

Passenger Pigeons, Dodos, Neanderthals, Jordan Alexander

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Passenger Pigeons, Dodos, Neanderthals is a short story collection rooted in Afrofuturism and Southern literature. Passenger Pigeons centers the experiences of queer Black American women in various settings, from Mars to rural Florida. The title story of the collection follows Teri, a human on Mars, attempting to integrate into a society of Martians who exoticize and tokenize her. In this story, I use science fiction as a vehicle to confront the microaggressions and overt racism people of color often experience in professional environments. “Rather Be the Devil,” is a fabulist story detailing the character Man’s journey to find his missing …

Contested Air: Politics, Prejudice, And Radio Broadcasting In New York State, 1925-1928, Sebastian Garcia

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This thesis examines the intersection between radio broadcasting as the "new media" of the 1920s and American political culture of the period, using New York Governor and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith as a case study. Smith entered 1925 as a political lone wolf and left the year as a triumphant victor set to take the presidency. Building on the work of Smithian scholars, this thesis illuminates how Smith’s radio use remained central to this political transformation. Smith found in radio an apt space to bypass Republican opposition and mobilize the body politic through direct engagement, which, in …

Carbaryl Exposure Alters Gut Microbiome Composition Without Affecting Morphometrics In Eastern Purple Martin (Progne Subis Subis) Nestlings, Stephanie A. Gaspar

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Eastern purple martins (Progne subis subis) rely entirely on human-provided nesting structures throughout their breeding range in eastern North America. To control haematophagous mites that commonly infest these nests, many landlords apply the carbamate insecticide, carbaryl. Although effective at reducing ectoparasite populations, carbaryl exposure may have unintended effects on the gut microbiome, growth, and condition of developing birds. This study examined the effects of carbaryl exposure on gut microbial communities and morphometric condition in wild nestlings. Nests were experimentally treated with carbaryl, and nestling morphometrics and fecal microbiomes were compared between treated and untreated groups at 18 days …

Reflection In Still Waters: Generative Ai's Production Of Language, Jonathan D. Hawks

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Language is a conceptual process of meaning-making as well as a social construction as defined by Saussure, Bakhtin, and Lacan. Large Language Models (LLMs) engage with neither process and instead present language as a finished and consumable product which undermines its fundamental aspects. The difference between representing language through probability and its structural components instead of its more inherent qualities is not a pointless distinction. This paper utilizes Narcissus as a central metaphor to show how people misread the outputs of LLMs as language which imparts to those reflected words meaning on par with our own conceptualizations of reality. People …

Framing Home: Extending Beyond The Threshold, Kaitlin R. Kirsch

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This thesis body of work inspects the changes in the artist’s relationship to domesticity and their perceived sense of control over the spaces they have called home. By creating and embellishing spaces that subvert the threshold between the physical and psychic, the works stimulate feelings of comfort or discomfort. Installations of found materials, mixed media, and text-based dark humor, come together to account for this artist’s attempt to navigate the tediousness of daily life. The work takes into consideration the intangible rules that infiltrate a household, defining the framework in which a person learns to live within, or adapt to, …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Intellectual Disabilities: A Population-Based Comparison, Sarah Hurst, Astrida S. Kaugars

Modern Psychological Studies

Childhood is a critical time for development, and negative experiences during this period may have lasting consequences. Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are at greater risk for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than children without ID. Using data from the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health (U.S. Census Bureau), we assessed the frequency of ACEs reported based on IDs. Participants were caregivers of 528 children currently diagnosed with an ID and a random sample of 528 children selected from the remaining 49,755 respondents without an ID. As hypothesized, parents of children with ID reported a statistically significant greater number of total …

Customer Perceptions Of Tipping In Minimal-Service Food Settings, Fabian R. Rodriguez Gomez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

As digital payment systems and point-of-sale technologies become increasingly common, customers are encountering more frequent requests to tip in minimal-service food settings, such as coffee shops, pizza parlors, and quick-service restaurants. These changes have prompted discussions regarding the fairness of tipping, customer willingness to tip, and the growing phenomenon of tipping fatigue. The purpose of this study was to examine how employee effort, social pressure, and social obligation influence customer perceptions of tipping in minimal-service food settings.

A quantitative experimental research design was used with 328 participants recruited through the online platform Prolific. Participants were randomly assigned to scenarios manipulating …

“I Don’T Always See A Future For Me Here”: Oppressive Political Pressures On Lgbtq+ College Students’ Well-Being, Jodi Linley, Olivia M. Copeland, Kathleen J. Buell, Cindy Ann Kilgo, Megan Pendleton, Alex C. Lange, N F. Tennessen

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

In recent decades, colleges have broadly supported LGBTQ+ students. Now, institutions have shuttered LGBTQ+ initiatives in response to political pressures, with little consideration for the effects on students. This study answers the question, what current policy factors do LGBTQ+ college students describe as affecting their well-being, and in what ways? We analyzed 426 responses from a multi-institution study of LGBTQ+ students. By and large, students feel anxious and fearful as they navigate the current climate. Our analysis illustrated numerous factors, from the President and his administration to states and general emboldened violence, and the real and potential consequences of those …

Gendered Words And Patent Grant Rates: A Textual Analysis, Deborah R. Gerhardt, Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton, W. Michael Schuster, Avshalom Elmalech, Omri Suissa, Moshe Mash

Faculty Publications

Text is a vehicle to convey information that reflects the writer’s linguistic style and communication patterns. By studying these attributes, we can discover latent insights about the author and their underlying message. This article uses such an approach to better understand patent applications and their inventors.

