Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), Wright State University, 2016, School of Professional Psychology

While diversity-training programs have gained popularity in the US, limited research has been done to establish the effectiveness of these programs in increasing awareness of oppression. The present study explored the effectiveness of the Tunnel of Oppression in increasing awareness of oppression among freshman students at Wright State University. Participants (N= 1736) were given a survey before and after participating in the Tunnel where they rated their awareness of levels of oppression for nine different oppressed groups. Data for this survey was analyzed employing descriptive and non-parametric statistics to determine significance in change of scores (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank and Wilcoxon Rank-Sum) and a correlation among variables (Spearman's Rho). Results found that students who participated in the Tunnel of Oppression reported a significant difference in awareness after participating in the event. Oppressed groups (female and racial minorities) reported higher levels of awareness of oppression prior to participating in the Tunnel. In addition, a gender difference was found in the change in awareness scores where female participants reported a higher rate of change as compared to male participants. In contrast, racial identity did not show an impact in the change in awareness scores. Furthermore, a small correlation between change in awareness and willingness to speak about/take action against oppression was found. Beyond the scope of this dissertation, further research should focus on components of the Tunnel of Oppression that are effective at raising awareness of diversity-related issues. Also, it is recommended that a standardization of the event be developed for future implementation and measurements.

Committee: Julie Williams Psy.D., ABPP (Committee Chair); Anthony Teasdale Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Rando Ph.D., ABPP (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Education; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2004, Communication Theory and Process (Communication)

This study examines the linkages between macro (historical and systemic) aspects of various oppressions (racism, sexism, classism, etc.) in two academic student affairs departments and details how they are dialogically perpetuated via tacit, micro communication practices during everyday, organizational life. In particular, this study unearths aspects of the expression and experience of internalized oppression that are misunderstood and inadequately addressed. Using an interpretive framework, organizational members' stories were gathered through individual interviews and supplemented by meeting observations and documents. The methodologies of historical-cultural, case study, Sense-Making analysis and member checking are used to examine the data through a variety of lenses and levels of interaction. Auto ethnographic content is interwoven throughout providing a forthright discussion of the circumstances surrounding the creation, implementation and examination of the research idea. From a macro perspective, the historical-cultural analysis reveals the centuries and layers of unresolved oppression in the region including the indigenous, Spanish, Anglo and various mixed-heritage communities. The case studies of individual institutions reveal how these unresolved injustices compound institutional classism, affecting the current-day operation of two academic organizations. The Sense-Making analysis reveals the linkages between the taken for granted, macro-communication practices of society and organizations and how they influence and are influenced by the micro-communication tactics of various organizational members. The investigation uncovers and examines the types of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational communication practices that help to undo internalized oppression and oppression and empower individuals, and which do not. The researcher also argues for the acceptance of the respectful, natural expression of emotion in organizational settings as a precursor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Descutner (Advisor) Subjects: Speech Communication

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

My thesis discusses the history of gender and sexuality politics in postcolonial Zimbabwe. It utilizes the convening of Christianity and politics to explore how these areas of public life combined to influence different perceptions towards gender and sexuality identities. The background appraises the impact of African Traditional Religion (ATR) during the colonial period and the changes ushered in by Western Christianity. During this time of colonial conquest, ATR was the cornerstone of all the sectors of life including politics. This included the worshiping of God through nature and ancestral spirits. Reincarnation was a very prominent practice of the colonial Zimbabwe ATR, also known as the Mwari cult. The concept of reincarnation was considered an effective way of communicating with the dead through the Masvikiro (spirit mediums) who transmitted information, requests for rains, or prayers for healing and harvest to Mwari or Unkulunkulu (God). Masvikiro gained popularity as the quest for nationalism continuously shaped every aspect of colonial Zimbabwe especially in the anti-colonial protest of 1896-97 Chimurenga (war of independence). Although there was transition in religion since the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial period where ATR's prominence began to diminish due to the absorption of western doctrines, all the three historic phases elaborate how religion was shaped by the prevailing situations until it became a chief cornerstone of every aspect of the postcolonial economy. As a result of colonialism, a significant number of people converted to Christianity. My thesis, therefore, serves to confirm the existence of a continued influence of religion in politics. It reexamines the various ways in which a combination of religion and politics affected the perceptions of gender and sexuality identities. This pinpoints dimensions in which gender identities were understood and perceived in independent Zimbabwe and most significantly how these changed through (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Scarnecchia (Advisor); Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member); Richard Steigmann-Gall (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; African Studies; Bible; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious History; Spirituality

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences

Counselors must be equipped to support clients who have histories of interpersonal trauma (SAMHSA, 2014a). Interpersonal trauma often involves experiences of powerlessness (Finkelhor, 1986), and counselors can risk retraumatizing trauma survivors by misusing or neglecting power (Sweeney et al., 2019). Therefore, it is essential that counselors understand clients' experiences of power within the counseling relationship. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the client's perspective of power within the counseling relationship. The purpose of this qualitative dissertation was to explore how adult women with histories of interpersonal trauma experience power within the counseling relationship. This constructivist grounded theory study (Charmaz, 2014) included semi-structured interviews and follow-up emails with 29 participants during concurrent data collection and analysis. Data analysis led to the construction of seven categories and one core category. Categories are sorted via the Corbin and Strauss (1990) model, leading to two contextual conditions (Sociocultural Mental Health Factors and Prior Experiences of Power), one causal condition (Choosing Counseling), two action strategies (Advocating for Needs and Assessing for Safety and Fit), and two results (Reclaiming Power and Reliving Disempowerment). The core category summarized all other categories and answered the research question: participants experienced power within the counseling relationship by Practicing Personal Power in Connection with Others. Analysis also included comparing the grounded theory to Relational-Cultural Theory. Findings illuminated implications and recommendations for counselors, educators, supervisors, leaders and advocates, and researchers.

Committee: Cassandra Storlie Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Jenny Cureton Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Tara Hudson Dr. (Committee Member); Kelly Cichy Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Education; Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

Educational justice has traditionally been conceptualized in non-educational terms. Categories of justice with economic and political clout dominate scholarly conversations about educational justice and inform educational policymaking and practice. This leads to a narrow conceptualization of educational justice in distributive terms. The author challenges the hegemony of the dominant paradigm and advances a new paradigm for theorizing educational justice to inform educational research, policymaking, and practice. In developing this new paradigm, the dissertation first establishes the dominance of distributive justice as a guiding principle of US education policy and as a lens for theorizing educational injustice in educational research. It offers a historical analysis of federal education policy focused on the principles of justice that underpinned the policies enacted. Moreover, it presents limitations of distributive justice, thereby, establishing the need to reconsider our understanding of what constitutes an educational injustice and what policies are appropriate for disrupting such injustices. Second, the dissertation advances an account of educational injustice that centers on the obstruction of two distinctly educational tasks: knowledge acquisition and self-formation. In doing so, it reorients education policy and research toward two distinctly educational injustices: epistemic oppression and developmental coercion. It is argued that these are severe educational wrongs that also contribute to pressing social problems and injustices. The dissertation concludes by outlining implications of replacing the standard distributive paradigm with a democratic paradigm of epistemic empowerment and developmental enablement that fosters epistemic agency and disrupts the impact of harmful ideology on moral and intellectual development. It suggests that the new paradigm compels us to reconsider that nature of educational injustice and, relatedly, the locus and scope of ped (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bryan Warnick (Advisor); Winston Thompson (Advisor); Jackie Blount (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Theory; Epistemology; Ethics; Philosophy; Public Policy

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, English

Committee: Alma J. Payne (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

The APA's 2017 multicultural guidelines task psychologists with the aspirational goal of understanding the nuances of historical and contemporary systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Scholars such as Helms (1984) demonstrated the critical need to readjust psychology's focus from oppressed groups to privileged groups. In her seminal 1988 article, McIntosh insisted that in order to “redesign social systems,” privileged groups must first acknowledge their “unseen dimensions” (p. 1). Similarly, Black and Stone (2005) and Johnson (2018) asserted the lack of social privilege awareness is part of American culture, which helps to maintain the invisibility of privilege and the status quo of oppression. Since then, educators such as Case (2013) have argued that increased awareness of social privilege can shed light on and address the status quo of systemic and structural oppression. While instruments that measure constructs related to social privilege currently exist, psychology's understanding of these constructs has been growing. Bergkamp et al. (2020) created a developmental social privilege integration model (DSPIM), which captures the growing definition of social privilege awareness by introducing the concept of social privilege integration. Based on the current literature, this study's objective was to construct items for a new developmental social privilege integration scale that will address the limitations of existing measures. This study hopes to contribute to the field of psychology as well as the general community by aiding in the accurate measurement of social privilege integration to better address systems of oppression in the future.

Committee: Jude Bergkamp PsyD (Committee Chair); Michael J. Toohey PhD (Committee Member); Paula K. Miller-Buckner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology; Social Research

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

“What We Got to Say” examines a political period in hip-hop history during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This dissertation was partly inspired by contemporaneous examples of systemic oppression inside the criminal justice system as well as racial hostility that developed out of a series of police officer-involved shootings. It was in large part inspired by an intellectual curiosity to explore the connection between the failures of the modern civil rights movement and the politization of hip-hop. It argues that a hip-hop social movement emerged in this period to protest Ronald Reagan's expansion of the criminal justice system: the War on Drugs. The use of hip-hop culture, public rhetoric, and mass media as evidence was guided by a “new social movement” theoretical framework that emerged in the early-to-mid 1980s. The goal was to reimagine hip-hop-generated political activism during the height of the War on Drugs through the prism social movement theory to determine hip-hop's function as a Black sociopolitical struggle. The hip-hop social movement consisted of cultural productions in rap, politicized hip-hop films, anti-state critiques in rap journalism, and sociopolitical statements that hip-hop activists made in the mass-media. They produced political critiques that condemned hyper-social surveillance, extraordinary scrutiny, militarized policing, as well as mass incarceration. In doing so, the examined participants effectively placed the government, crime politics, and the criminal justice system on proverbial trial. The main points of this dissertation include the carceral state and how it plagued Black life in the post-civil rights era. Hip-hop-generated activism that nationalized the destruction of a racialized carceral state. Also, hip-hop activists that consisted of rappers such as Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, NAS, Ice-T, N.W.A., and 2Pac Shakur; filmmakers like Spike Lee, John Singleton, and Albert and Allen Hughes; as well as a handful of hip-hop jour (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History; Mass Media

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

The field of Disability Studies (DS) generally avoids addressing the problem of suffering and disability due to the long history of harmful stereotyping of disability as being a bad state of existence. When suffering is addressed, it tends to be conceptualized and criticized as a consequence of social oppression; and, as such, the experience is devalued. Some DS theorists have attempted to analyze the problem of impairment-derived suffering, but they tend to narrowly focus on experiences of physical pain and avoid the negative psychological effects of lacking physical abilities. The problem of suffering and its value is a central concern for the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Many of his works explore the experience of suffering and the psychological need for suffering to have meaning in a world that no longer offers convincing metaphysical justifications for it. Nietzsche argues that suffering has value and is necessary for human flourishing; and, in opposition to philosophical pessimists like Arthur Schopenhauer, he asserts that suffering must be affirmed. This Nietzschean perspective on suffering has vital implications for conceptualizing and interpreting negative experiences involving disability in general, and blindness specifically. In Part 1, I describe several DS interpretations of suffering, and compare/contrast them with Nietzsche's interpretation. In Part 2, I use these interpretations to analyze experiences of blindness and suffering in memoirs and tragic literature. I ultimately argue that, if blind people are to flourish, we must adopt a Nietzschean interpretation of suffering. This interpretation requires us to affirm the value of suffering in blindness and to reject interpretations, such as social oppression, that devalue suffering.

Committee: Sara Newman (Advisor) Subjects: Literature; Philosophy

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, Environmental Studies

This thesis explores racial inequality and oppression in the food and agricultural systems of the United States and the ways that Black urban farmers seek to overcome this through food sovereignty. Over generations of systematic discrimination and racism, the current food and agricultural systems have been designed to strip Black people of their autonomy and control over their food and foodways. This has created a system of food apartheid that accounts for why communities of color are more likely to lack access to fresh, healthy foods while junk foods and fast foods are abundant. Recently there has been an increase of urban agriculture in Black communities based on philosophies believing that the path to true liberation is through agriculture and self-sufficiency. This research analyzes the historical context of systemic racial inequality towards Black people in the food and agricultural systems in addition to performing a qualitative content analysis of mission statements from Black-led urban farms and conducting semi-structured interviews with Black urban farmers. Findings reveal that by growing their own food, Black urban farmers actively work to reclaim sovereignty over their food through self-determination and self-reliance.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Advisor) Subjects: Agriculture; Black History; Environmental Studies; Ethnic Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

Women's rights movements (WRMs) and legal and social protections for women in Bangladesh have developed in a complex fashion over the last 50 years. The laws have arisen and continue to develop in conflict with long-held traditions that uphold discriminatory practices and enable violence against women (VAW). This thesis explores the calls for legal measures, protests, and movements at local, national and international levels contributed to the changes in the laws enacted to address gendered oppression. Using "Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT)," this paper analyzes the national and international resources the Women Rights' Organizations (WROs) use for mobilization and the accomplishments they gained so far by persuading the state to enact/amend pertinent laws, in particular, the "Prevention of Oppression against Women and Children Act-2000 (POWC ACT- 2000)." This study employs qualitative content analysis to examine the emergence, mobilization, negotiation process and success of WRM in framing VAW laws and trace the impact of local-global resources for mobilization in the success of the WRMs. Findings suggest that although WRM primarily was organized by some social reformers, systematic movements by WROs started after the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The study finds that before every VAW policy formation, one or more WRMs took place, revealing the correlation between WRM and VAW policy change. The study finds that both national and international resources are primarily attributable to VAW policy formation through local-global pressure and waged unequivocally in the country's legal framework.

Committee: Thomas Vander Ven Dr. (Committee Chair); Stephen J. Scanlan Dr. (Committee Member); Haley Duschinski Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Public Policy; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2018, International and Comparative Politics

This research is to show that populist parties in the European Union attempt to oppress the traditional established media as soon as they come in to power. The multiple regressions test the hypothesis of a negative relationship between the political power of populist parties and degree of media freedom. For the assessment and clarification of the relationship between the level of media freedom and the political power of populist parties, political rights and civil liberties country scores from Freedom House's Freedom in the World reports, GDP per capita from World Bank, corruption perception indexes from Transparency International, and Grigorii V. Golosov's formula of effective number of parties are included as control variables. The proposed hypothesis enjoys empirical support in the context of Eastern Europe and both quantitative and qualitative data demonstrate that populist parties seek to tame the media as soon as they get the power to do so.

Committee: Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carlos Costa Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lee Hannah, Jr. Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media; Political Science

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2017, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

The following study explored the experience of Indian psychotherapists applying Western psychotherapy to Indians. Charmaz' (2006) Grounded theory methodology was utilized. Seven Indian psychotherapists were interviewed. Interview data yielded the theory of Modification as Resistance. Modification as Resistance captured Indian psychotherapists' attempts to modify Western psychotherapy to resist the erosion of local ways of healing due to the dominance of Western science. Results add to existing critiques of Western psychotherapy applied to Eastern populations. Recommendations based on results are offered to facilitate evidence-based practice (American Psychological Association [APA], 2006) with diverse populations. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA http://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohio Link ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.etd.

Committee: Jude Bergkamp Psy.D. (Committee Chair); Michael Sakuma Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bettleyoun Barbara Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Counseling Psychology; Psychology

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

This thesis examines architecture's role in the unsuccessful prison institutions in the United States through its use of oppressive architectural elements. Architecture is proven to play a role in making peoples' lives better or worse, and the following examination pulls apart elements for a better design practice. By examining architecturally oppressive elements, spatial layouts and site specific information, new, more effective facilities can be built. Works of Michel Foucault, Michelle Alexander, Leslie Fairweather are instrumental in providing insight along with the works of practicing architects—Kyle May and Roger Paez or views from prisoners and witnesses of oppression itself from Reverend Kaia Stern. An examination of oppressive architectural elements in prisons, past and present, enlightens at what needs to change and why, creating a new facility in the neighborhood of Northside, in Cincinnati, Ohio which utilizes alternative solutions to the typical oppressive elements of American prisons.

Committee: Aarati Kanekar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Edson Roy Cabalfin Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2016, Counseling Psychology

Much is yet unknown about Whites who take action for racial equity. This study investigated affective, ideological, and cognitive correlates of antiracist behavior using the recently developed antiracist behavior inventory. The study used cluster analysis to form groups of Whites according to psychosocial costs of racism, color-blind racial ideology, system justification beliefs, and social dominance orientation, and then determine differences in antiracist behavior between clusters. Cluster analysis revealed three types of Whites labeled The Status Quo, The Moderate, and The Beginning Antiracist. Cluster #1, The Status Quo, demonstrated the highest levels of CBRI, SJT, and SDO and the lowest levels of PCRW while Cluster #3, The Beginning Antiracist type endorsed the lowest levels of CBRI, SJT, and SDO, and the highest levels of PCRW. Cluster #2, The Moderate, were about average for the cluster on all variables. Significant differences were found between clusters on antiracist behaviors in a direction consistent with the literature. The Status Quo endorsed the lowest levels of ARBI while The Beginning Antiracist type endorsed the highest levels of antiracism in this sample. Findings indicated significant gender difference between groups where women were over-represented in all three groups due to sampling bias. However, Cluster 3, The Beginning Antiracist type, was comprised of about equal number of males and females. No age differences were noted. While many studies in the Whiteness literature have explored college samples, this study intentionally recruited community members.

Committee: Suzette Speight (Advisor); Carla Goar (Committee Member); Hewitt Amber (Committee Member); Li Huey-Li (Committee Member); Weigold Ingrid (Committee Member) Subjects: Counseling Psychology; Psychology; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Communication Studies

This dissertation is a critical ethnography of the Roma ethnic minority in post-communist Romania within the socio-economic and political context of the country's post-accession to the European Union. The focus broadly is on the identity negotiation of the Roma minority in Romanian urban space. To this end, I explore Roma communicative practices in capital city of Bucharest. I examine the urban intercultural contact zones that represent Roma-non Roma relations and interactions. I draw on the productive "travelling" postcolonial theories and translate them into an examination of the Roma minority in Romanian physical space. My ethnography is informed by postcolonial theoretical frameworks that challenge the seemingly dichotomous colonizer/colonized relation. I look at discursive practices among Roma individuals suggesting alternative epistemes to allow for a nuanced understanding of the Roma-non Roma encounter. My methods include in-depth interviews, participant observation, and direct observation. The personal narratives of the 35 participants involved in this study emphasize a range of identity negotiation patterns. These reveal in turn complex, interrelated configurations of internalized oppression, passing, and hybridity that make possible both resistance and conformity to the dominant cultural production of the Gypsy Other. This research is an attempt to produce a constructive impact on policy and practice and therefore addresses the urgent need for critical, responsible inquiry that explores the diversity of Romani experience.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Dr. (Committee Chair); Lara Martin Lengel Dr. (Committee Member); Lynda Dixon Dr. (Committee Member); Karen Kakas Dr. (Other) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2013, Counseling Psychology

