ANDREW CHRISTJOY
The Resilient Church
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. While it may seem like just any other church in small town rural America, the First Baptist Church of Calvert, Texas is unique in that it is thriving when so many others across this country are struggling. Through field work on location, I examine archival texts, record interviews, and make ethnographic observations as part of a dissertation film project to obtain my Ph.D. at Texas A&M University.
Film and written dissertation coming spring 2025.
Go to the Project Website
Building Risk Communication Infrastructure
Emergency managers and community partners must communicate complex information to public audiences likely to have low knowledge and high anxiety during hazardous materials incidents. Organizations like local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) coordinate, connect, and build network communication infrastructures, supporting risk communication in catastrophes. Although LEPCs do not respond to emergencies and disasters, the networks that LEPCs cultivate can assist emergency officials and community partners in sharing coordinated messages about technical risks that are more likely to encourage trust among an anxious public.
Get the textbook Communication and Catastrophic Events
Calvert Sandlot Baseball
A historical marker at the baseball field signifies Calvert, Texas as the birthplace of Andrew "Rube" Foster, the founder of the Negro Baseball League in 1920. Inspired by his contribution, Andrew and members of the community have begun to bring baseball back to life in order to tell a new story of redemption and resilience against the backdrop of a divided nation.
Visit the project website: Calvert Baseball
The Consubstantial Cadet
At 41 years old, Andrew joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University and rose through the ranks from an unknown freshman to become the Deputy Corps Commander, the second-highest student position in the organization. Kenneth Burke might have proclaimed this as a successful consubstantial experiment. While an adult outsider with a prior career and background, Andrew also became an accepted cadet through the use of the hierarchy of symbols which produced a common context for everyone involved. This documentary film is an analysis in hermeneutic phenomenology.
Watch the film: The Consubstantial Cadet
For Love of the Game: The Natural Way to Strike Out Negative Self-Dialogue as an Aging Baseball Pitcher
Presented at the 18th Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Andrew showcases his journey to find resilience in sports by modeling his inner communication after characters in baseball movies. Harnessing the power of Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory, researchers understand that people learn behaviors by watching other people. Andrew capitalizes on this platform in order to raise the standard of mental toughness and a broader reaching resilience based on mythical, larger-than-life identity.
Before the Warning Bells Ring - Hazmat, Train Derailment Emergency Planning for Schools
As a researcher for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Andrew coordinated meetings with school districts of all sizes across the state of Texas in order to gather their stories of preparedness. This data was used as part of several guidebooks to help schools align with state regulations regarding potential transportation emergencies near school facilities.
Strategies for Deterring Trespassing on Rail Transit and Commuter Rail Rights-of-Way
Part of sustaining a resilient community is addressing individual vulnerabilities. As part of a research team, Andrew helped collect and categorize strategies for preventing customer suicides on passenger rails and around stations in order to produce a guidebook for cities across the nation.