Digital Commons Network^™

Who Owns Missoula: Land Ownership & Conservation Easements In Missoula County, Mt, Haley Segura

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines private land ownership concentration and conservation easement expansion in Missoula County, Montana, asking who owns land, how that ownership is structured, and what these patterns mean for equity, access, and conservation. Drawing on the Montana State Library cadastral dataset, land cover data, conservation easement records, and public information about major landowners, the project combines GIS analysis, qualitative landowner profiling, and a public-facing ArcGIS StoryMap. Rather than making causal claims, it offers a descriptive and spatial analysis of how landownership and conservation intersect in a county shaped by extensive public lands and a limited private land base. Chapter …

A Psychogeography Of The Lower Colorado River Basin, Arren L. Kimbel-Sannit

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dried-up canals. Superheated strip malls. Proliferating data centers. Infinite appetite for growth despite its apparent circumstances. Arizona may well be the state of the American future. This multi-genre series of essays from Arren Kimbel-Sannit offers a personal, political-economic and ecological critique of growth and accumulation in Arizona — from the perspective of someone who grew up in its suburban expanses, reported on its politics, and long sought to clarify his relationship with home.

(R)Evolutionary Cultural Literacy: Pauli Murray’S Boundary-Crossing Tripartite Pedagogy, Lorise Ann Diamond

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Civil rights lawyer, poet, activist, questioning, and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray spent seven decades generating legal doctrine, autobiography, poetry, and institutional redesign across some of the most hostile yet fecund terrain American public life produced. Scholarship across rhetoric and writing studies, cultural studies, Black feminism, and critical pedagogy has theorized literacy, movement, and commons-making as separate concerns. What the field of cultural literacy lacks is a framework that holds those concerns together, reads them through a focused body of texts, and translates them into a transferable pedagogy applicable across academic, civic, and institutional settings. This dissertation argues that cultural literacy …

The Role Of Education In Reducing Social Inequality: A Systems-Level Analysis Of Socio-Technical Infrastructures And Policy Governance, Aisling O'Shea, Batzorig Dashnyam, Ximena Quintanilla

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Social inequality remains one of the most persistent challenges to global systemic stability, threatening the robustness of democratic institutions and economic sustainability. Education has long been theorized as the primary mechanism for social mobility and the mitigation of disparate life outcomes; however, its role within modern socio-technical infrastructures is increasingly complex and often contradictory. This paper provides a comprehensive systems-level analysis of the relationship between educational architecture and social stratification. By examining the structural trade-offs inherent in contemporary pedagogical deployment, the research evaluates how institutional governance, digital infrastructure, and policy mandates either facilitate or hinder the reduction of inequality. The …

No One Told Their Story: Acculturation, Faith Formation, And Belonging In Multicultural Congregations Led By African American Pastors, Alicia L. Partee

Doctor of Ministry

The search for meaning, identity coherence, and belonging often intensifies when individuals cross cultural boundaries. Faith communities can serve as sanctuaries for identity renegotiation, but congregations may also reproduce the social distance and exclusion found in the broader society. This dissertation addresses a scholarly and pastoral gap at the intersection of acculturation and Christian faith formation, and more specifically how identity, belonging, and spiritual formation are negotiated within multicultural congregations led by African American pastors in San Jose, California, and similar contexts.

Drawing on acculturation research in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, this study examines how culturally diverse newcomers experience culture …

Testing The Governance Premium: Board Gender Diversity And Crisis-Period Returns During The Pandemic, Rhea Kulkarni

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines whether board gender diversity predicts cumulative abnormal returns for S&P 1500 firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Motivated by prior evidence linking board gender diversity to crisis-period stock performance and the broader question of whether governance quality is priced during periods of acute market stress, this study estimates cumulative abnormal returns across three economically distinct event windows covering the crash, recovery, and post-recovery periods using the Carhart (1997) four-factor model to test whether board composition translated into divergent outcomes across firms. The results fail to find evidence that board gender diversity predicts cumulative abnormal returns across any of …

Book Review: Automobiles, Cultures And The Question Of Law, Stephen M. Young

Journal of Law and Mobility

Unsettling Colonial Automobilities: Criminalisation and Contested Sovereignties is a compelling interdisciplinary and multileveled study that sits at the intersection of law, criminology, settler colonial studies, and cultural analysis. The authors are well-suited to this task. They include Professors Harry Blagg, with expertise in First Nations community-engaged criminology; Thalia Anthony, from legal and carceral studies; Wiradjuri scholar Juanita Sherwood, who studies Indigenous health and community research; and Kieran Tranter, an expert in cultural legal theory. Together, they offer a layered interrogation of how the motor vehicle and automobility shape the settler colonial ordering of Australia.

This review is comprised of three …

Paying Financial Sanctions Via Incarceration: A Case Study Of “Sitting Out”, Beth Colgan, Jordan B. Woods

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

This Article provides a comprehensive statewide study of a practice by which courts order defendants to pay financial sanctions—fines, costs, and probation fees—by serving terms of incarceration. Though several states authorize these practices, to date, very little is known about the extent to which payment via incarceration occurs and the different ways it is employed. This Article examines the use of the practice in Nebraska, where it is colloquially referred to as “sitting out.” Our study specifically focuses on all misdemeanor cases in Nebraska county courts with judgments (an adjudication of guilt and/or sentencing) during the year 2019.

This study …

Leveraging Intellectual Property For Development: Insights From South Korea For Developing Countries, Gracie Alinafe Chimvula

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Finding Freudenfreude: Deriving Subjective Well-Being From Passive Observation Of A Relational Tie’S Happiness Via Social Media Post, Alfred Kwabena Obiri, Deborah Aku Shika Pappoe, Elvis Kofi Otoo, Caleb T. Carr

Faculty Publications - Communications

Social media are known for their overly-positive contents posted by diverse network members; but little research has directly explored the effects of individual happy posts on receivers’ well-being. Two original online experiments (Study 1: N = 326 adults in English-speaking countries; Study 2: N = 111 undergraduates in the United States) tested the effects of the desirability of a post’s content on subjective well-being, as well as direct and moderating effects of the relational tie, and additionally moderated by the perceived selective self-presentation of the post. Results of the 2 (envy: high v. low) × 2 (relational closeness: close v. …

Increasing Temperatures And Heatwave Durations Negatively Affect The Performance Of A Dietary Generalist, Kailey G. Hicks, Claire Guzinski, Mariana Abarca, Mayra C. Vidal, Audrey M. Mitchell, Dhaval K. Vyas, Shannon M. Murphy

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Climate variability has increased in recent decades, and this trend is predicted to continue. Globally, there is a rise in extreme temperatures, such as heatwaves, which are strengthening in both intensity and frequency. As ectotherms, insects are especially affected by temperature variation. Insects are the most speciose group of animals and important members of most terrestrial ecosystems, providing critical ecosystem services. Most studies of global change have investigated only a single stressor, yet insects rarely experience one stressor at a time. Two stressors that co-occur are heatwaves and warming temperature regimes; thus, is it important that we study their interaction …

His 4925 : Methods, Theory, And Pedagogy For Secondary And Middle-Level History And Social Studies Teaching, History

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Emergency Management Audio Messages For Traffic Incident Management Performance Measures, Christopher Gartner, Vihaan Vajpayee, Jairaj Desai, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Timely and accurate information regarding roadway incidents is critical for Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) to maintain safety and mobility. While Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) cameras and crowdsourced data provide significant visibility, rural interstate corridors often suffer from coverage gaps, or "blind spots," where incidents go undetected until significant queuing occurs. Public safety radio communications serve as the primary coordination method for first responders, creating a "verbal infrastructure" that contains vital information regarding incident location and severity. This study evaluates the feasibility of using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to bridge these gaps by monitoring and analyzing radio traffic. The project developed …

Characterizing A Low-Gradient Stream In Central Illinois As Gaining Or Losing And Observing Seasonal Changes In This Behavior, Eric Timothy Brunner

Theses and Dissertations

While the seasonal behaviors of low-gradient streams have been studied, the behavior of surface water and groundwater interactions within low-gradient streams in glaciated terrain is not fully understood. A third order, low-gradient glacial stream with a saturated riparian buffer in central Illinois was studied to determine the direction of flow between the surface water and groundwater. The goals of this study were to determine 1) whether the stream was gaining or losing water, and 2) whether the gaining or losing nature of the stream-aquifer system changes seasonally. At both an upgradient and downgradient location, two wells were installed: one in …

Informing Policies: Examining Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing The Prevalence Of Gender-Based Violence, Patricia M. Ebubechukwu

Theses and Dissertations

Despite growing policy attention and legal reforms, Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a persistent public health and human rights concern in Nigeria. This study examines the socio-cultural influences on the prevalence of gender-based violence among ever-married women in Nigeria using data from the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Drawing on a nationally representative sample of 19,863 women aged 15 to 49, the research investigates how geopolitical zone, internalized gender norms, religious affiliation, educational attainment, and household wealth shape women’s experiences of physical, sexual, and emotional IPV. Guided by social norms theory and the ecological model of violence, the …

Creating "An Exemplar Of A Better World": A Dialogic Analysis Of Academic Freedom Surrounding Columbia University Activism From 2023-2025, Ellanore Foltz

Theses and Dissertations

From October of 2023 to August 2025, the community at Columbia University engaged in a series of debates regarding the meaning of academic freedom. Academic freedom, first institutionalized in the United States during the first world war, has shifted over the decades as the purpose of higher education and the threats to higher education changed. In recent years, campus protests regarding Israel and Palestine have sparked new debates about academic freedom that reflect ongoing and sometimes fundamental disagreements about higher education. This study utilizes Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011) to explore the interplay between different discourses of academic freedom …

Reawakening Waⁿdat: Community Research & Reclamation, Darcy Allred

Theses and Dissertations

The Wyandot(te) have undergone language dormancy due to settler colonial impacts of warfare, refugee relocation, forced removals, and U.S. assimilation projects. One of the most pressing priorities among our people today is reawakening our ancestral language, Waⁿdat. The common follow-up question is: how? Through the conduit of Waⁿdat language reclamation, this project grapples with the above question in collaboration with the Wyandot(te) community, and in adherence to the tribal sovereignty of the Wyandotte Nation. The project engages with diasporic perspectives, community-based pedagogy design, and tribally specific research protocols and policies. The living collective knowledgebase with which I engage in this …

The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships, By Barbara Newman, Laura Moncion

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

What Did The Sffa Court “Say To John”? White Innocents, Reciprocal Democratic Sacrifice, & The Message Of Affirmative Action, Nathan W. Dean

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Ephemeral: California’S Light And Space Artists, Shasta Power

Undergraduate Research Awards

Advancements in technology during the 20th and 21st centuries have allowed for new forms of art to be created, and new mediums to be explored— evidenced by the Light and Space Movement which emerged out of Southern California in the 1960s. Artists of this movement occupied a unique position within the larger scene of art history at the time; they were at the center of political turmoil and technological revolution, working in the same spaces and at times even alongside the engineers and psychologists interested in space: both outer and inner. Mary Corse, a painter, Fred Eversley, a sculptor, and …

From Couriers To City Dwellers: The Changing Human-Pigeon Relationship, Mallory C. Peterson

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Their coos echo off the walls of skyscrapers and their wings beat faster than the cadence of footsteps. Whether dodging cars or pecking at food scraps, pigeons are a constant character of urban environments. Their unique history has allowed them to raise their young under bridges and on windowsills. Pigeons and humans are inextricably intertwined, to the joy and dismay of many. Once celebrated as couriers, pigeons carried messages of war, love, and survival across vast distances, shaping human connection and history. Today, they are more often dismissed as pests, their presence flattened into the city noise.

This narrative piece …

The Impact Of Food Insecurity And Associated Variables On Colon Cancer In Kentucky: An Ecologic Study, Claire E. Lynch

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Objective: Given colorectal cancer incidence rates are increasing, especially in socioeconomic disadvantaged areas, this study aims to determine if there is an association between specific socioeconomic variables, such as food insecurity, and colon cancer at the county-level in Kentucky.

Methods: Colorectal cancer age-adjusted incidence rates at the county-level were collected from the Kentucky Cancer Registry. Conty-level data was collected from County Health Ranking, The U.S Census Bureau, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 2019 to 2023. R was used to run statical analyses such as a linear regression and a …

Hika - 2025-2026

HIKA Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

What Truly Drives Graduate Earnings?, Aiden Akbarov

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Spring 2026

The goal of my project, Predicting the Paycheck: What Factors Truly Influence Graduate Earnings?, was to see if we could actually predict a college graduate's starting salary using data instead of just guessing. I used a dataset of 172 majors from the American Community Survey to look at how a student's field of study, the gender balance of their major, and the current job market all impact their first paycheck. I wanted to create a tool that helps students understand the financial reality of their degree before they even graduate.

