Digital Commons Network^™

Works On Paper, Xingyun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is about my painting practice and artistic influences.

Fountain, Sadaf Azadehfar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the intersections of water, power, identity, and architecture through the lens of colonial and postcolonial landscapes, focusing particularly on Persian gardens and fountain sculptures. Drawing on historical, cultural, and symbolic frameworks, the study explores how water systems embody both practical and spiritual roles, positioning water as a force of control, resistance, and regeneration. Central to this work are analyses of arches and garden designs, which serve as architectural metaphors for cosmic harmony, community gathering, and contested space. Through a combination of visual analysis, historical research, and personal artistic practice—including ceramic sculptures and multimedia installations—this thesis traces the …

Exploring The Development Of American Classical Music Through The Works Of Florence Price And David Maslanka, Kathryn Rebekah Hardgrave

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

National Culture, Institutional Quality, And Financial Development: International Evidence Before And After Financial Crisis, Selma Izadi, Frankie J. Weinberg, Mamunur Rashid

Economics and Finance Faculty Research

This study examines the impact of Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and institutional quality on financial development in the periods preceding and following the global financial crisis. The study analyzes data from 33 countries spanning 2001 to 2021 using a combination of OLS, two-stage GMM, and PVAR models and concludes that inflation and economic growth negatively, and exchange rate and institutional quality positively significantly enhance financial development. Countries characterized by low masculinity and uncertainty avoidance scores, alongside high individualism and indulgence scores, tend to exhibit greater financial development. The results also indicate that cultural factors ought to be regarded as dynamic …

No. 40: Migrant Shelters And Food Insecurity In Mexico City And Its Metropolitan Area During The Covid-19 Lockdown, Fernanda Vázquez-Vela, Guénola Capron

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exacerbated vulnerabilities among migrant populations globally, and Mexico was no exception. This paper examines the experiences of four migrant shelters in Mexico City and its metropolitan area during the pandemic lockdown, highlighting how these institutions responded to the twin challenges of public health and food insecurity. The study draws on ethnographic and documentary research to analyse the coping strategies developed by managers and volunteers at the four shelters. These shelters serve diverse and particularly vulnerable groups, including undocumented migrants, women and children fleeing violence, and members of the LGBTTIQ+ community. Despite facing increased demand, reduced donations, …

Transportation’S Influences On Wellbeing: A Literature Review And Scoping Framework, William Bouck, Patrick Singleton, Louis Alloro, Kim Clark

Curiosity

This study investigates the relationship between transportation and wellbeing: the conditions humans need to flourish at all levels. Using the results gleaned from our literature review of 44 articles, we found correlations linkages between transportation elements and components of physical, psychological, economic, and social wellbeing. These transportation factors affected overall wellbeing, not merely wellbeing during travel. We find that active travel, followed by public transit, are the best travel modes for wellbeing, and that congestion, pollution, and transport disadvantage harm wellbeing. Our findings also indicate that multimodal, people-focused infrastructure corresponds to higher wellbeing. Generally, the four areas of wellbeing we …

Assessing The Effect Of Covid-19 On Air Quality For Five Texas Metro Areas Using Daily Air Quality Index Values, Rahul Sahajpal

Theses and Dissertations

Air pollution is one of the biggest health hazards known to humans. The quality of the air that we breath is mainly determined by the level of six major air pollutants, Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), Particulate Matter 10 (PM 10), Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and Ozone (O₃). The main source of these air pollutants are fossil fuels (Oil, Coal and Natural gas). Their levels in the air are reported using an Air Quality Index (AQI). Higher AQI values indicate bad air quality and vice versa. In this study …

Rewriting The Frontier: The Impact Of Collective Memory On The Mythos Of Western Settlement, Kelly E. Kooper

Theses and Dissertations

Using Paul Cohen’s methodological approach in History in Three Keys, this thesis examines the construction and debunking of the myths of manifest destiny, the rugged individual frontiersman, and the “noble savage” Native American in the writing about, experience of, and representation of the settlement American West. First, it analyzes the evolution of the historiography from Frederick Jackson Turner to William Cronon. Then it examines the experiences of four families (the Grices, Grahams, Deems, and McCormicks) who settled in Iowa and Nebraska from 1850 to 1880. Lastly, it surveys various popular cultural celebrations of the West. Through this triple lens, this …

False Virtues And Fragile Honor: The Weight Of Reputation In Shakespeare’S Works, Amanda Sheps

Theses and Dissertations

"False Virtues and Fragile Honor: The Weight of Reputation in Shakespeare’s Works" analyzes the intersection between honor and social standing in William Shakespeare's Othello and Much Ado About Nothing, specifically in regards to the gender roles prevalent in the plays' societies. In both plays, women who are perceived as a threat to the prevailing norms of society are ostracized, ridiculed, and may even face violence at the hands of their male love interests. The innocence of Desdemona and Hero, however, calls into question the validity of this cruel treatment. These negative reactions reflect the pressure that men have to preserve …

Tears, Blood, And Milk: Frida Kahlo's Depictions Of Maternity, Jenny Mushkin Goldman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Frida Kahlo’s representations of miscarriage, childbirth, and breastfeeding as departures from idealized portrayals of womanhood in post-revolutionary Mexico. Drawing on Catholic and Mesoamerican imagery, Kahlo reframes the maternal body as a site of resistance, engaging mexicanidad (Mexicanness) to counter its patriarchal constructions of national identity and gender.

Island Child: Sound, Memory, And The Diasporic Imagination, Rachel J. Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Island Child is an immersive audiovisual installation that explores how sound-based memory sustains personal and cultural identity. At its core, the piece reflects on the quiet yet shared emotion among those who have left home—the inevitability of departure, and the complex act of holding both loss and love. For many, leaving is not a choice, but a necessity. Yet the act of leaving leaves a permanent mark, etched in memory, time, and body.

This project creates a contemplative space for those silent truths, using sound and image to express the tension between separation and continuity. Traditional Korean lullabies, my grandmother’s …

Hemispheres Of Faith: Mapping The Global Journey Of An Ivory Rosary Bead At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Mary M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Hemispheres of Faith reattributes a carved ivory rosary bead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Quito School in 18th-century Ecuador. Through examining the trade history of the Manila Galleons, material analysis, and iconographic study, Hemispheres of Faith challenges the bead's European origins and reveals the object as a product of global exchange, devotional practice, and colonial artistic collaboration within the Spanish Empire.

Louis-Léopold Boilly’S Toddler In Mamluk Costume, Circa 1803: Feminism And Orientalism In The Napoléonic Era, Jessie Polk

Theses and Dissertations

Privately held until it came into the Met collection, Toddler in Mamluk Costume by Louis-Léopold Boilly was not widely known and hasn’t been extensively studied. This thesis seeks place it in context and argues that it is likely a portrait of a girl, a niece of Napoléon I, Zénaïde Bonaparte.

Piecemeal, Max J. Eisenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring the history of photographic manipulation both inside and outside of the camera from the late 19th century until today. My work plucks out cultural and local signifiers from the state of Florida, and the American South as a whole, and disseminates them using a constructed symbolic vernacular in the form of in-camera collaging on large format film.

As Above So Below, Robin Smith Fedock

Theses and Dissertations

As Above So Below is a short experimental documentary film that reveals an unexpected world of entanglements connecting life, death, and fungi in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Fungi are nature’s decomposers, turning dead trees into soil so new trees can grow, for example. Mycorrhizal fungi perform acts of collaboration and mutualism, delivering water and nutrients to roots of plants through their underground networks of mycelium. As we struggle to find ways of living in and beyond this time of planetary crisis, rife with loneliness and grief, what can we learn from fungi and their entanglements? How can we move beyond dominant …

Found Words, Lost Homes: Immigration And The Language Of Identity, Ali Motamedi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the relationship between personal experience and public space through a body of work that moves between image, text, and material. Rooted in an intimate perspective and extending into streets, landscapes, and communal environments, the practice examines how nomadism—both physical and conceptual—shapes ways of seeing and making. Drawing from my background in engineering, a deep connection to Farsi literature, and the lived experience of immigration, the work reflects on themes of displacement, belonging, and identity.

