Arts and Humanities Commons^™

2025-08-08 Message From The President, Morehead State University. Office Of The President.

Staff Congress Records

A message sent by the Office of the President to the campus community on August, 2025, regarding upcoming events on campus, campus parking updates, and highlights of the August 8th meeting of the Board of Regents.

The Crucial Role Of Grassroots Social Organizations In Advancing Immigrant Legal Protections And Reshaping Immigration Policy, Isabella Reynolds

McNair Summer Research Program

This research project examines how grassroots social organizations contribute to the advancement of immigrant legal protections and shape immigration policy, with a particular focus on formerly incarcerated migrants in California. I focus on case studies and the personal experiences of organizers from Homies Unidos, Border Angels, and other organizations that operate near the San Diego–Tijuana border region. The study illustrates how these groups provide essential services, mental health support, and community-based initiatives for vulnerable and formerly incarcerated immigrants. By conducting oral histories and ethnography as methods for preserving emotional labor and shared memory, this research challenges prevailing narratives that criminalize …

In Grief We Need Each Other, Derek Schuurman

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In the face of grief, human connections provide a far deeper comfort than new AI developments.

The Influence Of Visualization Type And Gender On Multimedia Learning Performance: An Experimental Study, Ziji Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The widespread availability of multimedia learning resources, driven by technological progress, presents both opportunities and challenges in education. While these resources, often designed with animations to aid learning, their effectiveness in learning across STEM and non-STEM fields remains controversial. Besides, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to understanding how individual learner characteristics such as gender and spatial ability influence effectiveness of multimedia learning.

This dissertation examined the impact of visualization type and gender on learning algorithms (STEM) and Chinese characters (non-STEM) after accounting for the effect of spatial ability, focusing on learning outcomes and cognitive load. The fact that males …

Interview With An Anthropology And Journalism Student., Jacey Terrill

What Happened Here

This is a transcript of an oral history with a student of anthropology and journalism. They have Jewish heritage and support the Palestinians, growing up familiar with Zionism and the conflict between Palestine and Israel. They explain how their whole life was greatly changed by the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, feeling a sense of dread for the worst to come. They made their school projects based on their heritage to process the intense emotions and events. They felt a sense of relief that a protest started, since it felt like there was finally some acknowledgment of Gaza, and …

Taking A Closer Look: Research As Worship And Service, Angela Kroeze Visser

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"... as we learn about the world we live in, we also learn about the one who has created and upholds it."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­looking deeply and thinking critically from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Taking a Closer Look

Black Americans’ Strategic Disengagement In Digital Protest: A Thematic Analysis Of Youtube Responses To Latino Deportation Appeals (2025), Professor Meya E. Hargett

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

This qualitative study, grounded in digital discourse theory, investigates Black Americans’ responses to the Latino community’s calls for protest support against federal deportation policies under the current U.S. administration. Twelve publicly available YouTube videos from Spring 2025 were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify key patterns in Black discourse, including themes of strategic withdrawal, political disillusionment, solidarity fatigue, and historical tension.

This study defines 'stand down' as a deliberate, non-antagonistic decision to refrain from participating in another group’s protest movement. Findings indicate that disengagement is not rooted in apathy but is shaped by long-standing racialized experiences, ideological misalignment, and …

On Metamodernism And The Postdigital In The Contemporary Novel, Hanna-Riikka Roine

Criticism

Metamodernism and the Postdigital in the Contemporary Novel by Spencer Jordan. London & New York: Bloomsbury, 2024. Pp. 233. Hardback.

On Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art And Energy Of American Comics, Mike Classon Frangos

Criticism

Petrochecmical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics by Daniel Worden. The Ohio State University Press: Columbus, 2024. Pp. 171. $34.95 cloth.

On The Sisterhood: How A Network Of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture, Danica Savonick

Criticism

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson. Columbia University Press, 2023. Pp. 296. $28.95 hardback, $19.00 paperback.

