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The McDaniels Center for the Digitally Disrupted: A Novel
No full textThis multi-POV novel explores the idea of digital addiction through the lens of the near future, speculating as to the existence of a treatment facility that offers a novel solution to a longstanding societal affliction. Told via the perspectives of three students and three adults, the work follows closely the various ways in which each character is impacted by The Center and the characters around them. This work explores themes of addiction, parent-child relationships, friendship, marriage, the use of technology, and secrets
The Role of Cultural Mathematical Caring Relations in Supporting Two Latina Undergraduates’ Rate of Change Development within a Constructivist Teaching Experiment: An Anti-Deficit Investigation Bridging Sensemaking and Cultural Experiences
No full textThis study introduces cultural mathematical caring relations (CMCRs) as a framework that extends Hackenberg\u27s mathematical caring relations by integrating two tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy: academic achievement and cultural competence. Framed within radical constructivism, CMCRs prioritize students\u27 cognitive growth and development while affirming their cultural and experiential identities by embedding their funds of knowledge into the learning process. Through a constructivist teaching experiment with two Latina students, Yari and Jocelyn, this research investigates how working to establish and maintain CMCRs can influence Latin* students\u27 rate of change development.
Findings illustrate that CMCRs supported the development of Yari and Jocelyn\u27s rate of change reasoning, even when their progress did not align neatly with traditional developmental frameworks. The study also identifies four key factors that shaped the success and challenges of working to establish and maintain CMCRs: (1) teacher decisions, (2) the role of students\u27 funds of knowledge in their mathematical reasoning, (3) witness-researcher support, and (4) external influences on students\u27 mathematical growth.
Ultimately, this work challenges deficit discourses about Latin* students in mathematics by showcasing how CMCRs highlight the assets in their cultural and lived experiences, as well as the strengths in their mathematical reasoning. It demonstrates that CMCRs can maintain mathematical rigor while simultaneously valorizing students\u27 funds of knowledge, inviting a reimagining of what counts as meaningful in cognitive research
Their Will is Wealth: American Billionaires, Illiberal Capital, and their Immunity to Federal Law
No full textBillionaires are inherently unique political actors. They, and their wealth, are a species apart. This rarity is measurable by quantifying relative consequences for actions made on behalf of that wealth. This thesis explores whether or not a billionaire\u27s political power provides them with immunity to federal laws and regulations that govern wealth and its political use. The objective of this research is two-fold: to illustrate the scholarship gap regarding American billionaires and their relative immunity from federal law, and to instigate academia to study billionaires politically at increasing rates, providing more data for lawmakers regarding the most economically powerful political actors and their influence on American institutions.
Exploiting a case study design with a statistical analysis of existing data, this thesis scrutinizes federal enforcement figures from institutions like the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to measure the novel Relative Rate of Consequence for a synecdoche of billionaires between 1999 and 2023, assessing the legal immunity of the twenty-five wealthiest U.S. billionaires. The findings indicate that de facto immunity persists over this timeframe, and government agents appear unable or unwilling to hold these illiberal political actors and their wealth comparatively accountable, with any consequence resembling a small fee.
Studying billionaires is essential to political science, which is tasked with scrutinizing power, and political power for many years has been represented by great wealth. Yet, the modern iteration of peak political power, extremely concentrated wealth and its immunity to and power over the American political process, is either misunderstood or discarded. The academic silence is problematic and existing scholarship on billionaires is disproportionately lacking to their political heft--and this work is a starting gun for more research into billionaires
The Failure of the Annan Plan and Suggestions for Peace in Cyprus
No full textThe following study explicates the conflict in Cyprus between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. The conflict began around 70 years ago and came to its height in the 1970s when a Greek coup occurred, and subsequently, Turkey invaded the northern part of the island. This drove the two parties apart physically and mentally. The Annan Plan, a UN peace plan in 2004, attempted to bring peace to the island by reunifying the two parties into a bi-communal federation. However, this plan failed as the Greek Cypriots voted against it. The failure of the plan was primarily due to poor leadership on both sides. Leadership that did not wish to see the island reunified. To bring peace to the island, make practical suggestions including intergroup dialogue, inter-ethnic mediation, the healing of trauma, and reconciliation through healing, restorative justice, and truth-telling
The Effects of School Safety Strategies on K-12 Schools: Armed Civilians, School Resource Officers, and Metal Detectors as Contributors to the School-to-Prison Pipeline
No full textIn recent decades, K-12 public schools have introduced get-tough measures ostensibly to improve school safety through punitive responses to misconduct and delinquency--expanding from traditional security measures to more punitive, zero-tolerance policies and surveillance-based approaches. Academic literature and media accounts highlight that such efforts continue to proliferate and extend across our nation\u27s school spaces. This three-paper dissertation examines how specific safety practices--namely, the presence of armed civilians, School Resource Officers (SROs), and random metal detector checks--influence student outcomes and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Rooted in Becker\u27s (1963) and Lemert\u27s (1967) labeling theory, as well as Sampson and Laub\u27s (1997) cumulative disadvantage theory, the argument suggests that exclusionary discipline practices--often framed as school safety strategies, contribute to racial and ethnic inequalities in educational spaces. These practices theoretically align with the concept of cumulative disadvantage, wherein initial exclusions or disadvantages can compound over time, reinforcing cycles of exclusion and perpetuating educational inequities.
