The aim of the project is to understand urban constraints through analysis of sites’ deep context and to arrive with a relevant spatial solution. Moreover, we hope that the problems investigated and communicated will be once tackled. The object of analysis is the today image and urban structure of the unappreciated area of Holylands. The proposal is to recognize the favors and the wealth of the neighbourhood. Built originally for the middle-class, the neighbourhood used to be a welcoming area of the city with a strong culture of community and public activity. The analysis of the problem starts with the acknowledging the initial values and follows with the adaptation to the today situation. The scheme is the architectural intervention corresponding to the syntax of the area. The project investigates the neighbourhood in architectural terms and emphasizes the values and need of the community, public space, openness and clarity in the living environment.

This essay is a MFS case study conducted at a South African high school in 2010. The study examines how students and teachers perceive the meeting with apartheid in a post-apartheid classroom within the framework of History and English. The empirical data consists of observations and interviews with Grade 11 students and teachers in an affluent school environment in Cape Town. The study shows that there are gaps between how the teachers and learners perceive apartheid as relevant and relatable and how a silencing classroom climate limits the space for interaction on the subject matter. From the position of the South African steering documents and a socio-cultural perspective on learning, I discuss the didactical challenges that arise from a gap between the student and teacher perceptions.

The leitmotif of Stuffmobile, a modern day Florida-based novella, is that of relational healing: a son with his father, ex-lovers with one another, and, even more challenging perhaps, a son making peace with his dead mother. New beginnings are explored, both as resurrection of long dead feelings and as starting afresh after loss. A husband finds distraction in a covert project after his wife’s death, so much so that his preoccupied isolation worries his two adult children. The son comes to investigate, and his malfunctioning car leads to a reunion and the beginnings of reconciliation. Hours later, an accident nearly derails the relationship once more. The characters here struggle to understand and be understood, to avoid hurting others and avoid being hurt, all while searching for respect and love—just another normal day of the human experience.

Purpose: Healthcare organizations are mandated to improve quality and safety for patients while stressed with shorter lengths of stay, communication lapses between disciplines, and patient throughput issues that impede timely delivery of patient care. Nurses play a prominent role in the safe transition of patients from admission to discharge. Although nurses participate in discharge planning, limited research has addressed the role and outcomes of the registered nurse as a leader in the process. The aim of this study was determine if implementation of a nurse-driven discharge planning protocol for patients undergoing cardiac implant would result in improved organizational efficiencies, higher medication reconciliation rates, and higher patient satisfaction scores. Methods: A two-group posttest experimental design was used to conduct the study. Informed consent was obtained from 53 individuals scheduled for a cardiac implant procedure. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a nurse-driven discharge planning intervention group or a control group. Post procedure, 46 subjects met inclusion criteria with half (n=23) assigned to each group. All subjects received traditional discharge planning services. The morning after the cardiac implant procedure, a specially trained registered nurse assessed subjects in the intervention for discharge readiness. Subjects in the intervention groups were then discharged under protocol orders by the intervention nurse after targeted physical assessment, review of the post procedure chest radiograph, and examination of the cardiac implant device function. The intervention nurse also provided patient education, discharge instructions, and conducted medication reconciliation. The day after discharge the principal investigator conducted a scripted follow-up phone call to answer questions and monitor for post procedure complications. A Hospital Discharge Survey was administered during the subject's follow-up appointment. Results: The majority of subjects were men, Caucasian, insured, and educated at the high school level or higher. Their average age was 73.5+ 9.8 years. No significant differences between groups were noted for gender, type of insurance, education, or type of cardiac implant (chi-square); or age (t-test). A Mann-Whitney U test (one-tailed) found no significant difference in variable cost per case (p=.437) and actual charges (p=.403) between the intervention and control groups. Significant differences were found between groups for discharge satisfaction (p=.05) and the discharge perception of overall health (p=.02), with those in the intervention group reporting higher scores. Chi square analysis found no significant difference in 30-day readmission rates (p=.520). Using an independent samples t-test, those in the intervention group were discharged earlier (p=.000), had a lower length of stay (p=.005), and had higher rates of reconciled medications (p=.000). The odds of having all medications reconciled were significantly higher in the intervention group (odds ratio, 50.27; 95% CI, 5.62-450.2; p=.000). Discussion/Implications: This is the first study to evaluate the role of the nurse as a clinical leader in patient throughput, discharge planning, and patient safety initiatives. A nurse driven discharge planning protocol resulted in earlier discharge times which can have a dramatic impact on patient throughput. The nurse driven protocol significantly reduced the likelihood of unreconciled medications at discharge and significantly increased patient satisfaction. Follow-up research is needed to determine if a registered nurse can impact organizational efficiency and discharge safety in other patient populations.

This dissertation analyzes the careers of three Afrikaner missionaries, David Bosch, Carel Boshoff, and Nico Smith, who gained international reputations for pioneering alternatives to the South African Nation Party’s (NP) policy of apartheid over the second half of the 20th century. Afrikaners looked to missionaries to be moral leaders on questions of race relations, and missionaries’ public theologies carried significant moral weight. While numerous historians have argued that from the 1930s through the 1950s Afrikaner missionaries played a key role in developing and promoting the moral basis of apartheid in South Africa, they have not, however, addressed how Afrikaner missionaries responded to the political, social, and moral failure of apartheid. By the 1970s, the dissonance between the ideal and the actual implementation of apartheid led Bosch, Smith, and Boshoff—by that time leading public theologians—to a crisis of confidence in the NP, and they began to endorse divergent moral visions for the country’s future. David Bosch and Nico Smith embraced racial unity while Carel Boshoff pursued ethnic separatism. By the mid-1970s, Bosch became a leading proponent of “reconciliation,” which gave Afrikaners new moral language for thinking about themselves as part of a non-racial society. By the mid-1980s, both Bosch and Smith were key leaders in ecumenical and interracial organizations that endorsed a negotiated end to apartheid. They helped to form a growing interracial solidarity of Christians that encouraged and facilitated the democratic transition of 1990/1994. Conservative theologians, like Boshoff, attempted to stem the popularity of reconciliation in Afrikaner political and civil organizations. He was unable to successfully coordinate efforts with other conservatives, and he was increasingly marginalized. Ultimately, Boshoff opted for negotiated ethnic separatism with the African National Congress. This study demonstrates that far from being monolithic, Afrikaner religiosity and racial morality were dynamic and contested. Secondly, it shows that a number of Afrikaner public theologians and moral leaders were actively involved in ending white minority rule in South Africa. Conversely, it also shows that conservative religious leaders were able to transform Afrikaner nationalism, thereby prolonging its influence into the 21st century.

There has been growing recognition in recent environmental discourse that environmental justice, which is normally understood to mean the disproportionate effect of climate change on minority groups, also takes the form of epistemic injustice. In the Canadian context, this means the exclusion of Indigenous philosophies, values, and perspectives from discourse about environmental ethics, as well as the spheres of policy and governance as they pertain to the environment. At the same time, there has been increasing concern with creating just outcomes for future people. Given that future generations have made no contribution to the pollution that causes climate change, but will feel its worst effects, many environmental and political philosophers have recently pointed to the need for a strong theory of intergenerational justice, especially as it pertains to the environment. In this thesis, I argue that an essential part of achieving intergenerational environmental justice in Canada is working toward the rectification of both material and epistemic harms toward Indigenous peoples which are perpetuated by the “rationalistic” conception of nature which sees nature as an instrumentally valuable resource to be exploited for human gain. I explore the historical construction of this conception of nature and its pervasiveness in recent work on environmental ethics in order to show how Indigenous perspectives have historically been suppressed through colonialism, and more recently been subjected to epistemic oppression within Western environmental ethics. I then focus specifically on intergenerational environmental justice as a field in which Indigenous philosophies have faced the greatest exclusion, and may also have the most to teach us. I conclude by providing a brief overview of recent Indigenous environmental activism as an expression of Indigenous values, and look to treaties as understood by Indigenous philosophies as a potential framework for moving together toward a just future for all.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In 1922, George Tompkins was found dead in an isolated area of Riverside Park. Though the media and evidence present pointed to Tompkins having been the victim of a lynching, the official ruling was that of suicide. Almost a century later, a multiracial, driven group of individuals set out to memorialize Tompkins as a victim of lynching and challenge the ruling that he had taken his own life. In discussing deaths such as George Tompkins’, it is vital to remind oneself that the victims of lynchings were more than just statistics in the ongoing epidemic of anti-Black violence that has permeated the history of the United States. By employing a victim-centered methodology, we can examine the lives of these victims before the worst happened to them and recognize the three-dimensionality of their lived experiences. This work examines the lived experience, lynching death, and memorialization process one hundred years later of George Tompkins. In understanding the means by which he lived, died, and was remembered, we can better understand the ways that this process can play a role in multiple contemporary communities.

Justice and reconciliation are both highly complex concepts that are often described as incompatible alternatives in the aftermath of violent conflicts, despite the fact that both are fundamental to peacebuilding in societies divided by the legacies of political violence, oppression and exclusion. This thesis examines the relationship between justice and reconciliation, pursued as essential ingredients of peacebuilding. After advancing an inclusive working conceptual framework in which seemingly competing conceptions regarding justice and reconciliation are reconceived to work compatibly for building peace, the thesis presents the results of an in-depth case study of Rwanda¿s post-genocide justice and reconciliation endeavour. The thesis focuses on Rwanda¿s justice and reconciliation efforts and their relationship to the ongoing challenge of reformulating Rwandans¿ social identities. A field research conducted for this study revealed that issues of victimhood, justice and reconciliation were highly contested among individuals and groups with varied experiences of the country¿s violent history. Resolving these conflicting narratives so that each Rwandan¿s narrative/identity is dissociated from the negation of the other¿s victimhood emerged as a paramount challenge in Rwanda¿s quest for justice and reconciliation. Rwanda¿s approach to justice and reconciliation can be seen as an innovative both/and approach that seeks to overcome dichotomous thinking by addressing various justice and reconciliation concerns in compatible ways. However, by limiting its efforts to the issues that arose from crimes committed under the former regimes, the justice and reconciliation endeavour of the Rwandan government fails to reconcile people¿s conflicting narratives of victimhood, which will be essential to transform the existing racialised and politicised ethnic identities of Rwandan people. / Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID)

Many post-conflict societies, even those which have been free from active conflict for decades, continue to be heavily divided along the same lines on which the conflict was once fought. While active conflict might be a distant memory, the legacy of conflict ensures the group identities which either caused or were borne out of the conflict remain strong. Achieving a situation where a society truly lets go of the anger and resentment that fuels its divisions has proven to be an allusive prospect, however, it’s a goal many post-conflict states continue to reach for. The effort a state uses to try to deconstruct these potentially harmful social identities and to deal with the conflict-related grievances which strengthen them can be loosely understood as post-transitional justice. Part of the reason why effective reconciliation has proven so difficult is that post-transitional justice typically requires societies to reopen old wounds and publicly address challenging memories. Thus, in the context of divided post-conflict societies, post-transitional justice, if not properly implemented, can itself be a divisive procedure and one that risks heightening tensions rather than reducing them. Despite this clear risk, little research has been conducted to understand what factors are likely to make the difficult process of introducing post-transitional justice more or less successful. This thesis addresses this research gap. It uses a social identity approach to examine how socio-political context influences group identification and inter-group behaviour in divided societies and how these behaviours subsequently impact how those groups perceive post-transitional justice mechanisms. This thesis draws on the timely case of Northern Ireland, which is in the process of introducing a wide-reaching post-transitional justice mechanism at a time when the socio-political context has been markedly challenged by Brexit and other socio-political events. Through a mixed methods approach which used both questionnaires and key informant interviews, this thesis demonstrates how the recent socio-political context in Northern Ireland has significantly heightened nationalist and unionist identification with their groups and has concurrently heightened tensions between the two groups. This thesis shows how this environment has subsequently made these groups less likely to accept the terms of the post-transitional justice mechanism, thus limiting its ability to reach its goal of creating an enabling environment for reconciliation, trust, and peacebuilding.

Thesis advisor: Margaret Eletta Guider / Thesis advisor: O. Ernesto Valiente / Beginning in 1990 and lasting for one decade, in Rwanda and the subregion of Africa where Rwanda is located, violence, wars, genocide, and migrations caused various expressions of suffering. It is said that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared at Kibeho in a sorrowful state almost ten years before and foretold such atrocities and suggested a way out. Failing to pay heed to her prophetic voice, the consequences are devastating and challenging. In the effort to confront such challenges, the Church looks for ways in which she can channel the healing graces needed in the aftermath. Can we talk of the God who heals the broken-hearted in the context of bitter sufferings subsequent to Genocide against the Tutsi? The answer is ‘yes’ and in Rwanda, particularly the Sorrowful Mother and Jesus Christ, give a hint for that possibility. The solidarity shown by them to the suffering people of Rwanda is key to receiving God’s healing and hope in the promises of his Kingdom despite the bitterness of the suffering. Assured of the solidarity of both the Sorrowful Mother and of Jesus Christ, Rwandans can embark on the long yet necessary journey of healing and reconciliation. The Church in Rwanda ought to lead this urgent imperative with an innovative pastoral approach and at the same time propose a preventative endeavor to deter violence and instill harmonious relationships. This process of healing and reconciliation is informed by God’s example who reconciled humanity through the passion, death, and resurrection of his Son. Practices of solidarity, especially wherever sufferings are still felt, should be a priority. Moreover, a peacebuilding project should be an ecclesial initiative and priority for the sake of generations to come. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.