Digital Commons Network^™

Ostracism And Democracy, Alex Zhang

Faculty Articles

The 2020 Presidential Election featured an unprecedented attempt to undermine our democratic institutions: allegations of voter fraud and litigation about mail-in ballots culminated in a mob storming of the Capitol as Congress certified President Biden’s victory. Former President Trump now faces social-media bans and potential disqualification from future federal office, but his allies have criticized those efforts as the witch-hunt of a cancel culture that is symptomatic of the unique ills of contemporary liberal politics.

This Article defends recent efforts to remove Trump from the public eye, with reference to an ancient Greek electoral mechanism: ostracism. In the world’s first …

Nationalism Not Racism: President Trump’S Strategic Communication War Against China’S Coronavirus Propaganda, Young Joon Lim

Communication Faculty Publications

This article conceptualizes strategic communication nationalism amid the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, this research explores traditional strategic use of communication such as nationalism, propaganda, PSYOP, and dissent public relations in an epistemic status, as well as new strategic use of communication such as rhetorical reappropriation, use of social media, and control of narratives toward global audiences. The focus is on the U.S. challenges emerging from the Chinese coronavirus propaganda campaign, which spreads disinformation to deflect blame for the outbreak via a spinning-a-tale narrative. This article relies on President Trump’s dissent strategic communication technique against the Chinese coronavirus propaganda campaign via Twitter, …

Individual Journalistic Bias Leads To Public Propaganda: The Integration Of Social Intuitionist Model (Sim) And Hierarchy Of Influences Model (Him), Young Joon Lim, Jennifer Lemanski

Communication Faculty Publications

The social intuitionist model (SIM) highlights the superiority of intuitive emotions over reasoning process in the link of moral judgment and reasoning, addressing the issues of private or individual intuitions of moral judgments on an interpersonal communication level. While the SIM can be applied to explain why journalists are biased and prone to producing intuitive news stories, the hierarchy of influences model (HIM) offers a theoretical framework that affects media content, which journalists and media organizations create in a social and cultural approach to propaganda. This chapter explores how the integration of SIM and HIM demonstrates the path to propagandistic …

Recognizing The Role Of Inspectors General In The U.S. Government's Cybersecurity Restructuring Task, Amy Gaudion

Faculty Scholarly Works

Months prior to the 2015 public disclosure of a data breach at the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), the Office of the Inspector General for OPM issued a report that identified significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in a number of the agency’s information systems and IT security programs. In response to the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain hack, attributed to Russia, calls are underway for inspectors general to conduct audits and inspections and to review prior inspector general assessments of information systems and vulnerabilities at federal agencies. The use of inspectors general to assess information system vulnerabilities and …

Diagrammatics And The Proactive Visualization Of Legal Information, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article performs an analysis of one mode of visual legal communication:

diagrammatics and the visualization of legal data and other information

in legal instruments and communications.

The Proactive Law movement and the Legal Design movement each

seek to transform legal instruments and documents to improve access to and

comprehension of the communication of law to all persons. “All persons”

includes both law-trained and non-law-trained persons and extends from the

literate and educated all the way to disadvantaged, illiterate, and less-thanfully

literate persons. The overall goal of the Proactive Law movement and a

primary goal of Legal Design is to …

Limits Of The Rule Of Law: Negotiating Afghan “Traditional” Law In The International Civil Trials In The Czech Republic, Tomas Ledvinka, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Drawing on ethnographic research of judicial cases in the Czech Republic which involve the law in migrants' countries of origin, this Article outlines how multiple strategies handle encounters with the legal-cultural differences of Afghanistan in order to neutralize what may be called the “alterity” of law. The Article suggests that far from being analytical tools, concepts such as “context,” “culture,” and “customary” are strategically used by courts to neutralize unsettling aspects of foreign Afghan legalities. Further, it applies Leopold Pospíšil´s ethnological concept of legal authority as a vehicle for reinterpreting the contextual differentiation of Afghan “traditional” law as an alternative …

Grounding Suicide Terrorism In Death Anxiety And Consumer Capitalism, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article examines an influential theory on suicide attacker motivations, the Significance Quest Theory, and suggests that this death anxiety approach can be improved by shifting its focus toward the related, but more comprehensive, Terror Management Theory. The theoretical productivity of this realignment is tested by examining the relationship between suicide attacks and one of the variables thought to trigger the underlying anxieties: the local pressures from global consumer capitalism. After describing the relationship between death anxiety and suicide terrorism generally, this article concludes by applying these insights to the ethnographic context of Egypt.

Making And Breaking Kings: Generational Kingship And The Masculinities Of The Last Plantagenet Kings Of England,1308–1399, Richard Merrell

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this project, I apply ideas on hegemonic and chivalric masculinity to four generations of Plantagenet kings of England during the fourteenth century—Edward II, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Richard II. My aim is to decenter men from their default position at the normative gender. I specifically recontextualize kingship form the canonical frameworks of patriarchal power and privilege and reconfigure it in terms of new research on masculinity studies to understand how masculine identities interact with ideas on the generational component of kingship. This project has implications for other fields of study such as chivalry and medieval masculinity. I …

Experimental And Chemical Kinetics Investigation Of High-Temperature Combustion Of Diisopropyl Methylphosphonate., Ramees Khaleel Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Due to the high toxicity of chemical warfare (CW) agents, laboratory experiments are carried out using CW surrogates. Diisopropyl Methylphosphonate (DIMP), an organophosphate compound (OPC), is a crucial CW surrogate that has a chemical structure like the deadly nerve agent Sarin (GB). In this work, high-temperature combustion of DIMP is studied in a shock tube to understand the kinetics of destruction of DIMP. Laser absorption spectroscopy was used to obtain carbon monoxide mole fraction time-histories during high-temperature combustion of DIMP. Since combustion involves complex mixing phenomena involving different fuel to oxidizer ratios, experiments were conducted at conditions relevant to a) …

The Effect Of Deep-Water Multibeam Mapping Activity On The Foraging Behavior Of Cuvier’S Beaked Whales And The Marine Acoustic Environment, Hilary Suzanne Curran Kates Varghese

Doctoral Dissertations

Sound can propagate great distances underwater and is an important mode for marine life to obtain information. Human activities in the ocean such as global shipping, coastal construction, gas and oil exploration, and mapping navigation routes intentionally and unintentionally emit sound into the ocean, potentially interacting with marine life. Therefore, it is essential that the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine life and the ambient marine acoustic environment be understood. Most of the work, to date, has focused on the impact of low-frequency (<1 kHz) sources such as shipping noise, which is ubiquitous in the ocean, and mid-frequency (1-10 kHz) sources such as naval sonar, to which many marine mammals have shown to be sensitive. The effect of these sources can be as salient as a mass stranding event or as benign as an animal swimming away from a source of noise with no other effect. Less work has focused on higher frequency sources (>10 kHz), including ocean-mapping sonar systems. However, most marine mammals, namely toothed whales (odontocetes), are capable …

Interpretresses: Native American Women Translators In Colonial America, Faith Clarkson

Undergraduate Research Awards

Underlying all the disputes and treaties between native Americans and Europeans was the need for an understanding of what the groups were saying to each other. Translation was the common denominator throughout the numerous interactions between native tribes in America and colonists coming over from Europe. In colonial America, translators were crucial to establishing relationships between native Americans and the Europeans that came to North America to create colonies. These interpreters operated in the in-between of two different cultures and they needed to be knowledgeable enough about both of them to correctly convey meaning to either side. It was also …

Assessing Changes In The Epidemiology Of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis In Southwest Colombia Following The Peace Accord With Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias De Colombia (Farc), Matthew Stephen Benczkowski

Public Health Theses

The Colombian Conflict persisted for over 50 years, recently coming to an end in November 2016 after the signing of Colombia’s Peace Agreement between the government and FARC guerrilla group. Internal armed conflict is often entangled with the exacerbation of health outcomes, including promoting the spread of infectious diseases like cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). CL is a vector-borne parasitic disease localized to the human tegument that decreases quality of life through lesions leading to scars and associated stigmatization. This study assessed changes in demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with CL in Southwest Colombia before and after the signing of the …

