Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Philosophy

This dissertation argues for a moderate view of the value or significance of reflection in epistemology. I arrive at the moderate view by arguing for the following three theses: (I) reflection cannot supply a genuine agential explanation of epistemic normativity; (II) extant empirically informed arguments fail to undermine the reliability and epistemic value of reflection; (III) reflection is an essential component of wisdom, and we can come to appreciate the distinctive social value of reflection by paying attention to its connection with wisdom. Chapter 1 introduces the background of the project. I explain what I mean by reflection. Then, I briefly describe the dialectical situation: in contemporary analytic philosophy, philosophers have taken extreme views on the significance of reflection in epistemology. This background is necessary for appreciating how the arguments in my dissertation cumulatively advance the epistemological literature on reflection by carving out a moderate position on the value of reflection. Finally, I provide summaries of individual chapters and indicate what role each chapter is playing in the overall argument of this dissertation. Chapter 2 argues that reflection does not supply us a genuine concept of epistemic agency, and it does not supply a genuine agential explanation of epistemic normativity. To be clear, this chapter has a broader target: it argues against epistemic agency and against an agential explanation of epistemic normativity. Prominent proposals about epistemic iii agency cash the idea out in terms of voluntary agency, reasons-responsiveness (in both its reflective and unreflective variants), or judgment. I show that each of these proposals faces the following dilemma: either the proposal fails to capture any genuine concept of agency, or it fails to adequately capture the class of items that are governed by epistemic norms. Chapter 3 argues that Hilary Kornblith's recent empirically grounded (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Declan Smithies (Advisor); Hilary Kornblith (Committee Member); Abraham Roth (Committee Member); Tristram McPherson (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Supermaximum security housing— or “supermax”—is a staple of American prison systems. Despite this, limited research exists that evaluates the utilization of supermax and the fundamental assumptions of supermax policy. The goal of the current dissertation was to contribute to theory and research centered on supermax usage and impacts by examining the theoretical underpinnings of supermax incarceration at a systems level and evaluating systems impacts through the attendant theoretical lenses. The dissertation used ten years of data on incarcerated people and 19 prison facilities in the state of Ohio. Findings suggested that, while relevant factors largely dictated facility-level supermax use and individual supermax placements, facilities throughout a prison system weigh information differently when making supermax decisions depending upon facility context. There was only limited support for the idea that sending people to supermax improves social order. No improvements were identified for facility-level recidivism. The dissertation also shed light on an overlooked harm stemming from supermax incarceration: the adverse facility-level impacts of people returning to the general population after experiencing supermax. However, there was evidence that supermax sends improve facility-level program completion. These results have important implications for theories of supermax effectiveness, policies centered on improving prison order, and highlight several avenues for future research.

Committee: Joshua Cochran Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Wooldredge Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrea Montes Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sarah Manchak Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2014, History

Since the late 1980s, historians of American Civil War soldiers have struggled to understand the nature, character, and social order of the volunteer Union Army. Debates over individual motivations to enlist and serve, the success or failure of the institution to instill proper military discipline, and the peculiar requirements of leading volunteer citizen-soldiers have remained salient elements of Civil War soldier studies historiography. This thesis offers a new methodology for addressing these questions by examining the antebellum worldview of men from a single regiment -- the 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry -- in order to create a lens through which to view their wartime behavior in uniform. This allows for an examination of how the antebellum voluntarist social order of Illinois towns continued to structure life in the ranks. Leaders who were aware of this cultural factor were often more successful in enlisting the support and cooperation of their subordinates than those who sought to breakdown their men and force them into the traditional mold of military subordination. Finally, the decision to enlist, cooperate, and remain in the volunteer force was governed by the same personal calculus of individual self-interest that governed men before entering into military service.

Committee: Brian Schoen (Advisor) Subjects: American History; History; Military History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, History

This dissertation provides a historical study of Jim Crow in the North via the interplay of race and sport. It analyzes the 1934 benching of Willis Ward, an African-American football player at the University of Michigan and reveals the racialized social order maintained by Michigan's famed Athletic Director Fielding Yost. This study probes how Ward's benching affected his career, especially his work directing hiring practices at the Ford Motor Company. It also explores Ward's conservative politics and his espousal of policies and practices aimed at maintaining the racial status quo. This project also chronicles how racism toward Ward shaped the politics of his teammate and future U.S. President Gerald Ford who supported affirmative action and civil rights legislation but opposed busing as a means to carry out school desegregation. A significant body of scholarship has examined the history of Jim Crow in the South. This dissertation, in contrast, provides an opportunity to examine the North's separate but unequal practices. This previously unstudied history of Ward and other black athletes at Michigan offer four significant insights regarding Northern race relations: it demonstrates how Northern institutions maintained segregationist practices without having the same legal underpinnings that existed in Southern states; it emphasizes the opposition that black athletes faced and exposes how institutions such as Michigan actively engaged in constructing racial barriers that constrained African American performance and compelled these players to exceed standard athletic expectations in order to earn spots on top college teams; it underscores how racial intolerance toward black athletes catalyzed resistance, created race advocacy and opposition, and contributed to a long history of black conservatism; and finally, it stresses how the racism black athletes met on the court and gridiron mirrored the racial prejudice they and other African Americans experienced in their (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hasan Jeffries (Advisor); Kevin Boyle (Committee Member); Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

National standards and funds have helped ensure that technology access is no longer as problematic as it once was in education, but some questions remain about how effectively educational technologies are being utilized prepare students with 21st century skills that include higher-order thinking skills. For this reason, scholars have emphasized the need for research that investigates how effectively technologies are being utilized for teaching and learning. Immediate research of this kind is particularly necessary in the context of higher education; although most campuses are outfitted to some extent with expensive classroom technologies, little is known about how often and at what level these technologies are being utilized. Therefore, this study uses electronic surveys to investigate technology use among instructors assigned to teach in electronic classrooms at the University of Cincinnati. This investigation has two primary purposes of study within the use of technology in higher education instruction. The first purpose was to establish an understanding of general descriptive use patterns across technologies in face-to-face and out-of-class instruction across colleges. The second purpose was to explore the differences in uses across the disciplines, especially related to technology for promoting higher order thinking. Findings confirm that both frequencies and meaningfulness of face-to-face and out-of-classroom technology use are low. The implications of these findings for institutions of higher education are discussed, and needs for future research efforts in this area are identified.

Committee: James Basham PhD (Committee Chair); Helen Meyer PhD (Committee Member); Christina Carnahan EdD (Committee Member); Catherine Maltbie EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

Current literature suggests that young children can socially construct gender identities when submitting to or resisting dominant discourses. In this study I sought to understand the gendered culture of contemporary Taiwanese kindergartens. I focused on how Taiwanese Children (NTC) and mainstream Taiwanese peers play together as they constructed gender identities in urban and rural classroom settings. I observed and interviewed five- and six-year-old NTC and their peers as they engaged in critical gender incidents related to male, female, and cross-gender play. The research addressed how NTC and their peers enacted multiple gender performances as daily experiences continually shaped and reshaped children's gender-doing, and investigated how NTC maintained and resisted gender norms under dominant gender discourse. The research questions asked: What constitutes children's gendered knowledge and how do children perform gender culture?; and How do children represent gendered social order in class? NTC's gender identity often represents multiple levels of gender power, which relates to issues of SES, ethnicity and family culture backgrounds. It is insufficient to examine individual NTC's gender-doing; only when her or his peer interactions have happened can gender incidents display local children's specific gender culture. As such, I explored how NTC persistently build gendered knowledge, gendered social orders and gender identities by tracking critical incidents within local school culture and family settings. This study reveals where NTC's gender identities intersect with gendered knowledge and classroom gender culture. From these conclusions, I highlighted the importance of classroom gender norms and gender education in early childhood education. The results indicate that the constellation of gendered classroom activities makes it difficult to create the most advantageous learning environment, and that teachers need to be sensitive to different social classes (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Janice Kroeger PhD (Committee Chair); Alicia Crowe PhD (Committee Member); Natasha Levinson PhD (Committee Member); Huey-Li Li PhD (Committee Member); Sara Newman PhD (Other) Subjects: Early Childhood Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2009, College of Education, Health, and Human Services / Department of Educational Foundations and Special Services

