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Luke and οί πτωχοί: A Socio-Scientific Reading of Luke 4:16-21 as Liberation
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrew DavisThesis advisor: Matthew MonnigJesus's manifesto in Luke 4:16-21 is an allusion to Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6 and portrays Luke's concern for the poor. A socio-scientific reading of this manifesto shows Jesus as an eschatological prophetic Messiah who assumes both prophetic role and royal functions of a king to liberate and restore honor to the oppressed and marginalized people of his time. The research challenges political leaders of Nigeria to look into the cries of ethnic minority groups and Nigerian Christians to become proactive in seeking concrete ways to alleviate this social problem. It also calls for Nigerians to intensify socio-political activism in defense of equity, equality, and justice for minority ethnic groups in Nigeria.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Remaking Religion: Islam, Empire, Race, and the Secularization of French Christianity 1830-1920
Get PDFThesis advisor: Devin PendasOn December 9, 1905, the French Third Republic ratified the Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. The law, touted by contemporaries as advantageous to the productive, modern country, ended the ancient relationship between the French state and the Catholic Church and severed collaboration between the government and all religious institutions. The ratification of the law was considered by anticlerical contemporaries an emancipatory measure that would liberate the French citizenry from the illogical belief-systems of the Catholic Church. However, despite the changes wrought by these secularization laws, France’s outward ties to Christianity continued to feature prominently in public discussions after 1905, particularly regarding France’s Islamic colonies. In fact, early twentieth-century newspapers, government documents, and academic research regularly highlighted the religious dichotomy between the “Christian” French and the “Muslim” inhabitants of North Africa, particularly those of Morocco: the Islamic Kingdom across the Mediterranean Sea that had become the focal point of French imperial aspirations in the early twentieth century. Thus, even as anticlericalists lauded France’s new secular status, they—along with their Catholic counterparts—concurrently drew upon the centuries-old religious rivalry that set the “French Christians” against the “Muslims” of North Africa. Herein lies an interesting paradox: after the Law of Separation, at a moment when France’s connections to Christianity should have been downplayed within mainstream newspapers, the halls of government, and the French public sphere more generally, both Catholics and secularists in the press, government, and in various areas of colonial knowledge production frequently assigned the label “Christian” to describe the French writ large vis-à-vis the label “Muslim,” a term applied generally to the Moroccans. This dissertation endeavors to explain the epistemological origins of this trend by illuminating the complex role that Christianity played in the construction of French views towards Islam—and, subsequently, French colonial policy—in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History
" Our Own Language, Our Own Voice, Our Own Art”: The Second Wave Feminist Media in Boston
Get PDFThesis advisor: Martin SummersThe second wave feminist media, defined as ideological contributions via the written word, played an essential role in the second wave by sharing radical ideologies and bringing women into a feminist consciousness. This study examines the herstory of three groups in Boston at the time: the Second Wave magazine (1971-1983), the Combahee River Collective (1974-1980), and Persephone Press (1976-1983). Each group had different motivations yet remained dedicated to the radical feminist media and various methods of societal upheaval. As a radical feminist magazine, a black feminist organization, and lesbian-feminist publishing house respectively, the women behind the three entities aspired to alter the face of second wave feminism. Each had several commonalities: including a commitment to the feminist media, factionalism and ideological strife, difficulties in balancing beliefs with harsh systemic realities, and a great connection to coalitions and the greater feminism community. The Second Wave, the Combahee River Collective, and Persephone Press may appear conflicting at first glance but shared a great commitment to facing sexist oppression through the written word.Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History
ALacuna in the Self: Foresight & Forgetting in Plato’s Protagoras
No full textThesis advisor: Marina McCoyIf Plato’s dialogues offer recollection as a paradigm for human knowing, then, forgetfulness as the opposite of recollection, would seem to be ignorance, or the destruction of knowing. However, forgetfulness is not simply recollection’s opposite, but it also serves as its precondition; to recollect something, one must first forget it. Forgetfulness involves an absence that may re-present itself. This dual nature of forgetfulness as, on the one hand, a precondition for philosophical recollection and, on the other, characteristic of ignorance and destruction of knowledge, mirrors the experience of perplexity (ἀπορία), which can serve either as the impetus for philosophical inquiry or as the ground to foreclose any further questioning. My dissertation considers the implications of forgetting, foresight, and oversight, in Plato's Protagoras as a new way to shed light on the relationship and difference between the sophist and philosopher. I propose that both philosophy and Protagorean sophistry understand something about the nature and limits of human understanding in light of our tendency to forget. Protagorean sophistry, however, attempts to overcome human limits in its aim at perfect foresight. Protagoras ultimately capitulates to ἀπορία by refusing to inquire earnestly, thereby avoiding the problem posed by our tendency to forget. Socratic philosophy, on the other hand, cultivates and maintains ἀπορία in its recognition that forgetting is a limitation that is at once intrinsic to human understanding and the necessary occasion for learning that underlies all philosophical inquiry. Socratic foresight, in opposition to Protagorean foresight, is characterized by its recognition that ἀπορία and oversight are persistent and unavoidable conditions of all human inquiry. Rather than attempt to overcome human nature either by capitulating to or resolving ἀπορία in a definitive answer, Socratic philosophy is depicted as an aporetic way of living, which thus remains open to what is yet to be known. In this way, Socratic foresight comes to light as superior to that of Protagorean sophistry both in its self-knowledge and in its implicit affirmation of what would otherwise seem to be a mere weakness in human nature. Socratic foresight welcomes ἀπορία as the condition for all human inquiry and achievement.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy
Purity or Pragmatism: Mutual Aid in Practice
No full textThesis advisor: Alyssa W. GoldmanPandemic mutual aid groups are part of a contemporary mutual aid movement which intends to marry the spontaneous suspension of social boundaries of post-disaster collective action with sustained community-building and social justice. This comparative case study examines how two such radical social change organizations navigate the tension between ideology and the need for resources. Specifically, I ask what strategies organizers deployed in pursuit of their dual mandate, under the banner of ‘solidarity not charity.’ Despite virtually identical philosophies, visions, and circumstances, I find that organizers deployed different resource mobilization strategies to access and generate moral, cultural, and human resources. These strategic differences directly influenced organizational outcomes: One group continued to operate more than two years after organizing, while the other was on an indefinite hiatus. The findings depart from what might be predicted by a longstanding focus on material resources in resource mobilization theory, and support the call for more attention to culture and ideology in resource mobilization scholarship.Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Sociology
Writing Egyptomania: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and its Interactions with Ancient Egyptian Archaeology
Get PDFThesis advisor: Christy PottroffThesis advisor: Paul LewisIn 1822 the Western world experienced a revolution in literature and archaeology when the Rosetta Stone was successfully translated, and a craze coined Egyptomania took over the Western world. American literature—ranging from newspaper articles, travel narratives, short fiction, and books concerning ethnology and race science—became inundated with discussion of the material culture of ancient Egypt. As authors interacted with the material culture, they began to question who the ancient Egyptians were and how they managed to create such monuments. Many American authors struggled to comprehend how such ancient people were so advanced in methods of art and engineering, thus thwarting the current nineteenth-century ideals of progress. Especially among white Americans, there was anxiety that the ancient Egyptians were not European, leading to an overall fear of Oriental superiority. My aim here is not to explore the effects of Egyptomania in general on American culture, but rather to analyze how specific artifacts, monuments, and mummies were received and adapted by nineteenth-century authors.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: English
Consumerism in the Digital Age: Motivations for College Women’s Fashion Purchases
No full textThesis advisor: Ali KadivarThe fashion industry has historically used marketing to increase sales. Women are the primary consumers of clothing, and with the growth of social media, trends cycle more frequently. As women observe their peers and influencers on these platforms, they are encouraged to purchase more items even without viewing deliberate advertisements. However, current consumption patterns are not sustainable. The researcher conducted thirteen interviews with college women aged nineteen to twenty-two to understand their motivations for purchasing new clothing and what values informed their decisions. The hypothesis was that access to peers’ and influencers' fashion choices via social media catalyzed overspending. The environmental and social implications of the industry would only deter some individuals' habits. Other studies have used surveys to ask social media users how the platforms inform their consumption. However, this study adds to the literature by offering in-depth anecdotes of why people make purchases and how often they do so.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Sociology
Examining the Role of Contexts in Youth Civic Development:
No full textThesis advisor: Jacqueline V. LernerIn the United States, young people have the power to change the country, and they are exercising this power every day in many different ways (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2021). Beyond the contributions that youth civic engagement makes to societal well-being (Flanagan & Levine, 2010), it also contributes to young people’s own positive development (Lerner et al., 2015). Given these societal and individual benefits, it is important to investigate the correlates of youth civic engagement. Guided by positive youth development perspectives, my three independent but related dissertation studies examine the contextual correlates of civic engagement among young people. Study One investigates how different family characteristics and school characteristics separately and interactively predict adolescent civic engagement. Study Two examines thriving as a potential underlying process through which engagement in youth development programs promotes adolescent civic engagement. Study Three focuses on social media as a platform for civic actions, including those aiming to redress inequalities (i.e., critical actions), among White, cisgendered and heterosexual American young adults. Together, results from the three studies suggest the important role of growing up in ‘civic contexts’ in the development and sustainment of civic engagement among young people.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Do School Districts Allocate Funding Equitably to Schools?: A National Analysis on Patterns and Predictors of Intra-District Funding Distributions
No full textThesis advisor: Rebekah L. ColeyInequitable distribution of school funds may underlie persistent achievement disparities across class and race in the U.S. Significant reforms in school finance have closed funding disparities between school districts, but inequitable practices within districts, in which funds fail to reach the students in greatest need, may be undermining progress. Unavailability of school-level funding data previously limited assessments of intra-district allocations of funding.The primary aim of this study was to assess intra-district finance equity–exploring funding distribution patterns across multiple dimensions of student need and race–using recently released national school-level expenditures data. Multilevel analyses decomposed variation in total per pupil expenditures within and between districts while adjusting for state differences, and jointly assessed intra- and inter-district finance equity by exploring how school shares of students across poverty status, limited English proficiency, special education identification, and race were associated with per pupil expenditures. Analyses also investigated whether intra-district distribution patterns varied across district-level economic and racial strata.
