abstract: ABSTRACT For many years, difference scholars, such as Cornel West, Iris Marion Young, and Janet Atwill have been reminding humanities scholars that if social equity is ever to be realized, difference needs to be reconfigured and reframed. As Janet Atwill puts it, "difference can no longer be the anomaly, the enemy, or the problem to be solved. Difference is the condition" (212). While these scholars insightfully recognize that difference needs to be accepted, welcomed and loved rather than merely tolerated, they have not sufficiently addressed the perceptual change that must occur worldwide if difference as an intrinsic underlying condition of human existence is to be embraced. This project provides a point of departure for carrying out such a dramatic epistemic change by arguing that hierarchical thinking, not difference, is the real agent underwriting societal violence and discord. Hierarchical thinking delineates a more appropriate critical space than does difference for social justice inquiry, invention, and intervention. This project also rhetorically theorizes the realm of intersubjectivity and provides two novel contributions to contemporary rhetorical theory: 1) privilege as a rhetorical construct and 2) the untapped inventional potential of the postmodern understanding of intersubjectivity. To illustrate the embodied and performative aspects of hierarchical thinking, this work draws upon the writings of Lillian Smith, a white southerner (1897-1966) whose descriptive analyses of the Jim Crow South allude to large systems of privilege of which Jim Crow is merely representational. Illustrating the invidious nexus of privilege, Smith's writings describe the ways in which individuals embody and perform practices of exclusion and hate to perpetuate larger systems of privilege. Smith shows how privilege operates much as gender and power--fluidly and variously and dependent upon context. Viewing privilege as a rhetorical construct, operating dynamically, always in flux and at play, provides rhetoricians with a theoretically important move that un-yokes privilege from specific identities (e.g., white privilege). When viewed through this more dynamic and precise lens, we can readily perceive how privilege functions as a colonizing, ubiquitously learned, and variegated rhetorical practice of subordination and domination that, as a frame of analysis, offers a more fluid and accurate perspective than identity categories provide for discussions of oppression, social justice, and democratic engagement. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2012

Corporations - their power and impact on society - are a neglected topic in political philosophy. In this thesis, I attempt to address this neglect by using the framework of Rawlsian justice to examine what corporations' relationship to social and international justice ought to be. The first part of the thesis is on domestic social justice. I urge that Rawlsians should not begin their inquiry by taking the corporate form as given because the corporation's existence requires a specific set of private-ordering and property rules to be in place. What we should ask, instead, is whether these rules are actually permitted by the two principles of justice as fairness. This question leads to an examination of different economic regimes that are compatible with Rawlsian justice. I focus on one particular regime - that of property-owning democracy. What I find is that while not all versions of property-owning democracy would permit the corporate form, some would actually welcome it due to the feature of 'the separation of ownership and control' that is typical of modern corporations. The second part of the thesis is on international justice. I argue that the best way to situate corporations in Rawls's theory of international justice - his Law of Peoples - is to connect them to the duty of assistance. This is not a straightforward task because a relatively strict reading of the duty of assistance would disallow treating corporations as primarily responsible for discharging it. However, a revisionist approach to the Law of Peoples shows that we can understand the duty of assistance as a part of transitional justice. The significance of this is that Rawls's prescribed ideal theory of international justice does not determine who the agents for transitional justice ought to be or the grounds for attributing responsibility to such agents. We are thus free to adopt David Miller's criteria for attribution of remedial responsibilities to assign to corporations responsibilities for the duty of assistance. What is more, in a particular area of international justice - that of fairness in trade - we can establish that corporations can be primary agents of transitional justice.

This thesis has two parts, which together seek to explore the political channels of responsibility for global injustice. While there is much that we might owe each other as persons, the thesis argues that our political arrangements and interactions generate further duties for citizens, both as a collective and individually, and for states as political agents. Part I explores what states, as equal agents in the global sphere, owe to each other. It presents two sets of duties held by states: firstly, non-relational duties of non-harm, rescue, and the provision of basic human necessities; and secondly, a relational duty to respect the principle of equality in negotiation. Drawing from this foundation, Part II offers an account of citizen responsibility for states' failure to fulfil these duties. The thesis supports existing claims that citizens ought to bear the burdens of their participation in the state but makes a further claim that citizens of liberal western democracies can be held collectively morally responsible for the unjust acts of their state. This responsibility is grounded in citizens' endorsement of democracy, their influence and benefit from state action, and their unique position to hold the state accountable. As a result of this responsibility, the collective can be blamed, punished (within limits), expected to apologize, and held liable for remedial duties. In turn, citizens will have individual duties to 'do their bit' in fulfilling these collective remedial duties, as well as the collective duty of holding their state accountable. Each citizen's share of these collective duties will be determined by their capacity and effectiveness in contributing to the fulfilment of the duties, and their share of the influence over, and benefit from, the injustice.