While prior research focuses on patent metadata (i.e., filing year or gendered inventor names), we employ machine learning and natural language processing to extract hidden information from the words in patent applications. Through these methods, we find that inventor gender can often be identified from textual attributes—even without knowing the inventor’s name. This ability …

A New 17 U.S.C. § 108a: Restoring The Intellectual Property Clause's Balance In Copyright Consideration Of Digital Disruption And The Prevalence Of Onerous Licensing Practices, Caroline L. Osborne

Faculty Publications

Accessibility of knowledge and control over information is key to an informed public and democracy. The founding fathers recognized the benefits of an informed citizenry, enshrining this concept in the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution. Such a clause created a delicate balance between creator and consumer, incentivizing creation for the benefit of society. The beauty of the Clause is the concept of balance. Balance resting delicately on the fulcrum with the dual requirements of reward for creation and benefit to society. The evolution of the means and formats in which information is delivered to the consumer in the creation …

Who's Afraid Of Copyright And Ai?, Deborah R. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

Copyright and AI need not be a copyright no man’s land. Recent decisions by the Copyright Office have gotten so much media attention that many creators are unsure if they can secure copyright protection if they use AI as a creative tool. The proposed creative control paradigm can help us all tackle the challenge of determining when works created with the assistance of AI are copyrightable. Instead of relying on long-established nuanced precedent for protecting works generated with new technology, the Copyright Office asserts that any content generated with assistance from AI tools is unprotectable. This position is radically inconsistent …

Government Religious Speech And The Establishment Clause, Mark Storslee, Michael Helfand

Faculty Publications

The government says religious things. From monuments and holiday displays to legislative prayers, religion saturates the government’s public voice. But how can that be permissible when the Establishment Clause, at least in theory, indicates the government should be religiously neutral?

So far, the Supreme Court’s attempts to address the puzzle have come up short. Early on, the Court suggested that seemingly all government speech must be secular, or that it refrain from “endorsing” religion. But the Court never consistently enforced those limits, struggling to reconcile them with America’s historical experience. And in recent years, the Court has rejected those approaches …

Securing Smart Agriculture With Communication-Efficient Federated Unlearning, Ujjwal Pudasaini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the data poisoning attack in smart agricultural systems using federated unlearning, where the contribution of compromised field devices must be removed from the global model under communication constraints. We propose FedSCAN, a three-phase framework that identifies critical layers based on parameter sensitivity, classifies active neurons within these layers through relative weight change analysis, and performs unlearning via sparse low-rank adaptation to active neurons while freezing base model parameters. FedSCAN limits computational overhead to a compact parameter subset, enabling devices to participate in a communication-efficient manner. Experimental results on four datasets demonstrate that FedSCAN achieves up to 426.3× …

Beyond The Paycheck: An Exploration Of The Role Of Management And Leadership Support In Employee Retention, Stacia Leach Lomax

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Employee retention remains a significant organizational challenge, particularly in the post-COVID-19 workplace where employees increasingly seek meaningful support, recognition, and workplace well-being in addition to compensation. Guided by Herzberg et al.’s (1959) Two-Factor Theory, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how employees perceive management support and how those perceptions influence decisions to remain with or resign from an organization. The study was conducted using a qualitative descriptive design involving 12 semi-structured interviews with individuals who had voluntarily resigned from organizations across multiple employment sectors. A follow-up focus group was conducted to confirm and validate emerging findings. Data …

A Multiple Case Study Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Special Education Teachers Of Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Patrece A. Scott

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Special educators, particularly the teachers of students with intellectual disabilities, remained an understudied group in research. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine how special educators navigated their lived experiences collaborating with three key stakeholder groups: parents, general education teachers, and administrators, particularly working with students with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, this study examined how special educators experienced collaboration with those stakeholder groups through the framework of McClelland's (1961) Theory of Needs. The study involved two semi-structured interviews with each of the 12 participants, all of whom were special educators at the middle or high school level. These …

Employee Engagement And Retention Strategies For Merchandisers Within The First 90 Days Of Employment At Refresh Drinks - Mixed Methods, Valerie M. Williams

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This convergent mixed methods study examined employee engagement and retention strategies for frontline merchandisers during the first 90 days of employment at Refresh Drinks (pseudonym) in North Carolina and South Carolina. Guided by Herzberg’s (1959, as cited in Miner, 2005) Two-Factor Theory, the study investigated how onboarding, management engagement, professional development, career advancement, and recognition influenced early employee experiences and retention. Quantitative data were collected from 75 participants using Likert scale survey items, while qualitative data were gathered through open-ended responses to provide deeper insight into employee perceptions. Findings revealed that onboarding and management engagement were perceived as strong organizational …