Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Leadership and Change

Negative attitudes toward racial minorities and consequent maltreatment of non-Whites continue to be a crisis in America. The crisis of racism is still realized in phenomena such as residential segregation (Bonilla-Silva, 2014), health disparities (Chae, Nuru-Jeter, & Adler, 2012; Chae, Nuru-Jeter, Francis, & Lincoln, 2011), and in the not-so-uncommon unjust arrests and imprisonment of persons of color (Alexander, 2012). Improvement in race relations through the development of meaningful cross racial relationships in racially integrated settings is one avenue that may lead to reduction of racism (E. Anderson, 2010; Fischer, 2011; Massey & Denton, 1993). Christian congregations are common settings in America, and Christian teachings are primary sources of Western ethics and moral values. Historically, Christian practices have affected American attitudes such as with regard to elder care, have influenced legislation such as child labor laws, and have even swayed the contents of the United States constitution. Yet, racial segregation has been the norm in Christian congregations from the end of American slavery until today. Since there may be a relationship between the persistence of segregation in Christian congregations and the persistence of racism in America, racial integration in Christian congregations may impact racial attitudes and relationships. Using Participatory Action Research, this study explored ways to improve racial integration and race relations in Christian congregations. This study utilized volunteers in a 30-day exploration of racial integration in a congregation, a small church in one of the two Cumberland Presbyterian denominations. Data from observations, interviews, racially integrated events, reflection sessions, and participant journaling were collected and analyzed. Intentionality in racial integration in one congregation resulted in cumulative positive change, at times difficult and incremental. Findings revealed that adaptive, proactive lea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Morgan Roberts Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Daniel J. Earheart-Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Craig Keener Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Bible; Biblical Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Clergy; Divinity; Ethics; Ethnic Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; Religious History; Social Research; Sociology; Spirituality; Theology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Arts and Sciences: Political Science

Research on political behavior has shown that religion is often a major factor in the way that Americans identify politically and vote in elections. Christianity is the dominant religion in the United States, and a potent political and social force. However, the way that adherence to Christianity affects the vote differs according to not only Christian tradition, but race. Previous research has tended to treat race and religion separately, and only considers them jointly in the case of Black Americans. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this dissertation investigates how worldview based on culture and race, along with religious tradition – particularly interpretation of the Bible and clergy influence – combine to influence political stances, ideology, and voting behavior of religious White Americans. Drawing on insights from Critical Whiteness theory, this research centers on the value placed on individual, interpersonal, and social responsibility in the worldview of religious Americans and how that influences the political ideology, partisanship, and voting behavior of this set of constituencies.

Committee: Stephen Mockabee PhD (Committee Chair); Patrick Miller PhD (Committee Member); Laura Jenkins PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

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

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2022, Honors

Over the past few years, the nationwide protests over the long-standing plague of racism in our country, most recently manifested in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, have placed our nation before a “fork in the road.” We stand on the precipice of monumental change or devastating regression in the area of race relations within our nation. This has been most vivid in the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community. What comes next between these two parties will depend on how law enforcement responds to the cries of the people in these affected communities. Historically, particularly in African American communities, there has been an intimate connection between social movements and sensitives to injustice and faith. At the same time, there appears to be a decreasing appreciation of faith among law enforcement officers. If the disparity between the attitude towards faith by law enforcement and the significance of faith in communities of color continues to increase, it will undoubtedly lead to more tension between these two communities. I hypothesize that reconciliation between law enforcement and African American communities can be achieved through the inclusion of religious literacy in the training and formation of law enforcement officers. As a disclaimer, it is important to understand that the building of trust and the reparation of relationships is an effort that requires the cooperation of both sides. This means that there has to be a willingness and an understanding from both law enforcement and communities of color for any real difference to be made. It is also important to recognize that this is not a “black versus white” issue, this is an issue that affects society as a whole. This understanding will be made present throughout this research, but the primary focus will be on the inclusion of religious literacy in the formation of law enforcement officers.

Committee: Fr. Louis Bertrand Lemoine O.P. (Other); Cary Dabney (Advisor) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Criminology; Divinity; Law; Legal Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Religion; Religious Education; Religious History; Sociology; Theology; World History

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2021, Humanities

This study examines the racial, socio-economic, and political factors that shaped The House of Yisrael, a Black Nationalist community in Cincinnati, Ohio. The members of this community structure their lives following the Black Hebrew Israelite ideology sharing the core beliefs that Black people are the "true" descendants of the ancient Israelites of the biblical narrative. Therefore, as Israelites, Black people should follow the Torah as a guideline for daily life. Because they are the "chosen people," God will judge those who have oppressed them. This ideology, which began in the U.S. during the nineteenth century, has recently been growing more momentum since the rise of Black Lives Matter activism and President Donald Trump's election. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Black Hebrew Israelites are listed as one of the violent Black nationalist communities on the rise ("Return of the Violent Black Nationalist"). In exploring this community's practices as forms of interpretivism, self-determination, and cultural nationalism, Critical Race Theory and Conflict Theory will act as the theoretical lens for examining their beliefs in a time of social and racial upheaval.

Committee: Awad Halabi Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Marlese Durr Ph.D. (Committee Member); Opolot Okia Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Black Studies; History; Judaic Studies; Religion; Religious Congregations; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Media and Communication

Utilizing the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI), this qualitative study explores the metaperceptions and identity negotiation strategies of immigrants from the so-called Middle East (and North Africa) region. The study encompasses in-depth interviews with ten (10) individuals with various ethnic backgrounds from the Middle East, living in the United States either as international students and/or as immigrants. In addition, this study explores the author's lived experiences as a Turkish international student in the U.S. in forms of autoethnographic writings embedded throughout the project. The findings include common themes of metaperceptions such as “terrorist,” “foreigner/not-American/the Other,” “rich (and poor),” “Middle Eastern – Arab – Muslim,” and “white but not white.” Regarding identity negotiation strategies, common patterns were found which emerged as “informing/lecturing,” “avoiding talking/interacting,” “being used to it / not caring about it anymore,” and “use of attire/clothing.” Besides the metaperceptions and identity negotiation strategies, three “contingent” factors emerged from the analysis. These factors (i.e., “beliefs about Americans,” “with/out family member,” and “location/setting”) overlapped with both metaperceptions and identity negotiation strategies of the participants; thus, not only affected them but were also affected by them. Lastly, the research introduces two mini case studies from the participants' own accounts and examines them in detail. Overall, the results of the study indicate that the participants experienced numerous identity gaps due to the inconsistency between their self-perceptions and their metaperceptions. The participants tried to close these identity gaps by utilizing various identity negotiation strategies. The autoethnography section of the paper concluded that the author's metaperceptions were highly consistent with the interviewees' while revealing salient differences in identity negotiations employed by th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sandra Faulkner Ph.D. (Advisor); Gary Heba Ph.D. (Other); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lara Lengel Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Minority and Ethnic Groups

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counselor Education

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2016), 17.6 million people suffer from alcohol abuse or drug problems. Alcoholism is known to cause serious health complications and emotional issues. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that the excessive alcohol use is the cause for nearly one million deaths each year and leads to numerous chronic, neurological, and social problems. The CDC also reported that alcoholism is the third leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the nation. Among the youth population, approximately 2.4 million adolescents have alcohol or drug issues. Despite the efforts of mental health professionals to reduce alcohol and drug use among college students, this population remains a high-risk group for drinking. While spirituality has been shown to be effective at lowering alcohol use, little is known about the relationship between spiritual well-being and the alcohol use among college students. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships among gender, race, spiritual well-being, and the alcohol use among college students. One hundred and eight one participant completed an online survey containing a demographic questionnaire, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test. The data analysis included correlation analysis, t test, and linear regression. Results indicate, for the sample population tested, that there is a non-significant inverse relationship between Spiritual Well-Being and the problematic alcohol use among college students. Gender, race, and spiritual well-being were not found to have relationship with problematic alcohol use by the linear regression analysis results. Findings of this study suggest that the relationship between spiritual well-being and problematic alcohol use might be complex and that spiritual behaviors and spiritual well-being may be interacting with alcohol use differently. Future research needs to examine the construct and measurement of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mei Tang Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Amy Bernard Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Brubaker Ph.D. (Committee Member); Cirecie Olatunji Ph.D. (Committee Member); Geoffrey Yager Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Sociology

Racial inequality persists in American society and, thus, scholars have called for systematic analyses of the mechanisms and processes that reproduce racial differences in access to resources, opportunity, and power. Using data collected from 121 leaders and 684 members of diverse churches, I investigate the role of race in how leaders access and mobilize social capital and how these processes influence the formation of friendships. While racial integration increases the social proximity of racial and ethnic minorities to resource-rich networks, the ability to access those networks is limited by the social ties that people form. Drawing upon an in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews, I first find that white men form social networks that facilitate interracial sharing and opportunity hoarding and, in comparison to white women and people of color, experience greater access to resources through personal, community, and institutional networks. My second empirical chapter examines how and why leaders develop diversity initiatives for their congregations using a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews. I find that while white leaders promote equality and diversity, they also commodify the social value of race and ethnicity to generate resources from their social networks. In the final empirical chapter, I conduct a multilevel analysis examining how diversity strategies and other organizational factors shape the diversity and strength of friendships that form within multiracial churches. I find that increasing the proportion of paid leaders of color is the only diversity strategy that positively associates with increased diversity of member networks. Further investigation reveals that churches who receive funding for being diverse are less racial integrated and that race moderates the strength of close ties. These findings of this dissertation suggest the need for further investigation into the racial mechanisms that influence the social capital of leaders and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Korie Edwards (Advisor); Vincent Roscigno (Committee Co-Chair); David Melamed (Committee Member); Reanne Frank (Committee Member) Subjects: Clergy; Organization Theory; Religion; Religious Congregations; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Race and religion are two areas of sociological study that provide significant insight into how individuals and groups construct, enact, and maintain their identities. Both racial and religious identities are accompanied by symbolic belief systems, and both are believed to be integral to the social experiences of those who inhabit these identities. This research seeks to understand the relationships among race and religion as they relate to identity theory. Identity theory has its roots in the symbolic interactionist tradition, and it seeks to empirically examine the axiom that society shapes the self, and the self shapes social behavior. Within this framework, Stryker (1980) proposed a structural symbolic interactionist perspective which states that social structures impact identity prominence, the importance of an identity, and identity salience, the likelihood that an individual will invoke a particular identity across various situations. Stryker and Serpe (1982) demonstrate that the time spent enacting a religious role as well as the associated activities dedicated to that role are related to the salience of the identity that is associated with that role. A significant body of research indicates that the enactment of religious roles varies by racial and ethnic identity (Emerson, Korver-Glenn and Douds 2015; Taylor et al. 1996; Wilde and Glassman, 2016). Using data from the Religion and Identity survey, this research will explore the effects of racial and religious identities on behavior by examining: 1) the relationships between racial and religious identities, 2) the role of identity salience and identity prominence in the integration of racial and religious identities, and 3) how the integration of racial and religious identities influences ethical positioning and moral foundations.

Committee: Richard Serpe Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Religion; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Music

This dissertation examines the connections between musical aesthetics and processes of ethnoracial identification in the music-making practices of American Mennonites during the twentieth century. In the United States, white Mennonites formulated identities based on the idea that they were a people “in the world, but not of it.” Nevertheless, across the twentieth century, they became increasingly integrated into dominant patterns of American life. At the same time, influenced by the American missionary movement, Mennonites established domestic mission projects, attracting black and Latina/o members to the church for the first time. For white Mennonites, music became an opportunity to construct ideas about, and experiences of, a Mennonite ethnoreligious identity during the twentieth century. In the context of post-World-War-II Mennonite anxieties about American modernity, the Mennonite Church's Music Committee viewed unaccompanied congregational hymn singing in four-part harmony as a “historically authentic” Mennonite practice in need of preservation. Even though gospel songs had become common within many Mennonite congregations, the committee hoped to decrease the use of these songs, viewing them as “alien” to Mennonite tradition with dangerous “popular and emotional” associations. The Committee's work culminated in the 1969 Mennonite Hymnal, which presented particular genres as markers of a Mennonite singing heritage. Songs from Harmonia Sacra came from the influential nineteenth-century American Mennonite tune book publisher Joseph Funk; translations of German chorales represented Mennonites' pre-English past; and translations of texts from the Ausbund, a sixteenth-century Anabaptist song collection, connected a heritage of Mennonite singing heritage to Reformation-era European origins. Mennonites of color, however, did not see themselves within a Mennonite ethnoreligious narrative tracing to Europe, and the Committee's rejection of “overly emotional” music (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Danielle Fosler-Lussier PhD (Advisor); Ryan Skinner PhD (Committee Member); Theresa Delgadillo PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; African Americans; American Studies; Ethnic Studies; Hispanic Americans; Music; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Sociology

Leaders play a critical role in shaping organizational discourses around race and diversity. Understanding racial attitudes promoted by multiracial organizations thus requires attention to organizational leaders. This study analyzes 120 in-depth interviews from the Religious Leadership and Diversity project to examine attitudes about racial inequality held by leaders of multiracial religious organizations as well as their discourses on diversity. From this analysis, I build a typology of leadership racial attitudes and diversity discourse that highlights the characteristics of and constraints on leaders of multiracial organizations. The fact that I find significant variation among leaders suggests the need for a renewed focus on leadership discourse as a factor mediating the effects of multiracial organizations.

Committee: Korie Edwards (Advisor); Vincent Roscigno (Committee Member); Steven Lopez (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2016, English

Vette City is a novel wrestling with issues of power, race, gender, family, and religious identity. When the teenage daughter of a well-respected judge gets pregnant by a notorious drug dealer the fallout will bring chaos and pain for the citizens of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a college town nestled in the heart of the Bible Belt.

Committee: Joseph Bates PhD (Committee Chair); Margaret Luongo MFA (Committee Member); Keith Tuma PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Literature; Modern Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

The increased urbanization of spaces in our global age requires new ways of thinking about citizenship. Within the nascent, but increasingly important field of study on spatiality and citizenship, this dissertation provides an examination of how the perspectives and experiences of youths can inform a more place-conscious and transnationally relevant approach to citizenship education. Framed by work in cultural studies and critical geography, this project departs from the current literature on citizenship education by examining the critical perspectives that youths possess in relation to the experiences they have away from school. In taking this approach, I am better able to illustrate how power, race, gender, capitalism, borders, and religion affect how places are constructed and are differently experienced by today's youth. In doing so, this study initiates new lines of inquiry within research on the intersection of transnational citizenship and urban geography in the social studies. Using symbolic interactionism to conduct interviews and experience spaces along with participants, as well as examine photographs captured by participants during photo elicitation interviews, analysis of data collected during this qualitative study provide insight into four relationships pertaining to youth citizenship and critical concepts of space: (1) what youths identify as being responsible for how they imagine and experience places; (2) the pervasiveness of race in how youths conceptualize places and define their sense of belonging; (3) how youths speak back to media and power geometries that privilege white culture; and (4) the ways in which transnational “scapes” deterritorialize cultures and disrupt borders. Taken together, these relationships serve to forward a more place conscious, flexible, and youth centered approach to citizenship education in a global age. The critical perspectives of transnationally connected urban spaces offered by the youths involved in this study pro (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Binaya Subedi (Committee Chair); Beverly Gordon (Committee Member); Cynthia Tyson (Committee Member); Merry Merryfield (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Geography; Multicultural Education; Social Studies Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Woodrow Wilson was a Christian anarchist who oftentimes used force and division as tools to help create transcendent national and global communities. This dissertation uses a combination of cultural and intellectual methodologies to crack Wilson's riddle by first disentangling his progressive ideology and then dissecting the way in which he applied it, at a fundamental level, to his foreign and domestic foreign policymaking. By paying close attention to the writings, speeches, and lessons from his academic career, the dissertation first lays out the unique progressive ideology that Wilson constructed, a sort of management framework for society that would point mankind toward a future of practicable anarchy where people would be guided by the spirit of altruism rather than the compulsion of institutional law. From there, the dissertation then analyzes the way in which Wilson used his progressive ideology as a filter through which to interpret and act upon the major issues confronting him while in office—war, revolution, race, gender, class, etc. Throughout, the dissertation makes clear that Wilson understood the mechanisms of the world as operating holistically, seeing all the issues of his day as interconnected—from the League of Nations and war with Germany to the sterilization of the “feeble-minded” and even the creation of Mother's Day. The organization of the dissertation, in turn, reflects Wilson's view by providing an integrated explanation of his thought and policies, illustrating the nuanced way that he treated social theory, theology, race, gender, class, and disability. Ultimately, it explains how he rearticulated the way that American power would work, leading him to various Latin American interventions, a recalibration of American Empire (including the Philippines and Native America), regional and global institutionalism, war with Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, interventions in newly Bolshevik Russia, and even early discussions with representatives from the E (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Ann Heiss (Advisor); Walter Hixson (Committee Member); Clarence Wunderlin, Jr. (Committee Member); Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Committee Member); Richard Feinberg (Committee Member); Andrew Barnes (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Cultural Anthropology; History; International Relations

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Sociology

Social capital scholars suggest that race influences an individual's ability to access and mobilize resources. Since social capital is embedded in social relationships and not individuals, understanding the context of relationships is imperative for understanding social capital development. Organizations facilitating access to racially and socioeconomically diverse network ties are rare; however, interracial religious congregations may illuminate the mechanisms that influence interracial social development. Using data from in-depth interviews of 37 interracial congregation attendees in Columbus, OH, I investigate the influence of race on social capital development. Results reveal racial mechanisms impact how people characterize their close friendships and interracial resource exchanges. Using qualitative analyses, two major themes emerge: 1) people of color perceive comparatively greater relational intimacy with whites and, consequently, invest more frequently and with greater magnitude in resource exchanges and 2) whites include weak, institutionally tied friendships in their close network for cultural legitimation. Both themes, respectively named social deficits and the one friend rule, comprise the nuanced view of the impact of race on social capital development in interracial churches.

