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ScholarWorks@UA is University of Alaska's institutional repository created to share research and works by UA faculty, students, and staff.
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Blackwater wolfRural Kentucky’s cultural and geographical landscapes in the early 1990s serve as the foundation for Blackwater Wolf, a novel that examines the intersections of place, identity, and love. The story follows two young women as they navigate a same-sex relationship in a conservative community, where societal pressures and personal doubts ultimately strain their connection. Separated by circumstance and time, they reunite seventeen years later when the mysterious disappearance of a local child brings them back together. The child’s claim that a monster inhabits the shadow of Black Mountain becomes both a literal mystery and a metaphorical lens through which the protagonists—and the reader—explore memory, trauma, reconciliation, and the boundaries of monstrosity. By blurring the line between reality and the uncanny, Blackwater Wolf seeks to interrogate the ways deeply rooted cultural myths shape personal identity while challenging readers to reconsider what it means to belong, to heal, and to transform in the face of fear and uncertainty.
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Evaluating sustainability policies by measuring well-being: evidence from MongoliaThe study examines the relationship between sustainability policies and resident well-being within Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's Ger district, through a case study of the 19th subdistrict of the Bayanzurkh district. The primary research question is: Are well-being attributes being used to determine the efficacy of sustainability policies? Using mixed methods, survey questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups with 30 participants across three stakeholder groups (Ger district residents, subdistrict officials, and district officials), the research identified 15 key well-being attributes. The identified well-being attributes were used to assess whether these attributes serve as efficacy determinants in sustainability policies across national, municipal, and district governance levels. The study revealed significant gaps between policy objectives and implementation outcomes. While sustainability policies demonstrated clear goals on paper, they consistently lacked implementation mechanisms, designated agents, and dedicated funding streams. For example, air quality deteriorated significantly, as measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) revealed an alarming upward trend, rising from 213 μg∕m3 in 2020 to 262 μg∕m3 in 2023. Infrastructure deficits remained severe, with 75% of residents reporting having only unpaved roads and 95% relying on pit latrines. Public service accessibility showed marked disparities, with 70% of residents expressing some level of dissatisfaction with school accessibility. The research advances the understanding of using well-being attributes to measure sustainability policy effectiveness in informal settlements. Recommendations include the use of well-being attributes when developing sustainability policies, strengthening implementation mechanisms, prioritizing infrastructure development, and enhancing community engagement in planning processes. The findings have significant implications for policymakers and urban planners working in rapidly urbanizing contexts, demonstrating the critical importance of aligning sustainability initiatives with resident well-being outcomes.
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Russia's historical fate: mapping space, time, and salvation in Patriarch Kirill's sermonsThe relationship between the Russian State and Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) during Putin’s regime has been characterized as mutually beneficial. The most influential figure in the contemporary ROC is Kirill, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’, who has worked with Putin to give Russia’s current nation-building project, Russkiĭ Mir ‘Russian World,’ a religious foundation. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exists within this project, which Kirill has sought to sacralize in his sermons. In this thesis, Barton utilizes discourse analysis to examine how Kirill’s sermons justify Russian imperialism while also projecting a vision of the ROC within the national project. Specifically, Barton identifies how Kirill employs grammatical and prosodic resources to invoke an Orthodox cosmological space-time, or “chronotope,” i.e. a linguistically encoded rendering of space and time that endows figures with moral characteristics. In his sermons Kirill invokes what Barton terms the Salvation chronotope, a space-time modeled after St. John Climacus’ The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Through close analysis of one sermon, she demonstrates how Kirill constructs the Salvation chronotope in the image of the Ladder and depicts the movement of congregants, the nation, and Russian military within its metaphysical landscape. She argues that in doing so Kirill frames Russia's full-scale invasion as the nation's “historical fate," necessary to keep it oriented on the path to salvation. Alongside this Barton analyzes a speech register she dubs “God-speak,” a performance style marked by liturgical tonality and paeonic meter. She demonstrates that Kirill employs God-speak to connect historical Russian conflicts with the Russo-Ukrainian War and prophesize the divine intervention of an Orthodox figure on Russia’s behalf. She concludes that the Salvation chronotope is one method by which Kirill aligns himself with Putin while stepping beyond State rhetoric, asserting the importance of Orthodoxy in ensuring Russia’s existential fate after the Russo-Ukrainian War.
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Breaking boundaries: the function of supernatural women in Arthurian literatureWomen in Arthurian literature tend to be overlooked in favor of the knights. This thesis focuses on supernatural women in three texts: Parzival, Le Morte D’Arthur, and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Examining the behavior and actions of these women places the male protagonists’ behavior into a new light. Parzival is placed on his narratively correct path by Cundrie’s rebuke. Arthur is given Excalibur by The Lady of the Lake, and is further protected by Nimue, allowing him to survive until the text demands his death. The Mage, a new addition to the Arthurian literature, both protects and advises Arthur on his path to reclaiming his kingly birthright. This thesis concludes that supernatural women function in a specific manner, a guiding role, within Arthurian literature.
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Electric power regulation for a novel riverine hydrokinetic energy conversion systemTransportation of diesel fuel used to produce electricity for Alaska remote communities is highly expensive. Thus, people living in those remote areas pay a high rate for electric energy compared to the national average cost. The availability of renewable energy resources may help to minimize these high expenses. As many rural Alaskans live near rivers, hydrokinetic energy could be used as a renewable source of electric power. This renewable resource, if successfully harvested, has immense potential to help power Alaska remote communities and significantly reduce electric energy costs. This project aims to investigate the implementation of an energy conversion system to harvest riverine power by utilization of a novel hydrokinetic energy harvesting system through field testing and modelling. An electrical power generator, specifically a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), was selected to be used for mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion within a low-speed range. Unregulated electric power produced by the generator was rectified and filtered to produce smooth DC power. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) current controller was implemented in the Simulink® environment to demonstrate how to extract the maximum power available at the generator output under different water velocities and load conditions.