Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Logics In Agriculture: A Critical Christian Perspective, John Hill Price, Travis Ryan Pickell, Paul Capel, Kyungsoo Yoo, Dominic Christiensen, Marie Culhane, Tyler Dick, John Deen, Erik Watkins

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Imagine a precocious, driven, and empathetic undergraduate student. She has discovered a passion and a talent for biochemistry, and wants to apply to graduate school to pursue agronomy, with the goal of returning to her rural community home after graduation. She loves science and nature; she is also a committed Christian. She has a vague sense that these things are connected, but she isn’t sure how. And to be honest, the people around her in college do not always believe these two parts of her identity are compatible. Nevertheless, she plans to pursue graduate studies and hopes her faith will …

Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health disorders are a significant health concern among higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. A substantial treatment gap exists in the Nigerian healthcare system, and this gap is further worsened by cultural and religious barriers, which reinforce stigma that discourages students from seeking professional help. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the barriers students encountered when accessing mental health services at a university in Southwestern Nigeria, to increase service access. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with seven professional mental health providers at a university counseling center between March and April 2025. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify …

Excavating Miranda, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

Sixty years after it was decided, Miranda v. Arizona remains one of the most significant and renowned cases—as well as, arguably, one of the most controversial cases—in the history of the United States. Chief Justice Earl Warren’s majority opinion, establishing the eponymous Miranda warnings for custodial interrogation of criminal suspects, has prompted voluminous and continuing commentary, among both critics and supporters. This Article is part of an ongoing project exploring a particular aspect of Chief Justice Warren’s majority opinion: a footnote referencing Jewish legal sources, documenting an important passage at the start of a pivotal section of the opinion.

Building …

The Ache Of Modernism: Death, Affect, And Intersubjectivity In Twentieth-Century American Literature, Alex Gergely

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation suggests that we can locate, describe, and experience death as an aesthetic mood called the ache of modernism. The ache is an atmosphere found in twentieth-century literature that goes beyond simply “positive” or “negative” feeling and encourages audiences to come to an affective and existential relationship with their mortality. As an intersubjective mood deriving from an attunement on death, it illuminates the historical and philosophical moment of many twentieth-century authors while clarifying their texts’ continued resonance today. This project therefore draws on the thought of major philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Buber, Gabriel Marcel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, …

Cultus: Eco-Phenomenology In The Work Of John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, And Jack London, Carter D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--English

In the face of increasingly dire environmental crises, proposed solutions have gravitated toward imperatives for faster, cleaner, and more efficient technologies and resources. While practical solutions are necessary, they are entirely insufficient to deal with an underlying issue driving environmental degradation: unbridled instrumental reason. In this dissertation, I suggest a theoretical posture, cultus, which attempts to balance the necessity of instrumental action with the guiding counterweight of receptivity. Furthermore, I argue that such personal receptivity is uniquely fostered in aesthetic experiences, attuning the individual to the non-identical and renewing a relationship of care.

I examine the life and work of …

Psychological And Clinical Risk Factors For Substance Use In People With And Without Hiv, Joanna M Hobson, Shameka L Cody, Shannon R Gilstrap, Michael A Owens, Myles D Moody, Dyan M White-Gilliam, Stephen Justin Thomas, Emily J Bartley, Burel R Goodin

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BackgroundDespite growing concerns, limited research has demonstrated how psychological factors influence substance use in people with HIV (PWH). Therefore, we examined the association between heightened vigilance and substance use outcomes in people with (PWH) and without HIV (PWoH), while accounting for key risk factors.MethodsParticipants (n = 138) were recruited from an HIV clinic and the surrounding community, completing a urine drug screener (UDS) and questionnaires.ResultsPWH reported greater insomnia (

Out In The Arena: Examining The Lgbtq+ Experience In Ihsa, Katharine C. Didier

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated factors influencing Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) LGBTQ+ riders’ perceptions of inclusion, safety, and belonging, with the hypothesis that teams with diversity and inclusion policies would be perceived as more accepting. An online survey was developed to gather information from self-identified LGBTQ+ IHSA students. Questions covered demographics, team environment, and perceived inclusivity within their equestrian programs. Question types included multiple choice, Likert-type, short answer, and open-ended. IHSA coaches were asked to share the survey link with team members. Students were able to respond anonymously. The survey was open for 8 weeks. Reminders were sent out at 3 …

Barriers To Mental Healthcare Among Men, Adrienne White

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Men are consistently less likely than women to seek professional mental health services despite experiencing significant rates of depression and psychological distress. Traditional masculine norms and depression-related stigma have been proposed as major contributors to this disparity. The present study examined the relationships among depression stigma, conformity to masculine norms, depression severity, perceived barriers to care, and attitudes toward seeking professional mental health treatment among adult men with current or past depression. Seventy participants completed measures of depression severity (PHQ-9), conformity to masculine norms (CMNI-30), depression stigma (DSS), attitudes toward help seeking (MHSAS), and perceived barriers to care (BMHS). Contrary …

