Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Administration

The problem explored in this study addresses the disparity in community outreach efforts for the Latinx community in Aventura County (pseudonym). Considering the growth in the American South and the growth of the Latinx community in Aventura County specifically, there is a need to analyze Latinx engagement in community outreach programs. Further analyzing integration and acculturation practices, an understanding of the importance of political trust, and cultural awareness in community outreach initiatives (Brenner, 2009) is equally necessary. This study applied an emancipatory action research approach in tandem with Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth framework to answer the central research question: How can community outreach programs be more inclusive of the county's Latinx community? A connecting mixed methods approach was utilized in this study to provide insight into how community members feel about Aventura County efforts via one-on-one semi-structured interviews and a public community survey. The qualitative data revealed that there were numerous gaps in Aventura County's outreach efforts to include the Latinx community. The quantitative data revealed similar findings, highlighting the Latinx community's reliance on each other to navigate county offices mostly when necessary and not participating in outreach efforts due to time, language, and awareness barriers. This study's concluding Action Plan outlines steps to address the opportunity gaps discussed. The Action Plan steps include assembling a Latinx affairs committee, candidly and publicly discussing the 287(g) program, providing cultural competence training for staff, establishing satellite offices throughout the community, and prioritizing language access.

Committee: Ricardo García (Committee Member); James Olive (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership

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

This dissertation focuses on the development of the Lost Cause mythology in North Carolina between the 1880s to the 1920s. The Lost Cause is a racist and inaccurate view of the Civil War years promoted by Neo-Confederate Southerners. This dissertation argues that the Lost Cause developed primarily through the efforts of Neo-Confederate organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy. These individuals built a compound-public space that united grassroots movements with official governmental figures to promote the Lost Cause mythology. The formation of this compound-public space and its impact on the Lost Cause provided the necessary cultural support for the development of a Democratic-backed white supremacist campaign in North Carolina in 1898 conducted to reduce the political power of Republicans and African Americans, and to re-establish Democratic hegemony. This dissertation explores the ways in which Neo-Confederates constructed the compound-public space including: the role of politics, gender, religion, education, the media, and Confederate monuments with the express goal of increasing the political power of the Democratic Party.

Committee: Joan Cashin (Advisor); John Brooke (Advisor); Stephanie Shaw (Committee Member); Paula Baker (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Black History; Education History; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Journalism; Mass Media; Modern History; Religion; Religious History; Teacher Education; Womens Studies

BA, Oberlin College, 2021, Comparative American Studies

This thesis draws on interviews with voters and organizers to disrupt preconceived popularized notions of the Deep South, arguing for a reimagining of the region's value through the lens of electoral politics and the Democratic Party's campaign efforts. There is plenty of room for revision in the apathetic approach that national Democrats and progressives treat the South with. This historic and contemporary disdain, paired with common guilt in the promotion of a limited and exclusionary idea of what the South is, contributes to the marginalization of Southern communities of color, queer and trans people, working class folks, and more. However, through attention to voter access, revised organizing tactics, and more, the Democratic Party can be a part of the solution.

Committee: Shelley Sang-Hee Lee (Advisor); Wendy Kozol (Other); Caroline Jackson-Smith (Committee Member); Charles E. Peterson (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Communication; Demographics; Economic History; Environmental Justice; Ethnic Studies; Gender; Glbt Studies; History; Journalism; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Political Science; Regional Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Regional Development Planning

Communities across the Global South are experiencing extreme challenges of increased polarization amid rapid urbanization and globalization. Pressures of domestic and international migrations lead to social contestations over the use of limited urban amenities like public spaces in developing economies. In India, the advent of the neoliberal economy in the 1990s gave rise to an uneven economic growth creating two extremes of the society – the liberalizing `middle class' and `new rich,' and the marginalized migrants from rural areas and neighboring countries. Kolkata, a metropolitan city of India, faces similar challenges of polarization in its highly contested public spaces. Within the context of New Market Square, a social, cultural, commercial, and political epicenter of Kolkata, the study aims – to understand the social class relations through investigating the value of public spaces to different classes and to explore the role of public spaces in class cohesion. With a qualitative and interpretive approach, the study uses documentary based social study methods, systematic on-site observations and semi-structured interviews to understand social processes, territorial and temporal patterns of interactions, and class-based notions of public space. The study finds that cross-class interactions occur through exchanges, negotiations, conflicts, and resolutions. The square is a space for survival, liberation, and recognition to the marginalized classes, while a space for consumption and `adda' (free-spirited intellectual chitchat) for the middle and upper classes. The study infers on the role of public space in class cohesion as – `amalgamation' (bringing social classes together); `revelation' (revealing and acknowledging social classes to each other); `mediation' (creating meaningful cross-class interactions); and `sustenance' (creating a class-based support system through symbiosis). Public space supports social processes and holds power to instigate change and refor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vikas Mehta Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Jenkins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Danilo Palazzo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Urban Planning

