Social Justice Commons^™

Incorporating Principles And Wisdom From Hospital Chaplaincy And Pastoral Ministry To Create A Ministry Model To Address Social Isolation And Loneliness In Black Churches, Albert A. Kemp

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

To address the growing and widespread epidemic of social isolation and loneliness, with special focus on Black churches, this dissertation developed a program with the following areas of application: 1) how healthcare trained chaplains can coordinate with churches to positively impact individuals identified as lonely and socially isolated with better social and physical health, 2) how principles of chaplaincy and pastoral care can mitigate and intervene competently when such people are identified, and 3) how the project’s model can be organized, taught, and incorporated into existing arenas of church ministry.

The purpose of the project was to create a ministry …

The Legacy Of Lead: Lead Exposure's Harmful Effects And Its Concentration In Poc Communities, Layla Sophronia Barber

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis examines the disproportionate burden of lead exposure carried by low income, POC communities. The systemic nature of this problem is a symptom of a longstanding legacy of environmental injustice in the United States. Decades of federal neglect are reflected in the higher statistics of lead exposure and poisoning in predominantly black communities. While it is understood that lead exposure poses a serious threat to physical health and early cognitive development, there is a discouraging lack of urgency to remove the toxin from non-wealthy communities. The material covered by this thesis aims to identify and correct the discriminatory social …

Hospitalidad Sin Barreras: A Place-Based Approach To Resource Accessibility For Immigrant Communities In North Mississippi, Jackelyn Facio

Honors Theses

This project examines barriers to resource access for Spanish-speaking immigrant communities in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Using a place-based community engagement approach, the project incorporates mixed methods to produce a resource guide for Spanish- speaking immigrants in Lafayette County. Findings showed that access is shaped not only by available services, but also by interconnected barriers such as language, fragmented information systems, and concerns related to trust and safety. These barriers discourage individuals from interacting with formal institutions, resulting in a reliance on informal information networks. In response to the data collected from area residents, the project sought to centralize community input …

Ai Is Taking Over!: A New Generation Of Unemployment Fears, Amaya V. Hepburn

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The growing panic surrounding AI taking over the workforce is strong in a distinct group of demographics, in contrast to the fear of computers taking over the workforce that was seen in previous generations. This suggests that AI developments have sparked a wave of fear that is unlike the fear of tech developments in the past. I have discovered that this fear is prevalent across several demographics: age, employment, and income. By cross-analyzing through the 2017 and 2025 fear surveys, I discovered that fear of AI is more prevalent in younger generations and is more threatening to students entering the …

Kroc Ipj Border Fellows Report 2024 — English, Rebeca Cázares Adame

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

The Kroc Border Fellows Program brings together change agents from academia, civil society, the public sector, and the private sector to build a more inclusive and peaceful Mexico-U.S. border region through action-oriented research and meaningful community partnerships.

The non-residential fellowship spans 10 months and provides financial and technical support for Fellow-designed and -implemented projects. This model reflects a core belief that those closest to border communities' challenges are best positioned to develop effective solutions — and that lasting change must be built on existing community assets and strengths.

Throughout the fellowship, cohort members meet regularly to foster collaboration, mutual learning, …

National Center For Children In Poverty Releases 2025/2026 Tanf Cash Assistance Policy Series, Karen Chatfield, Sydney Elltringham

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Bank Street Graduate School of Education has released its 2025/2026 TANF Cash Assistance Policy Series to help support policymakers and advocates in strengthening these vital supports.

A Plague On Both Your Houses: Archetypes Of Political Choice, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

In times of political polarization, we are well-advised to heed Spinoza’s injunction, “Not to lament, not to curse, but to understand.” Understanding can be facilitated by ideas about the archetypal structures of political choice. This paper offers a systems theoretic analysis of a set of such archetypes focusing solely on their structures and not advocating any specific political positions. The primary question that must be answered is whether available or desirable political choices are dyadic or triadic, and if dyadic, whether the two alternatives of the dyad should be viewed as good versus bad or as complementary.  Various modes of …

Same-Sex Marriage In Taiwan: Soft Sovereignty, Threat Management, And The Politics Of Recognition In Asia, Olga Shalaeva

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Why did Taiwan as a contested state with no seat in the United Nations (UN), shaped by Confucian conservatism and the world’s longest period of martial law become the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, while other Asian democracies with stronger institutional track records have not? This paper argues that democratic maturity alone cannot answer this question. What explains Taiwan’s 2019 marriage equality achievement is the strategic management of threat, operating simultaneously at the geopolitical and psychological levels, and the utilization of “soft sovereignty” as the “weapon of the weak.”

The paper introduces “soft sovereignty” as an in-progress …

Informe Del Programa De Border Fellows Kroc Ipj 2024 — Español, Rebeca Cázares Adame

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

El Programa de Border Fellows del Kroc reúne a agentes de cambio provenientes del ámbito académico, la sociedad civil, el sector público y el sector privado para construir una región fronteriza México-Estados Unidos más inclusiva y pacífica, a través de investigación orientada a la acción y alianzas comunitarias significativas.

La beca, de carácter no residencial, tiene una duración de 10 meses e incluye apoyo financiero y técnico para proyectos diseñados e implementados por los propios Fellows. Este modelo refleja una convicción fundamental: quienes están más cerca de los desafíos que enfrentan las comunidades fronterizas son quienes mejor pueden desarrollar soluciones …

Luja Volume 6: Issue 1 (Full Volume)

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Competition And Community In Marx’S Alienation Theory: Addressing 21st Century Social Isolation Through A Laclauian Lens, Brett J. Zimmerman

Theses

Capitalism reorients human priorities by necessitating socio-economic competition and tying the preeminent priority of survival to the rate at which one accumulates material resources. The orientation of wage as the only means to survival has replaced the need for the working class to form tribes, build inter-group solidarity, and engage in their communities, resulting in a less fulfilling society. Marx is traditionally conceptualized as a political or economic thinker, and while much of his political and economic thought will be useful supplementary material, in Section I, I will be viewing Marx through a more interpersonal lens. The section will take …

Cripping The Border – Acompañamiento As Access: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Transborder Youth With Disabilities, Marco O. Amaral

Dissertations

The U.S.-Mexico border is a historical, geopolitical site of intense militarization where colonial logics of "othering" converge to marginalize disabled transborder youth. While transborder studies have expanded, students with disabilities remain relegated to the "void" and contained by educational systems that prioritize surveillance over access. Grounded in Sepúlveda’s (2011) acompañamiento and Transborder DisCrit, this ethnographic case study examines the lived experiences of both students and their families who cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S. It frames these journeys not as mere commutes, but as acts of defiance within the broader disability rights movement.

As a teacher-activist, …

Law School News: Rwu Day Of Law And Justice Showcases Powerful Combinations At The Statehouse 4-9-2026, Jordan J. Phelan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Udział Społeczeństwa W Inwestycjach W Elektrownie Jądrowe W Świetle Sprawiedliwości Energetycznej, Artur Tyński, Bartłomiej Kupiec

internetowy Kwartalnik Antymonopolowy i Regulacyjny (internet Quarterly on Antitrust and Regulation)

Artykuł analizuje udział społeczeństwa w procesie inwestycyjnym dotyczącym elektrowni jądrowych w Polsce w kontekście sprawiedliwości energetycznej. Autorzy przedstawiają teoretyczne podstawy partycypacji obywatelskiej oraz powiązanie sprawiedliwości proceduralnej i uznania z akceptacją społeczną inwestycji jądrowych. W artykule omówiono aktualny stan prawny i praktykę udziału społecznego, wskazując na ograniczenia obecnych mechanizmów konsultacji i niedostateczne wdrożenie rozwiązań zwiększających transparentność i wpływ obywateli na decyzje. Przeanalizowano również przypadki panelu obywatelskiego w Republice Korei oraz praktykę konsultacji społecznych przy planowaniu pierwszej polskiej elektrowni jądrowej. W części końcowej przedstawiono rekomendacje de lege ferenda na rzecz wzmocnienia udziału społeczeństwa i realizacji zasady sprawiedliwości energetycznej w krajowych regulacjach.