This dissertation consists of three interconnected papers, all centered on school safety strategies. While they share a common focus, each paper explores a different topic within the school-to-prison pipeline--offering unique insights into this broader area of research. Paper A examines the role of principals\u27 perceptions of the schools\u27 academic climate on the arming of civilians on school grounds, seeking to better understand how these perceptions contribute to school safety strategies. Paper B explores the presence of full-time SROs in school spaces and their potential role in student arrests. Paper C assesses the influence of random metal detector checks on students, in particular their association with actions that remove students from educational spaces, potentially reproducing socioeconomic disparities within school spaces.
Collectively this dissertation argues that some schools might potentially be blurring the line between strategies meant to ensure the safety of students (i.e., school resource officers, use of random metal detector checks on students, and use of armed civilians in schools) and those meant to enforce discipline (like suspensions or expulsions), thus we potentially risk overlooking how certain disciplinary actions disproportionately affect certain student groups and push them out of educational settings--via the school-to-prison pipeline.
The goal of this dissertation is to shed light on this distinction, so we capture a more granular understanding of how different, and specific school safety strategies influence the outcomes for students and, ultimately, work to reduce the practices that is associated with the school-to-prison pipeline. Taken as a whole, the three studies emphasize the need to examine school safety policies that, although intended to protect students, may disproportionately influence outcomes for those from marginalized backgrounds. By using the nationally representative SSOCS dataset (2017-2018) and addressing critical gaps in existing literature, this dissertation offers a nuanced view of how school safety and discipline practices intersect, and it seeks to reveal whether some practices push students out of school, potentially fueling the school-to-prison pipeline
When My Intersecting Identities of Being Racially Oppressed and Privileged Become Blurred: An Autoethnographic Dive Into Unlocking the Polarities of Who I Am
No full textFreire argued that each person is, at times, both the oppressor and the oppressed. He posited that the path to liberation is increased critical consciousness, problematizing our circumstances, and finding ways to take action. As a person from the global majority (PGM), this autoethnography incorporates my personal narratives, communication with colleagues, photo observations, and professional writings that problematizes and examines ways I have been both complicit in, or have been victimized by, racialized oppression, particularly in educational settings. I\u27ve had an increasingly keen sense of awareness toward my own racialized tensions when interacting with individuals, in groups, or with an educational system that remains highly racialized. I\u27ve been part of, victim of, and have borne witness to countless racial events that have pushed me to a place of silence, as silence has been my place of safety, perseverance, and resilience. However, over decades of being a silent bystander in my own experiences and the experiences of others, I\u27ve realized the harm my silence was inflicting upon myself and others. I was not only holding myself hostage as a victim of others\u27 racialized attacks on me, but I was also complicit in the racialized harm upon others. Through this study, I focused on how those moments have ultimately impacted the ways I\u27ve chosen to interact with racialized tensions and norms. I hope to inspire others to continually self-examine ways each of us show up in our own racialized moments, while also being in solidarity with all those forced to persevere through their silence
Working Paper No. 103, Russia and the Myriad of Challenges Associatedwith ‘Relative Backwardness’
No full textThis inquiry seeks to establish that over recent of centuries Russia exhibits signs of what is termed as ‘relative backwardness.’ Drawing from Alexander Gershenkron’s (1962, 62-70) understanding of ‘backwardness in historical perspective,’ as well as Karl Marx’s ([1845] 1977, 39-43) concept of ‘historical materialism,’ this inquiry examines how successive Russian regimes sought to close the developmental gap with western countries through state-led modernization efforts. What stands out is that when confronted with attempting deep structural challenges, each leader turned to centralized authority and coercive reforms—not by choice, but out of necessity. Our inquiry considers Nicolas II’s failure to modernize Russia’s agrarian economy; V. I. Lenin’s adaptive use of his “New Economic Policy” implemented following the collapse of War Communism; and Joseph Stalin’s rapid industrialization drive which brought significant economic gains but with accompanying costs. Situating Russia’s development within broader historical and theoretical contexts, the inquiry contends that modernization efforts should not be seen as purely ideological, but as structural responses to global pressures, institutional constraints, and the weight of history
Just Places and Paths: Equitable Transit-Oriented Development in Vancouver, Washington
No full textThe Southwest Washington Equity Coalition (SWEC) has been actively engaged in multiple efforts to uplift BIPOC communities in the City of Vancouver and Clark County. SWEC has partnered with Rhododendron Planning for a project to develop a toolkit to guide future Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) that considers the specific needs and desires of BIPOC communities, which can be used for current and future policy initiatives. This work comes at a time of escalating development, inward migration, and diversification, putting pressure on present and burgeoning BIPOC communities. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of BIPOC communities living in Vancouver, Washington, has increased by 64%.The Report discusses the defining characteristics of two focus areas, comprising Fruit Valley and parts of Fourth Plain, that have been identified to empower BIPOC communities through the co-creation of policy recommendations for the upcoming Comprehensive Plan Update and beyond
Nitrogen Fixation in Pampinifervens, a New Species-Rich Genus of Aquificaceae That Inhabits a Wide Ph Range in Terrestrial Hot Springs.
No full textMembers of the Aquificota play important roles in hydrogen, sulfur, and carbon cycles in geothermal systems as ubiquitous and abundant chemolithoautotrophs; however, their roles in the nitrogen cycle are poorly defined. Here, we show that Aquificaceae isolate T-2 from Tengchong, China, fixes nitrogen based on growth with dinitrogen as the sole nitrogen source and incorporation of N atoms when grown with N. We further show evidence that suggests its nitrogen fixation (nif) genes are transcribed in situ in a nearby spring. We propose the name Pampinifervens diazotrophicum gen. et sp. nov., with strain T-2 (= JCM 35475 = DSM 116324) as the nomenclatural type. Its close relative designated Pampinifervens florentissimum sp. nov. T-8 (= CGMC 1.5214 = JCM 33569) does not fix nitrogen but respires nitrate. Analysis of 104 metagenome-assembled genomes from 84 metagenomes allowed us to circumscribe the genus Pampinifervens and identify at least 16 sympatric Pampinifervens species that dominate the Aquificaceae populations in diverse hot springs in southwest China, with distinct species globally. Analysis of these Pampinifervens genomes revealed variable presence of nif and denitrification genes and frequent gene loss and horizontal transfer. Genes for pH homeostasis were also present in Pampinifervens genomes, with a proliferation in species from Tengchong, consistent with the wide pH growth range of both Pampinifervens isolates and the prevalence of Pampinifervens in both alkaline and acidic springs. The dynamic evolution of nif and denitrification genes, along with pH homeostasis genes, may facilitate the diversification of Pampinifervens into diverse springs with different nitrogen availability
Exploring the Causal Links Between ESG, R&D, and Firm Performance: Evidence from the US Technology and Food Companies
No full textThis study examines the causal relationships between ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) compliance, R&D expenditures, and financial performance in the technology and food sectors in the US. A panel dataset from 2012 – 2021 from the Thomson Reuters database was analysed for 12 food and 18 technology companies. The findings show that there are different causal relationships between sectors. While R&D investments in the technology sector positively affect firm performance by increasing ESG compliance, firm performance in the food sector directs ESG compliance, encouraging R&D investments. The study emphasizes that sectoral differences should be considered in sustainability and R&D strategies and guides policymakers and managers to develop approaches appropriate to the dynamics of the sector