Digital Commons Network^™

Correctional Leadership And Its Relationship To Psychological Well-Being And Job Satisfaction Among Former Department Of Corrections Staff, Brittaney Brown Kovacs

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Correctional institutions represent complex work environments in which leadership may influence employee psychological well-being and job satisfaction. Although prior research has primarily focused on correctional officers, less attention has been paid to the broader workforce within Departments of Corrections (DOCs), including educational, healthcare, and administrative personnel. This retrospective mixed-methods study examined the relationships between employee perceptions of transformational, transactional, and authoritarian leadership styles and employee outcomes among former staff of state-level DOCs in the United States. Participants included 75 former DOC employees from multiple states. Quantitative data were collected using standardized measures of leadership, job satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Multiple …

Fentanyl At The Border: A Critical Analysis Of U.S. Customs And Border Protection Strategies Against Synthetic Opioid Smuggling, Patricia Salinas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation will investigate the efficacy of tactics employed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in detecting and intercepting fentanyl at legal ports of entry along the U.S border during the fiscal years 2022 to 2025. Given that fentanyl continues to be a pivotal element in the ongoing opioid crisis within the United States, it is imperative to understand the mechanisms by which this synthetic opioid is smuggled into the country and to evaluate the efficacy of federal initiatives. These efforts are crucial for protecting public health and enhancing national security. This quantitative study examines fentanyl seizure data from …

Destined To Fail?: The U.S. Advisory Period And The Lost Path To Victory, 1960-1965, Alexander Patrick Fancher

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

South Vietnam experienced robust military and economic development between 1960 and 1963 under the leadership of President Ngo Dinh Diem. With the help of U.S. aid, the RVNAF improved its ability to wage war against the Viet Cong, while simultaneously pacifying the countryside. ARVN and VNN units developed new capabilities and trained officers to replace losses after the French Exodus from Vietnam. The introduction of U.S. advisors created the conditions necessary for the development of a young, inexperienced military. Acting as guides, these Americans were cautiously optimistic that South Vietnam was on the path to self-sufficiency by spring 1963 as …

Recommendations For Advancing Elementary Music Education For Students With Disabilities In Skyline Ridge School District, Dawn Marie Schafer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this applied research study was to provide recommendations to advance music instruction to students with disabilities at sixteen elementary schools in the Skyline Ridge School District (SRSD). The problem was that there was evidence of low musicianship and music participation in students with disabilities in the middle schools in SRSD. The rationale for this study was that students with disabilities may be capable of achieving musicianship as well as any other student. For this reason, music educators must be prepared to set them up for success. The central research question was: How can the elementary music teachers …

Use Of Smart Safety Devices And Artificial Intelligence And Its Impact On Workplace Injury Reduction In High-Risk Industries In Cameroon: A Qualitative Exploration Of Worker And Management Perspectives, John Atabong Zifac

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Workplace injury has been a significant concern within high-risk industries in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially Cameroon, with weak worker safety standards, poor infrastructure, lack of compliance with regulatory requirements, and a limited level of digital infrastructure contributing to a high risk of worker injury. While artificial intelligence (AI) supported smart safety technologies have revolutionized the way companies conduct workplace safety management in developed nations, little research exists on the perception of these technologies and practicality among low-resource industrial operators in Sub-Saharan Africa. This qualitative phenomenological study investigated management and employee perceptions regarding the use of AI-based smart safety devices to reduce …

The Impact Of Leadership Style On Cohesion And Trust Within Remote Teams, Grace E. Choi

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how leadership approaches affected the development of trust and team cohesion within remote teams in the post-pandemic workplace. The pandemic transformed daily work interactions so that relationship focused leadership has become essential for distributed employees. This study examined how employees experience leader behaviors that either supported or hindered unity and trust through the lens of Leader-Member Exchange and transformational/transactional leadership theories. Through purposive sampling, nine adults who have spent at least one year working remotely in team-based roles in the United States were recruited for semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 45-60 minutes. Interviews were audio recorded …

The Lived Experiences Of Individuals With Serious Mental Illness And Cumulative Trauma Seeking And Maintaining Employment While Receiving Holistic Trauma-Informed Care: A Qualitative Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Andrea Evon Mcdowell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) and cumulative trauma (CT) seeking and maintaining employment while receiving holistic trauma-informed care (TIC). Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology, which evolved from Husserl’s method of phenomenology, served as the methodological framework for this study. The goal of hermeneutic phenomenology is to understand how individuals see themselves within their natural environments. Hermeneutic phenomenology was a valid design for this study because it allowed the participants to describe their SMI/CT and their lived experiences with holistic TIC. The participants in this study consisted of …

Recommendations For Improving Soft Skills Training In The Career And Technical Education Curriculum At Sumter Career And Technology Center In South Carolina, Walter Robertson Iii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to improve soft skills training in the Career and Technical Education curriculum at the Sumter Career and Technology Center in South Carolina. The problem was that 8% of the Sumter Career and Technology Center's students participating in work-based learning opportunities, apprenticeships, or internships lack the soft skills required by participating employers. The rationale for this study was that it is critical to improve soft skills training in the curriculum at Sumter Career and Technology Center to improve students' performance in work-based learning opportunities to boost employer confidence and lead to permanent future employment opportunities …

An Analysis Of Human Trafficking In Alabama, Kimberly Abrams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this analysis is to gain a thorough understanding of human trafficking in the Alabama. The illegal issue of this analysis is for those who lack a sense of human trafficking, which surrounds the communities where they reside. The theory guiding this study is due to the complexity of the issue globally around the world as it explains the causes of human trafficking amongst victims, which include those who experience poverty, lack of access to job opportunities, natural disasters, and lack of legal protection for immigrants. Additionally, the purpose of this dissertation is to provide insights into the …

The Black American Women, Mental Health, Self-Stigma, And The Church, Sylvia D. Dorsey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of Christian Black American women who underutilize mental health services due to a perceived notion of self-stigma of Christian Black American women seeking mental health services and how the church may play a role. A transformational theory guides this study. In a transformative framework the study focuses on looking at marginalized groups that have power differentials and are viewed as being less important in society and to understand their life experiences. Stigma and self-stigma are the dominating factors that contribute to the underutilization of mental health services …

Toward Defining Vulnerability For The Field Of Communication, Adrian Osman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Vulnerability, a common human experience, is still not well-theorized within the field of communication and lacks a clear, discipline-specific definition. This qualitative study examined how vulnerability shapes interpersonal communication, using general systems theory and social exchange theory as guiding frameworks. Through in-depth interviews with individuals who identify obesity as a lived vulnerability, five central themes emerged: awareness and acceptance of vulnerability, experiencing weight-based dismissal in healthcare, weight-related communication in familial and everyday interactions, avoidance and situational disengagement, and support systems – what works and what does not. Findings show that vulnerability acts as a dynamic communicative force, shaping engagement, withdrawal, …

(((Qpie33))) The Baltic-Atlantic Accord On Substrate Entrainment A High-Science Declaration For Multi-Lateral Technical Councils, Advanced Propulsion Networks, And Global Informatics Initiatives, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

The historic architecture of human academic discovery has inevitably reached its final, localized boundary. For generations, the global scientific engine has functioned within a structured pattern of cognitive isolation, a state wherein the investigating mind projects its own internal fragmentation onto the macroscopic and microscopic phenomena of the natural world. By constructing vast, institutional barriers between the study of mathematics, subatomic particle configurations, cosmic web distributions, and biological information networks, the conventional apparatus has arrived at an artificial computational wall. When a civilization approaches the continuum of reality through the lens of competitive survival logic, institutional vanity, and the fear …

Moving Beyond Occupational Health: Lessons From Implementing Integrated Worker Health Programs Among Informal Workers In Thailand, Orrapan Untimanon

Journal of Health Research

Background: This paper aims to present practical experiences and lessons learned from applying an integrated worker health approach among informal workers in Thailand. The approach draws on the concept of Total Worker Health (TWH) and is implemented through Primary Care Units (PCUs).

Methods: This is an invited commentary.  

Results: Key steps included: (1) identification of occupational health (OH) services provided by PCUs; (2) development and refinement of an integrated worker health assessment tool based on TWH principles; (3) assessment and problem identification among informal workers, highlighting combined occupational and lifestyle-related risks; (4) design and implementation of integrated interventions; and (5) …

Analysis Of Student’S Critical Thinking Skills In Science Learning : A Gender-Based Analysis, Evi Elisanti, Larassati Larassati

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The lack of studies on the development of critical thinking skills based on students' gender and the limited thinking processes demonstrated by male and female students in science classes. The purpose of this study is to analyze students' critical thinking skills in science learning: a gender-based analysis. The research sample subjects were 4th grade 107 class V students in one of the public elementary schools in the city of Surakarta. This type of research used descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The novelty of this study broadens the perspective that gender differences are not a matter of …

Aligning Sport Management Programs With The Evolving Needs Of Hopeful Intercollegiate Athletic Administrators., Kelly P. Elliott, Don Rockey

The COSMA Journal

Pathways to becoming an Athletic Director (AD) vary considerably across intercollegiate athletics, highlighting the need for sport management programs to better align academic preparation with evolving professional expectations. While prior research has explored AD roles across NCAA divisions, limited attention has been given to how academic curricula and experiential learning opportunities support students pursuing these careers. This study examines differences in sport management curricula and experiential offerings across programs affiliated with Division I FBS, Division I FCS, Division II, Division III, and NAIA institutions. Two research questions guided the study: (1) What differences exist in required coursework across divisions? and …

Preoperative Low-Intensity Blood Flow Restriction Training Does Not Improve Quadriceps Strength Or Hypertrophy After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction, Daniel Mcgurren, Kaycee Glattke, Molly Klanderman, Jedediah Lee, Anikar Chhabra, Arthur De Luigi

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of a preoperative low-intensity blood flow restriction (LI-BFR) training intervention for patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).

Design: Pilot study

Methods: Twenty-eight patients undergoing primary ACLR participated in either a LI-BFR training or sham intervention at a rate of 2 sessions per week for 2 weeks before surgery. Quadriceps strength and cross-sectional area were measured via handheld dynamometry and leg press test before and after the intervention before surgery and at 5 different time points after surgery, through 24 weeks after surgery.

Results: Adjusting for sex, time, and strength/hypertrophy at baseline, there were no …

The Readiness Reset: Sleep, Stress, And Pain Management For Tactical Performance, Lauren Fried

Tactical & Occupational Performance Conference

Tactical professionals operate in high-demand environments where sleep disruption, chronic stress, and persistent pain are often normalized, but these factors significantly affect readiness, resilience, and long-term performance. This session explores how sleep, stress, and pain interact at the physiological and neurological levels to influence decision-making, recovery, injury risk, and operational effectiveness in first responders and military personnel.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how nervous system regulation, circadian rhythms, and pain perception affect both physical and cognitive performance under stress. Drawing on current research and applied human performance principles, this session highlights practical, field-applicable strategies that tactical professionals and …

What Is To Be Done?: Expanding Our Feminist Imaginations, Smitha Radhakrishnan, Cinzia Solari

Fast Capitalism

Reflecting on their recent book, The Gender Order of Neoliberalism, the authors call for sociologists to urgently engage in the work of imagining a fairer future amid intersecting local and global crises. In particular, Radhakrishnan and Solari draw attention to hidden histories of women's organizing between the former Soviet and post-colonial world that together forged a vision for a fairer world based on social reproduction feminism. Rejecting neoliberal feminism, the authors call for a more accurate global diagnosis of the central political economic problem of our times that foregrounds the experiences of the global majority.

Disrupting The Crises, Kasey Henricks

Fast Capitalism

“Disrupting the Crises” explores bankruptcies within communities who are disproportionately subjected to ticket-related debt. Whereas much sociolegal research to date emphasizes how predatory fines and fees reproduce relations of domination, I focus on departures to these arrangements that emerge through Chapter 13 specifically. Using Chicago as a case study, Chapter 13 operates within the law to stall deadlines for repayment, pause debt collection efforts, safeguard driving privileges, and shelter cars from dispossession. Although bankruptcy rarely produces lasting relief, given its high failure rates and enduring hardships, this legal injunction provides immediate protections that many prefer to inaction. Among drivers facing …

What Is To Be Done? Palestine And The Futility Of Liberal Sympathy, Emily Maureen Schneider

Fast Capitalism

These remarks were delivered on November 19, 2025 as part of a virtual panel featuring the 2025 Marxist Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association Award Winners. In the essay below, I share the core arguments of my award-winning chapter, “Negotiating Indigeneity in Hebron: Criminality, Tourism, and Liberal Settler Colonialism,” which I have since expanded upon in my forthcoming book American Jews in Palestine: Tourism and the Limits of Liberal Sympathy. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork investigating alternative Jewish tours to Palestine, I argue that liberal identity politics, namely a preoccupation with Indigeneity and race that does not challenge …

Football’S Climate Own Goal: The Case For Abolishing The Fifa World Cup, Toby Miller, Joan Pedro-Carañana

Fast Capitalism

This paper criticizes the environmental devastation and pervasive greenwashing associated with corporate football, with a particular focus on the FIFA men’s World Cup Finals. Analysis of past World Cups—Germany (2006), South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014), and particularly Qatar (2022)—reveals a consistent failure by FIFA and host nations to meet climate goals. Furthermore, major teams and governing bodies like UEFA and FIFA depend on sponsors from environmentally-damaging industries that utilize these sports for green cover, deflecting attention from their nefarious activities. As future World Cups expand (2026, 2030, 2034) and move to climate-vulnerable nations, the environmental impact is projected to worsen. …

Incorporating Feminist Ethics Of Care Into The American Women’S Soccer Market, Julie Brice, Verity Postlethwaite

Fast Capitalism

This paper offers a critical commentary on the professionalization of women’s soccer in the United States, exploring the intersection of feminism and capitalism. Drawing on feminist economic theory, we reflect on how feminist values and an ethics of care have been mobilized within women's professional soccer. To accomplish this, we focus specifically on two Southern Californian women’s soccer teams from two iterations of the women's professional soccer league in the US—the San Diego Spirit of the Women’s United Soccer Association and Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League. Through historical and contemporary examples, we illustrate how feminist …

An Age Of Piracy Or A Golden Era: An Economic History Of Colombian Football From Obscurity To International Notoriety, 1918-1954, Brandon Blakeslee

Fast Capitalism

This paper discusses the economic realities of international soccer in the middle of the twentieth century. As soccer became more popular it became more important for clubs to acquire good players, so fans would continue to attend the games, and for clubs who had good players to maintain them. At a time when Europe was still recovering from the second World War, Colombian business and club owners saw an opportunity to bring some of the biggest stars in the world to the Colombian league (Dimayor). This move inaugurated the golden age of Colombian soccer 1948-1954, but not everyone was happy …

Fifa’S Future In A Changing International System, Amit Gupta

Fast Capitalism

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has shown the most consistent ability to reinvent itself and to increase the commercial potential of the game. In doing so it has followed the fundamental principles of capitalism, using innovation and growth as the basis for success. This has led the sport to become the most popular in the world, with the men’s World Cup finals averaging over a billion viewers. It is not only the viewing audience of the World Cup that makes the game so popular of course: domestic football—particularly the leagues of England, Spain, Italy, and Germany—has found audiences …

Platform Telecracy: Soccer, Capital, And Media After Galeano, Jason Ludwig

Fast Capitalism

This article builds on on Eduardo Galeano's concept of "telecracy"  to theorize "platform telecracy," an updated framework for analyzing the relationship between soccer, media infrastructure, and capital in the era of digital platforms.  The article argues that the transition from broadcast television to online platforms has fundamentally transformed how soccer media is produced, circulated, and monetized. Where Galeano's broadcast telecracy (Telecracy 1.0) commodified the live match broadcast, platform telecracy (Telecracy 2.0) assetizes match footage, enabling its endless fragmentation and recirculation across digital platforms as a source of continuous advertising and subscription revenue.

The Fifa Vector, Pablo Andrés Castagno

Fast Capitalism

A key aim within Critical and Cultural Studies is to analyze how non-governmental international institutions engage with political and economic processes. This article argues that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) shapes a fundamental institutional vector for global capital accumulation, which is based on the exploitation of players and communities. Under the influence of protection rackets, FIFA has actually functioned as a governmental machine that enforces the commodification of football. Furthermore, it propagates a narrative of football's magic that legitimizes non-democratic governments seeking some cultural validation. In these ways, FIFA interacts with the emergence of the vectoral state. Over …

Cyberzombies And The Afterlife Of Thought: Dead Labor, Ai, And The Necropolis Of Capital, Craig Van Pelt

Fast Capitalism

This essay presents a novel Marxist theory of artificial intelligence (AI) as the latest expansive form of dead labor. Drawing on Marx’s Grundrisse (1993 [1973]), I argue that modern AI systems function as cyberzombies: digital entities animated by appropriated dead cognitive labor. This dead cognitive labor operates as seemingly autonomous machine cognition, reproducing the core feature of capital: the domination of living labor by accumulated past labor. These cyberzombies accelerate the widening cognitive rift—the structural separation between communities that supply resources for AI to function and the actors who accumulate the resulting knowledge. The essay concludes that cyberzombies reveal an …

Front Matter, Fast Capitalism Editorial Team

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Fast Capitalism Editorial Team

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

A Culturally Responsive Campus Learning Community: Stories About Professional And Personal Growth, Maria I. Iturbide, Amy E. Sprowles, Kimberly Vincent-Layton, Seth Bradley, Steven T. Margell

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Although collegiate enrollment for students of diverse identities has steadily increased over the last five decades, their college graduation rates have not increased proportionally. Culturally responsive educational environments allow students to leverage their cultural wealth to achieve their academic aspirations. To create a culturally responsive campus culture, educators’ pedagogy must value culture in thinking, feeling, learning, and the communication of ideas. This article explores the ability of a professional learning community approach to cultivate in educator participants the personal and professional shifts required to create a culturally responsive educational environment. We analyzed qualitative data from 10 open-ended questions through an …