Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, English

Women are oftentimes forgotten in history due to the pursuit of their male colleagues. Much is the case for Lady Colin Campbell, nee Gertrude Elizabeth Blood (b. 3 May 1857), as she was left behind in history. However, unlike other similar stories, Blood was subject to the thoughts and opinions of a nation when she and her husband went through the longest and nastiest - dismissed - divorce trial in UK history. After the trial, she engaged in journalistic writing, submitting over a period of time to the periodical The World which would eventually turn into her essays A Woman's Walks. Despite her popularity at the time Blood and her writing faded out of the public sphere. What this project intends to accomplish is to reintroduce Gertrude Elizabeth Blood back into society not for her scandal, but for how her work can be considered part of the Flaneur genre. As a woman born to a family capable of social climbing and then eventually a shunned member of the upper class, Blood's work can shed unique light on the machinations of the Flaneur and the effects of class and gender. This proposed project will perform an analysis to (a) engage in understanding of the flaneur, working the flaneuse into the definition of the flaneur using Blood's writing and (b) a reintroduction of Blood as a woman worthy of analysis, and appreciation for her work as a woman who went against the grain of society.

MA, Kent State University, 2017, College of the Arts / School of Art

Specific to this discussion are the philosophical implications of surveillance, war and consumption; the decision making of the few adjusting the course of the many over time; and the endless possibilities of artificial autonomy that lie on the horizon. This art installation 'Rehabilitation Center' proposes an alternative reality within the context of the Anthropocene. One where there are no dark corners for closed-door decision making, where intrigue and play can heal the scars of deception and greed, where divisional rhetoric cannot withstand compassion and togetherness.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, History

Tyson, Chick-fil-A, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby's presence within the faith-based business community is mostly thanks to corporate lineages that reached well into the previous century. Tyson was founded in 1935, Chick-fil-A in 1946, Walmart in 1962, and Hobby Lobby in 1972, each undergoing various business model and philosophical shifts along with their executives' changing understanding of Christian faith. This thesis analyzes these businesses through a series of case studies, highlighting various uniting themes in their corporate narratives, exploring the ways they interact with their customers and the cultures in which they flourish, while noting that there is a discernible, yet-unexplored gap between faith-based business and workplace spirituality. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that faith-based businesses choose to identify as such as an expression of belief in a Christian supernatural deity's influence in their careers rather than as a way of garnering specific markets or making a profit.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : English and Comparative Literature

The 2005 landfall of Hurricane Katrina entrenched natural disaster studies within the disciplinary territory of the social sciences. For scholars of this specialized field of knowledge, examining the geological and hydrometerological aspects of the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States made little sense without also asserting its historical origins and societal impact. One goal of this dissertation is to secure the human concerns of natural disaster studies further by aligning them with a singular historical social science, a Marxist paradigm that reframes contemporary natural disasters as misfortunes inherent to the neoliberal form of late capitalism. Although Marxism provides the most expansive view of the unnatural forces of natural disasters, this approach itself must be philosophically generous and rigorous, not politically expedient, hence I clarify the ontological status of natural disasters by enlisting reinforcements from the humanities-existential philosophy and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The second goal of this dissertation is to redress a deficiency in the social scientific approach to the cultural representation of natural disasters, which is undeveloped and still largely beholden to positivist methodologies. Drawing on the jointly Marxist and psychoanalytic approach developed by dialectical thinkers like Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Zizek, I show how literary and cultural imaginations of catastrophes shape their real formation within the capitalist world-economy. A comparative analysis of the recent Hollywood disaster films Children of Men (2006) and I Am Legend (2007) demonstrates the divergent response of progressives and conservatives to what Naomi Klein dubs “disaster capitalism.” While some works of mass culture disguise and expose the role of the political economy in exacerbating the disastrous effects of so-called natural disasters, others naturalize economic crises. Close readings of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) and (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2009, Latin American Studies (International Studies)

This thesis explores how throughout the twentieth century, the U.S. government worked closely with American businesses and the Mexican government to favor profitability over the social conditions of Mexican workers in the Bracero Program (1942-1964) and the Border Industrialization Program, or BIP (1964-2000). In both programs, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) tailored each program to American employers' ideals of the most cost-efficient, most productive, and least resistant workforce for each individual program by exploiting gender. While in the Bracero Program, U.S. farmers favored single, male laborers, in the BIP, U.S. employers preferred single, female workers. The author conducted a series of oral history interviews with former braceros and maquiladora workers in order to draw comparisons between their experiences under U.S. capitalism in the twentieth century. Under each program, male braceros and female maquiladora workers shared similar experiences with low wages, substandard living conditions, and other human rights violations.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2009, French, Italian, and Classical Studies

