Social Justice Commons^™

Housing Equity In Golden Gate Village, Nicole White

Social Justice | Senior Theses

For generations, the African American community has faced many forms of housing discrimination that have created major inequalities in their everyday lived experiences (Lockwood, 2020). This study explores the long-lasting effects of discriminatory housing policies in creating disparate housing conditions within the public housing community in Marin City called Golden Gate Village, as well as the role of the Marin Housing Authority in practices of displacement and neglect. The methodology for the study included seven different interviews with Golden Gate Village residents to obtain knowledge about the community as well as grasp an understanding of the lived experiences of the …

Trans Futures In The Present Moment, Willow Grace Eckmayer

University Honors Theses

The current climate for trans folks in the U.S. remains increasingly hostile and many researchers have called attention to the "joy deficit" within the existing trans literature (Shuster & Westbrook, 2022). This study investigates what trans individuals are currently doing to survive, thrive, and resist in a belligerent socio-political climate. To answer this, five community conversations with 25 participants were held using a semi-structured conversation guide. Within the analysis, the central theme that emerged was that trans individuals are using their communities to create radical futures. Our communities are supporting us through mutual aid and radical acts of care, which …

Nurturing Haven: A Safe Place For Single Mothers, Meng Su

Masters Theses

Single mothers may turn to substance use as a coping mechanism due to the overwhelming responsibility of caring for children on their own. Raising children without the support of a partner can be emotionally, physically, and financially demanding, leaving single mothers feeling stressed, anxious, and exhausted. These feelings of burden and pressure can lead to depression, and substance use may sw to maintain their responsibilities and provide the care their children need. This thesis proposes the integration of two typologies: a harm reduction center and a daycare center, with the aim to de-stigmatize single mother substance users and create a …

Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante, Augusto Martin Rivero

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ambigú Trashumante Barra de Café Ambulante is an applied research project which took shape over the course of a calendar year from May 2022-2023. A six-person team evolved including the personified project itself, united as one communal entity in collaboration. The project entailed creation of a bicicargo, or cargo bike–useful art becoming a mobile coffee bar and literal vehicle embodying justice through coffee offered freely in México, as facilitated through decolonized ethnography and Mesoamerican Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR). The project’s theoretical framework centers on Bruguera’s (2012) arte útil conceptualization. Five core patterns emerged, including the right to thrive in …

La Sagrada Medicina De La Madre Tierra: Traditional Ancestral Preservation In Pomona, Ca Community Gardens, Lizbeth Valdivia-Jauregui

Scripps Senior Theses

For thousands of years before colonization, Indigenous ancestral knowledge has preserved, honored, and nurtured the sacredness of Mother Earth through kin-based institutions knitted together in a cosmic web of lineages and tribes (Henrich, 2020). The purpose of this grounded theory community-centered study was to examine how traditional ancestral knowledge is transmitted within community gardens in the city of Pomona, CA. Participants (N = 16) were interviewed using open-ended qualitative interviews that followed Charmaz’s (2014) constructivist grounded theory framework, in order to explore participants’ perspectives and personal experiences in possibly viewing community gardens as spaces of cultural transmission (Charmaz, 2014). …

An Ancient Thread Of “Inseparable Oneness”: A Theoretical Exploration Of Community And Kinship In Grassroots Environmental Justice Movements, Izzy Dean

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis arose from a particular fascination and frustration with the prescribed nuclear family unit and the competitive isolation that capitalism breeds within normative communities, particularly in the United States. In this paper, I use the approach of theoretical exploration combined with case study research to explore the role of community and kinship within grassroots environmental justice organizations. I initially wanted to explore examples of people and groups who found strength and resistance by engaging in “non-normative” or “queer” community-building practices. I have since redefined my topic as a broad theoretical exploration in which I cite theories of non-normativity, among …

Impacting Michigan Latino Students’ Perceptions Of Higher Education: How To Better Communicate And Promote 4-Year College Degree Opportunities, Michael A. Guerra

Culminating Experience Projects

In the state of Michigan, the marginalization of Latino students continues due to historical and social factors; this is ultimately reflected in higher education enrollment and graduation rates when compared to their White peers, the dominant group in the state (MI School Data, 2022). For varying reasons, not every student will seek higher education after high school, but it is worth ensuring opportunities and reasons to attend are properly communicated for sake of helping Latino students better explore all their college and career options. While the Michigan Latino population has the highest labor force participation compared to other racial or …

Defining Regenerative Business Through The Context Of Place: A Case Study West Michigan Businesses, Aislinn Teachout, Aislinn Teachout

Masters Theses

This study builds upon existing scholarly literature on regenerative design and regenerative sustainability by relating the framework to existing West Michigan businesses and their place-specific practices. Applying concepts from those more developed fields to business sustainability, this paper contributes to the still emerging field of regenerative business by proposing a comprehensive definition of regenerative business. The definition is then applied to three businesses in a case study format to highlight regenerative business practices. While none of the businesses highlighted claim to be regenerative, all have examples of practices that demonstrate regenerative action and enhance the West Michigan community.

By defining …

Re-Rooting/ Re-Routing, Elisabeth Hanson Sundberg

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper is the story of a community art project with the goal of thinking through the two questions: How can an understanding of land, specifically the colonial and indigenous histories layered within it, facilitate acknowledgement of the relationship of local and non-local food to food access efforts? How does acknowledgement of the roles of local and non-local food in food access efforts, facilitate understanding of times when it is productive to gather as a community? The text is organized as components of a set table: the table supports, the seats, the table top, the table cloth, the dishes, and …

Engaging Santa Cruz County Employers, Jayne Prieto

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This internship was completed at the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County (CAB), which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping low-income at-risk youth and adults. The intern was fortunate to work with the Links2Work!, an Alcance program. Links2Work! helps individuals gain work experience and find linkages to employment. Currently, the biggest challenge is finding employment for those individuals impacted by the justice system. Their past histories have disqualified them from jobs. The intern’s Capstone Project was to find fair chance employers in the county of Santa Cruz that will allow the organization to better serve job seekers and …

The Arena Players, Inc.: The Oldest Continuously Operating African American Community Theatre In The United States, Alexis Michelle Skinner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hay (1994) gave the Arena Players the moniker, “the oldest continuously operating African American community theatre company” in the U.S. But, if Black Theatre is increasingly found in mainstream venues in regional theatre and Broadway while Black Drama is relegated to syllabi, where is the living practice of African American, or black, community theatre? And what guarantees its survival? Craig (1980) and Fraden (1994) give voice to black critics, like Locke (1925), in co-creating objectives for black theatre during the FTP which took stage as the Negro Little Theatre continued. Hill & Hatch (2003) solidify the geographical and ideological connections …

"Revolution", Noelle Lilley

Capstones

When faced with gun violence in 1990s Canarsie, one 17-year-old carried his community on his back. “Revolution” chronicles the rise and fall of the Canarsie arts youth-led movement, Team Revolution, and the man at the center of it all: Divine Bradley.