Increased precipitation and drought intensity in the southeastern region of Texas has led to increasingly frequent disasters; for impoverished rural communities in East Texas, recurrent and expensive disaster mitigation and recovery relies heavily on social capital resources. Previous research on social capital has identified the necessity of organizing groups, such as clubs or churches, for the development of community capital. However, while research has investigated social capital in religious groups, rural non-traditional religious groups remain under-studied in relation to volunteerism and civic pro-sociality. This study employs an ethnographic approach, with data from participant observation and in-depth interviews, to investigate the social ties and civic activity of a small non-traditional evangelical church in rural East Texas. Preliminary data indicate that congregant identity as non-typical Christians, especially in the setting of motorcycle club culture, has a significant influence on the efficacy and frequency of religious and secular volunteerism and civic action. Within the context of disaster recovery, this study suggests a relationship between non-traditional organizational structures and broadening social capital networks.

How a community serves the people in the Jewish religion has always been discussed by academics and scholars involved in understanding the operations of Judaism. However, community building in Reconstructionist Judaism forces new considerations between faith, practice, and the meaning of religious affiliation. This is particularly noteworthy because of the individualist approach of Reconstructionist practice. Some scholars like Yuval Jobani have sought to define how Jewish communities operate as a secular culture outside of the religious context, and other scholars like Angelika Rohrbacher have sought to define what constitutes an insider to Judaism. Yet, few have sought to define the actual boundaries of a Jewish community. My research explores how Reconstructionist Jews in two New Jersey congregations understand their own communities. Membership to a Reconstructionist community is defined by your perceived willingness to be a participant and showcasing to others that you are invested in connecting with the community. Through participant observations and interviews, I look for overlap, like welcoming processes and popular rituals they have in common, between the two locations to find a consistent understanding that applies to both. Being a willing participant in the cultural practices of the community can allow someone to be integrated into the religious community regardless of their personal religious status. By analyzing how members of a community understand themselves, we can discern what the boundaries of the community actually are. Understanding what defines the community boundary allows future comparison of Reconstructionist communities to other religious communities and the ways they operate.

Many people know Apollo for the characterizations of him in popular culture, but what they do not know is that the image of Apollo has been used throughout history in times of crisis. Despite the massive cultural shifts from Ancient Greece to Ancient Rome, the god Apollo was the only major god to maintain his same identity. Since then, he has maintained relevance stemming all the way from his ancient Greek mythology days, to appearances in modern pop culture. The purpose of this presentation is to argue and observe how—and, more importantly, why—various aspects of Apollo’s godhood, such as prophecy, healing, plague, and queerness, resonate with such a wide variety of audiences spanning centuries. Specifically, I analyze how social resistance plays a massive role in giving Apollo his legacy and longevity. By using various examples of literature, films, and other modern media, I will analyze the impact of Apollo’s godhood throughout both ancient and contemporary times. Through this project, I show that Apollo’s longevity goes beyond mere popularity, but rather that his representation in times of struggle demonstrates their persistence through history.

Western esotericism reveals symbolic coherence and patterned logic, especially as held to Antoine Faivre’s rubric and comparative methodology. A departure from this framework’s typical application to historical sources, this research applies rigorous academic criteria to modern esoteric texts. This study is a critique and structural analysis of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack’s seminal work on the tarot (Golden Dawn/Rider–Waite–Smith), and The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology by Dusty White—two modern, influential occult-literary works. Both engage complex symbolic systems yet differ sharply in their presentation. White's tightly sequenced instructional system is delivered in an amicable tone, while Pollack approaches tarot through a poetic bias, resistant to formal scaffolding. Through Faivre’s lens, this project asks: (1) How do these works uniquely express core characteristics of Western esotericism? (2) How is reader access to symbolic understanding shaped by structure, style, and tone? What challenges emerge when engaging these texts as a newcomer? (3) How can we leverage Dusty White’s instructional structure and widely accepted inter-system correspondences in support of accessible and scaffolded entry from introductory astrology into introductory tarot study? This research contributes to ongoing conversations about ideal approaches to Western esoteric pedagogy.