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The Monuments of Imperial London: Trafalgar Square, the Mall, and the British Empire
Get PDFThesis advisor: Penelope IsmayMonumental projects British social imperialists inaugurated at both Trafalgar Square and the Mall seem like the most obvious examples of imperial arrogance, examining the processes through which they were envisioned, planned, and realized reveals a deep insecurity, both about who Britons were as a people, and ultimately, where they stood in the world as a nation. It is exceedingly difficult to identify a specific, overarching vision from any one British official for either project’s realization precisely because there were so many competing interpretations of how social imperialists should monumentalize—not to mention the competing individuals themselves. Though this insecurity is probably not unique to Britain, I believe the ideological emptiness it betrays is unique to modern empire.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Scholar of the College.Discipline: History
Oh, SNAP!: The Impact of Nutritional Assistance on Grade Progression Rates for K-12 Students
Get PDFThesis advisor: Paul CichelloThe COVID-19 pandemic impacted nearly every aspect of societies around the world when it struck in 2020. Food insecurity increased in almost all countries, even those with well-developed economies and safety nets, and education for all ages was drastically affected by social distancing guidelines and a concern for the safety of students and faculty alike. Using data from the 2019 and 2020 cross-sections of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I evaluated the impact of an automatic increase in food assistance benefits in the United States during March 2020 on grade progression rates for students who were affected by the benefit increase. I find statistically insignificant results regarding the effect of this increase on grade progression rates, but a significant positive effect of being in the post-Covid period on these rates. These results could reflect the fact that school districts around the country broadly loosened the academic requirements for grade progression. Future research could evaluate the effect of food stamp benefits on the quality of education, and seek to overcome the limitations of the model used for this analysis.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Economics
Righting Historical Wrongs?: Evaluating the "Success" of Transitional Justice
No full textThesis advisor: Ingu HwangTransitional justice (TJ) measures such as amnesty and lustration laws, truth commissions, and reparation programs have been widely utilized worldwide in an effort to come to terms with dark pasts and mass atrocities. However, these measures have had varying levels of success, which begs the question: how successful really is TJ in enacting the change that needs to take place? To answer this question, an analysis into the imagination and implementation of TJ, its globalization and localization, and its relationship with democratization is conducted. Case studies include TJ measures in South Korea, Chile, Albania, and Rwanda and includes multilingual primary and secondary sources such as government reports, presidential speeches, academic and legal journals, museums, protest picket signs, literature, documentaries, and news articles. It is concluded that TJ measures are both successful and unsuccessful, which depends on (1) a desire from the people, (2) a balance between global and local efforts, and (3) whether one or multiple TJ measures are employed simultaneously. Specific policy and field recommendations are outlined at the end.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: International Studies
Statelessness and the Right to Citizenship in Nigeria: Toward an Ethic of Recognition
No full textThesis advisor: James F. KeenanThesis advisor: Daniel J. DalyNigeria is a huge and highly diverse country. It comprises an agglomeration of hundreds of precolonial nations, called “tribes” by the British colonizers. Since its independence in 1960, Nigerian State has been struggling with the question of citizenship; who is a Nigerian or who can be a Nigerian. Over these years, it has preserved an exclusive notion of citizenship where right to citizenship is intimately tied to membership of an “indigenous” community recognized by the state. This has set up boundaries between groups regarded as ‘autochthones' and 'immigrants', ‘first-comer and late-comer’, 'natives' and 'strangers’, ‘indigene’ and ‘settler’. Lacking a robust legal scaffolding, Nigeria’s system of citizenship has evolved organically to depend on authentication by local government authorities rather than a federal agency. As such, the right to be Nigerian is epitomized by a certificate of indigeneity, a nebulous system manipulated by politicians, traditional rulers and state officials. Today, such a system of citizenship has condemned different groups