Digital Humanities Commons^™

Dynamics Of Infanticides Among The Ngoni Of Tanzania, 1850s-1916, Andrew S. Kasambala, Oswald J. Masebo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Infanticide is one of the key factors in explaining changes in human populations since the antiquity. This paper examines dynamics of infanticide practices among the Ngoni of Tanzania from the late pre- colonial to the end of German colonial rule in 1916. Relying on primary and secondary sources, it argues that while infanticide remained a critical problem in Songea from the 19th century to the end of German colonialism in 1916, the context in which it was practiced and the interventions devised to alleviate it changed over time. While it was primarily practiced in Songea by pre-Ngoni communal based clans …

Criteria For Rejecting Ideas In African Philosophy : A Historical And Epistemological Analysis, Eric C. Mgalula

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

The rejection of African ideas remains a pivotal debate in African philosophy, centring on tensions between universalist epistemologies and culturally specific criteria. This study synthesizes fragmented discussions into a cohesive framework, interrogating when and why African ideas may be deemed inadequate. It critiques contemporary African scholarship that rigidly adheres to indigenous traditions under decolonial and nationalist imperatives, advocating instead for a balanced approach that harmonizes intellectual rigor with cultural authenticity. Through a historical analysis of key thinkers—from Tempels and Hountondji to Wiredu and Oyewumí—this article historicizes the evolution of evaluative criteria in African philosophy, challenging colonial legacies and romanticized traditionalism. …

Mediation Partiality And The East African Community’S ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ In The Kenyan Post-Election Crisis Of 2007/2008, Rasul A. Minja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the role of East African Community (EAC) in mediating the 2007/2008 Kenyan post-election crisis, analysing its engagement in regional conflict resolution. Despite its mandate to promote peace, the EAC's response was constrained by institutional weaknesses, political dynamics, and reliance on quiet diplomacy. The African Union-backed Panel of Eminent African Personalities, led by Kofi Annan, ultimately led the mediation, sidelining the EAC. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, the article indicates that EAC lacked a binding conflict management framework and faced decision-making delays that hindered swift intervention. The partiality of key figures, particularly President Yoweri Museveni …

Jonathan M Jackson, Visions For An African Valley: Histories Of Development In Kilombero, Tanzania Since 1877., Emanuel L. Mchome

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Research on the history of colonial development and future-making in Tanzania has focused on the racial and class politics that influenced development visions and practices. Studies of postcolonial development history have demonstrated how state leaders and their ideologies shaped nation-building trajectories. Notwithstanding of the temporal dynamics, scholars have analysed how the flow of finance and technical assistance reveals intertwined global forces such as nationalism and the Cold War, and how foreign development assistance shaped development in Tanzania. Visions for an African Valley moves beyond this conventional analysis. Instead of employing ideological lenses in analysis, it specifically examines how colonial and …

Beyond Christianity : German Missionaries’ Heritage In Colonial Mbeya, Tanzania, 1880s-1918, Ashura Jackson Ngoya, Edward Simon Mgaya

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the history of German missionaries in the colonial Mbeya, a southwest region of Tanzania, from the 1880s to 1918. It explores how missionaries influenced political, social, and economic changes that had a profound impact on the lives of the local population. The article investigates the secular roles of missionaries, which, although they supported evangelisation, they were not directly non- secular aspects. In doing so, the article considers missionaries' efforts in education, health, agriculture, trade, and tax collection, which sometimes led to them working as colonial intermediaries in certain areas of Mbeya. Based on primary and secondary sources, …

Engineering Inefficiencies And Technical Dependency : A Vital Lens In Understanding Power Outages In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1960s-1990s, Emanuel L. Mchome

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines how the construction of power infrastructure in the 1960s-1980s shaped the future functioning of the Tanzanian power grid from the 1990s. The article is based on oral sources and archival material collected from the Swedish National Archives in Stockholm, the Tanzania National Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO), the East Africana Section of the Wilbert Chagula Library at University of Dar es Salaam, the Rufiji Basin Development Authority (RUBADA) and the World Bank online sources. The article argues that engineering inefficiencies of some Western planners and builders of TANESCO’s power grid who failed to consider local ecological issues …

The Furious Flower Poetry Center: Teaching The Worlds Of Black Poetry To High School Students, Mary Beth Cancienne Phd, Hermione Dewitt, Zoe Mcdowell, Kaleigh D. Phelps, Liz Shanks James Madison University

Virginia English Journal

This article titled The Furious Flower Poetry Center: Teaching the Worlds of Black Poetry to High School Students features lesson plans that high school English graduate candidates wrote in a high school English methods course after participating in the decennial Furious Flower Poetry Conference in September of 2024 at James Madison University. High School poetry lessons featured are based on the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, Jericho Brown, Nikki Giovanni, Sophia Elhillo, DaMaris B. Hill, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, and Yalie Kamara. Poetic themes and craft taught and discussed in the lesson plans include identity, language, culture, hope, symbolism, tone, diction, and …

The Last Werewolf: An Interactive Narrative About Bipolar Disorder, Rebecca Kerr

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

The Last Werewolf is an interactive narrative game exploring lived experiences of bipolar disorder through metaphor and emotional design. Drawing on the creator’s personal perspective, the game uses cyclical transformation as a lens for understanding mood episodes and identity fragmentation. The showcase presentation examined how mechanics and narrative structure were used to embody bipolar experiences, aiming to foster empathy and nuanced mental health representation in games. By integrating creative practice with research, The Last Werewolf demonstrates how independent games can meaningfully communicate complex psychological realities through interactive storytelling.

Interdisciplinary Narratives On Artificial Intelligence & Personnel Selection Systems, John Hunter, Melissa Intindola, Neil Boyd, Thiago Serra Azevedo Silva

Faculty Journal Articles

Artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly and persistently become a daily presence in our lives, and its omnipresence has eclipsed the speed with which scholars can fully assess its efficacy and pitfalls. AI’s ubiquity and the lack of a clear understanding of its implications for humanity has spurred scholars across disciplines to action, and scholars in the field of Human Resource Management (HR) have certainly joined the fray. As scholars with a variety of experience and scholarship across disciplines, we believe that the burgeoning conversation in the HR literature would significantly benefit from a greater presence of interdisciplinary knowledge.

Zero Textbook Low Cost Syllabus For English 2100 (Writing 1), Anne Grevenitis

Open Educational Resources

In English 2100, our focus will be on autoethnography as a genre of writing. To write an autoethnography is to examine the value of the personal and use traditional modes of research to flesh out the narrative of the self. Through diverse research methods (interviews and site observation) and a multiple-step writing process (journaling, drafting and peer reviewing), your autoethnography should make a substantive contribution, have aesthetic merit, have reflexivity, make an impact, and express a reality.

Many Stories, One Shape: Narrative Convergence In Ai-Generated Fiction, Marisol Hernandez Brito

IPHS 484: Senior Seminar

Frontier large language models (LLMs) generate fluent outlines but often converge on repetitive structural templates. This exploratory study examined inter-model diversity in thriller novel outlines produced by five LLMs (ChatGPT-5(5.1), Grok-4, Gemini-2.5 Flash, DeepSeek-v3, Claude Sonnet-4.5) under baseline and enhanced prompting conditions (N=50 outlines). Blind AI evaluations revealed moderate inter-model diversity (baseline mean 64.45%; enhanced 58.89%), declining relative to intra-model baselines and between phases, particularly in Protagonist and Plot dimensions. Quantitative and qualitative analysis identified phase-specific convergence: a "forensic procedural" template (analytical female protagonists, corporate conspiracies, Quest/Monster arcs) under the baseline prompt, shifting to a "domestic psychological thriller" template (uniform …

Studying Topic Evolution Based On Bertopic Model And Semantic Function, Jiabin Qu, Mengyang Wang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] Topic evolution analysis can help researchers quickly grasp the research hotspots and development trends of a discipline. However, existing topic models often overlook the semantic functions and structures of texts during topic extraction, making it difficult to reveal the deeper patterns of disciplinary development. This paper proposes an integrated framework for topic evolution analysis that combines the BERTopic model with semantic functions, aiming to enrich and improve the methodological system of topic evolution research.

[Method/process] Firstly, the BERTopic model is used to extract topics, obtaining the“Topic-Word”distribution. Next, a discourse parsing tool analyzes abstracts into five semantic function segments, resulting …

Gonzaga Digital Scholarship & Publishing Newsletter, Fall 2025, Foley Center Library

Foley Library Publications

Volume 2 of the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Newsletter (formerly Gonzaga Institutional Repository Newsletter).