Four different data collection methods (face to face interviews, telephone interviews, mail surveys, and Web-based surveys) compared Social Desirability Bias (SDB). This study used Multiple Comparison tests and a randomized post-test only control-group design. No SDB differences were found among methods. For SDB no gender (2-factor), ethnicity (2-factor), nor was a gender and ethnicity (3-factor) interaction found. This study was more rigorous than other studies because 13 known extraneous influences were controlled for and two more were avoided. Effect sizes ranged from .002 to .029. Implications are: SDB need not trouble researchers when comparing the 4 methods and SDB may be decreasing over time. Suggestions for future research include (1) studies between non-published and published studies; (2) meta analytic method comparisons over well-established constructs; (3) meta analytic studies on SDB over time; (4) measurement invariance of the 4 methods on SDB; and other suggestions.

Committee: Rafa Kasim (Committee Co-Chair); Shawn Fitzgerald (Committee Co-Chair); Milton Harvey (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 1994, History

This study examines Cleveland Protestants and the changing social order from 1898 to 1940. It argues the establishment of the Federated Churches of Cleveland was one of several Protestants' responses to the expanding pluralistic societal order. Its establishment was not the institutionalization of the Social Gospel movement but was a part of the general reorganization of social, benevolent, economic, religious, and political institutions into efficient and orderly units. This study examines the Protestants' response to the expanding pluralism by examining organizations and argues its organizations reflected Protestants' concerns and interests. Urbanization, industrialization and immigration challenged Protestants. They responded by using three types of organizations: 'denominational', 'voluntary society', 'church federations'. This study examined revivals and the Chamber of Commerce's contributions to the establishment of the Federated Churches. Revivals created the sense of urgency. The Chamber of Commerce provided the organizational model. This study has an Introduction and five chapters. Chapter One describes Cleveland Nineteenth Century religious and benevolent orders. Chapter Tw o describes Cleveland Protestants' failure in moral reform efforts, which contributed to the Protestants urging for a different method in urban, i.e., a federation of efforts. Chapter Three describes Cleveland Protestants' work with the Eastern and Southern European immigrants, which included helping to establish social settlement houses, establishing institutional churches, and making the extension society into a coordinating agency. Chapter Four describes four local conditions that led to the founding of the Federated Churches of Cleveland, which were: parallel federation efforts, revivals, search for better methods, and need for coordination in church extension. Chapter Five describes the Federated Churches of Cleveland's activities from 1911 to 1940, which included the reorganizatio (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Hammack (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation tackles one central problem: What were the intellectual and social origins of New Order Indonesia (1966-1998)? The analytic lens that this study employs to examine this society is the Indonesian middling classes' pursuit of modernity. The dissertation comes in two parts. Part One reconstructs the evolution of the Indonesian middling classes and their search for progress. Part Two uses three case studies to analyze the middling classes' search for Indonesian modernity under the New Order. The first explores the top-down modernization undertaken by President Soeharto's assistants at the National Development Planning Board, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology. The second case study investigates the "bottom-up" modernization performed by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education, and Information. The third case study deals with how several authors used popular fiction to criticize the kind of Indonesian modernity that emerged in the New Order era. This research yields several findings. First, the Indonesian middling classes championed a pragmatic, structural-functional path to modernity. Second, to modernize the country rapidly and safely, the modernizers proceeded in an eclectic and pragmatic manner. Third, between the Old and the New Order, there existed strong continuity in ideas, ideals, skills, and problems. Fourth, the middling classes' modernizing mission was fraught with contradictions, naiveties, ironies, and violence, which had roots in the nationalist movement in the first half of the twentieth century. The New Order was neither wholly new nor an aberration from the "normal" trajectory of Indonesia's contemporary history. The sort of modernity that the Indonesian middling classes ended up creating was Janus-faced.

Committee: William H. Frederick (Committee Chair); Peter John Brobst (Committee Member); Patrick Barr-Melej (Committee Member); Elizabeth Fuller Collins (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Literature; Asian Studies; History