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Not Meant To Be Read: The Stories They Silence, The Resistance That Speaks, Cristina Onea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the evolution of surveillance from overt state violence to the more insidious forms of ideological policing embedded in everyday life. Through lived experience, oral history, and critical autoethnography, I explore how surveillance moves through bodies, families, institutions, and memory—not simply as external control, but as internalized rhythms of fear, vigilance, and self-surveillance. I move between my father's life under Romanian dictatorship, my own embodied inheritance, and the contemporary struggles of librarians facing ideological suppression to reveal surveillance as a structure that persists through generations, mutates across contexts, and demands new forms of resistance.

I argue …

The Invisible Hand Of Networked Repression, Thuy Anh Tran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

U.S. history is awash with contentious episodes involving a legion of governmental and non-governmental actors operating through an array of means and arenas to destroy the political opposition. Yet, there has been little systematic examination in the repression literature of how and why repressive efforts proliferate so far beyond the police, military, and intelligence agencies tasked and equipped to preserve the existing order. This dissertation presents a novel framework for studying the relational basis of repression—particularly as it is organized, mobilized, and extended through a networked social structure. Social network analysis and interpretive case studies are conducted on two historical …

The Origins Of German Industrialization: The Transition To Capitalism In Prussian Agriculture, Daniel C. Colligan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to explain the origins of German industrialization. Historical accounts of German industrialization often chronicle the process of its development but leave reasons for its initiation unexplained. Theories that have attempted to locate the roots of rapid German economic growth have been found to be empirically unsatisfactory, and thus the accepted story has defaulted to a gradualist narrative which conceptualizes economic behavior as fundamentally unchanging throughout German history. This dissertation challenges this reigning view, attempting to provide an explanation for why Germany embarked on a rapid economic growth trajectory in the nineteenth century whereas many other similarly situated …

Global Constructions Of Gender, Sexuality, And Migration: An Analysis Of Five Immigrant Memoirs, Grace Halvorson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone analyzes five memoirs by LGBTQ+ migrants—Jose Antonio Vargas, Edafe Okporo, Staceyann Chin, Danny Ramadan, and Samra Habib—to explore how governments weaponize gender and sexual orientation to construct national identity and exert control over both citizens and migrants. Their diverse migration experiences highlight how “gender border control” operates across families, communities, and national government systems, reinforcing heteronormative structures that regulate queer identities. My analysis of their memoirs reveals how both formal tools, such as immigration policies, and informal tools, such as social exclusion, make individuals outside heteronormative identity categories susceptible to state and societal violence. These personal narratives shed …

How Do Health Insurer Practices Affect Health Equity For Gay And Bisexual Men And Transmasculine Individuals? A Qualitative And Health Policy Assessment, Alexa D'Angelo

Dissertations and Theses

In the U.S. there continue to be stark disparities in health that affect LGBTQ+ communities. These disparities include those related to mental health, sexually transmitted infections, along with chronic illnesses and some cancers. Higher health needs across diagnostic categories mean that LGBTQ+ individuals require access to the healthcare system both to prevent conditions disproportionately affecting the community, and to treat conditions as they arise. In the U.S., access to healthcare often requires either reliable insurance coverage or another payer to cover costs associated with care. Thus, health insurance status and coverage of care, along with coverage regulations and health policies …

Historical, Philosophical, And Social Foundations Of Education, Ashraf A. Shady

Open Educational Resources

This course is designed to examine the historical, philosophical, and sociological foundations of American education. Attention will be paid to comparative analysis of past and contemporary historical, philosophical, and sociological factors that continue to influence and shape education decision-making. Theoretical analysis of major educational ideas and practices in the United States will be explored. 3hr.; 3cr.; 25 hr. field experience.

SEYS 201W is aligned with the core values of the education unit, which promote equity, excellence, and ethics in urban schools and communities. More specifically, the Education Unit is committed to preparing teachers and other school professionals who:

• Build …

Podcast: One To Grow On – Why Black Studies Matter When Working And Living In Black Communities, Celia E. Ceballos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines the transformative potential of Black Studies in enhancing community work within Black and Brown communities in New York City. The research is driven by the author's firsthand experiences and the realization of the importance of Black Studies, which was largely absent from earlier education. Through the interdisciplinary approach of the Graduate Center’s MALS program, the author has gained a deeper understanding of key topics such as the legacy of slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movements, and the ongoing struggle for racial justice. This journey inspired the creation of a capstone project, …

