Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Refereed Research - Health Is The Greatest Wealth: A Research Agenda For Subsistence Marketplaces, Samanthika Gallage Dr

Subsistence Marketplaces

Health is a major challenge for people who live in subsistence because poverty heightens exposure to disease and weakens access to care. Yet it has received limited and fragmented attention in subsistence marketplaces research. Health decisions are made within the same trade-offs, uncertainty, unfamiliarity and relational exchange that shape other subsistence consumption. At the same time, health also goes beyond other mundane consumption decisions: it demands abstract causal reasoning, carries heightened vulnerability, and depends on information and trust that consumers cannot easily verify. Therefore, this paper argues that health should be treated as a core area of study in subsistence …

Lauderdale County Revolutionary War Veterans Correspondence To Lois E. Henderson, Oct. 31, 1991, William Lindsey Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William Lindsey McDonald to Lois E. Henderson regarding local Lauderdale County Civil War veterans.

Colbert Ferry On Natchez Trace Correspondence To Daniel W. Bown, Superintendent, May 22, 1991, William Lindsey Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William Lindsey McDonald to Daniel W. Brown, superintendent of the Natchez Trace Parkway, regarding Colberts Ferry, a historical site near Florence, Alabama.

Creating Student-Generated Infographics To Foster Civic Engagement Research In A First-Year Seminar, Carlton A. Usher

eJournal of Public Affairs

Infographics, visual tools like charts or diagrams, simplify complex data into accessible formats. This study explores how student-generated infographics foster civic engagement in a first-year seminar. Survey data from first-year students (N=29) revealed 85% rated the project highly valuable, and 87% reported improved retention of societal issues. While research was the least favored aspect, students praised the project’s creativity and peer-sharing potential, with 40% emphasizing its value for visual learning. Most expressed confidence in sharing their work publicly. These findings support the use of infographics as a pedagogical tool for enhancing civic engagement among first-year students navigating academic transitions. Future …

Why Nevada Leaves So Much Federal Money Behind, The Lincy Institute

Lincy Institute Events

The Lincy Institute presents new research examining the history, politics, and policies that have caused Nevada to fare so poorly in accessing federal resources for decades and offer recommendations for how Nevada can more effectively interface with federal agencies to reverse this history. The event also features a panel discussion with nonprofit and former state and local government leaders.

Panel

Moderator — David Damore, Executive Director, The Lincy Institute

Panelists — Michael Brown, Fellow, The Lincy Institute — Lisa Corrado, Executive Director, Nevada Nonprofits — Miles Dickson, Chief Executive Officer, Nevada GrantLab — Yvanna Cancela, Chief of Staff, U.S. Representative …

The Quilt On The Roof, Janny G. Santos

Persimmon Creek

This creative nonfiction essay explores the meaning of home, stewardship, and healing through the story of a veteran who restored a neglected house on a hill in Greenville County, South Carolina. Built in the 1950s by another veteran on land once belonging to the Perry family, the home becomes a place of repair for both the structure and the person caring for it. When the roof fails after years of restoration, the author creates a massive quilt to protect the house, transforming scraps of fabric into a signal of distress and resilience. The essay reflects on land, memory, family, and …

Wildwood Park Area Correspondence To Mary Alyson Prude, 8.7.1993, William L. Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William L. McDonald to Mary Alyson Prude concerning the history of Wildwood Park and the surround vicinity in Florence, Alabama.

The pdf is faded and difficult to read, so it has been transcribed below.

August 7, 1993

Miss Mary Alyson Prude

426 Robinhood Drive

Florence, Alabama 35630

Dear Mary Alyson:

Please forgive an old man who finds it more and more difficult to hear. And I feel terrible for not recognizing you until after we had talked over the telephone. It then hit me: You are Joel and Jayne's beautiful young daughter. I am so sorry. Your entire …

Trail Of Tears Correspondence From Southwest Us Dept. Of Interior, 2.9.1994, John Harely

Correspondence

Correspondence issued by the National Park Service Southwest Region to William L. McDonald concerning his collaboration with Richard Sheridan of the Trail of Tears Advisory Council. The correspondence also includes an enclosed itinerary of the Trail of Tears Advisory Council Field Trip held on March 3, 1994.

Spring Street (Veteran's Blvd) Correspondence To Steve Pierce, 12.15.1992, William L. Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William Lindsey McDonald to Steve Pierce, the President of the Florence City Council, regarding the proposed change of Spring Street's to Veterans Boulevard. The letter outlines the historical significance of Spring Street.

Sunken Trace Sign Correspondence To Johnny Sims, 8.6.1999, William L. Mcdonald

Correspondence

Correspondence from William Lindsey McDonald to Jonny Sims, a ranger of the Natchez Trace Parkway, concerning the interpretative sign at Sunken Trace located at mile marker 350.8. Within the correspondence, McDonald proposes that the verbiage be adjusted to be more respectful of the early Native American inhabitants of the area. He also highlights another instance in which National Park signage was changed at the George Colbert parking area and home site.

The current historical markers for the Sunken Trace and Colbert's Stand are accessible on the historical marker database.

Florence City Council Ordinance To Create The Position Of City Historian, Eddie Frost

Correspondence

Florence, Alabama city ordinance that establishes the position of city historian.

William L. Mcdonald's Theological Training, Correspondence From Pres. E.B. Norton To Col. John C. Lawrence, 5.22.1951, E. B. Norton

Correspondence

Correspondence from E. B. Norton, President of Florence State Teachers College, regarding the then Second Lieutenant William Lindsey McDonald to Colonel John O. Lawrence, Commanding Officer of the Alabama Military District.

Within the letter, Norton details McDonald's service as a pastor of the Margerum Charge of the Methodist Church in Florence, Alabama and his intentions of enrolling in Emory University's Theological Seminary the next fall. He then requests McDonald's release from active duty to pursue seminar education.

Muscle Shoals: A Plan For The Use Of The United States Properties On The Tennessee Power By Private Industry For Of "The Manufacture Of Fertilizers And Other Useful Products", Muscle Shoals Commission, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1931

Documents

A plan created by the Muscle Shoals commission for instituting a series of fertilizer production operations in the Tennessee Valley area. In addition to written analysis, the document contains multiple images, illustrations, charts, graphs, and maps of the area to illustrate the reasoning of the plan.

Although the plan was never fully brought to fruition, it represents a crucial piece of agricultural and infrastructural history in the Shoals, Alabama alongside existent history on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the development of the nitrate plants.

The End Of Unmeasured Exploitation: How A.S.M., C.A.S., And S.I.A. Challenge Digital Attention Capitalism, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Digital attention capitalism generates value through the capture and monetization of human attention, yet it has historically lacked standardized mechanisms for measuring attention-related harm. This paper argues that the Attention Safeguard Models (A.S.M.), Cognitive Attentional Standards (C.A.S.), and Sociological Impact Assessment (S.I.A.) collectively challenge this system by introducing an integrated framework for classifying, measuring, and evaluating digital attention harm and its societal consequences. C.A.S. provides standardized measurement of digital attention harm, A.S.M. identifies and classifies patterns of attentional disruption and manipulation, and S.I.A. evaluates broader impacts on institutions, communities, civic engagement, education, social cohesion, and inequality. Together, these systems transform …

A Historian And A Sociologist Walk Into A Bar: A Data Archive For Social Sciences And Digital Humanities Hosted At A National Archives Institution, Benjamin Peuch, Oliver Lenaerts, Rolande Depoortere, Johan Van Der Eycken, Youssef Ouahalou

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In October 2020, a new service was launched at the State Archives of Belgium, the Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive (SODHA). It is the result of several years of feasibility research into the viability of a data archive for social sciences and digital humanities in the research landscape of Belgium. SODHA acts as a service provider for the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archive (CESSDA ERIC) and takes up the task of preserving and disseminating research data in any of the disciplines that constitute the aforementioned fields.

SODHA is a latecomer compared to other similar organizations in Europe …

Rotc Correspondence Between Dr. J.A. Keller And Congressman Robert E. Jones, Jr., 1947, President J.A. Keller

Correspondence

Thank you note from Dr. J.A. Keller to Congressman Robert E. Jones, Jr. about his help securing a ROTC unit for FSTC, 1947.

Correspondence Between Lt. Col. J. J. Hamlin And President J.A. Keller, 1948, Lt. Col. J. J. Hamlin/J.A. Keller

Correspondence

Correspondence from Lt. Col. J.J. Hamlin to President J.A. Keller-the application for establishment of a Corps of Military Police, ROTC unit, has been approved, 1948.

News Release-Rotc Unit To Be Activated At Florence, Alabama, 1948, Florence State Teachers College

Correspondence

A news release about the activation of an ROTC unit at Florence State Teachers College in July, 1948.

Indigenous Religion And Community Order: Crime Prevention Strategies Among Worshippers Of Igbe Orhe In Nigeria, Onoseme Fortune Afatakpa Dr

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This ethnographic study examines crime prevention strategies within Igbe Orhe, an indigenous African religious tradition practiced in Delta State, Nigeria. While existing security studies primarily emphasize formal and direct approaches to crime prevention, this research foregrounds the less explored structural mechanisms embedded in cultural spirituality. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with purposively selected participants, including the Uku Supreme (global leader), High Priests (Uku), High Priestess (Omote Uku), Chief Priests (Inori), Chief Priestesses (Ini Igbe), and Votary Singers (Akpine). Two focus group discussions were also conducted with female and youth members of selected …

Sacred Loss And Moral Authority: Religious Leadership And Identity Reconstruction In Post-Conflict Societies, Kimberly C. Kennedy

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

This paper examines how religious leaders shape narratives of identity formation and reconciliation in post-civil conflict societies where violence, defeat, or political transition produces moral injury and crises of meaning. By drawing on themes of justice, forgiveness, and accountability, religious leadership can wield moral authority to influence public perception, guide healing processes, and support transitions from active conflict to more stable forms of peace. The paper explores how religious leaders reframe narratives of defeat, particularly in cases where a community’s cause was endowed with sacred meaning, creating a crisis of faith. It argues that this work is best understood as …

Failed Gay Rights Amendment To Mankato's Human Rights Ordinance In Mankato, Minnesota In 1987, Kellian Clink

Library Services Publications

In 1987, small but passionate people urged the city to pass an amendment to Mankato’s existing human rights ordinance to protect LGBTQ+ communities.   Advocates argued that gays were entitled to the same rights as straight people and were looking for protection in housing and employment, particularly. They demonstrated that people had lost jobs, housing, and access to dance venues. Some opponents equated gays with promiscuity, child molestation, solicitation, sin, and AIDS; some were convinced it was not needed; some pinned their arguments on the existence of laws already on the books.  This narrative is based on articles from the local …

Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies Of Interfaith Cooperation In Coastal Kenya, Erik Meinema

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Regulating Religious Coexistence offers a compelling ethnographic analysis of how Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of indigenous African religions negotiate coexistence in Kenya’s coastal region. The book conceptualizes religious diversity as a dynamic field shaped by multiple partly intersecting and partly conflicting models of interaction. These include the political secularism promoted by the Kenyan state and civil society organizations focused on interfaith harmony, forms of competition between religious groups, and pluralistic practices in which individuals draw on multiple traditions to meet spiritual needs.

Through a close examination of civil society initiatives funded by Western donors to foster peacebuilding and to counter …

Refereed Research - Indispensable Yet Not Fully Legitimate: Street Markets As Invisible Subsistence Infrastructure, Raji Srinivasan, Maria C. Merino

Subsistence Marketplaces

Street markets are key provisioning systems across the Global South, supplying fresh food, employment, and retail access absent formal infrastructure. Yet despite street markets’ functional indispensability to millions of low-income consumers, their legitimacy is chronically contested, affirmed by vendors and communities yet challenged by planners, developers, and state authorities who apply formal-economy criteria in evaluating them. We theorize this as a legitimacy paradox and ask what structural mechanisms sustain it? Using composite vignettes grounded in fieldwork, we theorize three mechanisms. First, visibility without recognition: street markets are hyper-visible yet excluded from cognitive templates of legitimate, formal retail. Second, asymmetric essentiality: …

Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes Of A Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy, Ken Allard

Joint Force Quarterly

Colonel Ken Allard, USA (Ret.), reviews Chas Henry’s Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy, an account of the October 1979 fire at Camp Fuji, Japan, that killed 13 Marines and injured more than 73. Drawing on interviews, archival records, maps, command chronologies, and other sources, Henry reconstructs the conditions that produced the disaster, including a fuel farm located uphill from troop quarters, hazardous terrain, and the effects of Typhoon Tip. The book also documents the response of Marines, medical personnel, and commanders, who improvised the collection, treatment, and evacuation of severely burned casualties amid …

War And Power: Who Wins Wars—And Why, Frank Hoffman

Joint Force Quarterly

Frank Hoffman reviews Phillips Payson O’Brien’s War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why, which proposes a multidimensional framework for assessing national power and explaining military outcomes. O’Brien argues that success in war depends on more than the size of a state’s armed forces or inventories of weapons. His concept of “Full Spectrum Powers” evaluates five interacting elements: economic and technological strength, political leadership, social and governmental structures, military effectiveness, and alliances. Drawing on conflicts including the world wars, the Cold War, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Russo-Ukraine War, the book examines how states generate, adapt, and sustain military power. …

Training For Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations From El Salvador To Afghanistan, Tobias Bernard Switzer

Joint Force Quarterly

Tobias Bernard Switzer reviews Frank K. Sobchak’s Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan, a comparative study of efforts to build host-nation special operations forces in El Salvador, Colombia, the Philippines, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Sobchak evaluates five factors that may influence advisory outcomes: consistency in advisor pairing, language proficiency, partner-to-advisor ratios, authority to organize host-nation units, and combat advising. He finds that advisors’ ability to organize partner forces is most strongly associated with combat effectiveness, while language proficiency is less decisive than commonly assumed. Switzer interprets these factors as measures of two broader …

“Creating The Point Of The Spear”: The Deployment Of Kitty Hawk (Cv-63) As An Afloat Forward Staging Base During Operation Enduring Freedom, Justin B. Blanton

Joint Force Quarterly

On 27 September 2001, Kitty Hawk (CV-63) received orders to deploy to the northern Arabian Sea to serve as an afloat forward staging base for joint special operations forces (SOF) tasked with conducting raids into Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), the U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September. In order to accommodate the SOF, the aging, large-deck carrier reconfigured to deploy with fewer than 20 aircraft: Eight F/A-18Cs, three S-3Bs, two C-2As, and two SH-60F/HH-60H Seahawks. On 1 October Kitty Hawk departed Yokosuka, Japan, transited to Masirah Island, Oman, and embarked Task Force Sword, …

Resilient By Design: Reforming Medical Logistics To Support Global Operations, Michael Ackman, Jonathan Fowler

Joint Force Quarterly

History has shown that global medical supply chains can be easily disrupted by war, disaster and of course pandemics. As we plan for global military operations and shift our focus from Counter-insurgency Operations (COIN) to Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) we need to ensure our medical supply chains are flexible, resilient and adaptable. In the current state, our ability to leverage the medical supplies of our Allies and Partners is difficult to achieve in peacetime, and very uncertain in the face of global conflict. We need real and effective solutions today so that we can build and refine a resilient …

Reimagining U.S. Industrial Mobilization, Alexis R. Johnson

Joint Force Quarterly

This paper identifies a critical vulnerability in U.S. defense sustainment strategy and proposes a solution: the Civil Reserve Sustainment Readiness Program (CRSRP). The CRSRP focuses on bolstering Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) capabilities. Given the intensifying great power competition and the increasing likelihood of a contested conflict in the Indo-Pacific, the current Organic Industrial Base (OIB) lacks the surge capacity and agility necessary for rapid, distributed sustainment. Drawing on historical lessons from World War II and contemporary analysis of OIB limitations, this study details how the CRSRP would leverage public-private partnerships, incentivize commercial sector participation, and utilize digital tools like …

Disjointed Command And Air Domain Challenges In Alaska: The Case For A Single U.S. Combined/Joint Force Air Component Commander, Jeffrey W. Kempff

Joint Force Quarterly

The current command and control (C2) organizational structure over the air domain in Alaska is fragmented and doctrinally inconsistent, undermining homeland defense and reducing wartime lethality. Disjointed roles between the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)—particularly in the Alaska Theater of Operations (AKTO) and Alaska NORAD Region Area of Operations (ANR AO)—create gaps in unity of command and effort, especially within the air component. This article examines Alaska's fractured air domain organization and command relationships, illustrating operational ambiguity, duplicative efforts, and inconsistencies that delay decision-making. It proposes a focused, near-term solution: unify the …