Committee: Korie Edwards PhD (Advisor); Frank Reanne PhD (Committee Member); Bartley Timothy PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Religious Congregations; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Arts and Sciences: Communication

I explore the nature of what has been identified as the “invisibility” of Christian discourse in American literary studies and seek to provide a way to talk about this often under-read discourse. Focusing on texts that address race because their participation in Christian discourse is particularly likely to be under-read, I turn to the discourse of emotion, specifically pride, shame, and guilt. In my introduction, I discuss the role of religion in literary studies and the academy more generally, showing how Christian discourse is read in primarily political terms. In chapter 1, I present my analysis of how this phenomenon occurs in the case of nineteenth-century African-American women's spiritual narratives. I then read one such text, Jarena Lee's Christian Experience, as an experiential theology of the innocent, a reading complementary to but distinctly different from the way the narrative is typically read. In chapter 2, I re-read William Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust in spiritual terms, focusing on the nuances of pride shame, and guilt in a novel typically understood as an artistically inferior novel that constitutes a straightforward political statement. In chapter 3, I turn to Nella Larsen's Quicksand, a novel that itself overtly presents Christianity as a negative political force. I complicate this presentation of Christian discourse and suggest an alternative reading of the novel's troubling conclusion as potentially resistant rather than capitulatory. I conclude by returning to the larger issue of the difficulty of reading Christian discourse in an academic context, a difficulty resulting as I see it from the explanatory aims of Christianity in conjunction with the mystery inherent within it.

Committee: Gary Wiessman Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Sharon Dean PHA (Committee Member); Lisa Hogeland Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Arts and Sciences: History

This dissertation is a transnational study that traces the religious, economic, and cultural factors that kept the bonds between Savannah, Georgia and Great Britain strong and vital long after the United States achieved political independence. Through an analysis of Savannah's pre-eminent merchant family, the Boltons, and their associates, this study demonstrates that enduring connections to Great Britain influenced both the built environment and cultural spaces that Savannahians occupied for about a century-- from Georgia's founding in 1735 until 1835. Evidence drawn from material culture as well as a fresh reading of traditional sources support this thesis. In addition to documents, primary sources that anchor the analysis include buildings and neighborhoods where Savannahians worshiped, lived, and worked in England and America. Because material culture embodies the social meanings of the economic, religious, and domestic purposes it serves, analysis of specific buildings and neighborhoods in Savannah as counterparts to English prototypes proves the case for common culture. Throughout the dissertation, both material culture and a traditional array of documentary sources reinforce the arguments. Since this study embraces material culture and urban spatial relationships as potent sources, resulting insights break boundaries that have limited scholarship in the past. Scholars have long scrutinized Southern rural elites. And, more recently, historians have concentrated on people at the bottom of the social scale. This research is a long overdue examination of Savannah's prosperous, urban middle class. Historians of the New Republic often think in terms of what set the United States apart from Great Britain in the period of nation building before 1835. This dissertation adds the dimension of continuity to the scholarly conversation. By presenting new insight into the blending of cultures, this study shows how economic, religious, and cultural interd (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Stradling Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Wayne Durrill Ph.D. (Committee Member); Maura O'Connor Ph.D. (Committee Member); Patrick Snadon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, EDU Policy and Leadership

The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) college students of color and faith perceive and make meaning of their multiple and intersecting social identities. A primary aim of the study, consistent with its methodology, was to capture and describe this process in the words and experiences of the participants themselves. Three research questions guided the study: (a) How do LGBQ college students of color and faith perceive and make meaning of their multiple social identities?; (b) What identities, if any, seem to become more or less salient for these students in the meaning-making process?; (c) What role, if any, does meaning making play in the development of their sense of belonging on campus? Semi-structured interviews with eight LGBQ college students of color and faith at a large, predominantly White institution in the Midwest revealed that, as participants made meaning of the relationship between their sexual orientation, faith, and race/ethnicity, all of the participants described a contention between their sexual orientation and faith identities that challenged them to (re)frame faith in a way that would allow them to integrate their faith and sexual orientation. Faith was framed for the participants by external factors, such as churches, parents, and schools. In making meaning of the contention that these external factors set up for the navigation of their multiple identities, LGBQ students of color and faith must (re)frame faith in a way that matches their beliefs, opinions, and commitments around their sexual orientation and faith identities. This emerging theory provides an often-untold narrative that LGBTQ people of color can also identify with their faith identities. Furthermore, the way that these participants made meaning of their various experiences and (re)framed faith resists the common discourse around faith and sexual orientation.

Committee: Terrell Strayhorn Ph.D. (Advisor); Susan Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Ethnic Studies; Glbt Studies; Higher Education; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Multicultural Education; Religion; Spirituality