Results revealed significant variation in per pupil expenditures across schools within districts, and found that on average, intra-district funding distributions were progressive toward higher poverty schools as well as schools with more special education students, but not toward schools with more English language learners. School proportions of underrepresented minority students were not associated with differences in per pupil expenditures. Intra-district funding distribution patterns both reflected and counteracted inter-district patterns, depending on the dimension of student need. Exploring variations in intra-district patterns across district characteristics, analyses found that higher district poverty and economic segregation were associated with lower levels of progressivity in intra-district distributions, though not along all dimensions of need. Higher concentrations of underrepresented minority students and racial segregation in districts were not associated with intra-district distribution patterns for race, but were associated with intra-district progressivity across other dimensions of need. Study findings call for a comprehensive approach to assessing and advancing school finance equity, in order to ensure equal opportunity for all students.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Examining the Impact of Integrated Student Supports on Exclusionary Discipline in High-Poverty Schools:
No full textThesis advisor: Mary E. WalshStudents with complex needs and marginalized identities attending high-poverty schools are suspended at higher rates than their more advantaged peers (Mcloughin & Noltemeyer, 2010; Noltemeyer & Mcloughlin, 2010; Erb-Downward & Blakeslee, 2021). When students are suspended from school, they miss out on critical opportunities for instruction and connection. This can increase the likelihood that suspended students will experience a myriad of negative short-term and long-term outcomes, such as lower school engagement, poorer academic performance, school dropout, and justice system involvement (McNeely et al., 2002; Chu & Ready, 2018; Arcia, 2007; Amemiya et al., 2020; Noltemeyer et al., 2015). Supporting the needs of students, teachers, and the school community as a whole, while effectively managing student misbehavior, is a complex task without an easy answer. Integrated Student Supports (ISS) are a systemic approach to addressing students’ out-of-school needs to promote thriving. This approach utilizes several tiers of support to promote positive outcomes for all students in the school community (Adelman & Taylor, 2011). City Connects, an ISS model implemented in high-poverty urban elementary and middle schools, provides tailored supports and resources to all students in the school community and equips school staff with whole child information about their students. While City Connects was not developed to directly reduce suspension rates, many of the model’s practices (e.g., connecting students with tailored supports, identifying students’ unique strengths and needs, indicating a tier of risk for each student) may indirectly 1) address the mechanisms that drive high suspension rates in high poverty schools and 2) promote more positive outcomes for students who have been suspended.
In the current study, difference-in-differences analyses identified trends in suspension rates in City Connects schools, compared to similar non-City Connects schools. Chi-square analyses examined patterns in how frequently suspended and non-suspended students in City Connects schools were identified as needing intensive supports. Longitudinal regression and moderation analyses investigated the relationship between receiving City Connects and suspended students’ outcomes.
Overall, there is some evidence that City Connects may contribute to maintaining lower school-suspension rates in consistently underperforming schools. The study also found that students who were suspended in City Connects schools were more likely to be identified as needing more intensive supports, compared to students in City Connects schools who were not suspended. Within the district of interest, attending a City Connects elementary school for at least two years was associated with better academic outcomes and slightly better attendance and suspension outcomes in fifth grade. Being suspended at least once in elementary school had an overall negative association with fifth grade academic, attendance, and suspension outcomes. For students who were suspended at least once in elementary school, attending a City Connects school for at least two years was associated with higher math standardized test scores in fifth grade.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology