Specialist in Education (Ed.S.), University of Dayton, 2024, School Psychology

This thesis investigates the relationship between the presence of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) and school staff attitudes toward and knowledge of LGBTQ+ students and issues. Drawing upon existing literature highlighting the significance of social supports for LGBTQ+ populations in educational settings, this study focuses on the attitudes and knowledge of LGBTQ+ rights and risk factors held by school staff in high schools with and without GSAs. A quantitative survey design was employed, utilizing adapted measures from existing research tools to assess school staff attitudes and knowledge regarding LGBTQ+ student populations. Results revealed no significant differences in knowledge or attitudes between schools with and without GSAs. These findings suggest that while GSAs provide vital support for LGBTQ+ students, additional strategies beyond their presence alone may be necessary to enhance school staff knowledge and attitudes, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive LGBTQ+ inclusivity initiatives within educational settings.

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This portfolio-style dissertation includes four articles on topics in fanfiction studies and queer theory, ready to be submitted for review and publication in academic journals. Each article addresses aspects of transformative writing and fan engagement in the 21st century, including: 1. How fans transfer social media tagging practices to the curated folksonomy of Archive of Our Own to create new genres of short form writing, and how fan writers have developed new ways to use digital platforms and technologies in their transformative writing. 2. How fans use the conventions of fanfiction microgenres to critique the canon media, and how they use these fan works to communicate this critique or to form communities with one another. 3. How and when fans engage with or communicate queer readings to increasingly more accessible media creators, and how media creators respond to queer readings and/or accusations of queerbaiting. 4. How fan works and transformative writing fit into, influence, or reinterpret the broader culture surrounding media texts. In addressing these topics, I explore fan practices and analyze transformative works from three fandoms, Good Omens, Leverage, and Pride and Prejudice.

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

As undergraduate students increasingly embrace diverse sexual identities and recognize diverse racial backgrounds, it becomes imperative for institutions to revise their fundraising tactics. Historically, these strategies have been tailored to the needs of white, straight, cisgender males. A more profound understanding of the needs of underrepresented alumnx is crucial for building a stronger fundraising pipeline, adjusted to meet alumnx where they are. This qualitative study interviewed a convenience sample of eight Black or LGBTQIA+ alumnx at a private, Catholic, Marianist university in the mid-west, exploring their relationship with their alma mater and how it impacts their philanthropy to the institution. Drawing on the Critical Theory of Love (CTL) and Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study offers a compelling examination of how personal identities and experiences shape the philanthropic decisions of undergraduate alumnx. Previous research suggests that race, gender, and sexual identities play an influential role in shaping philanthropic decisions. This study explores whether there is a cross-section of these alumnx in their philanthropic decision-making. Four key themes emerged from the interview data: psychological safety, philanthropy and identity, inclusion, and acknowledgment of challenges by the University. Incorporating these insights into outreach strategies with alumnx will demonstrate the University's commitment to inclusivity and give them a voice in shaping the school's future.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, English (Arts and Sciences)

In 1972, a distracted nurse accidentally switches two newborn baby girls on Long Island. The sharp financial, class, and ethnic disparities of these families offer both protection and disadvantages to each daughter. When the truth is discovered over twenty years later, the young women and their birth families must reckon with all that connects and divides them—and what choices and commitments to make (and not make) in the aftermath.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Sociology

In the past decade, the number of studies of transgender individuals has grown exponentially, but specific research into subcommunities under the broader transgender label is lacking. Most studies focus on either binary transgender individuals (transgender women and transgender men) alone, or combine all persons identifying as any gender other than their gender assigned at birth into one large group of “transgender people.” However, the limited intragroup research that has been done suggests that experiences vary drastically depending on one's gender identity, and we can imagine that the experience of binary transgender individuals would be very different than the experiences of nonbinary transgender individuals. This study reports on the lived experiences of nonbinary people – individuals identifying as neither men nor women, but rather existing outside of the gender binary. Qualitative interview methods were used to gather information from nonbinary individuals about their personal experiences with identity development, external experiences of stress from other people, and the internalized impacts of minority stress. Based in grounded theory, the subsequent report on these interviews includes discussion and analyses of the data collected. This discussion utilized a newly suggested framework – the Respect, Support, and Perception Theory – for analyzing interpersonal relationships with genderqueer individuals and the potential internalized effects that these relationships have on nonbinary individuals.

