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FINDING FUTURES: REFUSING CANVA AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF THE D.I.Y. POLITICAL POST(ER)
Get PDFThe convergence of corporate technology and subversive political expression is not new. Canva, like Xerox, is but another made-for-the-office technological innovation employed to political ends. Its ease-of-use has made it a staple tool for students, office workers, event planners, and political organizers alike. However, it is easy to use because it eliminates the need for creative decision-making, empowering users to quickly and easily produce designs that all look the same. This paper asks: Is the homogenization of D.I.Y. political posters, a medium that has historically been characterized by design elements that are as subversive as the politics they represent, indicative of our over-reliance on corporate technology as the mediator of subcultural political life? Drawing upon “social movement culture” objects from Xerox to the Web 2.0 era (the period of the internet characterized by networks and user-generated content), I explore how and where political expression and corporate technologies have coiled and crashed, producing not only new media objects but also new questions about how we mediate politics in physical and digital publics and where we might go from here
ARENAS OF RESISTANCE: How Oklahoma\u27s Black Rodeos Preserved Environmental Wisdom and Community Power
Get PDFThis thesis explores how Black rodeos in Oklahoma emerged from post-emancipation agricultural labor and ranching traditions, serving as powerful sites of cultural preservation, knowledge transmission, and resistance to dominant narratives of the American West. Through analysis of historical records, photographic evidence, and personal family narratives, this research demonstrates how Black Oklahomans developed unique relationships with land and animals that encompassed both the ecological burden of agricultural labor and the beauty of cultural expression and community-building. Drawing on theoretical frameworks including Kimberly Ruffin\u27s ecological burden-and-beauty paradox, George Lipsitz\u27s Black spatial imaginaries, bell hooks\u27 oppositional gaze, and Toni Morrison\u27s concept of rememory, this study illuminates how Black rodeo traditions functioned as counter-colonial spaces that challenged the whitewashed frontier myth while preserving African American agricultural heritage. The establishment of institutions like the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo and the Boley Rodeo created alternative geographies that contested Frederick Jackson Turner\u27s Frontier Thesis and the broader settler-colonial narratives of the American West. Visual analysis of photographs, from Russell Lee\u27s FSA documentation to contemporary Black rodeo imagery, reveals how photography served both as a tool of erasure and a means of resistance through community-controlled representation. By incorporating personal family connections to Oklahoma\u27s Black rodeo traditions and their relation to self-mythologies, this research offers an intimate perspective on how these practices served as living embodiments of Black resilience and adaptation within the Oklahoma frontier, creating spaces where historical memory, cultural identity, and community power were preserved and celebrated
A-Z in Oaktown: An Ethnic Studies Approach through Children\u27s Literature
No full textA-Z in Oaktown: An Ethnic Studies Approach Through Children\u27s Literature In my project, I discuss the importance of expanding ethnic studies requirements into elementary schools and propose the use of inclusive and culturally relevant children\u27s literature as a resource to engage younger students in ethnic studies curricula. I created an original children\u27s book that celebrates my hometown, Oakland, through the eyes of a young girl, Ximena, who loves her city
The Chthulucene Is Colonial Ecology: Ontology and Ethics in Anti-Colonial Environmental Theory
Get PDFThis thesis interrogates the movement from ontology (what things are) to ethics (what one should do) in the context of environmental theory and settler colonialism. From new materialism to posthumanism, theorists within the “ontological turn” aim to overcome the anti-ecological foundations of modern philosophy (e.g., dualisms of nature and society, matter and meaning, body and mind). Contra dualism, critical environmental theorists argue that relational ontologies can produce more ecologically responsible ethical frameworks, affects, and values. In this thesis, I focus on appeals to climate anxiety and ecological urgency as two common discursive formations that function to redirect philosophical accounts of relationality toward the reproduction of colonial ecologies. As defined by Malcom Ferdinand, colonial ecologies are environmental discourses that preserve the relations of settler society and reproduce projects of Indigenous dispossession. First, I contextualize climate anxiety in a long history of European settler environmentalism. Second, I unpack relationality in Donna Haraway’s philosophical work, illustrating how appeals to climate anxiety undermine the practical application of her critiques of nature-culture dualism. While generally more attentive to histories of injustice than mainstream scientific conceptions of the Anthropocene, I will argue that Haraway\u27s late-career work, representative of the ontological turn more broadly, does not escape the methodological imperatives of colonial ecology. Drawing from scholars in Black Studies and Indigenous Studies, I conclude by proposing a methodological re-orientation for critical environmental theory: against universalizing or idealizing tendencies, relationality must be grounded in the history and ongoing processes of settler colonial domination
Nonprofit Tax Avoidance Under the Endowment Tax
No full textThis thesis examines the response of private colleges and universities subject to the excise tax on net investment income, introduced under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). It seeks to identify tax avoidance behavior within qualifying nonprofit institutions in the form of reduced investment asset sales, as a means to defer income recognition and reduce the size of their tax liability. The research utilizes financial data from the IRS and Form 990 filings to analyze investment asset sales, capital gains and investment management fees within nonprofit organizations using a difference-in-differences regression model. Within a sample of nonprofits that are all educational institutions, results find that institutions subject to the tax have statistically significantly fewer sales of investment assets after the tax was implemented compared to those not subject to the tax. However, these findings do not hold in another sample of nonprofit organizations with investment assets totaling over $650 million. Additionally, capital gains income is not significantly different for tax-affected institutions in the period after the tax. Exploration of colleges and universities tax sensitivity in the form of changes to investment management fees also did not yield any significant results. Limited statistically significant results provide minimal evidence that colleges and universities are tax sensitive and engage in tax avoidance to reduce their tax liabilities. The findings contribute to literature regarding tax avoidance within nonprofit organizations, as well as shed light on behavioral changes within highly endowed institutions following changes in tax policy
Forecasting Equity Betas Using Option-Implied Moments
Get PDFTraditional beta estimates are constructed from historical stock‑and‑market returns and therefore adjust only as fast as realized data accrue. This thesis investigates whether the forward‑looking information embedded in equity‑option prices can enhance beta forecasts. Using near‑end‑of‑day quotes for 236 S&P 500 firms between 2007 and 2024, I extract risk‑neutral variance and skewness, construct five alternative beta estimators (historical, option‑implied, and three hybrids), and evaluate them against realized betas over six‑, twelve‑, and twenty‑four‑month windows. Rolling‑OLS beta remains the most accurate benchmark at short horizons, yet option‑implied moments add economically and statistically significant value when systematic exposure is expected to change rapidly. In Utilities and Real Estate, a hybrid estimator that combines historical correlation with option‑implied volatilities reduces root‑mean‑square forecast error by roughly 10 percent at the two‑year horizon, and purely option‑based betas occasionally outperform the historical standard. In a simulation where true beta is known and the underlying assumptions for the Heston stochastic volatility model and the CAPM are satisfied, I show that the Chang et al. (2011) formula is upward-biased in theory because, contrary to their assumption, the skewness of the error term is not zero
Creating an EV Supply Chain in Sub Saharan Africa: A Vehicle for Industrialization?
No full textSub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has long struggled to break out of economies defined by neo-colonialism and resource extractivism. The global energy transition and the buildout of electric vehicle (EV) fleets offers a unique opportunity for SSA to leverage its critical mineral reserves for industrialization. This paper seeks to buildout a working policy and economic framework to facilitate value addition in the EV supply chain. It first explores the status-quo of EV supply chain and SSA\u27s comparative advantages. It then explores successful case study nations -Chile, Indonesia and Morocco- as models of productive industrial policy. Finally, it adapts these policies to SSA in an attempt to create institutions and frameworks that will facilitate maximal value integration and addition
The Long-Term Impact of the 2018 Montecito Mudslides on Residential Property Values
No full textThis thesis explores the long-term effects of the 2018 Montecito Mudslides on residential properties in Montecito, California. I assessed home values that were affected based on damage severity and location using a manually collected dataset of 238 homes with biannual Zillow Zestimate data from 2015 to 2025. Utilizing a Difference-in-Difference approach, along with an event-study regression, I discovered that damaged homes initially declined in value but experienced a compelling rebound in the following years. Recovery trends varied across neighborhoods with properties in close proximity to creeks showing higher levels of damage and weaker recovery. A final model highlights the predictive power of the property characteristics, home size, lot size, value per square-foot, and the year in which the home was built. My results suggest that high-end real estate in disaster prone areas can show resilience overtime, contributing to research on housing markets, risk perception, and recovery
Transformational Leadership in the Church: How Pastoral Leadership Styles Influence Congregational Behavior and Religious Expression
No full textAs church membership continues to decline across the United States, especially among younger generations, there is growing interest in the psychological factors that influence why individuals stay connected and involved in faith communities or walk away. While theological beliefs are certainly part of the story, this thesis explores the idea that the style of leadership practiced by pastors may be just as important, or more. This literature review asks: How do Christian pastors’ leadership styles affect follower behavior and expression of the Christian religion? Drawing from the fields of psychology and leadership studies, this paper examines the ways in which transformational, transactional, and passive leadership styles influence outcomes such as congregational engagement, religious identity, spiritual practices, and disaffiliation. The guiding hypothesis is that pastors who adopt transformational leadership behaviors, which are those that inspire, challenge, and emotionally connect with followers, create deeper engagement and stronger expressions of faith than those who rely on transactional or passive approaches. Through reviewing some key studies and the analysis in Transformational Leadership Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Organizational Change Readiness, this thesis finds consistent support for the idea that pastoral leadership style plays a central role in shaping how people believe, behave, and belong within Christian communities. In contrast, churches led by pastors with less relational or vision-oriented leadership styles tend to experience lower levels of participation and, in some cases, growing disaffiliation. These findings suggest that psychology can offer powerful insights into not only why faith persists, but also how leadership can either help it thrive or fade away
Predictive Policing in Practice: A Case Study of Chicago\u27s Strategic Subject List
Get PDFTechnological advancements in big data and algorithmic modeling have contributed to the rise of advanced predictive policing techniques. Law enforcement agencies utilize these tools to predict and prevent crime before it occurs. However, these techniques have been the subject of extensive ethical debates, particularly regarding their potential to reinforce racial biases. This thesis provides a historical overview and analysis of a prominent example of people-based predictive policing: the Chicago Police Department’s Strategic Subject List (SSL) program. The SSL program revolved around an algorithm designed to predict individuals\u27 risk of involvement in a shooting, using indicators such as co-arrest networks, age, and the number of certain offenses, among others. The program’s multi-year implementation is evaluated through internal reports and an exploratory data analysis of crime data. The analysis focuses on crime trends across Chicago’s 22 police districts and investigates whether the SSL was effective in reducing crime and violence. The findings suggest that while citywide crime rates declined, the SSL had no significant impact on reducing crime in already high-crime districts. Additionally, the SSL disproportionately flagged young Black men under the age of 20 as “high-risk.” The thesis concludes with recommendations for increased transparency in predictive policing programs, including the release of more information about the Strategic Subject List program