Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2023, English

This poetry thesis, Liminal Black, explores the American slave trade and its aftereffects through a speculative narrative that centers black female bodies—spectral and human—as sites of remembrance, revolt, and power in the fight for freedom. My main character is a young African priestess sold to American slave dealers. Feeling betrayed by her God and kinsmen, she renounces her power and African memories. For years, she serves as a breeder on a plantation, only resisting after supernatural manifestations cause her to question captivity. She then leads an unsuccessful slave revolt and is gruesomely murdered. For most of this first-person non-linear narrative, she is a ghost without memories. Through flashbacks and time leaps, I build layers of past, present and continuous experiences by facilitating interactions with human and non-human elements. She joins the fight for freedom, existing well into the 21st century while documenting and reflecting on history. Through our ghost we learn how black women, often forgotten, have fought for freedom. Her memory loss highlights how slaves were required to engage in acts of erasure or memory-bending, and this exploration of memory and remembrance helps emphasize reclamation of power as it pertains to roots, remembrance, and bloodlines.

Committee: Keith Tuma (Committee Chair); Daisy Hernandez (Committee Member); Cathy Wagner (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African Studies; Black History

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 Science in Criminal Justice, Youngstown State University, 2022, Department of Criminal Justice and Consumer Sciences

The murder of George Floyd was a pivotal moment in this country's continual fight on racism. As a result, the Black Lives Matter movement initiated a campaign to defund the police. This research project will look at a purposive sample of 10 churches that were selected in Rust Belt cities of Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Transcripts were pulled from YouTube for the sermons from May 31, 2020, through June 21, 2020, for the 10 churches. This project used grounded theory when analyzing the texts in NVivo and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count softwares to see if the churches selected took a position in any way regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. Results showed that 3 of the 10 churches had sermons that were sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter Movement. The majority of the churches had neutral sermons; however, all churches were similar in usage of keywords (specified below), authenticity, and tone. Future research is necessary to assist law enforcement with community relations and the potential connection between sermon topics and societal issues.

Committee: Richard Rogers PhD (Advisor); Monica Merrill PhD (Committee Member); Tammy King PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Law; Religious Congregations

Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Youngstown State University, 2022, Department of Criminal Justice and Consumer Sciences

In reaction to the tragic death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement protests, several organizations took to the public to discuss their thoughts and opinions. An identified specific group of 10 churches and religious organizations was selected for analysis. This study sought to determine if the select group's initial discourse, specifically related to George Floyd and the BLM movement, was extreme in nature. Utilizing grounded theory, this study conducted thematic analysis on specific texts extracted from YouTube to determine if extremism exists within the community of initial discourse. Specific tags were identified for the purpose of analysis. It was determined that 5 of the 10 churches initially mainstreamed extremist beliefs to their followers, while the remaining 5 churches did not. The findings in this thesis serve as documentation for the initial community discourse that exists within an extremely pivotal moment in United States history. The collection of said discourse spreads awareness for how social issues are portrayed to the American public.

Committee: Richard Rogers Ph.D. (Advisor); Monica Merrill Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christian Onwudiwe Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Black Studies; Political Science; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Comparative Studies

The #BlackLivesMatter Movement is one of the most influential Black political movements of the post-civil rights era. In popular and scholarly accounts, it has been characterized as “more secular” than and antithetical to the Civil Rights movement and “Black church” tradition, which, by contrast, are seen as emblematic of a larger tradition of Black religious protest. Contrary to these secularizing reductions and interpretations, this dissertation locates a politics of the sacred at the heart of #BlackLivesMatter, which is irreducible to a secular idiom. I consider the use of both spiritual and religious language and practices in the movement as a part of “sacred politics.” In what ways, I ask, do language and ideas of the sacred circulate through and inform the #BlackLivesMatter movement? How does the movement's insistence on the sacredness of Black life serve to collapse and undercut any sharp distinction between religious and secular politics? How might we understand this movement as a part of a larger history of Black religious protest for racial justice rather than defined against it? My research explores these questions by centering the voices of participants in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. I analyze the use of rhetorics of the sacred in memoirs and other autobiographical writings, alongside images and other digital artifacts (videos, tweets, etc.) as they circulate on social media (e.g., BlackTwitter, Vine, Instagram, YouTube). My analysis of this sacred discourse is informed by and in conversation with theories drawn from religious studies, political theology, Afro-American religious thought, and Black studies. My project seeks to bring the intersection of religion and this contemporary political movement into plain site to demonstrate how sacred politics is central and not peripheral to their work for racial justice. By looking for religion not in its institutional formations but as it is embodied in the rhetoric and repertoire of activist practices—on t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Isaac Weiner (Advisor); Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́ (Committee Member); Theresa Delgadillo (Committee Member); Melissa Anne-Marie Curley (Committee Member); Vincent Lloyd (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Black Studies; Philosophy; Religion; Theology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, History

The Civil Rights Era of the 1960s has helped America transcend and grow above its racist past, at least that is what we have been led to believe. However, the past decade has made it all too clear that there is still a deep racial divide within America. Tragic events such as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown's death, and the details that surrounded them, were heavily polarized topics that made clear America's racial divide. Those events also spawned a new movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, which draws heavily from its predecessors of the past. Due to the current memory of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter and its supporters, have and continue to fight an uphill battle against the national media, which has attempted to denounce the new movement and portray it as contrary to American values, much like they have portrayed groups associated with the Black Power Movement. This study explores how people perceived the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement and examines whether that has any relationship with how other movements such as the Black Lives Matter Movement are perceived. Although there is a vast amount of literature covering the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movements, individually and collectively, there is not a lot of work that examines them both as part of the continuous Black Freedom Movement. Due to popular memory of the Civil Rights Movement, new developing movements have been grossly distorted to ensure the failure and public denial of subsequent movements meant to validate the continuance and longevity of the Black Freedom Movement. This thesis will argue that Black Lives Matter is proof that the Black Freedom Movement is continuous, and is ongoing today. Catastrophic events such as Trayvon Martin's and Michael Brown's death acted as a rallying point for many Blacks to become involved in the new movement, much like Emmitt Till's death acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

Committee: Tyler Moore (Advisor); Thomas Edge (Committee Member) Subjects: Black History; Black Studies

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Psychology

When people engage in protest actions, their goal is often to make a change in the world, be it to promote certain public policy or legislation or bring attention to or demand justice for a specific injustice. In order to bring about this change, protestors aim to influence public opinion favorably towards their cause. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify some of the different factors that can affect public support for protests, and by extension support for different protest actions. The first of the factors examined is the presence of violence. The presence or even just the perception of violence at a protest is often enough to enhance people's support for law-and-order policies against the protestors rather than in support of them. The current research supports the view that the likelihood of the public sympathizing with a cause decreases when violence is present. Additionally, observer's attitudes towards the protest topic prior to seeing the protest can influence reactions to the protest regardless of the presence of violence. Although the current research shows that people support protests more when they favor their own views, an interaction with the presence of violence is also observed. Specifically, across several different protest topics, this research shows that violence generally decreases support for the protest more when the protest involves one's ingroup rather than one's outgroup. Finally, the current research also begins to explore how the race of the protestors might interact with the race-relevance of the protest topic to affect support.

Committee: Richard Petty (Advisor); Duane Wegener (Committee Member); Russell Fazio (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Communication

In the year 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice and the Coronavirus pandemic coexisted simultaneously as organizational Discourses. As organizations managed these overlapping crises, they were also forced to manage the tensions created by competing Discourses. This thesis performs a Critical Discourse Analysis with an emphasis in dialectics in specific social media posts from Cincinnati organizations during the year 2020 to generate a set of themes to describe BLM Discourse and COVID-19 Discourse. Going a step further than traditional discursive studies, this study employs an Integrative Methodology to identify tensions created by co-existing Discourses and the management strategies organizations employed to manage these tensions.

Committee: Zhuo Ban Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heather Zoller Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gail Fairhurst Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, American Culture Studies

In 2020, people across the world began to live nearly all their lives online thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Social media allowed people in quarantine and isolation to safely interact no matter where in the world they were. For some, however, this way of online existence had been happening for years. Fans of all sorts of media texts and media objects had flocked to digital realms for years as a way of finding others who felt the same way they did. Some fans choose to use their social media platform of choice to put forward a digital fan identity that fore fronted their role as a fan rather than any aspect of their offline identity. This work looks at the ways that specific social media platforms can impact the ways that fan communities form and how these communities can have impact on the sociopolitical views that users are exposed to. Using the sociopolitical touchstone of the Black Lives Matter movement in May and June 2020, this project utilizes a mixed-methods analysis of digital conversations across Twitter, TikTok,and Instagram. In comparing the three platforms it becomes clear that the unique affordances of each platform combine with unique dynamics of each fan group to privilege the voices and beliefs of socially acceptable fans. It also becomes clear that the distinctive affordances of each platform have the ability to shape offline interactions and sociopolitical ideals in different ways. We can see here just a glimpse into how the online can shape the offline in ways that have growing implications for our understanding of the social and political world.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Andrew Schocket Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Political Science

Recent years have seen online political subcultures that embrace populism and reject many liberal institutional norms gain increased influence over the mainstream political arena. Four of the most prominent of these subcultures include White Nationalists, believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, the Black Lives Matter movement, and modern Socialists. All four of these groups have, to varying degrees, seen support for their views rise among mainstream media outlets, elected officials, and the public. However, the insistence of these groups on ideological purity and their often combative stance towards moderate colleagues has made influencing legislative efforts difficult for them at times. Additionally, these groups have had differential impacts on democracy in the United States. While the more progressive of these subcultures seek to expand democratic rights and participation to the poor and people of color, the more conservative among these groups often seek to restrict the political rights and influence of their ideological rivals and historically marginalized people.

Committee: DeLysa Burnier (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Music History

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” which serves as the United States' national anthem, has experienced a flux of controversial attention in the 21st century. The melody, which originates from a British song titled “To Anacreon in Heaven,” has been paired with a variety of lyrics in the U.S. dating before “The Star-Spangled Banner,” whose poetry was inspired by the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key, who authored the text of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was just one of many U.S. citizens who utilized this melody in the 19th century to express their feelings about the country in regard to a particular historical event. Key, a lawyer and slave-owner, reveals his attitude toward the U.S. specifically in the three later verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which depicts the tragedies of slavery in the 19th century. Scholars such as Mark Clague, Carlos Abril, and William Robin have analyzed the national anthem's lyrics, as well as its performance practices, in context with the history of the U.S., tracing the transformation and function of the national anthem over the 200 years of its existence. This thesis explores the use of the national anthem in racial politics leading up to (and specifically in) the 21st century, the ways in which it does and does not adhere to the ideologies and democracy of the present-day United States, and its implicit representation of systemic racism that is highlighted by the social and political movement “Black Lives Matter.” Analyzing the function of the national anthem, its performance practices, and reactions to these practices, this thesis argues that “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays a role in upholding systemic racism by shining a light on its use as a vehicle of protest and political expression, a use that has been a defining characteristic of the original melody since it made its way to the U.S.

Committee: Mary Natvig Ph. D. (Advisor); Katherine Meizel Ph. D., D.M.A. (Committee Member); Ryan Ebright Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Music

BA, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

The world has grown increasingly connected through social media. Despite this, many have been critical of and uncertain of the impacts of social media activism. Many scholars have studied social movements, others have studied social media, but few have combined the data especially in terms of geographic dispersion. In order to assess the role of social media in social movements, this paper analyzes Ferguson as a case study because of its role as a springboard for #BlackLivesMatter. The protests in Ferguson following the shooting of Mike Brown did not create the hashtag, but they did help push the hashtag into mainstream consciousness. I utilized data collected by Ray et al. (2017) in order to visualize the way that tweets about Ferguson expanded across borders and geographic barriers. Overall, many of the tweets looked to be inspiring other tweets due to tweets in isolation blossoming into more and more tweets even without widespread, traditional media coverage.

Committee: Julie Mazzei PhD (Advisor); Suzy D'Enbeau PhD (Committee Member); Charmaine Crawford PhD (Committee Member); Ashley Nickels PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Media; Political Science; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Education and Human Services

In a qualitative narrative study of 11 urban teacher education faculty who teach courses that prepare teacher candidates for field immersions in metro-urban schools, I problematized “whiteness” by asking participants what it meant to them in the contexts of their work in contact zones were teacher candidates and K-12 students meet. The research was shaped as an abolitionist justice project (Tuck & Yang, 2018, p. 8) and considered how “whiteness” might be deconstructed and decentered in urban teacher education. Participants described whiteness as both fixed phenotype and historical and social construct which causes harm and which requires intervention. In scenarios where the harm of whiteness was mitigated for non-white K-12 students and teacher candidates, participants described themselves in supportive rather than authoritative educational roles. The study reflects upon what might constitute one or more forms of abolitionist praxis which might have the utility to dismantle systemic white supremacy as well as to cease and desist in the oppression of children.

Committee: Anne Galletta (Committee Chair) Subjects: African American Studies; Education Policy; Educational Sociology; Ethnic Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2018, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

During these times of escalating tensions between the police and the communities they serve, the news and social media have been full of images of police officers wearing military gear, armed with military weapons, and driving military vehicles. This study examined whether the blurred lines between police officers and soldiers have caused the public to begin to see police officers who work in urban areas as equivalent to soldiers in war zones. Using a sample of undergraduate college students in criminal justice classes at a Midwestern university, this study asks whether perceiving police officers to be equivalent to soldiers is related to negative attitudes towards the residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods, weaker support for policies that seek to increase police accountability, an opposition to groups which seek to increase police accountability, and an opposition to convicting a local police officer for the shooting death of an unarmed African American man. The results of the study indicate that a belief in an equivalency between police officers and soldiers is not common in the sample, but it can be predicted by being white, holding more conservative values, and having more negative attitudes toward the residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods. When used as an explanatory variable, a belief in the police-military equivalency does predict lower levels of support for independent prosecutions of police officers who shoot civilians, more negative attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter movement, and a lack of support for convicting a former campus police officer who was charged with murder for the shooting death of an unarmed African American man. The equivalency did not predict lower levels of support for independent investigations of police officers who shoot civilians. This would suggest that there is credibility to the idea that people who view the police as military may be more forgiving or permissive of police misconduct. In addition, the most consi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Frank Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Robert A. Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bonnie Fisher Ph.D. (Committee Member); Edward Latessa Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2018, English (as a Second Language)

This research attempts to determine whether or not stress placement can be used to predict an individual's attitude via theories of contrastive stress. The placement of stress within a phrase is typically given to new information. With regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, this would suggest that when the phrase “black lives matter” is uttered, the stress on “matter” indicates the belief that black lives have not mattered in the past, and they should. “Black lives matter,” however, with stress on “black,” suggests the belief that black lives are more important than the lives of non-blacks. Data was taken from the streaming site YouTube to analyze instances of people saying “black lives matter” and record stress placement. The videos themselves were used to determine individual attitudes, which were then compared to their stress placement. The research had no significant findings regarding the relationship between stress and attitude; however, this was probably due to the oversimplification of what was revealed to be a much more complicated process.

Committee: Douglas Coleman (Committee Chair); Monita Mungo (Committee Member); John Jasper (Committee Member) Subjects: Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Sociology

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

Running with DuBois is a collection of creative nonfiction essays through which the author explores the nature of her whiteness and its roots in white supremacist thought within the context of the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Committee: Elissa Washuta (Advisor); Lee Martin (Committee Member) Subjects: Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2017, Geography (Arts and Sciences)

Baltimore gained national attention in the spring of 2015 after Freddie Gray, a young black man, died while in police custody. This event sparked protests in Baltimore and other cities in the U.S. and soon became associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. One way to bring communities together, give voice to disenfranchised residents, and broadcast political and social justice messages is through street art. While it is difficult to define street art, let alone assess its impact, it is clear that many of the messages it communicates resonate with host communities. This paper investigates how street art is defined and promoted in Baltimore, how street art is used in Baltimore neighborhoods to resist oppression, and how Black Lives Matter is influencing street art in Baltimore. Using qualitative research methods, including interviews and newspaper analysis, I explore the opinions and views of Baltimoreans with respect to street art and provide insight into the conjunction of racial tension and artistic expression. This study brings to light important aspects of urban governance, social justice, community development and public space through investigation of activism through community-based street art.

Committee: Geoffrey Buckley (Advisor); Harold Perkins (Committee Member); Amy Lynch (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography