Digital Commons Network^™

English Pronouns: Default Case And Conversion, Olivia Ziemelis

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Case is a well-defined feature of generative syntax. However, the phenomenon of default Case, while widely accepted and discussed, is less defined in its triggers and limitations. The main body of work that seeks to explore default Case is that of Schütze (2001), which presents the main principles of default Case as well as the environments in which it may occur. The purpose of this thesis is to explore default Case at a deeper level, focusing on the interactions of Case, structure, and phi-features to determine how exactly the mechanism works. To achieve this, the data set used consists of …

Rebranding Ink: Language, Identity, And The Rise Of Tatū In Contemporary Japan, Elise M. Ulrich

Theses and Dissertations

In modern Japan, the shift from the traditional term irezumi (入れ墨) to the English loanword tatū (タトゥー) reflects more than just language change—it reveals deeper cultural and social transformations. Loanwords, or borrowed words from other languages, often enter a language through cultural contact, adapting to fit local linguistic and social norms. As the Linguistic Society of America notes, “Most languages have been influenced at one time or another by contact” (Winford, n.d., p. 1). Since World War II, English has become a major source of loanwords in Japanese, shaping everything from everyday conversation to aesthetic trends.

This thesis explores why …

Growing The Abriendo Oportunidades® Ecosystem: Spotlight On Mentor Networks, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

The emergence of REDMI Aq’ab’al and Na’leb’ak ONG, two civil society networks of young Indigenous women, represents a monumental evolution of the Abriendo Oportunidades^® (AO^®) program. As AO^® successfully supported young female Indigenous mentors to increase their autonomy, community visibility, and professional skills, the formation and growth of these independent networks now promotes a larger movement of sustainable, responsive, and community-led social progress. It also provides a new platform for mentors to be recognized and credited for their work, even after they have “graduated” from direct participation in AO^®. This brief is part of …

Growing The Abriendo Oportunidades® Ecosystem: Spotlight On Escuela De Oportunidades, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

Developed in partnership with the Office of the Vice President in 2021, Escuela de Oportunidades is a national internship program that intentionally invests in young female Indigenous professionals to increase their visibility in governance structures. Through a combination of mentorship, training, and practical experience, Escuela de Oportunidades has successfully facilitated the entry of Indigenous Guatemalan women into government institutions, enhancing gender and ethnic inclusivity in public service. This brief is part of the Abriendo Oportunidades^® Legacy Series, celebrating and highlighting 20 years of impactful program implementation.

Growing The Abriendo Oportunidades® Ecosystem: Sowing Seeds Of Change Within Government Systems, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

Population Council-Guatemala (PC-Guatemala) is supporting and shaping a movement led by young Indigenous leaders to expand inclusive education and civic participation opportunities. Through mechanisms such as professional internships, school re-integration programs, and other government collaborations, young Indigenous women are building the knowledge, skills, and relationships to lead community development efforts and inform inclusive national policies. This brief is part of the Abriendo Oportunidades^® Legacy Series, celebrating and highlighting 20 years of impactful program implementation.

Growing The Abriendo Oportunidades® Ecosystem: Equipping Young Mentors With Skills And Resources To Expand Girl-Centered Programming In Belize, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

Building on the success of the Abriendo Oportunidades^® (AO^®) program in Guatemala, in 2014 Population Council Guatemala (PC-Guatemala) and Toledo Mayan Women’s Council established the Toledo Adolescent Girls program (TAG), a safe space initiative that equipped young Indigenous girls and female mentors with life skills. The project demonstrated that neighboring countries are interested in expanding the AO model, and that the Council can successfully support programmatic adaptation to meet the needs of other Indigenous communities in Mesoamerica. This was achieved by introducing age-segmented groups, prioritizing transportation funding for mentors and supervisors, and continuing to tailor to local …

The Social Life Of The Abriendo Oportunidades® Program In Guatemala: Three Decades Of Enabling Community And Civic Spaces For Indigenous Girls And Women, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