Beyond Country: Southern Language And Identity In North Mississippi, Meredith Hilliard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is about the language of the US South and the identities of the people who inhabit it. Its purpose is twofold: (1) to explain, on micro- and macro-levels, the processes of enregisterment (Agha 2003) of Southern US English, drawing conclusions about the phenomenon of enregisterment more generally; and (2) to articulate the relationship of Southern redneck identity to this process of enregisterment. It uses a mixed-methods approach that relies primarily on a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, adopting a stancetaking approach (Du Bois 2007) and an enregisterment approach to language and identity, with some quantitative elements, to analyze …

Punitive Desire, Belief In Redeemability, And Support For Rehabilitation: A Comparison Of Victimized And Non-Victimized Individuals' Attitudes Toward Criminal Offenders, Caleb Linder

Student Theses

This study examined the attitudes of victimized and non-victimized individuals toward criminal offenders, investigating whether the supportive attitudes observed in Spoo et al. (2018) extend beyond sexual offenses to other types of crime. The study also explored how the perpetrator’s relationship to the victim (family member vs. stranger) and participants’ previous exposure to the justice system influenced their perceptions of offenders. Contrary to our hypothesis, punitive attitudes did not differ between participants with a history of victimization and those without. Additionally, there was no significant difference in punitive attitudes toward stranger offenders compared to offenders known to the victim. Furthermore, …

Community Safety Innovations: New York State Initiatives To Strengthen Public Safety, Justice D. Evans, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Rebecca Balletto, Kathleen A. Tomberg, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This report presents findings from researchers at the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College (JohnJayREC) regarding the impact of state investments in community safety. The report highlights key initiatives such as the SNUG program, Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE), Project RISE, and Crime Analysis Centers (CACs). Through interviews with State agency staff and initiative leaders, the research team gathered valuable insights into the goals, challenges, and implementation of these programs. The findings suggest that these efforts may contribute to reduced violence and enhanced neighborhood safety, though further, more robust evaluation could help refine and expand these efforts for …

Sociology: Culture, Marcia Morrison

Open Educational Resources

This work examine culture. It begins by examining the foundations of culture to include norms, values, language, symbols and knowledge. In looking at each, it breaks down the implication of each to the development of ourselves as well as the person in the environment. It moves on to look at contexts of culture such as dominant cultures juxtapose to competing cultural systems, and how the various elements of culture can serve to either promote or minimize the various cultural constructs within society.

An Antidote To Populist Ill-Rule? Polycentricity, And Excess Mortality In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Michael Lee

Publications and Research

It has often proven difficult for scholars of populist governance to untangle the policy results produced by populist governments from the conditions that might lead voters to elect populist leaders. The COVID-19 pandemic – an exogenous event occurring amidst the rise of populist governments to power in many of the world’s democracies – offers a unique window into populist crisis management. Are populists less effective crisis managers when the stakes are high? And if so, what factors might mitigate populist ill-rule? In this paper I present evidence that populist-led governments experienced greater levels of excess mortality in the COVID-19 pandemic …

Cmlit 101w Syllabus, Alexander Moudrov

Open Educational Resources

The syllabus for CMLIT 101W (Global Literatures 1) based on open-source materials.

Latino Voter Registration And Participation Rates In The 2016, 2020, And 2024 Presidential Elections, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Abstract

This report examines Latino voter participation in U.S. presidential elections from 2016 to 2024, highlighting significant increases in registration and turnout between 2016 and 2020, followed by declines in 2024.

Methods

The study is a descriptive and comparative analysis using data from the Voting and Registration Tables issued by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Discussion

In 2020, Latino voter registration and turnout reached historic highs but these gains plateaued in 2024 despite continued population growth.

Persistent disparities in Latino voter participation remained across age groups and sex. Additionally, Latino participation rates in 2024 remained lower than that of non-Hispanic white, …

Sociology: An Introduction, Marcia Morrison

Open Educational Resources

This document introduces the reader to basic sociological concepts including the origins of sociology as a discipline, including its progression into a formidable science. It explores the role of its founding fathers as well as the field's emergence from the various reformations and revolutions to being a stand-alone discipline.

