Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Over the past few years, the nationwide protests over the long-standing plague of racism in our country, most recently manifested in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, have placed our nation before a “fork in the road.” We stand on the precipice of monumental change or devastating regression in the area of race relations within our nation. This has been most vivid in the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community. What comes next between these two parties will depend on how law enforcement responds to the cries of the people in these affected communities. Historically, particularly in African American communities, there has been an intimate connection between social movements and sensitives to injustice and faith. At the same time, there appears to be a decreasing appreciation of faith among law enforcement officers. If the disparity between the attitude towards faith by law enforcement and the significance of faith in communities of color continues to increase, it will undoubtedly lead to more tension between these two communities. I hypothesize that reconciliation between law enforcement and African American communities can be achieved through the inclusion of religious literacy in the training and formation of law enforcement officers. As a disclaimer, it is important to understand that the building of trust and the reparation of relationships is an effort that requires the cooperation of both sides. This means that there has to be a willingness and an understanding from both law enforcement and communities of color for any real difference to be made. It is also important to recognize that this is not a “black versus white” issue, this is an issue that affects society as a whole. This understanding will be made present throughout this research, but the primary focus will be on the inclusion of religious literacy in the formation of law enforcement officers.

Committee: Fr. Louis Bertrand Lemoine O.P. (Other); Cary Dabney (Advisor) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Criminology; Divinity; Law; Legal Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Religion; Religious Education; Religious History; Sociology; Theology; World History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, African-American and African Studies

When it comes to the Black churchwoman's identity her place in the Black church is highly prescribed and restrained. Black churchwomen are reduced to roles such as ushers, nurses, Sunday school teachers, hostesses, secretaries, clerks, deaconesses, first ladies and mothers of the church. However limited the roles and identities of Black women are thought to be it rarely includes a queer sexuality. It is within this context that the Black lesbian church member has been marginalized, spoken for and in many ways silenced. Using Foucault's theory of pastoral power and obligational salvation, this paper demonstrates how the discourses that come out of the church combined with the secular and spiritual power of the church has enabled the Black church to continue to fulfill its traditional obligations to both the spiritual self - in which the goal is salvation - and to the social self - in which the goal is civil liberties and freedom, whilst also holding on to forms of homophobia which both damage the spiritual self of Christian lesbians and restrict their civil liberties and freedom. Through the ethnographic study of four Black Christian lesbians this project begins to fill the profound gap in the knowledge, analysis and understanding of Black lesbian experiences within the Black church by unpacking: (1) Black Christian lesbians' experiences in the Black church; (2) strategies they have developed for dealing with homophobia found in Black churches and (3) the spaces they find for themselves in the church in which they can create a sense of belonging.

Committee: Dr. Denise Noble (Committee Chair); Dr. Mark Moritz (Committee Member); Dr. Judson Jeffries (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Glbt Studies; Religion

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2010, Comparative Studies

Theologies of liberation have existed in multiple cultures around the world and contain similar relationships between oppression and theological reflection. Most notable among theological expressions are the community's relationship to biblical narratives of the Exodus and the gospel stories relating Jesus' affinity to the poor. This thesis compares the theological reflections and cultural understandings of oppression of three specific religious communities: Black liberation theology in the United States, minjung theology of South Korea, and Rastafari theology in Jamaica and the Caribbean. This thesis demonstrates that though the mechanisms of oppression are universal, groups experiencing collective oppression utilize culturally specific understandings of that oppression to inform theological ideas. Each group contains a culturally specific idea of sorrowful hope that informs their theology. These concepts, blues, han, and sufferation, are the culturally located ideas that inform similarities among these diverse groups.

