Social Justice Commons^™

A Pathway For Inclusive Innovation In Pediatric Mental Health: Prevention And Intervention Using Technology, Kate Corinne Bennett

DSW Capstone Projects

It is no secret that access to quality healthcare is difficult for citizens to achieve in the United States. Racism, discrimination, and oppression further exist at the root of compounding social problems, including limits in minority access to mental health services. The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated mental health problems for young children, especially those who are already underserved and at risk. For these reasons, it is imperative that the social work profession emphasizes innovative approaches to equitable treatment access, including a focus on early intervention and the use of technology. Product one of this capstone engages a systematic review …

The Underlying Issue: Acknowledging The Impact The Race-Based Bias Of Some White Teachers Poses For Black Adolescents, Cerenity Leavell-Barker

DSW Capstone Projects

Current literature fails to assess the race-based bias of some white teachers and its impact on the school-to-prison pipeline. The actions of some white teachers due to unconscious or conscious race-based bias can increase race-based stress experienced by Blacks students and lead to racial trauma. Racial trauma is a traumatic experience that can alter this stage of development and have significant impact on the academic achievement of Black adolescents and influence behaviors perceived as negative. The purpose of this capstone is to enhance awareness and knowledge on the traumatic impact the race-based bias of some white teachers poses for Black …

The Impact Of Bias And Historical Racial Trauma On Black Girls’ Education: Using Theory To Better Understand Benefits, Angela Fisher-Williams

DSW Capstone Projects

ABSTRACT OF CAPSTONE

Implicit biases are among the most unfair discriminating microaggressive habits; Black students face within the compulsory educational system. However, college institutions are not sufficiently preparing social work students to work with this marginalized group to help manage these needs through diversity training courses. The researcher wrote a synthesis paper that synthesized two theories, the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS). This research will determine if social work students who take part in diversity training embedded in their coursework could better prepare social workers for the field. This research employed a descriptive design while …

The Isolated As The Revolutionary: How “Leftover” Men In China Challenge Heteronormativity, Ruwen Chang

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

In contemporary China, demographers estimate that 30 million men are single because there are simply not enough women in the Chinese population, and the 2020 Chinese census shows that there are 34.9 million more men than women. These men are called guanggun, which can be directly translated to “bare sticks/branches,” a slur that indicates a lack of marriage and sex. In this project, I demonstrate that guanggun’s singlehood marks them as the marginalized at the intersection of heteronormativity, patriarchy, globalizing capitalism, and pronatalist governmentality. In a highly heteronormative and patrilineal culture, guanggun are branded as abnormal/incomplete. However, because …

Investigating Discussion Forum Impact On Students’ Social Justice Beliefs In Online Undergraduate Mathematics Courses: A Mixed Methods Study, Ashlee Lynn Akin Matney

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

While teaching math for social justice and equity has become a heavily researched topic in recent decades with Jo Boaler (2008, 2015, 2016), Rochelle Gutiérrez (2009, 2013), and Eric (Rico) Gutstein (2003, 2006, 2007, 2013) emerging as recent leaders in the charge, the focus has consistently remained on traditional classroom teaching (e.g. Boaler, 2008; Gutiérrez, 2009; Gutstein, 2003). This convergent design mixed methods study investigated the impact of teaching math for social justice in the online learning environment, specifically, the impact of discussion forums on students’ social justice beliefs in fully online undergraduate math courses.

Quantitatively, 56 students completed pre- …

The Resiliency And Thriving Of Underrepresented Agricultural Educators: A National Mixed Methods Study, Caleb Michael Hickman

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Gay men in agricultural education do not have comprehensive support within the agricultural education profession. When gay men decide to become agriculture educators, they often keep their identity private. This national mixed methods study aims to seek if gay agriculture educators are resilient and thrive in rural communities. The thriving elements of spiritual influence, personal competence, peer support, and family cohesion were surveyed and analyzed using a resiliency lens. Findings include gay male agricultural educators thriving in a heteronormative profession. Recommendations include ensuring LGBTQIA+ teachers have a voice in agricultural education.

Towards Indigenous Women’S Meaningful Participation: Their Voices, Their Spaces, Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Exploratory Analysis Of Bias Formation, Prejudice, And Discrimination Through Contextual And Functional Similarities Using The Theoretical Framework Of Relational Density Theory, Elana Keissa Sickman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Behavior Analysis “attempts to improve the human condition through behavior change”, with behavior being the primary target (BACB, n.d.). However, considering the way people perceive, interact with, and establish relational frames within different contexts is widely misunderstood. Much of this research has expanded on the components found in Stimulus Equivalence (SE) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT) by providing a more modern approach to examining language and its treatment approach. Relational responding of individuals and groups may contribute to implicit biases, prejudice, and discrimination as well as how they operate within nested contingency systems. While critical theorists have provided foundations for …

Deepfakes, Shallowfakes, And The Need For A Private Right Of Action, Eric Kocsis

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

For nearly as long as there have been photographs and videos, people have been editing and manipulating them to make them appear to be something they are not. Usually edited or manipulated photographs are relatively easy to detect, but those days are numbered. Technology has no morality; as it advances, so do the ways it can be misused. The lack of morality is no clearer than with deepfake technology.