Inherited Fervor: Maternal Archive, Maria Angela Talavera Tejeda

Theses and Dissertations

Inherited Fervor: Maternal Archive investigates the deconstruction of the non-verbal language of Catholic ecstasy rituals to develop a choreographic language. Through the piece Doves Don’t Fly at Night, it explores the expansion of dancers’ physical range, positioning the body as an archive that embodies memories and mirrors the audience’s humanity.

Rewriting The Frontier: The Impact Of Collective Memory On The Mythos Of Western Settlement, Kelly E. Kooper

Theses and Dissertations

Using Paul Cohen’s methodological approach in History in Three Keys, this thesis examines the construction and debunking of the myths of manifest destiny, the rugged individual frontiersman, and the “noble savage” Native American in the writing about, experience of, and representation of the settlement American West. First, it analyzes the evolution of the historiography from Frederick Jackson Turner to William Cronon. Then it examines the experiences of four families (the Grices, Grahams, Deems, and McCormicks) who settled in Iowa and Nebraska from 1850 to 1880. Lastly, it surveys various popular cultural celebrations of the West. Through this triple lens, this …

The Imposition Of A Narrative Line: The Bildungsroman As Form In Contemporary Art, Brianne Chapelle

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work of contemporary American artists and writers Moyra Davey, Chris Kraus, Frances Stark, and Martine Syms within the context of feminist art history, theory, and practice in the post-1970s artworld. While often read as autobiographical or self-referential, their work across media uses personal narrative as a means of engaging broader theoretical and institutional concerns. Through the literary form of the bildungsroman, these artists employ narrative, fiction, and memoir—often through new and time-based media, but also through interdisciplinary modes rooted in writing—to reflect on their ongoing education as artists within an increasingly globalized Euro-American artworld. By …

Intersections: Gastro-Politics Aesthetic And Contemporary Chinese Art, Fan Du

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how contemporary Chinese artists use food as a medium to explore ritual, trade, politics, and cultural identity. Centering on The Note of Food, an exhibition I curated, it draws on Arjun Appadurai’s concept of gastro-politics and Lu Xun’s nalaizhuyi (“grabbing doctrine”) to analyze how artists strategically appropriate cultural resources amid tensions between East and West, and tradition and modernity. Merging curatorial practice with food and visual anthropology, the project uses exhibition-making as both method and object of inquiry. As a native anthropologist working as both curator and researcher, I propose a model of curatorial anthropology that …

Who Are Singer-Songwriters In The 21st Century? A Case Study On The Role Of Digital Communications In Socio-Musical Activity., Miranda Commisso

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis follows ten self-identified, singer-songwriters from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds to identify commonalities, with special attention given to the ways they invest power and meaning in their music through use of social media. While these musicians are seeking capital gains through use of social media, they do it as a way to make music their livelihood, not out of a desire for excessive wealth or fame, which reflects this musical category more broadly.

Body Of Light, Lucy C. Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Body of Light is a two channel video installation, incorporating a combination of archival material and present day footage to explore and speculate upon the traces of Audrey Munson’s life that remain, a ghostly presence creeping into our current world.

Fugitive Colors, Natalie Rose Eddings

Theses and Dissertations

My objects are meditations on intertwining themes of labor, rest, and interiority and their shadow sides—power, subjugation and the gaze. I couple materials that have millenia-long histories such as metals, glass, paper and clay with found objects and plat materials to illustrate narratives and exhume memories. Drawn from nature and technologies of land, plant stewardship and the domestic realm, I imagine my sculptures as life supporting vessels or magical enclosures.

Through sculpture, photography and printmaking, I build structures that are space of quiet to be filled with thought, healing and development. Like incubators and seed pods, my work is protective …

Testimony Before The Puerto Rico Advisory Committee To The United States Commission On Civil Rights On The Role That Race And Ethnicity Play In The Treatment Of The People Of Puerto Rico By The Federal Government, Yomaira Figueroa, Carlos Vargas-Ramos

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

The Insular Cases, whether the narrow or more expansive canon, have structured the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States for more than a century. The genesis of this “third-way” of understanding and structuring the territorial relationship with the United States rested on the very ethnocentric and indeed racist ideology pervasive at the time in U.S. ruling circles, whereby there was a hierarchy of dominance and control that placed White Anglo Saxon Protestant men at the top and subordinated all other ethnic and racial groups in a gradation of subservience and exclusion.

