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From Home Rule to Lone Rule: The Evolution of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland from 1914 to 1918
Full text linkThe Roman Catholic Church has long been one of the most prominent and influential institutions in Ireland. From 1914 to 1918, it was approaching its apex of power when Ireland was still governed by the British Empire. However, few historians in Ireland or elsewhere have ever written extensively about the Catholic Church in Ireland during World War I. In 1914, most of the Irish people were still desirous of Home Rule and membership in the British Empire but with a relationship with Britain like that of Canada or Australia rather than like India or Kenya. By the end of the First World War, most Irish had moved towards independence and the establishment of an Irish republic. Given the prominence of the Catholic Church in Irish life, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of the Catholic Church in Ireland and its public stances during the rapidly changing political and social environment from 1914 to the end of the First World War in 1918. I chose this period specifically because 1914 was the start of the First World War and the Irish relationship with Britain was much less hostile than it would be in the coming years. With the Easter Rising in less than two years and an Irish War for Independence beginning only a few years after that, Ireland was entering one of its most consequential historical epochs. As such a prominent institution, the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Irish is critical to understanding the period as well as its influence on politics.
I have explored dozens of articles from prominent newspapers in both Ireland the United Kingdom to determine the Catholic Church’s role in the evolution of Ireland from a land that was in favor of continued membership in the British Empire though with Home Rule status into a land that was moving in the direction of republicanism and independence from the United Kingdom. This was especially true when it came to topics such as partition and conscription. When Ireland gained its independence in 1922, the Catholic Church was seen by the Irish public as not just a religious institution but as an integral part of the Irish political landscape and Irish society. This view was solidified during the critical early years of the development of the Republic of Ireland which this thesis will cover.Extension Studie
On Business Lobbying and Climate Politics
Full text linkThis dissertation studies three aspects of business political influence. In the first chapter I study how business opposition to climate policy influences its design. Countries have employed a wide range of policy instruments to mitigate climate change. These policies share a common pattern: governments initially rely on subsidies, together with command-and-control regulations, and eventually adopt carbon pricing. I develop a dynamic model of climate policymaking that accounts for this pattern. Although the first-best policy is solely a carbon tax, a climate-concerned policymaker uses subsidies to induce investments in emissions-abatement technologies with the goal of building a coalition in support of efficient policies in the future. The model provides additional insights: First, a policy package that satisfies political constraints and passes a cost-benefit analysis only exists if the economic costs of decarbonization are not too large, and the social cost of carbon is intermediate. Second, soft commitments, such as net-zero targets, can have real consequences by shifting expectations, but only if initial political pressure is not too large and policymakers are sufficiently concerned about climate. Finally, a higher risk of electoral turnover that replaces a green proposer with a misaligned proposer can improve the prospects for a green transition.
In the second chapter I study lobbying coalitions. Policy advocates such as interest groups and bureaucrats often form tactical coalitions in order to advance their policy goals on specific issues, even if their interests differ. When do advocates form coalitions instead of lobbying separately? What is the impact of coalitions on welfare and policy moderation? To answer these questions I develop a model of informational lobbying between two advocates and a policymaker. The advocates develop policy proposals, either independently or jointly, and gather verifiable information about their quality. A coalition requires compromise, but reduces competition and can lead to a more effective use of information. I find that, when their interest divergence is moderate and the policymaker's alternative policy is weak, advocates use coalitions in order to filter the information they produce; when the policymaker's alternative policy is strong, in contrast, they use coalitions to aggregate their information. The welfare consequences of coalitional lobbying are thus ambiguous. Interest diversity has a non-monotonic effect on the level of policy compromise, and a high level of compromise can signal low quality policies.
In the last chapter, joint work with Pablo Balán and Ignacio Puente, we study how organizational structures---specifically family firms---influence the effectiveness of campaign finance regulation. Through an empirical analysis of Brazil's ban on corporate campaign contributions, we demonstrate that family firms adapt to such regulation more effectively than professionally-managed companies. Following the ban, members of controlling families substitute their personal contributions for previous corporate donations, with an elasticity more than four times higher than in non-family firms. We identify peer effects within families that facilitate this adaptation, showing how kinship networks solve collective action problems in political influence that emerge under regulatory constraints.Governmen
Diode, Anisotropy Measurements, and Improvements of Exfoliation for Nanoscale Superconductor 2M-WS
Full text linkThe quest for signatures of topological or broken symmetry states naturally intersects with engineering of 2D materials that offer a fantastic testbed for condensed matter physics. Delivering layer number control of key properties, local field-effect gating, heterostructure stacking and more, van der Waals transition metal dichalcogenides are promising candidates to explore the interplay between symmetry and novel quantum properties. A bottleneck towards observing tantalizing topological properties in thin materials remains the access to efficient multipurpose exfoliation methods. Motivated by the potential for topological superconductivity in bilayer 2M-WS, a newly discovered metastable superconductor with the highest T (8.8K) in its class, I set out to develop a suite of fabrication tools that comply with heat, air and solvent restrictions. Along the way, using optical second harmonic generation and (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, I characterize the 2M to 2H polymorph transformation and observe structural ordering. I achieve high exfoliation yields both with a polymer-based liquid N cooled cleaving, and Au-assisted surface preparation. These methods are used to systematically document the thickness-dependence of 2M-WS electronic properties in single-layer increments down to the monolayer. Critical values (I, T, and H) are aggregated for over 100 devices. The effect of a local electrostatic gating is also studied - a first. In another measurement, I realize a magnetic-field-free, tunable, and perfectly rectifying superconducting diode by applying an additional AC electrical excitation to a centrosymmetric 2M-WS sample with a tear running through it. I demonstrate diode efficiencies up to 30\% at 90mT and calculate a magnetochiral anisotropy coefficient of TA, the highest ever reported. When investigating a novel geometry, an AC drive applied perpendicular to the direction of current, I record at large AC drives, and under no external field, while A, a 100\% diode efficiency. Simulations suggest that a strongly asymmetric ratchet effect (enabled by the tear) is induced by the AC drive. They explicitly demonstrate increasing diode efficiency with increasing AC drive. Lastly, interested in correlated ferroelectric and superconducting states in T-MoTe, I also measure an unusual gate dependence in few-layer samples of this other candidate topological superconductor. Altogether, these observations are facilitated by the methodical optimization of 2D fabrication protocols, which, because they are heat- and solvent-free, could be applied to a range of other materials.Chemical Physic
The Nationalistic Effects of Micro-Myth in the Production of History Illustrated by the Life of Swedish Immigrant John Samuelson
No full textIn 1928 and 1954, the life of Swedish gold miner John Samuelson (October 7, 1873–unknown) was mythologized by pulp fiction writer Erle Stanley Gardner in a story entitled “Rain Magic” and in the first chapter of his book Neighborhood Frontiers. His work corrupted contemporary historical accounts of Samuelson, Americanized him, and perpetuated quintessential American myths such as rugged individualism, the frontier, the American Dream, the Protestant work ethic, and American heroism and chasteness. It also illustrated that small myths are inherently nationalistic because they reinforce grand national myths which subsequently strengthen cultural norms within the collective memory.
This paper recognizes that connection while highlighting how that intersection influenced the production of subsequent histories by investigating the life of John Samuelson through myth to establish a factual history. In a sense, this paper serves as a historical court of last resort for Samuelson who has no descendants to champion his memory or contradict contemporary accounts of his life. This work acquits him from the sentence of historical marginalization and produces a meaningful historical account superseding all previous work and is the most complete history of Samuelson to date. A study of Samuelson illustrates that myth and history will always intertwine, infuse themselves into culture, and effectively act as nationalizing agents.Extension Studie
Bacillus subtilis cell wall twisting upon cleavage: evidence for stress and strain
No full textBacterial cells exhibit chiral twisting during elongation, a phenomenon previously observed in Bacillus subtilis macrofibers and more recently in Escherichia coli. While twisting has been linked to cell wall mechanics, the precise biophysical mechanisms underlying this behavior remain unclear. Here, we investigate how the balance between cell wall synthesis and hydrolase activity influences twisting in B. subtilis. We propose that torsional stress accumulates within the peptidoglycan network due to circumferentially oriented glycan insertion, which distributes stress on the wall from turgor and is released upon hydrolase-mediated cleavage. Supporting this model, we find that cells deficient in hydrolases twist significantly less and have morphological effects of buckling and coiling, suggesting that cleavage events relieve torsional strain. Increasing Rod complex activity by deleting ponA accelerates twisting, reinforcing the idea that stress accumulates from increased circumferential insertion as the wall expands. Notably, chiral rotation occurs concurrently with cell separation, further demonstrating the presence of stored torsional stress. Unlike E. coli, where MreB filament orientation correlates with twisting, B. subtilis twisting appears independent of MreB motion, suggesting an alternative mechanism rooted in peptidoglycan crosslinking and stress redistribution. Additionally, it is proposed that torsional stress originates from turgor pressure. Our findings establish a direct link between bacterial mechanobiology and cell wall remodeling, highlighting the role of hydrolases in modulating torsional forces during growth.Biology, Molecular and Cellula
Functional characterization of the Shigella spp. effector OspB
Full text linkShigella flexneri is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that uses a Type 3 Secretion System (T3SS) to deliver effector proteins into host epithelial cells, enabling invasion, replication, and intercellular spread. Among these effectors, OspB is a conserved but poorly understood protein previously linked to host cell proliferation. In this work, we sought to fill this gap, defining OspB as a cysteine protease, characterizing its substrate recognition motif, and investigating its function during infection.
Transcriptomic profiling reveals that OspB alters host gene expression during infection, but not during ectopic expression, suggesting that its activity is dependent on infection-specific conditions. We found that during S. flexneri infection, OspB upregulates pathways related to vesicle trafficking, chromatin remodeling, and cell proliferation, highlighting its potential to reshape the host cellular environment. Using a combination of motif prediction and N-terminomics mass spectrometry, we identify CHMP2B, a core component of the ESCRT-III membrane repair complex, as a substrate of OspB. We show using functional assays that OspB cleaves CHMP2B in transfected cells and enhances membrane repair during infection. Moreover, ESCRT-III components, including CHMP2B and VPS4, localize to actin tails at sites of Shigella cell-to-cell spread, suggesting that this machinery plays an active role in resolving membrane stress during bacterial dissemination.
Taken together, this work establishes host membrane repair – specifically ESCRT-mediated repair – as an important and previously unappreciated target of Shigella manipulation during epithelial cell infection. OspB enhances this process through its protease activity, revealing a novel consequence of OspB during Shigella infection.Biological Sciences in Public Healt
The Feminist Adventure Novel: From the Curious Girl to the New Woman
No full textThis dissertation identifies and historicizes the feminist adventure novel, a transatlantic genre that grew from "The Arabian Nights Entertainments" and empowered female readers to negotiate their identities, rights, and educations between childhood and adulthood. In Antoine Galland’s "Les Mille et Une Nuits" (1704-1717), two sisters trade wonderful tales and questions for their lives, layering stories within stories to extend a violent king’s curiosity and delay his plans to murder the women of their kingdom. Their tales proliferated in eighteenth-century Britain as 1) a model for women’s collaborative narration, 2) a hybrid literary form that could absorb a wonderful variety of inset genres, and 3) an intertext that associated young women’s curiosity and storytelling with their choice to adventure, or risk themselves. I offer a theoretical framework and a method, combining reception history and formalist reading, to reveal the persistence of the "Nights" into the twentieth century as a formal model and an intertext for women’s adventures.
In eighteenth-century British novel experiments with the "Nights," such as Sarah Fielding’s "The Little Female Academy" (1749) and Charlotte Smith’s "Rural Walks" series (1795-1798), girls transgress limits placed on their educations by wandering from their homes, wondering about their environments, and narrating lessons and tales that further their curiosity. In the nineteenth century, on both sides of the Atlantic, feminist adventures spanned larger geographic scopes and invoked the life-or-death stakes of the "Nights," as in Maria Edgeworth’s "Belinda" (1801), Walter Scott’s "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" (1818), and Hannah Crafts’s "The Bondwoman’s Narrative" (1858). These novels absorbed intertexts that responded to the "Nights," such as anti-curiosity "Bluebeard" tales, and the hybridity of feminist adventures emerged as one of their defining formal features. From the mid-nineteenth century through the era of the New Woman, feminist adventures by George Eliot, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Amelia E. Johnson, and Lucy Maud Montgomery situated "The Pilgrim’s Progress" alongside the "Nights" as a competing model for girls’ ventures to find new homes, families, and professions.
While it is often assumed that pre-1900 adventure fiction was coded male, my case studies use the term adventure, or venture, to describe their heroines’ geographic and intellectual journeys. These novels resist the individualist, expansionist model of boys’ imperial adventures, as well as the linear trajectory of the female bildungsroman toward marriage. With its characteristic hybridity and reliance on women’s narration, the feminist adventure genre offers girls equal opportunity to develop their own method of venturing, rather than imitating Victorian boys’ adventures. Between geographic destinations, between life stages, between interlocutors, and surrounded by intertexts, the feminist adventurer occupies a capacious narrative middle. I identify this middle as a version of Bakhtin’s adventure-biographical chronotope, in which any question about the heroine’s environment may lead to more radical questioning about who she is or could be.Englis
L'écologie du possible: Les écritures environnementales contemporaines en France et au Québec
No full textLes écritures environnementales en France et au Québec étudiées dans cette thèse soulignent comment les manières d’habiter se construisent à partir de systèmes de relations affectives, matérielles et culturelles que la littérature permet de mettre en forme. Contrairement à la tendance anglo-saxonne du Nature Writing et de l’écocritique qui se concentrent sur la représentation de la Nature dans les textes littéraires, « L’écologie du possible » étudie, à travers un corpus composé d’Emmanuelle Pireyre, de Camille de Toledo et de Nicole Brossard, l’enchevêtrement des enjeux sociaux, psychologiques et environnementaux hétérogènes. L’exploration littéraire du possible par ces écrivain·es se refuse à une représentation simpliste de la Nature et présente des nouvelles façons de penser et de sentir avec le non humain, en créant des possibles qui rendent habitable une situation inhabitable. Par l’étude des romans et des pratiques littéraires hors du livre, l’environnement se conçoit ici dans un sens large qui comprend des rapports culturels et sociaux entre humains et avec le non-humain. Approchant les relations environnementales à travers le concept du possible, cette thèse souligne que l’écologie ne se réduit pas à la gestion de ressources naturelles ou à l’étude quantitative d’organismes vivants, mais comporte aussi une dimension affective, sociale et discursive que la littérature permet de mettre en valeur.Romance Languages and Literature
White Matter Pathways and Cognition: Insights from Large-Scale Diffusion MRI Analyses
Full text linkCognition enables us to understand and safely interact with each other and our surrounding environment, making it a critical component of human health. The white matter pathways form the brain’s neural connections, providing a structural foundation for cognition. However, how the connectivity and microstructural properties of the white matter pathways relate to human cognitive abilities remains unclear. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) enables non-invasive, in vivo mapping of these pathways and quantification of their tissue microstructure and connectivity. This dissertation investigates how white matter pathways, measured with dMRI, relate to cognitive performance by leveraging two large neuroimaging datasets: the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and the Human Connectome Project-Young Adult (HCP-YA). This dissertation leverages an atlas-based machine learning approach to consistently parcellate the white matter pathways across thousands of participants. In Chapter 1, we examine the relationship between long-range association tracts and cognitive performance in over 800 young adults. We find lateralized associations: left-hemisphere tracts relate more strongly to semantic memory, while right-hemisphere tracts relate to emotion perception, underscoring distinct contributions of association pathways to language and social cognition. Chapter 2 evaluates cerebellar white matter pathways in over 9,000 participants across childhood and young adulthood. We identify consistent associations between cerebellar microstructure and cognition across datasets, with key differences suggestive of maturational change from childhood to adulthood. Chapter 3 investigates the role of sex hormones in shaping cognition through white matter microstructure at puberty. Using salivary hormone levels and dMRI data from over 8,000 pre-adolescent children, we find that testosterone is associated with white matter microstructure and mediates cognitive performance in males, but not females at the onset of puberty. Together, these studies provide new insight into how white matter microstructure supports cognition across developmental stages, cognitive domains, brain regions, and individual differences. This work advances our understanding of the neurobiological architecture of human cognition using large-scale diffusion MRI and cognitive datasets.Medical Science
Developing Differentiable Toolkits for Computational Biology
Full text linkIn any biological experiment, no matter how sophisticated, we capture only a small, noisy glimpse of a complex underlying process. For dry-lab researchers, interpreting these messy data raises a fundamental question: should one strive for a mechanistic understanding of the biological processes involved, or simply focus on data analysis for a specific task? This dissertation presents three computational tools that emerged from our attempt to strike a balance between these two extremes when modeling novel data.
Chapter 1 presents two stochastic models that address the major contamination issues in probebased bacterial single-cell sequencing: spurious unique molecular identifier (UMI) counts and the difficulty of distinguishing genuine cellular signals from noise. By modeling two specific steps of the 10x sequencing pipeline, these methods accurately infer true UMI counts and identify real cells, enabling downstream single-cell analyses that revealed heterogeneous toxin expression in isogenic C. perfringens populations.
Chapter 2 employs a deep learning technique to predict cellular responses in Perturb-seq experiments. We posit that the intermediate biological adaptations governing these responses are driven by gene regulatory networks composed of directed, nonreciprocal interactions. To model such interactions, we propose a novel directed graph neural network (CoED) along with a new Laplacian (Fuzzy graph Laplacian) that better captures directional effects. We show that learning both the edge directions and the CoED parameters simultaneously improves predictive performance over existing methods.
Chapter 3 presents a differentiable in silico morphogenesis framework that learns to transform a spherical arrangement of point clouds into any desired 3D shape. To compare 3D objects in a manner invariant to index permutations, density, and orientation, we design a loss function that operates in the spectral domain. We also propose a neural network–based force model in which individual agents learn to interact so that, collectively, the system forms the target shape.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog