Browsing by Subject "Inter-College Program"

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    Black Widows: Battered Mothers Who Kill
    (2016) Klyman, Jay;
    The following paper examines battered mothers who kill their abusers. Through estimation, we find that this population is made up of 16,000 women who are presently incarcerated in the United States. Research examines the cases of Artiesha Love and Natalie Pollard, two mothers in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area who allegedly murdered their abusers. Through media analysis of over 15 sources, it is clear that the media lacks an understanding of domestic violence in the cases of battered mothers who kill. Turning to existing research, it is clear that very little research has been done around the role of motherhood. Of the literature examined, no previous research has done to make sense of how motherhood might affect a woman’s decision to kill or not kill her abuser. There is hope when it comes to case studies such as the Sin by Silence bills and documentary in California, and the #SayHerName component of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The issue of battered mothers who kill their abusers intersects with police brutality, racial disparities, and the criminalization of people of color and the movement to end domestic violence.
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    Parasols, Water Slides, and Dragons: Towards a Hydro-Social Understanding of St. Paul's Phalen Park
    (2018) Baldwin, Katharine;
    This archival study traces Phalen Park’s development from a romanticized, country-side escape from the city of St. Paul to a community park with a Chinese garden and dragon boat festivals in a racially diverse neighborhood. By contextualizing Phalen within studies on urban parks, Phalen emerges as a biophysical space with water quality and quantity concerns and as a social space where people interact, recreate, and are socially controlled. These concepts of Phalen as a biophysical and a social space minimally address the contestation and power relations that led Phalen Park to be what it is today. Political ecology and the concept of the hydro-social provide frameworks for addressing these power relations and point towards two conclusions. First, further investigations of park history should explicitly discuss contestation in the development of the park, perhaps focusing on the rise of neighborhood organizations in the 1970s and their correlation with changing neighborhood demographics. Second, questions should be raised regarding park management and community engagement, such as how the park is currently managed and how a sense of stewardship is built among the new populations surrounding the park.