Fordham University: DigitalResearch@Fordham
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Willner, Mark
No full textMark Willner grew up in Parkchester, which he remembers as a very nice place to grow up with nice lawns and playgrounds. When he lived there, there were no Black people, and the population was split between Jewish, Italian, and Irish people. He attended PS 106 and James Monroe High School, which he describes as having a sense of camaraderie.
Willner’s father, born abroad, was an assistant principal and his mother, born in Brooklyn, became a school secretary when he got older. Willner has played many sports since youth, particularly tennis and football, and is a lifelong Boston Celtics fan. He would go to movies and travel within the city to visit relatives. Willner’s family life was very warm and welcoming with an established sense of norms and respect that he believes is typical of growing up in the 1950s. He remembers many teachers from high school who held the students to high standards, and would go on to Queens College after graduation.
Willner graduated from NYU Law School, but, given the Vietnam War draft, decided to become a teacher and join the National Guard to avoid being sent overseas. He taught in Morris High School in the South Bronx during the day and night school in Harlem. At both schools, he was cognizant of his role as a white educator in a minority school. Willner was also exposed to Black communities as part of his National Guard service with the 369th Infantry Division, which was known in WWI as the “Harlem Hellfighters.” He would then serve as Social Studies chairman at Midwood High School in Brooklyn for 32 years, also teaching many in-service courses for the NYC Board of Education, writing a world history textbook, and teaching about the Holocaust at Temple Emanu-El NYC and other educational institutions for many years.
Overall, Willner remembers his upbringing in the Bronx with a sense of safety, stability, and community.
Keywords: Parkchester, family, safety, PS 106, James Monroe High School, Queens College, Morris High School, race, Black Power, Vietnam War, draft, education, 1967/1968 Teachers Strikes, sports, social studies, 369th Infantry, Fulbright, Israel, Holocaust, Temple Emanu-El NY
The AltaVoces project: A digital narrative approach to anti-oppressive social work research with Latino youth
No full textAlthough digital narrative methods lend themselves well to participatory, action-oriented inquiry, these relatively new methods also raise questions about potential risks involved in using digital technologies to engage marginalized groups in social work research. This article examines the feasibility, challenges, and opportunities of using digital narrative methods in anti-oppressive social work research (AOSWR) by providing empirical insights from the AltaVoces project—an AOSWR project that used digital narrative methods to engage Latino youth. This case study demonstrates the compatibility and feasibility of digital narrative methods in AOSWR by examining to what extent the AltaVoces project: (1) used methods that center the contexts, voices, and experiences of oppressed peoples, recognizing the social construction of knowledge and the politics inherent in knowledge creation, (2) critically interrogated power arrangements within research relationships and made efforts to form authentic, collaborative relationships and share power with coresearchers, and (3) acknowledged oppressive systems and institutions and reflected a commitment to transforming, dismantling, or abolishing them through the research purpose, process, and products. We found that digital tools offered new possibilities for centering the voices of Latino youth, rebalancing power in research relationships, and connecting knowledge to action through digital products, in alignment with AOSWR, but also introduced new power hierarchies and risks related to producing digital material. The AltaVoces project provides one example of how digital narrative research may be implemented and evaluated using the integrative AOSWR framework, exposing several aspects of digital narrative research that warrant specific attention and presenting practical strategies for doing so
“Putting My Life Into a Story”: A Preliminary Evaluation of a Digital Narrative Intervention Combining Participatory Video and Narrative Therapy
No full textThis article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a digital narrative intervention that combined participatory video (PV) and narrative therapy practices to engage Latinx immigrant young people in processes of personal and societal change. Drawing on ethnographic field notes, process recordings, audio recordings of intervention implementation, and focus group data, this program evaluation offers empirical evidence of the impacts of this innovative, digital narrative intervention on Latinx immigrant young people (ages 18-24) in New Orleans. A constructivist grounded theory approach to data analysis resulted in three main themes: critical self-awareness, Latinx and immigrant pride, and media literacy. This study unites PV and narrative therapy as complementary approaches to working with marginalized groups to share their stories, suggesting that the combination of these two storytelling practices resulted in several positive outcomes for participants
The Role of Uncertainty in Lung Cancer Screening Decision Making
No full textEarly detection of lung cancer is crucial to improving morbidity and mortality outcomes. However, it does not come without risks. Individuals who undergo lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography may receive false-positive results or undergo potentially unnecessary follow-up testing. Therefore, individuals considering lung cancer screening may be influenced by how well they can tolerate uncertainty, specifically regarding the benefits and risks of screening. Additionally, many eligible individuals are unaware of lung cancer screening and their eligibility or may have misinformation about lung cancer screening. Therefore, interventions to increase lung cancer screening knowledge are often used to aid the decision-making process and have demonstrated a significant effect on lung cancer screening engagement. It is unknown whether screening behaviors over time are influenced by an interaction between an individual’s intolerance of uncertainty and their knowledge of the benefits and risks of lung cancer screening. The present study examined 1) the role of intolerance of uncertainty on increased engagement with lung cancer screening over six months, 2) the effect of a brief educational intervention on increased screening engagement compared to a control group, 3) a moderation effect of intolerance of uncertainty on the relationship between group assignment and forward engagement on lung cancer screening, and 4) exploratory analyses focused on the unique role of subtypes of intolerance of uncertainty (prospective and inhibitory anxiety) on forward engagement on lung cancer screening. Ninety-two individuals were randomized and completed baseline and 6-month follow-up questionnaires on intolerance of uncertainty, lung cancer screening engagement, and other psychosocial measures. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine all study aims. Results did not support a significant effect of the intervention on forward engagement in lung cancer screening behaviors, nor a significant association between intolerance of uncertainty and forward engagement over six months. Several reasons for the current nonsignificant results are discussed. Despite limitations, the present study represents an important step in identifying how intolerance of uncertainty differentially impacts engagement in cancer screening and opens the door for examining uncertainty more broadly in lung cancer screening research
Brecker, Andrea
No full textAndrea Brecker’s maternal grandmother came to the United States from Russia in the late 1800s, marrying on the Lower East Side. The family had been kosher butchers in the old world, and continued the tradition on the Lower East Side and when they moved to the Bronx. Her paternal family also escaped the Tsar and came to the United States in the early 1900s, moving to the East Bronx. Her grandfather was an ironworker, who helped in the construction of Temple Emanu-El. Brecker’s father was a house painter, and supported the family on a modest income on Davidson Avenue between Burnside and Tremont Avenues in the West Bronx. She describes it as a working-class neighborhood with mixed Jewish and Italian families with some Black families who were often the supers. Brecker grew up in a kosher home, lighting candles on Shabbat and celebrating the holidays at home, though they only attended synagogue on the High Holy Days. Her parents were very involved with volunteering with Jewish and Veterans groups, and she attended the local YMHA.
Brecker became friends with the few Black girls in school, fondly remembering the difference between her friend’s birthday party and the get-togethers she was accustomed to at home. She says the neighborhood got tougher as she got older, and there were turf wars between Italians and incoming Puerto Ricans and African Americans, particularly around Roosevelt, her high school. Brecker was keenly aware of racism in the Bronx even as a young person, and even more so after she married a Black man. She describes her education as subpar throughout her time in the Bronx, even attending Lehman College, but supplemented her education with reading books from the library. Brecker began working at Macy’s in high school, lying about her age, and would go on to have careers in the marketing, culinary, and non-profit spheres.
As she got older, Brecker got interested in the jazz music scene, anti-war, and feminist movements, meeting icons such as Nina Simone, Allen Ginsberg, and Gloria Steinem. While her mother cooked amazing blintzes, Brecker was trained as a chef, and became a lifelong vegetarian despite her family’s kosher butcher roots. After the 2008 recession, Brecker lost her job in marketing and struggled to find a new one, pointing to the forgotten victims of the recession who lost their jobs in their 50s and faced ageism and other restrictions in finding new ones. Today, she speaks of feelings of uncertainty and lack of safety on the streets of New York City as she gets older, though she shared negative experiences in her youth as well. Yet, Brecker points to the diversity of her upbringing and the independence of public transportation as key parts of what made her prepared for adulthood.
Keywords: race, racism, ageism, Black, Italian, Roosevelt High School, Vietnam War, feminism, jazz, employment, Russia, West Bronx, Davidson Avenue, Rockland County, education, safet
Renata Ramos
No full textAbstract prepared by Jordin Arnead-Wilson:
Renata Ramos shares the story of her powerful transition in this heartfelt and raw interview. For a lot of Renata’s life, growing up in a small catholic town in Uruguay, she didn’t have a notion of transness. Yet, even at a young age she recounts standing in front of the mirror, shutting her eyes and hoping that when she opened them again she would be in the body of a woman. Now, post-transition, Renata shares that she loves all aspects of womanhood. She touches on some complexities of gender identity, especially as a person who transitioned later in life, and emphasizes the importance that photography and modeling has played with documenting her journey. Her words express the kindness, patience and love she’s had for herself at all stages of her transition. She states that despite the gender euphoria experienced in her transitioned body, that she feels a sense of accomplishment and connection to her pre-transition self, which will always be a part of her history. In this interview, Renata shares raw and authentic accounts of her trans journey, providing a rich story of persistence, pride and the second chance that was achieved through her transition to womanhood
Propensity Score Estimation with Multi-Layer Neural Networks
No full textThe propensity score analysis is a statistical tool for deriving causal inferences in a broad class of settings when the randomized controlled experiment is not feasible in terms of design or research ethics. Observational studies provide enormous amounts of data statistical processing of which, nevertheless, can not explicitly answer the question of how large is the effect of the treatment on the outcome due to the effects of the confounders. The propensity score makes it possible for a researcher to reduce the confounders to one dimension to account for the confounding effects. In this light, it is of supreme importance to find the best tool for estimating the propensity score. A variety of machine learning tools have been investigated regarding their performance in estimating probabilities of receiving the treatment given the covariates as well as their computational efficiency. It has been shown that one-layer neural networks perform reasonably well (Setoguchi et al., 2008). However, not much research has been conducted on the ability of multi-layer neural networks to provide an unbiased estimation of propensity score. This research is focused on the assessment of the efficiency of multi-layer neural networks in estimating propensity scores. The study showed the utility of using multi-layered neural networks in estimating the propensity scores in the scenarios when both the outcome and propensity score models are non-linear. However, in the case of low exposure prevalence adding each hidden layer must be done with caution
Tending to Ourselves: The Role of Self-Compassion and the Superwoman Schema in the Gendered Racism- Psychological Distress Link in a Sample of Black Women
No full textSelf-compassion and the Superwoman schema were examined as potential moderators of the link between gendered racism and psychological distress in a sample of Black women. Gendered racism, or the compounded experience of racism and sexism, is associated with poor mental health outcomes, including traumatic stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and psychological distress in Black women. Gendered racial microaggressions, the everyday, subtle manifestations of gendered racism, can be experienced as a chronic stressor. Stress theory posits that self-concepts are internal resources that can impact the severity of a stress outcome elicited by a chronic stressor. This study explored whether the self-concept of self-compassion, treating oneself with kindness and nonjudgmental awareness in painful situations, could act as a protective factor and negatively moderate the pathway between gendered racial microaggressions and psychological distress. This study also explored the self-concept of the Superwoman schema, which may act inversely to self-compassion. Internalization of the Superwoman schema, which is the self- expectation of strength, self-reliance, and self-sacrifice in the face of challenges, was hypothesized to act as a risk factor and positively moderate the same pathway. An online study was conducted with 88 Black women across the United States. Findings indicate that frequency of gendered racial microaggressions, self-compassion, and Superwoman schema were each significant predictors of psychological distress, but self-compassion and Superwoman schema did not moderate the relationship between gendered racial microaggressions and psychological distress. The results indicated that further investigation of self-concepts that can impact the gendered racism-psychological distress link is warranted
Rudnick, Stuart
No full textStuart Rudnick was born in 1951. His family had moved up from the Lower East Side to the Sedgwick Projects in the West Bronx. They lived there until 1968, when they moved to Co-op City because the demographics of the neighborhood were changing and they wanted more space. It was seen as a step up. When Rudnick was growing up there, he remembers it as very safe and no one locked their doors. There were many kids in the building to play games outside in the street, games that did not require buying a lot like stickball. The project is remembered as predominantly white, but the neighborhood had more Black and Hispanic people, though people seemed to get along. As he got older, that relative harmony seemed to lessen and they avoided being in the surrounding neighborhoods, though Rudnick explains he does not understand why white flight happened, as it had always been mixed racially.
Rudnick’s father was a truck driver and his mother stayed at home with the children, with neither graduating from high school. He attended Bronx High School of Science, which he found challenging, in part because he did not have help from his parents with homework at the time. Rudnick does not believe that students today have the same level of education in the Bronx, especially because, although he also came from a blue collar family, there are much higher rates of single parent families and that makes it much harder.
His family was non-religious. Rudnick attended City College and remembers the anti-Vietman War riots there. He moved out of the Bronx to Yonkers with his wife in the late 1970’s, hoping to have more opportunities. Working in the produce business and going to Hunts Point, Rudnick witnessed the devastation in the South Bronx. Yet, he remembers his time in the Bronx as a safe, communal environment and at the same time helped him know what it was like growing up in public housing projects in a working class family. Rudnick wishes he understands more of what motivated people to leave, but knows as a child at the time he was shielded from the decisions of his parents.
Key Words:
Sedgwick Projects, Co-op City, Public Housing, white flight, working class, Bronx High School of Science, City College, Vietnam War, Yonker