Bringing Patriarchy To Looksmaxxing: Identification And Exploration Of Strategies To Restabilize The Patriarchy In The Looksmaxxing Community, Mackenzie Grace Freeman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research literature on looksmaxxing is subsumed under the incelosphere, which is acknowledged as a white and male supremacist space. Yet, researchers fail to attend critically to the structure of patriarchy, choosing instead to base their analyses within the mainstream hegemonic masculinity paradigm. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this project fills a gap in the literature by transcending the mainstream paradigm to explain how the looksmaxxing community uses the body as a site of crisis management in response to patriarchal backlash, with the ultimate goal of restabilizing the patriarchy. This project uses a community-led survey from a popular online looksmaxxing community. This …

Unsuccessful? Universal Human Rights And The United Nations: Russian Imperialism In Ukraine And The Post-Udhr International System, Sofiia Novytska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human universality has always stood as a controversial subject and remains politically contentious today. Following the humanitarian crisis of World War II, the international community was determined to protect the integrity and dignity of people worldwide by developing the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, universal human rights were not invented by the Declaration and were already conceptually established in global ancient thought, further evolved into Early Modern scholarship, and later paved the way for modern humanitarian frameworks. The UDHR was not universally well-received, and was criticized for its revolutionary legal character, postcolonial contestation, and practical ambiguity. The …

Survival In The Stigmatized Industry (Bitcoin Atm), Brooks Mcadam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ii ABSTRACT Survival in the Stigmatized Industry (Bitcoin ATM) Brooks McAdam This paper examines how companies can survive in a stigmatized industry where the same message may attract customers while simultaneously generating skepticism. The study posed the following research question using the Bitcoin ATM industry as the context: Does the message presented on company websites influence the degree of exit risk in a market characterized by moral concerns, exposure to fraud, and unstable regulation? The answer is clear. Messaging is important; however, not every message is equally important. Fee-related messaging emerged as the most consistent predictor of exit risk. Messaging …

“Black Students Matter”: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Student Experiences At A Predominately White Institution In Appalachia During The Dual Pandemic Of Covid-19 And Systemic Anti-Black Racism, Toni Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As the spread of COVID-19 escalated into a global pandemic in 2020, simultaneously, the nationwide media in the United States (U.S.) highlighted coverage of the country’s ongoing incidents of longstanding systemic anti-Black racism in America, another pandemic. In the Summer of 2020, a collective of Black students at West Virginia University (WVU) signed and publicly submitted a petition to the university’s leadership with a list of demands to address their needs as they were further exacerbated by the dual pandemic. This study is guided by the question, “What are the lived experiences of Black Students at West Virginia University during …

Success Coaching And Conditional Admit Student Success, Zachery Oliver Thayer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Student success is a matter of critical importance to institutions of higher education, and to students. Colleges and universities exist in a current context of decreasing supply of potential students as a result of an impending demographic cliff and, therefore, increased competition for those remaining students, all while many institutions have become more tuition-dependent. This creates an incentive to decrease selectivity in order to meet enrollment goals as well as to focus university resources on student success measures that impact retention.  Some institutions have decreased selectivity to the point of admitting students conditionally or provisionally, even if those students do …

Preparing The Professional: Selected Uses Of Digital Audio Workstations In Applied Tuba Studios, Reid Timothy Cox

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The modern music job market calls for musicians to cultivate and engage with a diverse range of area interests and skillsets. Collegiate music programs provide opportunities to prepare students professionally, yet programs have traditionally fallen behind changes in the job market. One way that music faculty within higher education can help prepare students to succeed after graduation is by teaching students to engage with digital audio workstations, also known as DAWs. Using DAWs, students can gain new practice tools, as well as learn skills that are helpful in a number of musical careers. This is of particular use to the …

More Than A Man: An Ethnomusicological Survey Of The Folklore Of John Henry And Resource Guide For “More Than A Man” By Shanyse Strickland, Clayton R. Heath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

“John Henry” exists as an enduring folk legend in the United States of America, representing the confluence of the Reconstruction Era, the economic utility of Appalachia and the Westward expansion of industry which left it behind. Though based on historical events, Henry’s fictional representation has diverted and evolved in music and other media from its inception in the oral tradition to the modern age. Through this progression, shared symbols have circulated, gathering embedded meanings and associating the folklore with specific communities. Henry’s representational identity has been signaled with the creation and distribution of each version of his story, both complicating …

Public Perception Of Using Public Lands For Climate Change Mitigation, Casey Marie Zaitzew

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Biological carbon sequestration provides a way to integrate carbon initiatives while meeting sustainable forestry management needs. In the United States, woody plants capture about 13% of annual carbon emissions, highlighting the importance of forests and other ecosystems in national climate strategies.With over 640 million acres of public land, management strategies that incorporate carbon sequestration could significantly influence national carbon storage. Because public lands are taxpayer-funded, public acceptance is critical in carbon-focused policies. While prior studies have examined public attitudes toward carbon capture and storage techniques, fewer studies have focused on biological sequestration within federally managed lands.

This study analyzes public …