Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Public Memory Through Memorialization, Sophie A. O'Brien

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This research project aims to contextualize the story surrounding various Nashville monuments that memorialize civil rights leaders. This project will explore the history of monuments and road names in Nashville. The history will span from the Confederacy to the civil rights movement and examine how public memory has evolved and changed with the removal of some statues and the changing of road names. It aims to show who we choose to memorialize and why, and how the civil rights leaders we choose to remember reflects public sentiment of the civil rights era.

Researching The U.S. Senate Presidential Nominee Confirmation Process, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The beginning of 2025 has seen renewed public attention and emphasis on the constitutionally mandated U.S. Senate confirmation process. This stems from the beginning of the second Trump Administration as its nominees navigate this process. The presentation provides historical background on this process, demonstrates what nominees, Senate oversight committees, and the full Senate in administering this process and enables readers to find out how to access information resources documenting this process. The confirmation process continues throughout presidential administrations and may involve little public attention and controversy or acute public attention and controversy. The contrasting 2025 confirmation experiences of Secretary of …

Cripistemology And Creative Practice: Disability, Aesthetics, Digital Art, Generative Ai, Talan Memmott Phd

CLASP Lecture Series

Dr. Memmott’s presentation will showcase “Introducing Lary”—an ongoing AI project that explores the re-invention of the self following life-changing cancer surgery and treatment. This talk profiles the artist’s experience with a laryngeal cancer diagnosis and the medical interventions that follow. Utilizing a variety of AI platforms for both video and image production along with journal entries and medical reports as text prompts, the resulting work is a set of distinctive media that range, in Dr. Memmott’s words, “from the mythic to the horrific; the historical to the speculative.” Though at times the resulting media may emphasize the emergent body horror …

Encouraging Conversation: Sharing The Oral History Of Nepalese Refugees Through Dialogical Preaching To Inspire Intercultural Collaboration, Matthew Clark

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Clark, Matthew J. “Encouraging Conversation: Sharing the Oral History of Nepalese Refugees through Dialogical Preaching to Inspire Intercultural Collaboration.” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2025. 286 pp.

The project attends to the context of Ascension Lutheran Church in St. Louis, Missouri, where a minority group of church members are refugees from Nepal. As Ascension grows in ethnic diversity, however, much of the congregation has only a shallow multicultural level of engagement, where different cultural groups are only aware of each other as they exist parallel to one another with limited interaction.

The project seeks to answer the …

Lanthorn, Vol. 59, No. 12, February 24, 2025, Grand Valley State University

Volume 59, August 5, 2024 – April 14, 2025

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

02.24.2025 Ored Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

Collaborate Opportunity

SEC Faculty Travel Grants

Participant Support Cost Resources

Meta-Participation And Ethical Transparency In Role-Playing Games: Examining Ai And Algorithmic Influence [Peer-Reviewed Journal], Cristo Leon Ph.D., James Lipuma Ph.D., Jasmin Cowin Ed.D., Mauricio Rangel-Jimenez Ph.D.

STEM for Success Resources

This study examines the ethical implications of AI in role-playing games (RPGs), focusing on meta-participation, transparency, and algorithmic influence. By exploring AI’s role in shaping narratives and player agency, we analyze ethical concerns such as informed consent, algorithmic control, and cultural inclusivity. Through a systematic literature review and real-world case studies, the research proposes principles for integrating AI ethically into RPGs while preserving their immersive and collaborative essence. This work challenges existing paradigms and invites critical discourse on AI's evolving role in game design.

Reading The Rainbow: Exploring Themes And Identities In Lgbtqia+ Picture Books, Amanda Melilli, Alicia G. Vaandering, James W. Rosenzweig

Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation shares an analysis of over 275 picture books featuring LGBTQIA+ identities, providing evidence that the depiction of queerness in children’s literature is complex and varied. Tools for defining narrative themes and LGBTQIA+ identities will be shared as well as data on queer characters with intersecting identities. By exploring the nuances of LGBTQIA+ representation in picture books, attendees will gain a better understanding of novel research inquiries into representation.

Lowell Hardin: Mentor Extraordinaire, Larry L. Murdock, Thomas W. Hertel, Gebisa Ejeta

Purdue University Press Books

Lowell Stewart Hardin (1917–2015), an Indiana farm boy who became an enormously influential international agriculturalist, made the world a better place for the poor and the hungry on this earth. For seventeen years he led the Ford Foundation’s agricultural development efforts, contributing to the Green Revolution. He helped to found and guide international agriculture research centers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He inspired others to get involved and opened doors for them. He taught by example, gave others credit, and always stepped back, avoiding the limelight himself. In this volume, twenty-two people who knew him well share stories of …

Reenvisioning Identities That Precede Us: “Body Acknowledgement” As Social Justice Practice Within A Communication Ethics Course Redesign, Wendy Kz Anderson, Ollivia Webster, Nicole Yang, Cass Bryant, Taylor Herr

Feminist Pedagogy

We infuse this conversation of “body neutrality” through social justice responsiveness (compassion, equity, and accountability of body/presence privilege) by specifically attending to intersections of race, gender, and body mindset built into our identities. In reimagining the term “body-neutrality” through identity engagement, we introduce the term “body acknowledgment” as an active interpretative state. As a co-authored pedagogical “co-conspiring” for racial justice (Houdek and Ore, 2021, p. 92), we (instructor, teaching assistants, and previous students) offered a course redesign centering social justice strategies to address the following question: How can dialogue about intersectional communication work toward redesigning learning with difference and develop …

Navigating Trauma: A Linguistic Exploration Of Bilingual Trauma Expressions, Amira Mahmoud Othman

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between language, trauma, and emotional expression among bilingual Arabic-English speakers, focusing on code-switching patterns and euphemisms, and more broadly the emotional roles of native and non-native languages in trauma narratives. Through qualitative interviews with 20 Egyptian participants, the research reveals that code-switching serves as both a linguistic and emotional tool, allowing speakers to navigate trauma by creating distance or engaging more intimately. Such codeswitching patterns include the integration of English content words within Arabic structures, morphosyntactic innovations, and gender agreement applications, reflecting the creative adaptability of bilingual speakers in emotionally charged contexts, in line with …

Rural Entrepreneurship In Upper Egyptian Communities: Exploring The Intervention Of Agri-Tech Startups, Marwa Wael Abohamda Hulail

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change and economic disturbance have changed the state of the world and increased the dependence on digitization in running people's daily life. In Egypt, the economic instability and climate change have affected people’s standard of living, making it challenging to sustain their life, especially in the agriculture sector. Farmers have been affected by the risks of climate change, economic shocks, and trends of digitization, which have impacted their profit, employability, and livelihood.

Several Egyptian Agri-tech startups were launched to support the farmers in the digital revolution that came to agriculture, attempting to make a change in the Egyptian farming …

Discretion, Deference, And Dysfunction: U.S. Refugee Resettlement From Egypt, Cassandra Mcclellan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates refugee resettlement from Egypt to the U.S., as facilitated by UNHCR Egypt and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Accordingly, the research questions ask what factors determine the volume and profile of refugees UNHCR Egypt submits to USRAP for resettlement, as well as the related determining factors for refugees rejected from and accepted to USRAP. A fourth research question examines the impacts of U.S. refugee policy on the resettlement system in Egypt, including on UNHCR Egypt and refugees. To answer these questions, the thesis first delves into the history of U.S. immigration and refugee policies, with a …

“I Remember It...I Feel It” Place’S Intangible Identity: Explorations Through The Lens Of Micro-Phenomenology- Case Study Of Al-Sultan Hassan Complex, Sarah Mohamed El Zoheiry

Theses and Dissertations

In today’s contemporary architecture, the growing of anonymous and interchangeable spaces has diminished the distinctive character of the place, its individuality and experiential signification, fostering placelessness. This research argues that the framework of reconsidering place’s atmosphere offers a pathway to reconnect people with places through emotional, sensory, and embodied encounters. This research investigates the phenomenology of place, focusing on the atmosphere as an intangible identity that transcends physical attributes and engages people's senses and feelings. By exploring the Al-Sultan Hassan complex, the study deepens the understanding of the transcendental quality of the atmosphere, it’s unfolding over time, and it’s associated …

Queering ‘Common Sense’: Using Critical Discourse Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Book Bans In Florida Public Schools To Unmask Heteronormativity, Talia Zito, Nicole E. Morse

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Historically, censorship of LGBTQ+ content in education has been rooted in socio-political efforts to marginalize non-heteronormative identities. However, even those who oppose censorship tend to frame their arguments around concepts like “age-appropriateness” and “protecting children.” Our Critical Discourse Analysis examines formal challenges to And Tango Makes Three in one Florida school district in 2022 to show how these concepts are deployed on both sides of the debate. The book, depicting a same-sex penguin couple raising a chick, faced objections under Florida’s HB 1557, a law designed to restrict discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Ultimately, the picture …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

02.17.2025 Ored Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

SOP Research Day

Resilience, Joshua Liashenko

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Once a ubiquitous framework for assessing the capacity for recovery, perseverance, and success in the face of adversity, resilience has been met with growing critiques in its application. As a frequently used “pretty word” within health disparities research, resilience has come to signify how at-risk communities overcome hardship in ways this work argues overdetermine their labor, activist potential, and existence. This critique examines resilience through the lens of ethnographic research conducted among transgender and nonbinary healthcare providers who provide gender-affirming care within their communities. As a marginalized community experiencing transphobia and increasing structural barriers to life-affirming and life-saving healthcare, trans …

Breaking Boundaries: A Critical Trans Framework Analysis Of Anti-Transgender Sports Policies In Education, Tori Porter, Briana A. Savage, Dresden June Frazier

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This policy analysis examines the impacts of anti-transgender sports legislation on K-20 transgender students through a critical trans framework. We investigate how anti-transgender laws enforce gender norms and intersect with other forms of oppression, such as racism and ableism, affecting multi-marginalized transgender students in sports and limiting access to a well-rounded education. Epistemic injustice is revealed, as these policies disregard transgender students' experiential knowledge and involvement in decision-making processes. Findings indicate that anti-transgender sports policies impact students at individual, institutional, and cultural levels, perpetuating discriminatory practices and reducing access to gender-affirming spaces and supportive adults. We argue for inclusive, evidence-based …

Clark Moustakas’ Husserl, Thomas Byrne

The Qualitative Report

This paper critically examines Clark Moustakas’s presentation of Husserl in Phenomenological Research Methods. I argue that Moustakas’s account misrepresents two core elements of Husserl’s phenomenology – intentionality and the transcendental reduction – in ways that directly compromise the foundations of qualitative phenomenological research. First, Moustakas treats intentional meaning as something private, located within the individual, rather than as given in the world. This misreading severs the connection between experience and a shared world of meaning, leaving qualitative researchers unable to clarify participants’ accounts beyond private expression. Second, Moustakas reduces the transcendental reduction to introspective reflection, overlooking its function as a …

“It’S A Constant Wear And Tear”: Trans Visibility As Educational Labour In The Neoliberal School, Bishop Owis, Harper Keenan, Lee Iskander, Mario I. Suárez, Mollie Mcquillan, Christina Cook, Daniel Gallardo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Although transgender people are increasingly visible in mainstream North America, trans teachers are without adequate resources or protections to support their employment in schools. Legislation in both Canada and the United States that invokes concern about parental rights and “LGBT indoctrination” in schools illustrate the dangerous political landscape facing teachers. In 2023, over 500 anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) bills were introduced in state legislatures across the United States (Choi, 2024). Given this context, this paper explores trans education workers’ descriptions of trans visibility in the workplace. Drawing from interviews from the Trans Workers in Schools Project (TWISP), we …

Exploring Generative Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Applications In Fashion: Ethical Concerns In Human-Like Technology, Melissa Kathryn Gonzalez

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

The Non-Apology Of Tyler, The Creator, John Gibaud

CAFE Symposium 2025

This project analyzes the behavior and statements of the musician Tyler, The Creator as compared to contemporary understandings of the steps, requirements, and functions of a public apology. In 2009, Tyler, The Creator began his career as a solo singer songwriter, using shock value tactics to gain the attention of the public with lyrics and online comments which glorified murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping. Outcries against the themes of the comments and lyrics called for an official public apology and acknowledgement from Tyler, The Creator, however, such a statement never came to fruition. Since his problematic debut, Tyler, The Creator …

The Economy, Emotions, And Japanese City Pop In The 1980s, Paige Drummond

CAFE Symposium 2025

This project contains research about the topics of economy, emotions, music, urbanization, and Japanese City Pop all during the 1980s. It shows the connections between all of these subjects and how they relate back to the City Pop genre. Common themes of City Pop songs are also explored and delved into by comparing songs and analyzing their lyrics, melodies, and topics.

Ethical Problems Of Enforcing Justice In Death Note And Psycho-Pass Anime, Aldiyar Alen

CAFE Symposium 2025

What happens when justice is controlled by a single person or a powerful system? This research explores how Death Note and Psycho-Pass show the dangers of extreme justice. In Death Note, Light Yagami takes the law into his own hands, believing he can create a perfect world by eliminating criminals. In Psycho-Pass, an advanced AI system judges people before they even commit crimes, deciding their fate based on predictions. Both systems aim to reduce crime but end up threatening personal freedom and fairness. By comparing these stories, this study highlights the risks of justice without balance, questioning how …

Why Are Youtubers Bad At Apologizing?, Tejaswi Amatya

CAFE Symposium 2025

There has been an increasing number of youtuber apology videos in the past few years, but almost all the youtubers fail at apologizing. My poster delves deeper into why are youtubers so bad at apologizing and how they can improve.

Eternal Music, Dominic Roussos

CAFE Symposium 2025

My project explores how music shapes our perception of life and death by engaging emotions, memory, and cultural understanding. Drawing from Daniel J. Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music and Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise, it examines music’s neurological and historical impact on human experience. It highlights how songs like Eric Clapton’s "Tears in Heaven," Billy Joel’s "And So It Goes," and John Lennon’s "Imagine" express themes of grief, love, and unity. The author also reflects on personal experiences where music provided solace during loss, emphasizing its power to connect us to both life’s joys and its …

Pom Poko: When Nature Speaks Out Against Urbanization, Sabrina Huynh

CAFE Symposium 2025

Pom Poko highlights the correlation between the survival of nature and the progress of humanity. Therefore, by showing different dynamic relationships like Gonta’s aggressive way of fighting against or peaceful co-existence of Shoukichi, Pom Poko suggests viewers may feel that humans should find a way to live harmoniously with the environment.

Common Threads In Monsters Across Time And Space, Jade Gladue

CAFE Symposium 2025

Fear is an undeniable human emotion, and monsters have always been a way for human societies to grapple with and explain our fears. In this project, common aspects and groupings of monsters across different indigenous cultures and folklores are discussed and dissected to determine inherent human reactions to fear. The project identifies and analyzes types of monsters and what the hidden meaning behind the existence and endurance of these creatures might be.

Fostering Inclusivity Through Community Arts Programs, Courtney Mayberry

CAFE Symposium 2025

The utilization of community arts projects to build diverse and prosperous communities is vital in fostering inclusion rather than isolation within participating communities. Community arts projects can be built to offer individuals a means to connect with their community through self-expression and the celebration of their individuality. This is especially important in giving marginalized groups a voice, such as people with disabilities.