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Howard Thurman’s Theological Anthropology: A Mystical Political Response to Anti-Black Violence
No full textThesis advisor: Andrew L. PrevotThis dissertation addresses two critical areas of scholarship on Howard Thurman. Firstly, it aims to clarify Thurman’s theological anthropology, a facet often overshadowed by a focus on his ecclesiology and nonviolent social ethics. While existing treatments of Thurman’s anthropology are typically biographical and limited to his mystical consciousness, this project integrates insights from various aspects of Thurman’s work to offer a comprehensive account of his theological anthropology. Secondly, the dissertation critically examines the violence in Thurman’s historical context and the nuanced choice between violent and nonviolent resistance. Emphasizing Thurman’s nonviolent message directed at those who saw armed resistance as morally plausible, the study places Thurman in dialogue with contemporaries and subsequent Black scholars, elucidating how Christian nonviolent resistance contributes to an anthropology aligned with the imperative to resist all forms of oppression. The methodology involves correlating the revelatory responses of rebellious Black individuals with God’s revelation. Chapters also delve into Thurman’s theological anthropology and non-Chalcedonian Christology. The dissertation concludes by encouraging a nuanced integration of Thurman’s views into the Black Lives Matter Movement through a reflection on the parables of Jesus.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Corporate Influence and the PFAS Contamination Crisis
No full textThesis advisor: Juliet SchorThis study explores the dynamics of legislative conflicts surrounding PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) regulation in Massachusetts, focusing on the strategies employed by industry representatives and pro-regulatory advocates giving testimony at public hearings. Through a qualitative analysis of hearing transcripts and testimonies, the study reveals two primary lobbying strategies: an appeal to a status quo bias by emphasizing economic burdens and a "splitting hairs" tactic that emphasizes scientific nuances to advocate for a risk-based approach to regulation. In contrast, pro-regulatory advocates highlighted the known risks of PFAS exposure and served as foils to industry narratives. The study highlights the strategic communication tactics used by interest groups to influence policymakers and sheds light on the complex landscape of environmental regulatory debates in Massachusetts, emphasizing the role of public interest groups in countering the influence of private interest groups.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Sociology.Discipline: Scholar of the College
A New Era of Major League Baseball: How the 2023 MLB Rule Changes are Impacting Player Performance and Team Strategy
No full textThesis advisor: Robert MurphyMajor League Baseball (MLB) has largely been played the exact same way since the American League joined the National League in 1901. The pitcher stands 60 feet and 6 inches away from home plate and delivers the baseball for the batter to try to hit. Little about the game has been regulated except for the adjustment of the pitcher's mound height in 1968 and the recent addition of manager challenges. However, before the start of the 2023 MLB season, MLB commissioner Robert Manfred announced a new set of rules that perhaps change the game of baseball we once knew. The 2023 MLB season led to significantly more stolen bases for players with speed and potentially contributed to speed players changing their approach when at bat. These players with speed are drawing more walks, striking out less, and knocking in more RBIs. This is forcing MLB teams to reconsider how they decide to build their rosters.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics.Discipline: Departmental Honors
The Political and Psychological Implications of Incarceration
No full textThesis advisor: Gregory FriedAn unprecedented number of Americans are being held in prison as punishment. This thesis outlines the political and psychological effects of incarceration in relation to John Rawls’ theory of justice: one of the most pervasive political theories of the past 60 years. First, I test the statistically-supported consequences of incarceration on the economic wellbeing of individuals most directly impacted by incarceration against Rawls’ principles of justice to determine if incarceration is politically just. Next, guided by the writings of alienation philosopher Axel Honneth, I expand upon Rawls’ references to mental states to uncover psychological criteria for Rawlsean justice. Finally, I test incarceration against this criteria. I find that the American criminal justice system fails to provide a suitable bare-minimum amount of economic and psychological justice for all citizens due to punitive incarceration, no matter one’s proximity to incarceration. Incarceration, thus, is a barrier to America becoming a well-ordered society.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy.Discipline: Departmental Honors
ANew Paradigm: Lignin to Polymer Networks by Decatungstate Photocatalyzed Partial Depolymerization
No full textThesis advisor: Dunwei WangAs an inedible component of biomass, lignin features rich functional groups that are desired for chemical syntheses. How to effectively depolymerize lignin without compromising the more valuable cellulose and hemicellulose has been a significant challenge. Existing biomass processing procedures either induce extensive condensation in lignin that greatly hinders its chemical utilization or focus on fully depolymerizing lignin to produce monomers that are difficult to separate for subsequent chemical synthesis. Here, we report a new approach to selective partial depolymerization, which produces oligomers that can be readily converted to chemically recyclable polymer networks. The process takes advantage of the high selectivity of photocatalytic activation of the β-O-4 bond in lignin by decatungstate catalysts (DT). In the photocatalytic system, DT works as both catalyst and oxidant, leading to two different reaction pathways, slow and steady bond cleavage pathway, and fast but limited oxidation pathway. The availability of exogenous electron mediators or external oxidants promotes cleavage or oxidation of this bond, respectively, enabling high degrees of control over the depolymerization and the stoichiometry of a key functional group, C═O, in the products. The resulting oligomers can then be readily utilized for the synthesis of polymer networks through reactions between C═O and branched −NH2 as a dynamic covalent cross-linker. Importantly, the resulting polymer network can be recycled to enable a circular economy of materials directly derived from biomass.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Gender Disparities in Early Childhood Learning Opportunities and Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries:
