Digital Commons Network^™

As Sacred As The Laws Of God: Property As The Link Between Cicero, Jefferson And Adams, Adam Mattison

Graduate Masters Theses

Gilbert Chinard’s publication of Thomas Jefferson’s legal commonplace book in 1926 and literary commonplace book in 1928 introduced a new question into the study of the American Founders: what was the relationship between the Founders and the authors of the classical world? Through the twentieth century, the historiography of that question has resolved into three separate streams represented by Bernard Bailyn’s Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Meyer Reinhold’s Classica Americana and Carl Richard’s The Founders and the Classics. These three scholars argued respectively; that the Founders were not influenced by the classics and only used them as ornamentation …

Comfort In Cases Of Sickness: Health And Colonialism At The Eastern Pequot Reservation, 1800-1850, Katherine N. Brauckmann

Graduate Masters Theses

Health and sickness were major concerns for the Eastern Pequot community in the first half of the 19th century. At this time, the Eastern Pequot’s collective finances were controlled by a court-appointed overseer who rented reservation land to non-Pequot individuals and used the generated funds to purchase goods and services for those on the reservation. In an 1841 petition to remove an overseer for failing in his duties, issues of health were brought up twice among their grievances: that they received little support “in Sickness or in health” and that “our Land if family rented […] would add much to …

Civilian Sustenance: Parcel Exchange, Household Provisioning, And Soldier Foodways In The American Civil War, Kathleen Migneault

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines parcel exchange between Civil War soldiers and the households and communities that continued to sustain them after military service removed them from ordinary domestic provision. Drawing on forty published collections of Civil War correspondence and diaries, it follows references to boxes, parcels, food, clothing, money, medicine, and useful goods across camps, hospitals, prisons, and home front networks. It argues that parcels from home were neither incidental sentimental tokens nor simple supplements to the ration, but a recurring practice of civilian sustenance shaped by affection, scarcity, infrastructure, and loss. The chapters trace the routes through which parcels moved, …

'In America On Twofold Mission': Elite Filipina Women On The U.S. Stage, 1898-1929, Catherine D. Mayfield

Graduate Masters Theses

After more than 300 years of Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the United States’ acquisition of las Islas Filipinas at the end of the Spanish-American War introduced the Philippine Islands to yet another colonizer. Amidst a backdrop of insurgent resistance and the building of a U.S.-based education and government system under the guise of “benevolent assimilation,” elite Filipina women navigated a mélange of cultural values and the possibility of new public roles. Filipino “elites,” those with political or economic power at the upper echelons of Philippine society, played key collaborative roles for the U.S. colonial regime. Yet the actions and …

Propagating Labor: How The Craft Brewery Movement Attracted And Grew A Workforce To Fuel Its Rise, Timothy J. Vlieger

Graduate Masters Theses

The craft beer movement grew from just a few tiny microbreweries and disparate homebrewing clubs to a nationwide phenomenon accounting for over ten thousand businesses and hundreds of thousands of employees. The arrival of this movement in the 1980s coincided with drastic changes in the economy, which was moving away from the manufacturing base that enabled postwar prosperity and developing a “New Economy” of high-tech and service sector employment. Within this economic transition, the social contract between capital and labor was being rewritten and what constituted a good job was being redefined. Employment in the emerging craft brewing industry represented …

From Ecclesiastical Tradition To Judicial Authority: Divorce In Scioto County, Ohio, 1809-1851, Franchesica Lashelle Kidd

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines divorce in Scioto County, Ohio between 1809 and 1851 as a case study of the legal and social transformations that followed the American Revolution. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on New England and the colonial period, Ohio has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Using legislative records, court proceedings, census records, and individual divorce petitions, this study argues that Ohio’s transition from ecclesiastical precedent toward judicial authority reshaped the ways in which marriage and divorce were understood. Divorce became increasingly accessible to both women and men, while changing legal practices reflected broader shifts in gender, family, and …

Beyond A Little Italy: Italian Community Formation In Washington, D.C., Kathleen P C Millander

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines the development of the Italian immigrant community in Washington, DC, from the early nineteenth century through the beginning of the Second World War. Unlike the dense ethnic enclaves that characterized Italian settlement in many American industrial and port cities, Washington never developed a recognizable Little Italy. Nevertheless, Italians in the nation's capital constructed a cohesive community through social, religious, familial, and economic networks that connected a geographically dispersed population.

