Digital Commons Network^™

Equipping The Saints For The Work Of Ministry In The East London Church, Andrew C. Fleming

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to implement a qualitative evaluation process to measure the progress of the East London Church’s transition toward a flatter team-based ministry model. The research evaluated the effectiveness, fitness for purpose, and procedural weaknesses of the church's articulated leadership goals, which included equipping members for ministry, increasing member involvement, forming ministry teams, and sharing power and resources. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative data from two Church Health Assessment (CHA) surveys separated by a three-year interval with qualitative insights from focus groups to provide a comprehensive understanding of the transition process. The CHA …

High Stakes, Low Barriers: The Role Of Technology And Regulation In The Rise Of Online Sports Gambling, Conner Martin

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Is Your Employer Watching You?: Invasive Employee Surveillance In The Modern Era, Madigan Wolford

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Special-Purpose Governments, Conor Clarke, Henry Hansmann

University of Chicago Law Review

When one thinks of government, what comes to mind are familiar generalpurpose entities like states, counties, cities, and townships. But more than half of the ninety thousand governments in the United States are strikingly different: they are “special-purpose” governments that do one thing, such as supply water, fight fire, or pick up the trash. These entities have expanded far more rapidly than any other form of government. Yet they remain understudied, and they present at least two puzzles. First, special-purpose governments are difficult to distinguish from entities that are typically regarded as business organizations—such as consumer cooperatives—and thus underscore the …

The Holistic Theory Of Precedent, Charles F. Capps

University of Chicago Law Review

Standard theories of precedent limit the legal effect of a precedent to cases within the scope of its holding. Yet the widespread use of analogies to precedent in legal reasoning presupposes that precedents have legal implications for cases outside the scope of their holdings. This Article suggests that arguments from analogy to precedent have the currency they do in our legal system because respect for a precedent requires more than treating the precedent’s holding as true: It also requires the judge, for purposes of deciding the case, to update her other beliefs around the assumption that the precedent’s holding is …

Querying The Ecological Sublime: Colonial Aesthetics, Anticolonial Thought, And The ‘Double Fracture’, Tacuma Peters

Publications and Research

This article examines the ecological sublime in its relationship to the history of colonial aesthetics, anticolonial thought, and contemporary colonialism. It argues that, while Edmund Burke utilized the sublime in support of colonialism (including settler colonialism) in North America and colonial slavery, Samson Occom and Ottobah Cugoano developed versions of the sublime to contest British colonialism in the Americas. The history of this aesthetic contestation has not been represented in scholarship on the ecological sublime, which, this article shows, has a vexed relationship with historical and contemporary colonialism. The article argues that the ecological sublime exhibits the “double fracture” of …

Ideological Testing, Renagh O’Leary

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Is A Jury?, Wanling Su, Rahul Goravara

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nonbanks And The Social Contract, Lindsay Sain Jones

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of Corum Claims: How Washington V. Cline Limited Constitutional Protection For State Infringement Of The Speedy Trial Right, Mary Anneliese Childs

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Elderly & Incarcerated In North Carolina, Juliana Whittington

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Mechanisms Of Interpretive Change, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Poets, Pioneers, And In-Betweeners: Musicians Of The South Asian Diaspora, Kancana Preetika Kathiravan

Music Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sid Sriram, Arooj Aftab, and Ganavya Doraiswamy are three Asian American musicians who have experienced a meteoric rise over the past five years. These artists are signed to major labels, receive mainstream media exposure, have multiple Grammy nominations, and tour internationally. Through different avenues, they have built up diverse audiences that include members of the South Asian diaspora who see their own stories and music represented. Rather than being a single part of a cross-cultural collaboration, these musicians belong to both worlds. With backgrounds both in South Asian and American musical styles and grammars, these musicians are like their work: …

Race, Sex Work, And Spatial Segregation In Storyville, New Orleans, Paige M. Magoto

All Theses

Storyville, New Orleans, operated as a legalized vice district from 1897 to 1917. This 38-block area facilitated sex work and prostitution “across the color line,” perpetuating and encouraging the practice of white men seeking sexual acts from Black women and women of mixed-race descent. I engage with multiple interacting subsections of historiography within this thesis project. The historiography spans Southern history from the early nineteenth century in the Old Antebellum South until the early twentieth century in the Progressive Era. The broader historiographic dimensions of labor and sexuality were also influential in curating this research project, engaging with the evolving …

The Rise And Fall Of The Contagious Diseases Acts: An Examination Of The Legislative Influences, Medical Discourse And Repeal Arguments, Elizabeth Henderson

All Theses

The Contagious Diseases Acts (CDA) were the most important legislative intervention concerning sexuality in the nineteenth century. The CDA was a public health measure passed to address the spread of venereal disease amongst the British Army and Navy, and targeted Britain's most vulnerable women – sex workers – because they were blamed for being the presumed cause and primary mode of spreading venereal disease. This resulted in the legalization of what critics of the CDA would call surgical assault, or instrumental rape, of working-class women suspected of being sex workers. Historians who study sexuality and sex work in Britain have …

Beyond Just The Negros’ Art: Langston Hughes And The Poetic Renewal Of Black Musical Tradition, Samuel Adewumi

All Theses

Where do we begin the study of Black music in America? Is there even a beginning to it? As a poet, how does Langston Hughes contribute to its continuance during the Harlem Renaissance? These are some of the questions that shape the trajectory of this research. In it, I set a precedent for African orature in future studies of Black music in America. Essentially, I trace the survival of African orature and Langston Hughes’s role in the sustenance and utility of its style and themes in the early 20th century. Through it, I argue that Hughes’s poetry serves not as …

Migration And Diaspora: An Intersectional Feminist Reading Of Lucy By Jamacia Kincaid., Benjamin Oluwakayode Akinlabi

All Theses

This thesis explores how migration and diaspora shape the intersectional experience of Black women through a close reading of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Drawing on Black feminist thought, I make a case using analytical and theoretical frameworks to expand intersectionality to account for global movement and memory. Intersectionality must move beyond national borders to account for how power travels with people. I argue that migration works externally through movement and displacement, and diaspora works internally through memory. There is a location in the United States, but there is always a look back through memory and the two conflict. Lucy's migration …

Lightlink: Visible Light Communication For Batteryless Devices With Variable Computational Load, Charles Phillips

All Theses

Visible Light Communication (VLC) devices have been experimentally proven to work as a suitable communication medium for batteryless devices. However, the effects of practical load have yet to be fully explored. To that end, we have developed LightLink, a new MAC and PHY layer protocol for VLC within batteryless devices, and have studied various ways that computational load can affect transmission accuracy in realistic scenarios. Our key findings point us towards an adaptive VLC reception system based on inferred environmental variables.

Crusade From Afar: British Conservative Revolutionaries And The Nationalist Cause In Spain, Russell Crosthwait

All Theses

The Spanish Civil War catalyzed a distinctive intellectual movement among Britain's interwar right—the Conservative Revolutionaries. This thesis explores how this conflict provided ideological coherence to figures like Arnold Lunn, Arthur Bryant, and Douglas Jerrold, who occupied a unique position between conventional conservatism and fascism. Through organizations such as the Friends of Nationalist Spain, these intellectuals translated their abstract critiques of liberalism, democracy, and industrial capitalism into concrete political action. The thesis demonstrates that these figures were neither simple conservatives nor card-carrying fascists, but proponents of a third way between the two. This study challenges the conventional narrative that portrays British …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Graffiti Inscriptions At Ecclesiastical Sites In The South Carolina Lowcountry, Hannah Truman

All Theses

The study of graffiti has become a multi-disciplinary study. Historical and modern forms of graffiti offer a unique perspective on the connection people have with religious sites over the span of three hundred years. Within South Carolina, the establishment of twenty-five churches throughout the Lowcountry from 1706 to 1775 offers an understanding of people’s connection to spaces from the beginning of South Carolina’s establishment to the present day. Their beliefs are reflected throughout the space of the building as congregations have left their imprint.

In order to understand the relationship of people to the site over time, various methods were …

An Experimental And Computational Study Of High-Temperature Creep Behavior In Fully Lamellar Titanium Aluminide Alloys, Karel M. Ziminsky

All Theses

Titanium aluminide alloys have seen increased aerospace applications in recent years, especially in aircraft jet engines. They can offer benefits such as improved high-temperature strength compared to titanium alloys and reduced density compared to nickel alloys. These alloys also can exhibit high creep resistance due to their fully lamellar microstructure. These mechanical properties are desirable for components like turbine blades, where tight tolerances must be maintained for optimal performance. This research examines the high-temperature creep behavior of a fully lamellar two-phase titanium aluminide alloy, TNM® (Ti-43.5Al-4Nb-1Mo-0.1B), through experimental and computational methods. Scanning electron microscopy studies reveal the presence of large …

When 'Weird' Means 'Dangerous': Viruses And Firewalls In Affective Polarization, Nathan J. Locke

All Theses

As traditional sources of epistemic authority face declining trust, alternative narratives have gained prominence - often leveraging the emotional and cultural resonance of seemingly simple terms. In the 2024 election cycle, the term “weird” emerged as a potent meme in American political discourse. Using a memetic perspective that incorporates elements of framing theory and Social Judgment Theory, this thesis investigates the use and reaction to “weird” and its role in shaping perception of Donald Trump, his political allies, his followers, and his opposition during and immediately after the 2024 Presidential election. The memetic perspective, which views ideas as units of …

Privacy Implications Of Data Collection In Android Automotive Os, Bulut Gözübüyük

All Theses

Modern vehicles have become sophisticated computational and sensor systems, as evidenced by advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), in-car infotainment, and autonomous driving capabilities. They collect and process vast amounts of data through various onboard subsystems. One significant player in this landscape is Android Automotive OS (AAOS), which has been integrated into over 100 million vehicles and has become a dominant force in the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) market. With this extensive data collection, privacy concerns have become increasingly crucial. The volume of data gathered by these systems raises questions about how this information is stored, used, and protected, making privacy a …

Commodification And Objectification Of The Black Male Athlete In The Nfl, Jalen A. Terrell

All Theses

The black male body has often been viewed as a commodity in Western culture since the commodification of the black male body in the historical slave auction. Albeit slave owning ended in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation, it was not until 1946 that the National Football League (NFL) became integrated, and the commodification of black bodies became prevalent once again. As such, this study looks to understand how the X population from the data set for this study demonstrates the commodification of the black male body, the general discourse around the black and white male athletes, and explores the language …

Efficient Solvers And Anderson Acceleration For The Bingham Equations, Victoria L. Fisher

All Theses

This work studies two techniques utilized to solve the Bingham equations that model viscoplastic flow. An Uzawa-type iterative procedure is first analyzed and tested for poor convergence of velocity and stress. We apply Anderson acceleration (AA) to this method and show improved convergence rates for both velocity and stress. A solver utilizing regularization is introduced, and AA is also applied to display better convergence results. We propose a new method that combines these two solvers and applies Anderson acceleration.

Bans Against Book Bans: State Legislation Fighting Against Censorship, Marissa Muraoka

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research evaluates three of the eight states that passed legislation in 2023 and 2024 to limit the ability to ban books in their states. Using three states as case studies and analyzing the bill documents and news articles covering the legislation, I evaluated the conversations occurring in our local governments about book banning in the US. While many of these bills argue that book bans should not exist solely based on “partisan or doctrinal beliefs,” the issue is intrinsically tied to those beliefs. Democrats struggle to protect diverse voices of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities; Republicans fight to remove sexually …

Overt Representation And Subtle Clues A Study Of Queer Book Descriptions In English, Croatian, And Serbian, Rachael Phillips

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Most commonly, a book description is the first contact one has with the contents of a book. It is the elevator pitch on the back of the book or the Amazon page that tries to sell you your next read among literally millions of competitors. In book publishing terms, a book description is a piece of metadata that follows the book throughout its marketing life. It is usually a one to three paragraph description of the book, including the setting, main characters, and some (spoiler-free) plot summary, but also usually includes themes and tone, comparative titles, and potentially author background …

How Do You Ask Questions? A Thematic And Discursive Analysis Of Question-Asking In Stranger Conversations, Nicholas Elliott

Dissertations

This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore how questions are used in casual conversations between strangers. While conversation has long been studied by linguists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists, a methodological divide persists: conversation analysis versus experimental approaches. Despite extensive research, the rules guiding question-asking in conversation remain unclear. This study integrates both conversation analysis and experimental literature to investigate the role of questions in interactions with strangers. The research began with a quantitative content analysis of questions drawn from a set of recorded conversations known wholly as the Candor Dataset, informed by Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, which suggests …

Unraveling The Antiviral Mechanisms Of Bat Cells: Processing Of Genomic Rnas By Dicer In Bat Cells Limits Sars-Cov-2 Replication, Iyanuoluwani Owolabi

Dissertations

Bats are reservoirs for numerous viruses that cause serious diseases in other animals and humans. Several mechanisms are proposed to contribute to the tolerance of bats to these pathogens. This study investigates the response of bat cells to double-stranded RNA generated by SARS-CoV-2 replication. Here, we found the involvement of Dicer in the processing of viral genomic RNAs during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Examining RNA sequencing of infected cells, small-interfering RNA (siRNA)-like fragments were found derived from viral RNAs. Depletion of Dicer showed a reduction in these RNAs and an increase in viral loads suggesting unlike other mammals, bats may use Dicer …

Perceptions Of Choral Diction Curricula, Caitlyn Dixon

Dissertations

This study proposed to provide in-depth insights into the current status of the efficacy of diction curricula, as well as to seek ways for enhancing the curricula to better support a culturally diverse musical experience. 21st century choral music encompasses languages and music from all over the world. While this diversity is crucial to the idea of a global choral community, it necessitates choral conductors to be scholars of diction, which includes creating the appropriate sounds for a given language. For a conductor to confidently perform in global languages requires skills, resources, and tools. This study examined the diction coursework …