▼ Are teacher characteristics a significant factor in student learning? If so, which characteristics are effective? An original analysis of reading test scores of 5,000 fourth graders across the United States confirmed the difficulties researchers face when measuring teacher quality; it appears to account for only small variations in scores. Given the complexity, first, of the politics of "teacher quality" and, second, the improvement of primary education in the U.S., I offer some modest recommendations. Advisors/Committee Members: Parkin, Michael.

▼ The arguments presented in this paper attempt to fill particular gaps in the scholarly knowledge of the transnational solidarity movement for Palestine. Chapter One is a descriptive history of transnational solidarity for the Palestinians since the beginning of the second intifada (fall 2000). The next chapter puts the US based component of the Palestine solidarity movement in a comparison with recent US solidarity movements for East Timor and Central America. Chapter Three connects the subjective transnational framing tactics of the movement to the objective, structural conditions of the international system. Chapter Four extends the analysis in Chapter Three by examining the role of new media such as viral videos and low-budget documentaries in the construction of the solidarity movement. Advisors/Committee Members: Crowley, Stephen.

▼ This thesis conducts a close reading of G.W.F. Hegel's theory of mutual recognition and Charles Taylor's contemporary reworking of the theory. It is argued that theories of mutual recognition contain a problematic bias toward unity and harmony that obscures the ways in which struggles for recognition are often incomplete and open to contestation. More specifically, what is subject to critique in this thesis is what I term a “genus-species” model of difference, which treats particular differences—-of individuals or of specific cultures—-as stable subsets of a broader genus. I contend that this model of difference, when applied to theories of recognition, risks two major problems: 1) it tends to overemphasize the importance of shared cultural frameworks to human agency, and thus potentially misrecognizes particular differences within these frameworks; 2) it fails to capture an important aspect of human freedom, which involves moving beyond established horizons of recognition to create new values. A different picture of recognition is suggested via the work of Theodor Adorno. The concept of mimesis, understood as the subject’s ability to assimilate him or herself to a specific Other and grapple with his or her particularity, is advanced as an alternative to the totalizing horizons of recognition described by Hegel and Taylor, and thus as an alternative model of human freedom. Advisors/Committee Members: Kruks, Sonia.

▼ In the first section, I begin with an account of action within the context of the vita activa as laid out by Arendt in The Human Condition. I then proceed to identify some of the more perplexing features of her account, and suggest that they are confounding enough to throw the coherency of what Arendt is saying into question. Taking my cue from Hanna Pitkin, I then argue that we can understand action as activity informed by thinking, by drawing upon Arendt's posthumously published work The Life of the Mind. This account, however, though illuminating with regard to some aspects of political action, will be shown to possess serious deficiencies in others. Thus, I will proceed in section two to explicate Heidegger's conception of "worldhood," and will demonstrate that Arendt's conception of "the world of appearances" in The Life of the Mind is essentially derivative of this account. I will then go on in section three to show that Arendt's conception of the "world" in The Human Condition is fundamentally a critique of Heidegger's account, and that far from being derivative, Arendt actually exposes major deficiencies in Heidegger's notion of worldhood. I will then conclude by giving an account of action as taking responsibility for the world, with the world understood as a space for action and freedom. Advisors/Committee Members: Wilson, Harlan.

▼ In the Quadrennial Diplomacy & Development Review (QDDR) issued by the U.S. State Department in 2010, there is a stated commitment to expanding interaction with foreign populations. Through statements made by other officials in various venues, it is clear that social media is seen as having a part in this aim. But how effectively are officials now using social media to connect? Are they managing to achieve "two-way dialogue" or are they underutilizing the medium? This paper attempts to start to answer and analyze this question through a review of the existing literature and theories as well as original research and data collection. Advisors/Committee Members: Sandberg, Eve.

▼ The crisis of the Fordist-Keynesian mode of production in the 1970s throughout the advanced capitalist world precipitated an acute political contestation over the mode of production itself. The dramatic ascendency of the neoliberal mode of regulation was a paradigm shift of rare occurrence whose significance in the history of capitalism cannot be overstated. This thesis seeks to contribute to the understanding of neoliberalism's rise and the failure of alternative possibilities, focusing upon the British case where the stagflationary crisis was particularly acute in the '70s and the change in the mode of production was particularly drastic. This thesis focuses upon the actions of the Labour Party and the trade unions that constitute the primary and most influential oppositional forces against the capital's power. In Britain, while the Labour Party was in government for the pivotal years of 1974-79 and the trade unions gained an unprecedented level of strength in the 1970s, they failed to develop a system alternative to neoliberalism. Instead, the Labour Government started to take a reluctant, small yet unmistakable step towards neoliberalism, and neither the unions' cooperation with the incomes policy nor their refusal to continue compliance (most spectacularly manifested in the Winter of Discontents) led to the successful articulation (let alone implementation) of a non-neoliberal post-Fordist regime. The failure of the historic champions of the workers and the welfare state on the centre-left was a crucial factor in enabling the neoliberal retrenchment. This thesis locates a significant reason for labour's failure in the ideas held by them. Integrating the ideational analysis with historical institutionalism in the dialectic of ideas and interests, it is argued that the actions of the Labour Party and the unions were shaped by the ideational path dependence "their continued adherence to the Fordist ideas prevented the possibility to envision alternative conceptions of political economy based on emancipation of the workers. The Fordist ideas include productivism and masculinism" the notions that privilege the higher levels of material production and the male breadwinner model. As such, they were unable to conceptualize their interests as anything except for the increase in their levels of private consumption. Productivism, masculinism and (neoliberal) capitalism reinforce each other. Productivism is a cultural condition of capitalism that affirms and legitimizes its fundamental law of motion that never ceases to exhort "accumulate, accumulate!" by prioritizing what capitalism deems as productive; capitalism structurally functions to realize productivist goals. Masculinism aids capitalism and productivism by providing an ideology that glorifies the system of reproduction of labour power and socially-necessary care labour that incurs the cheapest cost and least threat to capital (women's unpaid labour in families), and capitalism buttresses masculinism by preventing the rise of de-familiarizing welfare state. Productivism is connected to masculinism, not only in a discursive, cultural sense; productivism serves to lengthen women's working hours and disregards the politics of working time, and masculinism devalues the economic activities considered unproductive by productivists. Advisors/Committee Members: Howell, Chris.

▼ This paper looks at green jobs within the context of the new economy and post-Fordism, with a focus on why unions are supporting green jobs and the potential for creating decent employment and unionized jobs in green industries. The simultaneous economic and environmental crises create a window for political and economic change. The direction of green jobs will be determined by larger economic and political trends and will depend on the action of the state and organized labor. Unions are supporting green jobs because it is a way to promote reindustrialization, an active government industrial policy, corporatism and social partnerships. Green jobs has become a new framework to critique free market ideology and build a progressive coalition between unions and environmentalists that addresses both labor and environmental concerns. Market conditions, state policy, production demands, union strength and business strategies will influence the ability to create high-road green post-Fordist jobs. Advisors/Committee Members: Howell, Chris.

▼ Evangelicals in the U.S. tend to support candidates who advocate for a minimal government and significant downsizing, if not elimination, of the welfare state. This phenomenon may be the result of certain components in an Evangelical worldview. Though evangelicals in the U.S. may have higher interpersonal trust, they distrust the government more than non-evangelicals. This research will explore political theories that discuss the political functions of Protestantism and apply such analyses to contemporary American evangelicals. National Election Survey 2004 will empirically qualify some claims in my theoretical discussion. Advisors/Committee Members: Wilson, Harlan.

▼ My goal is to look at four Supreme Court cases- DeShaney v. Winnebago County (1989), Michael H. v. Gerald D. (1989), Roe v. Wade (1973), and Lawrence v. Texas (2003)- to see how the differences in the levels of generality between liberal and conservative justices actually manifest themselves in their respective opinions. I focus on methodological patterns in the liberal opinions in search of a more coherent liberal jurisprudence. This stems from establishing more definitive guidelines for how best find the level of generality that will maximize the ability to legally justify rights expansion. I end my discussion by applying my conjecture of the most appropriate level of generality in liberal jurisprudence to the future of same-sex marriage. This practical application of how to further the liberal jurisprudential agenda is put to the test when viewed in light of one of the most timely rights-based issues today. After a basic introduction in Part I, Part IIA begins by grounding my analysis within a theoretical discussion of the respective liberal and conservative assumptions behind their methodologies in due process cases involving substantive individual rights. I provide a basic overview of the fundamental constitutional theories that define liberal and conservative jurisprudence. These theories include originalism, textualism, history and tradition, and the moral reading. Since the justices use these theories in different ways to derive both narrow and broad interpretations of the Constitution's authority, it is necessary to understand what they entail at their cores. Part IIB narrows the discussion to understanding these theories in relation to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as it is drawn upon in individual rights cases. I provide an overview of how the Court's interpretation of the Due Process Clause is unique in nature with regard to its high level of ambiguity. As such, the conservatives are able to defend their overly narrow methodologies, and the liberals are able to defend their more general methodologies, both based upon the same brief fragment of language. Part III places this theoretical framework within a case-based context to show how the aforementioned methods of interpretation are practically employed in liberal and conservative opinions. Part IIIA focuses on family rights in DeShaney v. Winnebago County (1989) and Michael H. v. Gerald D. (1989). Part IIIB focuses on abortion rights in Roe v. Wade (1973). Part IIIC focuses on gay rights in Lawrence v. Texas (2003). Through this case-based analysis, an image emerges of how the Court has (or has not) protected privacy rights in the context of family institutions, procreation choice, and sexual autonomy. The justices argue about how these rights can be derived from the text itself, and from its guidelines on how to interpret history and tradition. Through dissecting the language of the opinions in these cases, I evaluate when and where the liberal justices draw upon the same problematic methodologies as the conservative justices, and where they deviate and subsequently work towards establishing a more coherent liberal methodology. Part IV looks at the methodological patterns in liberal jurisprudence in these rights cases to discover a solution as to what level of generality should be employed. The goal is not to focus on a solution that does justice to my in-depth look at the problem. Rather, it is simply to briefly discuss the avenues that should be explored to potentially resolve some of the issues of the inconsistencies of liberal jurisprudence. Part V concludes with a study of the future of liberal jurisprudence, focusing on the future of same-sex marriage. The ultimate focus is on same-sex marriage because it is an issue still being battled within the courts. This conclusion looks at the practical effects that will arise in upcoming cases from the liberals' inconsistent approaches. Advisors/Committee Members: Hirsch, Harry.

▼ An exploration of the several difficulties faced in the implementation of California's Proposition 215, which attempted to make marijuana legal in the state. As Proposition 215 went directly against federal law, the focus is on the federal-state interaction that followed. The paper argues that the principles of federalism could be applied to further interactions in order to improve state law, instead of attempting to suppress medical marijuana or leaving California's flawed system to its own ends. Advisors/Committee Members: Hirsch, Harry.

▼ This paper examines the flawed reconstruction process undergone by Bosnia-Herzegovina after the Bosnian War. This paper posits that particular variables (education, citizenship, and political participation) were overlooked in this process - variables that could have led to a better outcome for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Advisors/Committee Members: Sandberg, Eve.

▼ This work explores Russia’s use of energy as leverage in the near abroad. This work argues that different strategies of using energy, such as moderation or aggression, lead to different outcomes in the near abroad. The current work on Russian foreign policy fails to provide an explanation for the wildly different outcomes of Georgia and Ukraine – this work seeks to fill in those gaps. Advisors/Committee Members: Markowitz, Lawrence.

▼ In December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty expanded the European Court of Justice's jurisdiction into regional human rights protection. In the 27 EU member states this jurisdiction would overlap with the European Court of Human Rights. This paper describes how this situation developed through a historical analyses of each institutions' constitutional and functional developments, and attempts to extrapolate future action based on how actors' use and define symbols. It concludes that the European human rights regime is likely to see the ECJ establish itself in a monist hierarchy underneath the ECtHR in the area of human rights, while maintaining a supremacy over national courts in its areas of sole competence. Advisors/Committee Members: Schiff, Benjamin.