Digital Commons Network^™

Solar Radiation Modification Governance In The Context Of Temperature Overshoot, Janos Pasztor

New England Journal of Public Policy

As the climate crisis escalates, governments—and recently even those in the wealthier countries in the Global North—are struggling to manage the impacts we are experiencing around the world in frightening abundance, including record-setting temperatures, fires, floods, and glacial and ice melt. Behind closed doors, policymakers are concerned as they contemplate the increasing likelihood, even under the most ambitious emission reduction pathways, that the world will overshoot the goal agreed upon in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5oC beyond pre-industrial levels.

It is in this “overshoot context” that interest is growing in an emerging, potentially supplementary …

Cop27 And The New Rise Of The Global South, Janice Golding

New England Journal of Public Policy

Developing countries require direct and indirect financial and non-financial assistance to address the climate crisis. The COP27 announcement of a new Loss and Damage Fund as well the unveiling of the Bridgetown Initiative collectively hold substantial promise to alter the course of climate multilateralism. The outcome of COP27 has presented unprecedented opportunities for the Global South to build global solidarity for climate justice, but the path ahead will not be easy. Materialization of support to developing countries may be, at best, not sustainable, or at worst, unforeseeable without consistent application of principles and values enshrined in historic, moral accountability for …

The Role Of Carbon Management Technologies In Meeting Net Zero, Ali Al-Saffar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The pathway toward implementing the changes necessary in the energy sector to keep global temperature rises from breaking through catastrophic barriers is narrow and tenuous and will require a range of zero- and low-carbon technologies to be dispatched at a speed and scale that is virtually unprecedented. Decarbonization through renewables, matched with the more efficient use of energy in the end-use sectors will play a large part. But there is growing realization that there will be residual fossil fuel use long into the future, and that the emissions from the burning of these fossil fuels in power plants and factories …

The Gulf: An Appeal For More Coordinated Action On Climate Change, Fareed Yasseen

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article seeks to provide the rationale behind Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Sudani’s call at the United Nations for the formation of a negotiating group within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process that brings together all member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iraq, and Iran. This article argues that these countries would benefit doubly from such an arrangement, because it would help them better address the direct effects of climate change, on the one hand, and to better address the effects of the measures taken to address climate change, which will affect them as fossil fuel producers, …

Comparing Vr Services Rate Between Black And White Job Seekers Across The Us, Alberto Migliore, John Shepard

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Data Note 85 explores differences in receiving VR services between Black and white job seekers. Nationally, the data indicated that there was little discrepancy between Black and white job seekers in exiting a VR program in 2022. However, the discrepancy was pronounced at the state level.

Estimating The Impacts Of Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education In Massachusetts: Initial Findings On Utilization, Employment, And Financial Assistance. Research Brief #1, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Songtian Zeng, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The UMass Boston Early Education CUSP is led by a multidisciplinary team that designed the simulator and uses it to produce current, relevant, accurate, and responsive estimates about the key impacts of proposed legislation to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. One of the simulator’s valuable features is that it can produce estimates for a range of policy parameters and provisions. The team will release additional briefs in the coming months to offer a more detailed look at the impacts outlined in this initial publication. Other planned briefs will examine key topics, such as impacts related …

Late-Life Gender Disparities In Economic Security: Evidence From The 2022 Elder Index, Jan E. Mutchler, Nidya Velasco Roldán, Yan-Jhu Su

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Estimates from the 2022 Elder Index illustrate the elevated risk of economic insecurity experienced by older women, especially those living alone. We use the Elder Index to calculate the percentage of older adults living in one- and two-person households with annual incomes that do not support economic security. National averages suggest that half of older women living alone, along with 42% of older men living alone, have annual incomes below the Elder Index. In addition, 21% of older couples have annual incomes below the Elder Index. Women in same-sex couples experience greater levels of disadvantage than men in same-sex couples …

Defining Intellectual And Developmental Disability: A Comparative Overview Across Five National Datasets, Daria Domin, Ryan Wedeking

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Data Note 86 shares a comparative overview of the different definitions of intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) from five national data sources on employment outcomes: National Survey of State IDD Agency Employment and Day Services; Rehabilitation Services Administration; American Community Survey; National Core Indicators; and Social Security Administration. The goals of this Data Note are to provide clarity about how each data source defines the IDD population and support readers’ understanding of the results from each source.