To Protect The Sky From Falling, Charles Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

Using ceramic, found objects, metal and wood, my practice is a meditation and questioning of care, efficiency, repair, structure and place. Architectural elements of support rendered in clay are the initial point of entry to give a soft, lived-in quality to a built environment that is often devoid of the mark of the hand and body. Imprints of the hand are left, and the objects are often deformed in ways to subvert the perceived functionality. The focus on ceramics centers around a play with the binary of soft and hard and the external changes that create its transformation. The work …

Home On The Road: Nomad Place Identities In The Vanlife Movement, Megan Twomey

Geography Honors Projects

Living in a van in America is often viewed negatively by wider society, indicating the vandweller is homeless and is living in a van as a form of survival. Yet, in recent years living in a van has become aspiration and desirable as more people discover vanlife as a means of escape from mainstream society to travel and enjoy nature all while posting on social media. The movement first gained traction in 2011 when Foster Huntington shared the first #vanlife post on Instagram, since then it has exploded in popularity creating a countercultural movement of mobile Americans living by their …

Impact Of Remote Work On Wages In Nevada’S Labor Force, Lauren Tomlinson, Sean Atias, Renato Salazar, Ezrah Tayag

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

Remote Work Evolution and COVID-19

• In 2019, 7% of full paid workdays were done remotely. During the pandemic, that number substantially grew to 60%, and by 2023 it shrunk down to 28%. Elements of remote work have even spread to multiple industries such as healthcare, finance, and education (Barrero et al., 2023).
• Direct relationship between self-perceived job performance and remote work productivity. However, living with children under 18 negatively impacts remote work engagement and productivity (Toscano & Zappalá, 2021).
• Remote work can be associated with increases in Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Between 2019 and 2021, a 1% increase in the …

Leukemia And Thyroid Cancer In Relation To Reca Boundaries, Cora Marinos

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

A total of 1,054 test were conducted by the United States between 1945 and 1992. This is more Atomic tests than all other countries combined. Of those tests 928 were conducted at the Nevada Test Site located 65 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada.

These tests spread nuclear fallout throughout the United States causing the people in nearby communities to become sick. The public outcry spurred the passing of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990 (RECA) It’s scope of coverage was broaded in 2000. Despite many groups fighting for further expansion, the Act expired in June of 2024.

Of the …

Creative Coastal Futures: Developing Cultural And Creative Industries, Katharine Willis, Chris Bennewith, Kasper De Graaf

School of Art, Design and Architecture

The UK is a coastal country, no one lives more than 80 miles from the coast, and indeed when you get down to into Cornwall and Devon this reduces to just 20 miles. Our coasts are a rich source of natural and cultural assets replete with places people value, visit and choose to live in. Yet our coastal communities are some of the most overlooked, challenged and deprived in the country. The strengths that exist in our coastal areas – around natural resources and pockets of specialised skills – are compromised by low levels of economic capacity and activity, aggravated …

Patient-Clinician Communication In The Appalachian Region: A Scoping Review, Kawther Al Ksir, Hadii M. Mamudu, Chidiebube J. Ugwu, Emily K. Flores, Tracy Fasolino, Holly Wei, Rick L. Wallace, Florence M. Weierbach

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Effective communication between patients and clinicians is a critical component of quality health care, influencing disease prevention, management, and outcomes. In regions with unique socioeconomic and geographic challenges, communication barriers can further exacerbate health disparities. Understanding the factors that facilitate or hinder patient-clinician communication is essential for developing targeted interventions that improve health care delivery.

Purpose: This review explores the existing literature on patient-clinician communication concerning cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Appalachian Region with the aim to understand existing gaps and interventions.

Methods: PubMed and Web of Science databases were utilized to conduct a systematic search. The Population, Concept, …

Determinants Of Willingness To Share Wearable Health Data With Health Care Providers In Appalachian Populations: An Exploratory Study, Gilbert Munoz Cornejo, Joonghee Lee

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: Wearable health devices capture metrics (e.g., physical activity, ECG, sleep) that can enhance care when shared with providers. Yet, willingness to share wearable data may differ in Appalachia, where chronic disease burdens, mistrust, and limited infrastructure pose unique challenges.

Objective: This study explored (1) which sociodemographic, health, and digital behaviors correlate with willingness to share wearable data and (2) how these insights can guide region-specific interventions in Appalachia.

