Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Humility In The Workplace: A Causal-Comparative Study Of Foreign And Local Hire Employees In International Education, Natalie A. Ortiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cultural humility is recognized as a framework for fostering respectful relationships in culturally diverse workplaces. However, limited research has examined cultural humility within international education in regard to workplace dynamics and power imbalances that may exist between foreign and local hire educators. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine differences in perceived cultural humility levels between foreign and local hire employees in PreK-12^th grade private international schools in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The study also examined whether years of international educational experience and the number of international educational assignments influenced perceived cultural humility levels. Data …

Adrienne L. Childs, Ornamental Blackness: The Black Figure In European Decorative Arts, Brigid M. Boyle

Art Inquiries

Ornamental Blackness by Adrienne L. Childs offers the first comprehensive survey of European luxury and utilitarian objects that treat Black Africans as decorative motifs. Proceeding chronologically from the middle Baroque period to the late nineteenth century, Childs charts the initial production of racialized objects for royal courts and aristocratic households and their later dissemination to middle-class homes. Items such as furniture, light fixtures, clocks, tableware, porcelain figurines, and treasury objects became an apparatus for controlling and fetishizing Black bodies, reinforcing the idea of Black servitude as normal. Many of these objects were crafted from precious natural materials whose extraction and …

Leveraging Collaboratory Community Assessments To Strategically Guide Service-Learning Projects, Judy L. Gregg

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

The Association of American Colleges and Universities supports high impact practices including service-learning, global learning, research, and collaborative projects resulting in a university participating in a Collaboratory Community Assessment in order to strengthen an established partnership in a remote indigenous village in Guyana.

While most service learning project goals are established by the host, collaboratory projects can improve service-learning outcomes through a community engagement pedagogy that combines learning goals and community service in ways that enhance both student growth and the public good. Collaboratory projects are high-impact practices where teaching, service, and scholarship overlap.

In Fall 2023, a one credit …

The Impact Of Flexible Work Arrangements On Employee Performance: Evidence From Private Universities In Baghdad, Mariam Adeeb Rasheed, Noor Khalil Ibrahim

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

This study examines the effect of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) (flexible scheduling, compressed workweek, and telecommuting) on employee performance among administrative leaders in private universities in Baghdad. Addressing inconsistent findings in prior research regarding whether different forms of workplace flexibility contribute equally to employee performance. Guided by Social Exchange Theory, a quantitative cross-sectional design was employed using data collected from 321 administrative leaders across 15 private universities in Baghdad. Measurement reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analysis were assessed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) procedure in SmartPLS4. The proposed hypotheses were subsequently tested through structural model …

Health And Aging Societies In Asia – Are We Ready For The Silver Tsunami?, Mark Stephan Felix

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

No abstract provided.

Youth Participation In Kediri, Indonesia: An Urban Communication Perspective, Nissa C. Adinia, Budi Guntoro, Roso Witjaksono

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

This article examines how young people in a mid-sized Indonesian city participate in producing the meaning of urban space, and how far a participatory communication intervention succeeds in opening dialogue with city stakeholders. Urban communication scholarship has developed primarily around metropolitan cities in the Global North, while participatory communication research often assumes that facilitated dialogue leads to empowerment. This article addresses both gaps through a Photovoice study conducted in Kediri, East Java, involving 37 young people from three social typologies: pelajar (students), santri (Islamic boarding school-affiliated youth), and pekerja/wirausaha (young workers and entrepreneurs). Drawing on Lefebvre’s spatial triad and Couldry’s …

Compulsive Hoarding Disorder (Hd) And The Dark Future (Dfs) Among Saudi Population, Mohammed Abdulrahman Alghamdi

University of Tabuk Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences

This study aimed to translate and standardize the Compulsive Hoarding Disorder Scale and the Dark Future Scale for use in the Arabic framework, as well as to estimate the prevalence of hoarding behaviors. The study also assessed the effects of age, social status, and educational level on hoarding and dark future tendencies, in addition to exploring the relationships among these variables. The sample comprised of 303 participants (159 males, 52.5%; 144 females, 47.5%), with ages ranging from 16 to 65 years (M = 27.57, SD = 12.59). The results showed that both the Compulsive Hoarding Disorder Scale and the Dark …

Thanking Strategies Across Relational Scenarios And Dyadic Gender Configurations In Urban Saudi Colloquial Arabic, Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Alzahrani

Scientific Journal of King Faisal University: Humanities and Management Sciences

This study examines thanking strategies across three relational scenarios and four dyadic gender configurations among 120 university-educated urban Saudi colloquial Arabic speakers aged 20-40 from Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. A scenario-based discourse completion task (DCT) yielded 720 responses comprising 1,843 strategy tokens; these data were supplemented by interviews with 30 participants. The intimate, acquaintance, and stranger scenarios differed in favor type and imposition, representing distinct relational-situational contexts. The DCT elicited contextually appropriate responses; accordingly, the findings are interpreted as reflecting participants' sociopragmatic preferences rather than naturally occurring interactional behavior. Expressing Benediction (30.1%) and Thanking (25.7%) were the two most frequent …

Combing Out The Kinks Of Identity: Why Black Hair Is More Than A Personal Choice, Christina Jouthe

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Christina Jouthe is a Public Health major from Boston, Massachusetts. As a Black woman, she is drawn to subjects that allow her to examine Black culture, identity, representation, and femininity. Her essay gave her an opportunity to enter a discourse grounded in her own experiences while also expanding her understanding through research. Christina explains that “this semester allowed me to realize that writing can be fun and personable.” Previously, she had often been required to write about subjects that did not interest her or to follow formats that left little room for personal perspective. This particular project encouraged her to …

Fuck The Academic Filter, Ana Swanson

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Ana Swanson is an Anthropology major from Warwick, RI. Ana explains that writing papers has always been challenging for her, not because of ability, but because of boredom. “I just don’t enjoy writing in a strict, buttoned-up tone—or the academic filter, as I call it in this essay,” she shares. Discovering that she didn’t have to conform to that filter felt revolutionary and opened up a new way of approaching her work. Returning to college after leaving her studies twice, Ana came back with a renewed sense of purpose and a focus on anthropology, a subject she genuinely loves. Writing …

Writing Is Really Really Scary, Brian Coughlin

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Brian Coughlin is a biology major from Melrose, MA. He believes that “everyone has the capacity to write something beautiful, but so many people are turned off of it because they think of some boring English essay they had to write about The Catcher in the Rye in eleventh grade.” Brian’s goal in this essay is to show that writing is “so much more than cracking open a thesaurus to impress your teacher.” This piece of writing is important to Brian because it was one of the first essays he wrote while trying to break away from the conventional writing …

Arms Proliferation And Its Control Mechanism In Nigeria: An Assessment, Mubarak Sulaiman Jamiu, Seyid Ishola Hassan, Adedoyin John Towoju

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

The proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALWs) in Nigeria has emerged as a critical threat to national security and political stability. Despite the enactment of various legislative frameworks, including the Firearms Act of 1959, the circulation of illicit firearms continues unabated, exacerbating terrorism, militancy, and organized crime across the country. This study critically examines the causes, implications, and potential solutions to SALW proliferation in Nigeria, focusing on governance failures, legal inefficiencies, and institutional weaknesses. Utilizing State Fragility Theory and Failed State Theory, the research identifies how poor governance, corruption, and the lack of effective enforcement have contributed to …

Grief As A Constitutive Shadow Of Queer Joy: Reclaiming Negativity And The Ethics Of Staying For Education Research, Akira Sawata

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

In education scholarship, authors have increasingly called to center queer joy to disrupt the conventional deficit model that normally accompanies queer communities. However, in this paper, I argue that an exclusive emphasis on joy may risk instituting and normalizing a happiness duty that marginalizes negative affects and subjects. I propose queer grief not as an opposite, but as a constitutive shadow of joy. Drawing on theories of queer, trans, and crip negativity and the studies on loss, grief, and mourning, I critique the imperative to mobilize affect solely for future utility and teleological meaning. I contend that such mobilization-driven …

The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, By Matthew D. Taylor. Broadleaf Books, 2024. 292 Pages. $32.99. Isbn 978-1506497785, Jefferson Calico

Journal of Hate Studies

Jefferson Calico, a scholar of religion, reviews Matthew D. Taylor’s The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, an analysis of how the apostolic and prophetic movement within American Protestantism is reshaping religious politics. Charismatic, both theologically and personally, religious entrepreneurs like Paula White, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Sean Feucht, and Dutch Sheets lead market-driven faith-based efforts to undermine democracy. With their emphasis on spectacular displays of spiritual gifts, they often embarrass other Christian nationalists, while the leadership of women and people of color in the movement scandalizes them—yet they are, in …

Shakespeare’S Troilus And Cressida And The Genre Of Comical Satire, Robert B. Pierce

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

The Caged Canary: Compounded Discrimination And The Female Jazz Vocalist, Isabella Eaton

Master's Theses

While women have historically represented the overwhelming majority of jazz vocalists, they have also experienced a unique legitimacy gap in a culture that traditionally grants the status of authenticity to the masculine instrumentalist. This study explores the experiences of mid-twentieth century female jazz vocalists, arguing that they faced compounded discrimination within American jazz culture as a result of gender marginalization and the devaluation of their vocal instrument. The intricacies of this phenomenon necessitate a multipronged qualitative approach by employing historiographical analysis, synthesis of existing scholarship, and qualitative case study research methods. Beginning with the dichotomy between the jazz “cat” and …