BS, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Biological Sciences

Freshwater resources are used around the globe for drinking, recreation, bathing, and production of food. Despite the known value of freshwater for these activities, freshwater resources are being degraded faster than ever before in terms of habitat destruction, impaired water quality, and loss of biodiversity. Anthropogenic inputs of persistent chemical contaminants can lead to ecosystem-wide impairments through direct and indirect toxic effects. To mitigate these effects, water management policies need to be science-based and continually updated with the most current scientific information to reflect changes in types and amounts of pollutants and new knowledge about toxicity. For this analysis, we compared two metals: a well-studied pollutant (copper [Cu]) and an emerging contaminant of concern (silver [Ag]). We assessed water quality criteria for these two metals from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the European Union to determine the intent of these criteria and implementation strategies. Additionally, we conducted standard chronic toxicology tests for silver and copper on the freshwater pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis to assess the level of effectiveness offered by each regulation in protecting ecological integrity. L. stagnalis were individually exposed to metal-contaminated freshwater (0–32 µg/L for both Cu and Ag) for a 28-day static renewal test and mortality and growth rates were measured. Results show copper to be more lethal than silver, but sublethal effects of toxicity were observed at lower concentrations of silver. However, because Ag is a poorly studied contaminant, water quality criteria for Ag are typically older, more variable, or absent and thus may not offer protection in some jurisdictions.

Committee: David Costello PhD (Advisor); Ferenc de Szalay PhD (Committee Member); David Singer PhD (Committee Member); Alison Smith PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Environmental Law; Environmental Management; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Toxicology; Water Resource Management

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2012, History

Yellow fever was a constant and deadly visitor to the southern United States since the middle of the seventeenth century. Dying of yellow fever was gruesome and terrifying. Black vomit was the prominent symptom as the patient bled to death internally and externally. Yellow fever, or ‘yellow jack' to the locals, would bring Savannah, Georgia to its knees on three different occasions. In 1876, however, the city would lose a full 6% of its population, or 1,066 souls. This thesis argues that this tragic outbreak was preventable, and that the physical conditions that were well known to contribute to yellow fever spread were present in Savannah and ignored by city officials who succumbed to economic hardship and a desire for increased commerce. If this epidemic was preventable, then it has potential to inform modern community decision-makers by applying lessons of the past to present policy and practice. To defend this argument, this thesis will discuss the physical, social, and politico-economic conditions in Savannah that contributed to the outbreak and the decisions that marginalized the yellow fever threat. Also, the thesis will discuss applied historical analysis in theoretical terms and identify a model for the systematic analysis of past disaster events for contemporary emergency management decision-makers.

Committee: Jonathan Winkler PhD (Committee Chair); John Flach PhD (Committee Member); Edward Haas PhD (Committee Member); Noeleen McIlvenna PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

From 1880-1920 the United States struggled to incorporate former slaves into the citizenship of the nation. Constitutional amendments legislated freedom for African Americans, but custom dictated otherwise. White people equated power and wealth with whiteness. Conversely, blackness suggested poverty and lack of opportunity. Straddling the Color Line is a multi-city examination of influential and prominent African Americans who lived with one foot in each world, black and white, but who in reality belonged to neither. These influential men lived lives that mirrored Victorian white gentlemen. In many cases they enjoyed all the same privileges as their white counterparts. At other times they were forced into uncomfortable alliances with less affluent African Americans who looked to them for support, protection and guidance, but with whom they had no commonalities except perhaps the color of their skin. This dissertation argues two main points. One is that members of the black elite had far more social and political power than previously understood. Some members of the black elite did not depend on white patronage or paternalism to achieve success. Some influential white men developed symbiotic relationships across the color line with these elite African American men and they treated each other with mutual affection and respect. The second point is that the nadir in race relations occurred at different times in different cities. In the three cities studied, the nadir appeared first in Charleston, then New Orleans and finally in Cleveland. Although there were setbacks in progress toward equality, many blacks initially saw the setbacks as temporary regressions. Most members of the elite were unwilling to concede that racism was endemic before the onset of the Twentieth Century. In Cleveland, the appearance of significant racial oppression was not evident until after the World War I and resulted from the Great Migration. Immigrants from the Deep South migrated to the Nor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor PhD (Advisor); Leonne Hudson PhD (Committee Member); Willie Harrell, Jr. PhD (Committee Member); Karen Sotiropolous PhD (Committee Member); Carla Goar PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; History