Social Justice Commons^™

The Souls Of Black Women: Reimagining Futurities Beyond The Veil, Kevin A. Blanks

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

Now more than ever, communities of color are rendered more vulnerable to state violence and unjust policing; and a global pandemic has exacerbated the ways that the marginalized, the poor, and the disabled are devastated more disproportionately into precarious spaces. Thus, this anti-black world isn’t sustainable for us, and futurity has always felt elusive and just out of reach for marginalized bodies. This world-making project seeks to reimagine an alternative world, an otherwise, an elsewhere where life can be breathed back into our bodies, where we can be whole and free. Through an examination of DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk …

Limp Wrists, Clenched Fists: An Analysis Of Queer Performance Art As A Tool For Political Resistance, Neha Verma

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores the use of queer performance art as a tool for community mobilization and resistance to socio-legal oppressions. This essay is grounded in movements for queer liberation in the Global South, racialized working-class queer communities, and queer disability justice. As queer culture and aesthetics are often misappropriated for wider cisheteronormative audiences, this work reminds the revolutionary nature of queer performance art.

A Weapon For The People To Wield, Olivia Sonell

Student Theses

This paper describes an applied theatre project facilitated in winter 2022 with an intergenerational group of LGBTQ adults based out of a large advocacy non- profit in the northeastern united states. The purpose of the project was three-fold, to explore LGBTQ intergenerational unity, the efficacy of applied theatre work in non-profit settings, and whether applied theatre has compromised itself ideologically.

Our project team met with participants over a period of four weeks, entirely over the ZOOM app. During these sessions we used applied theatre practices drawn from Augusto Boal and Helen White to explore connection and disconnection, and challenge dominant …

Forbidden Forests: Negotiating Censorship In Children's And Young Adult Literature During A New Era Of Conservatism In 2022 And Beyond, Avila Hendricks

Title III Professional Development Reports

Harambee! In Swahili, “Harambee” means “All pull together!” The impetus for this report grew out of a unifying discussion with other 2022 Children's Literature Association (ChLA) conference attendees.These discussions led to the decision to “pull together” against the rise of “extreme” conservatism and the increase of banned books across the United States.

This report offers insight into some of the issues surrounding the increase in censorship in children's and young adult literature. It includes a brief review of the recently scrutinized book, Dear Martin by Nic Stone, and it concludes with some recommendations for negotiating censorship in conservative communities.

La Cultura Que No Cambia, Karina Arreola-Gutierrez

MFA in Visual Art

In the text of La Cultura Que No Cambia, I mention how my work has been influenced by becoming more aware of generations of altar making that occur in my family. By collecting stories and photographs of altars, I can observe and create work based on how the legacies can change through generations or stay the same. The memory of my ancestors and family traditions is strengthened. Growing up seeing discrimination towards others has influenced me to highlight my Mexican heritage of traditions, culture, and language through several different methods. Using these elements, I can create work informing audiences about …

Testimony, Violence, And Silence: An Examination Of Agamben And His Critics, Yagmur Uygarkizi

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper investigates the difficulties faced by survivors of atrocities in testifying. I work on the case of female victims of domestic torture as reported by Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald. The starting point is Giorgio Agamben’s Remnants of Auschwitz with his discussion on Primo Levi’s paradox and the testis/superstes/auctor distinction. I build on his nuances while arguing that he has not looked enough into power dynamics that render one speechless. “Unspeakable violence” refers simultaneously to incapacity and not being allowed to speak. Pain renders the victim speechless; perpetrators distort language and speak over survivors. Victims are often not allowed …

The Problem Of Blackness In America: Becoming When The Being Never Comes To Be, Nkiru Anyaegbunam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The problem of Blackness in America is a consequence of the historical reality and continued legacies of colonialism, the triangular trade and chattel slavery that have been facilitated through violence and capitalism. This thesis will argue that this problem that is pronounced through racialized institutional systems of violence such as mass incarceration and housing inequality, which disproportionately negatively impacts Black Americans is part of a larger discourse on the human and (mis)recognition. This violence has created a quintessential incompleteness for Black Americans who neither are recognized as citizens nor human. The problem of Blackness will be continuously grounded in this …

