In the 21st Century, many Americans continue to fight battles for men of color who are at the forefront of criminal injustice, unemployment, and low matriculation. With great dominion and urgency, our Nation must ensure all men, regardless of the adversity can succeed and build legacies in their families, communities, and the economy. In this action research study, an ecological system theory was used to analyze the stakeholders who have implemented the following public polices under the Obama Administration: 21st Century Policing, My Brother's Keeper, and Race to the Top. This research answers the question how stakeholders are able to impact positive social change through implementing polices that focus on academia, criminal justice, and employment for African-American and Latino males living in Los Angeles County. Data was retrieved from 16 non-profit organizations; a target population was then sampled resulting in 25 participants that have expertise in working with men of color. Participant's answered 10 interview questions and their short answers were inductively coded, which revealed significant themes. Daily mentorship was identified as the leading tool to garner success in working with men color, while ecological influences, limited funding, policy misalignment, and stereotypical threats have been recurring barriers. Key findings recommended: mixed-method data, stakeholder collaborations, training programs, and creative marketing. Furthermore, this study closes the gap towards aligning with public polices that will create supportive services for men of color and offering stakeholders -'the what, and the how' towards implementing social change.

Over the past 20 years, adult obesity has increased in the United States, especially among the Hispanic/Latino population. In 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Environmental and Safety News, reported that younger workers, ages 18 to19 years of age, worked in the most high-risk occupations such as agriculture, construction, fishing, and manufacturing. The reported fatality rates for these occupations were 5.6 times greater for Hispanic workers compared to other race/ethnicity groups reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2013. This study determined whether obesity contributed to workplace injury or mortality in hazardous occupations, using federal, state, and independent national databases. The independent variable was obesity, the dependent variable was injury in hazardous occupations. In addition, age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic level, educational level, and cultural context were used as mediating variables. The target population included all workers ages 18 to 65 years of age in hazardous occupations. Analysis of databases from NHANES, BRFSS, NIOSH, OSHA, and the BLS was conducted using descriptive statistics for frequency of the mediating variables' relationship to workplace injury. This study highlighted the prevalence of obesity in the Hispanic/Latino population and increased incidence of workplace injury in hazardous occupations, but found no significant relationship between the variables using the BFRSS Web Enabled Analysis Tool for linear regression and cross-tabulation. Establishing a relationship between obesity and increased injury for the Hispanic/Latino population in high-risk occupations for preventative measures will enhance positive social change within this underrepresented population in research.

In the United States, immigrant entrepreneurs start almost one third of all new businesses. However, many immigrant entrepreneurs lack the knowledge or expertise to evolve their businesses beyond the ethnic enclave where the businesses are located. This multiple case study captured the strategies used by 5 Latino immigrant business owners who successfully expanded their business beyond their ethnic enclave. The conceptual framework for this study was dynamic capabilities theory. Data were collected from interviews, company documents, and observations of the operation of businesses and owners. Member checking and transcript reviews were used to enhance the reliability and credibility of the data. Miles, Huberman, and Saldana's data analysis method was used to identify 6 themes that yielded 3 possible strategies to help Latino immigrant business owners expand outside of their enclave: (a) adopt a multicultural hybridism model changing the internal make-up of the employee base to include more interethnic labor and managerial resources; (b) achieve language and cultural proficiency of the host community; and (c) seek and nurture professional development and mentorship relationships to obtain access to advice, opportunities, and financial resources. Also noted was the importance of individual readiness to seize opportunities and being tenacious in their business efforts. The study findings may contribute to positive social change because strategies that help immigrant entrepreneurs succeed have benefits that extend beyond their immediate family to the broader communities in which they operate by increasing job creation, wealth accumulation, and the development of society.

Latino college enrollment rates in South Carolina do not reflect the overall increase in the Latino population in the state, which suggests that schools, colleges, and universities may be unprepared to serve the unique needs of Latino students. Consequently, Latino students are less likely to pursue opportunities in higher education than their non-Latino counterparts, which raises significant public policy concerns about equity and the potential economic contributions of the Latino communities. The purpose of this narrative policy analysis (NPA), based upon critical race theory, was to explore the perceptions of Latino students, parents, and advocates related to opportunities in pursuing education after high school in Greenville County, SC. Criterion and snowball sampling identified 15 individuals from whom interview data were acquired. Participants included 7 Latino students, 3 of their parents, and 5 advocates of Latino student attainment of college education. Secondary data consisted of higher education related legislation, policy documents, and reports. Data were inductively coded and analyzed using Roe's NPA procedure. These findings suggest that, at least according to these 15 participants, multiple barriers to college enrollment exist, including cultural expectations and unfamiliarity with the college application and financial aid processes. This study could encourage policy makers to consider perspectives of critical race theory as they create policies and support culturally relevant programs and financial aid guidance to Latino parents, students, and high school counselors. Such programs would lead to positive social change by promoting higher educational achievement, which is essential for the profitable employment of Latinos in the private and public sectors in South Carolina.