Ce travail explore la question de l'individu en prise avec un nouveau capitalisme qui estne dans la periode post soixante-huit: Luc Boltanski a mis en evidence l'apparition d'un nouvel esprit du capitalisme qui a modifie les structures sociales et economiques de la societe. Alors que l'individu doit faire preuve de plus en plus de flexibilite, la gestion capitaliste du temps et de l'humain ne laisse que peu de place aux choix personnels. Ce nouvel esprit du capitalisme tend parallelement a creer un manque de references qui aboutit a une perte du sens pour les individus. La subjectivite individuelle se perd alors dans les meandres de ce que Boltanski appelle le monde en reseau, car l'individu n'adhere plus a cette nature mouvante du sens. Il se transforme alors inevitablement en une figure de l'entre-deux qui peut etre concue comme le paradigme de l'Homme des reseaux.

MFA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

Read between the lines focuses on language and communication in the twenty-first century, utilizing the aesthetics of modernity and minimalism to contrast the barrage of information and obscured intent that comes with the language of late-stage capitalism where persuasion, distraction, and misdirection run rampant. A larger-than-life collage, the components of read between the lines consists of a series of gestures comprised of sheets of manipulated felt. They range drastically in size from just a couple of inches to around four feet. Most of the pieces have been treated in some manner by a laser cutter, which has been used to either etch lettering into felt, or to cut letters out of the material, leaving the negative space of the words apparent. The phrases used consist of a series of faux aphorisms, musings, observations, jokes, and warnings, all focused in some way on our understanding and interactions with the written and spoken word.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Sociology

Sociologists have long investigated the enduring link between place and health. Despite prolific research in this field, health issues remain obscured in the sociology literature. This dissertation examines the spatial-health relationship(s) between place of residence and burn injuries using fundamental cause theory, intersectionality, and social vulnerability. Fundamental cause theory asserts that one's ability to either avoid health risks or minimize the consequence of those risks requires access to flexible resources (i.e., knowledge, money, freedom, power, prestige, and social networks) that are differently distributed across populations according to social categories like age, race-ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood structure. Intersectionality theory is used alongside fundamental causes to analyze the distribution of flexible resources at the contextual- or community-level, emphasizing the cumulative health effects of discrimination as carried out through spatial development practices. Lastly, social vulnerability measures are employed to quantitatively measure the distribution of health resources within and between communities. Using geographic information systems (GIS) software, this single-site, retrospective registry review explores the social and geographic relationships between accidental, at-home burn (i.e., those treated in a burn unit) injury and fundamental causes between 2014-2021 using measures from the Center for Disease Control's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) as a proxy for the distribution of flexible resources under fundamental causes. Patient-level characteristics and burn injury outcomes including race, ethnicity, sex, total body surface area (TBSA), mortality, and discharge disposition were collected from a burn registry at a Mid-West county hospital. Findings from this dissertation show that people experiencing burn injury in this region are more likely to live in more vulnerable neighborhoods. These findings are par (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Between 1473 and 1666, the printing industry in London was heavily regulated by the Stationers' Company, but after the 1660s, the Company became unable to effectively regulate printed texts. This thesis compares the depictions of masculinity which appeared in early modern English books between periods of heavy regulation and periods of loose regulation. Changes to the printing industry, including changes to the laws surrounding censorship and economic changes in both the market and England as a whole, contributed to changes in how social ideologies are represented in the books that the market produced. During the early period of heavy regulation, narratives of masculinity across texts were relatively consistent and cooperated with one another to create a cohesive, hegemonic version of masculinity. However, as the market grew and opened, there was no longer a reasonable expectation of regulation, and more, often differing versions of masculinity were able to compete with the traditional hegemonic narrative.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

Humans have been brewing beer for at least 10,000 years. For most of this time, brewing was a rudimentary affair. Ancient, medieval, and early modern brewing was carried out using local grains, herbs, fruits, and open-air fermentation. This has radically changed in the last two hundred years. Modern brewing now relies on intensive capital inputs, standardized products and brands, marketing, global distribution networks, disposable packaging, and scientific expertise. Even today's craft brewers—who often pride themselves on their experimental brews and local or regional connections—are a product of this transformation. This dissertation asks how this radically different brewing industry came to be in the United States. I argue that the modern American brewing industry took shape because of the unique biological and material properties of beer's organic and chemical components (yeast, hops, barley, and alcohol) and that brewers' desire to control even the most minute aspects of their craft resulted in intense capitalization and standardization of their industry.

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

Business is a vital part of American society, and the decisions made by businesses affect more than just the economy. Conscious Capitalism (CC) recognizes this important role, and it challenges businesses to operate in a responsible manner. That being said, CC understands the need to make a profit in order to succeed in a competitive market. This practice claims that by following four tenets of conscious business—conscious leadership, conscious culture, stakeholder orientation, and higher purpose—businesses attract customers and will experience increased profits over time. This study found that, while the gross profit margins of companies who practice CC were similar to those of their non-conscious counterparts on a year-to-year basis, CC companies did experience a greater increase in their gross profit margins over time.

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, English

FUTUREHAUNT is a collection of poetry exploring existence in the Anthropocene. The poems within FUTUREHAUNT explore the author's experiences with mixed identity & queerness in the Catholic church alongside self-harm and other traumas through the lens of rapid technological acceleration within capitalism. The poems play with tradition through deconstruction of classic forms with a focus on the American sonnet. FUTUREHAUNT as a title is in reference to Mark Fisher's work on hauntology. FUTUREHAUNT as a collection applies Mark Fisher's theory on capitalist realism & hauntology to Anthropocene aesthetics, and queer studies through exploration of the author's personal experience and theoretical background. FUTUREHAUNT as a collection utilizes the recurring subject of suicide as a mode of relation to the theme of hauntology.

BA, Oberlin College, 2022, English

This thesis examines the intersections among gothic literature, empire, and contagion, and traces the emergence and evolution of a yet unexplored subgenre: the Imperial Gothic. Where early American Gothic narratives express anxieties about national stability and the republican subject, the Imperial Gothic explores anxieties that emerge when imperialism brings white Americans into contact with foreign commodities, environments, and bodies, ranging from foreign nationals, immigrants, and enslaved peoples, to Martians. It demonstrates how viral threats to the body correspond to the nationalist conception of foreign threats against the imagined white body politic. What emerges from this body of global and interplanetary literature is an “epidemiology of American imperialism.” While dark passageways, imprisoned heroines, and duplicitous patriarchal villains are staples of the classic Gothic genre, several additional tropes recur in the Imperial Gothic: trade and capitalism gone wrong, uncertain, or blurred identities, unknown deadly illnesses that spread through spatial contact zones, and the failure of both biological and national defense mechanisms. I explore these tropes through seven primary sources with publication dates ranging from 1799 to 2018. These works include: Charles Brockden Brown's Arthur Mervyn (1799), Herman Melville's Redburn (1849), Frances Harper's Iola Leroy (1892), Katherine Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950), Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (1969), and Ling Ma's Severance (2018).

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, History

Wetlands have often remained invisible in the historical record right up to the moment that thoughts turn to drainage. And yet, for most of human history, these ecosystems have played a vital role in human subsistence patterns, offering virtually unparalleled resource abundance, variety, and reliability. This project attempts to make sense of this change by exploring the conditions that gave rise to the Swamp Land Acts of 1849-1860, the first federal drainage legislation enacted in the United States. It asks: Given the seemingly endless amount of land available for agriculture in the United States, why did drainage occupy so much attention? Why did drainage seemingly take on a new level of urgency in the nineteenth century? And when drainage legislation was finally enacted, why did it take the specific form it did? Answering those questions required adopting a transnational, comparative approach, examining the connections between drainage, enclosure, and the concept of improvement going back to the earliest days of agrarian capitalism in England. Four themes run through the dissertation as a whole: continuities in the experiences of people who relied on wetland resources; the role of the natural environment in shaping the process of primitive accumulation; the evolution of the concept of improvement; and the relationship between improvement, expansion, and capitalist empire. Placed in the context of these broader developments, I argue that the Swamp Land Acts facilitated the enclosure of the de facto multiracial wetland commons that formed in the United States while helping to ensure that a formal commons was never allowed to take shape.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Sociology

Studies of religion and politics in the contemporary United States have rightfully directed focus on the connection between dominant Christianity and the politics of race, gender, sexuality, and nationalism. However, scholars of religion have largely neglected the question of how American Christianity relates to the economy. Specifically, why is it that, given the anti- capitalist potential many have recognized within Christianity, does dominant American Christianity not only fail to challenge capitalism but actively aligns itself with the narratives of meritocracy, individualism, and wealth accumulation that justify capitalist inequality? This study undertakes a case study of an evangelical megachurch to evaluate the theoretical explanations for why Christianity does not challenge the ideas which justify capitalism, advocating for a theory of displacement whereby potentially capitalism-challenging Christian teachings are neutralized. The study makes significant contributions to sociological research on the intersections between American religion and politics and the moral justification of economic inequality.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2021, History

This thesis is case study of Miami University and its connections to slavery between its founding in 1809 and 1861. As the second college founded in Ohio, Miami University was one of the first institutions of higher education on the early national frontier and was founded more than fifty years before the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This thesis asserts that Miami University was involved with slavery on both an ideological and financial level. The link between Miami and slavery is explored through the economic, social, and political histories of the early frontier. Case studies of students and administrators exemplify the multifaceted nature of slavery's entanglements at Miami and show how the university contributed to and profited from enslavement through tuitions, endowments, and educational curriculum. This research reveals the complexities of slavery in early Ohio and evaluates the extent of Miami's financial dependence on it.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to better understand how to influence capitalist attitudes and drive more capital towards social good. This is why we must explore the prospect of emancipating the capitalists from capitalism. This study identifies capitalism as a form of oppression that is contributing to a newly developed ethics of capital, a term introduced in this study. Emancipatory action research and general systems theory were employed as the primary approaches to engaging a group of venture capitalists and finance professionals in activities and dialogues. Value2 is the theory of action I use to influence the attitudes of the participants in the study. I developed the Emancipatory Action Map as a tool for capturing the epistemological process catalyzed by Value2. The findings identified common themes and contrasts, such as how participants rationalized their problem-solving, how they responded to the isomorphism between systems operating within capitalism, and how they experienced their own agency in relationship to the problem of driving more capital towards social good. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2021, Educational Leadership

This conceptual research uses an Afro-Pessimistic lens to analyze the lack of Black Self-Determination in the United States of America (U.S.A). It sought to find out if counter-narratives could play a cultivating role. Upon completion of the analysis several concepts to deepen and expand understanding of the lack of Black Self-determination was revealed. Collectively the concepts help dissect counter-narratives into four types (counter-narrative moments, movements, periods, and permanents). This occurred by considering the conditions that make up counter-narratives and the functional possibilities of the counter-narratives given such conditions. Accounting for the make-up (substance) and the function of counter-narratives indicated two cultivating categories: liminal and permeant. To deepen understanding of and conceptually test counter-narratives within these categories, they were put into an Afro-Surreal Futuristic script (chapter 4). The script engaged the Afro-Pessimistic while aiming towards the Afro-Futuristic, by drawing upon the Afro-Surreal as a bridge. It was the bridge because it focused attention on the strengths in what had survived over time and could aid moving forward towards distinctly different realities. By doing so, counter-narratives that cultivated Black Self-Determination had to functionally help move beyond the current states maintaining the problem (Afro-Pessimistic conditions) and get to new states (Afro-Futuristic conditions) with levels of permanence. My exposure to being Black and living a Black Self-Determined existence is foundationally shaped by: 1) being born in the latter part of the 20th century in the U.S.A; 2) consistently sharing life with people born across generations; and 3) having grown up around countless responsible elders who were blood related or like family. The oral histories, witnessed accounts of racism, racial diversity of my grade-school classmates, slew of examples where adults chose to uphold certain values de (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2020, Honors

Many believe that capitalism is inherently immoral, a system designed by the rich, for the rich. Events like the 2008 financial crisis seem to point to a conclusion of this sort as well. However, delving deeper into the roots of capitalism and its founder, Adam Smith, paint a different picture, with different intentions. The Theory of Moral Sentiments predates and provides the foundation for the Wealth of Nations. In both the timing of the books, and in their content, morality is clearly shown to be the bedrock upon which capitalism was built. Having proved this, one must then look to the 2008 crisis through the previously constructed lens, and evaluate the actions that led up to it. If they were immoral, as this thesis claims them to be, then the theory that morality is the basis of capitalism is given practical application.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, History

This dissertation argues that the ideology of "the non-communist left" played a key role in reshaping both American liberalism and the Democratic Party from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. It approaches this argument by exploring the ideas and activities of three liberals in the Democratic Party: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith, and Chester Bowles. As intellectuals and policy advocates, this trio linked their party not only with the nation's liberal circle but also with various manifestations of the global noncommunist left, including democratic socialists, anticolonial nationalists, and other progressives of the "third force" in Europe and Asia. In so doing, the three helped change the Democratic Party's outlook on four major issues in postwar politics: the purpose of political reform, the meaning of the welfare state, modernization in noncommunist Asia, and coexistence with communist China. Their role as intellectuals and advisers was particularly significant during the 1950s, a decade their party spent primarily wandering the political wilderness. In search of fresh ideas amid the ideological doldrums, Democratic leaders actively sought these liberals' advice on foreign and domestic issues alike. In response, Schlesinger, Galbraith, and Bowles formulated a series of new visions for their party through in-depth participation in a series of controversies within the American liberal circle as well as active interaction with progressive political figures across the world. By examining how these liberals produced their visions through a transnational conversation, how their visions were reformulated into policies through discussions with other liberals, and how and why their policies were accepted or rejected by Democratic leaders, this dissertation demonstrates that these three liberals kept "the party of reform" moving during "the age of consensus."