Bodies At Risk When Choice Is A Privilege: Women’S Reproductive Healthcare Accessibility And Health Outcomes Since The Dobbs (2022) Ruling, Dallas Bonnet

Undergraduate Theses

Existing literature has well-documented the disproportionate effects of abortion restrictions upon socioeconomically disadvantaged women and women of color. This thesis builds on that work by exploring the relationship between state-level abortion restrictions and women’s self-reported health, as well as state-level infant mortality rates and maternal mortality rates. This project breaks these relationships down into three separate studies: Study 1 investigates the effect that abortion restrictions have on women’s self perceptions of health. Study 2 assesses the impact of abortion restrictions on infant mortality rates. Study 3 inspects the impact of abortion restrictions on maternal mortality rates. The primary independent variable …

Review Of The Environment In Conflict: Implications And Pathways, Hogr Tarkhani

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Vision, Danny Duncan Collum

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Navigating Radical Indeterminacy In The Struggle For A Global Collective Consciousness: The Question Of Eco-Justice And Law Or Universalize The Pluriverse: A Manifesto, More Or Less, Omar Auf

Theses and Dissertations

The processes of interpretation, communication, and re-interpretation leads to the emergence of an approximated collective consciousness, for which it may be struggled and contested by hegemonic. The dominant forces of this contest, capitalism and nationalism, lead to an interdivided world: one that possesses the tools to empathize with each other but is instead leading people to keep their heads down and focus on surviving their own contexts, perceived as existing within different historical times on the same timeline. This leads to legal and justice systems that fail their claim to universality and/or impartiality. Incorporating an ecological lens to justice within …

What Is Happening In The World Today And Why: Humanity’S Evolving Consciousness And The Role Of Archetypal Energies As Guides During An Unfolding Weeding Out And Alignment Process, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

What is happening in the world today and why? Humanity is evolving its consciousness at individual and collective levels. Given these seemingly tumultuous times, as of this writing (January 2026), to make such a statement may sound like a strange thing to say. However, I suggest that if you are alive today and if you are reading these words, these are the very times for which you were born--to assist Humanity as it evolves its consciousness with your unique gifts, whatever they may be. That is, this period of our individual and collective human being-ness may be characterized as an …

Sometimes I Picture You Dreaming: How American Female Directors Use Women-In-Prison Films As A Pathway For Public Education And Activism In The Era Of Mass Incarceration, Nicolette Natale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the role of female directors in creating media that showcases how prisons perpetuate sexism or gender-based violence. As mass incarceration began to take off in the 1970s, this paper begins with an analysis of Jack Hill’s The Big Doll House (1971), which often served as the model for women-in-prison (WIP) exploitation films. While Hill perpetuated the white and male gaze in The Big Doll House, Stephanie Rothman subverts oppressive gazes in her WIP film, Terminal Island (1973), and demonstrates a concern with the historical gendered realities of prison – moving beyond representations of prison on the …

Literature Review: Crowdfunding And Political Fundraising, Saiful Ahmad, Palupi Lindiasari Samputra

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Crowdfunding is an effort to raise relatively small amounts of money involving many individuals to support a specific project. Typically, crowdfunding is conducted online through fundraising platforms. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyse the utilisation of crowdfunding in fundraising activities that are related to or have political goals carried out by certain organisations or political groups. The method used in this paper is qualitative in the form of narrative analysis carried out through in-depth reading of several scientific literatures that discuss political fundraising through crowdfunding. The sources of scientific literature collection were obtained through the Google …

How A Stay-At-Home Father Plays A Role In Family Resilience?, Fatimah Fatimah, Eko Daryanto

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

One of the impacts of modernization is the loss of barriers between job and particular gender. This also happens in the family unit, more specifically in the role of husband and wife. The husband's job which is identical to earn money and the wife's job is to manage the household should be able to be done more flexibly according to family conditions. This adaptation process is needed in order to strengthen family resilience. Non-traditional family composition that usually consist of a stay-at-home father and a working mother can be used as a family adaptation strategy. This study uses the results …

