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Writing Atlantic–african Slavery: The Middle Passage In Continental Terms
No full textThrough a comparative study of literary figurations and institutional records of slavery, Writing Atlantic–African Slavery: The Middle Passage in Continental Terms demonstrates how Africa was not only a site of the extraction of racial capital but also of its accumulation. Put differently, I do not reduce Atlantic slavery to the transatlantic slave trade, the export slave industry, on the continent. I foreground what I term “Atlantic–African slavery,” or the myriad ways captives were rendered as fungible and racialized commodities in Africa as well. I locate its institutional instantiation within nineteenth-century imperial records of French colonial Senegal. I examine the records produced during the years leading to and immediately following the abolition of chattel slavery in 1848, including census reports, metropolitan newspapers, and the indemnity claims of Senegalese slaveowners. I identify twentieth-century francophone writers, specifically Yambo Ouologuem (1968) and Maryse Condé (1984), as purveyors of an African continental perspective on Atlantic slavery through a distinctive literary mode that I call the “ante-return,” which narrates a return to an anterior past, prior to extensive European colonization of the late nineteenth century. Ante-return fiction depicts Atlantic–African slavery in novelistic real-time and maintains a perspective from within Africa throughout the span of the novel. I then demonstrate the continued relevance of this idiom by charting how the ante-return novel reemerges in both English and French during the twenty-first century. In light of recent transcontinental emigration from Africa, I suggest that the revival of the ante-return novel by Léonora Miano (2013) and Yaa Gyasi (2016) underscores not a new, but a renewed practice of diaspora. As contemporary fiction, these works rearticulate diasporic connection through difference that harkens back, under altered conditions, to the intellectual commitments of early twentieth-century Black France. Writing Atlantic–African Slavery ends with a coda where I assemble passages from the works studied in this dissertation that illustrate the arrival and departure of slave ships from the African littoral. Through this constellation, I pose questions to incite further inquiry into the world left behind with the wake of slave ships
Essays On Technology And Platforms
Full text linkThis dissertation investigates how technology in different marketing-related use cases may affect consumer behavior, and how firms should respond. In particular, we study two important types of platforms in marketing – social media platforms such as Facebook and shopping platforms such as Amazon Marketplace. For social media platforms, this dissertation focuses on a recent, hotly-debated topic -- content moderation. We build a game-theoretical model to study how economic incentives will shape a social media platform\u27s content moderation strategy, as well as how a platform\u27s technology strategy will interact with the way in which it moderates its user-generated content. We find that a social media platform\u27s optimal content moderation strategy depends on its revenue model: a platform under advertising is more likely to moderate its content than one under subscription, but does so less aggressively compared to the latter when it moderates content. We also show that a platform under advertising does not necessarily benefit from a better technology for content moderation, but one under subscription does, which means that platforms under different revenue models can have different incentives to improve their content moderation technology. For shopping platforms, we investigate whether retailers should adopt technology-enabled shopping (TES) platforms, such as Amazon\u27s Alexa, as a new distribution channel. We combine game-theoretical analysis and experiments that show consumer reactions to different shopping technology. We find that consumers with stronger brand preferences are less likely to benefit from decision support (DS) technology, whereas ordering convenience (OC) technology benefits all consumers at a similar level. Such differences in consumer reactions to different technology induces vastly different distribution and pricing strategies in retail markets: the heterogeneous consumer valuation of the DS technology results in a monopolistic retailer adoption and generates Pareto improvements, but OC technology results in competitive retailer adoption and generates a prisoner-dilemma type outcome. Furthermore, we also find that a technology provider may choose not to offer the best possible OC technology to mitigate downstream retailer competition
Reactivity And Electronic Structure Studies Of Ce(iv) And Th(iv) Imido Compounds
Full text linkOrganometallic compounds with a multiply bound imido ligand have been extensively studied as intermediates in catalytic transformations. While the examples of d-block transition metal imido compounds are ubiquitous, early lanthanide and actinide compounds are more rare. There is a long-standing interest to improve understanding of their chemical behaviors and electronic structures. This dissertation presents work on several aspects of f-element imido chemistry, including reactivity, electronic structures, and photophysical properties. Cerium (IV) imido compounds supported by a tripodal hydroxylaminato ligand framework were used to activate small molecules with polar bonds, such as carbon dioxide, organic isocyanates, ketones, and others. Reaction products were isolated, affording insights into reaction mechanisms and comparisons with d-block transition metal and actinide imido complexes. Electronic structures of cerium (IV) oxo and imido compounds were investigated using XAS spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and DFT calculations, revealing single-reference ground states and significant temperature-independent paramagnetism. This study improved understanding of ligand impact on the electronic character of the ground state of cerium (IV) organometallic compounds. It was also found that the cerium (IV) imido compounds exhibited no solution-state luminescence, while isostructural thorium (IV) imido compounds were luminescent. By systematically varying the para-substituents on the aryl-imido ligand based on their electron donating and withdrawing ability, a series of thorium imido compounds was prepared, and their photophysical properties were measured. All the thorium(IV) compounds emitted in the blue and the ultraviolet region. Rationalizing the results with DFT calculations, we proposed the role of different radiative transitions and their relative energies in the observed luminescent behavior
Enhancing Academic Persistence And Progress Through A Cognitive Remediation Intervention (fast) For College Students With Psychiatric Conditions
No full textPurpose: This study evaluated the efficacy of a 12-session individualized cognitive remediation intervention, Focused Academic Strength Training (FAST), on academic persistence and progress of enrolled college students with psychiatric conditions. FAST targets executive functioning skills, specifically prospective memory, attention, learning and memory, and problem solving. Self-efficacy as a mediator was examined. Posthoc research questions explored FAST’s impact on working memory and attention and the impact of working memory and attention on the relationship between FAST and academic persistence. Methods: This study is an intent-to-treat, secondary analysis of a longitudinal, randomized controlled trial of college students randomized to participate in FAST or a control condition. Transcripts were collected at baseline and 2nd semester and self-efficacy and cognition scores were collected at baseline and 1st follow-up. Results: Generalized Estimating Equation analyses showed participants in the FAST condition were more likely to academically persist at 2nd semester than students in the control condition (p=.045). FAST improved self-efficacy, but self-efficacy did not act as a mediator. FAST had a large (d=.79) and medium (d=.72) effect size on working memory and attention, respectively, but were not significant. After adding working memory and attention as additional predictors of academic persistence, FAST approached significance (p=.061), but its effect size increased (d=1.063). Academic progress could not be evaluated due to the large number of first-year students at baseline. Implications: The results of this study will help to reconceptualize the reasons for attrition as well as develop and refine services to enhance academic persistence of college students with psychiatric conditions
Student Employability and Values-Based MBA Programs: An Exploratory Case Study of Three Catholic Business Schools
No full textThe state of the MBA is under scrutiny as new programs continue to launch, tuition continues to rise, and competition for prospective students among MBA programs continues to increase. Therefore, students are interested to know their ROI on the MBA degree and how institutions will support them to secure employment. Simultaneously, the continued transgressions of corporations provoke calls from the community for businesses to consider community and not just shareholder value when making business decisions. Business schools and MBA programs have an opportunity to prepare students for both the job market and making positive impacts in their communities. This study is predicated on the need to better understand how employability is integrated into values-based MBA programs and how the institutions values are informing this integration. This study examined three cases at three Catholic institutions with values-driven missions and MBA programs in Texas. The study revealed both similarities and differences between the three case studies around how employability initiatives are integrated into the curriculum, including selection of MBA core coursework, and through co-curricular programs and services such as networking events, capstone projects, and access to career development services. The study also revealed where the institution’s values inform employability features of the program, in the core curriculum, individual courses, and career development services. The study concluded that values-based MBA programs incorporate employability strategies in a variety of ways in both the curricular and co-curricular experiences of the students. The values of the institution are also integrated in key employability fixtures both in and outside of the classroom. The results of the study offer insights to academic leaders interested in incorporating impactful employability strategies into the student experience that highlights where the institution’s values can impact these employability initiatives
Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope Receiver
Full text linkIn the past three decades, cosmic microwave background (CMB) has provided a wealth of information on the origin and the history of the universe. From motivating the theory of the Big Bang, to providing tests for the standard model of cosmology; from measuring the Hubble constant, to constraining the mass of the neutrino; from testing the matter composition of the universe, to shedding light on the cluster evolution, CMB has truly become one of the most critical subjects of modern cosmology. However, to fully realize its potential and to achieve a level of accuracy that none has achieved before, large observatories equipped with ten times the detectors as the current generation experiments are needed. Such is the time that Simons Observatory (SO) collaboration came together, and proposed a Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) and an array of Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) that met such criteria. Built upon the expertise from the current generation ground-based telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT), SO will initially deploy a total of 60,000 detectors, split about evenly between the LAT and SATs, with the potential to double the detector count in the LAT. Naturally, it is no easy undertaking to build a receiver capable of such feat for the LAT. In this thesis, I will recount the science cases put forth by SO, and walk through our journey in the designing, making, and testing of the Large Aperture Telescope Receiver (LATR)
Essays On Inequality And Frictions In The Labor Market
Full text linkFrictions in the labor market are important forces driving the unequal outcomes in wages, mobility, and work arrangements. I study the life cycle gender wage gap and alternative work arrangements in labor markets with information frictions and search frictions.
The first chapter proposes a novel mechanism behind the life cycle gender wage gap: female workers are offered wage contracts that suppress future job mobility because of employers’ screening under asymmetric information about female job attachment. Job attachment is lower among women than men, with substantial individual-level heterogeneity. Employers value job attachment but job attachment is not directly observed. I show that the information problem of female job attachment is detrimental to female labor market outcomes. I propose a model where there is information asymmetry about female job attachment but not about male job attachment in a frictional labor market. To screen for female job attachment, employers offer separating wage contracts that distort the wage profiles of high-attachment women. The distortions suppress female job-to-job mobility, resulting in worse labor market outcomes than comparable men.
The second chapter empirically investigates the life-cycle gender differences in labor market outcomes, based on the theoretical framework developed in the previous chapter. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I document substantial gender differences in the likelihood of employment-to-nonemployment transitions, confirming the central assumption of the theoretical model. I document empirical evidence on the gender differences in job mobility and wage return to tenure, consistent with the theoretical predictions. I quantitatively implement the model and assess the contributing factors to the gender wage gap. The parameterized model generates gender gaps in wage growth and distribution along the job ladder. I show that the gender differences in the job value distribution are the main contributor to the gender wage gap.
The third chapter studies alternative work arrangements in an environment with moral hazard and adverse selection. Workers are hired on a per-task basis, whose effort and marginal product may not be observed. The employer chooses between offering a bonus contract and selling off the task. Bonus contracts provide workers with insurance against output risks but subject them to organizational uncertainty. Allowing workers to buy out the task induces higher worker effort but provides no risk sharing. I characterize the tradeoff between the two arrangements. Adverse selection limits the use of the latter arrangement on low marginal product workers and hence the employer’s ability to induce their effort
Essays On College Investment And Income Inequality
Full text linkThis dissertation consists of two chapters studying the importance of household income for shaping student outcomes in the market for higher education in the United States. The first chapter uses the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to document that conditional on student ability, high-income students are more likely to enroll in college and are more likely to attend a highly selective college conditional on enrolling. These gaps are mostly explained by differences in application rates and in enrollment rates conditional on being admitted, rather than differences in admission rates. While students generally prefer to attend the most selective college they are accepted to, low-income students are less likely to attend their preferred college due to costs. These findings suggest that financial aid provided by colleges is generally insufficient in closing enrollment gaps, and that the observed application gaps may be rational: low-income students will choose not to apply if doing so is costly and they do not expect to receive sufficient aid if admitted.
Motivated by the empirical findings of the first chapter, the second chapter builds and estimates an equilibrium model of the U.S. college market featuring tuition discrimination and a decentralized admissions system. Students who differ in their financial resources and innate ability apply to a subset of colleges and are uncertain about their prospective admissions and financial aid. Colleges observe a noisy signal of student ability and compete by choosing admissions standards and tuition schedules. According to the estimated model, differences in application rates between high- and low-income students, conditional on ability, are due to student expectations over admissions and financial aid, which are consistent with college policies in equilibrium. Low-income students receive generous financial aid at selective colleges because only the highest-ability among them apply, making their signals highly informative. If signals became less informative (e.g., colleges stopped using the SAT), all high-ability students would be worse off and only high-income, low-ability students would modestly benefit. Finally, the model suggests that increasing federal need-based financial aid greatly benefits low-income, high-ability students by alleviating credit constraints
Efficacy Evaluation of Zoology One: Kindergarten Research Labs Online Appendix of Measures and Tools for Data Collection
Full text linkThe development of this instrument was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences throughGrant R305A160109, awarded to theUniversity of Pennsylvania
Exploring Leadership Mindsets and Behaviors that Enable Organizations to Adapt to the Novel Situation of the Future Workplace Ushered in by the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world of work causing a significant shift from working in the office to working from home. Studies have shown that many employees do not want to return to the office on a full-time basis and that they expect that their work environments will include teleworking going forward. However, many leaders have had challenges managing remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and numerous organizations have been unclear and inconsistent about what work arrangements will look like in the future. Although several leadership studies since the COVID-19 pandemic have focused on leading during a crisis, empirical studies on the behaviors and mindsets needed to navigate the future of work is sparse. This research applied the Complexity Leadership Theory lens to the study of leadership behaviors and mindsets during this period of ambiguity and complexity which the COVID-19 pandemic introduced into the workplace. This exploratory study used a phenomenological approach to gain the perspectives of 20 senior HR leaders who are dealing with the ambiguity and complexity of novel human resource challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Four major findings resulted from this study. First, many factors shifted the balance of power from the employer to the employee to decide workforce including changing workforce expectations, the volatility and duration of the pandemic, as well as employee productivity while working from home. Second, senior HR leaders found establishing guidelines, and purposeful communications effective in helping them adapt to the future workplace. Third, the study found that mindsets play a key role in shaping decisions as senior HR leaders navigated the future workplace. Finally, senior HR leaders used enabling leadership competencies to influence stakeholders to navigate the novel situation of the future workplace ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings have implications for practice as they provide useful insights and strategies to senior HR leaders who are responsible for establishing work arrangements for their organizations