Vol. 24, No. 2: Full Issue, Water Law Review

Water Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Biopolitics Of Maskless Police, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Despite the recent movement against police violence, police officers have been endangering their communities by engaging in a new form of violence— policing while refusing to wear facial coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many states advise people to wear masks and to socially distance when in public spaces. However, police officers have frequently failed to comply with these guidelines as they interact with the public to enforce these COVID-19 laws. Police enforcement of COVID-19 laws is problematic for two reasons: (1) it provides a method for pathologizing marginalized communities as biological threats; (2) it creates a racialized pathway …

Aligned: Sex Workers’ Lessons For The Gig Economy, Yvette Butler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Society’s perception of a type of work and the people who engage in money-generating activities has an impact on whether and how the law protects (or does not protect) the people who perform those activities. Work can be legitimized or delegitimized. Workers are protected or left out to dry depending upon their particular “hustle.” This Article argues that gig workers and sex workers face similar challenges within the legal system and that these groups can and should collaborate to their collective advantage when seeking reforms. Gig workers have been gaining legitimacy while sex workers still primarily operate in the shadow …

Memphis: A Short Historical Sketch, Circa 1950

Shelby County, Tennessee

A 14-page booklet titled "Memphis: A Short Historical Sketch with a Summary of Important Dates" published by the Publicity Department of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1950.

There Won't Be Any Letdown In Memphis When It's Over, 1945

Shelby County, Tennessee

A promotional booklet published by the "Memphis Press-Scimitar" newspaper in 1945 titled "There Won't Be Any Letdown in Memphis When It's Over" with articles on 26 companies' post-World War II plans.

Race In America 2021: A Time To Embrace Beauharnais V. Illinois?, Steven A. Ramirez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Hate crimes and racially motivated violence spiked in the United States over the past few years. Our foreign adversaries seek to inflame racial divisions in our nation and turn American against American. This now forms a major threat to our national security and domestic tranquility. Indeed, in light of the attempted insurrection of January 6, 2021, the costs of our festering racial hierarchy now threaten our constitutional republic. The soaring costs of the American racial hierarchy now demands aggressive legal response. This Essay demonstrates that the process of racial formation undergirding the hierarchy relies upon group libel to propagate racial …

Reforming The Office Of Legal Counsel, Barry Sullivan

Faculty Publications & Other Works

irst, this Article situates the Office of Legal Counsel (“OLC”) within the context of a political system in which the executive has grown in power far beyond anything that the founders could have foreseen. As the chief legal advisor to the executive branch, OLC performs a critically important function in protecting our constitutional system and ensuring adherence to the rule of law, but OLC makes no final determinations on behalf of the United States and is subject to the supervision of the Attorney General. Second, the Article reviews the recent recommendations of the American Constitution Society concerning possible reforms of …

Permanent Homelands Through Treaties With The United States: Restoring Faith In The Tribal Nation-U.S. Relationship In Light Of The Mcgirt Decision, Angelique Eaglewoman

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

This Is Minnesota: An Analysis Of Disparities In Black Student Enrollment At The University Of Minnesota Law School And The Effects Of Systemic Barriers To Black Representation In The Law, Maleah Riley-Brown, Samia Osman, Justice C. Shannon, Yemaya Hanna, Brandie Burress, Tony Sanchez, Joshua Cottle

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The West And Congressional Fights Before The Civil War: Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series Post-Lecture Discussion, William L. Lang, Jeffrey Ostler, Stacey L. Smith, Kenneth R. Coleman

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This roundtable conversation was hosted virtually on Thursday, March 18, 2021, as a follow-up to a lecture two days prior. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

Intelligence Readiness And Operational Capability Of The National Guard Within The U.S., Jose Felipe Perez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The National Guard has a highly specialized and operable intelligence force that can be useful to the communities it serves, and how that intelligence can be best used has been the focus of scholars in recent years. Researchers have demonstrated, however, that such integration of intelligence is a daunting task due to many barriers and misconceptions. Researchers have as yet been unable to establish how this might best be accomplished and those barriers diminished. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to define the National Guard’s potential roles and examine their possible integration into the domestic Intelligence Community. Theories …