Second-Generation Latino Immigrant Assimilation In Massachusetts, Phillip Granberry, Mary Jo Marion

Gastón Institute Publications

Approximately one-fourth of Latinos in Massachusetts are second-generation immigrants. This population is defined as having at least one foreign-born parent. Massachusetts has 216,964 second-generation Latino immigrants, which ranks fourteenth among states. However, second-generation Latinos represent a 25.5% share of all Latinos in Massachusetts, and this share ranks 35th among states. In comparison, 37.8% of all Latinos in California are second-generation immigrants. This lower share in Massachusetts is because Puerto Ricans, the largest Latino population in the Commonwealth, have birthright citizenship and therefore are not considered foreign-born.

The foreign-born have many reasons for migrating, but their children's future success is a …

Brasileiros Nos Estados Unidos E Em Massachusetts: Um Perfil Demográfico E Econômico, Michelle Borges, Phillip Granberry, Alvaro Lima, Victor Luis Martins

Gastón Institute Publications

Os brasileiros têm uma presença significativa e em crescimento nos Estados Unidos. Em 2021, o Ministério das Relações Exteriores do Brasil estimou que 4.215.800 brasileiros estavam vivendo no exterior. Dentre eles, calculou-se que 42% estavam vivendo nos EUA. Portugal (7%) foi o segundo país mais procurado por Brasileiros, seguido por Paraguai (6%), Reino Unido (5%), Japão (5%), Itália (4%), Espanha (4%), Alemanha (3%), Canadá (3%), e França (2%) seguidos por uma série de outros países.

É bem documentado que o Censo dos Estados Unidos subestima as populações de baixa renda, estudantes e imigrantes, especialmente os indocumentados. No entanto, dentro dessa …

Brazilians In The U.S. And Massachusetts: A Demographic And Economic Profile, Michelle Borges, Phillip Granberry, Alvaro Lima, Victor Luis Martins

Gastón Institute Publications

Brazilians have a significant and growing presence in the United States. In 2021, when the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated that 4,215,800 Brazilians were living abroad, it calculated that 42% of them were living in the U.S. Portugal (7%) was distant second, followed by Paraguay (6%), United Kingdom (5%), Japan (5%), Italy (4%), Spain (4%), Germany (3%), Canada (3%), France (2%), and a host of other countries.

It is well documented that the U.S. Census undercounts low-income populations and immigrants, particularly the undocumented. However, within this limitation, the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) produces a sampling that enables …

Insights Into Changes In Employment And Day Services Data From Idd Agencies During Covid-19, Agnes Zalewska, Jean Winsor

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) had a major impact on people with disabilities and the services they receive. This brief explores the impact of PHE on employment and day services of people with IDD. The focus of this product is the National Survey of State Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Agencies’ Employment and Day Services (IDD survey) and its data collection in FY2020 and FY2021. We explore the feedback from state IDD agencies on the data shifts resulting from PHE and we summarize the themes observed.

Chinese Laundries In Massachusetts: An Oral History Project, Shauna Lo

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Security Administration Data Trends: Key Findings On Work Incentive Programs (2000–2021), Daria Domin, John Butterworth, Jean Winsor, Ryan Wedeking

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

DataNote 84 summarizes Social Security Administration data from 2000-2021 on work incentives and their underutilization by Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. It also compares younger recipients’ likelihood of working and participating in work incentives to older SSI recipients. Lastly, it examines the employment rate trends of SSI recipients across four disability sub-groups: intellectual disorders, developmental disability, autism spectrum disorders, and mental health disorders.

Addressing Barriers To Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Massachusetts Community Mediation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Shino Yokotsuka, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents over three years of systematically engaging, documenting and analyzing the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs/gaps and assets of state funded community mediation centers in Massachusetts. The report was compiled by researchers and an in-house DEI expert at the statutory state office of dispute resolution, the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office has been serving as a neutral forum and state-level resource for over 30 years.

The report is based on qualitative research that falls into the category of community based participatory research conducted through a series of community …

Addressing Barriers To Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Massachusetts Community Mediation, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Jarling Ho, Shino Yokotsuka, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents over three years of systematically engaging, documenting and analyzing the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs/gaps and assets of state funded community mediation centers in Massachusetts. The report was compiled by researchers and an in-house DEI expert at the statutory state office of dispute resolution, the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office has been serving as a neutral forum and state-level resource for over 30 years.

The report is based on qualitative research that falls into the category of community based participatory research conducted through a series of community …

Datanote: The American Community Survey, Daria Domin, John Shepard, John Butterworth, Jean Winsor, Agnes Zalewska, Daria Domin, Alberto Migliore

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

The American Community Survey (ACS) offers a broad population view of employment outcomes for working-age people with disabilities. This Data Note summarizes findings from an analysis of 2021 ACS data on employment rates, weeks worked, and poverty rates of people with and without disabilities across the US. These data are compared for people with no disability, people with any disability, and people with a cognitive disability, which indicate that people with disabilities continue to have less success in the labor market, and a greater likelihood of being underemployed, compared to individuals without a disability.

“Provisioned, Produced, Procured,” And Purchased?: A Macrobotanical Study Of Enslaved Individuals’ Economic Engagement In The Shenandoah Valley, Linda A. Seminario

Graduate Masters Theses

This research investigates enslaved peoples’ economic engagement in the Shenandoah Valley during the first half of the 19th century. In 2017, archaeologists excavated two features at the Belle Grove enslaved quarters in Middletown, Virginia— a root cellar and subfloor pit that were filled in when a log cabin burned down. The preservation of the macrobotanicals has allowed for an in-depth analysis of the plants with which enslaved individuals engaged and the relationship between plant acquisition and enslaved people’s regional formal economic involvement at a 19th-century plantation in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These data sets have also allowed for an …

No Injustice So Peace: The Interaction Between Race-Related Stress, Colorblind Racial Attitudes, And Resistance And Empowerment Against Racism, Kaela A. Yamini

Graduate Masters Theses

Past research has indicated that Black people are subjected to overt and covert forms of racism that can have a range of effects on emotional and psychological wellbeing. The current study sought to explore the how race-related stress and colorblind racial ideology impact Black people’s engagement in resistance and empowerment against racism. I hypothesized that higher endorsement of colorblind racial ideology would be associated with lower engagement in resistance and empowerment against racism. Additionally, I hypothesized that moderate levels of race-related stress would be associated with higher endorsement of resistance and empowerment against racism while low and high levels of …

Sartorial Practices And Daily Life: Examining Black Womanhood In Nineteenth-Century Boston, Erica A. Lang

Graduate Masters Theses

During the nineteenth century, the northern slope of Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood was home to a free African American community. Central to the Beacon Hill neighborhood was the African Meeting House, which operated as a Baptist church, home, school, and meeting space for Black community members. Archaeological investigations have revealed the story of not just the African Meeting House, but the surrounding vicinity and larger community. The African Meeting House collection provides a case study to understand the ways racism, sexism, and classism impacted the quotidian lives of Black women in freedom. Using Black feminism as a theoretical framework, this …

Limitations & Liberation: Republican Motherhood And Female Advancement In Nineteenth Century America, Hannah Russell

Graduate Masters Theses

First introduced by Linda Kerber in the 1970s, Republican Motherhood is the idea that described the role women were expected to play in the years following the American Revolution. Characterized by an expanded sphere of influence through the education of her sons to be prosperous future leaders of the nation and her daughters to be future mothers of American sons, Republican Motherhood played a significant role in the continuing development of gender relations in the early republic. To show the ways in which women utilized Republican Motherhood to reach self-actualization, I analyze the lives of Judith Sargent Murray, Catharine Beecher, …

“Each Heart Alone Knoweth Its Own Bitterness”: The Jackson Family In Clarke County, Virginia, From Enslavement To Jim Crow, Melanie E. Garvey

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of three generations of the Jackson family in Clarke County, Virginia, from approximately 1860 to 1915, covering the shift from enslavement to the Jim Crow period. Chapter One introduces the challenges with pre-existing publications on Clarke County and Virginia history. Chapter two focuses on the antebellum period and discusses what enslavement may have looked like in Clarke County. Chapter Three narrows the focus to Charles Jackson, Sr., the family patriarch, who was enslaved at New Market Plantation. Chapter Four looks at Charles Sr.’s son, Charles Jr., and the life he created for himself after enslavement. …

Deconstructing Reconstruction: The Portrayal Of The Reconstruction Era In High School History Textbooks, Eleanor Katari

Graduate Masters Theses

This paper examines the persistence of Dunning School narratives of the Reconstruction Era in high school US History textbooks, despite the thorough rejection of those narratives among academic historians at the college level and above. In examining the reasons for the persistence of these narratives, this paper acknowledges some structural elements of the textbook industry before focusing on the role of white women’s parent activism in shaping textbook content and adoption, stretching backwards to the 1890s and the Daughters of Confederate Veterans, and forward to the present day and organizations such as Moms for Liberty. This paper also points out …

Fem Simulations Of Plasmon Field Enhancement In Gold Nanoparticle Dimers And Gold Nanoparticle-Nanorod Dimers, Edward J. Lipchus

