Digital Commons Network^™

Environmental Engineers Develop Solutions To Problems Of Planetary Health: The Legacy Of Professor P. Aarne Vesilind, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The principal ethical obligation of the engineering profession, to "hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public," has been challenged for decades. Professor P. Aarne Vesilind identified two primary deficiencies: an anthropocentric bias that values nature only instrumentally and the use of non-mandatory, aspirational language for environmental protection, which resulted in the exclusion of enforceable environmental canons. This paper argues that two recent developments provide a comprehensive response to Vesilind's recommendations for engineering ethics. First, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has redefined environmental engineering as "developing solutions to problems of planetary health." Second, Oerther proposed a …

Indigenous Land Seizure & Environmental Injustice: Impacts Of Settler Colonialism, Lydia Moorman

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The fields of conservation and environmentalism prioritize ecosystem health, yet both emerged from western frameworks that displaced and criminalized Indigenous land stewardship. The idealization of “pristine wilderness” narratives served to justify the removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands and erased millennia of sustainable land stewardship that had maintained ecological balance long before western conservation existed. These narratives not only misrepresented Indigenous relationship with land but also constructed a false dichotomy between humans and nature that positioned Indigenous presence as a threat rather than a source of ecological knowledge. Simultaneously, anthropogenic expansion; such as pipelines, mining, railroads, and other extractive …

Arthur Abel Memorial Competition Writing Award, Notre Dame Law Review

Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

Each spring, the Notre Dame Law Review accepts entries for the annual Arthur Abel Memorial Writing Competition. Arthur Abel was a 1985 graduate (see page 26) of the Law School, serving on both the Notre Dame Law Review (Note, 60 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1187 (1985)) and the Journal of Legislation (Note, 11 J. Legis. 317 (1984)). After several years in private practice, Arthur served as Assistant General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A tireless attorney possessed of a keen intellect and a wonderful sense of humor, Arthur achieved much success in a short period of time. …

Color-Blind Resilience: How Uniform Climate Standards Reproduce Environmental Inequality In The Rockaways, Aaryan M. Nair

Publications and Research

This paper examines how ostensibly uniform climate resilience standards can reproduce environmental inequality in socially uneven landscapes, using the Rockaway Peninsula in New York City as a critical case study. While flood-resistant building codes, zoning regulations, and insurance frameworks are designed to provide equal protection across flood-prone areas, this analysis argues that their “color-blind” application obscures and intensifies underlying disparities in financial capacity, housing conditions, and tenure. Drawing on environmental justice (EJ) theory, the paper identifies two key mechanisms through which inequality is reproduced. First, “code without capacity” demonstrates how uniform technical standards—such as elevation requirements under NYC Building Code …

Holding The Line On Academic Freedom In Law School Clinics, Ty Alper, Praveen Kosuri, Beth Lyon, Alicia E. Plerhoples, Laura Riley, Robin Walker Sterling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since the emergence of modern clinical legal education, law school clinics have periodically faced political interference in their selection of clients and cases, interference that threatens clinics’ essential dual missions of training practice-ready lawyers and providing legal services to marginalized clients who would otherwise lack representation. While such pressure is not new, contemporary threats differ in scale and institutional form. Today, funding, oversight, and enforcement mechanisms are weaponized in an attempt to discipline universities, heightening institutional anxiety and prompting some universities to contemplate preemptive constraints on clinic autonomy in the name of risk management and reputational protection. This shift to …

Landscape As Expo: Reimagining Desert Landscapes As Climate-Adaptive Cultural Infrastructure In Las Vegas, Parinaz Baradaran Anaraki

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Contemporary desert cities face increasing environmental and social challenges driven by climate change, including extreme heat, water scarcity, fragmented ecological systems, and limited access to high-quality public open space. In many rapidly urbanizing regions, conventional urban development has marginalized desert landscapes, treating them as vacant land rather than valuable ecological and cultural assets. This thesis proposes Landscape as Expo as a new framework for transforming desert landscapes into climate-adaptive cultural infrastructure, where ecological processes become both functional systems and public experiences.

The project focuses on a 140-acre site within the Tule Springs Planning District in North Las Vegas, Nevada, identified …

Conspiracy And Social Movements, Steffen Seitz

Michigan Law Review

Conspiracy prosecutions of social movements are on the rise. From anti-“Cop City” protesters in Atlanta to pro-Palestinian protesters in California, prosecutors are increasingly wielding conspiracy law to suppress social movements. This development is troubling. Social movements have long served as vital engines of democratic self-governance; they crystallize issues, foster public discourse, and mobilize citizens. Yet conspiracy law endangers these movements— and thus democracy—by targeting what makes them work: public expression and social ties between activists.

This Article makes three significant contributions to our understanding of this threat. First, it demonstrates that a charge of conspiracy requires remarkably little—just the appearance …

Application Of Passive Samplers For Exploring Remedial Progress In The Torch Lake Aoc And Interlake Variability Of Pcbs, Cailin B. Bishop

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study evaluates changes in dissolved polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations in Torch Lake, Michigan, an Area of Concern shaped by decades of legacy contamination and evolving restoration policy. Passive samplers deployed across sites and seasons (2024–2025) show total PCB concentrations ranging from below detection to 110 pg/L (mean = 16.8 pg/L), representing an approximate 90% decline since 2005. Comparisons with regional reference lakes indicate no statistically significant difference (p = 0.84), suggesting concentrations may approach background atmospheric levels despite continued variability. Congener profiles indicate a shift toward lower-chlorinated PCBs, though interpretation of higher-chlorinated congeners is limited by slow sorption kinetics. …

Doikayt And The Ethics Of Belonging: Lessons In Place-Making From The Jewish Labor Bund, Zoë L. Jacobs

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis traces the evolution of doikayt—the Bundist principle of hereness—from its origins in the Jewish Labor Bund to contemporary applications in North America. Rooted in a refusal of both assimilation and nationalist escape, doikayt emphasizes cultivating safety, solidarity, and belonging through collective responsibility rather than territorial claims.

Building on this foundation, the exploration situates hereness within a settler-colonial context, where ethical dwelling is complicated by Indigenous dispossession. Drawing on Alexis Shotwell alongside Indigenous thinkers Vanessa Watts and Kyle Whyte, I examine how inhabiting place requires confronting historical injustices and ongoing relational responsibilities. Chapter 3 analyzes Linke Fligl (2016–2022) as …

Appalachia In Presidential Campaign Rhetoric Since 1964, Meredith Morello

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines how presidential candidates have invoked Appalachia in campaign rhetoric from Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 election through 2024, arguing the region functions not as a geographic reference but as a strategically deployable political symbol. Through mixed-methods analysis of 83 campaign-period sources archived in the American Presidency Project, a structured thematic coding schema traces how candidates frame the region across six decades using two analytically distinct modes: objective-economic and moralized-culture framing.

Five major structural patterns emerge: Johnson's institutionalization of the region as bounded domestic poverty; strategic silence during national instability; reframings enabling rhetorical reentry; symbolic portability across ideological projects; …

Improving Flood Risk Mapping By Incorporating Local-Scale Calibration Data Derived From Stakeholder Input, Jennifer M. Holifield, Wei Wu, Patrick D. Biber, Margo Posten, Dennis Mcgrury, Stephen C. Deal, Alexandria Hancock

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Globally, flooding is the most frequent and costly natural hazards, disproportionately affecting populations based on environmental, social, and economic factors. Understanding the spatial variability of flood risk as well as the respective flood drivers is essential for informing cost-effective mitigation strategies and enhancing community resilience. Here we mapped flood risk that combines flood hazards and vulnerability in an under-resourced coastal community prone to compound flooding. Our approach integrates stakeholder engagement with GIS-based analysis using open-access datasets.

We first developed an initial flood hazard map using an equal-weight combination of factors commonly associated with flood occurrence/prevention, including upslope area, impervious surface …

The Garden Of The Machine: Simulated Wildness And Digital Domestication In American Literature 1970-2020, Cameron Netland

Doctoral Dissertations

Studying American literature produced during the Information Age, from 1970 to 2020, reveals an evolution of wild human resistance to the increasing powers of digital technology. These increasing powers include capturing attention, fostering dependence, and training behavior through a process I call digital domestication. Digital domestication distances people from wildness, and as William Cronon writes in “The Trouble with Wilderness”, “Learning to honor the wild—learning to remember and acknowledge the autonomy of the other—means striving for critical self-consciousness in all of our actions.” (20). Through this framework of wildness, one reads characters in fictional narratives resisting non-coercive new technologies as …

Digital Colonialism In Ai-Enhanced Sustainability Education: A Decolonial Systematic Review, Matthew Sauber