Committee: Thomas Kasulis Dr. (Advisor); Maurice Stevens Dr. (Committee Member); Hugh Urban Dr (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Bible; Black History; Comparative Literature; Fine Arts; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, English

This manuscript comparatively examines the production of speculative fiction by black women writers from Brazil, Jamaica, the United States and Canada. Examination of each text reveals the way in which black female subjectivity, African-based spiritual epistemology, and African diasporic spaces converge to create multiply liminal discourses, which are the counterhegemonic articulations of black agency—particularly through the use of African spiritual paradigms—in envisioning liberated futures. Multiply liminal discourse as an interpretive frame establishes the shared position of black female liminality and African epistemological frames of reference while remaining attendant to the particulars of difference generated by varied historical developments in African diasporic spaces. The examinations of the works within this text, utilizing multiply liminal discourse as an interpretive methodology, reveal the potential for enactment of “strategic essentialism” toward an integrated theoretical and practical liberatory discourse and politics. This occurs within the texts through reclaiming agency for black womanhood and black romantic relationships in Aline Franca's A Mulher de Aleduma; embracing African heritage particularly through one of the most demonized cultural legacies, African spirituality, in Erna Brodber's Louisiana and Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring; and the expansive and inclusive vision of liberation ideology that embraces difference and change through Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. This manuscript concludes by discussing the integration of ideology and activism through multiply liminal discourse, the ways in which speculative fiction enables that integration and ultimate implications for black liberation.

Committee: Valerie Lee (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Education, Miami University, 2010, Educational Psychology

This qualitative dissertation study investigated the success of an African-America religious school located in a Midwestern low SES neighborhood. There are inequities in educational opportunities. Schools, as mandated by the local and state agencies, have a history of not fulfilling the stated mission of educating all children especially African American students. This school developed in response to the historic denial of unequal opportunities. The prophetic mission and call to achieve equity gave rise to the founding of this school by the membership of the Messiah Christian Alliance Fellowship Church. The foundation of this educational facility was essential in the building of healthy African American students. Historical data shows that children who are members of lower socio-economic (SES) groups achieve at lower rates than middle class white students and students from wealthier homes. Yet for many of these students the reality of obtaining a quality is in fact another deferred. This qualitative study investigated the success of at a school located in an urban community. Through the theory base of Black Liberation Theology, the pastor and followers answered the call of providing excellent education to the children attending this school.

Committee: Raymond Terrell (Committee Chair) Subjects: Educational Leadership

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

Liberation from oppression, racism, and poverty is a long-awaited dream for many African Americans. The “liberating” dream for most African Americans in times past was achieved through a spiritual commitment to God and communal support from fellow believers within a given church body. How does one achieve liberation today? Is it through Christian theology? Is it through artistic musical expression? Or is through both? On the other hand, is it achieved through religious ideology packaged as political expository preaching? Black Christian rappers are the latest in a far-reaching procession of African Americans to participate in a “redeemer exercise” dedicated to the safeguarding of ethnic-gender hierarchies. Similar to the social and psychological messages for slaves that were revealed in the old Negro Spirituals during the nineteenth- and twentieth-century, Christian rappers and Black liberation theologians, use a personified –social form of politics to convey meaning and substance to challenge racial intimidation in America. Moreover, these spiritual activists focus on liberation from social, political, economic, and religious oppression that has kept African Americans in bondage for many years. This study argues that Christian rappers interpret the effects of postmodern and post-civil rights social, economic, and political transformations in a similar mode to the messages declared from the pulpit by Black liberation theologians. However, these spiritual rappers adopt a different agenda for empowerment and religious freedom from the one proclaimed by their elder counterparts.In particular, the study explores the views that Christian theology is a theology of liberation and by means of this spiritual deliverance, an innovative, yet, revolutionary voice (Gospel hip hop) has emerged from the pews of the Sunday morning worship hour in the Black church. It is my contention that the emergence of Christian hip hop based ministries has taken on the role of a new liberating (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Angela Nelson PhD (Committee Chair); Khani Begum PhD (Committee Member); Franklin Goza PhD (Committee Member); Bettina Shuford PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Black History; Communication; Music; Religion