Graduate Masters Theses

Plasmon resonance refers to the collective oscillation of free electrons in a nanomaterial in response to an incident electromagnetic field. When two plasmonic nanoparticles are placed close together, their localized surface plasmon resonances can couple and interact. The resulting plasmonic coupling leads to the formation of new plasmonic modes in the dimer system, significantly enhancing the electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the nanoparticles, with various interesting and potentially useful applications. This thesis investigates the optical field enhancement arising from gold nanoparticle dimers in an aqueous dielectric medium, using the Finite Element Method simulation software COMSOL Multiphysics. The simulations provide …

Perspectives Of Hispanic/Latina Women Ages 60 And Over On The Impact Of Single Motherhood And Their Long-Term Financial Well-Being, Tess Juno Anselm

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Unmarried women over the age of 60 continue to experience disproportionate rates of adult poverty in the United States, while families headed by single mothers experience the highest poverty rates. This study explores the long-term impact of single motherhood on financial wellness through the perspective of Hispanic/Latina women ages 60 and over who have experienced single motherhood in Massachusetts. A transdisciplinary study, it utilizes intersectionality as a theoretical framework, employs feminist standpoint informed inquiry methods to document lived experiences through in-depth interviews, and engages diffraction as a mode of praxis as it intra-acts with narratives and explores the systems and …

“Si Se Puede”: Latinx/A/O Students Thriving At A Selective Historically White Institution, Melisa Alves

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The prevalence of whiteness at selective Historically White Institutions (HWIs) creates hostile and oppressive environments for Latinx/a/o students. Consequently, Latinx/a/o students face racialized barriers that impact their ability to thrive at these institutions. Yet, despite these racialized barriers, Latinx/a/o students have found ways to thrive at selective HWIs. Thriving is a transformative process through which one confronts and copes with challenges but is able to flourish. As part of the process, the transformation happens when one moves beyond the original level of functioning and grows psychologically despite the trauma experienced. The objective of this study was to move beyond the …

The Black Box Of Enrollment Management: The Influence Of Academic Capitalism And Values Of The Public Good, Kamala C. Kiem

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The study addresses the widening income and racial access gap in higher education resulting from enrollment management teams’ operationalization of academic capitalism. The study focuses on the local, micro level, emphasizing how enrollment management leadership teams make sense of enrollment management, recognizing that enrollment management and the work of enrollment management stakeholders exist within an organizational space encompassing the values of both public good and academic capitalism. Using a case study methodology and critical sensemaking theory, the research explored how academic capitalism and values of the public good shaped enrollment management leadership teams’ sensemaking and sensegiving as they enacted decisions, …

Hearing, Seeing, And Reading Is Believing: A Study Of Undergraduate Women And Messages About Careers, Sarah Elizabeth Isham

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study sought to understand how undergraduate women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds make meaning of the different career messages they receive and how those messages shape their early career decisions. The study was framed by vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) and meaning making. Participants reflected on the career messages they received from childhood through their college education. By using photos and images submitted in advance by each participant, participants were able to delve deeper into the meaning they derived from each image/photo as it related to their ideas about career paths. This study findings advance the understanding of messages …

Unapologetic! Leading In White Spaces: A Critical Race Grounded Theory Study About The Experiences Of Black Women College Presidents At Four-Year Predominantly White Institutions And Gendered Racisms’S Influence On Their Leadership Approach, Damita A. Davis

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

For higher education to be responsive to the changing national and student population, its leadership must be “reflective of the world around it, (which) will be key to managing the challenges of today and the unknown challenges of tomorrow” (American Council on Education, 2017, para. 4). Unfortunately, despite the increasing diversity of the student body, college presidents remain primarily white; therefore, maintaining a limited view of leadership. Centering the experiences of Black women as a “strength to build, develop, and perform leadership” (Lloyd-Jones, 2016, p. 66), and understanding their ways of knowing, is an important step for postsecondary education in …

Addressing Health Crises Through Courts? Climate Litigation In Latin America, The Right To Health And Vulnerable Populations, Thalia Viveros Uehara

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

As Latin America faces increasing climate-related health crises that disproportionately affect populations experiencing poverty and social exclusion, it becomes increasingly urgent to realize the most vulnerable's right to health. While the region's new constitutionalism (NLAC) has made progress in protecting this right, it has only recently begun to intersect with climate change law through rights-based climate litigation. This dissertation takes a transdisciplinary multi-methods research approach to answer the following question: How do health crises emerge within, and how are they addressed by courts through, domestic climate litigation in Latin America? Specifically, it examines how health concerns for vulnerable populations are …