In this issue: 

• Learn about Pure Faculty Profiles
• Find out about the Digital Scholarship Lab @ Foley Library 
• Read about options for publishing OERs
• Explore how your department’s research and scholarship is represented in the IR
• Find out where to go for Copyright and Intellectual Property questions
• Data Management Plan consultations and options for support

Lost In Transcreation: Llm Performance In Multicultural Creative Work, Murathan Kocaman

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This study benchmarks four leading LLMs (GPT-5.2, Claude 4.5, Gemini 3, and Grok-4) on cross-cultural advertising transcreation, using Turkish as a particularly revealing test case. Each model generated Turkish billboard taglines for three American brands (Hinge, Manscaped, and Oatly) under real-world constraints, and all outputs were scored using the Levent Index, a 100-point framework I created by synthesizing transcreation best practices with the Turkish linguistic instincts I developed growing up in Istanbul. The Index measures Linguistic Soul (40%), Cultural Resonance (40%), and Structural Flow (20%), and the complete rubric is available upon request. Gemini 3 dominated performance, yet no model …

Two Moles, Two Worlds: Network Analysis Of Infernal Affairs And The Departed, Melissa Vu

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This project aims to explore how adaptation reshapes the social architecture of a movie. To do this, I used social network analysis to compare the character dynamics between Infernal Affairs(Hong Kong, 2002) and its U.S. adaptation The Departed(2006) in two ways: co-presence networks (characters connected when they appear in the same scene, with edge weights capturing repeated co-appearance) and directed dialogue network (arrows representing who speaks to whom, with thicker arrows indicating more frequent dialogue). Comparing the network structures across the two films reveals meaningful differences in group structure, connecting roles, and the concentration of dialogue around key characters, which …

Lights, Camera, Action! Mapping Concentration, Wealth, And Stability In Nyc Film Production, Mariah Szabo

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This project is a comprehensive analysis of over 93,000 New York City film permits from 2012-2025. A geographic analysis reveals that filming activity is concentrated in a small number of neighborhoods, although slight differences are visible based on the type of media being filmed. This geographic pattern has remained stable over the 13 years studied, despite major disruptions like COVID-19 and the streaming boom. Notably, a joint analysis with a New York City household income dataset shows that these neighborhoods stand as wealthier than the average New York City neighborhood. The result is an “NYC on Film” that represents only …

Mapping Interior Focalization: Social Network Analysis And Free Indirect Discourse In Mrs. Dalloway, Zhuojun Jiang

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

Mrs. Dalloway, a highly renowned stream-of-consciousness novel in modern literature, employs extensive use of free indirect speech and shifting focalization, leaving the relationships between its characters elusive and sophisticated. How does social network analysis behave when focalization shifts rapidly across characters in free indirect discourse? This study employs specific literary analysis with social network analysis as digital humanities methodology to investigate the contrast between the superficial social structures and the interior psychological relationship structures. I referenced Jessica Daugherty’s poster on social network analysis and Professor Elkin’s sentiment analysis on Mrs. Dalloway as my sources of inspiration, and I used ChatGPT, …

French Reactions To 9/11: An Analysis Of French Newspaper Articles Published September 12, 2001, Rose Plottel

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This research presents a hierarchical cluster analysis and aspect based sentiment analysis (ABSA) of French newspaper articles about the September 11 attacks published on September 12, 2001. The study focuses specifically on the key thematic clusters discussed across these articles and the variance in sentiment scores across them. Using Dendrogram Hierarchical Modeling and ABSA, the model identified six thematic clusters and measured thematic scores for each cluster as well as their key terms on a scale ranging [-1,1]. The analysis revealed simultaneous sympathy for the American people alongside scrutiny of potential American retaliation.

Sentiment Oscillations In Mafia Cinema: Using Sentiment Analysis To Quantify The Critical Disparity Within The Godfather Trilogy, Andrew Vera

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This project uses sentiment analysis technology to examine the screenplays of The Godfather trilogy. Sentiment analysis generates data based on dramatic dialogue, rating each line on a sentiment scale that indicates the level of emotional intensity or neutrality, as well as whether the sentiment is positive or negative. By using this technology, the study identifies the unique curves of each film, allowing for a comparison of narrative peaks and valleys that helps explain the disparity between the series' acclaim and its criticism. Additionally, by measuring the sentiment arc disparities, the study seeks to illustrate why the first two films in …

Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis With Llms: Are Large Language Models Able To Accurately Score Sentiment In Company Earnings Calls?, Peyton Hodges

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

When a company releases an earnings call, it can have a big impact on the respective stock market performance of that company. Investors of all types do their best to analyze the data and sentiment provided by the senior executive members to gauge potential future trends of the stock price. Earnings calls are especially important for companies like Nvidia that are making waves in the tech world as AI continues to grow. Previously, sentiment analyses were typically reserved for big companies who specialize in financial quantitative analysis. However, the introduction of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and …

Examining The Ohio 5’S Identities: A Data Analysis Of College Mission Statements, Olivia Hiner

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

How do the Ohio 5 compare in their mission statements? Being in such close proximity to each other, they compete in enrollment, sports, academics, student life, and more. This study utilizes mission statements in order to observe semantic similarity. By running the code, a heatmap, semantic map, and 3D semantic space reveal that Kenyon’s mission statement is most similar to the others whilst Oberlin is most dissimilar.

Reading Between The Taglines: Regional Topic Frequencies In Reality Television Narratives, Ava Fattahi

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This project uses topic and word frequency arcs to explore a seemingly frivolous yet ultimately revealing part of modern TV: The Real Housewives franchise (2006-). By looking at the taglines the women use to introduce themselves along with full transcripts of episodes, I want to examine how the mood and language of different cities change from region to region of the wildly popular series. I focus on a small sample size of three areas: the West Coast (Beverly Hills), the Northeast (New York City), and the South (Atlanta). Based on what I have noticed as a longtime viewer of the …

From Nature To Finance: The Language Of Environmental Governance Through Unep Reports, Elizabeth Aiken

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

This project applies the computational text analysis methods from Franco Moretti and Dominique Pestre's "Bankspeak" to examine how the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) language has evolved in its annual reports from 1975 to 2024. Founded in 1972 as the UN’s main environmental authority, the UNEP plays a vital role in global discourse surrounding climate change and environmental challenges. Using Python-based computational methods to track word frequencies, semantic clusters, and grammatical patterns across five decades of annual reports, this analysis reveals three distinct linguistic periods. These periods include an early period (1975-1989), which emphasizes nature and scientific terms, a middle …

Emotional Stability And Deception In Multi-Agent Ai Negotiations Tracking Emotional Drift, Persuasion And Influence Using Valence-Arousal-Dominance, Godwin Idowu

IPHS 200: Programming Humanity

Today, large language models are often applied as smart agents who are capable of communicating, negotiating and making decisions together in the same space. In this work, I designed a test scenario where three different AI agents, having different goals, a cooperative helper, a competitive maximizer, and a deceptive agent, are sharing resources in a number of rounds. I would like to observe how the different goals of the agents affect the emotions of the agents. Each time the agents meet, I interpret their communications to assign them numerical values that measure the intensity of their perceived positivity, excitement, or …

Faye Calhoun, Faye J. Calhoun M.S., Ph.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

Sermons And/In/As Literature, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

Five of the nineteen contributors to Preaching and the Sermon in the Twentieth Century are members of English departments, so it is somewhat ironic that none of their chapters could be categorized as “literary studies” (they are instead in the sections for history, book history, media studies, and digital humanities). This presentation is intended to offer a perspective that is not represented in that collection.

In about five minutes each, I will survey the three elements mentioned in my title:

1. Sermons and literature. This section will address how sermons can be influenced by other forms of literature, and influence …

Vivian Pinn, Vivian W. Pinn M.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

Yvonne Maddox, Yvonne T. Maddox Ph.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

The Weight Of Complicity: A Network Analysis Of Ecocide In Palestine, Marilyn Moy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper combines multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with a network graph visualization to examine corporate and institutional involvement in ecocide in Palestine from 1917 to the present. Using a weighted sum model based on UN human rights principles and UNEP guidelines, actors are evaluated across three criteria: directness, scale, and duration of harm. A dataset of 50+ entities, including Caterpillar, Elbit Systems, and the Jewish National Fund, reveals a dense network of responsibility, with major enablers in the construction, tech, and military sectors. Findings highlight the severe impacts of the 2023–present assault on Gaza and demonstrate that ecocide is a …

Giving Voice To The Frames Of War: A Digital Humanities Framework For Evaluating War Crimes Databases, Leila Markosian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Developments in digital technologies have complicated existing debates around the ethics of cataloging war crimes and human rights violations. Digital humanities methods of evaluating digital scholarship can help to construct a framework for evaluating war crimes databases, a process which requires a fine-tuned critical analysis aimed towards understanding the purpose of compiling the database, the platform or media template through which the database is presented, and the communicative potentials of the database. The following paper presents a survey of the existing literature on war crime databases and the politics of memory; a model of how war crimes database analyses may …