College of the Holy Cross

Reseña de Sacred Habitat: Nature and Catholicism in the Early Modern Spanish Transatlantic de Ran Segev.

This nationwide study examined how 25 Black undergraduate and graduate students defined and constructed the meaning of safety and joy on their campuses. Through our newly developed Critical Socioecological Framework for Racialized School Safety (CSFRSS), we address students’ experiences of cultivating joy within a liberatory framework, given that these students have historically been underserved and invalidated in academic spaces deemed unsafe. Using the study’ s data, we found that 1) feeling authentic–particularly within Black racial identity–was rooted in how students determined feeling safe, and 2) even in their unsafe academic spaces, students could cultivate joy due to their Black communities.

Critical consciousness is the ability to analyze and challenge oppressive forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire asserted that nurturing young people’s critical consciousness should be the primary goal of education, so youth develop the will and skill to challenge oppression and build a better world. A growing body of psychology research has found critical consciousness to be predictive of a range of positive youth outcomes including resilience, self-esteem, academic achievement, and civic engagement. The present mixed methods study explored middle school advisory—facilitated spaces for community building and social-emotional support—as a space for nurturing young adolescents’ critical consciousness. Pre-post surveys with youth (n = 283) from five different middle schools found that feelings of school connectedness and feelings of safety in advisory were predictive of different components of youths’ critical consciousness. Interviews with a subset of these youth (n = 53) revealed ways in which the more intimate and informal setting of advisory (in comparison to students’ academic classes) contributed to the students’ investment and willingness to engage in learning and discussion about oppressive forces and how to challenge these forces.

Abstract Intergenerational learning is thought to be an effective strategy for disrupting ageist stereotypes youth may hold and addressing the social isolation of participants. For the past 5 years, “The Humanity Restoration Project” has studied the benefits of intergenerational learning between college-aged students and nursing home residents and staff using Anne Basting’s improvisational storytelling method TimeSlips™ (TS) and the related “beautiful questions”. The central goals of the study include exposing students to intergenerational conversations, countering ageist and ableist social assumptions, and supporting community members living and working in institutional care settings. Both residents’ quality of life and staff work satisfaction have been demonstrated to improve during arts-based interventions and intergenerational programming. We collected data through observations, written student reflections, student oral presentations, pre- and post-test surveys and semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups. Students report improved ability to imagine themselves as future old people, a reduction of negativity/stigma about aging, and genuine respect for and identification with older adult participants. Residents were more engaged and felt valued through helping “teach” young people about aging. Like students, the project allowed staff to see residents in a new, more positive and personal light. Intergenerational learning has the dual benefit of disrupting negative views of aging and older people while simultaneously providing meaningful connection and social interactions. It also has the emancipatory potential - for students and staff alike - of restoring the humanity to some of the most disenfranchised among us: older adults living in nursing homes.

Abstract The discourse on undocumented immigration to the United States often centers on place-based policies, such as those that create “sanctuary” on the one hand, or that promote "self-deportation" on the other. How much do these policies actually affect migration patterns? This paper uses administrative data on likely undocumented Mexican immigrants to estimate the impact of state-level immigration policy on location decisions and compare this to the role of labor market characteristics and violence. Using a fixed effects model that accounts for Mexican state to US state networks, I do not find evidence that state-level policy drives immigration patterns and instead labor market conditions and violent crime explain Mexican migration across US states.

The precipitous decline in global coral cover over the past several decades necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the energetic underpinnings and fundamental biology governing coral growth, reproduction, and acclimation. Quantifying the flow of energy in corals is a critical component of the knowledge needed to predict, manage, and mitigate the coming future for these sentinel species in an era of rapid global change. In this review, we synthesize nearly 100 yr of the literature on carbon budgets, which are closely linked to coral energetics. To this end, this review is organized into energetic gains and losses, with a focus on detailed mechanistic processes, their historical foundations, and our current understanding. We highlight how the level of energetic reserves and trophic flexibility governs the fate of scleractinian corals, particularly following a bleaching event. We also observe a high degree of species specificity in energy acquisition, storage, and use, specifically in the ability to leverage heterotrophy to buffer energy loss during bleaching. We note that current energetic research has prioritized only ~ 20 species out of at least 1,500 known scleractinians and is focused on taxa with wide ranging geography. Finally, we identify research priorities for addressing the precipitous loss of coral cover in the “Anthropocene.” Key research avenues include (1) taking a species-driven approach to quantify the contribution of autotrophy and heterotrophy to energy and carbon acquisition, (2) assessing trophic flexibility under environmental stress, and (3) generating robust models to explain and predict energetic status. Broadening the scope of studied scleractinians to include corals at range edges, endemics, and understudied taxa with alternative mechanisms for energy utilization, will be key to understanding the flow of energy in corals now and in the coming future.

Introduction: In psychotherapy, clinicians often need to identify the cause of their patients’ emotional struggles to apply appropriate interventions for therapeutic progress. This process typically relies on the patient’s self-report; howeve