Digital Commons Network^™

Isolation, Identification And Antibiotic-Resistance Profiling Of Bacteria Isolated From Mobile Phone Surfaces In Karbala., Kawkab Abdullah Alsaadi, Zahraa Raheem Murshidy, Dhuha Ali Hussein, Sura Abd Ali Kadhim, Kawakib Aboudi Hanoon

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Due to the diverse environments that mobile phones are exposed to via human handling they become reservoirs of microorganisms. The objective of the current study was to determine the level and character of bacterial contamination on mobile phones by identifying bacterial strains, and the degree of antimicrobial susceptibility. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to July 2025 where phones belonging to 115 individuals were randomly chosen from various departments and units at Kerbala University and swabbed. The VITEK 2 automated system was used to identify bacterial taxa and test for antimicrobial susceptibility, and 50 of the swabs exhibited bacterial …

An Alignment Of Absences: The Medicalization Of Death And Its Implications On Archaeological Methodology, Makayla J. Bowman

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Absence describes something that is "expected, wanted, or looked for [but] is not present or does not exist," (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2026). The archaeological discipline interacts with absence in many profound ways, largely in its study of the past dead. This paper focuses on the ways in which the medicalization of death has influenced, limited, and misaligned archaeological methodology, and how the result of those methodologies produces archaeological analysis that is absent of or misrepresents our understanding of life, personhood, and our position within a greater, interconnected biosphere. Thus, I present an anthropological critique of the ways in which death and …

The Influence Of The Japanese Language On Gender Perceptions, Jasmine Bishara

Honors Projects

This study aimed to understand the how the Japanese language impacted people’s gender perceptions of women. Previous research showed that there are words and phrases in the Japanese language that are devaluing towards women, and that there are different societal expectations of women in their speech style. There are also different expectations of women’s behavior, which has impacted them in the workplace. Due to a lack of participants, no conclusions can be drawn about how language and social expectations impact how women are perceived in society. However, based on previous research it can be assumed that these issues still remain …

Local Angst To National Fear: New Media And The Spread Of Xenophobia, Bryce Weber

Honors Projects

This paper examines the evolution of xenophobia in the United States, arguing that its core themes of fear of outsiders, economic anxiety, and threats to national identity have remained consistent. However, the mechanisms of its spread have transformed alongside developments in media. The paper uses a qualitative historical methodology supported by quantitative data to trace anti-immigrant sentiment. It examines anti-immigrant attitudes toward Irish immigrants in the 19^th century, and reactions to undocumented immigrants in the late 20^th and early 21^st century. The paper focuses on key case studies, including California’s Proposition 187 and Arizona’s SB 1070, to …

Career Conversations In Academic Advising: Tools For Integrating Career Into Everyday Advising, Molly Landa

Masters Projects

With a growing concern about the value of higher education, higher education institutions need to adapt to the evolving career needs of students. With the frequent interactions academic advisors have with students, advisors are uniquely positioned to help student align their academic and career plans. However, literature reveals that many academic advisors struggle to have career conversations with students due to a lack of confidence and time with students. Furthermore, the literature illustrates the importance of integrating academic and career advising because it provides students with holistic support that better supports their needs. Therefore, the purpose of this project is …

"Principle Before Party": Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones And The 1899 Ohio Gubernatorial Election, Connor Hand

Honors Projects

As partisan loyalty declined and resentment grew against American social, political, and economic conditions at the end of the nineteenth century, political reformers saw an opportunity to spread their ideals for a better society. Most reformers opted against running for office, and those who did often used standard or newly formed political parties. Mayor of Toledo and progressive businessman Samuel Jones differed from the standard reformer by seeking office while embracing a non-partisan ideology. By analyzing Jones’ writings, the partisan response to his movement, and contextualizing him amongst reformers, this essay explores how Jones stood out from the standard political …

Harm Reduction Strategies In Addiction Recovery: Effectiveness, Barriers, And The Role Of Social Stigma, Julia J. Amlin

Honors Projects

Substance use disorders (SUDs) present a major global public health crisis. An estimated 46.3 million individuals are affected in the United States, with only a small fraction receiving any form of treatment. While abstinence-based models have historically dominated addiction treatment methods, harm reduction approaches have emerged as evidence-based alternatives that reduce overdose mortality, improve treatment engagement, and decrease the transmission of infectious diseases. Despite strong empirical support harm reduction interventions continue to face significant social, political, and structural resistance. These harm reduction interventions include supervised consumption sites, overdose prevention centers, medication-assisted treatment, naloxone distribution, and drug checking technologies. This resistance …

Secluded Strategies: Engaging Uncertainty To Empower Creative Decisions, Chris Lambert

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This paper investigates the role of ambiguity as a source of inspiration and creative agency. Ambiguity is presented not as a limitation, but as a medium through which artists explore, experiment, and generate meaning. Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, a deck of cryptic prompts designed to provoke reflection and disrupt habitual thinking, illustrates how indeterminate instructions can stimulate the imagination without prescribing outcomes. Building on this principle, the study introduces Secluded Strategies, a personalised deck of Eno-inspired prompts derived from his artistic statements and reflections. Each card serves as an invitation for interpretive engagement, encouraging artists to make active …

Luja Volume 6: Issue 1 (Full Volume)

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Power, Knowledge, And Environmental Justice: The Dakota Access Pipeline Controversy, Mya Chapman

Honors Projects

In a time of rife political conflict and debate, it is important to understand the underlying power dynamics that permeate our society in America. As devised by French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, power and knowledge are mutually constitutive forces that shape our social relations. Through the actions of certain discourses, distinct truths are cultivated that in turn, reinforce existing power structures. In this study, these concepts are applied to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy in the form of a Foucauldian discourse analysis to understand how the pipeline remained operational in the face of great opposition. Written discourse in the …

Expanding The Pantheon Of “Place-Myth”: Media-Induced Travel In College Students Who Study Abroad, Isabella M. Shevetz

Honors College Theses

Media-induced tourism refers to any travel that is in some part motivated by the consumption of mass media related to that location. Media-induced tourism and mass-tourism have led to nation branding and destination marketing across the globe, two industry phenomena that have worked to skyrocket tourism in places where it was not previously a large driver of the local economy. The expansion of mass media availability and the birth of social media mean the media roles of producer and audience member have blurred. Ordinary people now have the influential power of large media corporations. In destination marketing, the user-generated content …

The Ambiguity Of Truth: Exploring Inductive Reasoning And Pedagogy In Creative Practice Through Critical Reflection, Stephen O'Connell

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

The creative process inherently utilises critical thinking, reflective practice and problem-solving skills, but students can struggle with the mental effort required to engage in critical thinking. This paper examines this phenomenon through a critical reflection as a case study, utilising the Integrated reflective cycle method to engage both in reflective practice and theory. Through the reflection on in-class experiences, errors in the students’ inductive reasoning and a tendency for them to shortcut mental challenges with experiential heuristics were identified, with students appearing to seek cognitive ease over critical metacognition. This paper then proposes utilising an inductive reasoning-led pedagogy, with a …

‘Taking Out The Trash’: Domestic Care & Women’S Immigration, Mari Arrieta

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

Research questions:

2.1. Private Childcare

Why is childcare in the United States treated as a private responsibility rather than a public good?

2.2. Immigrant Women & Childcare

In what ways does the U.S. childcare system rely on and reproduce immigrant women’s labor through labor regulations?

A Rigorous And Ethical Methodological Framework For Navigating Cultural Differences With Police Officers In A South African Rural Community, Masefako Andronica Gumani

The Qualitative Report

Research contexts pose different challenges during research processes, and these challenges may affect the credibility of study findings. This was especially the case when, as a researcher, I interacted with police participants from different cultural backgrounds from my own. This paper reflects on my experience as a female Sepedi‑speaking researcher conducting a Ph.D. qualitative, grounded theory study with male and female South African Police Service (SAPS) officers from the Venda and Tsonga cultural backgrounds. I used a reflexive autoethnographic research design to purposively look at myself as the subject of inquiry and analyze my reflexive journal using reflexive thematic data …

Healthcare Institutions’ Influences On Health Literacy Levels In Mothers In Greensboro, North Carolina, Wole Ajala

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Immigrant populations experience persistent challenges within the U.S. healthcare system, including marginalization, discrimination, and limited access to understandable health information, which contribute to health disparities. Factors such as low income, cultural differences, and intersecting identities related to gender and race further compound these challenges. This qualitative phenomenological study examined how these social determinants of health influenced the health literacy experiences of African immigrant mothers in Greensboro, North Carolina. Data were collected through encrypted WhatsApp audio interviews with eight African immigrant mothers who had used healthcare services in the United States. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic …

Moral Emotions Within The Habituation Of Virtue, Hannah Starr Grubbs-Oechsle

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I examine how moral emotions feature within the habituation of virtues. I suggest that their primary role within the moral life is epistemic: emotions grant agents perceptual access to evaluative properties in the world. I argue that their perceptual function within habit formation is normatively indispensable. I proceed through five methodological movements. I begin by presenting the three historical accounts of emotion I take as most influential on contemporary Western beliefs about emotion and as most dominant within the philosophy of emotion. To that end, I trace Stoic and Kantian accounts of emotion as representative of the …

Ghosts Of The Shelves: A Sequential Quantitative Study Of Book Banning And Libricide In The United States, Gregory A. Wadsworth

Doctoral Works at the University of New Haven

The United States is entrenched in a new era of censorship and libricide, characterized by unprecedentedly high rates of book banning, legislatively mandated restriction, and the disproportionate censoring of works authored by and prominently showcasing sexual and racial minorities. This ongoing perpetration of libricide, the prolific characterization of literature as a cultivator, and the societal structure which manifests and promotes literary restriction has thus far received little empirical attention. The current study represents a sequential quantitative study of book banning and libricide in the United States. Mirroring Gerbner’s (1998) method for establishing cultivation effects, the present study (1) utilized open-source …

Thinking Towards The Future: Reflections On Engaging With Ai For Visual Data Presentation In Qualitative Research, Chloe Le, Anh Ngoc Quynh Phan

The Qualitative Report

This article reports our experience of exploring the use of ChatGPT to artistically present a segment of qualitative data in a visual form for one of our previous studies. We recounted our engagement with ChatGPT and reflected on our emotions and thoughts throughout the interactive process with this AI-powered tool for image generation. Our narrative analysis highlights the agency of ChatGPT as an active contributor to the creative endeavor and emphasizes our critical role as researchers in interpreting the data and in critically evaluating AI-generated images within the context of our research. The paper suggests that AI-text-to-image function can potentially …

Global Institutions In The Colonial Conquest Of Palestine, Zeeshan Uddin

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

Research questions:

Question 1: How has Western imperialism historically and contemporarily dominated global policy?

Question 2: How have global institutions (ie. the League of Nations, UN, ICJ, IMF, etc.) shaped and contributed to the ongoing colonialist/imperialist project in Palestine?

Beyond Victimhood, Expanding Narratives: A Generative Inquiry With Trafficking Survivors, Giacomo Chiara, Celiane Camargo-Borges, Diego Romaioli, Alberta Contarello

The Qualitative Report

This study is a generative inquiry with survivors of trafficking from a social constructionist perspective. Inspired by the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, its focus is collaboration between researchers and trafficking survivors with a view to shaping and understanding their trafficking experiences together, expanding understanding of the topic and co-constructing a relational space in which counter-narratives on victimhood can be generated. It consisted of 10 interviews with women survivors of trafficking at the Italian Anti-Trafficking System. These women were from a range of nations and their experiences of exploitation varied. Taking a constructionist approach to research, we formulated an episodic-generative interview …

Solo Faculty Program Coordinators In Student Affairs-Related Graduate Programs, Phillip A. Olt, Mitch Nasser, Louise Michelle Vital, Steven Tolman, James G. Archibald, Mary Ann Bodine Al-Sharif, Blue Brazelton, Rozana Carducci, Michael Houdyshell, Tryan Mcmickens, Cara Meixner, Molly Mistretta, Amy Paciej-Woodruff, Richie Stevens, Ann Wendle, Claude E.P. Mayo

The Qualitative Report

Many graduate programs in student affairs-related subfields employ just one full-time faculty member, who then also functions as the program coordinator. Program coordinator duties and compensation vary widely, but they are generally the person who ensures all aspects of the program function. Research shows that fulfilling these responsibilities in addition to teaching, research, and service is difficult; however, this study sought to expand on that literature to understand what it was like to coordinate a HESA program as the only full-time faculty member isolated in that subfield at the institution. We utilized the hybrid qualitative methodology of phenomenological polyethnography, wherein …

Advancing Sustainability In The Indonesian Oil Field Services Landscape, Firmansyah Arifin, Sudarso Kaderi Wiryono, Sylviana Maya Damayanti, Gatot Yudoko

The Qualitative Report

This study examines sustainability practices in Indonesia's drilling and oil field services (OFS) industry, addressing a critical research gap from a business and management perspective. Using a qualitative case study approach, ten in-depth interviews with industry leaders identified key performance variables and developed a sustainability model specifically designed for the OFS drilling sector. The findings highlight three core dimensions: Internal Variables (e.g., Employee Health and Safety, CSR Initiatives, ESG Performance, Cost Savings, Energy Efficiency, Carbon Footprint Reduction), External Variables (e.g., Green Financing, Stakeholder Engagement, Community Welfare), and Performance. Novel contributions include operationalizing advanced HSE technologies like cyber rigs and tailored …

Preparing For The Workforce: An Analysis Of Employability In Business Education, Maddie Quintanilla

Masters Projects

Research has shown that undergraduate business students are not prepared for the workforce upon graduation. When it comes to career readiness, there is a gap between employers, universities, including Grand Valley State University, and students. This project investigates employers' expectations of universities and graduates, as well as the critical skills and strategies that graduates require to be employable after graduation. A comprehensive experiential learning course must address academic, career, and personal readiness while acknowledging the complexity of this transition, including the change from college to the workplace. The Business Internship Course is intended to assist undergraduate business students in their …

The Oppression Of Transgender People Across The World, Dheeraj Swaminathan

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

This paper will analyze:

1. How do cultural belief systems and biases such as religion affect transgender people and a country’s perception of transgender people?
2. What historical and political context affects the oppression of transgender people as well as the betterment of transgender rights?

What Multiple Theories Can Illuminate In Qualitative Research, Sherry Marx, Rachel Billings, Taylor Dexter, Mark T. Lewis, Patrick Ocran, Douglas Weber

The Qualitative Report

Our aim in this paper is to help scholars better understand theory’s purpose in qualitative research, how it is employed in data analysis, and the strengths and limitations of the insights it can reveal. We do this by sharing our practice using multiple theories to make sense of a common data set in an advanced doctoral class focused on theory in qualitative research. For the class final project, students chose different theories to analyze one common data set: A brief historical article on the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots. Student-chosen theories included constructivism, actor-network theory, symbolic interactionism, critical race theory, …

Chimes: April 27, 2026, Calvin University

Chimes

Former CPI student exonerated, to attend Knollcrest campus in the fall by Ashley Hamons

Behind the budget cuts made for Dialogue and Chimes by Maya Oeverman

World Languages at Calvin: A look at the last 30 years by Mkenna Wilkinson & Ian Tjoelker

Faculty Senate approves changes to hiring, confessional standards, alignment with Synod by Ashley Hamons & Ian Tjoelker

Calvin cuts acrobatics & tumbling program by Alex DeYoung

Calvin department of visual and performing arts hosts annual Spring Arts Festival by Ava Roush

Review: The Poetics Of Science: Marx’S Literary Style By Ludovico Silva, Thomas A. Laughlin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Review: The Persistence Of Realism In Modernist Fiction By Paul Stasi, Chris Gortmaker

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Cultural Negotiations In Revisionist Mythmaking: Comparative Reading Of Bahram Beyzaei And Mary Zimmerman, Sepehr Karimi Mr., Bahee Hadaegh

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

 Although more than fifty years have passed since feminist scholars pioneered revisionist mythmaking, drama remains underexplored in this field despite its unique potential for cultural and social reinterpretation. This study offers a comparative analysis of revisionist mythmaking in Iranian and American drama, specifically examining Bahram Beyzaei’s play, One Thousand and First Night alongside Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses as examples. This research aims to establish general principles for revisionist mythmaking within drama, spotlighting the complexities that emerge in transnational contexts. It explores how Beyzaei and Zimmerman negotiate cultural narratives and try to reshape traditional stories and reflect contemporary issues, emphasizing gender dynamics …

Between Revolutions: The Leftist Reception Of American Literature In Iran (1905-1979), Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper examines the reception of American literature in Iran during the period between the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911) and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Divided into four distinct phases (1905–1922, 1922–1941, 1941–1953, and 1953–1979), this study explores how political and ideological dynamics shaped the interpretation and translation of American literary works. Central to this reception was its inherently political nature, driven by the dominance of leftist ideologies within Iran’s intellectual landscape. The influence of the Tūdih Party and other leftist movements profoundly impacted the ways American literature, particularly the works of Walt Whitman, was translated, interpreted, and disseminated. By …