The purpose of this single case study was to understand the perceptions of Latino Spanish-speaking English learners on the efficacy of developmental education services at a western United States community college. The conceptual frameworks used in the investigation included critical theory related to human emancipation, social learning theory aligned to second language acquisition, and contemporary adult learning theories. The goal of the investigation was to understand how students used and perceived the developmental education services to transition from Spanish language instruction to English coursework. Research questions focused on how the developmental education services contributed to the successful completion of the child development practicum for Latino Spanish-speaking English learners. The primary data collection method was in-depth individual interviews of a purposeful sample of 9 successful students. Data were transcribed, coded, and themes were developed based on the components of the conceptual frameworks. Findings indicated that participants relied on Spanish instruction for comprehensible context, but needed consistent education support services and information from a culturally responsive institution in a language they understood. The results prompted the development of a multicultural introduction to college course designed to facilitate access to developmental education services. Implications for social change include developing curriculum to inform Spanish-speaking English learners in the community college system and remediating the shortage of qualified Latino preschool teachers in the community, thereby providing positive role models for young Latino children.

Essa pesquisa tem como objetivo central mostrar que os projetos de integração latino-americana por meio da canção, construídos ao longo da década de 1960 e dos anos iniciais da década de 1970, não foram destruídos pelas ditaduras militares que se instalaram nesse período na América Latina. Ainda que os novos regimes tenham tido como objetivo claro aniquilar toda e qualquer experiência de arte política, tentando desarticular as redes de arte engajada que haviam se formado nos períodos pré-golpes, os artistas acabaram encontrando estratégias de sobrevivência diante do novo contexto. Aqueles que ficaram em seus países seguiram militando na clandestinidade. Mas o destino de grande parte dos músicos engajados latino-americanos na década de 1970 foi o exílio. A instalação desses grupos nos países de acolhida dependeu em grande medida da articulação de redes de solidariedade, que pretendiam dar suporte aos exilados e também organizar ações de resistência e denúncia da violência das ditaduras. Esses movimentos de solidariedade encontraram na produção de discos um caminho de ação política; refletir sobre essa rede musical de solidariedade, tomando os discos como fontes principais e objetos de análise, é um dos objetivos principais deste trabalho, a fim de entender como a mobilização da resistência passou pela veiculação de discursos políticos por meio de canções. Para além dos discos produzidos pela solidariedade, outro importante objetivo deste trabalho é refletir sobre a obra musical desenvolvida no exílio por importantes artistas ligados à nueva canción latino-americana. A consciência de que a experiência do exílio não seria tão breve e provisória quanto se havia imaginado inicialmente fez com que os músicos buscassem espaço na indústria cultural dos países de acolhida de modo a retomar suas obras fonográficas, que passaram a refletir sobre a experiência do exílio e os caminhos possíveis para a resistência ao autoritarismo. / The main aim of this research is to show that Latin American integration projects by music, built during the 1960s and early 1970s, were not destroyed by the military dictatorships that settled in Latin America by this time. Although the new regimes had the clear objective of annihilating any experience of political art, trying to destroy the networks of committed art that had been formed in the pre-coup periods, the artists ended up finding strategies of survival in the new context. Those who stayed in their countries went underground. But most of the Latin American committed musicians in the 1970s went to the exile. Their stay in the host countries was largely determined by the articulation of solidarity networks, which tried to support the exiles and also organize actions of resistance and dictatorships violence reports. These movements of solidarity found in the disc production a path of political action; one of the main aim of this work is to reflect on this \"musical network of solidarity\", taking the discs as sources and objects of analysis, in order to understand that the mobilization of the resistance has been based on the transmission of political speeches through songs. In addition to the albums produced by solidarity, another important aim of this work is to reflect on the musical work developed in exile by important artists linked to the nueva canción. The awareness that the exile experience would not be as brief as they had imagined at first made the musicians seek space in the cultural industry of the host countries in order to resume their phonographic works, which began to reflect on the experience of exile and possible ways of resistance to authoritarianism.

Considerado a culminação do projeto literário do escritor chileno Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003), o romance 2666, publicado postumamente em 2004, é formado por cinco partes de encaixes não harmônicos. Argumento, neste estudo, que 2666 assimila diferentes gêneros literários consagrados, como o romance realista norte-americano, o romance policial em mais de uma variante e, por fim, o romance de formação alemão. Num primeiro momento da tese, um close reading do livro analisa a estrutura e as modulações do narrador e do estilo de Bolaño de cada parte, num afã de compreender como esses gêneros são assimilados. Os principais temas do autor a relação entre ética e estética, arte e violência são alcançados a partir da análise formal, em diálogo constante com a fortuna crítica e, num esforço comparativo, com obras canônicas cujos gêneros Bolaño busca assimilar. Ao abordar 2666 por este viés, levanta-se uma série de questões que orbitam ao redor de duas perguntas fulcrais: que espécie de romance é 2666? E o que ele representa para a poética do início do século XXI? Uma vez que 2666 é ocasionalmente classificado como enciclopédico ou maximalista e posto em diálogo com outros romances longos norte-americanos, questiono essa taxonomia, buscando apresentar suas limitações e refletir sobre como o livro resiste a catalogações e leituras definitivas. Partindo de ligações sugeridas pelo próprio romance, aproximo 2666 de obras que lidam com o conceito de romance total escritas no entreguerras. Em uma leitura diacrônica, postulo, então, que Roberto Bolaño ressuscita o que é possível resgatar de um ideário modernista, que, por sua vez, ganha uma nova significação na sua poética, indissociável dos espectros do fracasso das utopias, da crise do humanismo e do triunfo do capitalismo tardio em toda a sua violência. A relação entre 2666 e o alto modernismo, no entanto, não é estável ou pacífica. A partir das fissuras, dos rastros, do excesso e do desconjuntado, elaboro, por fim, o conceito de um romance monstruoso que assimila com voracidade outros gêneros, expondo contradições inerentes ao fazer poético contemporâneo. / Regarded as the high point of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaños (1953-2003) oeuvre, the novel 2666, published posthumously in 2004, is divided in five disharmoniously connected parts. In this thesis, I argue that 2666 assimilates different literary genres such as the American realist novel, crime fiction in more that one variant, and finally the bildungsroman. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to a close reading of the novel, analyzing its structure, the narrators modulation and Bolaño\'s stylistic changes in each section, in order to understand how such genres are assimilated. The authors main themes the link between ethic and aesthetic, art and violence are reached through formal analysis, in a constant dialog with other works that belong to genres which Bolaño tries to assimilate. By approaching 2666 this way, many questions are raised regarding two main issues: what sort of novel is 2666? And what does it represent to the literary writing in early 21st century? The book is often classified as encyclopedic and maximalist, and placed side by side with other long American novels; I disagree with those labels, and seek to show how limited they are, reflecting upon the way 2666 rejects common categorical interpretations. Based on connections the novel itself suggests, I establish a link between 2666 and modernist novels that deal with the concept of a total novel. I propose then a diachronic reading that claims that Bolaño recovers what is still possible from the modernist ideology, which gains new meaning in his own poetics, inseparable from the specters of failed utopias, the crisis of humanism, and the ubiquity of late capitalism in all its violence. The connection between 2666 and high modernism, however, is not stable or simple. It is through its gaps, leftovers, excess and disharmony that I develop the concept of a monstrous novel that assimilates other genres and exposes contradictions intrinsical to contemporary poetics.

This thesis will use data derived from in-depth interviews, historical research, and environmental justice literature to examine the academic achievement of students living in the Community of Lennox. Specifically, this thesis will explore the intersectionality between social environments and academic resources to analyze how it supports or deters students from obtaining a higher degree education.

Il lavoro consiste nell'analisi dei tratti peculiari della lingua delle Meditazioni dell'imperatore Marco Aurelio Antonino in relazione alla prosa imperiale coeva all'autore; nel contempo la ricerca mira a riconoscere una possibile influenza della lingua latina nella stesura del trattato. / The work is about the language of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations compared to the imperial contemporary prose and tries to find influences of Latin language in the composition of the treatise.

L'expérience chilienne de l'Unité populaire (1970-1973) reste un processus sociopolitique majeur de l'histoire du vingtième siècle. L'objectif assumé de cette thèse est d'analyser ce qui se trame à la base du tissu social et particulièrement ce qui a été dénommé par la gauche chilienne comme le " pouvoir populaire ". Ce travail est centré sur le mouvement ouvrier et social urbain. Dans un premier temps, cette approche présente les enjeux épistémologiques d'un tel sujet. La deuxième partie est consacrée aux initiatives prises par le gouvernement Allende en faveur de la participation des salariés et à leurs limites. La troisième partie analyse la genèse des Cordons industriels. Enfin, on cherche à établir une présentation de la structuration des organismes du " pouvoir populaire ". En définitive, il s'agit de renouveler profondément notre vision de ces mille jours et d'interroger les relations contradictoires qui se nouent entre l'espace des mouvements sociaux et le champ politique.