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A Herpetofaunal Inventory Study Of Two National Wildlife Refuges In The Mississippi Delta And Associated Evaluation Of Trapping Efficacy, Andrew Holzinger May 2025

A Herpetofaunal Inventory Study Of Two National Wildlife Refuges In The Mississippi Delta And Associated Evaluation Of Trapping Efficacy, Andrew Holzinger

Master's Theses

The objectives of this project were to record the diversity and distribution of amphibian and reptile species present at Panther Swamp and Hillside National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) and to quantify trapping efficacy as a result of various methodologies under different habitat variables. The primary methods employed were two varieties of drift fence trap arrays consisting of 100-foot sections of silt fencing with buried 2.5-gallon buckets as pitfall traps and box traps placed at the end of each fence to capture larger organisms. When conditions permitted, aquatic trapping was also employed across the Refuges. A total of 55 species were documented, …

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Doin' Time: Entertainment And Exploitation At Decommissioned Prison Museums In The United States, Jessi Robbins May 2025

Doin' Time: Entertainment And Exploitation At Decommissioned Prison Museums In The United States, Jessi Robbins

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to explore how decommissioned prison museums in the US, such as Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary (BMSP), shape societal attitudes and understanding of the carceral system as a whole and the presence of systemic racism within by addressing three questions: (1) What histories do prison museums tell, and which are erased?, (2) How do objects displayed in prison museums reflect past and present racial attitudes toward the incarcerated?, and (3) Does visiting or working at a prison museum affect individual attitudes regarding the US carceral system? Grounded in James Scott’s (1992) concept of “hidden transcripts” and Michel Foucault’s …

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Analyzing Sleep Staging And Cognitive Transitions Using Fmrl Time Series Analysis, Qingwen Zeng May 2025

Analyzing Sleep Staging And Cognitive Transitions Using Fmrl Time Series Analysis, Qingwen Zeng

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Understanding sleep stages and their underlying cognitive transitions is essential for advancing our knowledge of brain function. While sleep staging has traditionally relied on electroencephalogram (EEG), this study explores the feasibility of classifying sleep stages using only functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. We investigate the use of Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Hidden Markov Models (HDP-HMM) to capture temporal brain-state dynamics from task-free fMRI recordings. A series of pipelines—including sliding window, two-stage majority filtering, and prototype-based mapping via the Hungarian algorithm—were implemented to align model-inferred states with EEG-defined sleep stages. Among the twelve tested pipelines, the …

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Associations Between Prenatal Inflammation And Dimensions Of Depressive Symptoms Across The Perinatal Period, Margaret M. Redic May 2025

Associations Between Prenatal Inflammation And Dimensions Of Depressive Symptoms Across The Perinatal Period, Margaret M. Redic

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Risk for depression increases during the perinatal period due to several biological and physiological changes, including fluctuations in inflammation. However, the timing and cytokine-specific effects on depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy are unclear. In this study, we examined relations between four cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-α) and depression at multiple time points throughout the perinatal period and investigated the role of dimensions of depressive symptoms in these relationships. We used longitudinal data of 314 mothers in the Early Life Adversity and Biological Embedding Study from the first trimester of pregnancy to the end of the first year postpartum. …

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Occupation-Based Hand Therapy Protocols Program, Logan Gilbertson May 2025

Occupation-Based Hand Therapy Protocols Program, Logan Gilbertson

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The Doctoral Capstone Project consists of creating an Occupation-based Hand Therapy Program that consists of site - specific common upper extremity injury descriptions, surgeon biomechanical protocols, benefits of the types of treatments and modalities, and occupation-based home exercise programs. The program will help therapists provide occupation-based treatments and home exercise programs to improve their clients’ occupational outcomes while also meeting the surgeon’s biomechanical outcomes.

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Bridge & Bloom: Empowering Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Through Activities Day Camp, Peyton Summers May 2025

Bridge & Bloom: Empowering Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Through Activities Day Camp, Peyton Summers

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The Doctoral Capstone Project consist of developing a six-week day camp, available one day a week, for adults with intellectual disabilities residing in local group homes, ICFs, and family homes. Through the development of Bridge & Bloom Summer Day Camp, participants were provided the opportunity to engage in enriching and meaningful activities, showcasing various avenues of hobbies, leisure activities, and leadership, vocational, and social-emotional skills. The goal of this Doctoral Capstone Project was to empower every participant through engaging, hands-on experiences that celebrate individual differences and help foster a sense of purpose.

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Tackling Concussions: Occupational Therapy’S Role In Concussion Care, Skylar Campbell Wilkins May 2025

Tackling Concussions: Occupational Therapy’S Role In Concussion Care, Skylar Campbell Wilkins

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The purpose of the Doctoral Capstone Project is to identify and advocate for occupational therapy’s role in concussion care and support its inclusion in multidisciplinary treatment. This was achieved through collaboration with other professionals, evidence-based research, identifying the needs of teenage athletes during recovery, and demonstrating OT’s value in concussion management.

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Reaching For More: Advancing Holistic Ot In An Outpatient Therapy Facility, Libby Hembrey May 2025

Reaching For More: Advancing Holistic Ot In An Outpatient Therapy Facility, Libby Hembrey

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The purpose of the Doctoral Capstone Project was to explore and enhance the integration of occupation-based interventions (OBIs) in outpatient therapy for individuals recovering from upper extremity injuries. The project aimed to promote more client-centered, meaningful therapy sessions that align with the values and goals of the profession.

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Care For The Carer: A Program For Caregivers & Their Loved One, Luke Allen May 2025

Care For The Carer: A Program For Caregivers & Their Loved One, Luke Allen

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The purpose of the Doctoral Capstone Project is to reduce the burden experienced by dementia caregivers due to unmet physical, mental, and social needs. To meet this objective, CAREpackages with resources pertinent to dementia caregiving, with accompanying Dementia Difficulty educational videos will be delivered to families from low socio-economic backgrounds in the Northeast Arkansas community.

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Bridging The Gap Between Occupational Therapy & Animal-Assisted Therapy (Aat), Aspen Campbell Smith May 2025

Bridging The Gap Between Occupational Therapy & Animal-Assisted Therapy (Aat), Aspen Campbell Smith

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The Doctoral Capstone Project involves developing advocacy resources to support occupational therapy practitioners in the ethical, safe, and effective integration of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) into clinical practice. The tools aim to increase practitioner awareness, support ethical decision-making, and promote client-centered, evidence-based animal-assisted therapy services.

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Safety And Efficacy Of Combined Glucosamine And Chondroitin Supplementation In Osteoarthritis, Klayton Johnson May 2025

Safety And Efficacy Of Combined Glucosamine And Chondroitin Supplementation In Osteoarthritis, Klayton Johnson

Physician Assistant Scholarly Project Posters

• Over 30 million U.S. adults have osteoarthritis, often experiencing pain, stiffness, and swelling that impacts daily activities. • Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used but carry risks like gastrointestinal, renal, and cardiovascular complications. • This literature review evaluates the efficacy and safety of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation as an alternative treatment. • The combination of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation is considered safe. • The current research shows mixed results regarding pain reduced or improved physical function in osteoarthritis patients. • A literature review was conducted using PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar. • Keywords and MeSH terms identified studies …

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Efficacy Of Turmeric In The Treatment Of Osteoarthritis, Mckenna Taylor May 2025

Efficacy Of Turmeric In The Treatment Of Osteoarthritis, Mckenna Taylor

Physician Assistant Scholarly Project Posters

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common types of arthritis that affects millions of people worldwide. This is a progressive disease, one that comes from persistent use of one’s joints. Currently, treatment of this disease includes oral NSAIDs, acetaminophen, corticosteroids, corticosteroid injections, oral and topical analgesics. These medications do have some long-term effects impacting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and hepatic systems. A literature review was completed using randomized controlled, placebo controlled, and double-blind studies that emphasized the addition of turmeric to the treatment of osteoarthritis and its effects on pain, serum inflammatory markers, and physical functionality. Nine articles were found from …

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Efficacy Of Menstrual Cycle Awareness In The Identification Of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Rachel Brothers May 2025

Efficacy Of Menstrual Cycle Awareness In The Identification Of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, Rachel Brothers

Physician Assistant Scholarly Project Posters

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) impacts 3-8% of women of reproductive age globally. • PMDD is characterized by psychological and physical symptoms that occur in the week before menses. • This literature review aims to investigate the efficacy of menstrual awareness in the identification of women who meet criteria for PMDD versus the commonly used PHQ-9 depression screening tool. • Studies were all peer-reviewed and included randomized control trials and cross-sectional studies. • Findings of this review suggest that while the PHQ-9 may be a sufficient screening tool for identifying severe symptoms of PMDD, it would need to be administered in …