Unlocking Effective Evaluations: Lessons From Media Literacy And Digital Skills Intervention Studies In Estonia, Finland, And Poland, Natalia Edisherashvili, Marit Puusepp, Veronika Kalmus, Margus Pedaste, Sini Tiihonen, Fatemeh Irani, Łukasz Tomczyk, Leen D'Haenens, Tania Azadi, Chao Wang

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This study examines factors that enable and hinder the evaluation of Media Literacy (ML) and Digital Skills (DS) interventions across three countries and four contexts: in-service teachers in Estonia, elderly populations in Jyväskylä (Finland), vocational students in Helsinki (Finland), and pre-service teachers in Poland. Guided by the Logic Model framework, it explores barriers and enablers across Inputs, Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes to reveal structural and contextual elements shaping evaluation effectiveness. Findings cluster into four domains: organisational and administrative factors, intervention design, evaluation processes, and participant engagement. Organisational challenges such as staff turnover disrupted alignment between intervention and evaluation goals, while …

Syllabus: First Year Writing, Kylie Quave

Kylie Quave, First Year Writing: Food Archaeology for Civic Engagement

No abstract provided.

Syllabus “Struggles That Connect Us: From South Africa To Palestine To The United States”—A 14-Day Study Abroad Course In Cape Town, South Africa, Nafisa Tanjeem

Nafisa Tanjeem, Struggles that Connect Us: From South Africa to Palestine to the United States” - A 14-Day Study Abroad Course in Cape Town, South Africa

This course challenges conventional approaches to global engagement and study abroad by integrating decolonial, anti-racist, and feminist lenses with experiential learning to explore how historical and contemporary systems of power, inequity, and resistance operate across borders. It invites students to think beyond national boundaries, evaluate how their own identities and positionalities shape their perspectives and actions, and engage ethically and critically with interconnected struggles.

Chapter 10: Swipe, Reward, Repeat: Gamification, Intimacy, And Emotional Labor In Digital Dating, Emma Taylor

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

The rise of online dating platforms has transformed how individuals approach romantic relationships, with many users increasingly engaging in these spaces for entertainment as well as connection. Central to this shift is the phenomenon of gamification – the integration of game-like mechanics into non-game contexts, which has redefined user behaviors, shaped romantic choices, and influenced relationship outcomes. This chapter critically examines the gamification of online dating, exploring how swiping, match notifications, rankings, and rewards reframe intimacy as entertainment, alter decision-making, and marketize romantic engagement. Drawing on psychoanalytical and ultra-realist frameworks, and using original qualitative data from interviews, the analysis reveals …

The Translingual Writing Of Rickshaws Since The Modern Era, Ruoze Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Rickshaws originated in Meiji Japan, spread across Asian countries, and became especially popular in modern China. They were not only a classic theme in Chinese literary history but also had a great impact on lifestyles and social transformations since the modern era. As an industrial product, an occupational identity and a way of life, the rickshaw constitutes a key entry point for re-examining transnational experiences. Its emergence was shaped by unequal and incompatible conceptual frameworks between East and West. This invention was mediated through conceptual translations, travel writings and literary works, showing observers' admiration for power and assuagement of suffering, …

Beyond Transitional Justice: Han Kang's Literature And The Politics Of Mourning, Weixuan Xi, Sijin He

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Beginning with Human Acts, South Korean author Han Kang underwent what could be described as a “mid-career transformation” in her literary practice, as “mourning” has become one of the central concerns in her recent works. The novel We Do Not Part can be regarded as the culmination of Han Kang's poetics of mourning. Taking the Jeju April 3 Incident as its subject, the novel not only engages with the intertextual relationship between literature and South Korea's discourse of transitional justice since the 1990s, but also attempts to transcend the principle of segregated mourning in contemporary political practice, as well …

An Analysis Of Denotation And Connotation: Contribution Of Lu Xun's Old Stories Retold, Qinghua Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Existing research on Lu Xun's Old Stories Retold has mainly focused on two aspects: what is written and how it is written. Little attention has been paid to the analysis of the denotation and connotation of linguistic representation, which is the medium of narrative, in Lu Xun's writing in Old Stories Retold. “Gathering Ferns” portrays Boyi and Shuqi as two “stupid ox” figures who believe in and practice the denotative meanings of ancient Chinese books, and are thus caught in a double dilemma of language and body. Old Stories Retold also seeks to reveal the formalized features of the …