People create deepfakes by inputting data sets, most often pictures or videos into a computer. A series of neural networks attempt to mimic the original data set until they are nearly …

Exploring Educators’ Perceptions Of Legislation About Discrimination, Archer Brooke Miller

Honors Theses and Capstones

Across the nation, there have been efforts in “36 states to restrict education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to U.S. history, or related topics” (Stout). These laws essentially banned the teaching of critical race theory and systemic racism in all public K-12 classrooms. This study is pertinent because teaching about systemic racism is important. It was critical to shed light on this topic and show people why Sections 297 and 298 of House Bill 2 were salient and what impact it was having.

Narratives Of Gendered And Racialized Carework: Feminist Faculty Of Color Organizing During The Pandemic, Analena Hope Hassberg, Araceli Esparza, Lori Baralt, Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Inspired by feminist narrative and the Latin American tradition of testimonio, this paper is grounded in the lived experiences of the four authors as academics, mothers, and organizers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on women of color feminisms and theorizing anti-racist feminist understandings of motherhood as a political identity, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated challenges faced by parenting and caregiving faculty, especially those positioned at the intersection of multiple structural vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 tipping point presented both unsustainable challenges for parenting and caregiving faculty and opportunities for collective support and organizing as parents and caregivers. We participated in …

An Index Of Community Priorities To Inform Local Governance In New Haven, Max E. Teirstein

Library Map Prize

Environmental justice screening and mapping tools visually depict the distribution of environmental justice burden across a geographic area. How that burden is measured varies according to location—different communities face different challenges, and a mapping tool that represents the landscape of environmental justice in one community may not adequately capture the distribution of EJ burden in another area. Who decides what “burden” means for each community? In this study of environmental justice in New Haven, CT, I argue that it is residents and local community leaders whose perspectives are most critical to how environmental justice is defined. I create a census …

Environmental Racism In Baltimore: A Geographical Study Into The Connections Between Environmental Toxins And Public Health, Genevieve Block

Honors Theses

An investigation into the relationship between environmental toxins and environmental racism in Baltimore City, Maryland.

The Lawyers Justice Corps: A Licensing Pathway To Enhance Access To Justice, Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

The idea for establishing a Lawyers Justice Corps emerged out of efforts to solve a problem: how to license lawyers at a time when COVID-19 had expanded the need for new lawyers while also making an in-person bar exam dangerous, if not impossible. We-the Collaboratory on Legal Education and Licensing for Practice'-proposed the Lawyers Justice Corps to provide a different and better way of certifying minimum competence for new attorneys while at the same time helping to create a new generation of lawyers equipped to address a wide range of social justice, racial justice, and criminal justice issues. When implemented, …

Facultas Marginem: Assessing Disability Data And Public Aau Universities’ Affirmative Action Plans For Systemic Barriers Facing Faculty With Disabilities, Joseph Carlton Barry

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation contributes to education equity scholarship produced by academics seeking to develop understandings of disability, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), and how both are situated amongst faculty in institutions of higher education. As such, this dissertation centers on a study of public US universities belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). This study looks for institutional level associations between respective rates by which college and university faculty with disabilities (FWD) are employed, certain aspects of disability policy drawn from each institution’s 2020 Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and various other instances of empirical disability data (EDD).

While this study contributes …

Exploring Agricultural Worker Self-Efficacy During A Covid-19 Delta Variant Surge And Adverse Environmental Conditions, Hannah Lascano

All Master's Theses

Yakima County is a rural county with an urban core located in central Washington State. With over 60% of its workforce dedicated to agriculture, food production, and other essential industries, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly compounded in Yakima County populations. Factors such as low decision-making power, limited ability to social distance, and occupational limitations such as fear of job loss, non-compliance with immigration regulations, and lack of representation have yet to be explored during the COVID-19 Delta variant (Delta) surge in conjunction with environmental conditions. This study utilized a novel, online survey of Yakima County residents, …

Archiving Feminist Truth In Trump’S Wake Of Lies, Julie Shayne

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article is about an assignment I do in one of my Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies social movement classes. I revised the assignment the first time teaching the class after Trump lost the 2020 election. For the assignment, students work in groups to research local feminist and gender justice organizations and deposit all of their original materials – recordings, photos, flyers, etc. – into a digital, open access archive I co-created several years ago with librarians and staff on my campus. In 2021 I had my students do the “post-Trump” edition where they researched local organizations about how their …

From The Legal Literature: America’S Paper Prisons: The Second Chance Gap, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Cannibalizing The Constitution: On Terrorism, The Second Amendment, And The Threat To Civil Liberties, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article explores the links between internet radicalization, access to weapons, and the current threat from terrorists who have been radicalized online. The prevalence of domestic terrorism, domestic hate groups, and online incitement and radicalization have led to considerable focus on the tension between counterterror efforts and the First Amendment. Many scholars recommend rethinking the extent of First Amendment protection, as well as Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment protections, and some judges appear to be listening. Yet the Second Amendment has avoided this consideration, despite the fact that easy access to weapons is a necessary ingredient for the level of …

From The Legal Literature: Trafficking And The Shallow State, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Pain That Only She Must Bear: On The Invisibility Of Women In Judicial Abortion Rhetoric, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The graphic and bodily facts of a legal question of rights are relevant to the courts, particularly in questions that directly implicate physical bodies and pain, such as right to die cases, or what level of search may be allowable and when. However, in the case of abortion, or more specifically the bodily ramifications of pregnancy and childbirth, this detail is conspicuously absent. This article, relying on a content analysis of over 220 legal opinions on abortion rights, documents this absence of rhetoric. Particularly in the context of other discussions of pain and physical health risks in these very same …

From The Legal Literature: Environmental Victimization And Criminal Enforcement: Assessing Evidence From Thirty-Seven Years Of Epa Case Summary Reports, Marshall R. Schmidt, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

From The Legal Literature: Arrest Records, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

From The Legal Literature: Undemocratic Crimes, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Positioning Women's Inclusion In Peace Negotiations: The Landmark Case Of The Philippines, Josephine Perez, Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

Women have historically been excluded in formal peace processes. While structural changes have pushed for women’s participation in peace negotiations, we locate the shift from women’s exclusion to women’s inclusion as enacted in the discursive patterns of talk. Using positioning theory as a discursive lens, we looked at how women’s inclusion was facilitated in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that reached the landmark Philippine peace accord of 2014. Positioning theory argues that every utterance is a speech act that ascribes rights and duties, in this case, the right …

Deep Roots In Eroding Soil: Building Decolonial Resilience Amidst Climate Violence And Displacement In A Louisiana Bayou Indigenous Community, Lia Mcgrath Kahan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Pointe-au-Chien Indigenous community of coastal Louisiana is fighting for survival as climate change and socio-political factors threaten to displace them from their ancestral home. This project takes an ethnographic and historical approach to exploring how colonization and climate change have influenced Pointe-au-Chien tribal members’ ability to stay on their ancestral land. Climate projections estimate that the bayou this community has lived alongside of for generations will soon be unrecognizable, leading to potential displacement and devastating cultural loss. Due to the increasing severity of climate change, it is crucial to look to the experiences of frontline Indigenous communities to support …

Choral Music Educator Pedagogies For Multilingual Learner Inclusion: A Critical Multiple Case Study, Austin Cole Norrid

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Multilingual learners are the fastest growing student population in US public schools. The purpose of this critical multiple case study was to discover three music teachers’ and one Multilingual Learner resource teacher’s perspectives on the strengths and areas of growth in pedagogies for teaching Multilingual Learners in choral music ensembles. Common areas of strength included: student-centered learning, culturally responsive teaching, and positive classroom environment. Common areas of growth were: multilingual teaching strategies, knowledge of diverse repertoire, community and culture, and multilingual learner empowerment.

Meeting The Psychosocial Needs Of Online Learners In Social Work Programs And Four-Year Universities: What Is Being Addressed And The Many Areas For Improvement, Kathryn Gould

DSW Capstone Projects

Almost half of social work students enter their program with a history of mental health diagnosis and exposure to multiple childhood traumas. Over half of students at four-year institutions are enrolled in one or more courses online, yet retention in online coursework is much lower than in in-person courses. As online programs continue to grow in the field of social work it becomes a vital requirement to address the psychosocial needs of online learners. The call of this capstone is to examine how universities and colleges of social work can meet the increasing need to improve course work and service …

Teaching Anti-Racism Practices To White Social Work Students And Community Members, Dennis Cornell

DSW Capstone Projects

Racism continues to plague the United States and White people hold a key element to ending racism by adopting anti-racism practices in their professional and personal lives. This capstone on the findings of a comprehensive systematic literature review, examines empirically-based anti-racism interventions and practices that social work teachers and community educators can utilize in anti-racism courses and workshops for White students and community members. The final results yielded 29 peer-reviewed, qualitative/quantitative research studies within the years of 2003-2021 that can be broken down into six anti-racism intervention categories: class/educational groups, teaching methods, Implicit Association Test (IAT) usage, pro-Black stories/perspectives, interracial …

Transforming Social Work Practice And Research: Examining Lived Experiences Of Black Male Veteran Students And Mental Health, Tay Robinson

DSW Capstone Projects

Mental health disparities amongst the African American/Black community are well documented in literature. Throughout history the African American/ Black community have dealt with unethical operating procedures and research studies. This capstone project looks at historical facts, the lack of Black male veteran specific research as it relates to mental health, lived experiences of Black male veteran students with mental health/treatment, and developing culturally appropriate approaches to increasing research and effective practices to better serve this community.

The second chapter and first product of this capstone project is a systematic literature review. This literature review focused on finding literature on African …