Digital Commons Network^™

The Rider (2026-02-23), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 11, No. 20

Analyzing Structural Inequities Within Medical Care In The Us Vs. Norway, Shreya Devarajan

Student Scholarship

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

Research questions:

1) To what extent do race and education contribute to unequal healthcare access in the US, and how does this differ from inequality patterns in Norway?

2) To what extent has medical innovation improved overall health while simultaneously reinforcing or widening health inequalities over time in the US vs. Norway?

Chimes: February 23, 2026, Calvin University

Chimes

A vibrant tapestry of cultures: Rangeela celebrates 30 years by Ava Roush & Ellerry Johnson

Puentes: Students building bridges amidst immigration concerns by Jorie Cho

Late Night Era's Concert: The end of an era by Ashley Hamons

Cave Night kickoff hosts local artists by Alec DeYoung

Composting streamlined and expanded to all underclassmen dorms by McKenna Wilkinson

Let's talk about sec: Calvin sexuality series confronts purity culture by Sarah Sparling

Scaling rock walls and studying Scripture by Ella Vanden Berg

Showpower: A New Paradigm For Community Engagement, Sean Green

Community Engagement

For decades, the dominant paradigm in community engagement, education, and social work has relied heavily on the concept of "empowerment" to address the systemic gaps hindering marginalized populations. However, the etymological and practical applications of empowerment have increasingly devolved into a paternalistic, deficit-based model, implying a directional transfer of authority from a privileged institution to a subjugated community. As recent scholarship confirms, historically marginalized groups—such as first-generation and low-income students—continue to face persistent structural barriers despite decades of these traditional institutional interventions (López et al., 2023). This white paper formally introduces a novel theoretical framework, lexicon, and operational mindset: Showpower. …

Immigrant Firms’ Commitment And Survival: Does Owner Identity Matter?, Nathaniel C. Lupton, Sarika Pruthi, Alfredo Jiménez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

How does immigrant ownership influence small firm survival in comparison with that of family ownership? While it is generally accepted that socioemotional wealth (SEW) preservation motivates family firms to avoid taking risks, this effect has not been considered in immigrant-owned firms. Many of the same affinity factors are likely to influence the survival of both ownership types, but we argue that immigrant-owned firms may experience them more strongly as they reside at the intersection of the liabilities of smallness and foreignness. Drawing on a large sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ecuador, we find that immigrant-owned firms have …

Navigating (M)Otherhood: Perception, Practice, & Policy Of Adolescent Pregnancy In The North Coast Of Perú, Mahir Rahman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“It’s a vicious circle”, the obstetricians of Huanchaco repeated time and time again after discussing a recently pregnant 13-year-old girl who had just moved to the North Coast of Perú. Adolescent pregnancy is an extremely stigmatized topic in global maternal and child health discourse. Pregnant adolescents are subject to educational policy, clinical protocol, and community practice. While global scholarship emphasizes adolescent pregnancy prevention, limited scholarship focuses on the conditions in which adolescent pregnancy is perceived, discussed, and managed. More importantly, these perspectives are even less documented amongst the North Coast of Perú.

This thesis serves as an ethnographic exploration of …

The Impact Of Integrating Social Benefit Requirements For Urban Green Infrastructure And Place Identity Attributes To Enhance The Sense Of Place - Case Study Of Central Park, Madinaty, New Cairo City, Egypt, Ibrahim Magdi Mohammed, Rehab Abdelfatah Abdel Aziz Mahmoud

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This research develops an integrated model that links the social benefit requirements of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) with the non-physical attributes of Place Identity (PI) to enhance the Sense of Place (SOP) in contemporary urban environments. The need for this integration arises from limitations in current planning frameworks, which often prioritize ecological performance while overlooking cultural, perceptual, and behavioral dimensions that shape user attachment and belonging. The study adopts an inductive and synthesis-based approach to identify key UGI indicators across environmental, social, economic, and spatial dimensions, alongside PI attributes related to places’ legibility, uniqueness, publicness and territoriality, place’s identification. To …

Masalah Penegakan Hukum Dan Kesadaran Hukum, Dr. Soerjono Soekanto, S.H., M.A.

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Joseph Cordero, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

“Sometimes You Need A Middleman”: Negotiating Family Engagement For Foster And Kinship Caregivers Involved With Child Welfare, Anna Wasim, Catherine A. Labrenz, Nelkasia Graves, Samantha Zuniga Thompson, Monica Faulkner

Graduate School of Social Work: Student Scholarship

Family engagement is increasingly prioritized in child welfare policy and practice, yet limited research has explored how foster and kinship caregivers perceive and navigate this process. Understanding caregivers’ experiences is critical to advancing relational permanency and improving outcomes for children in foster care. Using an adapted grounded theory design, this qualitative study examined the experiences of 24 foster and kinship caregivers from two agencies participating in a family engagement practice model in one state. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, and were analyzed thematically. All participants provided informed consent, data were de-identified, and pseudonyms were assigned to …

Designing A Systemic Intervention For Student Loneliness And Social Connectedness Using A Mixed-Methods, Co-Creation Approach, Sophie Homer, Jackie Andrade, Jon May, Edward Meinert, Madison Milne-Ives, Onshell Relf, Alvise Rogers, Emily Cornford, Rebecca Richardson

School of Psychology

Loneliness and social (dis)connectedness are significant public health concerns, particularly among university students. Despite calls to reconceptualise loneliness as a systemic issue, interventions typically target individual students. This series of studies used a sequential mixed-methods and participatory action approach to explore students’ social experiences and co-design a digital health solution. Focus groups (Study One) and a survey (Study Two) revealed that students see universities as partly responsible for their social connectedness, with perceptions of campus space being key. These insights informed the co-design of MAPP (Study Three), a preventative, system-focused digital solution. MAPP is an interactive campus map that visualises …

Development Of Professional Identity In Medical Students Through Interprofessional Simulation: A Qualitative Study, Louis Fiander, Marie Bryce, Thomas Gale

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundProfessional identity development in doctors is associated with confidence, resilience and alignment with professional values. Empirical study has found that Interprofessional Simulation-based Education (IPSE) is associated with professional identity development in medical students but does not demonstrate how. An IPSE curriculum is in place within the University of Plymouth medical curriculum. Using reflexive thematic analysis of participating medical student's interview data, subsequently triangulated with theory from sociological and psychological literature, potential mechanisms of professional identity development through IPSE are discussed and implications for educational design explored.MethodsA qualitative approach was adopted utilising semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 …

Scrolling For Meaning: How Social Media Influence Young People’S Spirituality And Trust In Scientific Authority, Archna Yadav

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

This project examines how social media and secular digital culture influence the spiritual growth, moral values, and trust in science among young people. My claim is that social media acts like a parallel source of authority, shaping ideas about meaning, morality, and truth. Evidence from studies shows that many young people now form personal belief systems by blending religious ideas, secular practices, and even pseudo-scientific claims. The warrant is that online algorithms, influencers, emotional content, and identity-based communities strongly guide what youth believe. As a result, spiritual and moral formation is increasingly shaped by digital platforms rather than traditional institutions.

Major Pressure, Emma Scudero

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Ud In The News Feb 14-20, University Of Dayton

News Releases

Sociologist Art Jipson wrote "What I'm seeing in my classroom isn't just about failure to meet deadlines" for Inside Higher Ed. Faculty also shared their expertise with NewsNation, USA TODAY and The National Desk.

Why We Must Commune: Rethinking The Role Of Marketing Communications In Turbulent Times, Javier Garcia

Publications and Research

“Communications” is often thought of as a noun, representing the messages we receive on a daily basis from people, brands, and institutions alike. 

"Communications" is also often associated with an industry that exists to produce such messaging in service of capitalism, with a commercial or otherwise actionable outcome desired from its receiving audience. 

This presentation, hosted by two-time CCNY graduate and senior marketing communications professional and Assistant Professor Javier Garcia, will examine the urgency and opportunity in rethinking the value and study of marketing and communications. 

In his presentation, Professor Garcia will offer suggestions on how to guide students towards …

Social Support And Mental Toughness As Predictors Of Perceived Stress Among College Kinesiology Students, Jianmin Guan, Wan Xiang Yao, Xiaofen D. Hamilton, Gaofeng Lu

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping, this study examined the associations of age, gender, three types of social support (family, friends, and significant others), and mental toughness with two dimensions of perceived stress (helplessness and coping inefficacy) among 666 college students majoring in Kinesiology. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that male college students, as well as those with higher levels of mental toughness and family support, reported significantly lower levels of helplessness and coping inefficacy in managing stress. Additionally, greater support from friends was significantly associated with lower levels of coping inefficacy, while younger students …

2025 And 2026 - Faculty & Staff Research Symposium - Mini, Elizabeth Outka, Lidia Radi

Faculty and Staff Research Symposium Programs

September 26, 2025; November 7, 2025; January 20, 2026; and, February 20, 2026

[Excerpt from the "Welcome"]

"Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Faculty and Staff Mini-Symposia Series!

As we gather for the fourth and final installment of this year’s Mini-Symposia Series, we are delighted to continue this new chapter of the Faculty and Staff Research Symposium, building on the extraordinary enthusiasm of the past two years. What began as a single day of conversation and exchange has grown into a cycle of events designed to highlight the intellectual and creative work of our community in even more accessible and collaborative …

Promoting Joint Development Of Digital Standards For The Belt And Road Initiative: Achievements, Challenges, And Future Strategies, Xiaolei Sun, Longfei Li, Lili Yuan, Yu Song, Dayong Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

As a foundational regulatory framework in the digital economy era, digital standards serve as critical infrastructure for facilitating technological coordination, enabling data circulation, driving industrial upgrading, and ensuring security safeguards. Nevertheless, current practices reveal that the U.S. and Europe are strategically constraining China’s digital standardization efforts through the politicization of technical specifications and the imposition of cross-border data flow barriers, while China continues to face deficiencies in core technology innovation autonomy and influence within international standardization bodies. This study conducts a systematic analysis of the developmental trajectories, practical outcomes, and contemporary challenges in advancing digital standard co-construction under the Belt …

The Role Of Campus Symbols In College Student Belonging: A Photo-Elicitation And Photovoice Qualitative Study, Abigail W. Bradley-Tyler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the impact of campus symbols on the sense of belonging among second-year students at a public, four-year institution in Florida. This topic is relevant as there is a lack of research about positive or neutral campus symbols. Using sense of belonging and symbolic interactionism as theoretical frameworks, this study investigates how students interpret and emotionally connect with university symbols, including campus mascots, monuments, personnel, and campus traditions and rituals. Using photo-elicitation and photovoice interviews, participants engaged with photographs of official university symbols and captured images representing their campus experience. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, the …

Three Deweyan Ideas For Education In The Age Of Diasporas: Social Center, Activity Curriculum, And Teacher Education Laboratory, Leonard J. Waks

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

The Teacher As Investigator: Improving The Education Of Migrant Students, Giuseppe Spadafora

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

A Deweyan Account Of Extrinsic Value And Its Relevance For The Anthropocene, Laurent Riou

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

Education As An Intrument For Peace And Democracy: Dewey's Perspective On The Rise Of Nationalism, Chuck Howlett, Audrey Cohan

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

Will Whatever It Takes Be Enough? Dewey, The Crisis Of The Eu, And The Need For An (Inter)Nationalizing Of Education, Stefano Oliverio

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

Reading Hair As A Document, Bhuva Narayan

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper is an exposition of the documental being, becoming, and unbecoming of hair, wherein I argue that although human hair is a corporeal material, and an object that can be viewed through various perspectives and theories, it can also be read as a document imbued with meaning, intention, and perception by humans, and fulfills Suzanne Briet’s criteria (Briet, 2006; Buckland, 1997) for an object to be considered a document: it has materiality (it must be a physical thing), intentionality (intended as evidence), needs processing (to be made part of a documentary system), and is an object of phenomenological perception …

Trusted Forms—The Case Of Barack Obama’S Birth Certificate, Karl-Heinrich Schmidt, Frederik Schlupkothen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documents can be understood as containers for information that enable remote communication between people across space and time. They are therefore fundamentally subject to issues of trust. The theoretical treatment of documents as a means of remote communication has a long history and has arrived in the age of electronic document exchange, as shown by the work of R. T. Pédauque, which is taken as a starting point here.

To take theory further, form-based documents are discussed here as an example. Form-based documents control the information provided by fillers by specifying form fields. The core of this paper is to …

Two Versions Of Documentality: Social Ontology And Neo-Documentation (With An Appendix On Artificial Intelligence), Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The article discusses two traditions of documentality: that of social ontology and that of neo-documentation, and it contains an appendix on artificial intelligence.

Cerebral Documents And Algorithmic Sensemaking: Searching For Expressions In Human And Artificial Cognitive Collaborations, Rebekah L. Cowell

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Generative Artificial Intelligences (AIs) and current advanced large language models (LLMs) are algorithmically designed to generate text-based conversations as conversational agents (CAs), by replicating human language and conversational communication. Pairing human cognition with generative computationally coded cognition. We have never been here before: cerebral and artificial information collaborations and processing producing expressions that may or may not become visible as second-hand/secondary source documents.

Sensemaking or sense(un)making is a unique autonomous human drive cognitively, our information processing is sensemaking in action and expressions and articulations are evidence of the sensemaking cycle. Documentation [expressed or articulated through various mediums] are a product …

Ai-Generated Content And Cultural Preservation: Toward A Research Agenda, Ryo Shiozaki

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper maps the theoretical and practical challenges of preserving AI-generated content (AIGC) and proposes a coordinated research agenda rather than policy prescriptions. AIGC reveals the networked, processual nature of cultural production, challenging assumptions about human authorship, singular intentionality, and linear transmission. We identify forces that dissolve boundaries—indistinguishability, distributed intentionality, and recursive training loops—examine legal patchworks across jurisdictions, and consider evolving social perceptions that shape cultural recognition. Extending document theory toward evaluation that gives priority to function and drawing on social ontology, we argue that preservation and recognition are mutually constitutive. We outline a coordinated agenda across three fronts: theoretical …