Methods: We analyzed 320 Appalachian respondents from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 6). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models examined willingness to share wearable data. Because of small cell …

Heartache In The Heartland: Unraveling The Social Roots Of Deaths Of Despair In Kentucky, Lyndsey K. Blair, Madeline M. Tomlinson, Michele Abee-Biskis, Jessica Hume, Gabri Warren

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Deaths of despair (DoD), encompassing suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol-related liver diseases, have emerged as a critical public health crisis in the United States, with their rise particularly pronounced from 1995 to 2013 and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kentucky, grappling with high rates of substance use disorder, poor mental health, and economic hardship, is at the forefront of this issue, particularly in its rural and Appalachian regions.

Purpose: This study explores the social determinants contributing to DoD in Kentucky, focusing on economic and social factors that influence rising rates of suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease. The …

Time And Location: Physical Activity Trends In Parents And Children In A Rural Region During Covid-19, Brooke C. Towner, Robert Broce, Rebecca A. Battista

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: COVID-19 restrictions altered the structure of the school and workday for families with children and led to changes in active transportation. Continued restrictions impacted access to many community locations and led to changes in physical activity (PA) behavior.

Purpose: The objectives of the study were to describe the changes in the 1) amount of PA time per day, 2) frequency of PA, and 3) sitting time. Information about how PA changed for parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic will have potential implications for education, public health, and recreation management.

Methods: This cross-sectional study enlisted participants via an online …

The Relationship Between Food Allergies And Intolerances And The Development Of Disordered Eating Patterns, Lucy M. Scholma

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Food allergies and food intolerances are becoming an increasingly more prevalent issue in the Unites States. To mitigate adverse reactions, these individuals often eliminate food or food groups from their diets and the ramifications of these lifestyle changes may result in disordered eating patterns. In regard to food allergies and intolerances and eating disorders, it is reasonable to suggest that the overlapping lifestyle choices and physical, social, and emotional ramifications may lead to a correlation between the two phenomena. This study explores the relationship between food allergic and food intolerant individuals and disordered eating habits among college students. Survey results …

Examining Non-Academic Staff's Perceived Value Of Professional Development On Job Satisfaction And Anticipated Turnover In Higher Education, Elnora Lewis

Dissertations

One of the most important assets in an organization is its employees (Chong & Lee, 2017). Developing staff employees is critical in the university setting (Gornitzka & Larsen, 2004), in addition to satisfying and retaining them (Grohnert et al., 2021). Given today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, staff development is more vital than ever in the workplace (Gibson, 2020). Higher education institutions should be concerned about employee's professional development (Gerken et al., 2016), not only academic staff but also non-academic staff. Additionally, organizations should ensure employees are satisfied by offering learning and development opportunities, which can contribute to …

Fugitive Colors, Natalie Rose Eddings

Theses and Dissertations

My objects are meditations on intertwining themes of labor, rest, and interiority and their shadow sides—power, subjugation and the gaze. I couple materials that have millenia-long histories such as metals, glass, paper and clay with found objects and plat materials to illustrate narratives and exhume memories. Drawn from nature and technologies of land, plant stewardship and the domestic realm, I imagine my sculptures as life supporting vessels or magical enclosures.

Through sculpture, photography and printmaking, I build structures that are space of quiet to be filled with thought, healing and development. Like incubators and seed pods, my work is protective …

Examining The Connections Between Gender, Identity, And Land In Leslie Marmon Silko’S Ceremony And Rudolfo Anaya’S Bless Me, Ultima, Denise Perez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the representation of gender, identity, and land in the novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. To understand the role of gender in the novels, women are analyzed as sources of salvation and refuge for men. The male protagonists seek a “cure” or an understanding of themselves, and they are only able to achieve this through the nurturing of the women in their lives. This thesis also examines how the male protagonists develop their masculinity through the formation of a bond with the Earth, their homeland, and nature. In Ceremony and …

Capital And Ritual: Unlikely Partners On The Commercial Dancefloor, Laszlo Jentes

Sociology Honors Projects

How do individuals at million-dollar festivals and in basements find connection and care on their respective dancefloors? This research utilizes dance music culture to analyze how commercialization shapes participants’ spiritual experiences, and their responses to drug usage, violence and perceived erosion of shared values. Current literature focuses on either the spiritual or commercial aspects of dance music culture, but has not combined the two. I qualitatively examine a continuum of dance music venues from the mainstream to the underground through interviews and participant observation, finding continuity, rather than contradiction. I find that mainstream events center commercial activity, relying on spectacle …