Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Religious Orientation And Coping In Third Culture Kids, Kayla Zerbe

Honors Projects and Presentations: Undergraduate

This study examines the correlation between religious orientation and religious coping in Third Culture Kids (TCKs). Young adult TCKs often struggle with their identity, mental health, and cultural adjustment during the reentry process. Despite the unique struggles TCKs experience, very little research has been done on this population. Religion may play a role in the reentry process as support, challenge, or way of coping. The present study examines religion in TCKs through the lens of motivation, using the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), which measures intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation, and the Brief RCOPE, which measures positive and negative religious coping. …

Watching The Storm: Old Testament Reinvention Of God In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Evelyn Kelly

Language, Literature & Writing Student Scholarship

Author Zora Neale Hurston once claimed that “the Negro is not a Christian really” (Harvey 191). Yet she not only wrote a novel with “God” in the title, but multiple stories that echo specific biblical themes and motifs of salvation, judgment, violence, and pilgrimage. English scholar and professor Glenda Weathers has explored in depth one such parallel, the motif of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in her article, “Biblical Trees, Biblical Deliverance.” With Weather’s analysis, Janie is a Black Eve who is not saved by a male descendant but starts to experience echoes of paradise once …

Christianity, Feminism, And Identity Development In Christian Higher Education, Kaitlin Merlino

Communication Student Scholarship

Identity formation acts as an important part of human development. At the same time, some difficulty occurs when a person attempts to hold two identities that seemingly contradict. For those that identify as both feminists and Christians, this dilemma creates difficulties. As these two identity camps have been on opposing ends of a variety of issues for years, some may even feel unable to claim both of these labels simultaneously. At the same time, some can hold the values of each even as they reject the identity labels. The context of higher education provides students with an environment where they …

Towards A "Pedagogy Of Beauty": The New Evangelization, English Education, And Renewal Of The Catholic School, Elena Niese

Honors Theses

In the complex cultural landscape of the modern world, evangelization, or the proclamation of the Gospel, cannot look the same as it once did. In 1975, Pope Paul VI addressed this need for renewal, calling for a “new evangelization.” Subsequent popes, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, have continued to place this missionary impulse at the forefront of their initiatives. Yet, despite this emphasis, much remains elusive. What exactly is the new evangelization? This thesis will trace the evolution of the new evangelization from its conception to today, proposing how the English educator within the Catholic school can …

Behold Your Mother: Wives And Mothers As Partners In Christ's Priestly Mission, Jordan Mccormick

Honors Theses

This research explores the Catholic Church's teaching on the priesthood of the laity and, specifically, how the lay priesthood of women, as wives and mothers, works in tandem with and complements the ordained priesthood. The concept of lay priesthood is rooted in our baptism - where we are invited into and given the power to participate in Jesus Christ's priesthood through our own prayers and sacrifices, our ministering to others, etc. In this study, the lives of five lay women from the 19th and 20th centuries, who are either canonized saints in the Church or who are on their way …

The Jewish Organizations Fighting Fascism In The United States, Maya Leibold

Honors Theses

Recent years have shown a rising trend in fascist and antisemitic actions and attitudes in the United States. In response to this trend, communities have organized into various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) committed to mobilizing people to combat fascism and antisemitism as they see it. An analysis of these organizations’ methods and varying degrees of success will offer a blueprint for future action against fascism. Due to their historical connection to this type of mobilization against fascism, this research will be focused on Jewish-led and organized NGOs. NGOs are often the first to call attention to actions by groups and states …

Finding Home: (Re)Thinking Identity Through Texts As A Queer, White Woman, Lydia Pebly

Honors Projects and Presentations: Undergraduate

Within these four sections, I decided, for the purposes of this project, to focus on my interactions with Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa; Passing by Nella Larsen; Sister, Outsider by Audre Lorde; and Not Vanishing by Chrystos. Anzaldúa’s work focuses on her identity as a queer, Chicana woman inhabiting the U.S.-Mexico border. Passing details the experiences of a Black woman who can pass as white. Lorde’s work is a collection of essays which center her experience as a queer, Black woman. Chrystos’s work is a book of poetry centered in their queer, Two Spirit, Indigenous identity. Additionally, I draw from …

Undergraduate Research: A Liberal Arts Education, Kiersten R. Mackintosh, Hank Voss

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Quantum Mechanics & Its Broader Implications: The Von Neumann– Wigner Interpretation, Aeowyn Kendall

Computing, Mathematics and Physics Student Scholarship

Essay for PHYS 402 Quantum Mechanics

Like the popular Copenhagen Interpretation, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation of quantum mechanics posits that measurement causes a collapse of the wavefunction. Once observed, the wavefunction collapses from a superposition of various states to just one of the possibilities. While the Copenhagen Interpretation does not identify what constitutes a measurement, an observer, or an observation, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation specifies that consciousness is necessary for the measurement process to occur (we might say a reading of the measurement), and that it is consciousness itself that causes wavefunction collapse. In simple terms, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation …

Trauma, Oppression, And Identity: A Philosophical Approach To Justice In Catholic Communities, Dominic Sanfilippo

Honors Theses

Many disciplines have contributed to the evolving understanding of trauma and oppression. The discipline of philosophy offers us the opportunity to ask the question: what should we be doing to create conditions of justice in communities where people have experienced trauma or oppression in relation to their identity? In this thesis, I will use philosophy to propose ways that we can ameliorate injustice in social and religious settings, particularly Catholicism. By examining historical and contemporary questions around identity and the self, I hope to begin to articulate both a specific problem in the Church and identify possible paths toward creating …

Typology, Tabernacle And Tradition: A History Of Interpretation Of Hebrews 9:11-14, Samuel A. Mullins

Honors Theses

The texts of the Bible have been used and interpreted in various ways across different time periods and different cultures, and there is much to be gained by studying these changes. Changing attitudes about and uses of Scripture tell us something about other changes taking place in society. They reflect new ideas about religion, knowledge, and authority. Most of all, they demonstrate the techniques used by pastors, theologians, and other authors to make texts written long ago relevant to contemporary problems. The purpose of my study is to use Hebrews 9:11-14 to look at the ways in which the interpretation …

Preachers, Politics And The Pulpit: The Influence Of Church Structure On How Clergy Approach Political Topics And How Congregations Receive Their Messages, Michael Bender

Honors Theses

Inspired by the Catholic Church’s nationwide resistance to President Obama’s contraceptive mandate in the summer of 2012, this honors thesis paper attempts to discover a link between church polity (or church structure) and whether political messages are more or less likely to be preached by clergy from the pulpit and accepted by their congregants. Given that churches are places where attendees are exposed to political messages, this paper hypothesizes that structurally centralized Christian denominations are more likely to have preached on the contraceptive mandate than decentralized denominations. Accordingly, it is assumed that Catholics are more likely to have heard about …

Looking Anew At The Rothko Chapel: The Future Of Interfaith Space On The Catholic Campus, Krista Bondi

Honors Theses

The University of Dayton is among many Catholic institutions that are experiencing the need for multi-faith accommodation as its student body becomes more diverse in the 21st century. While the majority of the University’s population is Catholic, there are growing numbers of Muslim, Jewish, and Protestant students as well as others of undeclared faiths or of no faith traditions who must interact on campus. In view of the history of Catholic higher education and the current practice and philosophy of interfaith dialogue, how should the University of Dayton approach this new multi-cultural reality in terms of dedicating space and designing …

An Undivided Heart: How Mary Unites What Sin Divides According To John Paul Ii’S Theology Of The Body, Ann M. Michalica

Honors Theses

Today, personhood is often threatened by the tendency to divide the human person into two contrasting parts: body and soul. Many times, this causes the human person to be reduced to a disembodied spiritual being or a disposable object rather than a whole person called to love and be loved. In his teachings known as Theology of the Body, John Paul II uses a personalistic approach to illuminate the human person as the integration of body and soul. Scripturally based, Theology of the Body is the study of God’s reflection in the human body and human sexuality. Using John Paul …