Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The "Messy Middle": A Framework For Analyzing Raciolinguistic Inequity, Casey Erin Anthony

Graduate Masters Theses

Existing research has demonstrated that bilingual education in the United States is highly inequitable, providing greater benefits to white English speakers than to students from minoritized backgrounds (e.g., Babino & Stewart, 2017; Palmer, 2009). Additional research has suggested that bilingual spaces also uphold whiteness and English hegemony outside of classrooms, in spaces like parent groups to administrative decisions (e.g., Gallo, 2017; Jacobsen et al., 2019). This ethnographic case study of a Spanish-English Two-Way Dual Language (TWDL) elementary school examines raciolinguistic positioning and interactions among students, teachers, and parents. Drawing on dysconscious racism (King, 1991), LangCrit (Crump, 2014), and critical consciousness …

We Resist, We Heal, We Transform: Exploring Youth Of Color Journeys Towards Healing Justice In A Grassroots Organization In Urban Boston, Rhyann Leslie Robinson

Graduate Masters Theses

While many would say otherwise, the current system is not a broken one (Kaba, 2021). The colonial systems, frameworks, and theories we have in place are working exactly how they are supposed to: in favor of and in tandem with systems that seek to oppress marginalized communities. This realization calls for a shift, including shifts in research in ways that builds from below (Atallah & Dutta, 2021; Fernández, 2018; Tang-Yan, 2022). The current study aims to explicitly interrogate coloniality and colonial violence in a United States socio historical context, exploring youth of color development in conditions of adversity, looking at …

Material Consumption Of An 18th-Century Middling Urban Craftsman In Boston, Massachusetts, Lauryn E. Sharp

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis studies how Caleb Parker, a blacksmith and craftsman who lived in the early- to mid-18th century, viewed and utilized refinement and genteel behaviors using the glass and ceramic artifacts recovered from a privy at his home at 23 Unity Street in Boston’s North End. Background research explores the concept of “partible refinement,” which speaks to the notion that the “middling sorts'' at this time, including craftspeople like Caleb Parker, had the agency to selectively use different components of refined gentility according to their personal consumer choice and tastes. This resulted in middling sorts incorporating both traditional and modern …

“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 …

Implementation Of Tuning In To Kids Social-Emotional Learning Program In The Kyrgyz Republic, Anasatsiia Iun

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

To date, no research on the influence of social-emotional learning (SEL) instruction on school violence and academic performance in the Kyrgyz Republic has been published. However, the current levels of school violence and poor academic performance in Kyrgyz schools warrant action. According to the UNICEF report (2012), 83% of students reported witnessing or experiencing instances of violence at school. Research has shown positive results of SEL instruction on reducing school violence in various countries (Taylor et al., 2017). Therefore, the goal of this study was to pilot the implementation of a Russian translation of the Tuning in to Kids program, …

The Impact Of Historical Trauma, Self-Compassion, And Resistance Against Racism Among African Americans, Darrick Scott

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

For African Americans, historical trauma is described as collective psychological, emotional and cognitive distress, producing an intergenerational impact through repeated experiences of oppression that both stems from slavery and continues into the present day through patterned experiences of racism (Williams-Washington & Mills, 2018). The current study explored the association between historical racial trauma, resistance and empowerment against racism, self-compassion, and internalized racism, and symptoms of depression in a sample of 100 African American adults. Due to low internal reliability of the measure, self-compassion in the context of historical trauma could not be examined. The study included exploration of simple correlations, …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Meta-Method Analysis On Therapists’ Experiences: An Inquiry Into Qualitative Psychotherapy Research Methodology, Javier L. Rizo

Graduate Masters Theses

I conducted a meta-method study to explore the methodological and reporting characteristics of qualitative studies on therapists’ experiences conducting psychotherapy. Articles were identified through a PsycINFO search, and through a review of article text their methodological and reporting features were coded and quantitatively analyzed. Consideration was given to standards of qualitative research in psychology, especially methodological integrity. Results showed increases in the number of these qualitative studies from the 2000s onwards. This rise seems to be above that in psychology, but comparable to other psychotherapy literature. Publication characteristics of this body of literature, namely journal discipline and impact score, showed …

Brutality Behind Bars: A Look At Prison Violence In Ecuador, Zulema Alejandra Palacios Jaramillo

Graduate Masters Theses

Prisons are frequently perceived as spaces where those unwanted by society are placed. Thus, they are often purposefully ignored and left under-served. This is the reality of prisons and inmates in Ecuador, where violence has reached unprecedented levels, raising concerns about its causes. As this thesis shows, violence inside prisons is not an isolated incident only provoked by the restrictive nature of detention centers, or the character of inmates, but rather a manifestation of a complex mix of institutional, organizational, criminological, and social factors at play in the country. This thesis aims at understanding, from a conflict resolution perspective, what …

Spirits And Spirituality: Temperance And Racial Uplift In Nineteenth-Century Nantucket, Ma, John T. Crawmer

Graduate Masters Theses

Studies of alcohol consumption have shown alcohol’s role in defining social boundaries based on class and ethnicity, but few have interrogated alcohol in the context of race. During the early-19th century, free black communities were encouraged to refrain from alcohol as part of a larger project of racial uplift. Black societies and churches perceived intemperance as not only immoral but a threat to community survival. Excavations of the Nantucket African Meeting House noted a considerable lack of alcohol bottles, but it was unclear whether temperance was equally observed at the neighboring Boston-Higginbotham House. This research uses a minimum number of …