Reaffirming “Sensibility”: F. R. Leavis And The Critical Community, Weihua He

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

With his militant stance towards industrial civilization and mass culture, as well as his adherence to and promotion of elite culture, F. R. Leavis has become a pivotal figure in the tradition of British cultural criticism. However, as the editor-in-chief of the literary journal Scrutiny, Leavis wrote a large number of influential literary critical articles, many of which remain illuminating for contemporary literary criticism, yet they have not received sufficient attention in Chinese academia. In terms of literary criticism, Leavis opposed the application of theories in a rigid manner, emphasizing the critic's “sensibility” and unique gifts, as well as …

A Field Of Cultural Practice Shaped By The Interaction Of Multiple Forces: A Study Of Guangzhou Music Teahouses In The Early Reform And Opening-Up Period, Dongfeng Tao, Yunxia Fan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the late 1970s to early 1980s, with the advent of reform and opening up, popular music, which had remained dormant for three decades, began to revive and became a pioneer in the first wave of popular culture in mainland China. Guangdong played the role of a forerunner and pathfinder in this process. As a form of mass entertainment culture with distinctive local features in Guangdong, music teahouses offer an exemplary case for exploring the relationships among administrators, the market, performers, and audiences/listeners as consumers in the construction of the field of popular culture during the transitional period. Drawing on …

Biases And Paradoxes: The Politics Of New Aestheticism's Depoliticization, Fang Yuan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

New aestheticism is a school of literary criticism that emerged in the early twenty-first century. Rather than simply returning to traditional aestheticism, it incorporates insights from multiple theoretical traditions. It critiques social-historical criticism and cultural studies in an effort to downplay the political dimension of literary criticism, instead emphasizing individualized experience and aesthetic pleasure. However, new aestheticism reveals significant theoretical biases and inherent paradoxes. It overlooks the sustained attention that social-historical criticism and cultural studies have devoted to aesthetic questions; it attributes the perceived decline of English studies to the utilitarian tendencies of criticism; and it seeks to free itself …

“Imagining For Delight” And “Gazetteer Of Dialects And Local Customs”: Zhou Zuoren's Conceptualization Of Aesthetic Education Through Nursery Rhymes, Chengzhu Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In response to the mysterious associations and political interpretations attached to nursery rhymes in ancient China, Zhou Zuoren explained the emergence of children's songs through anthropological theories that engage with human auditory development, the instinct of imitation, and the singing practice of early humans. He opposes the didactic and moralizing functions assigned to children's songs and advocates a view of pleasure that emphasizes “finding delight through imaginative association” and personal enjoyment. He evaluates the aesthetic value of children's songs from the child's perspective a, regarding them as “poetry for children.” He particularly focuses on their experiential recording of dialects, customs, …

The Early Modern Literary Purport Of “Brain Transformation” And Its Enlightenment For Modern Fiction, Yishan Ye

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the imperative to “enlightening the people” positioned “brain transformation” as a central concern among writers. In cross-cultural practice, the integration of “qi theory” and the reinterpretation of neural theory provided an ideological foundation and discursive resources for constructing the literary concept of “power” in the “new fiction”. Utilizing tropes such as medicine, magic, and universal electricity, novelists employed concepts of mechanical force and vitality to explore the human. Through aesthetic composites, they reconciled internal contradictions within science discourse and evoked the intrinsic beauty of science. Liang Qichao's aesthetic integration of “power” …

A Discussion Of The Critical Creative Practice Of Lu Xun's Literary Philosophy, Xuan Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Critical creative philosophical thinking internally transforms the concrete understandings of the world articulated in Confucian and Taoist philosophy. This mode of thinking constitutes the philosophical condition that makes Chinese literary classics possible, yet it also revels a blind spot in Chinese philosophical studies, which have often remained confined to cognitive interpretations of pre-Qin philosophy. Lu Xun consciously aligned himself with a tradition of literary-philosophical thinking represented by figures such as Zhuang Zi, Sima Qian, Su Shi, and Cao Xueqin. Taking The Classic of Mountains and Seas as a foundational text for understanding life, he undertook a critical reexamination of both …

The Theoretical Connotations Of Modern Chinese Literary Historiography, Xiangxi Fu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The study of historical materials in modern Chinese literature explores the theories and methods regarding the formal characteristics, genesis and evolution, and the organization and utilization of literary materials. The fundamental principles of this field the pursuit of truth, the pursuit of completeness, and the maintenance of appropriateness. The “pursuit of truth” concerns the fundamental objective of the study of modern Chinese literary historical materials. The “pursuit of completeness” pertains to its scope and focus. The “maintenance of appropriateness” relates to its mechanism of balance. These three principles act as preconditions for one another, and they collectively constitute the theoretical …