KU ScholarWorks

KU ScholarWorks is the institutional repository of the University of Kansas, featuring scholarly work by KU faculty, staff and students.

For more information about KU ScholarWorks and how you can share your work, please see About KU ScholarWorks .

If you have any questions, please contact Marianne Reed, Digital Publishing and Repository Manager at mreed@ku.edu.

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Recent Submissions

Open Access
Aligning Incentives with Institutional Values: Reforming faculty evaluation to promote (and reward) scholarship for the public good
(2025-10-21) Dougherty, Michael
Why do faculty evaluation and incentive systems focus so heavily on the so-called three-legged stool of Research, Teaching, and Service? Are there alternative ways that we can think about faculty evaluation that might better align both with what faculty deem important and with the mission and values of the modern public university? In this workshop, we will rethink faculty evaluation through a values-based lens that empowers faculty to engage in meaningful and impactful work that truly fulfills the University’s core mission of advancing solutions that improve the lives of Kansans and the lives of the broader global community. Instead of thinking about ‘research’, ‘teaching’, and ‘service’, as “buckets” to be filled, we will instead explore ways in which values such as ‘accessibility’, ‘integrity’, ‘transparency’, ‘rigor,’ and ‘public impact’ are rewarded. This workshop will involve hands-on activities in which you work collaboratively with colleagues to identify key faculty behaviors that support these values and how these values can be used to rethink processes involved in hiring, promotion, tenure, and annual reviews in your own departments.
Open Access
FROM FOE TO FRIEND: THE CINEMATIC REDEMPTION OF THE GERMAN CHARACTER IN HOLLYWOOD, 1940-1955
(Department of History, University of Kansas, 2025-05-01) Fenlon, Connor
Between 1940 and 1955 Hollywood reimagined and recast the German character on American screens, transforming their portrayals from monolithic villains of the second World War to humanized victims in the immediate postwar years and finally to indispensable partners of the emerging Cold war. The analysis draws on fifteen widely distributed and pervasive feature films, including Casablanca, Walt Disney’s Education for Death, Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, The Big Lift and Decision Before Dawn, and pairs close readings of narrative structure and character depictions with evidence from the Office of War Information directives, State Department memoranda, studio correspondence, box office coverage and contemporary reviews. Together, this study traces a clear cinematic arc to show how Hollywood and popular cinema deliberately aligned itself with the United States to reflect American foreign objectives, respond to significant geopolitical events and attempt to influence American cultural attitudes towards the German people. In doing so, the findings show that cinematic portrayals and narratives ultimately translated diplomatic priorities into persuasive entertainment, softening earlier stereotypes and redefining the German character as a democratic, American ally, thereby smoothing Germany’s transition from enemy to an essential cornerstone of the Western alliance. While prior research has explored propaganda films and the portrayal of America’s wartime enemies, much of the existing scholarship has either focused on depictions of the Japanese or been confined within an analysis for specific genres or limited timeframes. This project addresses that gap by analyzing a broader range of films across a longer historical arc, situating the transformation of the German image within the larger framework of U.S. geopolitical interests while emphasizing cinema’s power to influence audience perceptions, advance the enemy’s rehabilitation, and support broader foreign policy aims. In doing so, it offers a critical contribution to understanding how cultural production intersects with geopolitics and helps construct the foundations of the United States’ modern international relationships.
Open Access
TVB Model for Estimating the Long-Term Effects of Deck Replacement on Concrete Bridge Behavior
(American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2025-10-16) Adhikari, Beeva; Spinel Peñuela, Juan Sebastian; Lequesne, Rémy D.; Collins, William
The effects of deck replacement on the long-term behavior of concrete girder bridges are investigated in this study. This study is needed because, as bridges age and decks degrade, bridge owners are increasingly faced with either replacing the structure or replacing only the deck. The latter is a viable option because the lifespan of girders typically exceeds that of concrete decks. Early in the study, a survey of engineers at state departments of transportation showed that, although most states have a need to replace bridge decks, few have plans for assessing the long-term effects of deck replacement on girder behavior. To address this need, the time-varying behavior (TVB) model is developed to estimate concrete bridge behavior over time using a time-step analysis approach to calculate incremental changes in girder behavior through several lifespan stages delineated by changes in loading or boundary conditions. The B4 model, which is based on a large data set of shrinkage and creep tests, is used to estimate concrete creep and shrinkage strains. This paper describes the modeling approach and assumptions, validation of TVB model components, and illustrates the utility of the model with an example bridge. The modeling results suggest that deck replacement can have long-term effects on bridge behavior, particularly on midspan deflection and longitudinal concrete stresses. Nevertheless, further investigation is needed to identify conditions when these effects tend to be substantial enough to warrant consideration by engineers.
Open Access
Analysis of Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for Students with Behavioral Disorders and Learning Disabilities in Public School Self-Contained and Resource Room Settings
(University of Kansas, 1989-05-31) Smith, Stephen W.
The purpose of the present investigation was to compare Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade male students with behavioral disorders and learning disabilities assigned to resource and self contained delivery programs. Research data were collected via the Program Evaluation for Procedural and Substantive Efficacy (PEPSE), an instrument designed to assess (a) federal mandated compliance, (b) number of annual goals and completed short-term objectives, and (c) congruency (i.e., the match or link between the present level of performance statement and IEP annual goals). One hundred and twenty IEP’s were systematically sampled from two urban, two suburban/rural, one suburban, and seven rural special education cooperatives. Four groups compromised with study sample: (a) IEPs of students with behavioral disorders assigned to self-contained special education classrooms; (b) IEPs of students with behavioral disorders receiving instruction in a resource room setting; (c) IEPs of students with learning disabilities assigned to a self-contained classroom; and (d) IEPs of students with learning disabilities receiving special education services in a resource program. Results of the study revealed significant procedural mean differences between IEPs of students assigned to learning disability resource programs and IEPs of students assigned to behavioral disorder resource programs. Significant differences were also found between student classification and delivery model in the number of academic, behavior, and other goals, short-term objectives met, and congruency between annual goals and present level of performance. Chi-square analyses were conducted when lack of congruence was found (i.e., when performance level information failed to reveal a need but an annual goal was written, or when performance level information revealed a need in the absence of an annual goal). Frequency differences in the academic domain were found between diagnostic categories and in the academic and social/emotional domains between delivery models. Implications and issues are discussed with regard to the relationship of the IEP and actual classroom activities. Suggestions for future research are also presented.
Open Access
Textual Analysis of Three Texts Using Voyant
(University of Kansas, 2025-09-12) Mathew, Isabel; Raut, Abhilasa; Sreekanth, Harini; Wight, Tristan; Brady, Alex
This textual analysis explores how slavery, colonialism, decoloniality, and anti-colonial resistance are represented in the texts The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African by Olaudah Equiano, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe with the usage of the digital tool Voyant. Throughout this analysis, we find that the identity of the texts’ speaker, whether one of the colonizer or the colonized, significantly impacts how these topics are considered and represented. With the support of Voyant, it is clear that these findings not only exist at the levels of the narration and storyline but are also embedded within the very structure and the language used in each of these texts.