Project title: Finding God As Death Creeps Around the Corner: Christianity's Impact on the Cognitive Process of Women on Death Row
Project description: There is plenty of research and qualitative studies on how Christianity influences death row inmates. I aim to delve even deeper within this study by focusing exclusively on the women on death row—specifically the mothers of death row. Through my preliminary research of this rare subsection within the carceral system, I have come to learn that some of the women on death row are there for killing their children. It made me wonder if, for the Christian mothers on death row, finding God was a way for them to fill that hole that mothers experience after losing a child. Or if finding God was a way for them to ask for forgiveness for taking the life of a human being that was once in their womb. Nevertheless, in my research, I seek to complicate and expand upon preexisting ideas surrounding Christianity regarding its connection to death row inmates through the lens of gender. This allows for a deeper understanding of how femininity and motherhood can impact a woman on death row's decision to adopt God; it will also enable us to grapple with how spirituality, womanhood, and motherhood functioned within these women's lives before, during, and in their period of an almost after death.
Most important achievement: Still to come
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: The College Scholar Program has given me space to explore research that I am deeply passionate about. The program encourages exploration and free-thinking. It allows you to push past the barriers of disciplines and interweave them to create a body of work that speaks to the power of interdisciplinary learning.