Relationship Between Media Coverage And Child Measles Vaccination Uptake, Tanika Ward

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Childhood vaccines have been a source of heated debates between both opponents and proponents of vaccination. Childhood immunizations have proven to be effective and save lives, but antivaccine movements continue. The purpose of this retrospective cross-sectional quantitative study was to determine if there was a significant difference in child measles vaccine uptake based on provider facility type and census region, after adjusting for age and education of mother, for the years 2003–2012, pre-and-post 2007 media coverage deeming vaccines unsafe, and for the years 2013–2017, pre-and-post exposure to measles at Disneyland in 2014–2015 for children aged 19–35 months. The social ecological …

Uncovering Frontier Mythologies: Memorial Landscapes In Minneapolis, Mn, Corrin Turkowitch

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis analyzes the relationship between settler colonialism and public memory in B.F. Nelson Park, a downtown park in Minneapolis. My focus is the Pioneer statue, a large granite memorial depicting a frontier family in the middle of the park, which I examine through the lenses of race, gender, power, and violence. Using archival and landscape analysis I examine the historical and present built environment of the park and how it relates to white supremacy. Through interviews of two municipal constituencies, I evaluate how these organizations maintain present narratives of European settlement and in turn uphold the monument. This research …

Southern Alterity In The Global Modernist Novel, 1899-1966, Benjamin J. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations--English

My dissertation examines the portrayal of southern alterity in the global modernist novel. The trope of southern spaces as sites of decay, degeneration, and dissolution proves to be remarkably durable in both fictions set within the domestic U.S. south, as well as those colonial and postcolonial texts associated with the global modernist canon. Novels like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! suggest that the alterity of places like the Congo and Haiti are inextricably bound up with racial hierarchies. On the other hand, texts such as Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition and Zora Neale …

A Holy Tug Of War: Us Christians Against The Contras (1970-1990), Mark Maxwell Brown

Theses and Dissertations--History

After the Sandinista revolution of 1979 ousted the longstanding Somoza dynasty of Nicaragua, the small Central American nation became an obsession of US foreign policy as the Reagan administration committed its efforts to deposing the leftist revolutionary government through the funding and training of the Contras, a counter-revolutionary guerrilla group. With the Cold War at a boiling point, continued control and influence over Central America became a pillar of US anticommunist agenda. Uniquely, many of the most ardent critics of the Reagan administration during this period of violent intervention were Christian missionaries. The Sandinistas were able to defeat the Somoza …

Towards A Holistic Risk Model For Safeguarding The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: Capturing The Human-Induced Risk To Drug Quality, Heather R. Campbell

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Counterfeit, adulterated, and misbranded medicines in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) are a critical problem. Regulators charged with safeguarding the supply chain are facing shrinking resources for inspections while concurrently facing increasing demands posed by new drug products being manufactured at more sites in the US and abroad. To mitigate risk, the University of Kentucky (UK) Central Pharmacy Drug Quality Study (DQS) tests injectable drugs dispensed within the UK hospital. Using FT-NIR spectrometry coupled with machine learning techniques the team identifies and flags potentially contaminated drugs for further testing and possible removal from the pharmacy. Teams like the DQS are …

Capture Of Respirable Dust Using Maintenance Free Impingement Screen, Neeraj Kumar Gupta

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Dust produced during mining activities has a detrimental effect on both miners’ health and operations’ safety. There is no definitive treatment for coal miners’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), which is caused by prolonged inhalation of respirable dust. Elevated coal dust concentrations have also been shown to cause several disastrous explosions in the United States and worldwide, resulting in the death of miners and loss of operations. Flooded-bed dust scrubbers are used on all modern-day continuous miners. These devices cleanse the dust-laden air and assist in bringing fresh air towards the mining face. Scrubbers use a multi-layered fibrous screen to capture airborne particles. …

Transparency Into Darkness: How The United States Use Of Double-Tap Drone Strikes Violates Ihl Principles Of Distinction And Proportionality, John Bonino

Student Works

No abstract provided.