The Legal System For Influencers On Social Media Platforms: A Comparative Study, Ahmad Ibrahim Ballal, Najem Riyad Al-Rabadi, Ma’Moun Rashed Al-Huneiti

Middle East Journal of Communication Studies

This study explores the legal regulation of social media influencers through a comparative analysis between French and Jordanian legislation. The research problem lies in the absence of a clear and comprehensive legal framework regulating influencers' growing role in shaping public opinion. Using the comparative analytical method, the study examines relevant legal texts and regulatory approaches in both jurisdictions. The findings highlight significant differences, with France enacting a specific law to govern influencer activities, while Jordan still relies on general legal provisions. The study recommends drafting a dedicated Jordanian law that outlines influencers' legal responsibilities and balances freedom of expression with …

Representations Of The Other In Hamas's Media Discourse During The "Al-Aqsa Flood" Operation: A Rhetorical Analytical Study, Enad Mamdouh Al-Zaben, Sabah Al Harahsheh

Middle East Journal of Communication Studies

This study aimed to determine how the Hamas movement represented the "other" in its media discourse during the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation. To achieve this goal, the study relied on the qualitative analytical approach, specifically rhetorical discourse analysis. The study sample included all Hamas's media spokesman speeches, between October 7, 2023, and January 1, 2024, numbering 11 speeches. The study results showed that Hamas's media discourse focused on portraying two main groups: "us" and "them." The "us" group included the Palestinian people in all their spectra. They were referred to using terms with positive connotations such as: "the steadfast," "the one …

"Driving Circles Around The Holler:" Liminality And The Grotesque In Donald Ray Pollock's Knockemstiff, Celia A. Ranniger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Donald Ray Pollock’s 2008 short story cycle, Knockemstiff, is a regionalist work of grotesque Grit Lit featuring characters from a small, rural holler community in southern Ohio. This work examines the form, narratives, and characters through close reading, illuminating the layers of different liminalities present in the cycle. These liminalities include narrative liminality of the form of the short story cycle, the social and economic liminal spaces inhabited by the characters, and the ways that the text comments on the liminal nature of storytelling itself. This thesis will argue that the geography of the cycle’s setting coupled with the subject …

American Officer Administration Development And Its Effects On Conduct, 1900-1970, David R. Burford

Theses and Dissertations

The 1970 U.S. Army War College Study on Military Professionalism concluded that officers were so obsessed with demonstrating loyalty, deference to authority, and promotion that they seemed to sacrifice their personal integrity. The findings shocked high-ranked Army officials. The detailed legislative history of Army officer administration from roughly 1900 to 1970 presented in this dissertation shows why and how these conditions came to exist. In nine chapters, the material revealed in magazines, periodicals, student research papers, statements at congressional debates, hearings and investigations, and various official and unofficial publications narrate the development of the post-World War II American officer governance …

Structural Models For Lyric-Setting Analysis In Popular Song, Matthew T. Hough

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Studies of English text setting have long focused on "well-formed" examples, typically in 4/4 time, in which syllabic-stress-to-beat matching is prioritized (Halle and Lerdahl 1993, Hayes and Kaun 1996, Hayes 2009). Evidence of this prioritization has been presented in Palmer and Kelly 1992 and Girardi and Plag 2019, and such examples are ubiquitous in English-language nursery rhymes, children’s songs, and folk tunes. The present study contextualizes this type of text setting as one of four models for the structural interaction of English lyrics and music in popular song: 1) unified ("well-formed"), in which musical considerations and a preference for stress …

Localizing Design Stories - An Exhibition, Bianca Kóczán, Philipp Stingl, Michaela Anzer

Nordes Conference Series

localizing design stories (locdstories) is a collectively developed design research project. An offer to form a temporary group of a few facilitators and more participants interested in design. This group agrees to take time and share a braver space to explore and reflect upon the relations between their design practice, what stories have been told by whom to them about design, and what stories they would like to share. The setting consists of an adaptable seminar format and an interactive platform, a virtual globe gathering absent situated design stories beyond a dominant design historiography by inviting participants to tell stories …

Relational Design In Healthcare Innovation: Exploring A Multi-Site Context, Kathrina Dankl, Laura Aguado-González, Victoria Artigas, Canan Akoglu, Kasper Frank, Marie Kremer, Erika Renedo-Illarregi, Carlos Romero, Yeray Sañudo, Jorge Sierra-Pérez

Nordes Conference Series

Healthcare is a critical component of the infrastructure of a welfare state, with public services at its core. However, its challenges are more complex and intractable than those addressed by service design frameworks. The relational design approach, aligned with participatory design principles, could provide insights for service design that promotes a focus on relationships, networks and situated knowledge generation. This study explores situating tactics in the research process of a large EU project focusing on shared decision making in cancer care. By analysing how topic, timescale and methods are situated across two research sites, we discuss how relational sensitivity has …

Nrm-Critical Design As A Path Forward In The Relational Turn: Examples From A Norm-Critical Exploration Of The Hbsc Survey, Anna Isaksson, Karin Ehrnberger, Malin Björklund, Emma Börjesson