Sisters And Stewards: Women And Community-Building At The African Meeting House On Nantucket, Ma, Sean A. Fairweather

Graduate Masters Theses

Despite the underrepresentation of the achievements of Black women in the historical record, scholars have recognized the centrality of their participation in social institutions such as the church. This thesis uses a documentary archaeology approach to highlight the tactics employed by Black and other women of color on Nantucket Island to foster community through the Black Baptist church housed in the African Meeting House during the nineteenth century. In the free but racially marginalized neighborhood of New Guinea, the African Meeting House was one of two churches that facilitated dignity and uplift for its members. The maintenance of the church …

Exploring Predictors Of Healing From An Expressive Writing Intervention About Heterosexism And Why Lgbtq+ Clients Might Withhold From Their Therapists, Ally B. Hand

Graduate Masters Theses

Heterosexism is a cultural system that impacts LGBTQ+ individuals internally, interpersonally, institutionally, and structurally. Exposure to these different levels of heterosexism, whether enacted overtly, covertly, intentionally, or unintentionally, contributes to the well-documented and disproportionate negative mental health outcomes experienced by the LGBTQ+ community (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM], 2020). Subsequently, LGBTQ+ individuals seek out professional mental health services at higher rates than cisgender and heterosexual populations, though access to therapeutic care that addresses sexual minority specific stressors, such as experiencing heterosexism directly, is limited (Williams & Fish, 2020). The current study is a secondary analysis of a …

Complexity At The Science-Policy Interface In Ethiopia’S Policy Spaces, Wondemagegnehu W. Sintayehu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The mechanics of interaction between science and policy in the context of complex policy spaces has remained a subject of scholarly debate. Recent focus is shifting towards promoting science-policy interfaces as spaces for integration of science into decision making. However, the question of what these spaces are and how they function remains a puzzle. While existing literature agrees on the apparent disruption of communication between knowledge generation and policy; or offers suggestions on factors that facilitate or inhibit communication, it often fails to present a comprehensive understanding on the mechanisms of actual interchange. Besides, research tends to sideline considerations of …

Acculturation And Health Services Utilization Among Older Asian Americans: The Roles Of Social Support And Psychological Distress, Mei Chen

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

There are relatively few studies about health services utilization among older Asian Americans. Historically, Asian Americans have been treated as one homogenous race group, and the underlying heterogeneity among specific ethnic groups was underappreciated and neglected. This dissertation investigates the relationship between acculturation and health services utilization among older Asian Americans and several specific Asian ethnic subgroups, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans. In addition, South Asian Americans and members of other Asian groups were also examined.

This study employed two samples of older Asian Americans based on the specific healthcare resources evaluated. The first sample employed five …

“You’Re On Your Own”: Examining The Wellbeing Of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Who Have Transitioned Into Adulthood In The United States, Hannah E. Taverna

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The United States' Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) Program, which has served around 13,000 foreign-born children since the 1980s, aims to incorporate unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) in need of international protection into the child welfare systems of 15 individual states. Despite the fact that children accepted into the URM program have access to the same benefits as those in state custody, URMs face unique challenges from their non-refugee peers. Limited research exists regarding the wellbeing of URMs who have transitioned out of the URM program and into adulthood. This study aimed to explore the experiences of participants who have transitioned out …

Simulation Modeling For Robust And Just Public Policy Decision-Making, Jack Mitcham

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Public policy decision-making is challenging for several reasons. First, the outcomes of pulling a public policy lever are often deeply uncertain because of the complexity of the social and physical systems involved. Second, even if outcomes can be predicted, there are multiple points of view to consider, and the same outcome can be viewed anywhere from very positively to very negatively by different stakeholders. Because of this, public policy decisions should be both robust and just. Robustness helps with the uncertainty in outcomes and justice helps with differences in worldview. In this dissertation, I employ system dynamics and agent-based simulation …

E-Quality: An Analysis Of Digital Equity Discourse And Co-Production In The Era Of Covid-19, Kelsey E. Edmond

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The digital divide refers to the social stratification due to an unequal ability to access, adapt, and create knowledge via information and communication technologies (Andreasson, 2015). Digitally disadvantaged individuals have inadequate access to services and resources, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic instigated a new model of digital equity policymaking that leverages co-production between numerous actors. As citizens faced new financial and community constraints and governments reached administrative capacities, both the digital divide and the policymaking process evolved.

This inductive study explores how digital equity policymaking shifted to a co-production model (Ostrom, 1996) amid the pandemic. Using a sequential mixed-methods …

Negotiating Acculturation: A Qualitative Study Of Muslim American Women, Noor N. Tahirkheli

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The estimated population of Muslims in the United States ranges from 3 to 7 million (Bukhari, 2003; Pew Research Center, 2017; Strumm, 2003), with an estimated 69-75% of Muslim Americans being 1st or 2nd generation immigrants (defined as those born abroad and those with immigrant parents, respectively), hailing from over 80 countries (Bukhari, 2003; Pew Research Center, 2017). Thus, most Muslims are navigating the complex processes of acculturation, which is the adaptation of behavioral, cognitive, and affective aspects of one’s cultural functioning, which result from consistent contact with different cultural contexts and groups (Driscoll & Wierzbicki, 2012). Research has noted …