Since 2010 when the previous Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition Government came into power, major alterations have been introduced to the welfare state in the UK. The policy, commonly known as 'the bedroom tax' (BT) has received widespread public and media attention for its controversy and perceived attack on the finances and living conditions of low-income, working age households in need of welfare support. The implementation of this particular policy has reduced housing benefits for social housing tenants who are deemed to be under-occupying their homes according to the policy criteria. Families therefore, who are deemed to have a 'spare room' are required to make up the short-fall in rent or downsize to smaller properties. Research has shown that this policy has pushed vulnerable social housing tenants further into poverty and debt. This thesis has been designed to understand the everyday psychosocial effects of this policy further. It is a unique case study exploring life from a lone mother's experience of the policy. Data was collected from two interviews and over a ten-month period to assess whether time would be a factor that would affect the story told by one lone mother as she lives with the impacts of the policy. Both interviews were subject to critical narrative analysis. Murray's (1999) 'levels of narrative analysis' were drawn upon to analyse the multiple narratives occurring within this participant's experience of the BT, shedding light on stories told at the personal, interpersonal, positional and ideological level. The critical narrative analysis then looked at how these stories at each level connected to highlight the psychosocial implications of living with the BT policy as a single mother. The eight plotlines discovered in the analysis demonstrate the complicated areas, which contribute to the story as a whole. Time showed that pervasive feelings of stigmatisation and enforced social isolation occurred due to reduced economic resources and dominant cultural ideologies directed at welfare recipients. Overall, the present case study findings provide an example of the interrelatedness of wellbeing and wellness in the context of public policy changes. Moreover, it shows that the current social and political conditions are challenging the lives of those who find themselves in vulnerable socio-economic positions. The case study poses a number of challenges for counselling psychology, especially as there are ongoing debates on how the profession can engage effectively with wider social and political issues.

There is currently a paucity of literature in the field to provide clinicians guidance regarding best practices when clients make racist comments during individual therapy. As of this writing, very little theoretical literature and no empirical literature had been published on the topic. To address this gap in the literature, the current study used a mixed-methods design to investigate the topics. The investigation queried clinicians trained in Clinical and Counseling Psychology who had had at least three years of experience working with adult clients in individual therapy. As a starting point, the investigation focused on participants' experiences when White clients made racist comments, as White individuals have historically held more social power than People of Color. As the first of its kind, this exploratory study asked participants what they do when their White clients make racist comments in session and what factors (i.e., motivators, barriers, and other influencing factors) influence their decision-making in these situations. Data analysis was also done to identify some characteristics of the clinician that relate to the behaviors in which the clinician engages when clients make racist comments in therapy. Participants reported engaging in a range of behaviors from ignoring the comment or changing the subject to directly confronting the client's comment, labeling it racist and processing this with the client. In general, participants reported wanting to intervene with the comments more than they actually did. They indicated that the factors that influenced their behaviors included their own values regarding eradicating racism, their theoretical orientations, a desire to keep the focus on the client's presenting concern, and concerns about negative consequences that might result from confronting the comments. The information gleaned from the current study can be useful in beginning the conversation about what to do in these situations so that psychology's value of multiculturalism is upheld while also respecting clients' individual beliefs and values as well as their autonomy in therapy. It is hoped that this information will prompt additional process research in this area to establish best practices for therapeutically addressing racism and other forms of prejudice as they arise in therapy.

In this study, I explored critical approaches to social justice in student affairs. I sought to understand how student affairs administrators understand and communicate about social justice. Furthermore, I studied how a critical paradigm informs the work of student affairs practitioners in their everyday lives, and what we might learn from the experiences of professionals who ground their work in such paradigms. This was a qualitative study, in which I used snowball sampling as the method for recruiting participants. I conducted semi structured interviews with 14 full time student affairs administrators, who I refer to as critically-oriented student affairs administrators. Consistent with critical theory, I employ a language of critique and a language of possibility in this dissertation. The findings in this study suggest that there is much work to be done in more productively addressing social justice in student affairs. The lived experiences the participants in this study shared provide insight into living out critical commitments to social justice in the student affairs field. Furthermore, there is space in the student affairs field for more in-depth analysis and consideration for what it means to be "critical" in the student affairs profession.

A common understanding is that dyslexia is the inability to spell words, the inability to recall symbols, the inability to recognize sight words, or the inability to decode. Dyslexia is often described in deficiency language—the inability to do something. Deficiency language is a product of special education and continues to dominate common understandings of dyslexia. Additionally, special education views dyslexia as an isolated variable, an object to assess, measure, and rehabilitate, and does not take into consideration systemic factors that may influence learning. In this dissertation, I ask three primary research questions: (1) What are the influential areas of study in the academy that have shaped our contemporary understanding of dyslexia? (2) What is a dyslexic way of knowing and writing? How can we make our classrooms more accessible? And (3) What can we learn about the educational institution from a dyslexic positionality? After reviewing the literature on dyslexia from the areas of special education, disability studies in education, critical communication pedagogy, and crip theory, I identify that dyslexia tends to be object of study, and very few people who identify as dyslexic are writing about dyslexia. The dyslexic scholar is rendered invisible. An undergirding principle of this dissertation is that dyslexia becomes visible only through communication: the miss-reading of a sign, a miss-spelled word, a misunderstood text, mistakes. If we come to know the world through writing and communication, then the “mistakes” that are common to dyslexia are actually another way of knowing the world, a legitimate way of knowing. Through performative writing, I articulate a dyslexic way of knowing, and show how this way of knowing can help us rethink course design and classroom communication. I also offer course design strategies that aim to disrupt ritualized educational practices, subvert scriptocentricism, embrace universal design for learning, and promote personalized education. In the process, I legitimize a dyslexic way of know, and by effect, legitimize dyslexia.

My thesis focuses on demonstrating the limits of the human development approaches of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. While both offer excellent criticisms of the problems inherent in economic- or income-centered approaches to development, the framework of freedoms and capabilities from which they argue is too limited in identifying responsibilities and obligations to others. Thus, their approaches cannot sufficiently be used to transform the economic, social, and political structures that have caused and maintain the social justice issues they seek to address. In order to achieve universal recognition of the essential right of every individual to be free and able to live a life of value and human dignity, it is first necessary that people desire such recognition for others, not only themselves. Since the fulfillment of entitlements necessary for living a full and happy life essentially require institutions, governments, and numerous other socially-based public actions to secure them, the recognition of individual responsibilities and obligations is fundamental to being able to realize freedoms, rights, and capabilities. Therefore, I argue that the transformation from economic-centered to freedom- or capability-centered development processes must be grounded in responsibility and concern for others. What is needed is not an approach that is merely more of the same – freedom, liberty, rights – but instead a radical transformation of the moral and ethical values of society, which cannot be brought about without a shift, not just in the focus, but in the language of approaches to human development and social injustice.

Across the United States, organic gardens are being used to improve community development and develop civic agriculture programs for minority populations, including Latinos. Huerto de la Familia (Family Garden), a community agriculture organization based in Eugene, Oregon, aims to improve the food security and well-being of urban Latino immigrants. This study asks the question: how effective is the organization's Organic Gardening program at improving the mental, physical, and nutritional health of urban Latinos? I analyze how participation in the community gardening program empowers the families involved and provides them access to fresh and culturally appropriate foods. Through active participatory research, semi-structured interviews, and the use of photo journals and receipt collections, this study finds that Huerto de la Familia is beneficial in terms of food justice and improving community integration.

abstract: Privilege is unearned advantages, access, and power reserved for a select group of people. Those that benefit from privilege manifest their power consciously and sub-consciously so as to maintain their exclusive control of the opportunities privilege affords them. The reach and power of one’s privilege rises and falls as the different social identities that one possesses intersect. Ultimately, if a society built on justice and equity is to be achieved, those with privilege must take tangible steps to acknowledge their privilege and work to end the unequal advantages and oppression that are created in order to perpetuate privilege. This thesis unpacks privilege through an autoethnographic examination of the author’s history. Through the use of creative nonfiction, personal stories become launching points to explore characteristics of privilege manifest in the author’s life which are emblematic of larger social groups that share many of the author’s social identities. The following characteristics of privilege are explored: merit, oppression, normalization, economic value, neutrality, blindness, and silence. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2015