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Understanding The Rising Popularity Of (Un)Religious Pilgrims: Belonging Without Believing, Gregory Smith

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

While researchers are in agreement about the positive relationship between spiritual activities (SAs) and mental health (MH) among the general population, the relationship between spiritual tourism (ST) and MH, particularly among young adults, is yet to be adequately investigated. As such, important questions regarding the status of religion in the contemporary world can be addressed through the study of current pilgrimage trends. A ‘pilgrimage boom’ is occurring in Britain and other parts of the global anglosphere (Williams, 2020 & O’Keeffe, 2022). Yet, many of these modern pilgrims do not identify with established religious categories (i.e., Christianity). Significant gaps in our …

The Journey Of The Soul In Aboriginal Australia, Ian S. Mcintosh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

For the past decade, I have been studying pilgrimage in all its dimensions in what my colleagues and I have been calling a kaleidoscopic inquiry (McIntosh et al., 2024). In my current investigations, I have been exploring the journey of the soul upon the death of its host. My focus in this working paper is the myths and traditions of the Yolngu Indigenous peoples of northeast Arnhemland in remote northern Australia with whom I lived and worked in the 1980s and 90s. The Yolngu go to great lengths to prepare the dying for their ultimate journey, painting the body with …

Craft, Love, And Loathing: Anthropology Of Hair Art In The Twenty-First Century, Eugene Kauffman

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

When hair is cut off and used in art, many people find it disgusting, but when attached, hair is seen as beautiful. Over time, these ideas have changed; in the Victorian Era, people had more tolerance and appreciation for different types of hair art, such as sculptures and accessories. In order to analyze these changes and why hair is seen as repulsive, we must look at theories of disgust and abjection. In addition, we must look at the history of bodily art and the connections it had to death and mourning. The understanding and recognition of abject mediums such as …

Handwritten Histories: Exploring Identity Through Personal Correspondence, Savana Hauck

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This project examines handwritten correspondence as a site of gendered and sexual self-discovery, intimacy, and historical continuity. Developed for HIST 2708W - Gender, Women, and Sexuality in Modern Europe - , it centers on a collection of contemporary “snail mail” letters written in response to reflective prompts about participants’ lived experiences of gender and sexuality. These personal narratives are presented in a physical, scrapbook-style format that emphasizes slowness, care, and trust as methodological and ethical practices.

By placing these contemporary letters in dialogue with historical examples of correspondence—including an 1882 letter sent to German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, the intimate …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 18 No. 2, 2025, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Article

Developmentalism, Christianity, and Population Decline in East Asia by Elizabeth LaCouture

Photo Essay

Photo Essay: Japan’s Demographic Changes and Opportunities: A Tale of Two Cities by Ryoko Yamamoto

Graduate Student Paper

Graduate Student Paper: Aging in a Changing Japan: Gendered Adaptation to Changing Family Structure by Miki Izu and Clayton Chalmers

Book Reviews

Book Review: Wombs of Empire: Population Discourse and Biopolitics in Modern Japan, by Sujin Lee by Bonnie Tilland

Book Review: Gietel-Basten, Stuart. The “Population Problem” in Pacific Asia. by Yang Jixi

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda March 16, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:00 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes February 17, 2026
• 3:05 University Business
• 3:20 Faculty Senate Business
• 3:35 Reports
• Budget and Faculty Welfare
• Faculty Development and Educational Leadership
• Sustainability Council
• 3:55 Information
• EPC Report - March 5, 2026
• Employee Benefits
• Task Force Report
• 4:15 Additional Business
• 2026-2027 Faculty Senate Calendar
• Adjourn: 4:30 pm

Sticky Science In Court, H. A. Spitzer

Nebraska Law Review

Litigation routinely employs scientific evidence to aid judicial fact-finding and decision-making. This is especially important in areas like family law, where legal standards—such as the best interests of the child—often depend in part on scientific findings. Yet the legal system’s gatekeeping doctrines (Frye, Daubert, and Federal Rule of Evidence 702) apply primarily to expert testimony, leaving other pathways through which scientific evidence reaches courts largely unchecked. These other pathways include citations in briefs and opinions to non-peer-reviewed or non-scientific sources such as law reviews, treatises, and self-published materials, which often become outdated and are not well positioned …

Sheikh ḤIlu: The Late Ottoman Ceramic Assemblage, Anna De Vincenz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A small assemblage of ceramic artifacts, dating to the late Ottoman period, was recovered from excavations at Sheikh Ḥilu. The assemblage is typical of the period, including locally produced vessels made of Black Gaza Ware and other coarse wares, as well as a few items of imported glazed tableware. The ceramic smoking pipes, characteristic of the Ottoman period, span from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century and could have been made locally or imported from one of the many pipe-making workshops in the Ottoman Empire.

Sheikh Ḥilu: The Medieval Pottery Assemblage, Elisabeth Yehuda

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This article examines the pottery assemblage unearthed during the excavations at Sheikh Ḥilu. It comprises a variety of local and imported vessels, including unglazed and glazed bowls, frying pans, cooking pots and jugs. These vessels range in date from the twelfth century to the early Mamluk period but converge during the thirteenth century, thus testifying to a settlement at Sheikh Ḥilu during the late Crusader period.

Sheikh Ḥilu: A Crusader Structure And Additional Remains From The Iron Age And Late Ottoman Period, Yoav Arbel, ‘Abed A-Salam Sa‘Id

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Excavations at the site of Sheikh Ḥilu in Ḥadera revealed the remains of a possible manor house or farm dating from the Crusader period. The partially exposed two-phase complex is a rare example of a settlement from this period in the Sharon plain. Careful planning and relatively high construction quality attest to its significance; however, apart from its solid architecture, there is no evidence of fortification. The site underwent a non-violent abandonment at the end of the Crusader period, after which it was temporarily settled by squatters. In the late Ottoman period and the early twentieth century, this was the …

Embodied Transcendence: Psychedelics And The Evolution Of Moral Abstraction, Emanuel Jas

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This paper explores the role of psychedelics in the context of evolutionary brain development and the conceptual capacity for moral realism. Drawing on theories from evolutionary anthropology, neuroscience, and moral philosophy, the first part provides a brief overview of human evolution and brain expansion. From here, recent empirical data from the neurosciences is assessed on the effect psychedelics have on the brain, along with speculations on the role of psychedelics in our hominoid evolutionary history—specifically, the capacity for phenomenologically rich, conscious, subjective experiences that are incredibly vivid and real. This imaginative capacity for transcendence and disembodiment could enable the realization …

Pictures Of The Interactive Model Of The Saying Of The Original Model, A Reading Of The Qur’Anic Representations, Tahrir Qasim Saadoun, Nima Dahsh Farhan

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The importance of this research comes in accordance with the research in cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics related to the renewed concept, along with the work of Roche, which presented anthropological and mystical concepts that investigate the mystical constants that have a universal form. The concept of the saying in the theory of archetypes depends on the concept of mental image and referential connotation, to highlight the relationship between perception and language within the framework of experimental realism, which is the basic starting point in cognitive theory. The problem of the research appears from the possibility of considering the associative …

Local Knowledge And Its Implications For Teacher Education In South Carolina, A. Scott Henderson, Cathryn A. Stevens

Teacher Education Journal of South Carolina

During 2005-2006, the Richard Riley Institute of Government, Politics, and Public Leadership at Furman University conducted focus-group interviews of parents, students, teachers, business leaders, school officials, and district administrators to collect data concerning the state of public education in South Carolina. Analysis of the results suggests that the state’s teacher preparation programs should continue and/or enhance their efforts in the areas of early childhood education, one-on-one tutoring techniques, adult/parent education, reading pedagogies, dropout prevention strategies, and curricular alignment/articulation.

Civil Rights History In South Carolina And The Question Of Meaning: Tools For Closing The Achievement Gap?, E. Doyle Stevick

Teacher Education Journal of South Carolina

Schools seldom convey the purpose of education to students, and are poorly suited to be responsive to students’ purposes. Yet meaning is a crucial factor in whether students achieve in school. If schools can find ways to nurture a purpose for learning in students who do not have one, schooling can be transformed. In South Carolina, with its history of racism in education, exposure to the local and ongoing struggles for civil rights and a good education could potentially provide such meaning, and narrow the achievement gap.

Water Sources And Livelihood Choices Among Pastoralist Households In Monduli District, Tanzania, Fredrick Alleni Mfinanga, Jacqueline Temba, Monica F. Timbuka

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper investigates the association between types of water sources for livestock and livelihood choices of pastoralist households in semi-arid areas of Monduli District, Tanzania. Specifically, it aims to examine the influence of the types of water sources for livestock on livelihood diversification of pastoralist households. Using a mixed research methods approach, the data were collected from 367 households through three methods: surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and counts, and inferential statistics, Chi-square tests and correlation, while the qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The findings revealed …

Analysis Of Traditional Wisdom For Ecological Sustainability In Tanzania: A Case Study Of Metaphorical Source Domains In Pangwa Ritual Texts, Winne Stephen Mtega, Angelus Mnenuka

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Campaigns for ecological sustainability have gained a great currency in the contemporary academic discourse. Nonetheless, from time immemorial, Africans have pushed the ecological sustainability agenda through cultural taboos and regulated resource harvesting. Many African societies have embedded ecological consciousness in daily life expressions, and have intricately expressed it through literary and ritual texts. This study focuses on ecological awareness in the ritual texts of the Pangwa community. It analyses how environmental domains—such as land, seeds, and fruits—serve as the basis for metaphors in the Pangwa community to prove the use of wisdom to promote and sustain ecological practices (ecocriticism). The …

Ecomusicological Representation Of Climate Change And Environmental Sustainability In Selected Bongo Fleva Lyrics In Tanzania, Auson N. Wincheslaus

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This article critically explores how Bongo Fleva’s lyrics engage with environmental themes; and the interrelationship between nature and culture in the context of the Anthropocene. The data were purposively sampled from YouTube via content analysis, from which 50 Bongo Fleva songs were listened to, and only 10 environmentally-themed songs were analysed. Then, the selected songs were subjected to transcription (from oral to written form), translation (from Kiswahili into English), and close reading and textual analysis. The close reading of the selected songs focused on the employed aesthetic and rhetorical strategies, such as anthropomorphism, symbolism, antithesis, apocalyptic tones, solastalgia, rhetorical questions, …

Doc 2026-08 Proposal To Rename The Department Of Religious Studies To The Department Of Theology And Religious Studies, University Of Dayton. Department Of Religious Studies

Senate Documents

This proposal outlines the initiative to rename the University of Dayton’s Department of Religious Studies to the Department of Theology and Religious Studies to better reflect the modern academic and public distinction between the two fields. While "religious studies" is now widely understood as a secular, third-person analysis of religion, "theology" refers to the insider study of a faith tradition, which directly aligns with the department's faculty expertise and its explicitly theological MA and PhD programs. Because prospective students and local faith communities increasingly associate the term "religious studies" with purely secular education, the department has faced enrollment losses from …

The Sortee Guidelines For Data And Code Quality Control In Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, Joel L. Pick, Bethany J. Allen, Benedicte Bachelot, Kevin R. Bairos-Novak, Jack A. Brand, Barbara Class, Tad Dallas, Pietro B. D'Amelio, Erola Fenollosa, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Dylan G. Gomes, Matthew J. Grainger, Thomas Guillemaud, John Christian, Ruby Krasnow, Malgorzata Lagisz, Sebastian Lequime, Daniel S. Maynard, Shinichi Nakagawa, Rose E. O'Dea, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

Open data and code are crucial to increasing transparency and reproducibility, and in building trust in scientific research. However, despite an increasing number of journals in ecology and evolutionary biology mandating for data and code to be archived alongside published articles, the amount and quality of archived data and code, and subsequent reproducibility of results, has remained worryingly low. As a result, a handful of journals have recruited dedicated data editors, whose role is to help authors increase the overall quality of archived data and code. There is, however, a general lack of consensus around what a data editor should …

The Collective Impact Of Physical Activity, Somatic Therapy, And Nature-Based Spirituality (Pastans) On Individuals Recovering From Substance Use Disorders (Suds), Sara R. Maddox

University Honors Theses

This correlation research study explores the collective impact of physical activities, somatic therapies, and nature-based spirituality (referred to as PASTANS, a term created by the researcher) on individuals recovering from substance use disorders (SUDs). The study aimed to evaluate how these practices enhanced emotional regulation and fostered community development, thereby supporting sustained recovery and overall well-being. PASTANS interconnected to alleviate cravings and rewire brain reward pathways, promoting cultural connections through activities that resonated with pre-colonial traditions and were accessible to atheists and agnostics.

Participants engaged in movement and somatic practices in natural settings, including yoga and hiking. Somatic therapies are …

Using A Place-Based Harms Typology To Inform Community Practice And Research: Illustrative Cases And Contexts, Jason Sawyer, Greer A. Hamilton, Amie Thurber, Amy Krings

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Place-based harms comprise direct threats to community wellbeing within the spaces where people live. These harms, rooted in structural and cultural violence, are codified in policies and programs that contribute to poverty, homelessness, over-policing and surveillance, and environmental injustices. This paper argues, although community practitioners are needed to work alongside communities impacted by place-based harms, there are critical tensions and tradeoffs embedded within the place-based strategies. To illustrate this, we draw from the Contested Places Typology and present cases that highlight key tensions, tradeoffs, and nuances associated with its six approaches: (1) Reparation, (2) Remembrance, (3) Regeneration, (4) Resistance, (5) …

Maya Fashion And Textile Politics In Guatemala, Dr. Walter E. Little

LAII Events

Contemporary Maya textile production and fashion in Guatemala pushes the boundaries of authenticity, tradition, and what is handmade. New production techniques and shifting economic conditions for Maya women workers challenge notions of what are authentic Mayan textiles, resulting in debates that challenge Mayas gendered and cultural identity positions. Contradictory consumption practices by Mayas further problematize the roles that urban Maya textile entrepreneurs play, as they embrace technological changes in weaving and innovate Maya clothing fashions. Under the guise of economic mobility and fairness, textile entrepreneurs mobilize the labor and opinions of rural artisans, laborers, vendors and middlepersons, and a wide …

Interview No. 1838, Victor J. Perches

Combined Interviews

Victor J. Perches recounts his childhood in South El Paso, along with his attendance at Douglass Elementary, Guillen Middle School, and Bowie High School in the 1970s and 1980s. According to Victor, Douglas Elementary was a very safe and supportive place. The teachers provided support for students who had difficulty succeeding due to economic problems in the neighborhood . He recalls there were meals, activities, and other events available to students who lived in Salazar Housing Project, making them less likely to join gangs due to being occupied. Perches talked candidly about the social situation in his area, poverty, gang …

The Emotional Construction Of Religious Experience: Senitmentalism And Moral Motivations, Yvonne Candelario

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper addresses the growing prevalence of reported religious experiences across diverse religious and spiritual traditions, alongside the persistent absence of such reports among many adherents within the same communities. This asymmetry poses a challenge for both supernaturalist and reductively skeptical accounts of religious experience. I develop a naturalistic constructivist framework to explain why some individuals choose to interpret and report some human experiences as religious experiences or report having religious experiences at all, while others do not. Drawing on a post-modern revision of moral theory, an account of constructive sentimentalism, I argue that religious experience is shaped by socially …

Costumes, Connections, And Community: An In-Depth Exploration Of The Dynamics Within The Cosplaying Community, Carlo L. Ortiz, Gabriel Louie Fil Limpin Darang, Danial Mendoza Shomalzadeh, Rodnae Lu Palmito Cayat, Jorge Carle Fontanilla Dacaimat, Carl Rangel Buslayan Dangsi, Alfonso B. Astudillo Iii

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Cosplay is a fun way to express oneself through costumes and roleplay that has given rise to a vibrant global community. While various studies have explored certain elements of this phenomenon, the cosplay community remains partially unexplored. This research aims to further investigate the dynamics of the cosplay community, providing meaningful insights into the identity processes, motivations, sense of belonging, and creativity that define it. Using in-depth interviews and online questionnaires, the research employs an inductive thematic analysis to examine how cosplayers interact with community-building, creativity, identity, and self-expression. Findings reveal that cosplayers actively engage with these aspects as they …

Pendidikan Hukum Di Indonesia Suatu Retrospeksi, Prof. Padmo Wahyono, S.H.

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

The Lumberjack, March 11, 2026

Cal Poly Humboldt's Student Newspaper

The student newspaper of Humboldt State University.

Primordial Recognition And The Structure Of Human Cognition: Toward A Quranic Epistemology, Jana El-Boustani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reconstructs a Qur’anic epistemological architecture grounded in narrative rather than abstract system-building. It argues that the Qur’an articulates a unified account of human cognition in which intelligibility is grounded in divine instruction, recognition is affirmed through primordial testimony, and knowledge is exercised within finite yet accountable faculties.

Through close analysis of the story of Adam in Surat al-Baqarah, the primordial covenant in Surat al-Aʿrāf, and the verse of the Amanah in Surat al-Aḥzāb, the study demonstrates that the Qur’an presents human knowing as structured, oriented, and morally conditioned. Revelation functions not as the introduction of wholly new knowledge, …

Blood Group Relationship With Hypertension, Huda Jabbar Dibby

Al-Qadisiyah Medical Journal

This study was carried out on two groups of subjects who are attending general medicine outpatient department in Al-diwaniya teaching hospital & some privet clinic during the period from September 2011 to October2013 . the age range of both group was 35- 70 years of both sexes . The Control group consist of normal 285 healthy subjects ,including 188 males and 97 females while the patients group consist of 210 patients who are suffering from hypertension of which 125 male & 85 females. determination of blood group using antisera was done for each subject. It was founded that blood group …

Blood Groupsdistribution & Its Relationship With Bleeding Time And Clotting Time, Huda Jabbar Dibby

Al-Qadisiyah Medical Journal

The study carried out on 265 of 2nd year MBchB healthy student in the department of physiology ,collage of medicine in Al-Qadisiya university The study achieved from September 2011 to December 2013, including 265 students ,out of which were 169 females & 96 males. With age range (19- 21 years). Determination of blood group was done for all students and then bleeding& clotting time was determined for each student, it was founded that blood group B was more predominant than other groups among the students, and the clotting & bleeding time was more prolonged in those with blood group O …