Master of Arts / Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work / Robert Schaeffer / This thesis examines Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A), one of the oldest organizations of the Chicano movement. History shows that M.E.Ch.A has been able to reflect on itself and change accordingly; thus, it has been able to stay alive due to internal debates from the 1960s to the 1990s. In the 1960s, male, heterosexual Mexicans dominated the Chicano movement. In the 1980s, Xicanas challenged them to look past their privileges into more intersectional, inclusive identities. My research question is: in 2013, how do Californian MEChistAs view themselves, their political consciousness, and their social justice work? MEChistAs view themselves as an inclusive, diverse, and progressive organization. Chican@/Xican@ is a political identity and ideology that includes women, queers, and non-Mexicans. Women and queers took leadership of the organization, which shows that the revised historical documents made a difference. However, M.E.Ch.A continues a Mexican-centric organization that isolates Central Americans, South Americans, and Afro-Latin@s. M.E.Ch.A has changed since the 1960s in many ways, but the work continues. M.E.Ch.A still needs to address several internal debates as an organization, such as: Aztlán’s meanings, community versus campus organizing, generational gaps, and working with social organizations. Despite these debates, M.E.Ch.A has survived. Using 22 in-depth interviews with contemporary MEChistAs in California from 10 different universities, I examined the identities and politics of M.E.Ch.A activists. I enact Dorothy Smith and Patricia Hill Collin’s standpoint theory to guide the research and apply third world feminism and ideology/utopia theories to analyze the ideas and concepts of the MEChistAs.

This study explored how avid users of Second Life (SL) experience and make meaning of informal learning activities in virtual art museums and similar cultural spaces through their avatars. While recent literature has laid the groundwork for studying student engagement and formal learning, the lacuna of research bound by the historical traditions of qualitative research design has done little to ease the skepticism surrounding the value of virtual worlds for learning. Within the context of museological discourse, virtual museum learning experiences have the potential to shift viewing practices as well as how meaning is generated, interpreted, and disseminated. Technical, conceptual, and methodological barriers to studying virtual worlds remain. Another goal of this study was to demonstrate the potential of hermeneutic phenomenology, particularly my conceptualization of virtual hermeneutics, to study virtual worlds. Hermeneutic phenomenology has the potential to make practical understanding of the informal learning process in SL explicit by providing an interpretation of this process. The challenge lies in applying the philosophy behind the methodology to the changing reality of virtual worlds. It is only by studying these experiences in context and situated within virtual spaces that we can expand our understanding of the avatar-mediated informal learning process. Findings from this study show that in-world informal learning experiences can, in fact, be studied on their own terms. Furthermore, rich textural data can not only be extracted from exclusively in-world interaction, but collaborative relationships can also develop with no actual world contact. These experiences and interactions can lead to experiential learning, but also transformational learning where the avatar-identity can affect users' actual world viewing practices and meaning making. It is not so much the technology per se that can affect change, but rather identity exploration, diegesis, and relationship building afforded by the technology. Albeit some learning outcomes were observed, affective outcomes and cognitive strategies, including metacognitive skills, were more frequently described by participants. Due to the complexity of assessing such outcomes and the present obsession with quantitatively measurable outcomes in formal education, it is unlikely that SL can or will be used outside the scope of informal learning in the near future unless formal education undergoes social reform.

Dans la France de l'entre-deux-guerres, les catholiques ne cessent de revendiquer une prise en charge financière de leurs établissements scolaires, dont la situation matérielle s'avère singulièrement précaire. L'enseignement privé catholique subsiste grâce à ses enseignants, subsumant leurs conditions de travail au nom de leur foi. La doctrine affirmée de l'Église catholique en matière d'éducation et l'acceptation des rôles prescrits dans l'institution sont les clés essentielles du maintien du réseau éducatif catholique. Cette revendication s'accompagne d'un militantisme polymorphe. Aux tenants de la réalisation de l'unité catholique, qu'elle soit en opposition au régime politique ou s'inscrivant dans la légalité républicaine, s'adjoint une troisième posture, encore marginale, d'insertion du catholicisme dans la modernité. Rejet ou acception de l'école publique, définition et rôle de l'enseignement privé, signalent ce qui se joue au sein du champ ecclésial : l'acceptation ou non de la pluralisation de la société française et de l'opinion catholique. Dans les années 1920, domine la configuration d'un cléricalisme éducatif, utopie d'une société chrétienne dont l'école catholique serait le fer de lance. Les années 1930 sont l'objet d'une reconfiguration paradoxale : alors que l'épiscopat reprend l'initiative en créant un Comité national de l'enseignement libre en 1931, la décléricalisation de l'action catholique est confirmée. Ce faisant, le militantisme catholique, qui a permis le maintien des écoles, participe en même temps de la politisation de l'espace ecclésial et, in fine, de sa sécularisation. / In France, during the interwar period, Catholics ceaselessly claimed public financial support for their schools, which were in a particularly precarious situation. Private Catholic schools subsisted thanks to their teachers who subsumed their hard working conditions to their faith. The strong doctrine of the Catholic Church in educational matters and the acceptance of prescribed roles within the institution were key to maintain a Catholic education system. This claim went alongside a polymorphous activism. Three attitudes prevailed: first, there where the advocates of the realization of Catholic unity, whether in opposition to the political regime or enrolling in the republican legality; then appeared a new movement which demanded the insertion of Catholicism into the modern world. The rejection or the acceptance of the public school system and the definition of private education and of its role, highlighted the issue for the Church: the acceptance or rejection of the pluralisation of French society and of the Catholic opinion. In the 1920’s prevailed the clericalist educational utopia of a Christian society of which Catholic schools would be the spearhead. The 1930’s saw a paradoxical reconfiguration: in the same time that bishops took the initiative of creating a National Committee for private education in 1931, the declericalization of Catholic action was confirmed. In doing so, Catholic militancy which enabled the maintenance of schools, was also responsible for the politicization of the ecclesial scope and, ultimately, of its secularization.

Hedge fund activism announcements are associated with positive market reactions, and they introduce information asymmetry between insiders and outside investors. Target firm insiders have superior information about the campaign and play an important role in the campaign negotiation. This study examines insiders’ behavior as information asymmetry rises following the campaign announcement. Insiders increase trading in their own firms in response to the campaign announcement. These post-announcement insider trades have additional return predictability than insider trades in other times. Post-announcement insider buys predict higher probabilities of achieving successful campaign outcomes including management turnovers, increases in payout, and corporate restructurings, and higher value of these outcomes. I also find evidence that insiders use campaign resistance and trading interactively to achieve higher wealth gain.

Judicial activism Abstract This thesis tries to complexly grasp the phenomenon of judicial activism. The key role for it and its analysis of judicial activism is the theory of separation of powers in the state, without its comprehension it is hardly possible to correctly assess. The first chapter thus focuses on the theoretical concept of separation of powers, its evolution and current standing. Takes a critical stand with present thinkers and suggests rethinking its approach to stress the theory's purpose instead. The second chapter analyses judiciary and judicial system from the functional and institutional approach. Offers its classical definitions yet describes many authors who criticize the affinity of judicial power's activity to the one of state administration. It tries to rebut those opinions with arguments of specific expertise of judges and of its legitimacy. In the third chapter the focus is on the judicial activism. It identifies large dispersion of its definitions therefore uses meta-analysis of Keenan Kmiec for its definition. Firstly, discusses the major change of judicial power in society during the last century and for this reason addresses those most important changes: hypertrophy of law and human rights, and shift of the main interpretational paradigms to natural law emphasis....

Orientador: Fernando Silva Teixeira Filho / Banca: Wiliam Siqueira Peres / Banca: Leila Sollberger Jeolás / Resumo: As questões relacionadas à aids têm sido problematizadas por pesquisadores de diferentes campos, linhas e áreas de atuação devido à complexidade de perspectivas históricas, sociais, biológicas e psicológicas da epidemia. Nestes anos de seu reconhecimento, a aids tem obrigado a desnaturalizar questões sociais e culturais construídas historicamente e que são parte dos signos, normas e códigos que balizam a estrutura e a organização da sociedade, impondo outros olhares e novas perspectivas para a complexidade de questões relacionadas aos gêneros, aos corpos e à cultura. Considerando essa conjuntura, esta pesquisa foi realizada com quatro mulheres HIV+ ativistas no movimento de aids com o objetivo de apreender suas concepções sobre aids; os contextos de vulnerabilidade que possibilitaram sua infecção; suas vulnerabilidades à reinfecção; e mudanças e permanências nos campos afetivo-conjugal e da maternidade a partir da experiência da doença e da militância. Para mapear suas experiências pessoais utilizei o método das histórias de vida, e, para a coleta de dados, entrevistas semiestruturadas.. As categorias de análise estão articuladas à perspectiva teórica de autores que problematizam as construções sócio-históricas relacionadas às questões de gênero e da aids. O discurso militante revelou-se importante na construção de experiências singulares e coletivas que são fundamentais para a reconfiguração de trajetórias individuais e disparadoras de rupturas na cultura ocidental. Contudo, as histórias demonstram, também, que valores como a família e o reconhecimento próprio através da maternidade e de relações de conjugalidade não foram completamente subvertidos pelas particularidades da relação doença/política. / Abstract: The questions related to AIDS have been problematized by researchers from different fields, lines and areas of acting due to the historical, social, biological and psychological perspectives complexity of the epidemic. In these acknowledgment years, the AIDS has obliged us to denaturalize social cultural questions historically built, and that are part of the signs, rules and codes that mark out the society structure and organization, imposing other views and new perspectives towards the questions complexity related to gender, the bodies and the culture. Taking this conjuncture into consideration, this research was carried out with four HIV+ women activists in the AIDS movement with the objective of apprehending their conceptions about AIDS, the vulnerability contexts that made their infection possible, their vulnerabilities towards the reinfection, and changes and permanency in the affective-conjugal and motherhood fields, from the disease and activism experience. Aiming to map their personal experiences, I used the life's histories method, and for the data collection, semistructured interviews. The analysis categories are articulated to authors' theoretical perspectives that problematize the social-historical constructions towards AIDS and gender issues. The activism speech develop a construction of a personal and plural's experiences that are important to rebuilding of individual's trajectory and discharge a disruption on the ocidental culture. Whenever, the histories shows too that values like the family and the own recognize true the maternity and the relationship were not completely subversive on the particularity of the relation disease/politics. / Mestre

Thesis advisor: Dennis L. Shirley / This research study is a historical analysis of Boston school desegregation viewed through the lens of Black Bostonians who gave rise to a Black Education Movement. Its purpose is to place Boston’s school desegregation history in a markedly different context than many of the narratives that evolved since Morgan v. Hennigan (1974). First, it provides a historical connection between the 18th and 19th century long road to equal schooling and the 20th century equal educational opportunity movement, both led by Black activists who lived in Boston. Second, it provides a public space for the voices of 20th century activists to tell their accounts of schooling in Boston. The narrators in this study attended Boston public schools and became leaders and foot soldiers in the struggle to dismantle a racially segregated school system. Ten case studies of Boston’s Black activists provide the foundation for this study. They recount, through oral history, a community movement whose goal was to save children attending majority Black schools from a system that was destroying them. Two theoretical perspectives, Critical Race Theory and Resiliency, inform the research design and findings. The findings shed light on agency from within the Black community, what changes were expected in the schools, the range of views regarding the intent of desegregation, and how systemic racism was the force that drove this community to dismantle a system that violated the 14th Amendment rights of Black students. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Susan Michalczyk / Bono, the lead singer of U2, has built a reputation as a champion of political issues, such as publicly taking a pacifist stance against the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and as a prominent social activist, especially known for working with Amnesty International. However, Bono’s lobbying to save the continent of Africa from its economic downward spiral bridged social justice with politics. Bono headed the American branch of the Drop the Debt/Jubilee 2000 campaign, co-founded his own non-profit group DATA, and is responsible for the success of the ONE campaign in the United States. As a celebrity, Bono uses his connections to influence his fanbase using U2 lyrics and performances. He also politicks with government officials and impresses them with his expert knowledge, tuning his argument to suit his audience. These tactics, combined with ceaseless passion and a grassroots movement, have made Bono the most effective social and political activist of the 21st century. Bono inspires others to take up a crusade and defend it using all of their power. If the rest of humanity were to follow his example, social justice would be a realized necessity in this new millennium. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur / My Ph.D. dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the effect of hedge funds on target shareholder gains in leveraged buyouts (LBOs). I find that the initial buyout premium is increasing in the preannouncement presence of hedge funds, measured as the fraction of target equity held by hedge funds before the announcement. Using a geographic instrument for the presence of hedge fund, I find that this relationship persists even after controlling for endogeneity. I further show that this effect holds only for active hedge funds and long-term hedge funds, and is stronger for management-led LBOs than for third-party LBOs. Overall, the findings suggest that hedge funds protect target shareholder interests in LBOs by using their hold-out power. The second essay examines the relation between expected market volatility and the demand for liquidity in open-end mutual funds. The empirical results are consistent with precautionary motives for holding liquid assets, i.e., fund managers tilt their holdings more heavily toward liquid stocks when the market is expected to be more volatile. This dynamic preference for liquid stocks is more pronounced among small fund families, low-load funds, funds whose past performance has been unfavorable, funds with high return volatility, growth-oriented funds, and high-turnover funds. I further show that this type of behavior is valuable for fund investors during high volatility periods because it has led to significantly (both statistically and economically) higher subsequent abnormal returns. The third essay, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Gang Hu, directly tests Brennan and Hughes' (1991) information production theory of stock splits by making use of a large sample of transaction-level institutional trading data. We compare brokerage commissions paid by institutional investors before and after a split, and relate the informativeness of institutional trading to brokerage commissions paid. We also compute realized institutional trading profitability net of brokerage commissions and other trading costs. Our results can be summarized as follows. First, both commissions paid and trading volume by institutional investors increase after a stock split. Second, institutional trading immediately after a split has predictive power for the firm's subsequent long-term stock return performance; this predictive power is concentrated in stocks which generate higher commission revenues for brokerage firms and is greater for institutions that pay higher brokerage commissions. Third, institutions make positive abnormal profits during the post-split period even after taking brokerage commissions and other trading costs into account; institutions paying higher commissions significantly outperform those paying lower commissions. Fourth, the information asymmetry faced by firms decreases after a split; the greater the increase in brokerage commissions after a split, the greater the reduction in information asymmetry. Overall, our results are broadly consistent with the implications of the information production theory. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Este trabalho busca compreender as amarras e as potencialidades em torno do uso das mídias digitais por ativistas autônomos anticapitalistas. O objetivo é partir da discussão sobre a potência democratizante que a Internet ativa e chegar à análise de coletivos autônomos que produzem e divulgam no espaço digital um discurso anticapitalista. Embora as novas mídias façam parte da indústria na qual a informação é mercadoria e meio de reprodução da lógica de produção vigente, a existência de grupos que usufruem das mídias digitais para criticar o atual modelo político, econômico e social contribui para o crescimento descentralizado da construção e difusão do pensamento antissistêmico. Portanto, interessa a esta pesquisa refletir sobre as origens desse ativismo e seu potencial de transformação social. A narração de episódios recentes da trajetória do movimento autônomo - o levante zapatista, a Ação Global dos Povos e as ocupações de 2011- vai ajudar na compreensão de elementos encontrados nos protestos de junho de 2013 e na formação de uma rede de coletivos em espaços físicos e virtuais. A coleta de dados de redes sociais e entrevistas com militantes basearão a descrição das ações comunicativas empreendidas por esses ativistas. / This paper seeks to understand the limits and potentialities surrounding the use of digital media by autonome anticapitalist activists. The purpose is to depart from the discussion about the democratizing potency that Internet activates and reach the analysis of autonome movements that produce and publish in the digital environment an anticapitalist speech. Although new media takes part of industry where information is merchandise and way of reproducing the logic of the current production, the existence of groups that take advantage of digital media to criticize the current political, economic and social model contributes to the decentralized growth of construction and dissemination of antisystemic thought. Therefore, this research is interested in reflect on the origins of this activism and its potential for social transformation. The narration of recent episodes of the trajectory of the autonomous movement - the Zapatista insurrection, the People\'s Global Action and occupations in 2011 - will help in the understanding of elements found in the protests of June 2013 and the formation of a network of collectives in physical and virtual spaces. The collection of data from social networks and interviews with militants will base the description of communicative actions undertaken by these activists.