Digital Commons Network^™

Redeveloping Underutilized Faith-Based Properties For Affordable Housing Through Education And Engagement Strategies, Ananya Joyita

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Across the United States, many faith-based institutions are confronting declining attendance, underused property, and growing financial strain while their surrounding communities face severe affordable housing shortages. This plan explores how structured education and engagement strategies can help congregations redevelop underutilized land for affordable housing, using Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia as a pilot site for a model that can be adapted by other churches across the Diocese of Virginia.

Trinity’s 1.2-acre campus along Columbia Pike presents both urgent challenges and strong redevelopment potential. The church operates at a financial deficit, uses only a small portion of its facilities, and …

Turning Local Strength Into Regional Change: An Operational Plan For Capacity Building In Virginia’S Tobacco Region, Ellie Plisko

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Virginia's Tobacco Region possesses meaningful community assets including committed local leadership, established social networks, and demonstrated resilience, yet many localities consistently struggle to translate those strengths into high-impact economic development projects. The gap is not one of vision or funding, but of organizational capacity: the ability to develop, manage, and implement complex projects over time.

This capstone plan was developed for the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) to address that gap directly. Drawing on semi-structured stakeholder interviews, document and case analysis, and comparative institutional assessment, the research identifies the structural, relational, and process-based conditions that distinguish successful projects from …

Finding Rural Nodes: A Tool For Node Site Selection In Surry County, Va, Marisa Perez

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Surry County is a beautiful and historically agriculturally based community. Current residents have expressed the desire to expand their current grocery, retail, services, and amenity options while still retaining its rural character that they have grown to love. This rural character comes in the form of low cost of living, low cost of public services, and protection of farmland. However, Surry’s population has faced a decline over the last ten years and is seeking new and creative ways to retain and attract new residents. To facilitate this new growth while preserving Surry’s characteristically rural character, the County has decided to …

Evaluating Tenant Education Programs At Portsmouth Redevelopment & Housing Authority, Jordyn Taylor

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This professional plan evaluates the effectiveness of tenant education programs offered by the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority (PRHA) in Portsmouth, Virginia. The study incorporates both tenant and staff perspectives while acknowledging the historical and structural inequities embedded within public housing systems. It focuses on how existing programs support tenant empowerment, housing stability, and long-term self-sufficiency.

Findings indicate that while PRHA programs provide meaningful support to residents, there are notable gaps in accessibility, engagement, and program clarity. In response, this plan recommends enhancements that emphasize more structured, outcome-oriented programming, particularly in areas such as financial literacy, credit repair, and pathways …

An Indigenous Sovereign Approach: Developmental Strategies And Guidelines For The Berger-Patawomeck Preserve Trail Network, Lauren N. Usher

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This planning document serves the Patawomeck Tribe's cultural, environmental, and sovereign needs by providing research and recommendations to sustainably steward ancestral lands through integrated Indigenous and Western practices. The plan adapts sustainable design strategies to guide trail maintenance and activities within the Berger-Patawomeck Preserve, examining Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) alongside Western practices. A decolonized, sovereign lens guided the mixed research methods drawing on legal, regulatory, planning, and ethical frameworks to strengthen tribal health, education, and sovereignty. The research explores local ecology, Indigenous culture, and implementational strategies. The ecological findings document the Preserve's sensitive resources, including the Coastal Piedmont transition zone, …

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Passenger Rail Performance And Ridership Study, Matthew S. Sturgis

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This study evaluates how targeted infrastructure and operational improvements could improve speed, reliability, and, by extension, ridership on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Corridor between Richmond Main Street Station and Washington Union Station. Although the corridor carries all 198 weekly Amtrak trains operating in Virginia over some portion, passenger rail remains materially less competitive than automobile travel on I-95 when compared under ideal travel conditions or by mode share. In 2024, the corridor carried 1,046,255 riders and held an estimated rail mode share of 2.4 percent relative to 42,598,057 vehicle trips on comparable I-95 segments. At the same time, average …

Marinship Park's Green Infrastructure Plan, Parris Hunt

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Marinship Park’s Green Infrastructure Plan looks to improve Marinship Park by adding amenities that promote community engagement and protect or help the environment. The background information mentioned in the plan is relevant to the history in the study area. The plan later discusses environmental conditions and problems that support why this plan is needed. The methods section is after the precedent plans, and it entails the research questions, stakeholder outreach methods, and analytical methods. The research method section states that case studies and surveys are the best ways to gather data and collect responses for the research questions. The real-life …

Quantifying Parkland: Data-Informed Classification System Recommendations For Chesterfield County, Megan F. Negri

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan evaluates and redefines the park classification system for Chesterfield County Department of Parks and Recreation to improve how parks are understood, managed, and planned over time. It responds to limitations in the County's existing acreage-per-capita level of service (LOS) standard, which does not accurately account for park function, provision of amenities, or equitable distribution in relation to population density. Using a comprehensive park inventory and SPSS two-step fixed cluster analysis, the study developed and evaluated three alternative classification models consisting of four, five, and six park categories. Findings indicate that park function is strongly defined by amenity composition …

Rva Parkland Acquisition & Maintenance Strategy, Natalie E. Somerville

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Parks and green spaces offer myriad benefits to physical and mental well-being, environmental health, climate resilience, and community connection. Richmond, Virginia has added several new parks in recent years. However, there are still gaps between existing conditions and the City’s goal of having all residents live within a 10-minute walk of a quality park. The plan presents a land acquisition and maintenance strategy for future parkland expansion in the City of Richmond. Three questions guided the research: 1) which areas in Richmond are priority areas for creating new parks? 2) what processes should Richmond use to acquire land to expand …

Reframing The Sec’S Disqualification Waiver Decision-Making Process To Protect The Public Interest, Kayla A. Winters

Emory Law Journal

Federal securities law aims to protect investors and the public from fraudulent securities transactions. If an actor violates these laws, the public bears the costs through investor losses, market volatility, reduced economic activity and growth, and general distrust in the market. Entities that face securities enforcement for violations bear sanctions like civil monetary penalties and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. They also experience collateral consequences, such as disqualifications, that are automatically triggered by the imposition of sanctions or criminal conduct. The purpose of disqualifications is to enable the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to safeguard investors and capital markets from issuers …

A Compulsory License Is Not Enough: How Implementing A Statutory Limit Can Reduce Costs And Increase Creativity In Music, Muntasir Ali

Emory Law Journal

Music sampling has been a staple in the hip-hop and electronic genres for decades, yet artists continue to struggle with legal and economic barriers to sampling others’ works without facing copyright infringement liability. Because copyright law recognizes two distinct types of copyrightable works for music—musical compositions and sound recordings—artists must clear both copyrights to have a legal sample. The existing sample licensing regime is prohibitively expensive, time-consuming, and convoluted, often creating a “holdout” problem where just one party can prevent the release of new, creative music. This has led to “cultural erasure” in the digital streaming era, where seminal works …

Oppression On The Blockchain, Erwin J. Kwok, Moin A. Yahya

Emory Business Law Review

When Ethereum (ETH) shifted from a Proof of Work (PoW) protocol to a Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol, not all users were enthused. We use Ethereum’s shift from PoW to PoS as a case study for the broader question of whether developers of a blockchain owe its members certain fiduciary or fiduciary-like duties. We argue that if done properly, in accordance to the rules governing the blockchain, then developers do not necessarily owe fiduciary responsibility to other members of the chain, but they nonetheless may owe fiduciary-like responsibilities to users inadvertently and negatively impacted. We argue these users may be …

Justice On Trial: Integrating Ethics In Law School Advocacy Courses, Veronica J. Finkelstein

Emory Business Law Review

The rule of law depends not only on legal doctrine and institutional design, but on the daily ethical choices of the lawyers who operate within the adversarial system. Trial lawyers, in particular, wield extraordinary power courtroom outcomes, yet law schools too often train future advocates to perform persuasive techniques without meaningful engagement with the ethical obligations that constrain those techniques and the lawyers who wield them. This article argues that the persistent separation between trial advocacy education and legal ethics instruction leaves law students ill-prepared for the moral complexities of litigation and threatens public confidence in the justice system.

Tracing …

Summoning Firms: Promoting Democratic Stability And Economic Prosperity In Times Of Constitutional Crisis, Jon D. Michaels

Emory Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Illiberal Democracy, Merger Regulation, And Corporate Culture, Brian Jm Quinn

Emory Business Law Review

This Essay examines how the second Trump Administration has weaponized merger regulation and regulatory approval processes as tools of corporate capture in service of democratic backsliding toward an illiberal regime. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of competitive authoritarianism and illiberal democracy, this paper demonstrates how discretionary regulatory authority combined with weakened enforcement mechanisms creates opportunities for grand corruption that systematically undermines liberal democratic institutions.

This Essay accomplishes three primary objectives. First, it establishes the essential characteristics of illiberal regimes which maintain the facade of democratic institutions while systematically skewing the political playing field through selective enforcement and regulatory capture. Second, it …

No 'Dexit': Delaware's New Statutory Corporate Law Loosens The Restrictions On Controlling Shareholder Transactions In Response To Corporate Outlash Following Tornetta V. Musk, Reid A. Manabat

Emory Business Law Review

The recent Tornetta v. Musk decisions caused upheaval in the Delaware corporate community. Throughout 2024, shareholder executives have left or threatened to leave Delaware to incorporate elsewhere in a move termed “DExit.” The threat did not go unnoticed by Delawareans and lawmakers who contemplated a two-billion-dollar loss to the state’s tax revenue. Despite the courts’ willingness to require heightened scrutiny for conflicted-controller transactions, in recent years lawmakers have lowered the bar. I argue that Delaware’s new statutory corporate law does not adequately protect minority shareholders from conflicted controllers. First, the new statutory cleansing mechanisms ignore the unique dangers of conflicted-controller …

Leading From Where You Are: How Projects Build Leadership Skills In Law Libraries, Susan Azyndar, Yan Yu

Journal Articles

Practical ways to develop leadership skills through collaborative projects–no title required.

Nostalgic Rhetoric: Unraveling An "Authentic" Past, Quinn Thomas Gienapp

Dissertations and Theses

Our changing awareness of time and memory can generate feelings of nostalgia that impact perceptions of the past, present, and future. Nostalgia should not be described as inherently good or bad. In certain contexts, nostalgia can be used as a positive or negative tool to convey values, arguments, and reactions to the past that are much more than simply appealing to feelings of longing. In this thesis, I examine how nostalgic rhetoric is used to convince individuals of various ideas surrounding memory, culture, and politics. In particular, I identify and describe three modes of nostalgic rhetoric: gratification, denial, and subversion. …

Acceptance Remarks For The 2026 Distinguished Service Award For Lifetime Achievement: Reflections On Journey, Learning And Paying It Forward, Jack Butler

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Priority Rules In Insolvency, Anthony J. Casey, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Perceived Discrimination And Posttraumatic Stress In People Of Color: The Moderating Role Of Ethnic-Racial Identity And Psychological Flexibility, Jacinta O. Anyanwu

Dissertations and Theses

Perceived discrimination is highly prevalent among people of color (POC) and is strongly associated with elevated posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) severity, even after accounting for socioeconomic factors. Guided by the minority stress model, this study examined whether two resilience factors - ethnic racial identity and psychological flexibility moderated the association between everyday discrimination and PTSS in a trauma exposed adult sample of POC. Participants (N = 355) were recruited through Prolific, an online crowdsource platform, and completed self report measures assessing discrimination, PTSS severity, ethnic racial identity, and psychological flexibility. Everyday discrimination was a robust predictor of PTSS severity across …

U.S. Administrative Law: A Casebook (6th Ed.), Jud Mathews

Faculty Scholarship

The number of administrative law texts is vast. The approach of this one, now in its fifth edition, is simple. It is: (1) to focus on the richest and most canonical cases; (2) to provide more extensive extracts of them than most casebooks; and (3) to keep the notes to a bare minimum. Updated through October 2025, the book contains a number of significant decisions from recent Supreme Court terms, as well as foundational classics that many contemporary casebooks cut, and much in between.

Determinants Of Digital Piracy: An Integrated Model, C. Christopher Lee, Peiyao Chen

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Digital piracy is a form of copyright infringement, and challenges persist in addressing it effectively. Accordingly, understanding why people engage in digital piracy is crucial. Although prior studies have examined digital piracy from multiple perspectives, existing studies on the explanatory factors of digital piracy remain fragmented. To address this research gap, this study develops an integrated model that incorporates key theoretical perspectives, neutralization theory, social learning theory, and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), along with key determinants including gender, age, and the technology factor. Rather than conducting a meta-analysis of previous studies, this study adopts a survey-based approach to …

Online Community Dynamics: An Analysis Using Louvain During Major Sporting Events, Anushka Jaint, Yashodhan Karulkar, Kashish Jindal, Sri Sai Harshita Gadavarthi, Sanya Gulati

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

With the power of social media transforming the way people connect and interact with each other, the dynamics of community formation on platforms such as X during major events are of crucial importance. While social media is an increasingly key driver in determining interactions, little is known about the online influence forming and developing fan communities in high-stakes events. This study looks into the development of user communities for datasets drawn from Kaggle on two of the world’s largest sporting events: the FIFA World Cup 2022, or football, and the T20 World Cup 2022, or cricket, with the aim of …

Modern (Networked) Warfare: Its Concepts, Evolution, And Issues, Ramesh Subramanian

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The on-going Russo-Ukraine war (February 2012-present), the recent India-Pakistan war (May 7-10, 2025), and the Israel-US attacks on Iran (June 13, 2025) have become interesting for a variety of reasons, and garnered a lot of attention in international defense publications and weapons manufacturers. To many defense analysts and defense industry professionals, these wars have become real-life testing platforms to examine and evaluate various present-day war technologies. They have opened up discussion on the future of war, the increasing use of inter-connected networks in warfare, and the increasing use of remote-operated drones in conducting surveillance and in offensive actions against …

Blockchain As A Digital Coordination Infrastructure For Project Management: A Systematic Review And Integrative Framework, Cherie Bakker Noteboom, Sai Neelima Seru, Aravindh Sekar

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Blockchain technology has gained increasing attention as a digital infrastructure capable of improving transparency, trust, and coordination in complex, multi-organizational project environments. However, existing research on blockchain-enabled project management remains fragmented and industry-focused, providing limited guidance for organizational adoption and integration. This study addresses this gap through a systematic literature review of 29 peer-reviewed studies, following PRISMA guidelines, to examine how blockchain capabilities are incorporated into project management practices across industries and maturity stages.

Grounded in Resource-Based View and Coordination Theory, the analysis employs a feature-to-process mapping approach to link six core blockchain capabilities—decentralization, transparency, immutability, smart contracts, traceability, and …

Values-Based Behavioral Frameworks As Contributors To Organizational Culture In Higher Education: A Literature Review, David J. Park Do

Posters

Colleges and universities almost universally publish statements of institutional values, yet a gap often persists between those stated values and the regularly observed behaviors. This review examines how that gap relates to culture in higher education institutions and specifically explores how translating values into observable behaviors contributes to organizational culture. This literature review used a structured, criteria-guided approach to source identification, selecting sources against three constructs: 1) institutional adoption of values-based behavioral frameworks, 2) organizational culture in higher-education settings, and 3) the perceptions through which organizational members perceive culture. The resulting corpus of 40 sources spans organizational culture scholarship, virtue …

Prevalence Of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae In Intensive Care Units In Saudi Arabia: A 10-Year Systematic Review, Shadi A. Zakai

Saudi Medical Journal

Objective: To synthesize research on the prevalence and distribution patterns of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) across Saudi Arabia. It also seeks to evaluate molecular resistance profiles, identify associated risk factors, assess antimicrobial susceptibility, and examine infection control strategies within these critical care settings. Methods: A systematic analysis was conducted, including cross-sectional, retrospective, and genomic studies from various tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The review focused on epidemiological trends, molecular characterization of CRE strains, clinical correlates, and the outcomes of implemented intervention strategies. Results: The findings indicate a high and steadily increasing prevalence of CRE, often exceeding …

Prevalence Of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease Among Individuals With Celiac Disease In A Primary Care Setting In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mansour I. Alrasheed, Hussam Jnaid, Faisal K. Alrasheed, Tarfah R. Alsharidi, Abdulelah I. Alrasheed, Sarah A. Alobaid, Norah A. Sulaiman

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: Celiac disease (CD) is a prevalent autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten consumption, leading to an immune response that damages the small intestine. Research shows a link between CD and autoimmune thyroid disorders (AITD). This study seeks to determine the prevalence of AITD among adult and pediatric patients with CD in the primary care setting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study reviewed electronic health records of individuals diagnosed with CD from January 2016 to December 2023 at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre. Collected data encompassed patient demographics, diagnostic approaches, thyroid function assessments, thyroid autoantibody profiles, …

Habitar Lo Vivo, Sara Sánchez-Herrera Cubero

Grado en Diseño de Interiores

The project proposes a Centre for Research into Cognitive Development based on the principles of biophilia, understood as the natural connection between humans and nature. Based on an analysis of the existing building, a rational, modular steel structural system has been developed which contrasts with the organic and sensory dimension of the biophilic design, creating a dialogue between the artificial and the natural. The building is completely hollowed out whilst retaining its structure and façade—as the skeleton and skin of the rationalist movement—and this modular steel structure is incorporated; thanks to its own strength, it can easily create spaces. The …