Dissertations from the School of Arts and Sciences

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A Comparison of Mindfulness-Based Programs for Stress in University Students
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has demonstrated the ability to reduce stress in various populations, including university students, although a commitment to eight sessions and daily 45-minute formal mindfulness meditations may be a hindrance for some students. Other mindfulness-based interventions (e.g., acceptance and commitment therapy) use brief mindfulness exercises and informal practice without formal meditations. The present study compared a six-session workshop for stress management in undergraduate and graduate students that used formal mindfulness meditations and informal practice (Mindful Stress Management; MSM) to one that focused on brief mindfulness exercises and informal practice (Mindful Stress Management-Informal; MSM-I), as well as to a wait-list control. MSM participants exhibited significant within-group changes on all measures, and when compared to the wait-list control, greater levels of mindfulness, decentering, self-compassion, and lower stress. Students in MSM-I had significant within-group changes on a subset of measures (mindfulness, decentering, self-compassion, stress, depression, rumination, and worry), and greater mindfulness and self-compassion compared to the wait-list. MSM participants showed more improvement in self-compassion, psychological inflexibility, and stress than did those in MSM-I. Mediational analyses on mindfulness and mindfulness-related variables found that increases in one facet of mindfulness (nonreactivity to inner experience) and self-compassion, and decreases in worry mediated reductions in stress for MSM participants, while no mediator reached significance for students in MSM-I. Finally, there was no significant relation between the amount of formal meditation practice (for MSM participants) and informal mindfulness practice (for MSM-I participants) and reductions in psychological distress (stress, anxiety, or depression) or increases in mindfulness. Overall, results suggest that a 6-week program with formal mindfulness meditations and informal practice is a more promising intervention for undergraduate and graduate student stress than one that uses brief mindfulness exercises and informal practice., Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-05T15:05:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hindman_cua_0043A_10395display.pdf: 1655667 bytes, checksum: 796c6d4a8507155a013152597232cbf7 (MD5)
Competition Among States: Case Studies in the Political Role of Remote Sensing Capabilities
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, Competition Among States: Case Studies in the Political Role of Remote Sensing Capabilities Audrey Ann Ammons, Ph.D. Director: Wallace J. Thies, Ph.D. International politics is a competitive realm. One of the most powerful modern advantages in this competitive world is the ownership of independent and autonomous remote sensing satellites. Few have this venue for competition and those that do belong to a very exclusive groups of states. Kenneth Waltz, author of Theory of International Politics, theorized that states emulate the innovations, strategies and practices of those countries with the greatest capability and ingenuity. As Waltz explains, states will emulate the leader in an anarchic realm to attain the same capabilities that helped the hegemon attain or maintain its status. Waltz referred to this as a tendency toward sameness of the competitors. Modern-day states that pursue global preeminence often exhibit exceptional risk-taking and significant technological innovation. They also challenge the recognized hegemon in an area of expertise and leadership. Realists would say that these states are emulating the behavior of the states they view as successful in order to maintain or improve their position in the world order. Realists also point out that strategic interests lead states to try to gain or at least neutralize those areas that, if controlled by an adversary, could menace them. Realist writers suggest that states will be reluctant to cede control of an important new technology to another state, even a friendly one, lest they find themselves permanently disadvantaged in an on-going contest for wealth, influence and even preeminence. The purpose of this research is to investigate if remote sensing capabilities are a venue of competition among modern states and one that they view as a potential path to global preeminence. Why do some states expend scarce resources to develop and maintain an indigenous remote sensing capability when it appears that they can acquire much of the end product from other sources at a reasonable cost? If this is true, it should be possible to confirm that states acquire end-to-end remote sensing capabilities as a means to maintain or improve their position in the world order. These states are willing to devote significant resources in order to control this technology because they believe successful states have used remote sensing technology as a means to acquire and maintain their preeminent position. States that own and operate remote sensing capabilities must take considerable risks and apply technological innovation to succeed. Whether the technology is an historical example such as a sixteenth century ship or its modern equivalent--a twenty-first century satellite--the potential rewards are the same: military advantage, commercial markets, and global recognition., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:45:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ammons_cua_0043A_10103display.pdf: 856645 bytes, checksum: cd8e3f9711a1c2cf01e6109bd309bd9a (MD5)
Conceptualization and Correlates of Religious Conservatism in Egypt
Given the evidence that religion can potentially shape one’s beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and decision making, it is important to understand the prevalence and nature of religious conservatism and how it impacts one’s stance on social and personal issues. Religious conservatism (RC), particularly among Muslims, is conceptualized narrowly and measured inconsistently and incompletely in most previous studies. In addition, there is somewhat consistent but limited evidence regarding relations between RC and outcome variables related to women’s health and well-being such as wife-battery, female circumcision/female genital mutilation practices (FC/FGM), and contraceptives use. Expanding on previous definitions, the current studies conceptualize RC as a stance on a series of beliefs including religiosity (religious activities and self-reported religiosity), attitudes towards women (favoring men over women in education, jobs, within family dynamic, and financial decisions making), and attitudes towards religion’s role in politics (how much religion should influence politics). Study One investigated the prevalence and correlates of RC in Egyptian adults age 18-35 years, and identified latent profiles based on religiosity, attitudes towards women, and attitudes towards religion’s role in politics. Study Two assessed the extent to which RC predicted attitudes towards wife-battery, FC/FGM, and contraceptives use, as well as the differentiation of these associations within latent profiles. The current analysis used a sub-sample of one person per household (N = 5,883) from the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE) dataset. Chi-Square, T-test, ANOVA, Multiple Regression, and Latent Profile Analysis were used to analyze the study aims. To ensure data was representative of the population, weights were used in all analysis models. Latent profile analysis identified four groups based on RC indicators: Religious conservatives (9%), low-religious gender-biased (5%), high-religious moderates (62%), and moderates (24%). While some indicators of RC were related directly to the support for wife-battery, attitudes towards FC/FGM and contraceptives use, religious conservatives reported significantly more support for wife-battery as compared to high-religious moderates and moderates. Moderation effects of gender and marital status are also discussed. The results highlight that religious conservatism is only prevalent for a small percentage of Egyptian young adults. In addition, religious conservatism might not be a very important factor in women’s health outcomes, in particular FC/FGM and the use of contraceptives. Future research should continue to contextualize RC, analyze correlates, and test for mechanisms underlying relationships. Overall, the hope is that these studies will help inform the design of future studies and develop more comprehensive models to understand RC., Developmental psychology, Egypt, Muslims, Religious conservatism, Religious Fundamentalism, Women, Psychology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America
Constituent Postponement in Biblical Hebrew Verse
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, The structure of Biblical Hebrew (BH) verse remains an open question today despite the extensive amount of investigation that the question has inspired. Much headway has been made in terms of describing the features and devices that find expression in BH verse, but little has been done to make a compelling and consistent distinction between BH verse and BH prose. The question remains: what differentiates BH verse from prose? One distinguishing feature of BH verse can be found in its "relaxed" syntactic structure, wherein certain syntactic constructions that would be unviable in prose are acceptable in verse. One such construction is the occurrence of syntactic constituent postponements that are viable in the environment of verse but not in prose. In the verbal clause, such postponement would include (1) irregular subject- and (2) object-placement in a clause after constituents that they would normally precede in prose, and (3) placement of the verb in the third constituent position of a clause, a position that excludes the verb according to the syntactic rules of prose. A close analysis and evaluation of the constituent postponements found only in BH verse are required to develop a more precise description of that corpus. This study gathers all of the cases of verb-, subject- and object-postponement found in a broad sample of BH verse, categorizes the occurrences, and evaluates their relationship to poetic devices such as syntactic, semantic, and phonological parallelism and gapping, and syntactic dependency. This project begins with an assessment of constituent order rules for verbal clauses in BH prose, or more particularly Classical Biblical Hebrew (CBH) prose, which provides a "control" against which postponement in BH verse could be viewed in relief. The sample of BH verse included Genesis 49, Exodus 15, Numbers 23-24, Deuteronomy 32 and 33, Judges 5, 2 Samuel 1, Psalms 1-25, 78, 106, and 107, Isaiah 40-48, Habakkuk 3, Zephaniah 1-3, Zechariah 9. This corpus is designed to reflect a variety of biblical texts which represent diverse periods, genres, and subjects. Occurrences of constituent postponement were culled from this sample corpus, analyzed, categorized, and evaluated., Made available in DSpace on 2012-06-01T16:44:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Redd_cua_0043A_10327display.pdf: 916703 bytes, checksum: 7c748b065e956d1950cc7ce71621cc5f (MD5)
Constructing the People's Home: The Political and Economic Origins and Early Development of the "Swedish Model" (1879-1976)
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, When Marquis Childs published his book The Middle Way in 1936, he laid the foundation that inspired the quest for an efficient welfare state. The Folkhemmet, or "people's home," initiated by the Social Democrats symbolized the "Swedish Way" and resulted in a generous, redistributive welfare state system. By the early 1970s, experts marveled at Sweden's performance because the Swedish model managed to produce the second-wealthiest economy as measured by per capita GDP with virtually no cyclical unemployment.This dissertation demonstrates that capitalist and pre-industrial cultural forces dominated Swedish economic policy development throughout the years that the Social Democrats constructed Folkhemmet. The Swedish economy operated as a variety of capitalism that infused unique traditional cultural characteristics into a "feudal capitalism." The system was far more market-oriented, deregulated, and free from direct government ownership or control than most assumed then or now. A process of negotiation and reason, mixed with pragmatism and recognition of valuing opportunity over principles, drove Swedish modernization.Eventually, the entire society became commoditized through gender equalization efforts, resulting in greater individualism and an increased breakdown of informal communal or collective functions. Gradually, the nature of individual initiative and incentive within capitalism undermined Folkhemmet's goals and aspirations. Modernization dismembered traditional Swedish households and values as the economy experienced increasingly higher taxes and long-term industrial decline. Post-industrial jobs financed by government taxes eventually choked the supply of foreign direct investment, as well as domestic capital investment levels. When the private sector ceased to produce enough jobs to fund the highly taxed system, Folkhemmet experienced a crisis.The creation of public sector jobs intended mainly to push more women into the workforce resulted in numerous inefficiencies and financial problems. High taxation accelerated the decomposition of traditional civic relations. Moral hazards taxed honesty and eroded the common trust that had enabled the formation of this unique method of economic policymaking. What Childs initially communicated was a process of policy development dictated by gradualism and moderation, not a political system that could be transplanted across the globe. Thus, his "middle way of politics" should have been phrased the "moderate way of policy making.", Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-01T11:45:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Baker_cua_0043A_10178display.pdf: 1799892 bytes, checksum: 581e8715375a11e1d33353bcd4536ae3 (MD5)