Nordes Conference Series

This article explores how norm-critical design can contribute to the relational turn in design, drawing on a previous study of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. While relational design emphasizes contextualization, interdependencies, and evolving relationships, norm-critical design provides tools to identify, visualize, and challenge embedded norms within these relationships. By transforming survey questions into design concepts, this study demonstrates how norm-critical design materializes implicit assumptions, making them visible for critique and reflection. The findings illustrate that surveys are not neutral data collection tools but performative instruments shaping relationships, self-perceptions, and societal norms. The article argues that norm-critical design expands …

Design For Longevity: A Relational And Systemic Perspective, Sheng-Hung Lee

Nordes Conference Series

As Relational Design (RD) grows in popularity, Casual Loop Diagrams (CLD) can complement RD in systemic analysis by visualizing relationships between variables. This study integrates CLD with RD within the context of longevity planning, which considers dimensions of financial, social and physical wellness. While RD maps static relationships, CLDs model dynamic interactions and feedback loops, enhancing innovation through a holistic and adaptive approach. By bridging relational and systemic perspectives, this preliminary study advances discourse in service design, system thinking, and research methodologies, demonstrating how RD and CLD contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of longevity planning. Findings emphasize the importance …

Equine Equipment And Relational Design In Horse-Human Intra-Action, Synne Skjulstad

Nordes Conference Series

This exploratory paper examines equine tack and equipment as relational interfaces between horses, humans and their wider surroundings. It unpacks the notion of relational design within a posthuman view on design, and the long-term relationships and wordless dialogues with an Arabian horse. It frames equestrian tack as relational interfaces for horse-human intra-action. These interfaces are documented in use through ongoing photographic exploration and documentation of horses in a leisure riding context in a Norway. The hours spent in the saddle and in companionship with these horses form a situated knowledge basis from which the relationship between horse, human, tack, and …

Exploring Haunted Spaces Of Participation Through Justice, Annunziata Albano, Azeem Hamid, Agathe Malbet

Nordes Conference Series

This paper discusses participation and its impact through the lenses of justice and, identifying burdens, questioning representation issues unwillingly created, prompting careful consideration of participatory methods and highlighting power tensions in relation to the participants. Specifically, it scrutinizes the dimensions of participation, addressing who participates, where, when, and how participation occurs. Furthermore, by investigating the ghosts of participation—the lingering effects and unintended consequences of participation—we investigate the broader implications of participatory processes on individuals and communities. This paper aims to contribute to the growing discourse of participation from a justice perspective, offering insights into how public participation can be reviewed …

Balancing Children’S Play With Plastic–Materialistic Character Toys, Minjin Kim, Young-Ae Hahn

Nordes Conference Series

This study investigates the impact of the South Korean TV show Catch! Teenieping: Fairies of Emotion and its associated merchandise on children's play and values. A survey of 100 mothers and an analysis of existing literature reveal the excessive time and expenses that children, particularly young girls, spend on Teenieping play, in spite of the play being primarily imitative and potentially limiting developmental benefits. Such commercial success led to an imbalance in children’s play. Additionally, Teenieping merchandise functions as a status symbol, contributing to materialistic attitudes among children. To address these issues, this study proposes a framework of Place, Material, …

Expanding Environmental Discourse Through Practice-Led Research: From An Experimental Pavilion To Mainstream Architecture, Maiju Suomi, Sofie Pelsmakers

Nordes Conference Series

This practice-led research paper explores how the making of a temporary architectural intervention with a transformative sustainability aim can expand environmental discourse in mainstream architecture. The paper explores the case of Alusta, a pavilion to enhance urban biodiversity and encourage multi-species encounters and environmental discussion in the context of Finland. Through the case, architecture emerges as a practical environmental act and a cultural representation of lower impact living. Findings show how an experimental pavilion can bypass some constraints of large-scale architecture and become an agile tool in discussing topical sustainability issues. Small-scale projects enable testing and showcasing experimental solutions, lessons …

Entangled In The Design Of A Relational Materiality: Beyond Smart Textiles, Anne Louise Bang, Delia Dumitrescu, Malene Harsaae, Inger Marie Ladekarl, Hanna Landin, Erin Lewis, Mika Latusaari, Alicja Lawrynowicz, Kati Miettunen, Mithila Mohan, Mikael Nyberg, Lena Pedersen, Pedro Silva, Maija Vaara, Jaana Vapaavouri, Linda Worbin, Zahraalsadat Madani, Kristian Rödby

Nordes Conference Series

Nowadays, ethics and care for the environment have shifted paradigms in smart textile design towards responsible energy use and preservation of natural resources. In this research, we aim to relate material science and engineering to textile and interaction design in discovering a vibrant responsive materiality triggered by ultraviolet (UV) energy. The research addresses a bottom-up approach entangling scientific development in material science, textile craftsmanship, and design to the understanding of human use and the capacities for change of this natural phenomena. Compared to a conventional textile design processes where material and form composition connect in a final expression, in this …

Backwards Incidentality, Sheida Amiri Rigi

Nordes Conference Series

‘Backwards incidentality’ is a notion developed to trace the different pasts that have led each of us here; this place and moment that foregrounds relationality in design. This exhibit, which materializes backward incidentality, is concerned with critical differences within relationality that might get lost in an overconfidence that rushes to outline the implications it might have for design. It is in a way a challenge to any separation we might otherwise imagine between logical inquiry into relationality and all those things that have incidentally become—and continue to become—our relational inquiry.

Citational Justice In Design Education: Teaching/Learning Relationality, Lisa Baumgarten

Nordes Conference Series

This paper explores how Citational Justice can transform design education, challenging the dominant narrative of the isolated creative genius in favour of design as inherently relational and collaborative. Through a case study of a design theory seminar with 16 bachelor students, the paper demonstrates how Citational Justice reshapes teaching practices by revealing networks of influence and knowledge in design work. Drawing on relationality and care perspectives from Escobar and Puig de la Bellacasa, the research implements power-critical pedagogies such as “brave spaces”, and collaborative feedback. Results show three key transformations in students’ understanding: a new attitude toward inspiration and influence, …

Anyone Can Put A Sofa, Chenfan Zhang, Valentina Auricchio, Daniela Selloni

Nordes Conference Series

This exploratory paper presents a case observed during the author’s participatory action research for the PhD programme. The case consists of reflections on a relationship-building intervention enabled through the placement of a tea dispenser and a sofa in a village’s common space. The paper provides the case to reflect about whether overemphasising on designers’ identity and roles has overshadowed the importance and opportunities of building human relationships when engaging with communities during the immersion phase. The paper argues that designers need to rethink their positioning and move beyond an overemphasis on professional roles when entering communities to better understand how …

Everywhere, All At Once: Speculative Layering Of Multiple Temporalities With Augmented Reality, Alessandro Ianniello, Roy Bendor

Nordes Conference Series

This paper considers the design of Augmented Reality experiences that allow the interrogation of multiple temporalities, in order to foster engagement with More-than-Human worlds. While Augmented Reality has traditionally been used to layer different spatial contexts onto the physical environment, we explore its potential to visualize alternative temporalities, offering users unique ontological perspectives on time and its role in shaping interconnected human and non-human futures. Drawing from futures studies, experiential futures, and speculative design, we examine how Augmented Reality’s capacity to represent temporal layers can deepen understanding of More-than-Human interdependencies. We report on a pilot experiment where participants engaged with …

Participatory Storytelling As A Relational Design Practice: The Case Of The San Vittore Priso, Chiara Ligi, Elettra Panepinto

Nordes Conference Series

This paper explores how participatory storytelling functions as a relational design practice within the constraints of a total institution, specifically in the context of San Vittore prison in Milan, Italy. Drawing on two years of fieldwork, we analyze the power dynamics, relational infrastructures, and narrative agency that emerge through Storylab, a participatory storytelling workshop conducted inside the prison. As the workshop cultivates storytelling within a complex relational landscape, we investigate how narratives shape this relational landscape and its inherent power dynamics. We examine the ethical challenges of navigating power asymmetries in total institutions and argue for design research that is …

Exploring The Entanglement Of Relational Design, Spatiality And Places, Thomas Binder, Jörn Christiansson, Gabriela Quintana Vigiola

Nordes Conference Series

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed a relational turn in design research, embracing the entanglements of human and non-human elements in socio-material arrangements. Despite the foregrounding of relations in these entanglements, little attention has been given to what role spatiality and places may have in relational design. This workshop explores the entanglement of relational design, spatiality and places based on design case studies from participants. Using a design charette methodology, participants will collaboratively (1) map how relational entanglements shape and are shaped by design research and practice; (2) identify and unpack cross-disciplinary tensions and opportunities; and (3) co-create …