Gay men experience, internalize, and expect more stigma than do their lesbian and bisexual men/women peers (Herek, 2009; Balsam & Mohr, 2007). Subsequently, it is important to investigate gay men's beliefs about themselves, such as the stereotypical assumption of gay men's inability to have or maintain romantic relationships (Meyer & Dean, 1998; Peplau, 1991). Using a combination of the minority stress model (specifically, experienced discrimination, stigma consciousness, internalized heterosexism and self-concealment) and self-efficacy theory, two path models were constructed to explore this association with the novel relationship constructs of relationship self-efficacy and optimism. The investigation improved past research by the measurement of the minority stress variables, the use of a sample of only gay men, and the use of social media data collection. To test these models, 522 participants were collected. Although both models were outright rejected, three surprising findings emerged. First, the self-efficacy mediation model was supported after a slight alteration to include a direct path from internalized heterosexism to relationship optimism. Secondly, a positive path emerged from experiences of discrimination to relationship self-efficacy. Thirdly, support was found for using an exploratory feminist model which included experiences of discrimination as antecedents to proximal stress processes of minority stress. The findings are discussed in terms of contributions to and future directions for the minority stress model and the inclusion of feminist theory in the exploration of gay men's concerns regarding relationships. Limitations, future directions, and contributions to the field of Counseling Psychology are discussed.

Committee: Linda Subich Dr. (Advisor); Suzette Speight Dr. (Committee Member); Dawn Johnson Dr. (Committee Member); Kuldhir Bhati Dr. (Committee Member); Robert Schwartz Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Counseling Psychology; Gender; Glbt Studies; Personal Relationships

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Arts and Sciences: Romance Languages and Literatures

Abstract This work is a comparative analysis of four postcolonial novels by Caribbean writers that resist Western power domination and dictatorships: Texaco (1992) by Patrick Chamoiseau, Le cri des oiseaux fous (2000) by Dany Laferri¿¿¿¿re, El hombre, la hembra y el hambre (1998) by Da¿¿¿¿na Chaviano, and Nuestra se¿¿¿¿ora de la noche (2006) by Mayra Santos-Febres. My study incorporates authors from both the Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean, signaling a shared intense critique in literature that links these authors directly to their nations' political control. My principal task in this dissertation is the examination of characters' creation of non-violent strategies of resistance. I argue that, even though their maneuvers do not alter the course of history in each society, they question, destabilize, and undermine the autocratic governments in which they evolve. My theoretical framework draws from a wide, trans-regional variety of critics in Spanish, French, and English. Using in particular the critical thinking developed by Michel De Certeau and ¿¿¿¿¿douard Glissant, the study explores how characters are subjects always “in motion”—in both the literal and figurative sense—who simply do not accept the physical and mental limitations imposed by the autocratic regimes, and take rebellious detours that allow them to produce their own rules that seem troublesome for some, but inspiring for others, who decide to imitate them. As a result, characters become the opposite of what their dominants had in mind: they become dynamic, flexible, and complex subjects. Even though the literary works were written at the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century, the past moment of narrativization allows me to demonstrate how political oppression is represented through situational constraints, such as racial discrimination, class distinction, and gender inequality in four distinct historical eras: The French departmentalization of Martinique in 1946, th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia Valladares-Ruiz PhD (Committee Chair); Therese Migraine-George PhD (Committee Member); Michele Vialet PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Caribbean Literature

Master of Liberal Studies, University of Toledo, 2010, Liberal Studies

This study explores the theme of domestic violence and suicide in five plays by 20th-Century female playwrights. It proposes that these playwrights show principle female characters who were driven to extreme measures to escape verbal and/or physical abuse, and oppression. These playwrights allow their characters to free themselves from the oppressive and/or abusive patriarchal society in which they find themselves through a voluntary death, which ultimately constitutes an act of empowerment. The texts explored include: Ripen Our Darkness, by Sarah Daniels; Perfect Pie, by Judith Thompson; The Day of the Swallows, by Estela Portillo-Trambley, 'night, Mother, by Marsha Norman, and And the Soul Shall Dance, by Wakako Yamauchi.

Committee: Lawrence Anderson PhD (Committee Chair); Holly Monsos MSA (Committee Member); Ashley Pryor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Literature

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