Drawing on extensive original archival research, including oral histories, personal memoirs, parish records, newspapers, and manuscript collections, this thesis reconstructs the experiences of Washington's Italian immigrants and their …

Autoethnography: Understandings, Evolution, And The Influence Of Genai, Prokopis Christou

The Qualitative Report

Autoethnography occupies a central place within qualitative research because of its focus on lived experience, reflexivity, and meaning-making. In this paper, I critically examine the implications of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for autoethnographic inquiry through a reflexive and theoretically informed discussion situated within the contemporary AI-mediated era. By revisiting key understandings and developments of autoethnography while drawing on technological mediation theory, I explore how GenAI extends beyond a mere tool to become a mediating mechanism capable of profoundly shaping autoethnographic practice. Attention is given to how seemingly minor AI-generated alterations may transform lived experience into more polished, coherent, and emotionally …

Equitable Access To Literacy Assessment And Instruction For Students With Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment, Tammy Reisman

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Students with Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) represent a growing population of learners whose visual difficulties originate in the brain rather than the eyes. As understanding of CVI has evolved, questions have emerged regarding the most appropriate approaches to literacy assessment and instruction. While some educational approaches emphasize maximizing visual functioning, increasing evidence supports the integration of compensatory skills and multiple sensory channels to improve literacy access. Understanding current literacy assessment and instructional practices is essential to ensuring equitable educational opportunities for students with CVI.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine current literacy assessment and instructional practices for …

Redefined: Understanding The Experience Of Black Joy Among Black Youth, Kaela A. Yamini

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The study of Black joy is a newer concept and, therefore, reflected in a small but growing body of literature. Many scholars have reflected on the theoretical nature of Black joy and how it can appear across settings, e.g., academically, occupationally, communally, and internally, but very few studies have examined this phenomenon empirically. Several definitions of Black joy have emerged in connection to history and suffering; however, there is still a notable lack of agreement among researchers. Despite that, all conceptualizations acknowledge how this emotional experience is much greater than the pain associated with it and highlight its ability …

“School’S Not For Me. I Don't Belong In School.”: Students With Dis/Abilities’ Perspectives On Special Education During State Intervention, Leila E. Parks

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study presents the lived experiences of 10 racialized teens with dis/abilities who received special education services in the Boston Public Schools during state intervention. As a youth participatory action research collective, the young people in the study’s Youth with Dis/Abilities Research Group explored issues of inclusion and exclusion, ableism, racism, and safety at school. The project was framed by dis/ability critical race studies, incorporating aspects of critical race theory and disability studies in education. Based on stories expressed through free-writes, poetry, drawings, interviews, and group conversations, the racialized teens with dis/abilities shared negative school experiences overall. Though most …

Freedom Dreamers In Oakland, California: A Portraiture Of Creating Spatial Justice And Repair, Rebecca Sarah Jacquez

Doctoral Dissertations

Oakland, California, is a unique site of residents who have historically questioned the status quo and are currently continuing that legacy by creating spatial justice and repair in the midst of anti-Blackness and the afterlife of racial segregation. This dissertation spotlights a portrait of Oakland, California, that uplifts the lived experiences of folks who are using a ‘radical imagination’ to build ‘freedom as a place.’ This qualitative study aims to extend the literature of reparative spatial justice in education by sharing the nuances of a particular radical imagination rooted in freedom that one can feel in Oakland. Using portraiture methodology, …

The Effects Of Sunlight On Particle Matter & Radiation Pollution In Baghdad Airport Area, Fatima Hameed, Faris Mohammed, Abdul Hameed Al-Obaidy

Engineering and Technology Journal

The gasses emitted from the various activities, in addition to particle matter (PM10) play a major role in air quality deterioration. Particles matter and radiation are two of the most important parameters that exist in airports and were evaluated considering the variations in sunlight energy. The measured values were collected from eleven sites, which were chosen based on their influence by aviation activities. The measurements were compared to the (Iraqi Regulations and U.S EPA) for particle matter. While for radiation, the measurements were compared with the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and the …

Hydrological Model For Derbendi-Khan Dam Reservoir Watershed Using Swat Model, Thair Khayyun, Imzahim Abdulkareem, Ali Hayder

Engineering and Technology Journal

In this study, the watershed’s runoff of Derbendi-Khan dam reservoir within the upper part of Diyala River reach the northeast of Iraq was modeled by Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The model calibration and validation were based on monthly measured inflow to the dam reservoir. They extended for a period between 1979 and 2008 with a warm-up period of two years, twenty-year for calibration, and eight-year for validation. Sequential Uncertainty Fitting version 2 (SUFI2) automatic calibration algorithm method used for model calibration and sensitivity analysis. Results demonstrate that the model performance for the studied watershed which is evaluated, with many …

The Study Air Temperature Annual Rates Effect For Urban Of Baghdad City By Using Remote Sensing Data Techniques, Ali Mohammed Ali, Fouad Mashee Al Ramahi

Engineering and Technology Journal

Within a short amount of years, urban land in Baghdad governorate increased as a result of the improvement of the economic factor of human beings, the speedy enlargement Buildings method brought many negative climate issues, for instance, the violent modification of land use and the growth UHI, which led to a decrease in vegetation cover, where influenced the temperature averages, Accordingly, we conducted the following study to find solutions, From 2008 to 2018, Landsat Information 5 and 8 were adopted in this analysis, show that urbanization is increasing rapidly as well as the impact of degrees Temperature in this change, …

Zoning Areas Susceptible To Land Subsidence In Tigris And Euphrates Basins, Ali Boloorani, Masoud Soleimani, Ramin Papi, Seyed Alavipanah Alavipanah, Ayad Fadhil Al-Quraishi

Engineering and Technology Journal

Land Subsidence is considered as one of the riskiest hazards in nature and geology. It may be caused by human activities including but not limited to long-term depletion of water, petroleum, and gas from underground reservoirs. Monitoring and zoning of regions susceptible to land-subsidence within Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin can play a major role in predicting and preventing damages from subsidence and can aid in better planning for utilizing its water resources. Accordingly, this study proposed to employ 9 effective parameters on subsidence including: precipitation, total water underground changes, elevation, slope, population, land use, distance from petroleum and gas …

Hydrogeologic Sustainability And Mitigation Of Shallow Groundwater Against High Saline And Chemical Pollutants, Najah Al Maimuri, Arkan Ali, Abdulhadi Al-Sa’Adi, Mohammed Abed Abed

Engineering and Technology Journal

A hydrogeologic study has been adopted to conceptualize the concepts of groundwater levels lowering in swamped area of Tyass, middle of Iraq. 2D dimensional groundwater model and, mitigation model has been used to mitigate the aquifer against high salinity and chemical pollutants by the mitigation theory of heterogeneous subsurface media, which depends upon physical and mathematical derivation, evaluation of chemical pollutants and total dissolved salts (TDS) of subsurface water before and after mitigation process. The water table level was lowered up to 2.43m at the center of a pumping well of abstraction discharge (400m3/day) obtained after 2755days in steady state. …

Comparison Of The Trends Of Mean Temperature And Rainfall Rate In The City Of Samawah (Iraq) With Global Climate Change, Athier Hussin

Engineering and Technology Journal

Increasing earth temperature due to the high level of greenhouse gas has affected the other climate elements on the earth surface. However, there was a little consideration of the differences between the global and local scale of climate change. This research included a comparison between the global climate change and the changes of climate elements that happened in Samawah city. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the increasing annual mean temperature globally and the annual mean temperature in the city. For example, when comparing the increase in annual mean temperature of the city for the period …

