Digital Commons Network^™

East Portland Grid: Supporting Clean Industry And Residents, Allison Kirkpatrick, Andrew Azar, Diego Joao Murphy-Mendez, Evan Howington, Kate Carroll, Maura Paxton

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Supporting clean industry and residents in ways that are mutually beneficial requires a diversity of efforts. The Columbia Salmonry Group, working for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, finds that designating the Sumner-Parkrose-Argay Terrace neighborhoods as a Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) can, with the following recommendations, build on the work of community and city partners to sustain and grow clean industry in Portland. This area is well suited to be a GRID due to the close proximity of industry and residents, a history of over-planning and under-delivering of investment, and the engaged community. Focusing on the needs of …

Building Adaptive Capacity Through Community Visioning, Silas Carr, Isaiah Jackman, Brandon Huezo, Lara Opeifa

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

East Portland represents one of Oregon’s most diverse communities. This rich cultural tapestry reflects the strength and resilience of communities who have built vibrant neighborhoods despite facing systemic exclusion and displacement. This project focuses on community engagement efforts undertaken in collaboration with the Rosewood Initiative, a community-based organization operating in East Portland. However, the legacy of discriminatory policies and practices has created concentrated challenges in East Portland, which have relegated many residents to areas with inadequate infrastructure, limited access to services, and heightened exposure to environmental hazards. Climate change intensifies these challenges, with East Portland experiencing more severe urban heat …

Rebuilding Consent: Fear, Trust, And The Future Of Nuclear Energy, Austin Dunham

University Honors Theses

This thesis traces the cultural and emotional roots of nuclear fear in the United States and explores how those inherited anxieties continue to shape public resistance to nuclear energy in the face of a worsening climate crisis. Drawing on personal narrative, risk perception theory, and the history of nuclear discourse - from Hiroshima to Chernobyl to today - the research examines how trust, rather than technology, remains the largest barrier to progress. By analyzing the stories we tell about energy, disaster, control, and overall perceived risk, this work asks what it would take for Americans to imagine nuclear energy not …

Raising The Roof For All: Integrating Companion Planting Ecology, Policy And Community In Portland's Green Roof Future, Zoe Edelman

University Honors Theses

Green roofs, or ecoroofs, provide environmental and social benefits in urban areas. Ecoroofs manage stormwater by absorbing rainfall, reducing rooftop temperatures, supporting pollinators, and offering green space in densely developed cities. Portland, Oregon has adopted progressive policies that encourage green roof installation through incentives and building requirements. However, many ecoroofs in the city are underperforming due to poor maintenance, low public awareness, and limited access to rooftop spaces. This thesis explores whether companion planting can improve the ecological performance and long- term viability of extensive green roofs. A rooftop experiment at Portland State University tested the growth of radishes, with …

Re-Imagining As Re-Empowering, Zheyun Chen

Masters Theses

While landscapes designed have been shown to effectively promote healing, foster community, and facilitate social empowerment, the landscapes of domestic violence shelters are woefully understudied.

This thesis explores the potential of integrating and combining existing design elements into the landscape to create a system that fosters a “safe place” within an urban context.

In this thesis, I developed a series of typologies based on existing landscape elements that are not necessarily connected with trauma-informed care or a healing landscape. I examined these in an urban context, specifically at Casa Myrna, a domestic violence shelter in Roxbury, Boston, MA.

Through the …

More Than Her Othering Narrative, Jiayi Zhang

Masters Theses

Following feminist theory and spatial critique, this thesis challenges the kitchen’s traditional function as an enclosed site of invisible domestic labor. It reclaims the kitchen as an open, public, and empowering space. In so doing, it reframes it as a critical site of collective resistance, care, and community building.

Fall River, MA is a post-industrial city marked by disinvestment and food insecurity. This thesis integrates existing food pantries and public landscapes into a network of community kitchens using repurposed vacant lots and an existing bike path. These multi-functional spaces where food is grown, cooked, and shared, become an infrastructure of …

Pulped Landscapes, Allison P. Abrams

Masters Theses

Large corporations control intensive and extractive industrial land use practices through acts of dumping, capping, and neglect. The abandonment of industrial sites is increasing as well as the environmental consequences of such actions. How can impacted communities proactively engage in remediation processes while post-industrial sites sit in limbo?

With the former Foley Cellulose Plant in Perry, Florida (closed in 2023) as a case study, this thesis researches and speculates on potentials of phytoremediation experimentation and harvesting of plant fibers on contaminated soils. The site is a pulped landscape: land directly impacted by intensive, large corporation-led pulp production practices that is …

From Contamination To Consequence: Tracing Donna Lake’S Human Environmental History, Dean Kyne

Sociology Faculty Publications

The Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna Lake) in Texas has been a persistent source of environmental contamination for over a century, exposing surrounding communities to dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Originally built for agricultural irrigation, the system became a recreational fishing site before PCB contamination was discovered during public health investigations in the 1990s. This study examines patterns of demographic vulnerability, evaluates remediation efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and explores residents’ ongoing challenges related to toxic exposure. Using publicly available demographic data, EPA reports, and previous health assessments, the study analyzes variations in community characteristics …

College Students’ Activism: The Usage Of Social Media Ads, Gabriela Perez-Amaya

Culture, Society, and Praxis

In a world where social media is at its optimal peak, social movements can use the ceaseless platform to mobilize, spread awareness, and promote activism. With climate change and environmental damages being a crucial societal issue, the Environmental Justice Movement must advance their mobilization towards the next collective of civilization. For this study, I focus on college students, and how social media ads influence internet activism within them. In doing so, I highlight characteristics like an individual’s perception and their social networks, mixed with advert engagement factors like vividness, content of post, and call to action.

[2025 Honorable Mention] Racial Marginalization And Pesticide Exposure In Monterey County, Haleigh Fagundes

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This paper examines the concept of environmental racism in the context of harmful pesticides and their disproportionate use in prominently Hispanic communities. These communities continue to face the consequences of exposure despite their activism. The concept of environmental patriotism, as proposed by Anne Todd in Communicating Environmental Patriotism: A Rhetorical History of the American Environmental Movement (2013), is incompatible with the data that supports the existence of environmental racism. In this piece Todd argues that channeling the pride one feels for their country is an effective way of promoting environmental efforts amongst individual citizens. The data to be presented denies …

School Of Law 2025 Commencement Information And Photographs May 16, 2025, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Commencement (1996- )

No abstract provided.

Electricity Affordability In Context, Troy A. Rule

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Recent residential electricity price increases in California have caused some to suggest the state is experiencing an electricity affordability crisis. Although the typical household in California and across the country spends less than three percent of its income on electricity, California’s soaring electricity rates can impose substantial burdens on some of the state’s lowest-income households. Why have retail electricity prices rapidly risen in California over the past decade while remaining relatively stable in others? What are the potential downsides of overly fixating on electricity affordability concerns in the context of energy policymaking? And what principles should guide policymakers in California …

Prison To College Pipeline Program, Patrick E. Alexander, Otis W. Pickett

Prison-to-College Pipeline Program Publications (Open Access)

The Prison to College Pipeline Program was founded in 2014 by Dr. Patrick E. Alexander and Dr. Otis W. Pickett. Through prior research and teaching experiences (in prison and at universities), they understood the profound role that student-centered prison education has played not only in reducing recidivism, but also in positively transforming isolated prison environments and the post-imprisonment outlooks and outcomes of imprisoned students. This report documents their efforts to bring literature and history courses to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.

The Lawyer As Advocate, Mark R. Brown, Jonathan Rapping, Christian Stegmaier

Mercer Law Review

Remarks from the Lawyer as Advocate panelists from the Mercer Law Review Annual Symposium, which was entitled Parts of a Whole: The Multiple Roles of the Lawyer and Professional Identity (Oct. 4, 2024). A recording of The Lawyer as Advocate panel may be found online at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iixbw77DW_I [https://perma.cc/NQ4X-MW43]. Each of the panelists’ full biographies may be found online at the following link: https://guides.law.mercer.edu/ld.php?content_id=78269490 [https://per ma.cc/CAY7-MQUX].

Current Events In Legal Classrooms: Enhancing Professional Identity Formation, Stevie Leahy

Mercer Law Review

In the Fall of 2023, educators were surveyed on their inclusion of “current events” in classroom spaces (“CE Survey”). The term current events was broadly defined as: “events that are happening in the world, including recent legal decisions (U.S. or global), political events that impact the operation of the legal system, and/or social events that impact your community. This definition is intended to be inclusive.” Based on nearly 100 responses, the results indicate that while the large majority of educators agreed that incorporating current events into instruction is vital, there are still many barriers to responsible inclusion of this type …

Integrating A Stakeholder-Centric Approach Into Dynamic Adaptation Policy Pathways For Equitable Coastal Flood Risk Management In East Boston, Shailee M. Desai

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This research aims to illustrate a methodology incorporating diverse stakeholder values in adaptation planning to promote equitable outcomes using a hypothetical case study of the Lower Border Street area in East Boston, using the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) framework for managing coastal flood risk. It offers three significant contributions to the field of adaptation planning: (i) It demonstrates how to integrate a stakeholder-specific assessment within the DAPP framework and illustrates individual impacts to a variety of stakeholders, including high- and low-income residents, commercial actors, government actors, and coastal landowners hoping that the planning process remains transparent and motivates local …

The Routledge Handbook Of Cultural Ecosystem Services, Pamela D. Mcelwee, Karen E. Allen, Rachelle K. Gould, Minna Hsu, Jun He

Open Access Fund Publications

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services provides an overview of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), which are the nonmaterial aspects of benefits that people derive from nature. These diverse and multifaceted contributions can include experiences, capabilities, and identities, among others. The Handbook addresses how these CES are valued, how they reflect human–nonhuman relationships, and what roles they can play in improved human well-being, ecosystem management, and trajectories towards sustainability.

This Handbook presents a wide array of perspectives on the roles CES can play in understanding relationships to nature, and on how those relationships might translate into policy. The Handbook includes …

Ene 262 - 011: Intro To Environmental Engr, Taha Marhaba

Civil and Environmental Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

The Earth's Voice: The Social, Spiritual, And Secular Justifications For The Earth's Freedom Of Expression, Ashley Tzeting Pun Eveson

Theses and Dissertations

The Earth's legal right to freedom of speech remains largely unexplored within the broader legal movement for the rights of nature, which emerged in the 1970s. While environmental law increasingly recognizes nature's rights to exist and thrive, as illustrated by legal rights granted to various natural entities--like the Whanganui River or manoomin rice--the Earth's ability to communicate remains underdeveloped. This study employs legal research analysis to examine the philosophical reasoning behind how social, spiritual, and secular frameworks justify the Earth's right to freedom of speech and expression. It explores legal guardianship, scientific data, Indigenous knowledge, and spiritual stewardship as valid …

Gender And Climate Change, Amanda Roth

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

This recorded lesson explores how and why climate change is a feminist issue with attention to how climate change disproportionately impacts women globally, how some theoretical approaches to feminism center climate change as a feminist issue, and how women are acting as change-makers around climate.

Swk 365: Social Work Practice Iii: Communities & Organizations, Sonia Brown

Open Educational Resources

Social Work Practice with Communities and Organization is the third of three foundation courses in social work practice. The social work practice sequence provides an introduction to the basic theory and methods of generalist social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. As a preparation for practice in the field, this third course emphasizes practice with organizations, neighborhoods and communities. Change strategies such as social action, legislative policy, citizen participation, advocacy and service development are explored. All case material is studied within the context of the values of the social work profession and the recognition of the importance …

How Atlanta's Use Of Eminent Domain Displace Low-Income Peoplestown Residents, Babafemi Fatade

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Journal Of Race, Gender, And Social Justice Vol. 14, Iss.2 (Full Publication), Editor In Chief

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Critical Praxis For Transnational Movement-Lawyering, Kelsey Jost-Creegan

Pepperdine Law Review

This Article seeks to identify new ways to respond to critiques of international human rights practice as hierarchy-reproducing, extractive, and imperialist. It proposes one model for how human rights lawyers can better work in solidarity with oppressed communities organizing around common grievances: transnational movement-lawyering. While the framing of community-led lawyering has become rapidly popularized in the human rights field, work remains to ensure that this theoretical and discursive shift translates into a transformation of the day-to-day mechanics of human rights practice. This Article seeks to identify concrete ways to apply critical theory and participatory methodologies to human rights practice. Part …

Creating Space For Climate Justice In Library And Information Science, Tami Oliphant, Tyler Youngman, Dan Hackborn, Lisa Nathan, Beth Patin

The Lender Center for Social Justice

This article explores the role of LIS in promoting climate justice, advocating for inclusive and sustainable information practices that address environmental inequities.

Parallel Paths:, Jacob Jones

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Resource Exploitation: Shared Capitalist Motivations In Ghana’S Gold Mining Sector, Benedicta Donkor

Senior Theses

The relationship between Chinese involvement in Ghana's gold mining sector and its impact on sovereignty, development, and resource governance has ignited significant debate. While neo-colonial frameworks often dominate discussions, this thesis argues that such perspectives oversimplify the complex dynamics at play. Instead, Chinese involvement is better understood as mutual capitalist exploitation, where both Chinese and Ghanaian actors are driven by shared profit motives within a global capitalist system. This mutual exploitation is enabled by weak governance, regulatory gaps, and systemic corruption, creating a permissive environment for resource exploitation at the expense of societal and environmental well-being. The thesis critically examines …

Post-Typhoon Merbok Impact On Geographically Isolated Western Alaska Communities And Sustainable Recovery Process For Vulnerable Populations, Daryl Schaffer

Natural Resources

A sustainable climate-resilient community depends on their location and what is considered to be resilient. In western Alaska, primarily sustainable Indigenous subsistence lifestyle communities have proven quite resilient to climate for over 5000 years. Indigenous communities have been experiencing exponentially greater challenges from changes of climate in recent years. One storm, which traversed the entire 1300-mile geographically isolated Alaska west coast in September 2022, was more significant than previous generations. Extratropical post-typhoon Merbok became part of a disaster cascade as many communities had already endured various disasters to their locations and livelihoods which made them more vulnerable to include prior …

Empowering Appalachian Students: Tailoring Education To Provide Sustainable Solutions And Equal Opportunities For Appalachian Students, Rachel Krause

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Showcasing my work with editing lesson plans and materials for the Appalachian STEM Enrichment Academy for science experiments catering to different grade levels in the Appalachian region, and why it is important that everyone has opportunity to learn more about sustainability to spark curiosity.

“Sometimes The World Don’T Give You What You Need”: Black Motherhood And Kinship As Resistance To Necropolitics In Jesmyn Ward’S Bois Sauvage, Hailey N. Reeder

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Black motherhood and kinship serve as subversive forces within necropolitical landscapes in Jesmyn Ward’s Where the Line Bleeds, Salvage the Bones, and Sing, Unburied, Sing. Drawing on Achille Mbembe’s theory of necropolitics, this study examines how the economic and social constraints of these environments disrupt Black family structures, emphasizing the necessity of kinship for survival. In Where the Line Bleeds, Cille’s absence disrupts traditional family roles, yet kinship networks allow the family to endure. In Salvage the Bones, Esch’s journey redefines the “bad” Black teen mother stereotype, highlighting how kinship offers support amidst stigma. In Sing, …