Digital Commons Network^™

Faithful Unto Death: The West Point Class Of 1861 And The First Manassas Campaign, Jessie Fitzgerald

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The West Point Class of 1861 graduated on the eve of the American Civil War as a class defined by regional and political lines. As the secession crisis heated up, cadets appointed from southern states resigned and went south, some just two weeks shy of graduating, while northern cadets remained at West Point. Two months after graduation, the class exhibited their military ability and the value of their training during the Manassas Campaign in July of 1861. They also demonstrated a commitment of duty to the causes and countries they fought for. Furthermore, they showed devotion to each other, even …

(Re)Canonizing The Tool: Constructions And Insincerity In The Digital Age, Danielle Romagno

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis conceptually frames and accompanies the MFA body of work (Re)Canonizing the Tool: Constructions and Insincerity in the Digital Age done by Danielle Romagno. Using lenses of relationship between humans and tools, a desire to problematize our world, absurdity, and reimagined function, this document explores the work’s connection to the contemporary superficiality of online media like infomercials and YouTube DIY tutorials.

Analyzing The Onset And Resolution Of Nonstate Conflict In The Middle East & North Africa, Emily A. Barbaro

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

By applying structural-functionalist theories of deviance and opposition, this thesis deconstructs nonstate mobilization in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Using data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, the quantitative analysis interpreted both group and leader behavior in conflict situations to determine factors that influenced conflict onset and resolution. The quasipoisson regression analysis of group behavior suggested that polity and state capacity were both significant predictors of violent and nonviolent mobilization. The negative binomial regression of regime behavior suggested that civilian casualties were the most significant predictor of a government response to nonstate mobilization. Ultimately, the …

Motivated Reasoning, Post-Truth, And Election Law, Guy-Uriel E. Charles

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Truth, Democracy, And The Limits Of Law, Daniel P. Tokaji

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Framework Towards Computational Narrative Analysis On Blogs/Social Media, Kiran Kumar Bandeli

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is widely used to express views and share opinions with others. With the availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools like social media, creating narratives, false information and propaganda is both convenient and effective. Social media users leverage this platform to further their views by framing narratives and participating in online discourse. Almost all events, issues, crises are discussed on social media. Blogs are a good source of data for sociologists and political scientists to gain situational awareness by tracking different opinions, political views, and narratives being shaped. Blogs, unlike other social media platforms, are not regulated …

“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Social Identity In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Myriam Denov, Laura Eramian, Meaghan C. Shevell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Globally, the systematic use of sexual violence in modern warfare has resulted in the birth of thousands of children. Research has begun to focus on this often invisible group and the obstacles they face, including stigma, discrimination and exclusion based on their birth origins. Although sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide has been documented on a massive scale, little research has focused on the relational dynamics between mothers who experienced genocide rape and the children they bore. This paper explores the post-genocide realities of these two under-explored populations, revealing two key tensions in relation to identity-building and belonging. Drawing upon …

The Belt And Road Initiative: China’S Rise, America’S Balance, And Latin America’S Struggle, Garrett Bullock

History Honors Papers

This research attempts to understand the evolving relationship between China, the United States, and Latin America. Specifically, it explores China’s rapid rise as a formidable geopolitical power, the United States’ mixed response to that rise, and efforts by two Latin American countries, Ecuador and Argentina, to avoid exploitation by both China and the United States—and, indeed, to even benefit from this mutating relationship. In all cases, historically constructed ideas and strategic interests shape relations among these various actors. Accordingly, this research lays out the historical sources for each of these powers’ central ideas. Then, it connects those ideas to the …

Trade And Security Among The Ruins, J. Benton Heath

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

The collision of trade and security interests is taking place today in an increasingly fragmented landscape. Governments’ conceptions of their own vital interests are undergoing a rapid transformation as the concept of “national security” expands to encompass issues such as national industrial policy, cybersecurity, and responses to climate change and pandemic disease. At the same time, the system for settling trade disputes is being pulled apart by competing tendencies toward legalism and deformalization. Last year, a landmark decision suggested that international adjudicators could oversee this clash between security and trade, deciding which security interests can override trade rules and which …

International Humanitarian Law And The Targeting Of Non-State Intelligence Personnel And Objects, Michael N. Schmitt

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

This Article examines the targetability of individuals and organizations performing intelligence functions for a non-State group involved in an armed conflict. Specifically, it considers the circumstances under which they lose the international humanitarian law (IHL) protections from, and during, attacks that they would otherwise enjoy as civilians. To do so, the piece deconstructs IHL’s “organized armed group” construct to determine when an intelligence organization can be characterized as a component thereof. Noting that some non-State groups consist of both entities involved in the hostilities and organizations having no relationship to them, the Article introduces the concept of a non-State group’s …

Canaries In The Mineshaft Of American Democracy: North American Settler Genocide In The Thought Of Raphaël Lemkin, Michael Bryant

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Although it is often assumed that Raphael Lemkin’s original concept of genocide related only to Nazi atrocities, in fact the elements of the offense as Lemkin construed it predate his elaboration of genocide in Axis Rule in Europe. It is clear from Lemkin’s published and unpublished writings that he intended his definition to apply to other mass exterminations, including settler-Indian interactions on the North American frontier. Lemkin forsook the constrictive hermeneutics of legal formalism in favour of a broad understanding of genocide. At the heart of his concept was a concern with the preservation of unique cultural forms—the very …

Chomsky And Genocide, Adam Jones

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Noam Chomsky may justly be considered the most important public intellectual alive, and the most significant of the post-World War Two era. Despite his scholarly contributions to linguistics, at least three generations know him primarily for his political writings and activism, voicing a left-radical, humanist critique of US foreign policy and other subjects.

Given that a human-rights discourse is prominent in Chomsky’s political writing, and given that genocide-related controversies have sometimes swirled around him, it is worthwhile to consider the overall place and framing of genocide in his published output. The present paper undertakes such an inquiry. It employs a …

Visions Of Greater Serbia: Local Dynamics And The Prijedor Genocide, Damir Kovačević

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines the process of genocide in the Prijedor municipality during the Bosnian civil war of the 1990s. In this article, genocide is understood as a dynamic and extraordinary phenomenon, which requires a subnational, or meso-level analysis, to capture the complexities of the case and to account for the shortcomings in the previous literature focusing mostly on the national-level. By narrowing the analysis to a more in-depth level, two explanatory factors help us understand the escalation and radicalization of violence to genocide: structural control and agency collaboration. Specifically, overwhelming political authority, territorial dominance, and a highly coordinated effort between …

The Middle Eastern Societies:Institutional Trust In Political Turmoil And Stasis, Noor Darwish

Silicon Valley Notebook

There is a general lack of citizen trust in governmental institutions in the Middle East, especially because of changing of governments and resulting turmoil. Sequential Mixed Methodology was used, in which data from the 2016 Arab Barometer were supplemented with qualitative insights from two professionals knowledgeable about the political climate in the Middle East and content analyses of relevant journalistic accounts. A comparison of North Africa (characterized by political turmoil) and the Levant (political stasis) countries in how government functionality (efficacy, stability, and corruption), as perceived by their citizens, differentially colored trust in governmental institutions was used to illustrate the …

The Rise Of Totalitarianism, Colonial Mimicry, And Gender And Sexuality In The Twentieth Century English Literature, Shahin Hossain

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Shahin Hossain provides an alternative reading of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, and Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable.

Antiquity After Repatriation: New Perspectives On The Debate Over Cultural Property, Erin Hood

Honors Thesis

Today, the legacies of 19th century imperialism and colonialism are ever-present inside the West’s most prestigious encyclopedic museums, powerful institutions that continue to retain antiquities illicitly taken from countries during times of colonial rule, economic turmoil, or military conflict. Since the 1970s, more and more countries have come forward to request that Western museums return many of these antiquities. Contentious debates between museums and origin countries have resulted, producing large volumes of scholarship arguing both for and against repatriation. One common factor that links almost all of these arguments, however, is speculation over the fate of antiquities after repatriation.

In …

Review Of The Epic Of Juan Latino: Dilemmas Of Race And Religion In Renaissance Spain, By Elizabeth R. Wright, Susan Byrne

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

Elizabeth Wright begins her study of Juan Latino and his epic poem about Lepanto with a full historical-literary contextualization centered on a geographical locus, Granada, that serves to both frame and deepen the poet’s life story as well as his work. The volume is divided into two overarching sections, with the first, “From Slave to Freedman in Granada,” comprised of two chapters: one that considers Latino’s birth, education and situation in Granada, and a second that [End Page 139] concentrates on the Civil War that marked, as Wright clearly and convincingly explains, both the city and the man. Here, Wright …

Rethinking Boundaries, Spaces, And Networks Between Geography And Military Science: Understanding And Actualizing Real-Time Integrated Command And Control For Joint Air Operations, Samuel Wright

Honors Theses

Imagine a military commander standing around a table with a three-dimensional hologram projected onto to it. The hologram is of an ongoing air war of which this general is in command. Friendly forces are portrayed in blue and enemy forces in red as the opposing forces movements and actions are tracked and continuously updated. The commander has god’s eye view of where his forces are positioned relative to the enemy’s forces. Because of this view, the commander is able to make effective decisions with quick synergistic efficiency to achieve his desired outcome: defeat of the enemy. This scene invokes an …

In-Depth Explanation Of Firearms And Ammunition, George A. Mocsary, Nicholas James Johnson, E. Gregory Wallace, David B. Kopel

Faculty Book Chapters

Many aspects of gun policy are driven by the mechanics of firearms Knowledge of how firearms and ammunition operate is thus essential to careful thinking about firearms law and the Second Amendment Those who learn shape and review laws should make every effort to understand basic facts about the operation and use of the firearms involved This unfortunately does not happen in many instancesbrbrThis chapter is designed to help the reader understand the basics of how firearms and ammunition function Part A presents the basic parts of a firearm with summary diagrams Part B describes the various components of firearm …

The B Respirator Respiratory Protection For The Bearded Man, Joseph R. Allgeier

Theses

The news today is filled with stories of respiratory illnesses. The health risks to people are everywhere. Dangerous health situations are created by nature and they are also man made. One thing stands between people and breathing contaminated air and that is a variety of different types of dust masks and respirators. Unfortunately, a huge portion of our population has been left out of this protective solution since most affordable respirators rely on seal created by skin contact. Men with beards or facial hair that interfere with this seal must choose between faulty protection or no protection at all. “Just …

Applying Modern Immunology To The Plague Of Ancient Athens, Juhi C. Patel

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

During the 5^th century BCE, ancient Athens and Sparta were involved in a major war during which an epidemic disease broke out in Athens, claiming the lives of a substantial part of the population. Although the ancient Greek historian Thucydides provides a first-hand account of the symptoms of the plague, modern historians have not been able to definitively identify the pathogen that caused the deadly epidemic. In 1994, a burial tomb of Athens was unearthed that unveiled the likely remains of plague victims. In 2005, scientists conducted molecular testing on the dental remains and used suicide PCR to compare …

Refilling The Reservoir: How The Supreme Court Has Responded To Challenges To Its Legitimacy, Samantha A. Leo

Political Science Honors Projects

To protect the United States Supreme Court’s institutional status, justices on the bench must grapple with threats to the Court’s authority. How do members of the Supreme Court preserve their legitimacy? This thesis employs a historical analysis to evaluate responses to legitimacy challenges over time. Similar challenges impact the Supreme Court across various eras. Judicial responses build upon each other, and develop a stronger judiciary as time passes. In this light, I emphasize the historical continuities within the actions of the Roberts Court. There are many prior tools the current institution may implement to refill its reservoir of public support.

Piety And Mayhem: How Extremist Groups Misuse Religious Doctrine To Condone Violence And Achieve Political Goals, Noah Garber

Religious Studies Honors Papers

This thesis examines the way in which various groups have used religion as a justification for violent action towards political ends. From the Irgun, which carried out terrorist acts in Palestine, to the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, which has waged war on Israel, to the Buddhist leadership of Myanmar, which has waged a genocidal campaign against Rohingya Muslims living in the country, these groups have employed a narrow interpretation of their religious texts as a means to justify the actions they take. It is explained that it is not the compulsion of religious doctrine itself that is to blame, rather, …

Gaming Intentionally: A Literature Review Of The Viability Of Role-Playing Games As Drama-Therapy-Informed Interventions, Jonathan Mendoza