Simulation Of Mosul Dam Reservoir Operation For Irrigation And Hydropower Generation, Baraa Jebbo, Taymoor Awchi

Engineering and Technology Journal

The current research aims to build a simulation model to study the effect of Jazeera irrigation projects (North, East and South) water requirements on hydroelectric power generation from Mosul dam hydropower plant. The simulation was applied from January 1988 to December 2006 on a monthly basis. A simulation model was built utilizing (HEC-ResSim 3.0) Package, which showed high efficiency in representing and simulating the actual operation of the reservoir. Simulation model operation has been carried out through five scenarios with two cases of priority; the first was to maximize the hydroelectric power generation, and the second was to minimize the …

Geomatics Techniques To Evaluate Bus Service Coverage A Case Study On Nasiriyah, Iraq, Murtadha Satchet

Engineering and Technology Journal

In this paper, geomatics techniques were used to collect, build, and analyze a geo-database of the bus transport network. Spatial identification of bus routes and bus stops using GPS was performed using GIS to link and analyze the necessary metadata with the available spatial data. The criteria used to assess bus service coverage were as follows: the spatial coverage in terms of the walking distance to the transport service, the adequacy of the transport network length, and extent of supply availability of the bus transport system. The results revealed that the population “living in 47% of the city’s urban area” …

Knowledge Spillovers, Related And Supporting Industries, And Government Intervention: An Integrated Framework For Cluster-Driven Corporate Innovation, Qinying Lei, Lai-Ying Leong, Annie Cheng San, Ng

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Late-developing inland clusters face a notable innovation paradox, in which substantial industrial capacity coexists with weak firm-level innovation. Existing research identifies knowledge spillovers, related and supporting industries, and government intervention as major external drivers of innovation, but pays limited attention to how these external conditions are transformed into corporate innovation capability. Drawing on Regional Innovation System Theory, Dynamic Capability Theory, and Porter’s Diamond Model, this study develops an integrated framework comprising seven propositions on direct effects, mediated pathways, and contextual variation. It proposes that cluster performance, defined as the effectiveness of cross-organisational coordination, mediates the relationship between external cluster conditions …

Editorial Commentary (Special Issue): Cricket And Politics, Roy Mccree, Kamilla Swart, Umer Hussain

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

Cricket’s global history cannot be separated from the political histories through which the game has traveled. Although cricket emerged as an instrument of British imperial culture, it has also become a medium of postcolonial agency, commercial expansion, diasporic belonging, and resistance to inherited hierarchies. This special issue examines those tensions across the Caribbean, Aotearoa New Zealand, India, and the United States. The four contributions analyze foreign investment and cultural extractivism in West Indies cricket; the reproduction and contestation of Pākehā norms in a cricket workplace; the glocalization of Indian Premier League (IPL) capital and culture through Major League Cricket (MLC); …

The Influence Of Garden Interventions On Consumer Survivors' Food Security: An Integrative Review, Robin D. Coatsworth-Puspoky, Elsabeth Jensen, Betty Edwards, Mabeth Placido, Robbie-Lynn Coatsworth Puspoky, Rae-Anna Puspoky

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Psychiatric consumer/survivors (PC/Ss) are at risk of not having access to enough food and food of sufficient quality due to being on low and fixed incomes (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2023). Adequate amounts of nutritious foods are necessary for health and well-being (Smith et al., 2023). Gardening may be used by PC/S organizations to improve access to and quality of food, health, and healing.

Purpose: To synthesize and evaluate primary empirical evidence related to PC/Ss experiences with garden interventions and how strategies influence health and well-being.

