Assessing Finding Aid Discoverability After Description Improvements Using Web Analytics

Archivists use best practices, like More Product Less Process, and professional standards, like Describing Archives: A Content Standard, to create descriptions of archival collections that promote collection use and discoverability. However, most existing usability literature assessing online finding aids looks at navigability and ease of use, but does not examine increase in traffic and discoverability of those finding aids. University of Colorado Boulder Archives improved online finding aid descriptions on ArchivesSpace during 2020. Google Analytics data from 2020 and 2021 show an increase in users and sessions on ArchivesSpace. It also indicates that most users arrive to the site from Google searches. Based on this data, this case study demonstrates that improving online descriptions is connected to increased online finding aid use

The Weaponization of Rape: Conflict-Related Rape and The International Criminal Court

Conflict-related rape—once thought to be an inevitable symptom of war—has been legally recognized as both a distinct weapon of war and a crime against humanity, yet it continues to be utilized with impunity. To understand why combatants rape, this paper examines the aspects of military culture that create environments in which raping is not only permissible, but encouraged; additionally, this paper considers cases of genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda in which rape was used systematically to achieve political goals, and how these conflicts contributed to new conceptions of rape in international criminal law. These new conceptions of conflict-related rape created additional avenues to prosecute perpetrators, notably the International Criminal Court (ICC), but does membership in the ICC deter the use of conflict-related rape, or guarantee successfully convicted perpetrators? In both regards, ICC sexual violence jurisdiction in member and non-member states proves to be underwhelming: many ICC judgments have failed to convict individuals for rape due to too-strict standards of command responsibility, certain ICC prosecutorial strategies have deprioritized rape charges, and ICC prosecutions are complicated by the Court’s dependence on state cooperation. Furthermore, ICC investigations and trials have been found to have negligible effects on deterring state and rebel forces from using sexual violence. Though ICC member states cannot rely solely on the Court’s jurisdiction to deter conflict-related sexual violence, ICC jurisdiction can importantly strengthen domestic prosecutions of conflict-related rape, and strong commitment to ICC complementarity in member states has the potential to expand the reach of deterrence efforts

Measurement of a high energy resolution and high statistics 163Ho electron capture spectrum for the ECHo experiment

The goal of the ECHo collaboration is to reach a sub-eV sensitivity on the effective electron neutrino mass by the analysis of the high energy resolution and high statistics 163Ho electron capture spectrum measured with metallic magnetic micro calorimeters. Within this thesis several measurements have been performed for detector optimization and for a study of the spectral shape of the 163Ho . In a first measurement the heat capacity of Ho-ions implanted in gold absorbers was measured. It was found that an implanted activity per pixel of a = 10 Bq does not compromise in a noticeable way the performance of the detector at T = 20 mK. To test the performance of MMC detectors shielded by rock and to check this option of operation for future ECHo phases, an experiment was performed in an underground lab. This measurement allowed for the first time a detailed investigation of the 163Ho spectral shape. Furthermore, was a first high statistic 163Ho spectrum acquired. The analysis allows for a determination of the Q-value of the 163Ho EC with Q = 2.837 +- 0.005 (stat) +- 0.005 (syst) keV and to perform a first analysis of the end point region of the spectrum to extract an effective electron neutrino mass

The Weaponization of Rape: Military Culture, Tactical Warfare, and Legal Justice

The long-accepted narrative of wartime rape is one of inevitability, with sexual violence committed at the hands of soldiers during conflict being written off as an unavoidable side-effect of war. In reality, however, wartime rape can be systematically and tactically employed by military forces to terrorize the bodies of their enemies, often as an attempt to physically and psychologically destroy certain populations. The act itself, when employed tactically, is legally recognized as a weapon of war—and the rape of civilians by military forces was legally designated as a crime against humanity in 1993—yet rape continues to be utilized in conflict by military forces. To understand why soldiers are willing to employ rape as a tactic against their enemies, certain aspects of military culture must be examined, especially those that breed toxic masculinity, emphasize the demonization of the enemy, and create environments where raping is not only permissible, but encouraged. This paper will also examine cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing in both Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s that clearly illustrate how rape is used tactically to achieve a political or ideological goal, as well as how these conflicts have contributed to new legal conceptions of rape under international humanitarian law. By shifting the narrative of wartime rape from an inevitable symptom to an internationally recognized war crime, we can then begin to focus on (1) ensuring justice for victims, and (2) eradicating wartime rape, whether it be through military reform or legal deterrence on the global stage

Exploring the role of context models in memory-building: the completion of informative voids and the re-organisation of narratives in second-hand memories

The transmission of memory after traumatic collective events (such as armed conflicts) always involves a discursive re-construction from a present viewpoint. In the case of new generations who have no direct memories of the conflict, a variety of contextual factors can interfere in the process of meaning-making. In this paper, we explore some of the discursive strategies employed by youngsters in order to fill in informational voids or to manage discourses that seem contradictory with their current context or pre-established belief systems when re-building narratives about violent conflicts in their community. Oral data collected from eight in-depth interviews with adolescents belonging to the first post-conflict generation in the Basque Country was analysed, combining theories from Memory Studies and theoretical-methodological approaches from Critical Discourse Analysis. Four types of rearrangement of information were identified during the interviews: all speakers drew on contextual information and pre-established mental models in order to fill in informational gaps, even if the resulting narratives sometimes altered the original meaning. Evidence suggests that remembering is a discursive practice strongly influenced by the current context and situation of the speaker, which would offer an explanation as to why collective memory changes with each generation.Peer Reviewe

Symposium: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, & the Constitution: The Precarity of Justice Kennedy\u27s Queer Canon

This essay gives a brief overview of the legal and normative of impact of Justice Kennedy’s Queer Canon, a series of four LGBTQ cases written by Justice Kennedy over nearly two decades. The pro-LGBTQ outcomes in the Queer Canon cases made Justice Kennedy a hero to many LGBTQ people. It then explores Justice Kennedy’s fifth, and final, LGBTQ opinion, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. That case, which held that a traditional Christian baker would prevail on his First Amendment Free Exercise challenge to a state public accommodations law, was not the finale hoped for by the LGBTQ community. The essay next asks and answers the question: What will a post-Justice Kennedy Court mean for LGBTQ people and the 25 years of constitutional progress reflected in his Queer Canon? Through a comparative analysis of the Court’s two post-Justice Kennedy decisions, Bostock v. Clayton County and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Justice Kennedy’s Queer Canon, and his opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop, this essay contends that the progress made during the Justice Kennedy era is a fragile progress, one that is under threat by the current Court