Implementation Of Zero Trust Architecture On Local Server Management In Educational Institutions, Joko Purwanto, Safar Dwi Kurniawan

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Educational institutions are facing increasingly complex cyber threats, particularly as they continue to rely on on-premises servers with limited cybersecurity resources. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) offers a security model that rejects implicit trust and requires strict verification of each access request. This study aims to examine the applicability of ZTA in managing local servers within educational institutions through a qualitative literature review approach. Relevant literature from 2014 to 2025 was analyzed using thematic synthesis to identify recurring concepts, strategies, and gaps. The results show that ZTA, when integrated with Identity and Access Management (IAM), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), …

Peace Innovation And Healing: A Design Justice Framework To Support Change Processes, Strengthen Relationships, Foster Trust, And Build Community, Michelle Helman

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

Many organizations aiming to achieve peace and health equity outcomes often focus their design processes and innovation efforts externally without addressing how their organizational culture can unintentionally reproduce the very harms they are trying to address. The purpose of this qualitative design research study is to explore the role of a design justice framework in piloting a Peace Innovation Project aimed at facilitating an organizational culture change process. Specifically, the study focuses on better understanding how integrating a design justice approach could support research collaborators to center equity and justice as core components in building a culture of peace and …

Embodying Design Justice: A Peace Education Framework To Strengthen Relationships, Foster Trust And Build Community, Michelle Helman

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

BACKGROUND

Groups working toward creating peace and equity often focus on external innovation without addressing internal culture shifts necessary to navigate change and achieve their goals. Michelle’s doctoral research and practice address this challenge through a design research study and peace innovation project focused on organizational culture transformation through a design justice framework. Findings suggest that interweaving the framework with storytelling, arts, and embodiment practices are key to support people in navigating change processes to strengthen relationships, foster trust, and build community.

ABOUT

The workshop offers an applied learning experience for participants to explore the concepts of design and innovation …

No Mullahs, No Shah, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Voices Of The Silenced, Frank E. Dobson Jr., Madison Borowicz, Cedar Carden, Nick Clark, Kenneth Fischer, Selah Gitonga, Ray Harvey, Tanasia Cunningham, Max Lewis, Gretchen Schneider, Raymond Shellow, Destiny Sexton, Isaiah Siaway, Awo Warsame, Aashvi Soni

Undergraduate Publications

Voices of the Silenced is a collection of creative work produced by the students of English 1192 at Otterbein University (Fall 2025). This booklet brings together prose, poetry, visual art, and multimedia expression centered on themes of activism, self-advocacy, identity, resilience, and social change.

Table of Contents:

• Preface by Dr. Frank Dobson
• Are You Becoming Who You Want to Be? by Madison Borowicz
• Agree to Disagree by Cedar Carden
• A Seriously Unserious Nation by Nick Clark
• Closeted Courage by Kenneth Fischer
• The Philosophy of an Activist by Selah Gitonga
• The Price We Pay by Ray Harvey & TaNasia Cunningham
• The …

Review Of Resisting Erasure: Libraries In Palestine And Palestine In Libraries, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Judicial Containment Of Adivasi Rights Across India's Mineral Belt, Sajni S. Sheth-Voss

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines how Adivasi resistance to mining-induced dispossession across India’s mineral belt is increasingly channeled into the judiciary, arguing that this shift functions as a mechanism of containment rather than a pathway to justice. Despite a robust legal framework designed to protect Adivasi land and consent rights, systematic non-enforcement and political closure have hollowed out policy and electoral channels, pushing communities into litigation as a last resort. Drawing on scholarship in political economy, legal studies, and political ecology, alongside primary sources including court documents and activist statements, this study follows how disputes move across institutions and are ultimately reshaped …

Representation Of Indigenous Spiritualities In The Ontario Grade 11 World Religions Curriculum: A Discourse And Textual Analysis, Katelin A. Chavez

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.