Contemplative Leadership in Catholic Schools: Employed by Principals, Experienced by Teachers, and Its Impact on Teachers’ Care for the Spiritual Lives of Students
Research demonstrates that the dual mission of Catholic schools, which integrates academic and spiritual growth, requires unique leadership from its principals (Bryk et. al 1993; Ciriello, 1996, 1998; Coleman & Hoffer, 1987; Cook, 2001, Jacobs, 2002). Contemplative leadership is a model suited to the distinctive principalship of the Catholic school. Contemplative principals, who understand and utilize reflective decision making based on Gospel values, Church tradition, and their personal Catholic character, employ a needed and “unique rationale for decision making” (Schuttloffel, 2008, p. 3). This reflective decision making along with other components of contemplative leadership behavior and the individual Catholic character of principals provides a leadership construct that guides teachers toward an understanding that this educational community is concerned with the student’s mind and soul (Schuttloffel, 1999, 2008, 2013). This study examined the extent to which contemplative leadership is practiced by principals and experienced by teachers while exploring the relationships between the formation of these principals and the use of contemplative practices and teachers’ experience of contemplative leadership and their care for students’ spiritual lives. Participants for this study included principals and teachers from three dioceses in Michigan. Surveys were sent to the principals and teachers of 75 schools. Sixty-one schools (81.3%) participated with a total of 56 principals and 295 teachers who completed the survey. Two surveys were developed for this study: Principals’ Contemplative Leadership Practices Survey and Teachers’ Experience of Contemplative Practice Survey. This study uncovers three major findings: Contemplative leadership is practiced by principals and experienced by teachers at a high level; there is a significant and positive relationship between the formation of principals and their use of contemplative practice; the most important finding is that there is a significant and positive connection between teachers’ perception of contemplative leadership and teachers’ care for students’ spiritual lives. These findings provide current principals, priests, diocesan leadership, and those in Catholic higher education insight into contemplative leadership practices and its impact on teachers’ care for students’ spiritual lives., Educational leadership, Catholic School Leadership, Contemplative Leadership, Students' Spiritual Lives, Teachers' care for Students Spiritual Lives, Education, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America
Correlates of Universalism-Relativism in the Moral Outlooks of Emerging Adults
This study explored some of the demographic, personal, and experiential factors of emerging adults that correlate to a spectrum of moral outlooks ranging from a highly individualistic and morally relativistic to highly communal and morally universalistic. The particular focus of this study was to identify some of the factors that correlate to lower levels of moral relativism and higher levels of moral universalism. Data for the study was gathered through an online survey instrument. The sample was composed of 466 volunteer undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 24 years attending three universities in Texas, one a Baptist university, one a Catholic university, and the third a large state university. Volunteers were solicited by sending invitations to student organizations on campus. The respondents’ demographic, experiential, and personal factors served as independent variables. The relativism index score form Forsyth’s Ethics Position Questionnaire (1980) served as the dependent variable. Analyses of the data included chi square, analysis of variance, t-tests, Pearson product moment correlation, and stepwise regression. Several conclusions can be drawn from the results of this study. Frist, adults in the life of youth are a significant factor in the moral outlook of emerging adults. Depending on the example of the adult(s), correlations were present in both universalistic and relativistic directions. Second, religious practice and involvement contribute to higher levels of moral universalism. Third, the personal characteristics of transcendence and grit were significantly and positively correlated to a universal moral outlook. Fourth, the study found that engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage correlated to lower levels of moral universalism in emerging adults. Fifth, a Catholic school education at both the grade and high school levels correlates to higher levels of moral universalism. A Catholic school education challenges a culture of relativism by intentionally providing cultural markers, moral training, and role models and mentors for youth that contrast with secular culture. These findings will provide insight to leaders of Catholic schools, the New Evangelization, New Ecclesial Communities, and other educational and outreach institutions to develop and tailor their programs to foster a universal moral outlook in a culture of relativism., Education policy, Ethics, Developmental psychology, Catholic Education, Emerging Adult, Ethics, Moral Relativism, Religious Education, Education, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America
A Crisis of Amity in Early Modern France: Jansenism and the Friendship between Vincent de Paul and Abbé Saint-Cyran
ABSTRACTA Crisis of Amity in Early Modern France:Jansenism and the Friendship between Vincent de Paul and L’abbé de Saint-CyranBrian D. Boosel, OSB, Ph.D.Director: Caroline Sherman, Ph.D.Of the various civil and religious struggles that beset early modern France, the Jansenist movement manifested itself as a new form of religious radicalism. Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), a Catholic theologian and bishop, fashioned a controversial synthesis of Augustine’s theology of grace, free will, original sin, and the human condition, elaborated in his Augustinus. He was encouraged in this work by his friend, Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, the abbot of Saint-Cyran (1581-1643), who also developed an important friendship with Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), who shared his passion for a radical interpretation of the theme of Christian grace. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission, took the Gospel message of charity to the streets of Paris and eventually to the world. However, Saint-Cyran’s adoption of the theology of Cornelius Jansen placed the men at odds at first theologically, and then personally. This prompted Vincent de Paul to confront his friend on numerous occasions regarding the errors of Jansenism and, after what appears to be much persuasion, broke off the friendship altogether. Ultimately, Saint-Cyran is seen as an ‘apostle of Jansenism,’ whereas Vincent de Paul has been titled the ‘apostle of Charity.’ One friend was called a heretic; the other a saint. And although the friendship ended, de Paul never gave up on the person of Saint-Cyran. This becomes evident in the manner in which de Paul pleaded for a lighter sentence for him and prayed for him after his death.In my research, I examined the correspondence of both Saint-Cyran and Vincent de Paul, with each other, and with others, where they each wrote extensively of their friendship and its frustrations. I worked closely with a manuscript entitled Étude sur la grâce, Vincent de Paul’s short treatise on grace, which serves as a rebuke of Saint-Cyran. I also employed L’interrogatoire de l’abbé de Saint-Cyran (1639) and the Deposition de Vincent de Paul (1639), documents relating to the trial of Saint-Cyran. The friendship between Vincent de Paul and Saint-Cyran may be viewed as a microcosm of the Jansenist controversy in seventeenth-century French society. In the larger arena of early modern French history, Jansenism not only theologically divided individuals; it also divided groups. Scholars such as Jean Delumeau and Dale Van Kley present the Jansenist controversy as divisive within the French clergy in general, and to the relationship between religious and secular clergy. Interestingly, Saint-Cyran, a secular priest, and Vincent de Paul, a religious (regular) priest suffered the same effects within their friendship as the greater church in France. I argue that Jansenism similarly fractured the relationship between the government and many French clergy and split French society apart.Both Vincent de Paul and Saint-Cyran sought a reformed Catholic church, and both reacted away from a French Catholicism that had neither embraced Tridentine reforms nor embarked on its own internal purification. They each influenced the other within the friendship, as demonstrated by Saint-Cyran’s persistent writings on the ‘end of the Church’ and Vincent de Paul’s response on the ‘renewal of charity.’ I argue that the mutual influence appears to have caused each one to become more determined in his own work and mission, but also led to shared concerns. For example, both emphasized the role of women in Catholic renewal, ecclesiastical reform, and charity. Ultimately, I conclude that each man’s emphasis--de Paul’s focus on charity and the nobility of the poor, and Saint-Cyran’s concern with the purification of the elect--can be traced to the mutual influence of their friendship., European history, Early Modern France, Friendship, Jansenism, Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, Saint-Cyran, Vincent de Paul, History, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America
CRISPRi-Mediated Transient Inhibition of DNMT3A Gene Expression For Expansion of Human HSPCs
Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are central targets of a regenerative therapy-based approach to the long-term treatment of inherited diseases of the blood and bone marrow. Allogeneic transplantation and autologous ex vivo gene correction strategies remain the only curative treatment options for inherited diseases of blood and bone marrow. However, these strategies are often restricted due to insufficient numbers of HSPCs derived from umbilical cord blood units or from marrow and mobilized peripheral blood of patients with impaired hematopoiesis. Hence, the successful treatment of inherited hematopoietic diseases would be greatly facilitated by the ability to expand HSPCs ex vivo. In this study, we investigated whether transient downregulation of DNMT3A gene expression in human HSPCs could promote their expansion while avoiding the long-term complications associated with permanent DNMT3A knockout. We developed a new approach based on the CRISPRi system for transient inhibition of targeted gene expression in human HSPCs. Furthermore, we showed that transfection CRISPRi components in the form of mRNA was a safe and efficient delivery approach in human HSPCs. In ex vivo experiments, the approach had minimal toxicity but we did not observe significant expansion of hematopoietic progenitors. Similarly, in primary and secondary transplantation experiments, HSPCs subjected to CRISPRi maintained their ability to engraft, suggesting limitedcellular toxicity of this approach; however, no significant benefit was observed in overall levels of engraftment compared to untreated control groups. Overall, these studies established a novel platform for transient inhibition of targeted gene expression in human HSPCs but additional optimization will be required to ensure expansion of functional HSPCs., Biology, Biology, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America
Cultivating Strategic Thinking in the National Security Council: A Critical Study of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Mechanism
Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation examines the Eisenhower and Kennedy National Security Council mechanisms to explore the impact of organization on the cultivation of strategic thinking for grand strategy formulation. There is a substantial amount of scholarship on the Presidency, the National Security Council, and the National Security Advisor, but no scholarship on the practice of strategic thinking for strategy formulation. This research builds on presidential scholarship by introducing the work of strategic theorists Colin Gray, Harry Yarger, and Ross Harrison to study the correlation between National Security Council organization and the discipline of strategic thinking.The work of this dissertation takes an historical and archival approach to studying two diverse organizational approaches to the National Security Council mechanism. President Eisenhower established formal organization for the integration of information, policy deliberation, and policy implementation. President Kennedy established informal organization for accelerated decision-making, innovative policy solutions, and decisive policy implementation. This dissertation studies the constituent parts of each National Security Council mechanism to assess which system fostered strategic thinking more efficiently. Further, this study examines the manner in which each President operated within the mechanism to practice persuasion, increase his influence, and extend his span of control for the successful implementation of policy.The argument made here is the importance of organization and staff work for strategic thinking to occur. In essence, strategic thinking is a disciplined approach to strategy formulation. It begins with the strategic appraisal, which helps the policymaker gain a greater understanding of the strategic environment. Continuing the appraisal process through the five competencies of strategic thinking, the policymaker can examine complex problems from different angles. This discipline results in the articulation of the strategic objective, the desired strategic effects, and the selection of a strategy and its supporting capabilities to achieve the end-state.The research takes an organizational and historical approach to each President's National Security Council mechanism and how each used the mechanism to practice strategic thinking. For the modern Presidency, Eisenhower and Kennedy's methodologies for incorporating strategic thinking in the formulation of grand strategy and crisis management serve as instructive paradigms.
Cultural Leadership in the Development of Centers for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Cultural Leadership in the Development of Centers for the Catholic Intellectual TraditionBy Andrew CurrierDirector: Merylann Schuttloffel, PhDAbstractThis study analyzed the president’s role in developing centers for the Catholic intellectual tradition on four university campuses and how those centers promote the Catholic intellectual tradition. This study examined reasons for the establishment of the centers for the Catholic intellectual tradition, how the centers for the Catholic intellectual tradition are sustained, the influence of Ex corde Ecclesiae, and how leaders behaved in the establishment of the centers. The conceptual framework was based upon Morey and Piderit’s (2006) Catholic higher education cultural leadership theory, Geiger’s (2003) theory of a core group of believers, and church documents including papal encyclicals and apostolic constitutions. The study’s data were derived from interviews with presidents of universities, center leadership, analysis of documents, and material evidence and observation. Language from interviews and documents was coded based upon Saldaña’s methods of coding for qualitative researchers (2016). Four exemplary centers were nominated by prominent figures in Catholic higher education including researchers, journal editors, and professors. Participants were interviewed in person by the researcher and each center was visited by the researcher. The data were analyzed using methods for qualitative researchers from Cresswell (2007), Yin (2014), and Saldaña (2016), including a cross case analysis. Findings from the data analysis include the significance of cross-disciplinary opportunities in promoting the Catholic intellectual tradition. The centers for the Catholic intellectual tradition were sustained through a combination of endowed funds and operational budget funding. There was evidence of cultural correction and cultural adjustment as well as directive and connective cultural leadership in analyzing the presidents’ behavior in establishing the centers for the Catholic intellectual tradition. Three of four centers indicated being influenced by the promulgation of Ex corde Ecclesiae. The centers were instrumental in offering opportunities for new faculty to be exposed to Catholic mission or mission as it relates to a specific religious order’s charism. The results of the study could inform future research in mission and identity for institutions of Catholic higher education. The results of the study could help inform executive leadership in Catholic higher education about the value of cross-disciplinary opportunities in the Catholic intellectual tradition. The review of related literature could inform historical research about the context of Ex corde Ecclesiae and the doctrinal context of the promulgation of the apostolic constitution. The review of related literature could inform historical research tending to Catholic cultural incoherence in Catholic higher education., Educational leadership, Education policy, Catholic higher education, Catholic intellectual tradition, cross-disciplinary, cultural leadership, Ex corde Ecclesiae, Executive leadership, Education, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Education. The Catholic University of America
The Cultural Transition and the Attitudes of Polish Immigrant Families Towards Divorce and Parental Authority in the United States, 1931-1940
Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, The Cultural Transition and the Attitudes of Polish Immigrant Families Towards Divorce and Parental Authority in the United States, 1931-1940Fr. Stanislaw Hajkowski, S.Chr.Director: Leslie Tentler, Ph.D.Preaching the Gospel to the poor has always been emphasized by Christianity and the development of the radio at the beginning of the Twenties created a new, powerful tool to use for this task. Many leaders of religious communities noticed in the new invention an opportunity and used radio broadcast to both convert the unbelievers and provide teaching and support to faithful. The historical literature on early twentieth-century radio preachers in the United States includes numerous studies on Protestant and Catholic radio preachers; for example, a Protestant minister, S. Parkes Cadman began using radio broadcasts in 1923 and reached an audience of five million and in the 1930s, a famous radio evangelist, the Roman Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin, had forty million listeners tuning in to his programs.In English historical literature very little attention has been given so far to Father Justyn Figas, a Conventual Franciscan, who began his broadcasting career in 1926 and, by the end of Thirties he had an audience of close to three million listening to his broadcasts. Father Justyn's programs, delivered in Polish, were addressed mainly to the Polish immigrants in the United States. This dissertation examines Father Justyn's radio talks and questions from the listeners to show the change in the attitudes of the first and second generation of Polish immigrants in the Thirties towards marriage unity and parental authority, the key values of the Christian family. In the new social and cultural environment the immigrant family acted like a sensitive barometer registering the social, cultural and religious pressures of the time.After analyzing the materials available in the Archives in Athol Springs, New York about Father Justin's Rosary Hour, this dissertation concludes that the immigrant family, often based on the patriarchal authority of the father supported by society and the Church, had no chance of surviving in the liberal American cultural environment. However, the values of parental authority and marriage unity were still practiced by these immigrant individuals and families who absorbed into their value system an appreciation for "wise" enculturation into the new society and education., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:46:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hajkowski_cua_0043A_10135display.pdf: 3558997 bytes, checksum: 5d981d1b3f1b5eade5464aa0ba869f37 (MD5)
Cyrillona: A Critical Study and Commentary
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America, Comparatively little Syriac literature predating the Council of Chalcedon (451) has survived to the present, but many believe Syriac poetry reached its apogee in the works of these early authors, the most illustrious being Ephrem the Syrian. Cyrillona (ca. 396) was Ephrem's younger contemporary, and his nineteenth-century discoverer, editor and translator, Gustav Bickell, hailed him as "the most important Syriac poet after Ephrem." Scholars East and West have concurred that Cyrillona certainly stands among the first rank of Syriac poets. Yet in the 150 years since his rediscovery, the study of his work has not been commensurate with this high opinion. There survives no ancient testimony of Cyrillona or his poetry, and he is known to us only through his works. They are preserved in a single sixth-century British Library manuscript (BL Add. 14,591), a miscellany of poetic homilies (memre) by both named and anonymous authors. Two poems are attributed to Cyrillona by name, and based on style and content, three further anonymous works in the same manuscript appear to come from his pen. This dissertation is the first full and systematic study of Cyrillona. It examines and reassesses conventional claims about the author: name and identity, date, place of writing, and the constitution of his corpus, specifically rejecting the authenticity of an anonymous memra On the Grain of Wheat, attributed to Cyrillona by Bickell. I have reedited all the Syriac texts in a critical edition and provide their first complete translation into English, together with a study and commentary on the five genuine poems. This study introduces each poem and examines its poetic form and genre, structure and rhetorical features, and critical questions of text, interpretation, and milieu. Its goal is to enhance our appreciation and our understanding of the contribution of Cyrillona to literature and thought, and to provide a firm textual and critical foundation for future research. Cyrillona emerges as a daring expositor, a loving pastor, an engaging homilist, and a poet of great originality and unique gifts., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:12:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Griffin_cua_0043A_10195display.pdf: 5485321 bytes, checksum: f5047695dea028a85743f2b4c01816ea (MD5)
Daughters of Eve: Women's Speech, Intelligence, and Virtue in Early Modern England
Daughters of Eve: Women’s Speech, Intelligence, and Virtue in Early Modern England examines interpretations of Eve and their connections to expectations for women’s education and behavior throughout the early modern period. When Milton’s fallen Adam labels Eve a “fair defect / of nature” in Paradise Lost (10.891-92), he summarizes centuries of exegesis on Genesis as well as traditional views of woman’s nature inherited from Greek and Roman thought. These conventional views of woman were both invoked and challenged by the authors in this dissertation, particularly as seventeenth-century women entered the debate over their sex for the first time in England. Comparing the ways writers of different genres and genders viewed Eve leads to a fuller understanding of how men thought about women, how women thought about themselves, and how women were meant to be educated and function in the family and in society. This dissertation analyzes the versions of Eve which emerge from three genres of literary works about women and connects those versions to standards of behavior for women—and for the men who teach, parent, or marry them. In conduct guides for women and families, which include educational advice, male authors across denominational divides and two centuries invoked Eve to simultaneously elevate women above the parodies which filled comic and polemical writing and to ensure that women remained firmly in their inferior marital and social positions. For Vives, Cleaver, Gouge, Whately, and Brathwaite, Eve was created good and intended for loving, companionate marriage, but the weakness(es) which led her to sin in Eden necessitated her subjection to Adam and, for her daughters, restricted speech, an education narrower than that of men, and a solely domestic role. When the debate about women resurged in polemical pamphlets in the 1610s, male authors again turned to denigrations of Eve in order to justify ill treatment of women. This time, however, three women, Speght, Sowernam, and Munda, responded with pamphlets that sought to rehabilitate Eve, thereby arguing for wider education and, ultimately, a more Christ-like esteem for women. Finally, I argue that poetic characterizations of Eve in Lanyer, Hutchinson, and Milton both drew on and reshaped these earlier interpretive threads; as Eve transformed from type to narrative character, these authors invested her with agency and complexity even as they offered diverse reasons for her sin. For all of these works, markedly different in style and purpose, Eve is a central determinant for girls’ and women’s roles as wives, mothers, students, and Christians. The chapters are as follow: Introduction: Eve and Inherited Tradition; 1. Eve in Conduct Literature: Beloved Helpmeet, Frail Vessel; 2. Polemical Eve: Comfort, Virtue, and Purpose; 3. Poetic Eve: Type, Character, and Model; Conclusion: Eve’s Legacy. , English literature, Eve, Hutchinson, Milton, Virtue, Women's speech, English Language and Literature, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America
The Death of Deliberation: Political Parties, Procedure, and Party in the United States Senate
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, A common observation of the Senate today is that it is paralyzed by excessive levels of legislative gridlock. The Senate is currently composed of more ideologically polarized members, and party leaders exercise more influence in the decision-making process by virtue of leading more cohesive political parties. However, the argument that the Senate and, by extension, the Congress are being undermined by rampant obstruction overlooks the fact that the contemporary Senate is still capable of overcoming the differences among its members on measures of significant import without descending into an endless debate characterized by ideological partisanship and irreconcilable gridlock. So while scholarly accounts of congressional decision-making all too often seek to explain why gridlock happens, the more important question, and the one that forms the basis of this dissertation, is why gridlock does not happen. Specifically, I argue that the Senate has developed several patterns of decision-making throughout its history in an effort to maintain its legislative productivity in the presence of procedurally-empowered senators. My primary thesis is that the Senate has developed a new pattern of decision-making called structured consent in order to limit conflict and pass legislation in a polarized environment. According to my theory of structured consent, both the majority and minority party leaders exercise significant influence over the decision-making process by virtue of their leadership positions, which they routinely choose to utilize in order to moderate, rather than exacerbate, the procedural choices of their partisan colleagues. I conclude with the observation that the Senate's ability to produce important legislation in the current environment may undermine the institution's deliberative function. This suggests that while the contemporary Senate may indeed be "broken," it may not be the result of the conditions typically acknowledged in the literature. Put simply, deliberation has succumbed to the Senate's bipartisan determination to avoid gridlock and pass important legislation., Made available in DSpace on 2012-11-01T17:08:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wallner_cua_0043A_10363display.pdf: 2019277 bytes, checksum: a95c3e52983fe9c421da6c7d8b3cdfdb (MD5)
Deconstructing Constructivism: Modeling Causal Relationships Among Constructivist Learning Environment Factors and Student Outcomes in Introductory Chemistry
Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Chemical Education. The Catholic University of America, The purpose of this dissertation is to test a model of relationships among factorscharacterizing aspects of a student-centered constructivist learning environment and studentoutcomes of satisfaction and academic achievement in introductory undergraduate chemistrycourses. Constructivism was chosen as the theoretical foundation for this research because of its widespread use in chemical education research and practice. In a constructivist learningenvironment the role of the teacher shifts from delivering content towards facilitating activestudent engagement in activities that encourage individual knowledge construction throughdiscussion and application of content.Constructivist approaches to teaching introductory chemistry courses have been adoptedby some instructors as a way to improve student outcomes, but little research has been done on the causal relationships among particular aspects of the learning environment and studentoutcomes. This makes it difficult for classroom teachers to know which aspects of aconstructivist teaching approach are critical to adopt and which may be modified to better suit a particular learning environment while still improving student outcomes.To investigate a model of these relationships, a survey designed to measure studentperceptions of three factors characterizing a constructivist learning environment in onlinecourses was adapted for use in face-to-face chemistry courses. These three factors, teachingpresence, social presence, and cognitive presence, were measured using a slightly modifiedversion of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) instrument. The student outcomes investigated in this research were satisfaction and academic achievement, as measured by standardized American Chemical Society (ACS) exam scores and course grades.Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to statistically model relationships amongthe three presence factors and student outcome variables for 391 students enrolled in six sections of a general chemistry course taught by four instructors at a single university using a common textbook. The quantitative analysis of student data was supported by investigating the instructor's approach to teaching using instructor responses to a modified version of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), semi-structured interview questions, and information available in the course syllabus.The results of the SEM analysis indicate that incoming math ability, as measured by ACTmath scores, has the largest effect on student academic achievement in introductory chemistry courses. Of the three presence factors, cognitive presence has the largest direct effect on academic achievement and student satisfaction. Teaching presence has a direct effect on satisfaction similar in size to the effect of cognitive presence. The relationship between social presence and student outcomes is found to be relatively small. Given the role that both teaching and social presence play in influencing cognitive presence, these results suggest that classroom teachers should emphasize the development of a learning environment with a large degree of cognitive presence where students take ownership of their own learning process. This type of learning environment can be supported by specific instructor behaviors such as facilitating discussions and implementing group work focused on collaboration and developing shared understandings.
Definiteness in Qumran Aramaic
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, The morphological marking, or non-marking, of the definiteness of a noun phrase in the Aramaic language has changed over time. At the time of Imperial Aramaic (IA) the emphatic state of the noun was used to indicate definiteness, a usage that was passed on to other dialects due to the pervasive influence of IA. By the time of at least some later Aramaic dialects, such as Syriac, however, the emphatic state clearly had lost such a function. This breakdown occurred at different paces in different Aramaic dialects. This study analyzes how nominal states do or do not correlate with the definiteness of the noun phrase in Qumran Aramaic (QA), a dialect stemming from the Middle Aramaic (MA) period. Each QA noun phrase is morphologically categorized according to the state of the noun or nouns in the phrase and semantically categorized according to the definiteness of the phrase. The combination of these two categorizations reveals the continued categorical dependence of state upon definiteness in QA. By and large, the emphatic state is used for semantically definite nouns and the absolute state for semantically indefinite nouns. The exceptions to this connection are in the area of semantically definite absolute nouns but almost never in the area of semantically indefinite emphatic nouns, indicating that the emphatic state had not begun to encroach upon the domain of the absolute state in any real way. Various types of the noun phrase are considered separately, including abstract nouns, generic nouns, and genitive phrases. The behavior of state and definiteness is also considered in relationship to various other factors, including genre; translational versus non-translational texts; and the gender, number, and other characteristics of the noun phrase. Finally, the implications of this study for the Aramaic background of the New Testament phrase "the son of man" are considered, as they cast doubt on Maurice Casey's proposed "Solution to the Son of Man Problem.", Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-20T15:48:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fullilove_cua_0043A_10486display.pdf: 2756433 bytes, checksum: d7f699d75851c7a59613af1c49f766d9 (MD5)
Democracy and Imperialism: Irving Babbitt and the Moral and Cultural Sources of Foreign Policy Leadership
Democracy and Imperialism: Irving Babbitt and the Moral and Cultural Sources of Foreign Policy LeadershipWilliam S. Smith, Ph.D. Director: Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D.After costly U.S. engagement in two major wars in the Middle East, our foreign policy debates are dominated by questions about the appropriateness of American military interventions. A central issue is whether an interventionist foreign policy is compatible with the American constitutional tradition and the temperament that this tradition requires. !Irving Babbitt (1865-1933) explored this question in depth. By linking foreign policy to questions of the soul, he explored how a nation’s “body of moral habits and beliefs” would ultimately shape its foreign policy. Babbitt felt that the substitution of expansive, sentimental Romanticism for the religious and ethical traditions of the West would lead to imperialism.Research for this dissertation involved a thorough review of Babbitt’s writings, including articles and lecture notes never published in books. (Babbitt’s papers are available at Harvard University.) Particular attention was given to his most famous and relevant books, Democracy and Leadership and Rousseau and Romanticism although a number of obscure essays and letters have been cited. !The dissertation points to the unique contribution made by Irving Babbitt to understanding the quality of foreign policy leadership in a democracy. Babbitt explored how a democratic nation’s foreign policy is a product of the moral and cultural tendencies of the nation’s leaders.Democracies that lack political restraint and tend toward plebiscitary practices and outcomes are more likely to be warlike and imperialistic. The United States has been moving!away from the restraining order of sound constitutionalism and, with that departure, has shown an increasing tendency to try to impose its will on other nations. In the contemporary global environment, this interventionism will inevitably cause the United States to clash with the “civilizational” regions that have emerged in recent decades. As described by Harvard historian Samuel Huntington, the tendency of the post-Cold War world order has been a realignment based upon historical, religious and cultural traditions. In Babbitt’s time, the most pressing foreign policy challenge was nationalism in Europe; the current U.S. challenge is to avoid cultural and military imperialism at a time when civilizational regions are returning to their historical roots. How to address the problem of tension between civilizations is a subject to which Babbitt, showing characteristic foresight, devoted much attention., Political science, International relations, Philosophy, Claes Ryn, constitutionalism and foreign policy, foreign policy restraint, Irving Babbitt, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Samuel Huntington, Politics, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America
"Democracy to Come" in the Political Thought of Jacques Derrida
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, "Democracy to Come" in the Political Thought of Jacques DerridaAndrew KaufmannDirector: David J. Walsh, Ph.D.This dissertation is a study of Jacques Derrida's political theory as it develops in his later period. It focuses in particular on what Derrida calls the aporia, the experience of the possibility of the impossible. It is argued that Derrida uses aporia as a logical tool by which he views the world. He observes its operation in parallel sets of dualities: among others, he finds aporias at work between the measurable and immeasurable, the conditional and unconditional, the same and other, and the guest and host. In each of these cases, Derrida develops an analysis that does not seek to resolve dualities according to a Hegelian Aufhebung. Rather, aporias are impossible difficulties--paradoxes--that must be experienced and endured without resolution. Existence does not seek to transcend aporias; rather, aporias constitute our existence. The study takes special aim at several categories of thought that illuminate the aporias of his political theory: foundations, the event, sovereignty, hospitality, and democracy. In each of these areas, Derrida observes that instead of living in paradoxical opposition--a more conventional way of defining aporia--the categories of our thought contaminate and haunt each other. In particular, he shows that inside the sovereign self--whether in its personal or political forms--is always already the parasite of the other. After observing that we live upon a foundation of political authority that exceeds determination, we are then free to invent impossible new forms of political life. He argues that political sovereignty divides itself in an impossible gesture of hospitality toward the other, such that even political enemies receive a welcome. The study culminates in an examination of democracy, which is the best political regime precisely because within it is the aporia of measurable equality and immeasurable freedom., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-20T16:22:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kaufmann_cua_0043A_10503display.pdf: 1272343 bytes, checksum: 6d70e193a680b0f2ef3cb87f3c34c70d (MD5)

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