Research Design: An integrative review methodology (Whittemore & Knafl, 2005) will be …

Global Contributors, Local Maps: The Story Of Openstreetmap In A Small Town, Sterling Quinn

Geography Faculty Scholarship

Digital platform capitalism depends on geographic data to connect users with nearby goods and services, thus playing a role in both representing and shaping commercial landscapes. OpenStreetMap (OSM) represents a vast and low-cost geographic data source for platform capitalism; however, OSM is crowdsourced and exhibits uneven development across space, especially in rural areas. OSM researchers have observed that the map is built by a mix of local and remote volunteers, as well as corporate editors paid to identify and fill data gaps; however, deeper place-based inquiries are needed in order to better understand the process by which OSM contributors grow …

Reimagining Education Through Intuitive Interspecies Communication: Listening, Learning, And Belonging Beyond The Human, Avantika Mathur, Megan Tucker, Anita Vallala, Cathrine Nyquist

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Conventional educational paradigms have long been shaped by worldviews that centre human rationality, and exclude the agency, intelligence, and communicative capacity of non-human beings. While holistic and contemplative education movements have begun to open space for alternative approaches, a broader reconceptualization is needed – one that embraces the living world as intelligent, interconnected, and full of meaning.

This submission explores intuitive interspecies communication (IIC), described as the direct, non-verbal exchange between humans and other animals that draws on intuitive capacities. IIC is widespread and growing rapidly as a global professional practice, and academic interest in this topic has expanded in …

Geopoetics: Expanding The Philosophy Of Teacher Education, Linda M. Craig Dr

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Amidst our accelerating ecological crisis, this essay argues for a fundamental reimagining of teacher education through Kenneth White's theory of geopoetics. Drawing on complexity science and Whitehead's process philosophy, I trace a paradigm shift from mechanistic models of education - characterised by fixed knowledge transmission and neoliberal performativity - toward a relational, orientation grounded in emergence and becoming. Geopoetics offers a transdisciplinary framework that dissolves boundaries between science, poetry, philosophy, and spirituality, positioning education not as content delivery but as participation in the creative unfolding of life. Through an exploration of Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain as geopoetic spiritual practice. …

International Students And Spiritual Capital: Meditation As A Tool To Support Student Well-Being, Anna Grigoreva, Anna Lytkina

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In a new academic environment, international students often face more than just academic challenges, as they also navigate cultural adjustment, identity shifts, digital overload and emotional stress. These multidimensional challenges are further intensified by performance pressures and rapidly evolving educational technologies. This article explores the role of meditation as a contemplative practice that may support international students’ adaptation within the American higher education system. The article focuses on how international students draw upon inner strength, purpose, and resilience to navigate and sustain themselves through periods of transition and difficulty. Using autoethnography as a primary methodological approach, the authors analyze their …

The Calculus Of Difference: Pluralism And Integration Through Education In India, Deepa Srikantaiah

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

This paper introduces a calculus-based conceptual framework to examine how India sustains pluralistic integration across its extraordinary religious, linguistic, and cultural diversity. Drawing on mathematical principles of integration, continuity, and the Infinity Principle, the analysis demonstrates how social cohesion emerges from sustained attention to the infinitesimal: the localized communities, languages, and practices that constitute India's complex social fabric. The framework positions education as the primary integrative mechanism, functioning analogously to the mathematical process of integration by decomposing social complexity into comprehensible parts and reassembling them into collective understanding.

Through historical analysis spanning from the Indus Valley Civilization to contemporary India, …

Toward A Post-Modern Daoist Pedagogy: Bridging Complexity And Dao Through Inner Cultivation And Autopoietic Currere, Jie Yu, Jingyu Liu

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

This article first critically examines the call to reenchant the world as it resonates within a middle space between science and mysticism and then connects key ideas from complexity theory and systems thinking on complex adaptive systems with two seminal Daoist texts: the Neiye (《內業》, Inner Cultivation), a proto-Daoist chapter from the Guanzi anthology (4th–3rd century B.C.E.), and the Huangting Jing (《黃庭經》, Yellow Court Scripture), a later Daoist classic (3rd–4th century C.E.). Through this dialogue, the article advocates a post-modern Daoist pedagogy through inner cultivation and autopoietic currere—an autopoietic process wherein curriculum emerges organically through participatory dialogue …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.