to the pains and agony of de facto statelessness. These groups include but are not limited to minority ethnic groups, internal migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees. In the light of the above, this thesis offers sustained ethical analysis of the oppressive structures of statelessness in Nigeria using the hermeneutical lens of human rights. Its main argument is that the lack of recognition of the citizenship rights of certain individuals or groups in Nigeria because of their ethnicity, religion or migratory history renders them stateless, constituting a grave injustice that can only be remedied through an ethic of recognition. This ethic takes the form of a set of proposals for Churches in Nigeria and the government. firstly, it articulates vigilance, humility and solidarity as necessary virtues for Churches in Nigeria to develop in order to be more capacious in responding to the challenges of statelessness. Secondly, it proposes legal and institutional reforms that the government of Nigeria must urgently embark upon to address the phenomenon of statelessness. These reforms will ensure that the national identity card or residence certificate replaces the indigene certificate as the only proof of Nigerian citizenship.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
All Talk No Action?: Exploring Teachers' Motivations and Engagement in Massive Open Online Courses
No full textThesis advisor: Matthias von DavierMassive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are used by many educators for professional development (PD). However, only a few studies explored what educators’ goals in PD-MOOCs are and whether educators with different goals interact with MOOCs in different ways. These issues are addressed in three related studies described in this work. First, I conducted a literature review on MOOCs for educators and identified underexplored topics and underutilized data collection and analysis methods. I found that a few studies looked at educators’ learning motivations and none linked them to complex engagement patterns as measured using log data. In the second study, I used natural language processing (NLP) to identify teachers’ motivations in four MOOCs (n = 3,212) based on their responses to open-ended and Likert-style survey items. I also examined the association between these motivations, participants’ intention to complete the course, and actual completion. Three motivation groups were identified: Intrinsic, Professional, and Prosocial (i.e., taking the course to help students or improve the educational system). Participants with intrinsic motivations were less likely and those with prosocial motivations were more likely to plan to complete the course or to complete it even after accounting for initial intentions.
In the third study, I compared the engagement processes of the three motivation groups in one course (n = 969). I found that the intrinsic motivation group was the most engaged during the course, but the prosocial group was the most engaged by its end. The prosocial participants were also the most interested in the course’s forum.
These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the study of MOOCs and educators’ PD in general. They can, for example, be used to enhance PD design in a way that helps educators meet their individual goals. Rethinking the design of educators’ PD courses this way can potentially affect their teaching practice and thus, improve education for their students, as well.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics & Assessment
Co(II)- and Fe(III)-Based Metalloradical Catalysis for Stereoselective Radical Transformations:
No full textThesis advisor: Xiao-Xiang ZhangThesis advisor: Shih-Yuan LiuAs a conceptually different approach for achieving stereoselective radical reactions, metalloradical catalysis (MRC) utilizes metal-centered radicals as open-shell catalysts for the catalytic generation of metal-stabilized organic radicals as key intermediates to control subsequent one-electron homolytic reactions. Cobalt(II) complexes of porphyrins, as stable 15e-metalloradicals with a well-defined low-spin d7 configuration, have so far dominated the ongoing development of MRC. Through fine-tuning the environments of D2-symmetric chiral amidoporphyrin platform as the supporting ligands, the Co(II)-based metalloradical system can effectively activate various α-aryldiazomethanes to cyclopropanate different dehydroaminocarboxylates under mild conditions, enabling the stereoselective synthesis of chiral cyclopropyl α-amino acid derivatives. Besides, Co(II)-based metalloradical system can homolytically activate both diazomalonates and α-aryldiazomethanes containing different alkene functionalities under mild conditions for effective radical bicyclization, delivering cyclopropane-fused tricyclic chromanones and chromanes, respectively, in high yields with excellent control of bothdiastereoselectivities and enantioselectivities.
To broaden MRC beyond the use of Co(II)-based metalloradical catalysts, we illuminate systematic studies that demonstrate the application of a Fe(III)-based system for asymmetric radical transformations. Specifically, we report that five-coordinate Iron(III) complexes of porphyrins with an axial ligand, which represent another family of stable 15e-metalloradicals, are potent metalloradical catalysts for the olefin cyclopropanation with different classes of diazo compounds as well as the intramolecular 1,5-C(sp3)–H amination of various aryl azides, furnishing the valuable cyclopropanes and indolines, respectively, in high yields with high control of stereoselectivities. Mechanistically, a series of experimental investigations, together with DFT computations, offer convincing evidence in support of both Co(II)- and Fe(III)-based MRC and shed light on the details of the stepwise radical mechanism for corresponding catalytic reactions.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
The Perfection of Government: Childrearing, Freedom, and Temptation in the Nineteenth-Century North
Get PDFThesis advisor: David QuigleyChiefly an effort in cultural, intellectual, and political history, this dissertation is concerned primarily with the American North between the 1830s and the 1860s. The study explores the critical connections that contemporaries drew between childrearing, the home, and the exercise and preservation of individual liberty in a rapidly changing United States. Before, during, and after the Civil War, Northerners celebrated the autonomy of American youngsters. But they did so with bated breath and furrowed brow. Leaving home—potentially a profound expression of personal autonomy for a young person—generated both encouragement and trepidation. Young people on their own, beyond the threshold of their families’ homes, outside the ambit of mothers and fathers: this appeared to contemporaries an intractable fact of life—and a perilous one. Of singular concern was temptation: a cunning, ruthless, and virulent force to which young people seemed highly, maybe uniquely, susceptible. To Northerners living through the nineteenth century’s tumultuous middle decades, temptation was a pressing problem; not least, it was a pressing political problem, a grave threat to individual liberty. Nineteenth-century Northerners, especially those of a Whiggish cast of mind, generally believed that the maintenance of liberty required that citizens follow the law, and they held parents, above all others, responsible for investing their children with respect for the law. But a freedom dependent on law-following alone, and on the formal power of the state that the law embodies, was not the freedom that all Northerners idealized. Many preferred that freedom be preserved less by officials acting upon individuals than by individuals acting upon themselves. From this perspective, young citizens were to emerge from their parents’ homes equipped not only to follow the law—that is, to be governed—but also to self-govern. This entailed, among other things, preparing young people to confront and overcome temptation, the enemy of self-governance. Drawing upon a wide array of sources, including periodicals, personal correspondence, popular literature, and Christian sermons, The Perfection of Government: Childrearing, Freedom, and Temptation illustrates how contemporaries harnessed the power of childrearing and home life to meet this formidable challenge.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History
The Ethical Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Catholic Education
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrea ViciniThesis advisor: James KeenanThis thesis studies the impact of AI on education and how to respond to the challenges within the context of Catholic education. The approach is through the lens of Catholic social thought. The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One discusses the relationship between education and technology, and current trends in AI as applied to education. It also presents Jesuit education as one example of Catholic education and focuses on a specific context, Spanish Jesuit schools. Chapter Two introduces a range of resources from theological ethics. This includes fundamental concepts from Catholic social teaching, and different perspectives of theological ethics applied to technology. This chapter also presents how education is envisioned from a Catholic point of view. Finally, in Chapter Three, by applying the concept of human dignity and other concepts from Catholic social teaching, we propose some reflections on how to discern the use of AI in education.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Revivifying the Anointing of the Sick: A Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Case for Expanded Access to the Sacrament of Christian Healing
Get PDFThesis advisor: John BaldovinThesis advisor: Brian DunkleBuilding upon the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, this thesis explores the possibility of expanding access to the Anointing of the Sick beyond those who have begun to be in danger of death. The history of sacramental anointing is examined, with its periods of flexibility and contraction, along with the church’s attempts to recover elements of her earlier usages. Exegesis of James 5:13-18 and a theological examination of the church’s own liturgical orations are shown to contain elements which favor broader access to anointing, and the arguments of opponents to expansion are also considered. Contemporary challenges and opportunities - including extensive medical advancements, the expansion of the church in Africa, and postmodern narrative construction - each provide an avenue by which the broader use of the Anointing of the Sick could make a valuable contribution to effective pastoral care today.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
The Crucified People and The Lynching Tree: Cross and Salvation as Historical Realities in the Theology of John Sobrino and James H. Cone
Get PDFThesis advisor: O. Ernesto ValienteThesis advisor: Benjamin ValentinThe thesis focuses on two historical forms of oppression: economic and racial, as well as two attempts to theologize these phenomena: one by Jon Sobrino, an author writing from the perspective of El Salvador and Latin America, and the other by James H. Cone, the founder of black liberation theology. Both theologians construct a link between the contemporary oppressed and the theological categories of cross and salvation. In Cone's and Sobrino's view, the perspective of historical victims allows for a better understanding of the biblical account of Jesus' death and resurrection. At the same time, the reality of oppression itself can only be fully understood in the light of Jesus' story, which creates a specific hermeneutical loop. At the center of this thesis lies the category of the crucified people, essential to Sobrino's theology, and the analogy between the cross and the lynching tree introduced by Cone. The proposed analysis juxtaposes some key elements of the two authors' writings and the historical contexts of their reflections. It shows where their interpretations meet, in what elements they differ, and how they can aid each other in constructing the perspective of historical soteriology.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology