DRUM - Digital Repository at the University of Maryland

DRUM collects, preserves, and provides public access to the scholarly output of the university. Faculty and researchers can upload research products for rapid dissemination, global visibility and impact, and long-term preservation.

 
Submit to DRUM

Submit to DRUM

To submit an item to DRUM, login using your UMD credentials. Then select the "Submit Item to DRUM" link in the navigation bar. View DRUM policies and submission guidelines.
Equitable Access Policy

Equitable Access Policy

The University of Maryland Equitable Access Policy provides equitable, open access to the University's research and scholarship. Faculty can learn more about what is covered by the policy and how to deposit on the policy website.
Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations

DRUM includes all UMD theses and dissertations from 2003 forward.

List of Communities

Collections Organized by Department

UM Community-managed Collections

Recent Submissions

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Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis
(2024) Schmitz, Holland; Woods, Colleen
Lesbian Newsletters, Pulps, and Manuals: A Primary Source Analysis is a research paper about lesbian publications in the mid 1900s. The paper examines two lesbian newsletters: The Ladder and Vice Versa, which were published in the 1940s and 50s; and two lesbian pulp novels: We Walk Alone by Ann Aldrich and The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan, which were both originally published in the 1950s. By examining all of these texts, the paper declares that lesbian authors created an image of humor, bravery, and care for the local community through the work they published. The newsletters were widely distributed thanks to discreet mailing options, and the lesbian pulp novels were sold in nearly every drug store and shop where someone could walk up to the counter and bravely purchase a novel with a naked woman on the front. Due to the popularity of these texts, the image of themselves that the lesbian authors wished to present did succeed in influencing many people that lesbians are worthy of love and protection, and are strong activists and allies for issues that affect queer identities. This research paper set out to change the way lesbian history was viewed by UMD peers, for the better.
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Recovering Democracy Archives Project
(2024) Solomon, Seble; Parry-Giles, Shawn
In my Rhetoric of Black America course (COMM360), I recovered a speech from 1857 delivered by Frances Harper from the Library of Congress archives. I authenticated the speech by comparing different versions and noting any discrepancies or necessary corrections. I also wrote a contextual analysis of the speech, discussing Harper’s biography, educational background, the occasion of the speech, and its impact. After the course concluded, I collaborated with Dr. Shawn Parry-Giles, as part of an independent study (COMM489), to further revise my contextualization paper and prepare for publication on the Recovering Democracy Archives website. I conducted additional archival research about Frances Harper, U.S. social movements from1830 to 1890, and the development and evolution of moral suasion as a method of liberation.
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The Influence of Institutions on the Growth of Senegal
(2024) Little, Liam; Moller, Dan
This research paper is about the impact of institutions of the lack of sustained economic growth in Senegal. particularly looking at the political and legal institutions and the powerful incentives or disincentives provided. Concluding with three policy recommendations to improve economic growth in the country.
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Evaluating Evaluation Metrics for Ancient Chinese to English Machine Translation
(2024) Bennett, Eric; Schonebaum, Andrew
Evaluation metrics are an important driver of progress in Machine Translation (MT), but they have been primarily validated on high-resource modern languages. In this paper, we conduct an empirical evaluation of metrics commonly used to evaluate MT from Ancient Chinese into English. Using LLMs, we construct a contrastive test set, pairing high-quality MT and purposefully flawed MT of the same Pre-Qin texts. We then evaluate the ability of each metric to discriminate between accurate and flawed translations.
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F is for Feminism: Understanding 1970s Social Conflict through Sesame Street
(2024) Mason, Taylor; Keane, Katarina
Debuting in 1969, the producers, psychologists, and educators of Sesame Street created an empathetic, educational, and engaging world to develop literacy, mathematics, and socioemotional skills in preschool-aged children. Although Sesame Street has been analyzed extensively for its learning outcomes and legacy in popular memory, historians have neglected to look at the discourse surrounding the program. Preserved in the University of Maryland’s Special Collections Archives, tens of thousands of children and adults wrote letters to Sesame Street and explored a variety of topics, from asking Big Bird to come to a birthday party and praising the cast’s racial diversity to communicating dissatisfaction with the promotion of lackluster nutritional values or expressing outrage over a lack of female representation. Focusing in on letters from the first decade of production (1969-1979) and letters from women who self-identified as mothers, who were uniquely responsible for their child’s care and education, two topics emerged as the most pressing: nutrition/breastfeeding and gender representation. The combination of asserting an identity and voicing an opinion in the same letter serves as meaningful examples for how Americans engage in civil discourse to change the world around them. Viewed through this lens, Sesame Street was more than a show with joyful characters, catchy music, and a vampire teaching numbers: it was a two-way mirror into the consciousness of American culture.