Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2024, History

This dissertation centers Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Publications in post-independence India from 1947 to 1965, analyzing this corpus of texts as national identity construction as well as the epistemological origin of contemporary Hindu nationalism. While much of the scholarship on India after independence views the nation-state as adhering to the Nehruvian consensus of secularism, socialism, democracy, I argue that Hinduism informed the national identity construction promoted by the MIB based on Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Congress' goal of uniting the population. I challenge the notion that India was a secular nation-state following independence and maintain that the presence of Hindu themes and terminology within the Ministry's publications provided the scaffolding for Hindu nationalists to capture the political and cultural discourse in the subcontinent. Hindus represented the largest subsection of the Indian population amid religious, linguistic, caste, and class diversity, and Nehru, Congress, and the MIB invoked and appealed to Hindu religion to promote national unity despite the official commitment to secularism. The Ministry frequently referenced the concept of dharma, the dispassionate performance of duty couched in religious morality, and promoted an upper class, upper caste, Hindu interpretation of Indian history throughout its publications that marginalized non-Hindus, particularly the Muslim minority. The MIB issued publications throughout the tenures of Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri responding to external conflicts, promoting development efforts, selling the subcontinent as a tourist destination, and producing new works on Indian history, defining Indian national identity to the foreign and domestic audience. Critical analysis of Ministry publications reveals a continuity of discourse and national identity construction between Congress following independence and Hindu nationalists of today, with the national identity constr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martin Wainwright (Advisor); Stephen Harp (Committee Member); Shane Strate (Committee Member); Karl Kaltenthaler (Committee Member); Janet Klein (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Political Science; South Asian Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, English (Arts and Sciences)

This study documents patterns of description of Roman Catholic characters, beliefs, cultural attitudes, dispositions, doctrines, worship and ceremonial rites, and visual and material culture in eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth-century British prose fiction. From Daniel Defoe's Religious Courtship (1722) to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814), British prose fiction wrestles with the problem of religious difference between Anglo-Protestants and a defamiliarized Catholic other. Delineating Roman Catholicism the spatial-geographical as well as timebound “constitutive outside” of Protestant Great Britain, numerous British novels portray Catholics and Catholic religion as shadows of a dark age past from which Britain itself has emerged, enlightened and whole. And yet certain features of these fictions belie a clean, easy separation and indeed problematize Anglo-Protestant identity itself. Describing in fetishistic detail Catholicism's visual and material culture, to emphasize its strangeness and outlandishness to British observers, British writers draw attention to Protestant Britain's own lack of internal religious unity and coherence, which is often symbolized by the novel's inability to render a rival Protestant religious imaginary on the page. I argue that the stark contrast between the visible and embodied evidence of Roman Catholic religion and an Anglo-Protestant religious imaginary that both contains and resists Catholic art and artifice, is a constant source of unspoken disquiet and tension in the British novel. British writers of the eighteenth-century wrestle with the question or what Britons have lost or gained in shedding the visual and material culture of Catholicism for comparatively immaterial and rational constructions of faith. In consequence, however, a Catholic religious imaginary and sacramental universe—part of England's religious heritage from the Catholic Middle Ages—is preserved in the realm of the symbolic, and becomes a challenge to b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Zionkowski (Committee Chair); Michele Clouse (Committee Member); Nicole Reynolds (Committee Member); Joseph McLaughlin (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; History; Literature; Religion; Religious Education; Religious History

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

This project is a critique of the concept of consensus and its relation to secular moral reasoning. Proponents of public deliberation argue that achieving consensus is crucial to informing moral norms in secular pluralist societies. Without a transcendental basis for morality, ascribing authority to moral norms requires a process of deliberation. Many bioethicists are concerned with formulating ways to ensure discourse is tolerant, non-coercive, mutually respectful, and grounded in intersubjective understanding. The problem is that secular discourse is fraught with varying conceptions of human rights, ethical principles, and what constitutes a morally authoritative consensus. Bioethicists acknowledge the tyranny of the majority problem, but secularism lacks a sufficient rationale to identify when a majority is wrong. Since competing visions of the good comprise bioethics and consensus does not necessarily indicate moral truth, moral uncertainty is the logical result of secular pluralism. Some moral scientists argue that science can inform moral norms, but a careful reading of their work suggests that what is being espoused is moral nihilism. From determinism to deep pragmatism, many scientists are inadvertently supporting a view of reality that obliterates the possibility of values. In secular pluralist societies, consensus is required to establish basic norms, but no account of consensus can indicate when moral truth is known. Consensus is necessary to fulfill the visions of moral scientists, but such scientists implicitly endorse nihilism. What secularists are discovering – by their own reasoning – is that moral truth is elusive, science cannot inform human values, and bioethical dilemmas are incapable of being resolved. The conclusion to this project offers an Engelhardtian solution. Not only is the principle of permission the only viable basis for secular pluralism – the principle coincides with moral scientists' own account of human nature.

Committee: Matthew Vest (Advisor); Ryan Nash (Committee Member); Ashley Fernandes (Committee Member) Subjects: Ethics; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 2020, International Marian Research Institute

William Bernard Ullathorne, a Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Birmingham, England, first published his book, The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, in 1855, as a pastoral work that was praised by Saint John Henry Newman. Republished posthumously in 1904, his book argued for the continuity of the doctrine from the early Church about God's eternal plan to preserve Mary from original sin. While holding to an archaic understanding of original sin's transmission through the sinful flesh of the parents, Ullathorne thought that bishops upheld Mary's Immaculate Conception better than theologians because bishops relied more on revelation. Ullathorne's work illustrates one way that nineteenth century Catholicism in England argued against increasing secularism.

Committee: Gloria Dodd S.T.D. (Committee Chair); Judith Champ Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Theology

MA, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences

With significant social and cultural changes, specifically changes surrounding marriage and marriage alternatives, today's emerging adults' beliefs and expectations about marriage are unique. Additional research is necessary to improve our understanding of emerging adults' beliefs and expectations of marriage today. With data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994—2008), this study used Pearson and Spearman correlations as well as linear regressions to examine gender differences in marital beliefs and expectations, associations between career-orientation among emerging adults and their beliefs and expectations about marriage, and associations between secularism among emerging adults and marital beliefs and expectations. I also examined whether gender moderates the associations between career-orientation, secularism, and marital beliefs and expectations. The career-orientation metric of choosing marriage or finishing school showed that people focused on career will choose career over marriage if given the ultimatum. The results regarding secularism showed that those identifying as religious and coming from a religious background found marriage to be more important and had greater expectations to be married than other participants. Although there were differences between men and women regarding some variables, they did not differ when it came to the importance placed on having enough money, which could mean men and women approach marriage in a similarly pragmatic way.

Committee: Kelly Cichy (Advisor) Subjects: Gender; Psychology; Religion; Sociology

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

This dissertation comparatively analyzes the role of Islam, secularism and reform in the development of feminism in Egypt and Turkey in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Based on two years of archival research in Turkey, Egypt, and the United Kingdom, my work establishes a dialogue between Turkish and Egyptian feminisms, compares secular and Islamic trends within them, and takes stock of their interactions with and resistances to western feminisms. As the modern period opened, what are now Turkey and Egypt were still parts of the multiethnic Ottoman Empire. The main center of Turkish-language cultural production was Istanbul, and the main center of Arabic-language cultural production was Cairo. The feminist movements of the region developed accordingly. I argue that in Turkey, feminist endeavors gradually carved out a congenial secular space—bypassing religion, or at least loosening the rigid understandings of Islam—where older traditions and more modern structures continued to coexist but with little connection between them. In contrast, Egyptian feminists' modes of approach and analysis tended to conform to traditional and legalistic norms that governed the discussion of the women's role in society. Although Egyptian feminist thought expanded with concepts like humanism and secularism, these concepts were constantly and carefully modulated with a native, vernacular, Islamic discourse. The material that I present in this dissertation suggests that in societies with a strong heritage of secular liberal reform, wherein progressive tradition is engineered by intellectual and official cadres, such as in the Ottoman center and in the Turkish Republic, feminism becomes a state-centric political project and an intellectual exercise in which more conservative manifestations of feminism are side-lined for the sake of a swift rate of progress. But in societies with a strong heritage of Islamically grounded modernization and social advances, such as in Eg (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carter Vaughn Findley (Advisor) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; History; Islamic Studies; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies; Religion; Religious History; Womens Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Arts and Sciences: Political Science

This dissertation examines the interaction of religion, secularism and nationalism in Iranian (Southern) Azerbaijan and Caucasian Azerbaijan (now the independent Republic of Azerbaijan). Azerbaijans were part of the same political establishment until their split in 1828. Surveying the political trajectories of Northern and Southern Azerbaijan after the separation, this study detects three different degrees of nationalism, conceptualized as assertive nationalism, integrative nationalism, and the absence of ethnic and nationalist consciousness. Assertive nationalism is a nationalist movement that prioritizes ethnic identity and seeks an independent state. Integrationist nationalism is a nationalist movement that seeks ethnic and national rights but is willing to remain a part of the host society and state. The third situation is an absence of ethnic and nationalist consciousness. Examining three different episodes that exemplifies the three different degrees of nationalism listed above, this study attempts to answer why did Northern Azerbaijanis establish two independent states, interrupted by a period as a Soviet Republic, while Iranian Azerbaijanis—one of the largest minorities in the Middle East with a population two times the size of Northern Azerbaijan—remained a part of Iran, even at times of permissive political conditions for secession and independence? To decipher the puzzle, this study offers a threefold framework—secular nationalist elite, relationship between the minority group and host state, and opportunity structures—to explain the divergence between the two Azerbaijani communities. To be more specific, this study argues that the primary reason for the rise of “assertive nationalism” in the North is the influence of the “secular nationalist” elite, who were exposed to Enlightenment ideas. This elite led the way to a “secular nationalist revolution” and the construction of a new nation from the ummah. In the South, however, religious institutions a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Jenkins Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Eliz Sanasarian Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rina Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joel Wolfe Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

JOHNSON, SETH WILLIAM, Ph.D., May 2014 ENGLISH HISTORY, MYTH AND SECULARISM ACROSS THE BORDERLANDS: THE WORK OF MICHAEL CHABON (317 PP.) Director of Dissertation: Lewis Fried From the publication of his Master's thesis turned first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon has enjoyed immense critical and commercial success. Yet, to date, scholarship has remained in its infancy. This study traces two common and related themes as they evolve throughout his career: his celebration of genre fiction and his exploration of the intersection between the secular--Jewish, American-Jewish and unhyphenated American culture--and the sacred. The blending of often ghettoized genres, such as science fiction, mystery, comic books and horror, with sacred texts, stories and folklore both elevates the so-called "lower" art forms and reengages history, myth and sacred stories as merely literary genres with an enhanced cultural significance. In addition, this dissertation seeks to illuminate Chabon's representation of Jewishness in America, throughout his body of work. Chabon consistently raises questions regarding the nature of Judaism in America, asking whether one's Jewishness can be largely cultural or whether it is necessarily defined by religious adherence. Though many of Chabon's characters may not be overtly religious, they have not forgotten their roots. Chabon depicts a generation of American Jews who are more comfortable with their place in America, than many of the American-Jewish writers who came before him. He sees contemporary American Jewish culture as one that maintains its traditions and celebrates its history, but can exist outside of religion, in which American Jews can be both Jewish and largely secular. This project aims to show that Chabon is part of a continuum that is constantly reassessing American Judaism, and in good company with his many American-Jewish literary predecessors (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lewis Fried Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Babacar M'Baye Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yoshinobu Hakutani Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sara Newman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carol Salus Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; American Studies; Bible; Literature; Religion

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2009, History (Arts and Sciences)

From c.1660 to c1760 England is often characterized as a society undergoing an accelerating process of secularization, and by extension, modernization. This narrative of the period ignores the way many in England understood and explained the world around them; through the non-secular and providential language of divine intervention. This thesis argues that during this one hundred year period England underwent no process of secularization, and instead remained consistent in its commitment to the language of divine intervention. This thesis examines the way English clergymen used the language of divine intervention publicly, in order to illuminate the utility and substance of the language of divine intervention for a highly visible and influential segment of English society.

Committee: Robert G. Ingram PhD (Advisor); Mariana Dantas PhD (Committee Member); Brian Schoen PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History