Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In his influential 1999 article, Social Capital in Britain Peter Hall offers Britain as a counter-example to Robert Putnam’s analysis of declining social capital in the United States. This paper draws on subsequent data sets to update Hall's assessment of the levels of social capital in Britain and provide additional analysis. The paper explores relevant influences not fully considered by Hall, such as the changing nature of associational life and the rise in income inequality during the 1980s. It argues that distributional issues are critical to the assessment of social capital in Britain, and that levels of both participation and trust show growing splits by social class. These factors, along with patterns of social trust similar those found in the US during the same period, suggest a less optimistic conclusion than Hall’s.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The college campus gives students the freedom to explore friendships in a diverse age-homogeneous society of scholars, but this freedom occurs within the constraints of the university as an institution. The institution can influence interracial friendship formation using residence hall segregation and roommate assignments to maximize interracial exposure in residence halls. Proximity of interracial potential ties around campus, in residence halls, and in the dorm room influence the inter-group propinquity in the freshman student population. The residential university provides the opportunity for repeated contact in local communities and campus social areas, a necessary antecedent to friendship. This study examines the extent to which residence hall segregation affects friendship segregation on a first-year student campus. Using data from a panel study of campus life at an elite university, this study finds that interracial exposure is a key factor in interracial friendship for minority students, but white students form friendship without regard for residential segregation. Both white and minority students find interracial roommate assignments a strong source for out-group friendship. Measures of weak ties find that minority students explore other residence halls to seek out same-race potential ties.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: “…It is our duty to sympathise with our fellow men under their troubles.”

Prince Hall, 1797

Despite the extraordinary leadership Prince Hall provided as America’s earliest community activist of African descent, academics have not devoted the requisite time and resources necessary to bring his legendary contributions from the periphery of early American History. This paper is the first of a series of initiatives necessary to offset the current deficit of original academic scholarship concerning Prince Hall. Another aim is to counter the disproportionate number of flawed historical works exalting Prince Hall to mythical proportion.

During the twentieth century several U.S. Colonial and New Republic era historical accounts reduced Hall’s existence to merely founding the first Masonic Lodge for people of African descent. Several books written by notable American historians contain erroneous information concerning Prince Hall’s existence. Typically, Masonic historians have provided the most reliable insight, but scarcely do their works contextualize the significance of Hall’s being within one of America’s most fascinating eras in history.

Using primary and secondary source material, this paper serves as the foundation for further scholarly inquiry. It relies on scarce tangible evidence to establish factual assertions about Prince Hall’s character, conduct, and unwavering commitment to his community. An attempt to contextualize the aforementioned as an Americanist historian, this paper, and subsequent research associated with it, is distinguishable from previous works that either focus solely on Prince Hall’s Masonic ties or briefly allude to his existence merely as a by-product of their main subject interest.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This article explores whether American citizens’ rights are violated when excluded from official White House event based on the citizens’ speech. In particular, this paper examines an event which took place in April, 2005, where three citizens were excluded from a Social Security “town-hall” meeting because the vehicle they arrived in exhibited a bumper sticker critical of Bush administration policies. The key question examined is whether private individuals who volunteered at the event can be considered “state actors” thereby implicating the citizens’ First Amendment rights. The issue is highly relevant, especially in America, given the increasing importance and power in our society of private institutions and individuals and given that such private persons are generally not constrained by the Constitution. The paper also provides a good launching pad through which to discuss other countries treatment of freedom of expression and the differences between the First Amendment and its counterparts or lack thereof in other societies.

Publication Type: Presentation Proposal