Faculty Scholarship 2026

As artificial intelligence reshapes higher education globally, its integration into sustainability programs raises urgent questions about equity, epistemological justice, and the reproduction of colonial power structures through technological systems. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is premised on inclusive, justice-oriented pedagogy, yet the AI tools increasingly deployed in these programs originate predominantly from the Global North and embed Western epistemological assumptions. This study investigates how AI integration in higher education sustainability programs operates as a form of digital colonialism, creating systematic inequities that contradict ESD’s foundational commitments. We conducted a decolonial systematic review synthesizing 61 empirical studies identified through structured searches …

Human-Centered Governance Of Climate Resilience: Integrating Sustainability, Equity, And Mental Health, Chelcee A. Pangerl

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation examines how sustainability and resilience are defined, implemented, and experienced across three levels of climate governance: household perception, community experience, and federal policy. Climate resilience is often evaluated through infrastructure performance, emissions targets, restoration timelines, and preparedness systems, yet these measures do not fully capture how residents experience uncertainty, support, equity, and mental health. To address this gap, the dissertation develops and applies the Integrated Policy Framework for Sustainability and Resilience (IPFSR). IPFSR organizes six domains into three functional categories: policy outcomes, human-centered dimensions, and implementation mechanisms. Sustainability and operational/physical resilience are treated as policy outcomes; mental health …

The Times They Are A-Changin’: How Bob Dylan’S Music Helped To Change An Era, Emily Newby

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Rivers Of Sovereignty: The Epa’S New Water Quality Standards Rule As A Potential Channel For Revitalizing Tribal Reserved Water Rights, Mostyn Josty

Cardozo Law Review

This Note explores the federal government’s evolving approach to its obligation to protect tribal reserved water rights through a case study of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 Water Quality Standards Regulatory Revisions to Protect Tribal Reserved Rights rule (the “WQS Rule”). It argues that while the WQS Rule represents a step forward in safeguarding tribal water rights, the legal challenge it faces underscores broader issues of federalism, administrative authority, and the country’s fluctuating commitment to tribal sovereignty. The Note examines the WQS Rule’s legal foundation, its potential challenges, and the implications for tribal self-determination, emphasizing the need for a …

Resilient Communities: Affordable Solutions To Extreme Heat, Rylee Ball

2026 Research Poster Competition

Climate change is wicked. The term itself lacks a single definition and individuals vary in understanding of its causes and effects. Often, it is considered through the lens of global phenomena: deterioration of the ozone layer, destabilization of the arctic circle, or other abstract impacts that are often difficult to fully comprehend. Harder to trace is the impact on a local scale: access to food and water, increase in natural disasters and displacement. The impacts threaten to deepen already wide inequalities. Design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber characterized such challenges as “wicked problems,” a concept that aptly describes climate …

The Ettrick Trail Town Guide: Trail Tourism As An Economic Revitalization Strategy, Dagny Oakley

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Ettrick Trail Town Guide: Trail Tourism as an Economic Revitalization Strategy in Ettrick, Virginia provides context-specific strategies for the Ettrick community to utilize to capitalize on existing and future trail infrastructure. This plan outlines demographic trends, development patterns, and trail networks, and establishes actionable recommendations for transforming Ettrick into a trail hub. Utilizing the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) framework, this plan focuses on existing strengths within the community as it pertains to trail tourism, and investigates how these assets can be capitalized on. Key recommendations include improving both physical and cultural connections to trails, adopting marketing and branding …

The Rva Resilience Network: Filling Gaps With Resilience Microhubs, Andrew Bunn

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Richmond, Virginia has experienced a steady increase in climate-related disruptions including more hot days and more extreme storm events than in previous decades. Frontline communities disproportionately feel the impacts of these events, revealing gaps in the services and resources that should allow these communities to prepare for and recover from disruptions more effectively. This plan, developed for Groundwork RVA, explores neighborhood-scale resilience microhubs as a tool to fill these gaps and increase resilience in frontline communities.

The plan establishes a repeatable process for creating and expanding a network of resilience microhubs in the Richmond region. This process was tested and …

Planning For Equitable And Transparent Outdoor Recreation Permitting Within The James River Park System, Sarah J. Girard

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The City of Richmond has experienced an imbalance within the current special event permitting process for the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities. Park users are not reporting sizeable events being held within the James River Park System, which has caused concern pertaining to environmental and societal impacts. The current permitting process lacks depth and clarity that could be solved by beginning with expanding park user data. This gap of data is the missing piece for the City to be able to make informed future decisions based on a wide array of stakeholder input and tangible visitor use metrics.

Embodied, Relational, And Rooted: A Social Work Portfolio, Deneen Pancari

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This portfolio reflects my professional and personal growth over the past three years of the University of Montana!s (UM!s) Online Master of Social Work (MSW) Program and showcases my understanding of advanced social work competencies (University of Montana School of Social Work, n.d.). My background includes yoga facilitation and preschool education, where I developed a strong appreciation for early childhood development and mindfulness. I never imagined how this path would lead me into clinical work in eating disorder recovery, adolescent therapy, and somatic-based interventions, which focus on the connection between the mind and body. My MSW coursework and practicum experiences …

Ryn's Portfolio, Ryn Briggs

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Practicing From The Inside Out: A Portfolio Of Trauma-Informed And Spirit-Led Social Work, Cailey R. Denboer

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This portfolio represents the integration of academic learning, practicum experience, and personal growth throughout my Master of Social Work education at the University of Montana. Grounded in empowerment theory, trauma-informed care, and anti-oppressive practice, this work reflects my commitment to ethical, culturally humble, and relational social work across individual, community, and organizational contexts. Drawing from coursework and practicum experiences, I highlight the development of core competencies through applied work.

A central theme of this portfolio is the ongoing process of self-reflection and humility, particularly in recognizing areas of growth and navigating the tensions between personal values, professional responsibilities, and systemic …

Preserve Democracy By Teaching Social Action, Cheyenne C. Luzynski

2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference: Concurrent Session Papers

This presentation introduces social action pedagogy aimed to empower students to lead campaigns on pressing social issues and strengthen their participation in democracy. Teaching social action has enhanced the knowledge, practice, and skills of leadership and civic engagement. America’s Promise Alliance conducted a research study on the state of young people in 2024 and found that young people have low trust in American institutions and adults and feel negatively affected by the current social and political climate (Flanagan et al., 2025). The report also found that young people want access to civic education and engagement opportunities to correct inequalities and …

Msw Portfolio, Ryan Stadheim

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Caring For The Commons: Craft Against Plastic, Cecilia Saez

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

My aim in this Civic Engagement Project (CEP hereafter) is twofold. On the one hand, it has been an attempt to explore theoretically the contradiction between individual action and its (oftentimes non-existent) effects on the large scale of things (on a societal and environmental level). I looked at how this tension plays out on a practical level, attending particularly to the issue of single-use plastic pollution. In this regard, the project unfolded in the following practical way:  I organized and lead two workshops in which participants create reusable tote bags from old t-shirts, encouraging them to reduce reliance on single-use …

A Third Way: An Unlikely Professional Portfolio, Sami C. Pack-Toner

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Southside Greening Plan: Leveraging Community-Based Partnerships To Foster Resilience In Richmond, Virginia, L. Nicole Roemer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Southside is a frontline community within the City of Richmond that disproportionately experiences urban heat island (UHI) effect and stormwater flooding. Southside residents are vulnerable to climate change and have a low adaptive capacity for resilience, largely because of disinvestment and reduced access to greenspaces. This makes them more vulnerable to heat-related and respiratory illnesses, more likely to experience higher energy bills and less affordable housing, and more likely to be impacted by extreme weather. The city master plan Richmond 300: A Guide to Growth, adopted in 2017 (amended in 2021), acknowledges this context. However, community-based organizations (CBOs) struggle to …

An Indigenous Sovereign Approach: Developmental Strategies And Guidelines For The Berger-Patawomeck Preserve Trail Network, Lauren N. Usher

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This planning document serves the Patawomeck Tribe's cultural, environmental, and sovereign needs by providing research and recommendations to sustainably steward ancestral lands through integrated Indigenous and Western practices. The plan adapts sustainable design strategies to guide trail maintenance and activities within the Berger-Patawomeck Preserve, examining Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) alongside Western practices. A decolonized, sovereign lens guided the mixed research methods drawing on legal, regulatory, planning, and ethical frameworks to strengthen tribal health, education, and sovereignty. The research explores local ecology, Indigenous culture, and implementational strategies. The ecological findings document the Preserve's sensitive resources, including the Coastal Piedmont transition zone, …

Marinship Park's Green Infrastructure Plan, Parris Hunt

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Marinship Park’s Green Infrastructure Plan looks to improve Marinship Park by adding amenities that promote community engagement and protect or help the environment. The background information mentioned in the plan is relevant to the history in the study area. The plan later discusses environmental conditions and problems that support why this plan is needed. The methods section is after the precedent plans, and it entails the research questions, stakeholder outreach methods, and analytical methods. The research method section states that case studies and surveys are the best ways to gather data and collect responses for the research questions. The real-life …