Digital Commons Network^™

The Mujahedeen E-Khalq Of Iran (Mek): Agents Of Democratic Revolution Or Cultic Oppression?, Molly Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MEK), an Iranian oppositional group that has engaged in a decades-long effort to depose the Iranian government. The goal of this thesis has three parts. First, it examines if the MEK should be classified as a new religious movement/cult. It also addresses the implications of such status given the MEK’s claims that it functions as a democratic entity and that it can be trusted to govern Iran in democratic fashion. Secondly, it examines if Iranian disinformation has influenced the MEK’s reputation. Thirdly, it analyses how the MEK has been able to …

Cybersecurity Challenges In The Malacca Straits: Indonesia’S Strategic Approach Through Bssn And Imic, Robby Rizaldy, Satriya Wibawa, Arfin Sudirman

Jurnal Wacana Politik

The government’s attention is anticipated to be directed towards the proper management of maritime cybersecurity in the Malacca Strait, given the intricate nature of the dangers involved. This will assist Indonesia’s objectives as a Global Maritime Axis. Indonesia has created institutional synergies through BSSN and BAKAMLA to ensure that daily operations in this area are at the forefront of minimizing maritime cybersecurity threats. Using theories of cybersecurity, maritime security, and security cooperation, this article aims to understand the cooperation between these institutions, namely BSSN through BDS and BAKAMLA with IMIC, in the field of maritime security, including the mitigation of …

Cultural Appropriation And The Commodification Of Heritage: The Nimiipuu Legacy In Joseph, Oregon, Juston W. Rogers

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

This paper explores the cultural appropriation and commodification of Nimiipuu heritage in Joseph, Oregon, by examining the history of the annual Chief Joseph Days (CJD) festival held by the residents of Wallowa Valley every year since 1946. While CJD purports to celebrate the legacy of both the Nimiipuu in Wallowa Valley and the traditional American West, instead it perpetuates a simplified and exploitive narrative that benefits the white residents of Wallowa Valley. Through historical analysis, this paper traces the dramatic erasure and forced removal of the Nimiipuu from their ancestral lands within Wallowa Valley in 1877, followed by their subsequent …

Finite Disappointment, Infinite Hope: Enacting Cultural Humility, Institutional Accountability, And Sustainable Resistance, R. Danielle Scott

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

Higher education faces unprecedented political and organizational shifts, including bans on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. These challenges create barriers for educators committed to equity and justice. Grounded in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “Finite Disappointment, Infinite Hope,” this article explores cultural humility—particularly institutional accountability—as a key strategy for navigating this evolving landscape. Cultural humility fosters critical self-reflection, redressing power imbalances and lifelong learning, offering a sustainable approach to social justice advocacy. This article outlines strategies for bolstering institutional accountability. The author introduces Five Care Practices—Recalling Core Values, Remembering, Resting, Reading and Intellectualism, and Radical Self-Care—as essential tools …

Cutlasses And Crucifixes: The Christian Denominational Conflict’S Influence On Seventeenth-Century Buccaneers, Donavon P. Millington

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

This article examines how the political and religious context of seventeenth-century Europe influenced the actions of state officials and sea raiders who worked with the state. It argues that the tensions between Catholic and Protestant Christians between and within states influenced the mostly Protestant buccaneers to be more violent against the clergy and symbols of Catholic worship. Additionally, the religious affiliation of state officials influenced the perception of the buccaneers and the subsequent policies pursued concerning piracy. It tracks how religious conflict affected the buccaneers from the arrival of French Huguenots to Tortuga, to Cromwell’s Western Design and the restoration …

The Main Portal Of St. Mark’S Basilica: An Amalgam Of Venetian Pride And Success And Foreign Influence, Danielle J. Sung

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice stands as a testament to the city’s complex historical and cultural narrative, intertwining elements of conquest, religion, and artistry. This essay delves into the western façade of the basilica, focusing particularly on the main portal—richly adorned with Byzantine bronze doors, marble columns, and mosaics of the Last Judgement. These elements not only serve as relics of Venetian pride and power but also signify the city’s historical relations with the Byzantine Empire, especially following the Fourth Crusade. The façade’s elaborate decoration showcases Venice’s capability to integrate spoils of conquest with local architectural traditions, reflecting both a …

Below To Beyond Human: Social Death To Ego Birth During The Black Psychedelic Experience, Angelica Medina

Library Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research

Prior to the modern day green light to research psychedelics, it has been consumed for its offered experience for centuries in indigenous traditions. Research today insists that psychedelics assist greatly with self healing and self discovery. The “self-healing” in its extreme form is often labeled as “ego death”, which is defined as “surrendering to our self-subjected identity”. I will argue that the present definition for ego death is inaccurate without the integration of sociological concepts and race theory. Social death, a term coined by Orlando Patterson, suggests that black individuals aren’t accepted as fully human in our social institutions and …

From Corporate Complicity To Peace: Restorative Justice For Mining Corporations In Kivu's Coltan Sector, Cimalamungo Bahizire E Didier

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

This thesis examines how mining corporations in DR Congo's coltan sector can turn from perpetrators of structural violence to agents of sustainable peace. Research identifies seven forms of corporate complicity in violence: economic exploitation, financial misconduct, political interference, environmental degradation, disingenuous peace initiatives, worker rights violations, and supply chain manipulation.

These practices create “distant markets causing distant harms” and constitute "sinful structures" systematically harming vulnerable people. Restorative Justice offers a transformative framework for addressing these injustices. Drawing from Desmond Tutu's work, the research establishes a three-dimensional model for corporate conversion: individual moral awakening among leaders, communal engagement fostering collective responsibility, …

Implication Of Georgian Democratic Backsliding, Sarah Middleton

Master's Theses

The last several years have demonstrated a dramatic political shift in Eastern Europe. While the war in Ukraine may be the most well known instance of this, the lesser studied nation of Georgia has seen many notable changes as well. At the hands of a growingly oppressive government, Georgian Dream (GD), the country has experienced democratic backsliding in the form of authoritarian-like policy changes and closer ties with authoritarian states. This has incited widespread protesting and calls to reinstate democratic practices. GD has seemingly deserted its former Western-oriented goals and the financial support these connections bring in favor of relations …

How To Sell A Gendered Fantasy, Matthew Salzano, Jess X. Alexander, Belinda B. Castiblanco, Brianna Chavez, Maura Conley, Chris Connor, Antoine Jones, Ryan Kani, Christopher Munde, Kyleigh Retzlaff, Steffi Santos, Gabriella Simpson, Amberlin Smith, Jenna Zaza

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

The media analysis essays in this collection are the result of an online graduate course at Stony Brook University’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric entitled “Intersectionality and Media.” Drawing upon methods and scholarship based primarily in rhetorical studies, the course aimed to prepare graduate students in a variety of disciplines to write, research, and communicate about issues related to media, identity, and the intersectionality of oppression—especially race, class, gender, and sexuality. How to Sell a Gendered Fantasy analyzes various media artifacts (spanning digital, film and tv, music, and games) and the fantasies about gender that they contain. Gendered fantasies work …

Refracting State Development: Alliances In The Virtual World Eve Online, Atticus Friendly

Sociology Honors Projects

Why would states, resource intensive and difficult organizations, develop when they are not necessary? Unlike the voluntaristic model of social organization assumed by liberals starting from a state of nature, the real-world history of state building is a narrative of necessity and competition. By probing the process of state development in a virtual world (EVE Online), this paper explores state building in the absence of social or physical infrastructure that ties people together, what Michael Mann calls “the social cage.” In doing so, it demonstrates support for the idea that violent competition drives state development as states build …

Issue 465: May 2025, The Local Voice

The Local Voice

No abstract provided.

An Analytical Evaluation Of Economic Geography Within Maine And Its Resource Industries: 1600 To Present, Maureen Mantooth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resource peripheries represent a fringe area within economic geography, originating from the core-periphery theory developed by Friedmann and Miller. This concept has evolved to address global and regional contexts, referring to marginalized regions that rely heavily on the extraction and export of natural resources. By studying these regions, we gain a deeper understanding of critical components in global economic systems. This dissertation focuses on Maine as a case study of a resource periphery, using the framework proposed by Hayter et al. (2003) within the broader regional contexts of New England and the United States. Key factors explored include resource exploitation, …

Layered Alignment, Spencer Williams

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Most artificial intelligence (ai) researchers now believe that ai represents an existential threat to humanity. The most dangerous threat posed by ai is an issue known as the alignment problem: the risk that a sufficiently intelligent and capable ai system could become misaligned with the goals and values of its human creators and instead pursue its own objectives to the detriment of humanity, including the possibility of extinction. The tension at the heart of the alignment problem is familiar to scholars of agency, contracts, and corporate law, though it goes by a different name: the principal-agent problem. In the traditional …

Reconstructing Diets In Iron Age Ashkelon: A Stable Isotope Analysis, Delaney Ballard

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Diet can represent how different individuals within a population may be affected by famine, drought, or the fall of an empire. Bioarchaeologists observe patterns in human diet--and consequently, human experience--through generalized reconstructions of consumption via faunal and human skeletal remains. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes are an effective and accurate way of learning what past individuals consumed. By analyzing the stable carbon and nitrogen values derived from collagen in human bones, bioarchaeologists can ascertain the primary protein source of a person’s diet. This thesis used the theoretical framework of structural vulnerability and stable isotope analysis on secondary data to describe …

Second Amendment Principles, Jamie G. Mcwilliam

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In United States v. Rahimi, the Supreme Court explained that firearm regulations “must comport with the principles underlying the Second Amendment.” This Article examines what those principles are, how to derive them, and how to apply them in concrete cases. It begins with the Second Amendment’s core principle of defense of self and community, which traces its lineage back to classical thinkers like Aquinas and Grotius. The tradition of firearm regulation that surrounded the adoption of the Second Amendment depended on this fundamental principle. But it also developed subsidiary principles that implement the defense principle in specific ways. This …

Foreward, Edward Rubin

Vanderbilt Social Justice Reporter

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Geography And Sovereignty In The Digital Age, Melvin J. Kelley Iv

Connecticut Law Review

Fair housing advocates have already brought successful lawsuits challenging the use of property technology (“PropTech”) where it has been found to perpetuate or replicate discriminatory practices in a range of contexts including the use of automated screening tools to evaluate prospective tenants. While substantive interventions in unlawful exclusions and differential treatment via PropTech are laudatory, this Article argues that these steps do not go far enough and moreover, that insufficient attention has been paid to the procedural implications of the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) as a source of ex ante enforcement.

The nation’s first fair housing law, the 1866 …

Taiwan: Legal Status, Legitimacy, And Lawfare, Monica Glenzer

Washington International Law Journal

This paper seeks to offer a fresh perspective into the Chinese Communist Party’s (“CCP”) implementation of lawfare to assert dominance over Taiwan. Rather than viewing lawfare as one doctrine with one outcome, this paper aims to reorganize lawfare in its many uses, identifying the three primary categories that the CCP uses to extend its sovereignty over Taiwan: (1) using law to legitimize a nation’s own goals, (2) using law to delegitimize an adversary’s actions, and (3) weaponizing an adversary’s laws. This paper seeks to analyze and recharacterize current and historical events in terms of these three lawfare categories, demonstrating how …

Women In War In The Ancient Middle East, Margaret E. Kimbro, Margaret Kimbro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women are often overlooked as contributors in conflict and warfare throughout time, both modern and ancient. Women in positions of authority through politics, religion, or both contributed to the management of conflict and warfare through propaganda, political ritual, and direct involvement in the army. This thesis focuses on five different women from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria beginning in the 2200s BCE to the height of the Roman Empire. It focuses on the utilization of primary sources such as translated writings, statues, art and iconography, and documentation of the works of these women. Women’s contributions continue to be overlooked or erased …

Air And Missile Defense Threat Scenario Variation To Reduce Pretest Sensitization, Video Games As A Case Study, Julie Renee Szekerczes

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study uses fixed and variable video game types to measure pretest sensitization as a proxy for repeated and varied threat test scenarios in system performance testing of air and missile defense systems. The pretest sensitization phenomenon exists when repeated exposure to a test condition influences the participant's response. Research shows air and missile defense development correlates with video games, resulting in similar interfaces and computer operating environments. Department of Defense acquisition test and evaluation results must reflect system performance without prior knowledge of the threat scenarios confounding the results. System performance results inform acquisition decisions, such as further funding …

A Risk Evaluation Framework And Comprehensive Security Compliance Assessment Solution For Space Information Networks (Sin), Bernard Afaare Dawaare

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices into space information networks introduces unprecedented security challenges, necessitating advanced methods for information systems risk assessments. Some proposed approaches in terrestrial networks, predominantly based on Euclidean distance metrics, often fall short of capturing the nuanced and multidimensional nature of risks and vulnerabilities in the unique context of space environments. This paper proposes a novel risk management methodology that leverages both Euclidean distance metrics and probabilistic Monte Carlo-based models for evaluating the likelihood/frequency and impact/severity of vulnerabilities within space IoT systems. Leveraging vulnerability data from established sources such as the NIST and VARIoT …

Firearm Trauma Across Time: Investigating Civil War Gunshot Trauma And Their Impact On Modern Forensic Analysis, Morgan K. Reeder

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis will examine the ballistic trauma caused by Civil War-era firearms and ammunition. These weapons, each with distinct characteristics, had a profound impact on the nature of combat and the resulting injuries. By investigating how these firearms’ ammunition interacted with human bone structure, this research will offer a detailed analysis of the trauma these weapons produced.

This research intends to answer several key research questions. First, how did the different types of Civil War firearms affect skeletal remains? Second, what are the key characteristics of gunshot trauma caused by these firearms in terms of bone fracturing and fragmentation, and …

The Great Animal Rights Debate: From The Past Into The Present, Dayna Wiley

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Animal rights are not a novel concept, and everyone has their own beliefs about where animals should fit into the hierarchy of life. Not so different from today, a debate occurred in the ancient world between the Stoics, represented by Aristotle, and Plutarch, with each questioning whether animals are capable of rational thought or feelings, and therefore whether they are deserving of justice. There is much to learn from the ancient world about the modern debate on animal rights, and there is a striking comparison between this ancient debate and the modern questions of animal rights. But how similar are …

Through Legitimate Dissent, The Supreme Court Repairs Itself, Afnaan A. Qureshi

Theses

The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, along with its reasoning, influence the direction and scope of historical events. Through an analysis of landmark dissents from four of the worst Supreme Court decisions, Curtis’ dissent in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Holmes’ dissent in Abrams v. United States (1919), and Murphy’s dissent in Korematsu v. United States (1944), we can take steps towards catalyzing its self repair by stepping away from digital echo chambers and engaging in legitimate dissent. The four cases marked turning points in the efforts to protect …

The Effects Of Dystopia On Political Thought, Kate Marie Rashevich

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The popularization of dystopian fiction throughout the 20th and 21st centuries make it vital to consider how this media has affected entertainment consumers. Authors such as George Orwell and Suzanne Collins invigorated the genre and spurred public interest such that dystopia emerged throughout film and television as well. The recent, widespread popularity of dystopian media has made it crucial to examine its impact on entertainment consumers. Through my research I aim to answer whether the popularization of dystopian media, particularly literature and film, has influenced the political beliefs of its consumers and hypothesize that individuals who have consumed dystopian media …

A Tale Of Two Asters: Resolving The Plant And Microbial Community Structure Of An Invasive And Native Forb, William Cartelli

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Old fields dominated by flowering forbs are frequent targets for ecological restoration, particularly because they are often inhabited by invasive species whose ecological effects remain context dependent and widely debated. While native plants are typically favored in restoration efforts, and invasive species viewed as threats to biodiversity, such classifications may oversimplify ecological function. This study investigates two dominant genera of the Asteraceae family —Centaurea stoebe (L) (non-native) and Solidago spp. (S. rugosa and S. canadensis, both native)—to examine whether biogeographic origin or ecological strategy more strongly influences their impact on above and below ground community structure. Despite their contrasting origins, …

The Monsters Are Due On Hillside Avenue: Paul Robeson And The Racialization Of The Peekskill Riots Of 1949, Joshua Dellacruz

History Honors Program

On August 27, 1949, a burning cross pierced the night sky in the quiet hills of Westchester County. As Howard Fast later recounted in Peekskill USA: There was a moment of silent cessation, and one of the men leaped up on the truck and cried, 'A cross is burning!' We could only see the glare, but the symbolic meaning was not lost upon us. In the sweet land the movement had been rounded out; the burning cross, the symbol of all that is rotten and evil in our land had blessed us. Our night was complete and we could do …

Iran-Contra And The Memory Of Vietnam: Human Rights, Covert Operations, And The National Security Council, Matthew Sarcinella

History Honors Program

In December of 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnam, beginning on December 18th and lasting until the 30th. During this period 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese. The bombings would soon be known as the “12 Days of Christmas.” Major General Richard Secord, “master of covert operations” sat back and watched as North Vietnam was nearly destroyed. There was nothing that Vietnam could do to combat the U.S. military. Being in Secord’s position, he understood better than anyone that this was far more than a mere phenomenon. For …

The Conversation Continues: The Judiciary’S Evolving Role In Perpetuating Racial Disparities In Addiction Treatment, Sydney Crute

Fordham Law Review

Language is a powerful means of social control, an idea that resonates deeply with court rhetoric as it relates to race. This Note examines the language courts use when discussing cases related to drug use and addiction. During the crack epidemic, when Black individuals represented the race of the primary drug user and drug dealer, courts relied on racially coded language related to crime and fear. Alternatively, during the opioid epidemic, when White individuals represented the race of the primary drug user, courts relied on more neutral language related to the health and well-being of society. Finally, the language courts …