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The Impact Of Structured Feedback And Evaluation Systems On Clinical Preceptor Performance And Student Satisfaction In Medical Laboratory Science Programs, Kyleen Newman, Mary Coleman, Heather Langerud May 2025

The Impact Of Structured Feedback And Evaluation Systems On Clinical Preceptor Performance And Student Satisfaction In Medical Laboratory Science Programs, Kyleen Newman, Mary Coleman, Heather Langerud

Medical Laboratory Science Independent Study Projects

Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) students' education heavily relies on clinical practicum experiences to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Knowledgeable clinical preceptors are vital for engaging and inspiring learning and enabling students to interact within authentic clinical environments involving laboratory peers, patients, and healthcare providers. This literature review explores the impact of implementing a structured feedback and evaluation system for clinical preceptors in medical laboratory science (MLS) programs, highlighting its influence on student satisfaction and preceptor performance. The databases utilized for this literature review include PubMed and CINAHL. Due to a profound lack of published literature available additional healthcare …

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Leads Data Insights: Affinity — May 2025, University Of North Dakota May 2025

Leads Data Insights: Affinity — May 2025, University Of North Dakota

LEADS Implementation Documents

Data insights presentation file labeled for AFFINITY in May 2025. The file includes planning notes for Affinity metrics and materials related to campus environments, shared governance, first-year retention, study abroad, and other measures connected to belonging and campus engagement.

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Social Media Marketing, Overconsumption, And The Female Gen Z Consumer, Margaret G. Leslie May 2025

Social Media Marketing, Overconsumption, And The Female Gen Z Consumer, Margaret G. Leslie

Honors Theses

Social media has fundamentally changed the way consumers engage with products, trends, and purchasing decisions. The rise of digital marketing has amplified consumption patterns, particularly through influencer culture, microtrends, and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Over time, these factors have contributed to a cycle of overconsumption, where consumers are encouraged to make frequent, impulsive purchases with little consideration for sustainability or long-term value. This research examines the role of social media in driving overconsumption, with a specific focus on female Gen Z consumers. Through qualitative interviews, this study explores consumer motives, social validation, and the influence of marketing strategies …

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The Psychology Of Morbid Fascination: The Role Of Spectatorship In Executions, Rubbernecking, Dark Tourism, And True Crime Consumption, Sydnee L. Hope May 2025

The Psychology Of Morbid Fascination: The Role Of Spectatorship In Executions, Rubbernecking, Dark Tourism, And True Crime Consumption, Sydnee L. Hope

Honors Theses

This literature review examines the general idea of morbid fascination through the lens of spectatorship. The questions that this paper will attempt to answer and contribute knowledge towards are, “What is the psychology behind morbid fascination?” and “Why are humans drawn to the macabre?”. This paper will use a myriad of different sources such as books, peer-reviewed articles, personal accounts, documentaries, podcasts, and different studies from the psychological, criminal justice, and philosophical fields of study to very carefully review, report, compile, and add new theories onto the information provided. The sections discussed throughout will fall under four categories: Public Executions, …

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Perception, Pain, And Prejudice: Misunderstanding And Contemporary Maternal Health Inequality, Anyssa Holloway May 2025

Perception, Pain, And Prejudice: Misunderstanding And Contemporary Maternal Health Inequality, Anyssa Holloway

Honors Theses

Pain is a universal experience that we human beings experience daily, whether mentally, physically, or emotionally. Encountering pain is a fundamental aspect of the human experience, serving as a universal reminder of our shared humanity. It operates as an internal alarm system, alerting us to disruptions in both external and internal equilibrium, thereby highlighting the importance of maintaining homeostasis. With this universal sensation felt by all of humankind for millions of years, in a more modern context, there exists a need to understand how a universal connection is measured. As pain is felt on a universal scale such as the …

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Divergent Paths Of Homosexuality: Clive And Alec In E.M. Forster's Maurice, Samantha J. Dean May 2025

Divergent Paths Of Homosexuality: Clive And Alec In E.M. Forster's Maurice, Samantha J. Dean

Honors Theses

E. M. Forster’s Maurice is a paramount text in queer literary circles, though it is highly under analyzed and discussed. This thesis analyzes E. M. Forster's Maurice and takes the focus away from the main protagonist, Maurice, and instead focuses on an in-depth analysis of the two main love interests of the novel, Clive and Alec, and how they represent two paths of homosexuality, Clive representing social visibility and homosexual repression and Alec representing social invisibility and homosexual freedom, through a close reading of the text, with the help of theory from Foucault. It begins with an introduction to the …

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Technology And Transportation’S Role In Social Isolation In Rural Older Adults, Sara F. Miller May 2025

Technology And Transportation’S Role In Social Isolation In Rural Older Adults, Sara F. Miller

Honors Theses

This study examines the perceptions and experiences of rural older adults. More specifically, their community experiences, connections, technology, and transportation. Past literature, when examining these topics, took a quantitative approach utilizing scales. This study takes a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews to examine the feelings behind the experiences of the participants. Interviews were conducted with four older rural adults. The four participants were female and were of varying marital statuses. Three of the participants were Caucasian, and one was African American. Four themes were found in this process. It was found that the participants were content with the connections that …

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Uncertainty Quantification Of Turbulent Premixed Flames, David L. Brown May 2025

Uncertainty Quantification Of Turbulent Premixed Flames, David L. Brown

Honors Theses

This thesis presents an uncertainty quantification (UQ) study of turbulent premixed flames, focusing on the impact of uncertainties in operating conditions on the normalized consumption speed. Namely, temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio are the operating conditions that are under study. Due to significant computational demands associated with direct MC methods for UQ, surrogate modeling techniques including Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE), Stochastic Collocation (SC), and Gaussian Process (GP) are evaluated based on efficiency and accuracy. Through this study, PCE is identified as the optimal surrogate model due to its accuracy and significantly reduced computational costs. PCE is subsequently applied to investigate …

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Fashion Cents: The Struggle For Power In Consumerist America, 1860-1940, Bailey M. Brown May 2025

Fashion Cents: The Struggle For Power In Consumerist America, 1860-1940, Bailey M. Brown

Honors Theses

As urban migration expanded throughout the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, a greater number of women entered the workforce. Predetermined hours for working meant that women now had predetermined hours for leisure, something that was hard to come by in the traditional female roles within the sphere of domesticity. As a result, women began to dominate spaces outside of the domestic sphere, such as department stores, as both workers and consumers. Female consumerism, then, necessitated the rise of the advertising industry, subsequently playing a major role in the creation of power struggles between sellers and female consumers. The female consumers' …

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The Effects Of No Child Left Behind On Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Chosen Profession, Menley Clayton May 2025

The Effects Of No Child Left Behind On Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Chosen Profession, Menley Clayton

Honors Theses

Since the enactment of NCLB (2001), it has been the source of major controversy. And although it was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, its impact is still apparent. NCLB’s intention was to ensure that all students in the United States had equal access to a high-quality education, regardless of race, gender, ability, or socioeconomic status (Mills, 2008). To achieve this goal, the Act introduced new requirements surrounding teachers, testing, and school improvement. These requirements have led to, among other things, teacher dissatisfaction. To identify the sources and level of dissatisfaction, a survey was distributed to teachers …

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Investigating The Role Of Ilv1 On Stress Response In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Luke H. Beachboard May 2025

Investigating The Role Of Ilv1 On Stress Response In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Luke H. Beachboard

Honors Theses

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model organism within molecular genetics, is also known for its broad role within baking, brewing, biofuel, and pharmaceutical industries. An unpublished study at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga observed decreased cell viability in an ILV1 Knockout strain of S. cerevisiae when exposed to environmental stressors. A subsequent study at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found expression levels of the candidate genes to be significantly altered within the ILV1 Knockout strain relative to the BY4743 Wildtype strain, demonstrating the reality of a pleiotropic role within ILV1. Now, this study aims to further investigate this peculiar characteristic …

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Unleashing Movement: Analyzing Predictors Of Children’S Physical Activity In A Children’S Museum Environment, Nancy G. Penrod May 2025

Unleashing Movement: Analyzing Predictors Of Children’S Physical Activity In A Children’S Museum Environment, Nancy G. Penrod

Honors Theses

This study examines the role of an interactive children's museum in promoting physical activity among children aged 5-10, with a focus on the influence of various predictors, including sleep, family activity, typical physical activity levels, and participation in sports. Using a mixed-method design, participants were monitored with an Actigraph wGT3X accelerometer during a typical museum visit, and their parents completed a survey on factors influencing their child's activity. The study had 15 participants who were recruited by a member of the research team as they entered the museum. The results revealed that children whose parents were more active with them …

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Dialectal Variations Of Food Terms In The Spanish-Speaking World And Their Causes, Dylan Muccino May 2025

Dialectal Variations Of Food Terms In The Spanish-Speaking World And Their Causes, Dylan Muccino

Honors Theses

This study explores the dialectal variations of food-related terms across the Spanish-speaking world, emphasizing their multilingual etymological origins. Using etymological dictionaries and sociolinguistic sources, the study categorizes food-related lexical variants into five main root language groups: Arabic/Afro-Asiatic/European, Pre-Columbian Caribbean, Mesoamerican, South American, and unknown or unique origins. The findings represent the persistence of Indigenous influence, the impact of Arabic on Peninsular Spanish, the development of Spanish from Latin, and the role of analogy and adaptation in naming unfamiliar items, illustrating the dynamic and complex relationship between language, culture, and history.

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The Commodification Of International Adoptees Through A Conflict Lens, Andrew S. Antcliffe May 2025

The Commodification Of International Adoptees Through A Conflict Lens, Andrew S. Antcliffe

Honors Theses

The practice of international adoption, also known as intercountry adoption (ICA), can be defined as a transference of a child from international borders (Ma, 2017). International, also known as intercountry, adoption is a process that is widely characterized to provide the creation of families and humanitarian aid to orphaned children. It is most often facilitated by privatized intermediaries, predominantly facilitating the transference of children from non-Western nations to Western ones. Adopting abroad has largely been framed as a practice of humanitarianism, yet instances of corruption, neglect, and abuse have shown a different nature of the system. Dominant source countries, such …

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The Effect Of Catalyst Choice On Biodiesel Yield And Quality Using Waste Cooking Oil As A Feedstock, Neka Long May 2025

The Effect Of Catalyst Choice On Biodiesel Yield And Quality Using Waste Cooking Oil As A Feedstock, Neka Long

Honors Theses

Biodiesel is one current area of interest as a replacement for traditional diesel fuel. Benefits of biodiesel include that it can be derived from renewable resources, and it possesses properties similar to that of traditional diesel fuel. Biodiesel is often produced through a catalyzed transesterification process, which involves the use of a catalyst to aid in the conversion of triglycerides into alkyl esters. A method called the transesterification double step process (TDSP) was researched and used in this project due to the success seen using this method for the conversion of waste cooking oil to biodiesel. In this project, four …

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Biomimetic Design Of Mechanochromic Single-Chain Nanoparticle Polymer Networks, Samuel Robinson May 2025

Biomimetic Design Of Mechanochromic Single-Chain Nanoparticle Polymer Networks, Samuel Robinson

Honors Theses

Hydrogels are a class of polymer networks that show promise in many biomedical applications but are typically limited in use due to their brittle nature. Synthesizing hydrogel networks that are comparable to biological materials has long been an area of interest. In this study, we are working to create a polymer network inspired by the muscular protein, titin. Titin can unfold under mechanical tension, releasing stored length, making the muscle material extensible and durable. To mimic this behavior, we propose creating a polymer network with similar stored length using single chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) cross-linked with phenolphthalein (PP) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). …

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Christianity And Environmental Stewardship: Locating A New Christian Environmental Ethic In Response To The Climate Crisis, Claire E. Sims May 2025

Christianity And Environmental Stewardship: Locating A New Christian Environmental Ethic In Response To The Climate Crisis, Claire E. Sims

Honors Theses

In Lynn White Jr.’s essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” White argues that Christianity has heavily influenced society’s view of the environment. Rhetoric from Genesis has led people to believe that God intends, and even commands, that humans have dominion over the earth. This narrative provides justification for the abuse of the environment at large, abuse that has been compacted over time to create the climate crisis that we are currently experiencing. Though White’s argument lacks some nuance and somewhat exaggerates Christianity’s role in the environmental crisis, I believe his thesis to be true: Christianity does have a …

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