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The Covenant Formula in Jeremiah: The Safeguard of the Identity of YHWH's People
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrew R. DavisThesis advisor: Jaime L. WatersThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Rahner's Theology of Grace and Human Dignity
Get PDFThesis advisor: Dominic DoyleThesis advisor: Richard LennanThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Pietas and the Franciscan Imagination: The Call to Steadfast Holiness in the Capuchin Form of Life
Get PDFThesis advisor: Margaret E. GuiderThesis advisor: Franklin T. HarkinsThe call to holiness manifested in the relationship between God and humankind contemporarily expresses the virtue of pietas, often translated as piety. The spiritual depth of this virtue reflects a Franciscan approach to holiness that emphasizes relational obligations epitomized by the Trinitarian relationship. With numerous challenges and difficulties in life, I argue that the steadfast character of holiness animates recent solemnly professed Capuchin friars in their baptismal call to holiness strengthened in their consecration to God. Chapter I provides an entry point to pietas using the theology of St. Bonaventure in the Legenda Maior. I trace the develop of pietas from its ancient roots as a defining virtue for the Roman people of the Empire and its Christian appropriation by Augustine. I then discuss some key features of Bonaventure’s theology that informs his understanding of pietas as a particularly relational virtue consistent with his Franciscan identity. Chapter II begins with a survey of the Franciscan hermeneutical disputes in its history over the Rule of Saint Francis. This contextualizes the discussion of the call to holiness as an invitation for humanity to participate in the Divine nature through Baptism and the grace to share in the relationship (and thus accompanying duties) of God, the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. The tendency to prioritize such duties has caused hierarchical divisions that respectively seek to advance communal evangelical proclamation while upholding fidelity to the revealed Truth of God. Consecrated life deepens this responsibility, especially with the expectations set by great witnesses that invigorates others to partake in the mission. Chapter III acknowledges the difficulties of communal discernment by offering a case study of an unanticipated moment of reconciliation through pietas between two prominent 20th century friars. This sets a framework to conclude the thesis with theological reflections for recent solemnly professed Capuchin friars to practice the virtue of pietas in the modern western world.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Heegaard Floer Homology and Link Detection:
Get PDFThesis advisor: John BaldwinHeegaard Floer homology is a family of invariants in low dimensional topology due originally to Ozsváth-Szabó. We discuss various aspects of Heegaard Floer homology and give several link detection results for versions of Heegaard Floer homology for links. In particular, we show that knot and link Floer homology detect various infinite families of cable links. We also give classification results for the Heegaard Floer theoretic invariants of a type of knot called an “almost L-space knot” and an infinite family of detection results for annular Khovanov homology.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Mathematics
Tuning the Low-Energy Physics in Kitaev Magnets:
No full textThesis advisor: Fazel TaftiThe search for an ideal quantum spin-liquid (QSL) material which can host a QSL ground state as well as exotic excitations has been one of the leading research topics in condensed matter physics over the past few decades. Out of all the proposals to realize the physics of a QSL, the Kitaev model is the most promising proposal with a QSL ground state. The Kitaev Hamiltonian is exactly solvable via fractionalization of its spin degrees of freedom into Majorana excitations, and it can be engineered in real materials. Among all the proposed Kitaev candidates, α-Li2IrO3, Na2IrO3, Li2RhO3, and α-RuCl3 are the most promising candidates. During my Ph.D. research I explored new physics related to Kitaev materials via modification of the symmetry and structural properties of these known Kitaev candidates. First, I studied how modification of the inter-layer chemistry can alter the thermodynamic properties of Kitaev candidate α-Li2IrO3 via an enhancement of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect. The light, octahedrally-coordinated inter-layer Li atoms are replaced with heavier, linearly-coordinated Ag atoms to synthesize Ag3LiIr2O6. In addition to these structural modifications to the parent compound α-Li2IrO3, having heavier elements between the honeycomb layers in the Ag compound increased the effect of SOC in the honeycomb layers and led to a decrease in the long-range ordering temperature in Ag3LiIr2O6 compared to its parent compound. Second, I studied the effect of local crystal distortion in the presence of a weak SOC effect to explore a new spin-orbital state different from the Jeff=1/2 state. Based on theoretical predictions, the ground states of Kitaev materials can be tuned to other exotic spin-orbital states such as an Ising spin-1/2 state. To provide the proper conditions for a competition between the trigonal crystal distortion and the SOC effect, I modified the crystal environment around the magnetic elements in the parent compound Li2RhO3 via a topo-chemical method and synthesized Ag3LiRh2O6. An increase in the strength of trigonal distortion in Ag3LiRh2O6, in the presence of weak SOC, led to a transition from the Jeff=1/2 ground state (Kitaev limit) in the parent compound to an Ising spin-1/2 ground state (Ising limit) in the product. This change in spin-orbital state resulted in a dramatic change in magnetic behavior. Whereas Li2RhO3 shows a spin-freezing transition at 6 K, Ag3LiRh2O6 reveals a robust long-range antiferromagnetic transition at 94 K. This is the first realization of a change of ground state between the Kitaev and Ising limits in the same structural family. Lastly, I studied how the crystal symmetry can be an important factor in the physics of Kitaev materials. Honeycomb layered materials can be crystallized in space groups C2/m, C2/c, and P6_322. However, the crystal symmetry of most Kitaev candidates is described by the C2/m space group. We successfully synthesized a polymorph of a 3d Kitaev candidate, hexagonal Na2Co2TeO6 (P6_322 space group) in space group C2/m. The change in crystal symmetry of this cobalt tellurate replaced three anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) orders at 27, 15, 7 K in the hexagonal polymorph by a single AFM peak at 9.6 K in the monoclinic Na2Co2TeO6.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Physics
Essays in Labor Economics:
No full textThesis advisor: Theodore PapageorgiouThis dissertation addresses questions in the labor market with a focus on firms. In the first chapter, I examine different learning opportunities across firms by distinguishing learning from coworkers and firms. The second chapter studies firm organizational spillovers. In the third chapter, I investigate how exporting affects firms' hiring decisions in the entry-level labor market. Chapter 1: This chapter examines and separately identifies two types of learning at the workplace: learning from coworkers and learning from firms. I consider a structural model of idea flows in a competitive market where workers' compensation consists of learning, amenities, and wages. Workers accumulate human capital by interacting with their coworkers and directly from their firm. Using German employee-employer matched data, I exploit a clustering method to classify firms into learning and amenity groups. Then I allow learning functions to differ across groups and separately estimate firm learning and coworker learning parameters. Amenity value is estimated from switchers by relying on features of the model. I find that both types of learning are significant, consistent with previous studies examining each learning type separately. There is significant heterogeneity across firms of different types: some firms provide workers with more firm learning, while in others, workers' learning mostly comes from their coworkers. The relationship between two non-wage compensation also varies across workers. I explore the implication of the findings for inequality. Chapter 2: In this chapter, Div Bhagia and I study whether the organizational decisions of new entrants in a market are influenced by the hierarchical structure of their incumbent peers. Using matched employer-employee data from Brazil, we classify establishments into one to four-layer entities and examine how a new entrant’s decision to add an organizational layer varies with the average number of layers of other establishments in their industry and location. To address the potential endogeneity of peers’ layers, we construct an instrument based on layers of other establishments in peers’ firms that operate in different markets. We find that new entrants are twice as likely to add a layer within five years if their average peer has one more layer at the time of entry. Our results suggest that organizational structure spillovers can provide a new source of agglomeration advantages. We also find that the influence of peers is stronger in more similar industries. Additionally, we show that new entrants with high-layer peers hire more workers from within the market in the newly created layers, indicating personnel exchanges as a mechanism for organizational spillovers. Chapter 3: I investigate the impact of exporting on hiring decisions in the entry-level labor market. Firms face higher opportunity costs of foregone output when they hire inexperienced workers, who require more training than experienced workers. Using Korean establishment-level data, where I distinctively observe experienced and inexperienced new hires, I show that exporting firms hire fewer inexperienced workers but more experienced workers than non-exporting firms. Moreover, foreign market opportunities further induce exporters to favor experienced workers. This finding suggests that high export opportunities, which increase the opportunity costs of training, may increase barriers to better jobs in the entry-level labor market for young workers.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
Finding One's Voice: The Role of Music in the Formation and Expression of Self-Identity
Get PDFThesis advisor: Stephen PfohlSelf-identity formation and how we learn to express that identity to others is a lifelong process for so many people. My research explores the potential ways that the medium of music plays a role in the formation and expression of a self-identity. Through my qualitative data analysis from 12 interviews with college students who are self-defined as ‘music lovers,’ I argue that music does in fact play an integral role in the formation of this self-identity for some people. The ways in which that identity is expressed to others, whether it be physical manifestations of the music or the behaviors of the individual, can be centered around an us vs. them narrative, desire to find others like themselves, or aim to control the ways in which they are perceived through their music engagement, among other justifications. Additionally, I illustrate that individuals use music to mold a personal, almost autobiographical narrative of their own lives, weaving integral memories, people, and experiences together through their relation to music.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Sociology
Human Good and the Institutional Distortion of Values in the Field of Medicine: A Lonerganian Approach to Health Care Ethics in the United States
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrew BarretteThe field of health care encompasses a myriad of ethical dilemmas surrounding the core conceptions of goodness and values. This thesis discusses the method of intentionality analysis, especially as it is explicated by Bernard Lonergan and his students, to raise awareness of a distortion of values related to health and health care in the United States. Health is a vital value that is meant to be upheld with absolute precedence by health care institutions. Values, of individuals and of institutions, as intentional responses to feelings, must be ordered in a specific way to align with the objective scale of values. Through the orientation toward, then the realization of true values, the good of order operates. Despite that health is the preferred value, health care institutions in the United States do not always operate in accordance with ordered values; there is a distortion of values experienced at the institutional level. In the United States, financial gain and greed compete with the execution and achievement of the true value of health and thus also of the terminal value. This disruption of the good of order contributes to the decline of human good, which may be remedied by conversion.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Philosophy
The Impact of California's inefficiently high electricity prices on electric vehicle adoption in low-income communities
Get PDFThesis advisor: Richard SweeneyThe main Investor-Owned Utilities in California charge electricity prices that are way above the social marginal cost of consuming electricity. This results in economic inefficiency which previous studies prove to have negative implications for inequality and to slow down the electrification of the transportation sector. This paper seeks to build on the existing knowledge by investigating how the high electricity prices affect low and high income house-holds’ electric vehicle adoption differently in California, and it aims to quantify the extent of such difference. The results show that EV adoption among low income households would be considerably higher under efficient retail pricing, and that low income households are more negatively affected than their high income counterparts. However, the results relative to high income households specifically are inconclusive, and therefore the extent to which the two income groups are affected differently cannot be determined. Further research should tackle this issue by including additional variables such as income by year and EV quality, as well as more granular gasoline price data.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Economics
Contextually Inclusive Theory: Foundation for the Field of Academic Advising
Get PDFThesis advisor: Ana M. Martinez AlemánCompletion of a college degree has been highlighted as a prerequisite for opportunity (Obama White House Archives, February 24, 2009); necessary for a strong economy (Koropeckyj, et al., 2017). Yet, the rate of completion in the United States remains lower than desired, directing focus toward efforts to promote student success and degree attainment. Within this out-comes oriented climate, academic advising is often viewed solely in terms of its utilitarian value, a means for ushering students toward the final goal of college completion. Without a clear conceptualization of the role of academic advising within higher education, it will continue to be susceptible to political, institutional, and economic forces, making it difficult for either the practice or the scholarly field of study to progress. More importantly, the absence of clear theoretical foundation leaves the profession vulnerable, diminishing the potential to effectively support students. The dissertation will contribute to the theoretical literature on academic advising. Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger (1927/1962) a contextually inclusive theory of academic advising is introduced, laying conceptual foundation in which interpretation is central, meaning and truth are iterative, and understanding is structured by the conditions of human existence. I maintain that effective academic advising involves recognition of how things have meaning, from where, within what context, and as impacted by the (dis)connections students have with others, over time. Such an attunement offers foundation for equitable practice, inclusive of all students, validating their experiences (Rendón, 1994; Rendón & Muñoz, 2011), identifying obstacles that might impede their performance (NACADA, 2022), allowing them to feel a sense of belonging (Strayhorn, 2018), and providing a space for students to experience meaningful accomplishment. Overall, the dissertation argues that academic advising ought to be educationally driven, learning-focused, concerned with student completion, and informed by an understanding of the human being, the individual student, as a contextualized interpreter. This theory points us to reconsider advising caseloads, training, and institutional information sharing, in an effort to support the interpretive processes necessary for effective academic advising. Moreover, it offers a space to think deeply about the nature of academic advising, what it ought to entail, and how to effectively support students.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education