This thesis presents a narrative and cognitive investigation of grief, specifically, how individuals of different genders experience, anticipate, express, and adapt to the emotional, cognitive, and existential implications of death. Employing a phenomenological and gender-informed qualitative methodology, I draw upon 34 written narratives (17 participants) that explored three intersecting death-related domains: retrospective grief (previous experiences of mourning), prospective loss (anticipated death of a loved one), and personal mortality (views on one’s own death). I organize this material thematically and cognitively, with particular attention to internal narrative contradiction, gendered emotional labor, cultural expectations, metaphors of embodiment, and strategies of assimilation and avoidance. While some participants mourned actively and communally, others grieved alone, or not at all. Regardless of strategy or style, participants consistently demonstrated a drive toward narrative construction: that is, toward self-integration through story.
In synthesizing these voices, we argue that grief is not merely an emotion- it is a mode of cognition, deeply influenced by gender socialization and cultural conditioning. Grief narratives often resist resolution and instead cultivate continuity, connection, or compassionate detachment. Stories of grief, told and retold, become the medium by which we preserve the presence of the dead, construct the moral framing of our identities, and discover strategies not only to survive loss but to live with it meaningfully. By tracing how individuals create grief narratives, both consciously and unconsciously, we propose a theory of integrative mourning: the ongoing, embodied, and imaginative blending of memory, emotion, and identity through language. Storytelling, we pose, is not merely therapeutic; it is existential architecture.

The Mapuche are an Indigenous nation who have historically lived in southern Chile and Argentina, where their ancestral territory, Wallmapu, is located. Although the Mapuche largely succeeded in resisting Spanish conquest, the establishment of the Chilean Republic in 1810 and the subsequent military campaigns to incorporate Wallmapu into national territory marked the beginning of a new era of oppression. The resulting state and economic structures have continually threatened the Mapuche’s cultural, political, economic, and social survivability. The survival of certain Mapuche practices, including their medicinal ones, has been questioned. This raises another question: instead of viewing Mapuche medicine as something at risk of being destroyed, can it be seen as a tool for resisting the Westernization imposed by the Chilean state? This thesis will address this question through a collaborative approach, utilizing Mapuche literary sources and engaging with Mapuche contacts. Mapuche medicine stands in stark contrast to biomedical approaches, and its practice emphasizes nonconformity to Western Chilean standards. Mapuche participation in state medical programs such as the Intercultural Health Program represents a method that has institutionalized and legitimized Mapuche presence. Deforestation and militarization pose significant threats to the practice of Mapuche medicine by destroying natural resources and surveilling the people. Nevertheless, the continued practice of Mapuche medicine under such circumstances stands as a defiant resistance against efforts to erase their identity and presence. This thesis challenges the superficial ways in which "self-determination" is often applied to Indigenous movements by Westerners without addressing the deeper nuances. It argues that true self-determination must move beyond Western-imposed notions of property rights and be defined on the terms of the communities themselves.

The Mapuche are an Indigenous nation who have historically lived in southern Chile and Argentina, where their ancestral territory, Wallmapu, is located. Although the Mapuche largely succeeded in resisting Spanish conquest, the establishment of the Chilean Republic in 1810 and the subsequent military campaigns to incorporate Wallmapu into national territory marked the beginning of a new era of oppression. The resulting state and economic structures have continually threatened the Mapuche’s cultural, political, economic, and social survivability. The survival of certain Mapuche practices, including their medicinal ones, has been questioned. This raises another question: instead of viewing Mapuche medicine as something at risk of being destroyed, can it be seen as a tool for resisting the Westernization imposed by the Chilean state? This thesis will address this question through a collaborative approach, utilizing Mapuche literary sources and engaging with Mapuche contacts. Mapuche medicine stands in stark contrast to biomedical approaches, and its practice emphasizes nonconformity to Western Chilean standards. Mapuche participation in state medical programs such as the Intercultural Health Program represents a method that has institutionalized and legitimized Mapuche presence. Deforestation and militarization pose significant threats to the practice of Mapuche medicine by destroying natural resources and surveilling the people. Nevertheless, the continued practice of Mapuche medicine under such circumstances stands as a defiant resistance against efforts to erase their identity and presence. This thesis challenges the superficial ways in which "self-determination" is often applied to Indigenous movements by Westerners without addressing the deeper nuances. It argues that true self-determination must move beyond Western-imposed notions of property rights and be defined on the terms of the communities themselves.

The relationship between friendship and academics has been observed from many different perspectives; it is most relevant to education but has a lot of relevance to the sociological world of academia. The most researched facet of the relationship is how friends impact a student’s grades in the classroom, but there is so much more to the relationship than that. Friends can affect a student’s sense of belonging, their comfort with collaborating in the classroom, and their feelings about school. Not to mention the characteristics of friends unrelated to the classroom, like where they are from, how they act, what they like to do outside of school, and their cultures play just as major a role in shaping a student’s academic performance and connection to school as their friend’s grades and study habits.
My thesis is focused on the impact that friends have on academic performance with a precise look at the key factors of these school friendships during a high school experience. Most research done on this topic comes in the form of quantitative research like surveys, but my thesis consists of interviews that get an in-depth and unique perspective on the elements of friendship that impact a student’s academics. These interviews consist of people over 18 and out of high school reflecting back on their experience.

Democratic Socialism has been widely criticized as being economically and politically
unfeasible. This political ideology has experienced mass support for the promises it pledges in its
inherent dogma of human welfare over profit maximization. It is often pitted against and likened
to Marxism-Leninism, however, advocates of democratic Socialism heavily oppose the
authoritarian nature of past systems such as the Soviet command economy during the 20th
century. Over the years, socialist revolutions took place across the globe from Cuba to Vietnam
to China. Democratic socialist movements erupted in areas such as Tanzania and Jamaica with
enigmatic leaders such as Julius Nyerere and Michael Manley. The 1970s and 1980s were eras of
large-scale decolonial movements spanning across the Third World as seen in Pan-Africanism
and the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Leaders and scholars such as Thomas
Sankara, Walter Rodney and Kwame Nkrumah all were powerful advocates for their nations.
They tried to use their positions in power to lead their nations into a prosperous future. This
thesis concentrates on Michael Manley’s approach to democratic socialism as Jamaica’s prime
minister for three terms (1972-80 and 1989-92). This thesis hones in on Michael Manley’s action
and its impact on Jamaica’s political economy. It explores the domestic and foreign hurdles that
were present during his three terms in office. The thesis concludes with postulations on the
pivotal roles external and internal factors played on the demise of Manley’s regime and loss of
public support.

This podcast explores desegregation strategies in the Boston Public Schools and how they allow or inhibit families to find belonging. Accompanying podcast episodes 1-5 are linked below as multimedia files.