Since 2004, Abriendo Oportunidades^® (Opening Opportunities, AO) has emerged as a gender transformative social program to support Indigenous girls and young women in Guatemala’s post-war context. Following an evidence-based, community-anchored approach, AO began as a program and has evolved into a social movement. AO has continuously demonstrated its impact in reducing girls’ exposure to gender-based violence and pioneered alternative education through utilizing mentors as tutors. Over time, AO has successfully reached more than 25,000 Indigenous girls and adolescents across 500+ rural Guatemala communities and built a pathway of professional opportunities for the young women who lead the program. AO …

Young Feminist Organizing Fanzine—To Defend, To Insist And To Resist From The Territory, Feministas Jóvenes Organizadas

Adolescents and Young People

No abstract provided.

Girls First Fund: External Evaluation—Endline Evaluation Report, Brian Medina Carranza, Neelanjana Pandey, Angel Del Valle, Fatima Zahra

Adolescents and Young People

The Population Council is leading an evaluation of programs funded by the Girls First Fund (GFF) in the Dominican Republic (DR), India, and Niger. These three countries were chosen to maximize geographic, social, cultural, and economic diversity across contexts, but common to all three is the continued persistence of child marriage and the presence of collective efforts to eliminate it. The broader goal of this evaluation is to: 1) demonstrate proof of concept for the impact of  GFF-supported programs; 2) examine key outcomes of interest to the GFF and the community-based organizations that it funds, including education, child marriage, and …

New Reader Response: An Examination Of Three High-Achieving High School Readers And Their Literacies, Minkyu Kim

Essays in Education

Since its inception, reader response theory has battled misrepresentations. It was reduced to discursive anarchy, perceived as not rigorous, and set apart from important scholarship movements like critical theory. This research argues that by expanding the definition of “reader” in “reader response” to include digital (aka “new”) literacies, the reader-text transaction can be much more inclusive, dynamic, and most importantly, true to our students’ everyday literacies. This article also includes a discussion of why it is so important for teachers to include digital platforms as sites of interrogation in a safe educative setting. By studying the out-of-school literacy behaviors of …

History And The Teaching Of Dialect And Slang In Screenwriting, Mitch Olson, Chris C. Palmer

Faculty Articles

This article explores academic and industry perspectives on the use of dialect, slang, and historical language in screenwriting. It offers a chronological overview of major screenwriting manuals’ treatment of dialect and slang (or lack thereof) 1946-2020. It then presents survey data of 53 currently-practicing screenwriters’ views on working with dialect and historical language in scripts, as well as their sense of possible changes in the industry regarding attitudes towards diverse voice representation on the page. It concludes with examples from a teaching sequence that illustrates strategies for writing with dialect, researching it, and ethically considering its usage in scripts. Situating …

Creating A Sustainable Platform For Indigenous Girls’ And Women’S Empowerment, Population Council

Adolescents and Young People

No abstract provided.

Community-Based Approaches To Promote Uptake Of Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine For Intermittent Preventive Treatment Of Malaria In Pregnancy: Midline Findings From Kisumu And Migori Counties, Dennis Matanda, Zoe Nakuya, Stephen Kizito, Francis Obare

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

No abstract provided.

The Population Council’S Center For Biomedical Research Implements An End-To-End Approach To Product Development, Anita Bhatia Garg, Lisa Haddad, Sanyukta Mathur, Lorna Begg

Center for Biomedical Research (CBR)

No abstract provided.

Career Preparation In English And Creative Writing, Katherine Fischer

Honors Projects

The information presented within this Honors Project considers and evaluates career preparation within English and Creative Writing (CW) majors. The project is divided into three parts titled Business Curriculum, Field Research, and Connections with Businesses. The Business Curriculum section analyzes how the Schmidthorst School of Business career preparation curriculum can be applied to the CW or English major; the Field Research section explores current CW and English students’ perceptions of career preparation at BGSU; and the Connections with Businesses section discovers businesses regional to BGSU for potential future experiential learning opportunities. Ultimately, the results of the project's sections include: a …

Birthday Girl, Makayla Tappin

Master's Projects

The lives of four friends plummet into chaos after a dead friend from college seemingly resurfaces – alive.

Stakeholder Experiences With The Roll Out Of The Inclusion Of Family Planning Into The National Health Insurance Benefits Package In Ghana, Population Council, Msi Reproductive Choices, National Health Insurance Authority, Ghana Health Service

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

No abstract provided.

Production Of Labiodental Fricative /V/ In Heritage Speakers Of Spanish, Andrea Michelle Nunez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

AbstractThe present study investigates the factors that influence Heritage Spanish speakersâ?? production of the allophone [v]â??namely its corresponding orthography ( vs. ), the phonological context in which it is produced (VCV vs. NCV, where V = vowel, C = consonant, N = /n/), and participantsâ?? language dominance (Spanish vs. English). More specifically, this study seeks to determine whether, for these Spanish speakers, [v] contrasts with /b/ (hence, /v/) or is an allophone of /b/. Standard Spanish does not have /v/, but it has â??an orthographic form of /b/, which in turn has (at least) two allophonic realizations: [b] after nasals …

Not Plato's Closet: The Dialectic Of Embodied Counterstory Through Fashion On The Us/Mexico Border, Brita M. Arrington

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is best understood as a journey about identity that took place over more than eight years. The journey was an exploration that began in one frame of mind and ended in a very different place. I fully anticipated this research to reflect the racial tensions surrounding my participants who are predominantly Latine students at UTEP, a "Hispanic serving" institution on the US/Mexico border, but we ended up a place more deeply personal to them. From a sample of 2000 FYC students and their instructors, 65 participants engaged in taking a survey about their dress practices, and 4 of …

From Academic To Everyday: Utilizing Social-Emotional Learning In The Secondary English Classroom, Claire Collins

Senior Honors Theses

Social-emotional learning is an educational process that allows students to better understand themselves, their relationships, and their problems. While social-emotional learning is often emphasized at the elementary level, the concept continues to be important in secondary grade levels, and teachers have many opportunities to incorporate social-emotional learning within secondary English classrooms. Teachers can utilize diverse literature choices to intertwine life skills with instruction, as well as classroom activities. This integration starts at the planning level and moves into daily instruction, where there are numerous ways to engage students in meaningful discussion, promote reflection, and practice empathy and perspective. English educators …

Safe, Empowered Tech For Adolescents: A Framework For Research And Action, Miriam Temin, Evalin Karijo

Adolescents and Young People

No abstract provided.

It’S Dangerous To Learn Alone – Play This: Video Games In Higher Education, Particularly In The Composition Classroom, Joy Sterrantino

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

When people think of educational games, they often just think of ones geared towards kids: these might include spelling and vocabulary games like Scribblenauts, creative games such as Minecraft, as well as historical games such as Carmen [Sandiego]’s Ancient Caper, but according to the Entertainment Software Association in 2019, 65% of adults play video games (almost half of which are female), the average gamer is 33 years old, and 63% of all gamers are playing with others at least one hour a week (“Essential Facts” 4, 5, 8). This means that the majority of …

Pakistan@2050: Demographic Change, Future Projections, And Development Opportunities, Population Council

Population Policy and Demographic Analysis

Pakistan@2050 is a unique volume that provides comprehensive evidence and insights into the linkages between population dynamics and development. It illustrates Pakistan’s position regarding demographic transition and offers a regional comparison. The study highlights how population trends and dynamics significantly shape development outcomes, emphasizing the need to integrate these factors into both short-term and, most importantly, long-term planning and policy decisions. Long-term planning in Pakistan has faced persistent challenges related to poverty, climate change, and a tendency towards reactive rather than proactive interventions. These approaches often overlook the impact of high population growth on development gains.