To get my results, I used a Multiple Linear Regression …

Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (Mthfr) Polymorphisms And Neural Tube Defects In African Populations: A Global Meta-Analysis And Population Genetic Characterization In Uganda, Nana Ekua Entsiwa Adenu-Mensah

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Background: Neural tube defects (NTDs) affect 1.9 per 1,000 births globally, with the highest burden occurring in African populations that remain underrepresented in genetic epidemiology. The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T and A1298C polymorphisms reduce enzyme activity and have been associated with increased NTD risk in several populations, though their relevance across African regions remains unclear.

Methods: We conducted: (1) an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphisms and NTD risk (66 studies, ~22,000 participants); (2) population-level genotype characterization of 978 Ugandan children using whole-genome sequencing; and (3), a comparative analysis of MTHFR C677T allele frequencies across …

Disparities In Utilization Of Glp-1 Receptor Agonists And Sglt2 Inhibitors Across Social Determinants Of Health: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Nisarg Shah

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Background: SGLT2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) significantly reduce cardiovascular and metabolic risk in type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Yet real-world utilization remains inconsistent, and emerging evidence suggests that social determinants of health (SDOH) may contribute to unequal access and prescribing.Research Aims: The extent and drivers of these disparities have not been systematically characterized, so we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether SDOH—socioeconomic status (SES), insurance status, education, geography, and neighborhood deprivation index (NDI)—and demographic factors—race and sex—are associated with differential utilization of SGLT2i or GLP-1RA. Question: To what extent are SES, insurance …

We Need To Care About Care: (Un)Caring Relations In Victorian Fiction, Roslyn Fleming

Theses and Dissertations--English

The professionalization and institutionalization of care in the Victorian era ushered in a growing societal concern about the pitfalls of care being “systematized and depersonalized” and treating people as burdens, problems to be solved. Given the increasing attention paid to people’s welfare and well-being during this period, the cultural shift from intimate community care to professional and institutional care, and the growing stigmatization of disabled bodyminds, the fiction produced amidst these cultural changes makes a compelling site for a study of care. Critical scholarship attending to Victorian novels’ representations of care, however, has largely concentrated on specific categorizations of care …

Inside The Box: Containerization And The Limits Of Trade Unionism In The International Longshoremen's Association, 1945-1977, Calvin Horning

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union of dock workers on the East Coast of the United States, saw a dramatic change in form and fortune in the middle of the 20^th century as the shipping industry and global labor underwent an immense reorganization. In the context of this reorganization, I argue that due to internal conservatism and racism alongside external state pressure, the ILA moved from an unruly, mafia-ruled union to a highly organized, professionalized, well-paid core of workers that served to support the United States’ capitalist-imperialist project.

Through archival material spanning over three decades, I analyze the …

(En)Counter Cartographies: Data Collection, Interpretation, And Visualization In Lexington’S Urban Forest, Claire Hilbrecht

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines how urban forestry data practices shape relationships between people, trees, and knowledge in Lexington, Kentucky. Drawing on political ecology, science and technology studies, and critical making, it argues that conventional methods of data collection, interpretation, and visualization privilege Western scientific and market-based frameworks that often exclude affective, embodied, and more-than-human ways of knowing. Using autoethnography and six semi-structured interviews with urban forestry professionals, the study explores how practitioners experience tensions between treating trees as measurable commodities and engaging them as relational beings. It finds that while urban foresters rely on dominant discourses such as ecosystem services to …

Spatial Marginalization Of Emotional Support: Understanding Animal-Human Dynamics Of Care On College Campuses, Aleksandra Craine

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In 2015 Kearny-Nebraska court case determined that student campus housing is considered a dwelling and is therefore covered by housing antidiscrimination laws. Since then, increasing numbers of students across U.S. campuses applied to bring an emotional support animal to live with them. Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as “trained or untrained animals that do work, perform tasks, provide assistance, and/or provide therapeutic emotional support for individuals with disabilities.” Persons requesting ESA accommodations usually must provide documentation from a medical provider or therapist. ESAs remain a legally and socially contested category …