"Queering" Age-Friendly New York City, Austin G. Oswald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background and aims: The global population is aging and becoming more culturally diverse. As such, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers are expected to think critically about strategies to improve the quality of life of people as they age. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Age-Friendly Cities movement to improve the well-being and meaningful engagement of older adults living in the community. New York City (NYC) was the first city in the world to be designated “age-friendly” by the WHO, and is possibly viewed as a model for other cities to emulate. Few empirical studies have examined the age-friendly …

North Of The Grid: The Black Experience Of 17th -19th Century Rural New York City, Stephanie E. Barnes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, transatlantic slavery was a racial project and template for race-making which created a country that relied on institutions that were organized and performed through social stratification. Today, the nation still operates on systemically racist institutions that have benefited whites while disadvantaging ‘others.’ The narratives presented in American history are rooted in whiteness and benefit the white community while marginalizing nonwhites. Over two hundred years of slavery history in this country has been purposely manipulated and left out. My research focuses on using an historical archaeological framework to research and share the lives of free and enslaved …

Lgbtq+ Social Services And Needs In Portland Oregon, Jay M. Tomlinson

University Honors Theses

Research shows a significant link between being LGBTQ+ and living in poverty, but little research has been done on what services are available to providers and individuals in need. This study was conducted to discover what types of social services are available to low-income LGBTQ+ people living in Portland, Oregon, and what services providers identify as unmet needs. This study consisted of a series of interviews with service providers to find out what services they offer and what they feel is still missing. Data was analyzed following a qualitative data analysis method. Data showed that housing was the largest unmet …

Paths Of My Development In The Cct Program, Russell Suereth

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This paper shows the development of a view of personal transformation and social transformation, and the creation of art that depicts that view through courses in the Critical and Creative Thinking program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The paper is a focus on the courses and their impact on the view and the associated art, rather than an analysis of the view and art. Since the program is centered around critical and creative thinking, the paper also describes how thinking in critical and creative ways benefits a project of vision and art. Self-reflection is also an important component of …

Exploring Gender Identity In College Sports, Simone Cooper, Brandon Bernardi

Kean Quest

Awareness and research on gender and sexual identity has advanced significantly in the last decade. Within the sports context, increased understanding of diversity and inclusion has initiated conversations about the experiences of athletes as related to their gender identity. Facilitating inclusive, fair and equitable sport cultures is of utmost importance, and the role of one’s gender and sexual identity deserves further attention. While sports culture is often aggressive and competitive, it also provides athletes with a source of community, support and safety. In a context where masculinity thrives, female athletes and athletes who identify as gender and/or sexual minorities may …

Norm And The People, Jacqueline N. Wade

Theses and Dissertations

Norm and the People is a 90-minute hybrid film about the Minister and activist Norman Eddy and the work he and other activists did in Spanish Harlem from the 1940s through his death in 2013. The film is told through interviews, archival photos and videos, reenactments, and puppets.

Manis And Martins' "Eeavesdropping On The Most Segregated Hour: A City's Clergy Reflect On Racial Reconciliation" (Book Review), Jaclyn Lee Parrott

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Compassion In Catholic Teachings: An Invitation To Relationship With Immigrants And Refugees With Hiv/Aids, Anna Salvestrin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 1989 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released Called to Compassion and Responsibility. This document, which articulates the official Catholic Church teaching on HIV/AIDS, emphasizes personal responsibility in limiting the spread of HIV and calls for compassion toward the sick. The bishops direct their document to Catholic clergy and parishioners and offer recommendations for government policy and parish actions that affirm human dignity. This thesis argues that the document's recommendations do not adequately consider the experiences of immigrants and refugees with HIV/AIDS and neglect sufficient attention to their lived experiences. In future documents, the bishops should use the …

Longman's "Diversity Matters: Race, Ethnicity, & The Future Of Christian Higher Education" (Book Review), Karen Keesing

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Data Ethics: An Investigation Of Data, Algorithms, And Practice, Gabrialla S. Cockerell

Honors Projects

This paper encompasses an examination of defective data collection, algorithms, and practices that continue to be cycled through society under the illusion that all information is processed uniformly, and technological innovation consistently parallels societal betterment. However, vulnerable communities, typically the impoverished and racially discriminated, get ensnared in these harmful cycles due to their disadvantages. Their hindrances are reflected in their information due to the interconnectedness of data, such as race being highly correlated to wealth, education, and location. However, their information continues to be analyzed with the same measures as populations who are not significantly affected by racial bias. Not …

Inaccessible Interpolated Imagery: How Coffee Farmers In The State Of Chiapas Might Access Political Economic Opportunity Through Representation, Paolo Fiann Bicchieri

Master's Theses

Here is a useful parable to boil down the idea of this project and set the tone: when one goes to the bar to tell a story about a fight at the bar, they would never venture to place themselves as the hero of the brawl, taking out three drunkards in a single punch, unless they were really in the bar, at that time, fighting a good fight. One would never do this as the bartender, locals, and regulars would all know if this were the case or not. Yet transnational corporations, governments, and even consumers do this all the …

Mahalaya: Building Community In The Filipinx Diaspora Through Solidarity Journalism, Casey Ticsay

Master's Theses

Unethical approaches to storytelling in professional journalism continue to shape public discourse around the diverse experiences of Asians and Asian Americans. This paper analyzes the origins and impact of ethnic news media, specifically the rise of Filipino and Filipino American press in the United States, and the ways journalists of color continue to challenge traditional practices of professional journalism that perpetuate anti-Blackness and maintain white supremacy. Filipino and Filipino American newspapers in the early twentieth century provide historical insight into the issues, debates, and conversations transpiring at the time and highlight the community’s ongoing response to the misrepresentations of their …

Disorientations, Noah Greene-Lowe

MFA in Visual Art

The materials that make up the ordinary and mundane in the United States also reinforce and normalize a white spatial imaginary. Conventions of mapping, imaging of land and landscape, and elements of the built environment continue to orient us in a logic of space as property. In my sculptural work, I employ strategies of disorientation and creative repair, or reconstruction, to unsettle the spatial practices of whiteness and structures of power embedded in the mundane, the familiar, and the domestic. I consider the planned cohousing community where I grew up as an influence on my work, and my whiteness. By …

Because Potato, Candice Evers

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This thesis project explores the phenomenological qualities of the internet; asking, since the internet is difficult to grasp, what other modes of investigation might we have available? Using an investigative framework set forth by Jack Halberstam, this thesis declines to come to knowledge solely through understanding the formal, the structural, the highly visible and mainstream. The literature that I have gathered provides a range of modes for interrogating the simultaneously central and inconsequential subject of my thesis itself: the potato. Juxtaposing the physical, political and material conditions of the potato the internet’s least academic mode of knowing: the meme. Analyzing …

Do You See What I See? Experiences And Socialization Of African American Male Doctoral Students At A Pwi, Victor Vinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Abstract

This qualitative study will use an anti-deficit approach aimed to examine the classroom experiences and socialization experiences of African American male doctoral students in a higher education doctoral program at a Predominately White Institution (PWI). The understanding of these classroom and socialization experiences is critical to the ways and means that African American males employ to persist through doctoral programs, striving to reach the mountaintop: attainment of a Philosophy of Doctorate degree. The guiding research questions are 1) How do African American male doctoral students’ classroom experiences influence their persistence in doctoral programs? and 2) What socialization experience(s) influence …

Introduction To The Special Issue: Transnational Feminisms: Contexts, Collaborations, Contestations--Toward A Liveable Planet, Bhushan Sharma, Bhavana Raj, Tamanna Arora

Journal of International Women's Studies

The prime goal of feminism is to raise consciousness and bring about transformation for a gender-equitable world. The movement has continuously been broadening its perspective and undergoing transitions, producing ‘cartographies of knowledge and power’ (Alexander and Mohanty 2015). As the creation of feminist epistemology and knowledge exchange is key to this process, The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM) has taken the initiative to organize the World Conference on Women Studies (WCWS) every year.

The 7^th WCWS was organized amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that took place online from the 20^th to 22^nd of May 2021. The …

Forgotten Immigrant Voices: West Indian Immigrant Experiences And Attitudes Towards Contemporary Immigration, Danielle Cross

Honors Scholar Theses

Scholarly work and media coverage both point to the negative effect that the rhetoric and policy of former US President Donald Trump had on the lived experience and wellbeing of immigrant groups explicitly targeted by it (i.e., the “Trump effect”). Typically, the focus has been on Muslim and Latino immigrants as well as those less-explicitly targeted but still affected by Trump-era policies, such as temporary workers. This thesis explores whether Black immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean, a group notably missing from the literature of “Trump effects” on immigrant experiences, experienced similar attitudinal or practical effects as a result of contemporary …

Finding Their Chrysanthemum: Linguistic Representation In Children's Literature, Marielena Zajac

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Children in America today struggle with finding themselves in the books they read due to societal expectations. From an early age, children are dictated on the correct way to speak and write in “American,” which can leave children and their home languages feeling unseen and dismissed. To help further the conversation and promotion of linguistic diversity in American society, this capstone analyzes dialectal representation in children’s books, with a heavy focus on attitudinal linguistic principles rather than prescriptive mechanics. The secondary research explores current literature and resources that discuss literacy acquisition in adolescents, trends in dialects in America, and childhood …

(Un)Matched: Racialized Narratives Of U.S.-Based Japanese Men, Masculinity, And Heterosexuality In Online Dating Apps, Keisuke Kimura

Communication ETDs

In this study, I documented and examined U.S.-based Japanese men’s narratives about their day-to-day experiences in and across online dating contexts. Through the analysis of narratives, I critiqued how multilayered differences (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and more) working with dominant social structures affect their everyday experiences within the spectrum of power, privilege, and marginalization in the transnational space. Specifically, the overarching purposes and goals of this study were to better understand U.S.-based Japanese men’s online dating experiences and to critique the relationalities of how Japanese men’s narratives (i.e., micro-level context) and their beliefs/attitudes within and between cultural communities …

Gender Perceptions And Female Students' Academic Engagement And Success In Stem Fields, Rheanna Morgan

School of Social Work Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite an increase of females in higher education and the workforce, fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continue to be male-dominated. One explanation for this trend is the lack of gender representation and counterstereotypical role models to encourage female engagement in these fields at the university level. Previous research has looked at instructor gender, classroom gender composition, and involvement in extracurricular activities as possible factors influencing students' engagement and success in the classroom. However, few studies have investigated how gender perceptions influence female students in STEM fields. This study uses self-report data from a voluntary survey to …

Designing A Program To Train Elders To Respond To #Metoo Experiences Of Adult Females In A Church Context, Jana H. Unruh

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This project intervention explores resolution of systemic issues of church-based sexual harassment, abuse, and violence, referred to as #MeToo, through design of a training program for elders. As theological foundation for the project, the Gospel of Luke frames positive approaches modern church leaders can align with in the quest for solutions to #MeToo. The Good Samaritan parable and the story of Mary and Martha extract valuable lessons for church elders addressing sexual harassment, abuse, and violence experiences of adult women. In Luke, we find fresh understanding for questions of #MeToo through the highly relevant concept of “neighbor.” Luke will …

Home/Sick, Elizabeth P. Fontenot

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a supporting document that discusses the conceptual and technical aspects of the artworks in the accompanying exhibition, HOME/SICK. The work in the exhibition consists of selections from different series of work that are inspired by related subject matter. The content driving the work responds to anecdotal experiences of people living in communities near oil refineries and chemical processing plants and how events at these facilities affect their way of life. Many times, these are communities of color which strive to voice concerns and protect homes from harmful toxins. In one series, original and appropriated imagery serves as …

Means Of Menstruation, Hannah Eddleston

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.