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Creative Writing/Fiction

The Dead Come to Carcal is a new-adult fantasy/adventure which centers around a multi-pronged mystery in the Inca-inspired city, Carcal. The novel follows five characters who become connected to that mystery and drawn together to solve it. Enrel Leolore, a militia warrior who lives in Carcal, haunted by a curse she bears from a spirit; Adwynn Theyros, a mage bounty hunter who is blood-bound to an arcane contract by the prestigious Candlelight University, attempting to save her mother from debt; Lumiseth Amruus, a skilled cleric who is chosen by the Rutaran god of the sun to halt an ancient evil rising in the land of Atrea; Vaen, Lumiseth's personal handservant and childhood friend, who is tasked with caring for his charge on his prophesied journey; and Howler, a wandering thief who is following a recurring dream in search of revenge for their shattered family. When mysterious circumstances bring each of these individuals to the city of Carcal, nestled in the mountains of the Atrean Collective Territories, they find themselves pulled into a secret plot of disappearances, would-be spirits, and the cryptic machinations of the magical forest, Yuko. They must find a way to collaborate with one another in spite of their varied upbringings and agendas to get to the bottom of Carcal's mysteries. Else their lives, and the lives of everyone in Carcal, fall to a mounting threat of unimaginable depths—depths which the world of Harrigon hasn't seen for centuries. The novel explores multiple, intertwining points of view, inspired by the popular tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons. By doing this, it reveals its characters' troubled lives, engaging in themes of societal and structural inequality, imperialism, privilege, family, love, mental health, neurodivergence, growth, redemption, and healing. It crafts a unique and rich fantasy world that is inspired by historical cultures of our own, and is written in the feminist fantasy tradition, featuring a diverse cas (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

This dissertation connects the recent DEIB movement within organizations to larger social justice movements, specifically those that impact workers and the workplace. Critical human resource development (CHRD) professionals, who serve as “insider activists”, are highlighted due to their work to continue movement objectives within organizations. Through testimonios and critical platicas, this study explores how Black and Latino/x LGBTQ+ CHRD professionals, in particular, are experiencing the workplace, especially as it relates to their engagement with how DEIB is practiced within organizations. Through this study, these professionals provide insights into the ways that workplaces can be redesigned and reimagined to be more critically conscious and equitable spaces, especially for those from marginalized backgrounds. Their reflections can work to enhance the ways that DEIB is practiced within organizations. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

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

This project aims to interrogate modernist symbolism of the dog as representations of human alterity by focusing on the importance of the dog as a robust modernist trope used to articulate the problems of being human in an increasingly industrialized, modernized society. This dissertation explores how the dog functions as a symbol with attention to class, hierarchies, kinship arrangements, sex and sexuality, but also considers the dog as a literal dog, outside of human constructs. While Darwinian theory undermines the supremacy of the human by showing how species interrelate, the dog is of particular importance because of its coevolutionary partnership with humans, having the capacity to expose the precarity of human ascendency and dissolve the human/animal boundary. The dog's capacity for destabilizing the category of human can convey humanity's degradation, but the dog is also an analogue for human constructions, articulating questions of class, gender, and sexuality. Intimacy between humans and dogs also issues new ways of thinking of kinship. Lastly, this dissertation examines modernist texts for their subtle advocacy for the better treatment of animals by imagining animal subjectivity, by humanizing the animal, or by carefully studying animal behavior.

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2023, College of Education and Human Services

Access to effective eating disorder treatment and early symptom change can mitigate the risk for severe symptoms and premature death, however there are extensive structural and financial barriers preventing access to eating disorder treatment for all individuals. Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people possess significant risk for disordered eating and body image disturbances because of stigma and stressors, gender dysphoria, and difficulty accessing gender-affirming care. The existing literature on TGNC people and eating disorders is sparse, largely focuses on adolescents, and lacks the intersectional, qualitative exploration of TGNC adults and access to eating disorder care. To fill this gap in the literature, this study implemented a critical phenomenological qualitative research approach to understand the essence of TGNC adults' experiences with accessing eating disorder treatment, with emphasis on facilitators and barriers to care. TGNC participants (n = 18) in this study described experiencing eating disorder treatment centers as valuing profit over patient care, with challenges accessing and funding eating disorder treatment unless possessing financial privileges. Participants also reported experiencing reduced relevance of existing eating disorder treatment programs to their eating disorder experiences compared to cisgender girls/women with eating disorders. They described treatment as stigmatizing, but endorsed more positive experiences when providers possessed TGNC and/or eating disorder education and training, or identified as TGNC/BIPOC themselves. Participants also reported numerous treatment resources and social support-related barriers and facilitators to care.

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Gender diverse individuals experience a multitude of oppressive interactions within our society and receive incessant messages of invalidation, oppression, and aggression. These chronic stressors have been shown to increase the risk of developing disordered eating behaviors within this population. The current study aims to explore how internalized transphobia may affect the development of disordered eating behavior as viewed through the Minority Stress Framework. This study explored the lived experience of being gender diverse in our society and how this may relate to the development of disordered eating behavior while also investigating protective factors. This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological methodology, recruiting seven gender diverse adults over the age of 18 who exhibited disordered eating behaviors. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the Transgender Identity Survey (Bockting et al., 2020), followed by a semistructured exploratory interview to gain narrative data directly from trans people, a population known to experience internalized transphobia (Bockting, 2015). Chronic body image struggles, low self-esteem, trauma history, and harmful expectations related to gender expression appeared as the major contributing factors to the development of disordered eating behaviors. These harmful influences appeared to hinder the ability of multiple participants in their exploration of their gender identity. Gender-affirming care, meaningful activities, community, and affirming clothing emerged as the major protective factors in the lives of the participants. The contributions toward the field of gender studies gleaned from this study include aiding psychologists in developing or applying preventative measures to reduce the risk of disordered eating in gender diverse individuals, as well as in better understanding and appreciating the complexities of gender diverse adults' experiences.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

This qualitative study aims to explore the unique experiences and challenges faced by Latino Caribbean cisgender gay men within their cultural and social contexts. Using focus group and thematic analysis, the researcher examines the narratives and perspectives of a diverse sample of Latino Caribbean cisgender gay men (n = 6) to gain insights into their sexual identity process, cultural influences, family dynamics, and support systems utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as the methodological framework. The researcher's findings highlight the themes of Awareness of Sexual Identity, Visibility Management, Spanish Caribbean Families' Influences, Being True to Oneself, and Positive Experiences & Role Models as key factors influencing the participants' experiences. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the intersections between sexual and cultural identities for Latino Caribbean cisgender gay men. The participants navigate the complex process of self-acceptance and disclosure while balancing cultural expectations and societal norms. The role of family and community support emerges as both a source of strength and potential challenge in their journeys of self-exploration and acceptance. The findings shed light on the need to research the sexual identity process for Caribbean LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, and families within a social justice framework. These findings highlight the importance of creating inclusive spaces, promoting visibility, and providing culturally sensitive support services to address the unique needs of this population. And contribute to the existing literature on sexual identity development, cultural diversity, and family dynamics, and provide insights that can inform interventions, policies, and practices aimed at promoting the well-being and empowerment of Latino Caribbean LGBTQ+ individuals.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

My dissertation interrogates the complex processes of liberal subject formation by situating Ukraine as a case study in a broader exploration of global and transnational circuits of ideas about race, sexuality, and gender. Specifically, I examine historical processes of intra-European othering of Roma communities as entangled with European modernity and colonialism. Through the critique of racial capitalism and the production of the liberal subject, I reevaluate these histories for their ongoing relevance today and examine contemporary practices that aim to undo the aesthetics and ethics of state socialism in Soviet-era monumental art and public space. Drawing on queer of color critique, Black feminist thought, and Romani and women of color feminisms, I theorize a postsocialist queer critique that interrogates racial/sexual formations as integral parts of multiple imperialisms. By centering the historical analysis of the roots of anti-Roma racism, a postsocialist queer critique tackles the ongoing legacies of European Enlightenment, Russian imperialism, and Soviet modernity, as well as the post-Cold War reconfigurations that foreground Euro-American liberalism and capitalism as a single viable option. Focusing on the interworking of race, gender, and sexuality, a postsocialist queer critique scrutinizes the travel of the individual sexual rights-bearing subject detached from racial and economic hierarchies. I reveal how liberal narratives limit the imagination of queer politics and disregard local practices of racialization and economic inequality. I also uplift queer politics that foreground Roma queer subjectivity, view sexuality and gender as strongly tied with race and class, and center an anti-racist and anti-capitalist critique. My dissertation analyzes diverse resources, including primary and secondary historical sources, cultural texts, visual cultural products, and public art. It interweaves the fields of queer, feminist, critical race, Romani, and postsoci (open full item for complete abstract)

MFA, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Art

Geometries of Absence explores themes of queer abstraction through weaving and drawing. It engages an epistolary praxis in queer textiles scholarship to document gay marriage over long distance in the context of the contemporary political climate. Three weavings at the intersection of tapestry, drawing, and painting, rooted in Jose Esteban Munoz's theory of queer horizons illustrate the ideas put forth.

Bachelor of Science of Communication Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2023, Communication Studies

U.S. K-12 Catholic schools are ideologically and demographically homogenous environments that exist to evangelize their students and perpetuate Catholic doctrine. Due to homogeneity and homophobic doctrine, minoritized students (i.e., LGBTQ+, BIPOC, low-income) in U.S. K-12 Catholic schools undergo adverse experiences as a result of their schools' (a) invalidation and policing of identities, (b) lack of representation, and (c) inability to understand and value difference. This senior thesis uses (a) Vatican document analysis and (b) thirty interviews with former Catholic school community members (i.e., former students who were minoritized, the parents/legal guardians of this population, and former teachers) to demonstrate how U.S. K-12 Catholic schools perpetuate doctrinal thinking at the expense of their minoritized students. I identify how U.S. Catholic schools suppress difference among those in their school community, manage the identities of their minoritized students, and hinder teachers' ability to communicate with minoritized students. Moreover, I argue the incommensurability of critical pedagogy with Catholic doctrine.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2023, Anthropology

Using the life histories of four students from the Ohio University LGBT Center, it explores the intersections of identity and community. By exploring their personal, lived-experiences, I show how integral community is in the formation of identity, how people's intersecting identities influence the ways they move through the world, and roles digital media plays in the social worlds of queer young adults. To do, I explore themes of self-acceptance, intersectionality, mediatization, community involvement, political engagement, and space.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Public Health

Background: In the United States, individuals assigned female at birth have about a 13% lifetime risk of breast/chest cancer. Those with a family history of breast/chest cancer or a BRCA gene mutation are at elevated risk of the disease, with greater than or equal to 20% lifetime risk. However, only a small proportion of individuals at high risk utilize available preventive services like mammography screening. Individuals of sexual minority identity and Black individuals experience increased levels of healthcare distrust. Healthcare distrust in turn is associated with lower rates of mammography screening utilization. Aim: Our study aim was to examine the relationship between healthcare distrust, sexual minority identity, and Black race to determine how they are related to mammography screening concordance rates among individuals at objectively elevated risk. We further sought to determine if healthcare distrust mediated the relationship between sexual minority identity and mammography discordance. Methods: We used survey data from The Daughter Sister Mother Project, a cross-sectional web survey conducted from 2018 to 2019 that used convenience sampling methods. Eligible participants were 18 to 75 years of age, identified as non-Hispanic White or non-Hispanic Black/African American, identified their sex as “female”, had a family history of breast/chest cancer or a BRCA gene mutation, and had no prior history of cancer. Our analysis focused on the high-risk subsample of participants, defined as individuals with a self-reported BRCA mutation or greater than 20% lifetime risk according to 1 or more risk prediction models. The primary exposure for this analysis was sexual minority identity and the primary outcome was mammography concordance, defined as reporting receipt of a mammogram within the last year if recommended according to National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) screening guidelines for women at high risk. Healthcare distrust was measured using the Rev (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, English

Letters to Faye is a novel about queer sibling relationships and building a chosen family in the face of estrangement and grief. It follows CJ, a young artist and parent, as they grieve the untimely death of their sister Faye. After finding among Faye's effects a series of letters that make them question the life the siblings built together, CJ decides to make the journey back to the hometown they were estranged from fifteen years earlier, in search of answers. The novel is deeply concerned with the ways we tell stories—fictionalizing ourselves, our pasts, and the people around us—and how this impulse can often get in the way of us knowing each other more fully. The novel posits, in its fictional backroads way, that the real work of intimate relationship is to both acknowledge the limits of how deeply we can ever know another person, and still, to commit to learning more of each other every day regardless.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Popular Culture

This thesis explores the representation of anthropomorphic car characters in films using three examples of notable films featuring such characters: the American animated comedy Cars (2006), the American horror adaptation Christine (1983), and the French body horror film Titane (2021). Using a combination of theoretical frameworks that include Marxist, feminist, queer, and postmodern approaches, these readings investigate how each film's portrayal of anthropomorphic cars reflects the relationship between cars and humans. Each chapter explores an in-depth reading of one of the films and investigates how the film reflects both optimistically and pessimistically on the convergence of cars and humans. Such a convergence manifests in the incorporation of cars into everyday life and work for many people, but it also involves cultural associations between cars and humans, like ways in which cars come to stand for individual human traits. As each reading demonstrates, this can create situations where exciting new, boundary-crossing possibilities manifest, but it can also allow for oppressive forces to limit the human body to strict, hegemonic standards. This thesis further argues that these three films also contain strategies for pushing against this limiting mode of convergence through interpersonal connection and the embracing of queer possibilities.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Media and Communication

Christianity has consistently played a key role in shaping the politics of sexuality in the United States, from debates over LGBT rights (Krutzsch, 2019; Petro, 2015; White, 2015) to shaping sexual norms through the life of local congregations (McQueeney, 2009; Perry & Whitehead, 2016; Tranby & Zulkowski, 2012). Polyamory, a form of consensual non-monogamy, has been a frequent staple of the Christian right's “slippery slope” rhetoric suggesting that marriage equality will inevitably lead to further forms of experimentation in the form of families and marriages (Sheff, 2011). Since the legalization of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, there are signs that polyamory is increasingly seen as a focus of concern rather than a secondary threat, with Christian public figures seeking to prepare pastors and laypeople to respond to polyamorous people showing up in congregations (Leake, 2021; Sprinkle & Parler, 2019; Strachan, 2020). In this present study, I sought to gain an understanding of the current relationship between polyamory and Christianity through a critical interpersonal and family communication lens. I approached this task from two directions. First, I conducted a qualitative content analysis of 118 articles in the online Christian publications The Christian Post and CrossWalk. This analysis was oriented by framing theory, which examines how issues are constructed in the media through the selection of key organizing ideas. Second, I conducted a critical thematic analysis of conversations with polyamorous Christians in the form of 17 podcast episodes and 18 original research interviews. This analysis was guided by the framework of relational spirituality, which organizes phenomena in which individuals' pursuits of spirituality and intimate relationships become intertwined. The findings from both of these studies were analyzed through a queer theoretical lens, examining mononormative hegemony and resistance by blending Sara Ah (open full item for complete abstract)

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2022, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on mental health. Queer women and nonbinary individuals disproportionately experience mental health issues when compared to heterosexuals, often facing challenges in receiving care from providers who are sensitive to their concerns and competent in their care. Objective: To report experience of queer women and nonbinary individuals in the United States with mental health care services before and during the pandemic. Methods: Data were gathered via a 43-item survey about experiences with mental health care services before and during the pandemic that was posted on four social media sites, and flyers hung in university student centers and businesses friendly to LGBTQ individuals. Queer women and nonbinary individuals between the ages of 18 and 75 were invited to participate. Descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlations were used for data analysis. Results: There were 175 participants who met inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. During the pandemic, more survey participants received mental health services compared with before the pandemic. How they received care significantly changed from before the pandemic (mostly in-person) to during the pandemic (mostly remote). Participants reported being seen significantly more frequently for mental health care during the pandemic compared to before. A higher percentage of participants received both psychotherapy and medication during the pandemic compared with before. They were generally satisfied with their mental health care; however, satisfaction was significantly higher during the pandemic. Conclusion: During the pandemic, compared with before, significantly more participants received mental health care and there were significantly more virtual mental health visits, more frequent mental health visits, more intensive therapies, and higher patient satisfaction. Telehealth care was perceived to be beneficial by most participants.