Querying The Ecological Sublime: Colonial Aesthetics, Anticolonial Thought, And The ‘Double Fracture’, Tacuma Peters

Publications and Research

This article examines the ecological sublime in its relationship to the history of colonial aesthetics, anticolonial thought, and contemporary colonialism. It argues that, while Edmund Burke utilized the sublime in support of colonialism (including settler colonialism) in North America and colonial slavery, Samson Occom and Ottobah Cugoano developed versions of the sublime to contest British colonialism in the Americas. The history of this aesthetic contestation has not been represented in scholarship on the ecological sublime, which, this article shows, has a vexed relationship with historical and contemporary colonialism. The article argues that the ecological sublime exhibits the “double fracture” of …

Examining Portrayals Of Gender In The Design Of Ai Voice Assistants, Olivia Fratangelo

Student Theses

This capstone project provides a theoretical framework for shifting the ways in which we think about and discuss anthropomorphized features of technological products, focusing specifically on applying this framework to the gendered design of AI voice assistants. The goal in providing this framework is to prompt readers to consider how we can think more critically about technology beyond our “preferences” and biases. Our roles as consumers of technology do not have to be passive ones. In fact, the dialectical relationship between humanity and technology makes everyone who contributes to society not just a consumer, but a developer of technology in …

Punishing Pregnancy Loss: Miscarriage Criminalization As An Embodied Carceral Practice, Robin O'Hanlon

Publications and Research

The persecution of Brittany Watts, a 34-year-old Black Ohio woman arrested in September 2023 after experiencing a miscarriage, is emblematic of pregnancy loss criminalization as an embodied carceral practice. In the United States, the expansion of “fetal personhood” laws, coupled with a desire to punish imperfect pregnancies, have coalesced to produce policies and practices which actively police and criminalize pregnancy loss. The carceral regime of fetal personhood is further reinforced by medical paternalism and surveillance. I argue that the policies and practices which police pregnancy loss are rooted in a series of carceral logics, which are in turn reinforced by …

Notes From The Field - Conference Proceedings, Summer Fellows 2024, Center For Latin American, Caribbean, And Latino Studies (Clacls)

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

CLACLS presents proceedings papers from the second CLACLS Summer Fellows Showcase Conference, held on November 7, 2024. The day-long event showcased fieldwork results of CLACLS 2024 Summer Fellows, and was curated into five panels: “Feminist and Queer Critical Perspectives”, “Transnational Exchanges/Diasporic Experiences”, “Ecocritical Lenses”, “Social Movements, Cultural and Economic Practices and Political Imagination", and "Countering State/Official Narratives.”

Community-Level Analysis Of Anti-Asian Hate Crime, Jisoo Cho, Jinuk Jeong, Christopher Han-Fai Seto

Publications and Research

Motivated by the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines the community characteristics associated with the likelihood of their occurrence from 2020 to 2023 through interracial conflict and social disorganization perspectives. Analyzing data from the New York City Police Department and the American Community Survey across 2,198 census tracts, we find that communities with higher levels of Asian population, racial heterogeneity, and residential instability have higher odds of experiencing anti-Asian hate crime. However, concentrated disadvantage and defended neighborhoods (White, Black, and Hispanic) are not significant across all estimated models. These findings have important implications for …

Building A Professional Learning Community To Improve Technical Services Librarians’ Teaching Preparedness: Assess, Act And Reflect, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This action research was conducted to address the gap between having all librarians prepared to teach and technical services librarians’ unpreparedness to teach in a university library system. The implemented intervention was developing a professional learning community among technical services librarians with a variety of teaching experiences to improve teaching preparedness by sharing, discussing, and reflecting. The learning topics covered library teaching basics, motivating students, self-assessment, planning to teach, using Wikipedia for critical thinking, embedded librarianship and credit-bearing courses, teaching and research, and building a teaching portfolio and librarianship portfolio. A qualitative approach, including the implementation journal, reflective writing, and …

“Like A Fish Being Judged By My Ability To Fly”: Barriers To Accessibility In Postgraduate Study, Molly E. Thompson

Publications and Research

This research paper explores the unique accessibility challenges faced by disabled postgraduate students and what can be done to address them. Testimonies and formal studies alike show how disabled graduate students have to deal with stigmatizing attitudes from their instructors (especially if they hold intersectional marginalized identities) on top of systemic barriers such as strict deadlines, unsustainably heavy workloads, inaccessible travel requirements, and disability services that are not suited to undergraduate needs. These problems are especially prominent in medical school where demands on time and energy are especially rigorous. To address these issues, disability service programs must be reformed to …