It is vital to …

Evaluation Findings From A Group Model Intervention Among First-Time Mothers In An Urban Area Of Bangladesh, Sharif M.I. Hossain, Zakaria Hossain, Sabbir Hossain, Sigma Ainul, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Farzana Islam, A.T.M. Rezaul Karim, Anjuman Begum

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

No abstract provided.

Replication Of Soft Skills Training In The Rohingya Camp And Host Community In Cox’S Bazar, Bangladesh, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Mohammad Muktadir Hossain, Sharif M.I. Hossain, Ubaidur Rob

Humanitarian Task Force

The Population Council in collaboration with Research, Training and Management International (RTMI) and Underprivileged Children’s Education Program (UCEP) implemented a pilot project on soft skills training in Cox’s Bazar in 2022 and 2023. The purpose of this training was to improve the personal, social, and financial management skills of Rohingya youth, which would be useful on their return to Myanmar or during their interim period of stay in Bangladesh. This pilot initiative also included host community youth. The Council found the soft skills training relevant and necessary for the lives of Rohingya and host community youth and identified an increase …

It Does Not Matter Who You Are, But It Does Matter How You Teach And What You Know, Areej Radhi Alruwaili Dr.

Journal of Arabic Sciences and Humanities

A growing number of studies have explored how students prefer Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs) (e.g. Elyas & Alghofaili, 2019). On the other hand, research has also emerged to investigate the qualities that can help to develop an effective English teacher (e.g. Tatipang, Manuas, Wuntu, Rorintulus & Lengkoan, 2022). This paper tries to examine English teachers’ attitudes towards native-speakerism and teaching effectiveness, from the perspective of NESTs and Non-native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs) working in Saudi Arabia. The findings reveal that an effective English teacher, as perceived by the teachers, is flexible, motivated, self-confident and builds rapport with students. Teacher …

Missing Voices: Girls In The Care Economy—Slide Deck, Annabel Erulkar, Maimouna Bah, Edith Murogo, Winnie Nelima, Amar Nijhawan, Chiku Semfuko

Adolescents and Young People

As part of the International Day of the Girl Child 2024’s theme “Girls’ Vision for the Future,” it was essential to consider how adolescent girls envision their role in the future care economy. The care economy, which includes both paid and unpaid care work, disproportionately burdens women and girls, yet current policies largely overlook the distinct experiences of adolescent girls.

On October 30, 2024, the Population Council’s GIRL Center hosted a conversation among people with lived experience, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on the implications for girls’ engagement in the care economy and how best to integrate their distinct needs in …

A Corpus-Based Analysis Of The Verbs Rise And Raise, Donjete Latifaj, Nazlije Latifaj

UBT International Conference

The aim of this research was to explore the differences in the usage of the verbs "rise" and "raise" in their verb forms. This is a corpus-based study, conducted through both qualitative and quantitative methods, to provide a comprehensive analysis. The findings of this research were extracted from two major linguistic resources: the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Additionally, thirty third-year students participated in an online survey where they were tested on their ability to correctly choose between the two verbs. The study revealed that "rise" is used more frequently than "raise," highlighting a notable …

Community-Based Adolescent Girl Programming In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Balancing Act Between Scale And Quality, Miriam Temin, Angel Del Valle

Adolescents and Young People

No abstract provided.

The State Of Gender And Education Needs In Kenya: The Missing Step Toward Gender Equity, Lina López-Lalinde, Meredith Kozak, Eva Ireri Muluve, Ruth Nanjekho Wafubwa, Erica Soler-Hampejsek

Gender Equality and Equity

The Kenya Gender and Education Roadmap is a series of four evidence briefs designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the gender and education landscape in Kenya. Drawing from a variety of key data sources, including the Population Council’s Evidence for Gender and Education Resource (EGER) Database, DHS and national-level datasets, and recent literature from East Africa the series provides data-driven insights into gender-related barriers to schooling, especially for girls. By combining needs assessments, current evidence, and practice-based research, the series sheds light on the alignments and gaps in Kenya’s efforts to achieve gender equity in education. This brief aims …