No full textThesis advisor: Eric DearingDespite global efforts toward improving gender equity in education, gender-based disparities in learning opportunities and academic outcomes are still prevalent. Many gender differences in learning and academic outcomes begin emerging early in life, even before children start formal schooling. Both theory and empirical evidence point toward children’s exposure to gender-differentiated treatment from caregivers that arises from gendered stereotypes, expectations, and cultural norms. As young children’s brains have evolved to detect the subtlest nuances in their environments, even small gender differences in learning experiences could have lasting consequences in their developmental trajectories and later-life outcomes. In turn, understanding gender disparities in early learning opportunities is critical to catalyzing young girls’ and boys’ positive learning trajectories from early on. A major challenge for the field, however, has been the very limited attention given to these issues in low- and- middle-income countries (LMICs), where about 90% of the world’s children live. The present dissertation consists of three empirical papers focused on young children in LMICs, providing significant contributions to the cumulative knowledge on gender differences in early learning. Respectively, the three papers: (1) provide a thorough accounting of gender disparities across and within 71 countries, (2) uncover specific caregiving mechanisms that help explain these gender disparities in early learning outcomes across and within countries, and (3) delve into the perceptions and meaning makings of mothers and fathers about gendered parenting practices at the local level. By so doing, this dissertation pushes forward our understanding of gender disparities in early learning opportunities and development across multiple ecological levels. The results may help inform global policy and practice aimed at gender equity, a matter of social justice that has proven to affect the social fabric, economic vitality, and political stability of nations.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Towards a linguistic otherwise in science: Customizing curriculum for emergent multilingual learners’ equitable sensemaking
No full textThesis advisor: Katherine L. McNeillAn otherwise possibility recognizes “infinite alternatives to what is” (Crawley, 2017, p. 2) and acknowledges these alternatives as existing alongside our own ways of knowing and being. For bi/multilingual students, their ways of knowing and being can be represented by their multiple ways of communicating. However, through hegemonic systems of schooling, political polarization, misinformation around science, and language-exclusive ideologies, bi/multilingual students are restricted in bringing their whole personhood when learning science. As listening subjects, teachers, researchers, and students need to attune to students’ multiple ways of knowing, being, and communicating while dismantling ‘settled expectations’ pervasive in science teaching and learning (Bang et al., 2012). For example, certain pedagogical practices reduce possibilities like academic English-only pedagogies. Those practices can promote deficit orientations and ideologies of “languagelessness” onto EMLs (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa, 2016) because they fail to use standardized forms of language, like academic English. This three-paper dissertation explored how to orient toward a linguistic otherwise possibility in science. The first paper was an empirical case study investigating teachers’ collaborative design work within a curriculum-based professional learning community (PLC) to orient toward students multiple ways of communicating as a part of rather than a part from sensemaking in science. The second paper investigated sensemaking moments using interaction analysis within a middle school science classroom context. Specifically, this study examined non-linguistic ways of communication as an otherwise possibility. Finally, the third paper builds from the previous two by examining a subset of three teachers’ pedagogical reasoning as they planned and designed a curriculum customization to strategically incorporate multimodal ways of communication. Building on previous literature about the importance of multimodality as a part of science practices, this paper showcased which curriculum changes shifted how students engaged in science practices and their knowledge-building work inclusive of multiple ways of communication. As a corpus, this dissertation serves as an example of what could it look like to orient towards a linguistic otherwise in science.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Education
Impact of hunger state on palatable food-cue associative learning and consumption in adult and adolescent male and female rats:
No full textThesis advisor: Gorica PetrovichHunger and palatability modulate food intake through homeostatic and hedonic mechanisms that can work either independently, or in tandem. Both also influence food-seeking and learning about cues for food. Our prior work suggested that hunger and satiety impact motivation for palatable food differently in males and females. Sensitivity to food rewards also differs between adolescence and adulthood. Adolescents exhibit heightened motivation to consume and work for palatable food compared to adults. However, sex and age differences in palatable food motivation under sated and hungry conditions have not been explored. Here, we examined how rats consume and learn about palatable food. To assess cue-food associative learning and memory, rats underwent Pavlovian conditioning, extinction, and testing to assess the renewal of conditioned behavior. Male and female adult and adolescent Sprague Dawley rats were either food restricted (85% ad libitum body weight) or had ad libitum access to regular chow (n=8 per group). Rats learned palatable food-cue associations across 8 acquisition sessions, followed by cue-only presentations for 4 extinction sessions in a different context. They were then tested for renewal of conditioned responding (time spent at the food cup) to the food cue in the acquisition compared to extinction context. Before learning and after renewal testing, rats were tested for consumption of palatable food and chow in their home cage (1hr test/day per food). We found that adults and adolescents of both sexes were able to learn, extinguish, and renew conditioned responding regardless of hunger. Adolescents consistently had higher responding than adults across the learning and memory protocol. During consumption testing, females of both ages ate more palatable food than males, particularly when sated. Adolescent consumption was dependent on hunger state. Sated adolescents ate more palatable food than adults, and both sated adults and adolescents showed a preference for palatable food over chow. Food-deprived adolescents and adults ate similar amounts of chow, but only adults showed a preference for palatable food over chow. Palatable food consumption and conditioned responding during early acquisition training for that same food were positively correlated, indicating that hunger and satiety similarly impact palatable food-cue learning and consumption. Overall, these findings suggest that physiological hunger is not a prerequisite for successful associative learning and memory during adolescence or adulthood, and that female sensitivity to palatable food is present during adolescence.Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology and Neuroscience
ARoman Catholic Account of the Flourishing and Virtuous Agency of People with Schizophrenia in the United States:
No full textThesis advisor: Stephen J. PopeThis dissertation develops a Roman Catholic account of the flourishing and virtuous agency of people with schizophrenia in the United States. At least two million people in the United States live with this brain disease, whose symptoms (e.g. delusions and avolition) complicate virtuous living. This dissertation remedies the neglect of schizophrenia in Catholic ethics and advances Christian ethics beyond the best available work done on the flourishing and virtuous agency of people with it by Protestant authors by: a) drawing its understanding of the content of human flourishing and of the theological and cardinal virtues from Christian theological and ethical commitments rather than from non-Christian sources; b) grounding the social supports that would increase the likelihood of clinical recovery and, therefore, of agency, habituation, virtue, and flourishing; c) showing via careful work in virtue theory whether, why, how, to what extent, and under which circumstances people with schizophrenia can live virtuously; and d) clarifying the meaning of the theological and cardinal virtues and their relevance for people with schizophrenia. Chapter One elucidates the challenges confronting people with schizophrenia in the United States from their illness itself and from the nation’s failed social response to them, as well as the opportunities available to them through clinical, functional, and personal recovery. Chapter Two concludes that, despite their liabilities, recent secular interpretations of the good life can or do conceptualize flourishing as possible even as constraints such as those associated with schizophrenia endure rather than only after they have been removed. Chapter Threes and Four find that Roman Catholic magisterial teachings about schizophrenia and an analogized reading of Luke 8:26-39 can helpfully ground necessary social supports, but the former requires greater conceptual clarification and development, while the latter emphasizes Jesus’s agency rather than that of the Gerasene man and depicts a total healing from total brokenness that is unavailable to or not fully representative of people with schizophrenia today. Chapter Five argues that Thomas Aquinas’s understandings of perfect and imperfect beatitude provide the best way for Christian ethics to conceptualize the possibility, content, and requirements of the flourishing of people with schizophrenia. Thomistic ethics can ground necessary social supports, and Aquinas’s virtue theory, as interpreted by William C. Mattison and developed by the scientifically-informed and socially-attuned threshold thesis, can show whether, why, how, to what extent, and under which circumstances people with schizophrenia can live virtuously before onset of illness, between onset and the threshold point of clinical recovery, and at and beyond the threshold. Chapters Six and Seven use Thomistic virtue ethics to explain the meaning of the theological and cardinal virtues, respectively, and their relevance for people with schizophrenia. The result is a wider and deeper Christian assessment of their possibilities for agency, habituation, virtue, and flourishing, even as schizophrenia’s challenges continue to varying degrees.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Craniofacial Development of Zebrafish and other Danioninae, and the Roles of Thyroid Hormone in Shaping the Skull:
Full text linkThesis advisor: Sarah K. McMenaminThesis advisor: Vicki LosickProper bone development requires coordination and timing of specific morphogenetic events, and relative shifts in these temporal processes can change morphology. Thyroid hormone (TH) plays an important role in regulating the timing of vertebrate skeletogenesis, and the hormone induces the profound skeletal shape changes that occur during amphibian metamorphosis. Like humans, zebrafish do not undergo an ecological metamorphosis; yet TH is essential in coordinating postembryonic developmental processes. In particular, several elements of the craniofacial skeleton that continue to ossify and remodel during later stages of development are sensitive to TH titer. My aims focus on the role of TH in regulating skeletal growth and shape changes in zebrafish. To examine changes in the entire zebrafish skeleton during normal postembryonic development, I generated a skeletal reference of microCT scans of zebrafish ranging from early juvenile through adult stages (Chapter 2). After defining the normal changes that wild-type zebrafish undergo, I hypothesized that TH coordinates the developmental shape changes and determined the role of TH in stimulating developmental shape change in zebrafish skulls and its effects on skeletogenic cell populations (Chapter 3). Finally, I investigated whether phenotypes induced by altered TH levels mirror some of the evolutionary diversity seen across Danioninae craniofacial skeletons (Chapter 4). My research elucidates the role of TH in the regulation of bone growth and shape change in a vertebrate system and provides new insights into the natural craniofacial diversity of Danioninae.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Biology