Digital Commons Network^™

Counter-Hegemony In The Captive State: Recasting Katrina’S Carceral Legacy Through Conjuncture, Joseph S. Muratore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis traces the historical development and contemporary manifestations of carceral power in Louisiana, arguing that racialized systems of control—from slavery and convict leasing to mass incarceration—have been sustained through shifting alliances of political and economic elites. Using The Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) and its exhibit Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration as a foundational timeline, this study demonstrates how Bourbonism forged a regional bloc that institutionalized racial domination through incarceration and labor exploitation, later reconstituted through neoliberal policies of abandonment, privatization, and militarization. I chose to focus on Hurricane Katrina because its aftermath reflects many …

Nature Et Relations Dans La Littérature Caribéenne Francophone De Fin Du Xxe Siècle Et Contemporaine, Louise Bonastre-Fajardo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My research project argues that literature novels from the french-speaking Caribbeans contribute to testifying to relationships with the environment, with others, and with oneself. By recognizing nature as a subject of rights under Latin America's new constitutionalism to prevent environmental harm caused by humans, politics can acknowledge that nature is actually a part of a domination system. This study addresses a range of issues within existing power structures, by articulating the notion of "nature" with the notions of "natural" and "supernatural" in a selection of francophone late XX’s century and contemporary Caribbean novels.

An important literature on Latin American and …

An Interactive Walkthrough Of Richard Kostelanetz’S Library, Martin Glick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My project utilizes the visual novel game engine Ren’Py to create an embodied virtual walkthrough of Richard Kostelanetz’s personal library. Kostelanetz is a pioneering avante-garde artist, critic, and anthologist whose work spans multiple decades and artistic practices. This interactive experience introduces users to the astounding collection of 25,000 books that Kostelanetz has amassed in Ridgewood, Queens over his decades of publishing avant-garde literature. While scholars might be familiar with his anthologies such as Scenarios: Scripts to Perform (1980) and Texts-Sound Texts (1980), my project allows users to browse through sample pages of his original “Book Art”.

This New Media Object …

Utility Of Revised Risk Analysis Index As A Predictor Of Mortality And Morbidity In Orthopaedic Trauma., Chirag Soni, Victor Koltenyuk, Nithin Gupta, Haad A Arif, Aruni Areti, Taylor Manes, Luke A Lopas, Jan P Szatkowski, Christian A Bowers, Benjamin C Taylor, Jack W Weick

Trauma and Acute Care Articles

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the applicability of the Revised Risk Analysis Index (RAI-Rev) in orthopaedic trauma and compare the predictive discrimination for the RAI-Rev and the 5-Item Modified Frailty Index (mFI-5) for 30-day postoperative outcomes.

DESIGN: This is a retrospective cohort study.

SETTING: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement database was used.

PATIENT SELECTION: All patients aged 18 or older who underwent surgical treatment for forearm, humerus, pelvis, acetabulum, femur, tibia, and hindfoot fractures from 2015 to 2020 were included.

OUTCOME: 30-day postoperative mortality, major complications, and wound complications consisting of surgical …

Surgical Management Of An Intracranial Injury Caused By A Handcrafted Arrow In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Global Neurosurgical Relevance., Allie L Heineman, Quinn Jackson, Chris Karas, Robert Galler, Victor Awuor, Hiren Patel

Trauma and Acute Care Articles

This case report and literature review describe an intracranial injury resulting from a handcrafted arrow that required emergent surgical management in a patient treated at a public hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors are members of the non-profit organizations Chunilal Initiative and Kisumu Intuitive, which deliver charitable neurosurgical care to the region on a quarterly basis. This unique neurotrauma case, involving a penetrating, contaminated, metallic object, highlights the surgical and antibacterial management of intracranial arrow injuries and emphasizes the importance of neurosurgical missions to underserved regions globally. The patient is a 16-year-old male tribal member with no known or reported …

Accidental Ingestion Of Extended-Release Guanfacine In A Toddler., Dina R Assali, Alek Q Adkins, Jonathan Chang

Trauma and Acute Care Articles

This case report describes the clinical presentation and treatment following an exploratory ingestion of extended release (ER) guanfacine in a healthy toddler. Guanfacine, an alpha-2a agonist, can cause transient hypertension as it moves from the serum into the CNS where it causes the more commonly seen central nervous system (CNS) depression, hypotension, and bradycardia. Persistent hypertension requiring intravenous (IV) vasodilatory medication is a rare and life-threatening complication of an alpha-2 agonist with only one other published report. This case report re-emphasizes and further expands available literature on this rarely reported effect.

Nurturing The Student Voice And Its Creative Power In Mathematics Teaching And Learning: Research With Students On Emotion, Imagination, And Understanding., Luis Adolfo Zambrano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research in mathematics education explores the teaching and learning of mathematics at the high school and community college levels, integrating diverse research methods to examine how educators can cultivate a dynamic, collaborative, and responsive classroom climate. Framed by K. Tobin and K. Alexakos’s authentic inquiry education research framework (2020), the methodology actively engages students as co-researchers, valuing their insights and experiences as integral to the learning process. This approach fosters a meaningful dialogue on managing emotional and cognitive challenges faced by students of mathematics while identifying strategies to support and enhance students’ innate imaginative and creative capacities.

Grounded in …

Self-Reported Audiological And Vestibular Symptoms Associated With Lyme Disease, Daniella A. Bryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background:

Lyme disease, an infectious vector-borne illness, is carried by the deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, which harbor the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the United States annually. Lyme disease has a multitude of clinical presentations and overlaps with other complex illnesses, making diagnosis and treatment a medical challenge. This distinct bacterium can migrate into any organ system through the mediums of soft tissue, the lymphatic system, and the circulatory system. Despite its prevalence and range in symptomatology, minimal research has been conducted to identify distinct audiological and vestibular symptoms associated with a Lyme …

Podcast: One To Grow On – Why Black Studies Matter When Working And Living In Black Communities, Celia E. Ceballos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines the transformative potential of Black Studies in enhancing community work within Black and Brown communities in New York City. The research is driven by the author's firsthand experiences and the realization of the importance of Black Studies, which was largely absent from earlier education. Through the interdisciplinary approach of the Graduate Center’s MALS program, the author has gained a deeper understanding of key topics such as the legacy of slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movements, and the ongoing struggle for racial justice. This journey inspired the creation of a capstone project, …

American Utopia: The Evolution Of David Byrne’S Viewpoint Of America From 1977 To Present, Morgan A. Prince

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

David Byrne is a multimedia artist known primarily as the lead singer and main songwriter for the new wave band Talking Heads. Throughout Byrne’s career he has continually written about America and Americans. This thesis traces his writings about America from the beginning of Talking Heads to his most recent projects. In doing so, the thesis puts forward that Byrne’s opinion on America has changed from one that is centered on the American people to one that is instead focused on American institutions. Additionally, the thesis traces how Byrne’s work has evolved from idealization to realism, as his early work …

Breaking Out Of Burnout: Leveraging Informal Learning To Encourage Needs Satisfaction To Reduce Employee Burnout, Kaitlin Busse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given its negative effects on employees and organizations, burnout is seen as a crucial concern in the workplace. To combat burnout, researchers and organizations have explored some individual-level strategies to manage work-related stress effectively. An overlooked employee-driven strategy is informal learning within the workplace. While existing research has focused on learning outside work hours for stress recovery, the current study examined whether informal learning at work is a beneficial proactive behavior for employees to help alleviate stress in real-time, and thus, potentially reducing burnout. Specifically, the current research was interested in whether employees’ psychological needs at work would be satisfied …

Exploring Guyanese Identity In Nyc: A Research Exploration, Shivanie E. Hariram

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores racial and ethnic self-identification among members of the Guyanese diaspora in New York City, with particular emphasis on individuals who select "Other" as their racial or ethnic category. Utilizing an IRB-approved quantitative methodology, data was collected through a structured survey targeting Indo-, Afro-, and mixed-heritage Guyanese populations. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s Cultural Identity Theory and Cultural Hybridization Theory, this research analyzes how participants negotiate potentially fluid identities within social contexts that often favor rigid racial categorizations. My findings indicate that those who identify as "Other Race" frequently resist binary classifications, instead constructing hybrid forms of "Guyanese-ness" that …

Neural Mechanisms Of Context-Sensitive Behavior In The Adult Male Zebra Finch, Katherine L. Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Adapting behaviors to the perceived external environment is key to the success and survival of individuals in social species. This context-sensitive modulation of behavior is critical for informative interactions with conspecifics, like alerting a neighbor to a nearing predator or capturing the attention of a potential mate. For the adult male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), a vocal-learning songbird, context-sensitive adaptions to a learned song are key for developing and maintaining pair-bonds with females who are extremely attentive to subtle modulations of song structure. In this thesis, I explore the hypothesis that the influence of a social behavior network …

Alle Or Elle: Automatic Speech Recognition On Louisiana French, Emily Chiu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Applications of automatic speech recognition largely serve the most commonly spoken languages, but can cause harm through bias when used for speakers of underrepresented language varieties who are not adequately supported. This experiment’s goal is to reveal how state-of-the-art end-to-end ASR systems perform with Louisiana French, a nonstandard variety of French that has suffered a history of state-sanctioned language oppression in Louisiana.

The Sub-Syllabic Symphonies Of Self-Learning: How Do Zebra Finches Sing Them?, Abiesha Abiola Budiman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Learning is a lifelong journey, where the mind and muscle dance to a tune of memory and motion. It begins at infancy and continues throughout life, encompassing everything from singing to achieving peak performance in sports. Complex motor skills involve multiple components and require coordination of several muscles. Humans and animals are extremely adept at learning complex motor skills on their own. However, we do not completely understand how self-directed learning works. One group of animals used to observe self-directed learning are songbirds. Zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, are one of the most studied songbird species due to their well-defined …

Agents Of Alignment: Political Realignment As Social Movement Strategy, Matthew Miles Goodrich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The fields of social movement studies and political realignment theory do not often overlap in political science. But by conceiving of realignment as a strategy of social movements, this paper reveals terrain in the political struggle that conventional scholarship can miss. I draw from two historical case studies – the industrial labor movement in the 1930s and the civil rights movement in Mississippi the 1960s – to explore how social movement strategists fought to shape the contours of emerging political orders to achieve their goals. I find that the labor movement pursued a reciprocal strategy of alignment with the Democratic …

Comparing Campaigns To End The Subminimum Wage With A Multiple Streams Approach, Chris Peraino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Labor organizations do not significantly represent the interests of restaurant workers in the United States. In the absence of labor representation, nonprofits have become the main advocates for restaurant workers in politics. Among the most active is OneFairWage (OFW), a nonprofit focused on eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers. OFW’s legislative efforts have had mixed outcomes. Two of its campaigns - D.C. and Chicago - were successful. All other campaigns, like those in New York state and Michigan, have struggled to achieve their goal. Why has nearly identical legislation with the same target population of restaurant workers passed …

Moving The Needle: The Policy Of Change On Syringe Access, New York City And State, 1988–2023, Joyce Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

By the mid-1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic breached a longstanding consensus between the political class and its bureaucratic alliances that had relied for decades on attitudes and orientations that championed punitive prohibition toward drugs as a bedrock principle of policy making. This ‘focusing event’ created an opening for HIV/AIDS activists to build a movement that offered an alternative, a more effective and just approach to how government policies and practices can manage illegal drugs and the persons who use drugs.

The dissertation uses several theoretical and methodological tools to address the central research objective that highlights the critical role played by …

Modeling Depressive Patterns In Italian Discourse: Insights From Natural Language Processing, Annapia Borraccino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Depression does not always speak in obvious ways. It often hides in silence, in brief pauses, and in the quiet texture of language. While the prosodic and linguistic characteristics of depression have been extensively studied in English and other languages, they remain underexplored in Italian, with this being a first focused analysis. This study investigates how depression manifests in the speech of Italian speakers, using transcriptions from a clinical corpus. Drawing on emotional, structural, and cognitive-linguistic features, including first person verb use, sentence complexity, verb tense, and negation, the study evaluates how these markers differ between individuals with and without …

Exploring The Enstatite Chondrites: Modal Abundances, Metamorphic History, And Volatile Challenges, Mabel Gray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the formation conditions, thermal histories, and volatile inventories of enstatite chondrites (ECs). A diverse set of ECs is analyzed to capture the broad variability within this meteorite class. Chapter 1 presents a comparative analysis of mineral abundances using automated point counting, X-ray diffraction analysis, and XMapTools-based phase mapping. The results reveal significant variations in silicate and sulfide abundances across EC groups, challenging the conventional binary classification and suggesting distinct formation conditions. Chapter 2 explores the thermal histories of two highly equilibrated EH chondrites, proposing a novel formation mechanism on the parent asteroid: contact metamorphism driven by an …

Black Incarcerated Veterans And Va Service Access, Kimona S. Spencer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates racial disparities in access to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) services among incarcerated Veterans, with a specific focus on Black incarcerated Veterans. Drawing from critical race theory and the minority stress model, the study explores how race, discharge status, military experiences, and mental health conditions intersect to affect potential eligibility for and receipt of VA healthcare and benefits. Utilizing a secondary analysis of data from the Survey of Prison Inmates (SPI), the research employs quantitative methods to examine whether disparities exist in discharge characterizations, potential eligibility for VA care, and service utilization by race. Findings highlight …

Diversity Initiatives In Higher Education: Understanding The Experiences Of Black Males In Cuny’S Nyc Men Teach, Fatima Sherif

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study examines the experiences of Black males in New York City Men Teach (NYCMT), a diversity initiative designed to increase the representation of Black male educators. Despite efforts, Black men remain underrepresented in education. Drawing from narrative-inquiry and guided by Critical Race theory and the Radical Care framework, this research explores how participants experience NYCMT and what their stories reveal about the effectiveness of diversity initiatives. Data from Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, revealing five key themes: community, financial benefits, mentoring, professional development, and challenges. Findings show that while NYCMT offers critical emotional, financial, and structural …

Hope By A Thousand Cuts: Fashion Ethics From Cutting Fabric To Cutting A Fashion Film, Sarah G. Porterfield

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I conducted an experiment during which I learned to sew, created a clothing collection, and wore nothing but my collection for a month. Additionally, I documented my collection and the process in a fashion film. The goal of my experiment was to investigate fashion ethics. To gain a greater understanding of the underlying theories that fashion materializes and to grasp their ethical implications better, I studied the texts of fashion theorists such as Marx, Barthes, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Butler, Benjamin, and Merleau-Ponty throughout my experiment. Therefore, I gained insight into many aspects of fashion ethics, from the beginning stages …

Seeing And Sanctioning Structural Unfairness, Grace Flores-Robles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

People tend to explain wrongdoing as the result of a bad actor or bad system. In five studies (including U.S. online convenience samples, and one U.S. census-matched sample), we tested whether the way people understand unfairness affects how they sanction it. In Study 1 (N = 370), people interpreted unfair offers in an economic game mostly as the result of a bad actor (vs. unfair rules), which predicted costly punishment of individuals (vs. changing unfair rules). In Studies 2 (N = 500) and 3, (N = 470, census-matched on age, gender, and ethnicity in the U.S), we …

Menstrual Math: The Price Of Bleeding, Gabrielle Langston

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the landscape of menstrual equity in the United States through a data storytelling lens, focusing on state-level policies regarding taxation and access to menstrual products. The analysis explores which states impose sales tax on menstrual products, if state schools provide free menstrual products, and which states ensure access for incarcerated individuals using publicly available datasets from advocacy groups. Additionally, there is an investigation into potential correlations between the gender wage gap and states that tax menstrual products, shedding light on economic and policy disparities.

Through its data visualizations, this project aims to provide a clear, although not …

Computability Theoretic Aspects Of Profinite Groups And Models Of Presburger Arithmetic, Jason Block

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Profinite groups, which are exactly the Galois groups, are all either finite or uncountable. However, all second countable profinite groups can be presented as the set of paths through a countable tree. We use these tree presentations to find upper bounds on the complexity of the existential theories of profinite groups, as well as to prove sharpness for these bounds. These complexity results enable us to distinguish the class of profinite groups that are isomorphic to a direct product of finite groups, for which we find an upper bound on the complexity of the entire first order theory. Additionally, given …

How Argentina Won The 2022 Fifa Men's World Cup: A Data Story, Aniruddha Parthasarathy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project analyzes Argentina’s 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup win using open-source football (soccer) data. The project evaluates the team’s performance at a micro-level across three domains: without possessing the ball, possessing the ball and the team’s in-game management tactics. A statistical framework, i.e., multiple linear regression modeling, was used to identify the five key defensive actions influencing the Argentinian team’s intensity of pressure applied, and visualized by heatmaps and time-segmented plots. More specifically, an Expected Threat (xT) analysis quantified the threat or danger from passes and progressive carries (moving the ball at least 10 meters), revealing that Lionel Messi’s …

Beyond Country: Southern Language And Identity In North Mississippi, Meredith Hilliard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is about the language of the US South and the identities of the people who inhabit it. Its purpose is twofold: (1) to explain, on micro- and macro-levels, the processes of enregisterment (Agha 2003) of Southern US English, drawing conclusions about the phenomenon of enregisterment more generally; and (2) to articulate the relationship of Southern redneck identity to this process of enregisterment. It uses a mixed-methods approach that relies primarily on a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, adopting a stancetaking approach (Du Bois 2007) and an enregisterment approach to language and identity, with some quantitative elements, to analyze …

Localization Of Music In Perceived Motion In Cochlear Implant Users, Madeleine Beyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Spatial perception contributes to music perception and enjoyment, yet it remains understudied in cochlear implant (CI) users. Spatial effects in music are often achieved through panning, a tool which redistributes an audio signal level between or among several outputs, creating a perceived sound localization. CI users typically perform worse than normal hearing (NH) listeners on tasks of horizontal localization and music perception when manipulating the actual location of the sound. However, despite the common use of panning in daily use and consumption of music, no previous studies were conducted to examine how panning impacts the listening experience for CI users. …

Streaming Instabilities In Class 0/I Disks, Shirin Gul Zaidi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While it is clear that planets form in protoplanetary disks, fragmentation and the radial drift of pebbles inhibit the growth of grains to planetesimals. To overcome these barriers, effective localized dust clumping on a short enough time scale is required. One promising solution to this problem is the streaming instability. Streaming instability is only triggered with a large enough dust-to-gas ratio and grain size. Though it is unknown when and where those conditions are met in protoplanetary disks, recent studies have indicated that planetary cores likely require early formation to match detected exoplanet system masses, so that we need to …