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGS) and live-action role-playing (LARP) games have recently risen in popularity in the cultural zeitgeist with the advent of popular gaming shows like Critical Roll and The Adventure Zone, as well as popular media like Community and Stranger Things. While some literature exists linking the concepts of roleplaying to theater and psychotherapy in the pursuit of deeper game design, little exists that attempts to bridge the gap by examining the potential of role-playing games (RPGs) as therapeutic tools informed by drama therapy practices and theories. This literature review provides a brief overview of basic RPG …

Skyrmion Fluctuations At A First-Order Phase Transition Boundary, V. Esposito, X. Y. Zheng, M. H. Seaberg, S. A. Montoya, B. Holladay, A. H. Reid, R. Streubel, J. C.T. Lee, L. Shen, J. D. Koralek, G. Coslovich, P. Walter, S. Zohar, V. Thampy, M. F. Lin, P. Hart, K. Nakahara, P. Fischer, W. Colocho, A. Lutman, F. J. Decker, S. K. Sinha, E. E. Fullerton, S. D. Kevan, S. Roy, M. Dunne, J. J. Turner

Robert Streubel Papers

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures with promising prospects for applications in data storage. They can form a lattice state due to competing magnetic interactions and are commonly found in a small region of the temperature - magnetic field phase diagram. Recent work has demonstrated that these magnetic quasi-particles fluctuate at the μeV energy scale. Here, we use a coherent x-ray correlation method at an x-ray free-electron laser to investigate these fluctuations in a magnetic phase coexistence region near a first-order transition boundary where fluctuations are not expected to play a major role. Surprisingly, we find that the relaxation …

Teaching By Number: Creating A Curricular Masterpiece, Amy Rousseau

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Using color-by-number as a common thread, the author of this portfolio explores how teaching can be like painting. As a teacher/artist, she reflects how writing pedagogy informs her teaching, analyzing one unit as a reflection of pedagogical influences. One of the pieces critically examines Extremely Loud and Incredible Close through theories of Nietzsche and Baudelaire. The final two pieces provide teaching units. The first aids students in developing persuasive style by examining different grammatical choices. The second uses poetry and photography to create multimodal compositions about important places.

The Case Of Kashmir: Ethnic Mobilization And Insurgency, Kayla Hofmann

Politics Honors Papers

This paper analyzes ethnic identity and potential reasons for conflict through a constructivist lens. Using the case study of Kashmir, I explore the past and present events in the state and the salience of ethnicity, specifically Kashmiri Muslims and Indian Hindus.

Let’S Talk About Racism: Contemporary Black American Authors’ Use Of Satire And Humor, Alexanda Gruner

Honors Scholar Theses

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) wastes no time in condemning the frailties and flaws of mankind’s institutions. Twain’s rollicking tale of a runaway boy, an escaped slave, and the motley crew they assemble as they float down the Mississippi skewers society’s contradictions and interrogates its readers, urging them to confront their own moral hypocrisies. Twain derides romanticized whiteness and the ironies it engenders, but his unabashed use of racist language and employment of minstrelsy paradigms calls the novel’s efficacy as anti-slavery commentary into question: Twain argues for Jim’s humanity, but does he perpetuate a monolithic, reductive conceptualization of Blackness? …

Free Speech And The Internet, John Huebler

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This is a two-part project on freedom of speech and the internet. The first analyzes methodological approaches to the free speech debate. John Stuart Mill’s theory of free speech outlined in his book, On Liberty, is summarized. After establishing his idea of the “marketplace of ideas,” several objections to Mill’s theory are explored, focusing on various types of speech that undermine the principles of truth-seeking. The part concludes that, despite these objections, an open dialogue where actors seek truth is a worthy goal and limiting the effects of the objections presented should be pursued The second part analyzes contemporary …

Demonology According To The Universal Church Of The Kingdom Of God Three Important Aspects And A Lutheran Response, George Felten

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Felten, George, C. “Demonology According to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God: Three Important Aspects and a Lutheran Response.” MA Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2020. 145pp.

Demonology should not be the center of a church’s theological center or modus operandi, but it should not be denied or avoided either. While the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD), a prominent neo-Pentecostal Brazilian church, makes too much of demonology, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) seems to make too little of it. Yet this need not be the case. This thesis will analyze three aspects of IURD’s demonology, …