Digital Commons Network^™

Wvrhc Newsletter, Spring 2025, West Virginia & Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center Newsletters

Congressional Archives Portal Continues to Grow; Creating a Digital West Virginia Folk Music Collection

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies 2025 Apr Self-Study & Documents, Unm Academic Program Review

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Spring 2025, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

Africana Studies 2025 Apr Self-Study & Documents, Unm Academic Program Review

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Africana Studies APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Spring 2025, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

Primates From Senèze, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

Senèze has yielded two primate fossils, neither from the recent field work. A partial ulna can be identified as cf. Macaca sylvanus. A nearly complete female skull is the holotype of Dolichopithecus arvernensis Depéret, 1928, now included in Paradolichopithecus. Emended and differential diagnoses are provided for this genus and species for the first time, and the Senèze skull is described and briefly compared to those of other species of the genus. Dental and cranial measurements are provided, along with comparative data. The macaque and Paradolichopithecus are moderately to highly terrestrial, respectively, and they suggest a woodland to more open …

Reconstruction And Repatriation Of Looted Cultural Heritage Property: Ownership Mechanism, Yichi Zhang

School of Public Policy Capstones

The frequent foreign invasions and widespread social instability during World War II led to the displacement and loss of countless cultural relics across borders. Many of these artifacts ended up in countries with limited historical and cultural ties to them, resulting in a lack of intrinsic understanding and root connection to their origins. This root disconnection often represents the recipient nations viewing these artifacts through a lens of ownership rather than heritage, perceiving them as property or commodities instead as invaluable representations of ancient civilizations (Boz, 2023). The commodification approach fueled the illicit trade and trafficking of cultural property but …

The Role Of Organizational Culture And Pastoral Leadership In Sustainable Church Outreach: A Multisite Mini-Ethnographic Case Study, Althea P. Gordon-Scott

PhD in Organizational Leadership

This study examined the role of organizational culture and pastoral leadership in sustainable church outreach programs. Two churches were chosen for this multisite mini-ethnographic case study because, for multiple years, they have participated in multiple outreaches each week to their non-Christian neighbors. These two churches differed in terms of geographical location, size, demographics, and budget. Data collection included field observations, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The themes that surfaced from the data were altruistic foundations, relational equity, organizational agility, organizational challenges, exemplary pastoral leadership, and the centrality of God. This research contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding …

The Man, The Myth, The Mothman: Cryptid Folklore And West Virginian Identity Formation, Bailey South

Munn Scholars Awards

“Cryptids” as a theme within Appalachian (more specifically West Virginian) folklore has gained increased interest in recent years, yet limited scholarly attention has been paid as to why. Along similar lines, many West Virginians have reclaimed the West Virginia regional identity. In this study, I collected and analyzed the opinions of West Virginians on the West Virginia identity and on cryptids to argue that the popularity of cryptids within folklore (a reclamation) has coincided with the reclamation of the West Virginian identity. I surveyed a demographic of mainly students through an online survey to analyze their perspectives, gathering demographic data …

From Bones To Bias: Exploring Demographic Gaps In The West Virginia University Osteological Collection, Ren Kully

Munn Scholars Awards

Osteological collections are essential to forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology but often refl ect historical biases. Analysis of 26 individuals from West Virginia University’s osteological collection revealed disproportionate representation: 46.2% Asian/Native American, 34.6% African American, and 19.2% European American, with a skew toward middle-aged adults. Sex estimations varied, with 26.9% indeterminate. These imbalances stem from unethical collection practices, such as grave robbing and using unclaimed bodies. Addressing these issues requires transparency, provenance research, and ethical sourcing. This study underscores the need for equitable representation, ethical stewardship, and revised methods to mitigate bias in osteological teaching and research.

‬ ‭ Spiritual Geographies And Living Ritual:‬ ‭ Misali Island’S Caves In Swahili Religious Life In Zanzibar, Everett Gordon

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

Caves along the East African Swahili coast are more than geological formations—they are spiritual landscapes where the boundaries between visible and invisible worlds collapse. This paper explores the ritual and religious significance of three caves on Misali Island, a small coral rag island off the coast of Pemba in the Zanzibar Archipelago. Drawing on vegetation surveys and three weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews with local fishermen, waganga (healers), and marine rangers, this study investigates how these caves serve as sites of prayer, healing, and spirit veneration. It argues that the practices performed within and around these caves exemplify the …

The Mikvah And The Menstrual Other: Shame, Spirituality, Sexuality, And Contradiction In Jewish Ritual And Modern Art, Molly Greenwold

Netherlands: International Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender

The Amsterdam Jewish Museum’s exhibit “Sex: Jewish Positions” creates a crucial space for modern art to reflect, comment, and expand on ancient Jewish rituals. One such ritual is the ideologically fraught space of the mikvah: a Jewish bath house for spiritual cleansing. This ritual deals with the abject Menstrual Other who is both unclean and infectious, but also spiritually elevated. The Menstrual Other is cleansed by the mikvah and then brought back into society via prescribed but pleasurable sex. Using three pieces of contemporary art on display at the Amsterdam Jewish Museum, Five Plus Seven by Hagit Molgan, Kit for …

Agricultural Innovation To Climate Change In Northwest Pemba Island, Margaret Horn

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

This study investigates how climate change is reshaping agriculture and food security on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, a region historically known as “The Green Island” for its rich biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Through semi-structured interviews with 11 local farmers and extended participant observation at the farm of government official Amour Juma Mohammed, the research reveals that increasingly erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, and prolonged droughts are disrupting traditional planting cycles and reducing crop yields. Farmers report the near disappearance of the vuli rainy season and increasingly severe weather during masika, leading to both water scarcity and crop damage. In response, many have …

The Public Utility Regulation Of Dollar General, Olivia R. Sokos

West Virginia Law Review

As food insecurity persists across the country, few solutions have been proposed to address the lack of access to healthy food in rural regions. This Note explores whether public utilities regulation is a theoretical avenue for addressing rural food deserts. The contribution of this Note is to encourage the recognition of healthy food as a critical public good through a modern public utility lens and build solutions to inadequate food access in rural regions by considering the qualities unique to rural populations. One solution proposed herein is to apply a modern public utility framework to dollar stores, ensuring reliable and …

Book Review: Missiological Triage: A Framework For Integrating Theology And Social Sciences In Missiological Methods By Sarah Lunsford, L. Lynn Thigpen

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Carnegie Foundation For The Advancement Of Teaching: Elective Classification For Community Engagement 2026 Re-Classification, Andrew Sexton

Morehead State College Histories

A report published by the Morehead State University Carnegie Committee that applied for reclassification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for the campus' community engagement program in 2025.

Policing Borders, Abandoning Rights: The Human Cost Of Eu Frontier Policy And Civil Society’S Response, Abena Afriyie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research examines the human rights consequences of recent shifts in the European Union and Spain’s immigration policies, which increasingly prioritize deterrence, externalization, and securitization over the protection of migrants’ rights. These policies, often framed as measures to combat irregular migration, have included the outsourcing of border control to third countries, such as Libya and Morocco, as well as the criminalization of humanitarian organizations engaged in search and rescue operations. By outsourcing border control to third countries, these policies exacerbate misinformation and anti-immigration sentiment while pushing asylum seekers into perilous transit routes fraught with abuse. Such strategies push migrants into …

The Weight Of Feeding The World: Stress In Kentucky Farmers, Natalie Tolle

Honors Theses

Agriculture work (farming, fishing, and forestry) is one of the most stressful jobs, with one of the highest suicide rates among all major job occupation groups. The stress that farmers face is often out of their control, stemming mainly from weather and financial concerns. This topic has been researched extensively in many countries around the world, however, research and literature are lacking in the United States, and specifically in the state of Kentucky. This study aimed to investigate the stress that Kentucky farmers face, how they cope with that stress, if it impacts their mental health, and how social support …

I Lost My Grandmother’S Hanbok: A Thematic Series Of Paintings Exploring Of The Loss Of Culture In A Mixed-Race Korean American Home, Cadance G. Thompson

Honors Theses

Mixed-race individuals feel conflicted at their place in American society. They fit in with their cultural heritage, but also their American heritage. This creates a split where they may identify more with one or the other. This may be due to the lack of diversity where they live, the desire to fit in, or lack of participating in their own culture. This series of paintings explores the self-identification of me, a mixed-race Korean and White woman from Appalachia. The acrylic paintings explore themes of self-identification and cultural heritage with the goal of determining which group I identify with more. The …

Traditions And Transitions: Intergenerational Family Relationships And Gender Roles In Appalachian Families, Abigail L. Belcher

Honors Theses

For hundreds of years the people of the Appalachian Mountains have come under scrutiny for their “backwards” and “outdated” customs. Often seen as inferior by the wider world, much nuance of Appalachian culture is overlooked and reduced to harmful stereotypes. Terms such as “hillbilly” or “redneck” serve to single out and label the people of Appalachia as “other.” Recent scholarship has taken to try and work around such stereotypes yet often fails to observe Appalachia through the eyes of its people, not generalized statistics. The practice of conducting and collecting Oral History serves to situate a select group of people’s …

Creatine Supplementation Is Safe, Beneficial Throughout The Lifespan, And Should Not Be Restricted, Richard Kreider, Andrew Jagim, Jose Antonio, Douglas Kalman, Chad Kerksick, Jeffrey R. Stout, Robert Wildman, Rick Collins, Diego A. Bonilla

Faculty Scholarship

As researchers investigating creatine supplementation, we have become increasingly concerned about reports that government agencies are attempting to restrict the sale of dietary supplements, including dietary supplements containing creatine, to children and adolescents. Creatine is a naturally occurring compound found in every cell in the human body that plays a critical role in cellular metabolism. The daily turnover of creatine is about 2–4 grams/day, depending on muscle mass and physical activity levels (1, 2). About half of the daily need for creatine is synthesized in the body from amino acids (arginine, glycine, methionine) and stored as free creatine or phosphocreatine …

Undergraduate And Graduate Course Descriptions, Spring 2025, Wright State University

Course Descriptions

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Spring 2025

Women In Law Enforcement Conference 2025, Tennessee. Department Of Safety & Homeland Security.

Miscellaneous Reports

No abstract provided.

Geochronology Of Senèze, Eric Delson, Sébastien Nomade, Sevket Sen, Evelyne Debard, Jean-François Pastre, Jean-Jacques Bahain, Qingfeng Shao, Christophe Falguères

Publications and Research

The age of the Senèze mammalian fauna has been discussed since it was first reported in 1892. 40Ar/39Ar ages reported by Nomade et al. (2014) and recalculated here to agree with current standards placed the deposits between 2.20 and 2.07 Ma. Paleomagnetic data collected in 2001 and 2004 help to narrow the age range, especially of the levels yielding fossils in 2001–2006. In the western sector, fossils can be securely dated between 2.10 and 2.08 Ma, while in the southeastern sector, they are slightly older, between 2.20 and 2.18 Ma. Senèze is one of the few later Cenozoic European sites …

Scientific Educations Among U.S. Judges, Christa Laser

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Should more judges have technical and scientific educations than are currently prevalent in the federal judiciary? This empirical study of the educational background of federal judges reports the undergraduate and graduate majors of active U.S. federal Article III judges. Information on the subject area of study is largely not publicly available, especially for judges appointed decades ago. This is the first and only publicly available research study of the subject areas of study of U.S. judges, collected via phone and email surveys to U.S. judges. The results of this study show that only 7.35% offederal judges have majors in science …

Athlete Decision-Making Process In The Liminality After Career-Ending Injuries, Grace Davie

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the decision-making process of athletes in the liminal period immediately following career-ending injuries. While existing research has examined transition challenges and coping strategies, there remains a critical gap in understanding how athletes actively make decisions that shape their post-sport trajectories during this crucial period. Using Crisis Decision Theory (CDT) as a theoretical framework, this study investigated athletes' overall experience, support systems, injury severity assessment, and response option determination and evaluation during the immediate post-injury decision-making process. Key findings demonstrated that athletes' decision-making processes closely aligned with CDT's three-stage framework: assessing injury severity, determining response options, and …

“To Ponder And Dream”: Gettysburg’S Conflict Heritage And Cultural Constructions Of History In Its Museums, Camryn Counsil

Student Publications

After providing brief historical context and a review of relevant literature, this paper analyzes four overarching concerns that inform the work of Gettysburg’s museums and historical organizations: ensuring commercial success, including underrepresented stories without alienating visitors, balancing scholarly and emotional approaches, and acknowledging the larger political implications of their choices. Using an anthropological approach, this work shows how these larger economic, social, and political concerns influence the construction of history and memory in a conflict heritage site like Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Unveiling Marginalised Voices: Female Indentured Labourer’S Narratives In Island Literature, Arifah Arum Candra Hayuningsih

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

This study examines the lives of female indentured labourers from Java and India, as portrayed in Liliane Saintomer's La Bayou de Nouméa à Jakarta (2016) and Gaiutra Bahadur's Coolie Woman (2013). Both authors, grandchildren of the central characters, offer personal and historical insights. The research explores how these novels enhance our understanding of the complex identities and lived experiences of female indentured labourers in colonial contexts. It investigates memory as a site of resistance, reclaiming silenced narratives and addressing the shared struggles of Javanese and Indian women in plantation life.

Contributors

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

No abstract provided.

Tradition And Transformation: The Changing Role Of Chestnuts In New England Contra Dance, Emilie Carroll

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

It is common knowledge that traditional music and dance are integral to many cultures, but we may not think of the traditions that shape our local community, such as the New England contra dance tradition. Contra dance is a form of folk dance brought by European settlers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and like all living traditions, contra dance continues to change, yet its historical roots remain significant. In my research project, funded by a Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program grant from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, I studied a subset of older tunes called “chestnuts” which are …

Epigenetics, Preconception Tort Liability, And Public Health, Peter Sie

UC Law Journal

Epigenetics is an emerging science that studies how our behavior and environment can change the function of our genes without changing our genetic code. These changes can pass on to our children and grandchildren, for better or for worse. Epigenetic knowledge could change our understanding of human biology and individual responsibility. However, it is also ripe for misunderstanding. Commercial entities seek to capitalize on the hype to sell snake oil under the “epigenetic” label. In the popular press, reporters dramatize limited studies to create sensational headlines, often blaming parents for causing epigenetic harms to their children.

If this attitude toward …

Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Honors College

Honors Convocation

The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation Awards Program for Spring 2025, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.