Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Decolonizing Interfaith Interaction: Common Humanity And Colonial Legacies, Teresa A. Crist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among various formations of interfaith interaction in the United States, practitioners strive to build relationships across religious difference through appeals to commonality. Problematically, relying on commonality to unite religiously diverse groups can ignore the colonial history behind what is considered common across humanity, and may serve to make interfaith interaction ineffective. The interfaith project is itself connected to the colonial legacy of Western epistemology, which tacitly normalizes Protestant Christian norms and conceptions of “Religion” and human subjectivity. This dissertation explores whether interfaith interaction, while trying to relieve the religious oppression caused by the normalization of Christianity, may in fact support …

“Dialogical Offense:” A Postcolonial Womanist Deconstruction Of The Colonial Experience Of African American Women Through U.S. Institutional Apparatus Known As Criminal Justice Policy, April Michelle Woodson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Black female experience in the United States is a colonized existence. This project’s analysis is specific to the North American U.S. geographic space and is not a diasporic project. Black women suffered from the greatest increase in the percentage of inmates incarcerated for drug offenses in the 1980’s and 1990’s which is the period of criminal justice policy formation and implementation on which this project is focused.

This project is uniquely situated in the overlap between womanist ethics and postcolonial feminist imagination and extends scholarship in both discourses by showing that there is an interwoven line between the colonial-to-contemporary …

Identity Negotiation, Saudi Women, And The Impact Of The 2011 Royal Decree: An Investigation Of The Cultural, Religious, And Societal Shifts Among Women In The Saudi Arabian Public Sphere, Maha Alshoaibi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historically, Saudi Arabian culture has been deeply rooted in tradition, religious customs, family-oriented structures, and gender derived expectations for men and women alike. Saudi Arabian culture emphasizes a patriarchal family structure where men financially provide for their family whereas women are expected to manage internal household duties such as raising children, upholding household affairs, and working within a limited scope of employment. The concept of Saudi Arabian women integrating into the public workforce has been a source of contention and debate for the last several hundred years. Due to recent changes in political and economic events, a royal decree issued …

The First Life Journey Of Many: The Lived Experience Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning Individuals Who Were Raised Within The Catholic Church On Their Coming Out Process, Michelle Colarusso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ) adults encounter societal challenges, pushback from religious organizations, and discrimination from lawmakers which interfere with their ability to come out as their true selves. This qualitative, phenomenologically oriented study explored the LGBTQ identity and practicing Catholic religious beliefs in an attempt to develop a rich description and understanding of the experience of LGBTQ individuals’ coming out process in relation to the practice of Catholic religious beliefs. The central research question that guided this inquiry was the following: What are the lived experiences of persons who identify as Catholic and who have come out as …

"Maybe Jesus Was Suicidal Too": A Qualitative Inquiry Into Religion And Spirituality In Suicide Attempts, Elizabeth Ryan Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the current trends in suicidology that hold promise for suicide prevention are a focus on new areas for empirical exploration and the employment of creative methodologies to ascertain these phenomena. One such area is religion, along with its more enigmatic counterpart, spirituality. Suicidological research has long demonstrated that people who are religiously involved tend to be more protected from suicide than those who are not, yet it has been less attentive to the conditions under which religion or spirituality fails to inhibit suicidality. In the decades since Durkheim's renowned 1897 study, the majority of the related research has taken …

The Negotiation Of Racial, Ethnic, And Religious Identification In American Heathenry, Thad Nathan Horrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an investigation of religious, ethnic, and racial identification in the social "field" of Heathenry. Heathenry is a reconstructionist religious movement attempting to reconnect with or revive the pre-Christian traditions of the Germanic tribes of northern Europe. Often articulated as an "ethnic religion," Heathenry has also been frequently tied to white supremacist violence and hate crimes. Applying Anthony Wallace's model of revitalization movements, I attempt to make sense of what it is contemporary Heathens are trying to accomplish in today's society: What is it Heathens are trying to revitalize?

As a field of contestation over common-sense meanings …

Media Representation Of Islam And Muslims In Southern Appalachia, Saundra K. Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Southern Appalachian attitudes about the religion of Islam and Muslim adherents are influenced largely by mass media's representations. With more than 80% of Appalachia’s population following Protestant Christianity, exposure to Islam in daily life is limited. Media outlets offer the greatest exposure to information about the religion and its adherents. This thesis examined the region's media representation of Islam and Muslims to determine what images are most often portrayed. Research following a twoyear span of reporting in Southern Appalachia studied substance, word frequency, imagery, and editing used in articles that focused on Islam and Muslims. Through the use of content …

Feel-Good Giving: The Mythic Construction Of Generosity In Millions, Grace Y. Chiou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The question of what generosity is and how it is practiced in relation to the neoliberal contexts of late capitalism has emerged as a subject of interest across a variety of fields. Instead of placing emphasis on the recipient and the cause or structural inequalities contributing to the need for generosity, new practices of giving have appeared on a variety of media platforms and have been performed by a host of celebrities, sports figures, and politicians that emphasize the giver's moral goodness.

By using a critical cultural studies approach, this dissertation demonstrates that in the visual culture of humanitarianism representations …

Behind The Doors Of White Supremacy, Catlyn Kenna Keenan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What is the relationship between religious belief and acts of violence and terrorism? The American white supremacy movements of the Ku Klux Klan and Christian Identity are deeply rooted in Protestant Christianity and are also responsible for some of the gravest acts of violence on American soil. The intersection between religious belief and terrorist action illuminates the interplay between religion and acts of violence.

This study firstly provides a history of the ideology of Christian Identity with specific attention to the ways in which committing violence is rationalized and understood as redemptive. Secondly, this study identifies six characteristics of a …

Is Religion "Just" Supernatural Agency, Social Support, Or Meaning?, A. Taylor Newton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is longstanding tension in the study of religion between those who believe religion can be reduced to general psychosocial processes and those who think that religion is somehow unique. One way to test these two possibilities is to compare religious versions of mechanisms to nonreligious versions. If religion is somehow unique, then the religious versions should explain variance in outcomes that the nonreligious versions do not. Three studies confirmed religion's independent predictive power. Exposure to a religious supernatural agent reduced cheating more than exposure to a nonreligious supernatural agent (Study 1), receiving religious social support during a stressful task …

Religio-Political Groups And The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, Catherine Ruth Orsborn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a quagmire of interests working against one another. In this paper, I explore the specific role of religio-political groups in the conflict. I particularly examine the ideological political and religious foundations of Gush Emunim and Hamas, paying much attention to the question of why they are attractive to people in our current era. I argue that these groups are continuously effective in opposing the current quest for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and that they continue to grow as the result of an identity crisis brought about by factors related to globalization and the failure …