Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-214).

This dissertation seeks to articulate a framework for critiquing and reconstructing science education by fleshing out the relationships between science education, its ontological commitments to nature, and educational practices that promote justice and democracy. Drawing on theoretical and methodological resources from American Pragmatism and science studies, I offer a case study that evokes the practices of a residential outdoor science program in the Pacific Northwest. I suggest that these practices provide an opportunity to imagine how science education emerges differently when it abandons its commitments to a singular and authoritative Nature, and explore how this program provides empirical resources for building a theory of science education that is multinatural. Grasping the plurality of nature diminishes the tension between experiences and the world, recognizing the importance of the sciences to democratic action without positioning them as a singular source of authority. Multinaturalism then becomes an orienting concept for imagining and reconstructing more democratic and just practices of science education, practices that move away from the transmission of a cannon of white, Eurocentric knowledge, and towards the navigation of problems in dynamic worlds.

This dissertation examines the rhetoric employed by Wollstonecraft, Cugoano, and Godwin who devise a top-down/bottom-up dialectic of social-justice writing which can be read as grassroots advocacy. The authors write with two constant goals in mind: from the top down, they decry systemic forms of injustice; and from the bottom up, they make the experiences of victims visible. Scholarship on A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery, and Things as They are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, has often focused on assessing the degree to which each text concerns itself with democratic equal rights. By contrast, this project explicates how the writers collectively define social injustice for the late eighteenth century. The writers simultaneously voice their indignation against those moral and socio-economic wrongs; deconstruct assumptions of natural inferiority and social disrespect; demand extensive change to social foundations; assert the humanity of women, workers, and slaves; and empathize with other oppressed populations across their traditionally conceived genres of vindication, slave narrative, and novel. Ultimately, my work incorporates a lexicon of political philosophy, political theory, and grassroots advocacy into literary studies to show how Wollstonecraft, Cugoano, and Godwin not only recognize corresponding patterns of oppression but also utilize strikingly similar literary devices and rhetorical strategies by which to combat injustice. All three authors share the same fundamental aim— to transform the dismal existence of the oppressed groups they represent.

Cette thèse de doctorat s'intéresse à la naissance de l' idée de justice sociale, idée formulée pour l'une des toutes premières fois en France par les saint-simoniens ( 1825-1832). Plus précisément, la justice sociale a émergé sous certaines conditions matérielles et intellectuelles. Ces conditions sont réunies par le saint-simonisme.Observateurs des progrès réalisés grâce à l'industrialisation, les saint-simoniens ont montré que les moyens de production pourraient être distribués à tou(te)s. Cela constitue la condition matérielle. L'esprit de la Révolution française, et surtout la Déclaration de 1789, a créé une atmosphère égalitariste : chaque individu devrait pouvoir améliorer son statut socioéconomique. Cela constitue la condition intellectuelle.Les considérations saint-simoniennes de justice sociale reposent sur un critère spécifique: la capacité. En découle alors l'aphorisme fondateur de la doctrine saint-simonienne : « à chacun selon sa capacité, à chaque capacité selon ses oeuvres »,aphorisme spécifiant les règles d'attribution des moyens de production et de distribution des récompenses. Lesystème saint-simonien prenait sa source dans leur volonté de fournir un système équitable d'opportunité basé sur lecrédit bancaire. De telles considérations constituent la justice sociale saint-simonienne. / This PhD thesis deals with the birth of the idea of social justice, which dates back in France to the Saint-Simonians. It asserts that social justice emerged under certain material and intellectual conditions.The Saint-Simonians (1825-1832) maintained, that due to the progress made within the industrial economic system, the means of production could be distributed to everyone. This comprised the material condition. The spirit of the French Revolution, and mostly the Declaration of Rights of Humans of 1789, created an egalitarian atmosphere; namely, everyone should be able to improve his socio-economic status. This specific spirit of thought comprised the intellectual condition.The Saint-Simonian considerations of social justice are based upon a specific criterion: ability: "to each according to his ability, to each ability according to his works." This aphorism specifies rules of allocation of means of production and distribution of reward. The underlying roots of their system were their willingness to provide a fair system of opportunity based upon banking credit. The saint-simonian considerations of social justice are based upon all these considerations.

In this thesis I argue that David Miller has not successfully generated an account of nationalism that is liberal. I first present Miller’s account the nation, national identity and national culture. I then draw out how the ability of internal minorities to contest repugnant elements of national identity or culture is deeply ties to the liberal character of nationalism. I then argue that the exclusion of particular identities that is required by Miller’s public sphere deprives internal minorities of the epistemic resources they need to challenge repugnant elements of national culture or identity. This puts the liberal character of Miller’s nationalism into question. After I provide a rebuttal on behalf of Miller that leads to a reinterpretation of his view. However, I argue the modified account is still unsatisfactory in providing a means for contestation. Consequently I conclude if Miller is to provide an account of nationalism that is truly liberal he needs to tell a different story about the role of particular identities in public sphere deliberation.

Thesis advisor: James Keenan / Thesis advisor: Daniel J. Daly / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / With several highly publicized police killings during the latter half of 2014, the issue of police violence has been re-ignited in the United States as emotionally charged a topic as ever, dividing Americans politically and socially and racially. From Eric Garner to Nicholas Robertson, the media has been greatly influential on public perception of police killings. Based on 163 digital news articles about cases of police killings from the top ten visited American news sites of 2015, this study analyzes how the American media’s language contributes to readers’ perception of police killings, focusing on patterns of race-related modifiers, passivization, and evaluation. Use of these linguistic features can influence public perception of the role of race, police accountability, and societal expectations. Considering the findings, I advocate for media literacy education as professional development for journalists.

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