http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2740 Fri, 24 May 2013 19:58:00 GMT 2013-05-24T19:58:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13814 Title: LANDSCAPES AND TRADITIONS OF MARATHONING IN THE USA, 2000-2008 Authors: Park, Krista Marie Abstract: This dissertation concludes that the symbiotic relationship between two competing cultural traditions of marathoning, Corrival and Pageant, simultaneous creates and eliminates barriers to marathoning participation. Using John Caughey's strategies for studying cultural traditions and Pierre Bourdieu's concept of capital to differentiate between and describe two different approaches to training for and participating in marathons among runners in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area (BWMA). Drawing on participant observation, interviews of runners in the BWMA, and an exploration of the geography of running in the BWMA, contextualized by discourse analysis of three prominent marathon training guides and the covers of the two most influential running magazines, this dissertation also explores the strategies individuals' use to overcome actual and potential obstacles to marathon participation, such as parenting or restrictive work schedules. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13814 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13222 Title: DEMOCRATIC IMPLICATIONS OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH GRADUATES WHO WENT ON TO NONPROFIT WORK Authors: Kiesa, Abigail I Abstract: Three trends have been evident in civil society for at least the past two decades: a gap in civic participation between young people with college experience and those without; increasing investment in college student civic participation by higher education institutions; and a narrowing of opportunities for all Americans to participate in civic life. This last point, some believe, is leading to a smaller, more homogenous and privileged group directing civic life, particularly nonprofit organizations, jeopardizing their democratic role. No research has attempted to bring all of these dynamics into conversation. This exploratory research begins to fill this void. By interviewing participants in one multi-year collegiate civic engagement program, we learned the skills, values and identity as "active citizens" graduates took into nonprofit work. Results suggest that lessons from trainings and civic activities within the program impacted the career choices that graduates made and how they conceive of their work. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13222 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12713 Title: You Ain't Messin' Wit My Dougie: Black Masculinities in Post-Millennial Hip-Hop Song and Dance Authors: Nichols, Jason Anthony Abstract: Black masculinities displayed by the hip-hop generation have received quite a bit of attention in academia for the past decade. However, the analysis often begins and ends with an examination of rap lyrics. Bodies communicate concepts like masculinities and femininities, so it is shortsighted to exclude them from an analysis of hip-hop and Black masculinities. This dissertation attempts to complicate and nuance black masculinities post-2000 by viewing them through the lens of rap music, hip-hop dance, movements, and kinesic imagery. Historically, Black Dance has been monitored, controlled, and appropriated because of its ability to build communities and inspire subversion. Hip-Hop is an important mass medium that reifies power relations and hip-hop dance is another element that has been used to substantiate assumptions about Black masculinities. This dissertation argues that the larger implications of hip-hop dance instruction songs are that they can be used to distract from rebellious sentiments, and legitimize patriarchy, consumerism, and violence as authentically Black and male. Many of the case studies in this dissertation involve songs that describe dances, both in instruction and purpose. Just as linguists have argued that a Hip-Hop Nation Language exists, I argue for the existence of a Hip-Hop Kinesic Language (HHKL), in which body movements are a discourse used by hip-hoppers to communicate concepts such as masculinities. This dissertation utilizes Laban Movement Analysis, which provides a language with which to describe the movements used by artists. The song/dances are also connected to the masculine histories and social contexts of the regions out of which they come. The song/dances I selected all received major radio and video play and were recognized in the hip-hop communities as mainstream. The three regions from which the song/dances came from were the East Coast (New York), West Coast (California), and the South (Georgia).Using LMA, the videos of the artists performing the dances and songs were analyzed. This piece reflects larger relationships between the white supremacist state and African Americans, and means by which the latter have subverted the former's desires to dominate them. The state, in an attempt to control African American nationalism and economic and social independence, has co-opted Black art and media including dance. Hip-Hop dance and dance instruction songs have followed this trajectory, but still have the power to inspire and possibly foment resistance. Historically, African slaves in North and South America have used song and dance to strengthen communities and disguise insurrectionary activities. Hip-Hop dance contains the same potential. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12713 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12593 Title: Work and Social Activism in the Life Stories of Latina Domestic Workers Authors: Barreto Bebianno Simoes, Marcia Abstract: Since the 1980s, social science research has emerged on gender and immigration to the United States as a result, in part, of the pronounced increase in immigration to the US. It has documented the way in which immigration is changing the social fabric of US society as well as how gender roles are being positioned within society. Scholarship on Latino immigration and gender has also evolved throughout the past decades, providing much needed insight about migration outcomes for Latina immigrants and their effects on these women's situated roles. Consequently, scholars have focused their work mainly on Latinas in their host communities, as workers, family members and community organizers. Transnationalist theories have contributed to understanding how Latinas organize their lives across borders; however, work is still needed to understand how the perspective of the immigrant life cycle (defined as life in the country of origin, the process of migration and life in the host country) informs migration outcomes for immigrant Latina women. In order to contribute to this understanding, this study, using an ethnographic approach, looks at the life stories of five low-income Latina immigrant domestic workers activists in Montgomery County, MD, to document their experience and to understand the factors that influence their civic mobilization for their collective rights. The central research question is: What are the factors conducive to female immigrants' collective mobilization for human rights? More specifically, what are the factors in the women's life course that account for mobilization and what are the structural factors in the host country that support this effort? This ethnographic study contributes to the literature on domestic work and migration by examining the subjective aspects of the Latinas' experience as they evolve as activists and mobilize for their rights as workers, particularly from the perspective of identity formation across the immigrant life cycle. The study also shows that domestic work conditions are determined by the specific relationship between poverty, human mobility and gender at a local and national level. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12593 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z