Rousseau’s political thought is commonly understood as his prescriptive attempt to restore, recreate, or replicate the natural goodness of man in society. In contrast to this prevailing view, I argue for a reorientation that sees Rousseau’s political thought as a diagnostic project, primarily concerned with discovering what Man is and to what extent this image of Man is still present in men. The political problem facing Rousseau and us, his readers, is the gap between the naturally good Image, Man, and His corrupted image-bearers, men. To investigate this problem, Rousseau utilizes portraiture. Portraiture is Rousseau’s explicit and intentional methodology that approaches the problem of Man and men through figures—of natural man, Emile, Sophie, Julie, and Jean Jacques—from the relational perspective that arises between the interplay of the author of the portrait, the nature of the subject, and the impact on the audience of both the author and his work of art. On my reading, the framework of portraiture allows us to approach the metaphysical and moral concept, Man, apart from his phenomenal likenesses and historical development in men through the imaginative portraits of Rousseau. Rousseau thus can be seen as providing a much richer philosophical groundwork for his moral and political system than has previously been appreciated. The dissertation explains Rousseau’s diagnostic attempt to see Man as he truly is and save men as they are through his portraits and by way of portraiture.

This article proposes a reconciliation between two conflicting interpretations of the political works of Niccolò Machiavelli, through a close textual analysis of his Discourses on Livy. The first interpretation views Machiavelli as a largely cynical lover of power, whose republican tendencies have been tamped down to the point of near non-existence. The second sees him as an staunch classical republican, one who artfully and consciously worked to reestablish the Florentine Republic through his works. By building off both approaches, it is argued that Machiavelli was indeed a committed republican, though his keen awareness of his precarious position in 16th century Florence prevented him from fully articulating his support for republicanism. Consequently, it is argued that Machiavelli is best thought of as an ardent but ever-fearful republican, whose works simultaneously advocate for the violent overthrow of the House of the Medicis, and attempt to excuse his own relative inaction in fulfilling that goal.

Delivering engaging and rigorous learning experiences in online environments has become a key priority for higher education institutions, driving prolific innovation in tools, pedagogy, and research over the last 20 years. The design and research of collaborative, networked learning experiences in particular has been fueled both by socially-turned theories of learning as well as the meteoric rise of social media and digital networks, which have introduced radical new forms of connectivity and sharing in daily life. In this dissertation, I offer three articles that each focus on one tool in the SuiteC collaborative learning system, a set of interconnected software applications designed to foster peer-to-peer sharing and collaborative, remix composing in a gamified environment. Looking across four semesters of student usage of the SuiteC tools in an online/hybrid undergraduate education course, I employ a mixed-methods approach grounded in “assemblage theory” that leverages learning analytics mined from the SuiteC database, content analysis of student artifacts, and student feedback to explore the kinds of social interactions and collaborations that emerged in the course. Findings suggest best practices and curricular strategies for the design of peer-centered online learning courses, recommendations for software tools, and the utility of assemblage concepts in studying complex sociotechnical systems.

Glutamatergic synapses are the main excitatory synapses in the mammalian central nervous system. The assembly and regulation of these highly organized and asymmetric junctions requires extensive molecular signaling mechanisms. Although thousands of components and interactions within the synapse have been identified, the signaling logic that governs their assembly has remained elusive. We show that a conserved cell polarity signaling protein, Lgl1, is localized in the postsynaptic density. Conditional knockout of Lgl1 in hippocampal pyramidal neurons at postnatal day 7

resulted in increased synapse numbers, altered synaptic ultrastructure, altered compositions of synaptic proteins, and reduced AMPA/NMDA ratio. Conditional Lgl1 deletion from adult mice also produces synaptic phenotypes similar to what is observed in the deletion at postnatal day 7. Lgl1 and atypical Protein Kinase C mutually inhibit each other in apical-basal polarity signaling. We found that a double conditional knockout of both isoforms of atypical PKCs in hippocampal neurons at postnatal day 7 lead to changes in synaptic ultrastructure at postnatal day 14, but not synapse number. Reduction of synapse number was observed in adulthood, suggesting a role for aPKC in the maintenance of synapses rather than their initial formation. Conditional deletions of Lgl1 or atypical PKCs lead to deficits in novel object recognition and social interaction. Triple cKO of Lgl1 and atyptical PKCs restores synapse number and some of the behavioral functions, such as open field and novel object recognition, but not social behavior. The phenotypes observed following conditional deletion of Lgl1 or aPKC are consistent with their opposing roles in apical-basal polarity and their influence on other pathways such as the planar cell polarity pathway and cellular adhesion. Lgl1 is one of the genes commonly deleted in a severe but poorly known behavioral disorder, Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS), which is often diagnosed with autism. Lgl1+/- animals show increased synapse numbers, deficits in social interaction, and stereotyped repetitive behavior. Furthermore, three previously characterized NMDA antagonists can rescue social interaction in Lgl1+/- animals. Therefore, deletion of Lgl1 may contribute to neuropsychiatric symptoms in SMS and provides insight into cellular pathways that may underlie the behavioral phenotypes that are observed in the syndrome.

Although Rousseau is well-known for his doctrine of the natural goodness of man, his new doctrine has not attracted much attention on how it responds to a tradition of philosophical and theological thought that centers on the related claims concerning original sin, the will to dominate, and pride. I argue that Rousseau’s account of natural goodness is helpfully understood as a critique of the tradition that identifies a will to dominate in human nature – a tradition beginning with Augustine’s account of original sin and continued in the thinking of Hobbes and Locke. Understanding Rousseau’s treatment of the will to dominate as arising from societal corruption of human nature illuminates the educational program in Emile as an attempt to curb the desire to dominate.

A small sample of 38 Advanced Technology Projects funded between 1993 and 1996 are surveyed to explore the reasons for university non-participation, or, in the cases where they did participate, whether the partnerships encountered any difficulties from their participation. 32 percent report that intellectual property issues were an insurmountable barrier to university participation. Such barriers are more likely when the ATP share of funding is high and when the expected duration of the research is relatively short. They are also somewhat more likely for projects involving chemical technology, and when industrial participants have had previous experience with universities as research partners. These difficulties over IP may arise because the cultures in the two institutional forms differ, or because the original ATP guidelines do not recognize the existence of the Bayh-Dole Act (which grants universities title to inventions made by their employees using outside funding).