UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Communicating Courtyards(2023) Gulisashvili, Konstantin; Bell, Matthew J; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project is for a multiple story residential structure and urban redevelopment near the Shota Rustaveli square. This courtyard building is owned by different families and offers a communal frame supporting family use. The courtyard configuration promotes privacy and provides a safe semi-private space. The design goal of the project is to evolve the failing urban fabric and to develop a contemporary dwelling based on the historical and cultural precedent of the Tbilisi Courtyard house.The main feature of this project is the courtyard style residential building, which will provide multiple uses such as socializing, cooking, play space, and more. In addition, the project will attempt to reproduce city traditions via a seamless connection of redeveloped surrounding neighborhoods with the existing city fabric.Item Tax Rebels: The Rise of the White Property Owner in Cobb County, Georgia(2015) Barron, Mark Alan; Corbin Sies, Mary; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The objective of this dissertation is to document how white property owners in Cobb County, Georgia achieved political, economic, and social influence over local and state affairs by the mid-twentieth century through processes of racial privileging and policy-making. Prior to World War Two, the county’s white property owners were historically divided into two competing political factions of equal demographic size with one faction residing in rural unincorporated parts of the county, and the other in urban centers. For much of their history, these two factions waged political battles against one another over the distribution of real and personal property taxes. In 1937, the two factions joined forces to push for a statewide homestead exemption to lower property taxes collected at the state and county level. The sudden loss of revenue financially devastated local governments across the state. In Cobb, city and county politicians and civic leaders began to search for new ways of raising revenue, including home-building campaigns, expansion of municipal utilities, and the courtship of federal investment. Through a combination of local planning and federal intervention, Cobb County’s quest to raise revenue shaped a racialized built environment that privileged the interests of white homeowners and ultimately influenced how white property owners saw themselves and the world around them through the policy-making process. The primary vehicle for this study will be tax policy, a largely understudied yet critical component of the built environment. The trajectory of the white property owner in Cobb County is complicated, as it ties the effects of local, state, and federal policy-making to sets of identity politics influenced by white supremacy and formed over the course of several decades. It is a study long overdue for investigation as it lays the groundwork for understanding how property and financial self-interest would inform the political and social positions of white homeowners in the second half of the twentieth century. Within this convergence of racial and economic issues, one question is paramount: How did the interconnected political and social formations of white supremacy and property ownership change over time within the context of state and local tax policy debates?Item Ancientness and Traditionality: Cultural Intersections of Vocal Music and History in the Republic of Georgia(2010) Foutz, Jeremy W.; Provine, Robert C; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Drawing on varied sources and personal fieldwork, data suggests the use of Georgian traditional music as a way for modern Georgians to reclaim and re-imagine the past. The history of Georgia and Georgian perspectives of history both gives context for the music and illustrates many modern Georgians' sense of being under siege. Within Georgian ethnomusicology and within the dominant Georgian culture itself, two concepts, "traditionality" and "ancientness," play prominent roles in perspectives of Georgian traditional vocal music and identity formation. After describing traditionality and ancientness in the Georgian context, we explore several roles they play in the formation of Georgian identity. Many current Georgians, in choosing to practice traditionality with their musical performances and perceptions, draw close to their imagined, idealized past. Furthermore, ancientness of Georgian traditional vocal music helps defend the border against the "theoretical other" - whether geographic neighbors or historical oppressors - through difference-making.Item Partition as a Solution to Ethnic Civil War: Statehood, Demography, and the Role of Post-War Balance of Power for Peace(2009) Johnson, Carter Randolph; Lichbach, Mark I; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Partition has been proposed as a way to (i) end ethnic civil wars and to (ii) build a lasting peace after ethnic civil wars end. This dissertation builds on partition theory and the ethnic security dilemma in three ways, demonstrating empirical support for a novel theory of why violence recurs following the end of ethnic civil wars and how partition can be used to prevent such violence. The dissertation begins by introducing the puzzle of ethnic group concentration: the social sciences have demonstrated that concentrated ethnic groups produce both peace and violence. The first case study discredits the notion that ethnic group concentration produced during ethnic civil wars will produce an end to ethnic civil wars. I conducted detailed field research, producing a longitudinal study of ethnic migration and violence in the Georgia-Abkhaz civil war (1992-1993), which acts as a crucial case. I conclude that partitioning groups does not end ethnic war. This is the first accurate empirical test of the ethnic security dilemma. Next, the dissertation looks at partition's ability to build peace by concentrating ethnic groups in new homeland states, and I argue that post-partition violence is caused by weak states and the triadic political space endogenously created by partitions that do not separate ethnic groups completely. I call this the Third Generation Ethnic Security Dilemma, building on previous ethnic security dilemma research. I test this empirically by introducing an index measuring the degree to which partitions separate ethnic groups, and I compare all ethnic civil war terminations between 1945 and 2004, demonstrating that partitions which completely separate ethnic groups provide a better chance for peace. Third, I selected two cases (Moldova and Georgia) to examine the causal processes of post-war recurring violence. Georgia, which experienced post-partition violence, and Moldova, which did not, act as a structured case comparison. I conclude that mixed ethnic demography interacts with state-building to cause or avert renewed violence.Item RACE AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN GEORGIA 1995-2004: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?(2009) Joseph, Patricia; Paternoster, Ray; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the relationship between the race of victim and combination of victim and offender races on a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty. The objective is to offer an updated look at the Georgia capital sentencing system between 1995 and 2004. In an older Georgia study based on data from the 1970s, race of victim was found to be of critical importance in capital case processing. Given the changes that have occurred in Georgia's death penalty system to address disparate sentencing along with the number of years that have gone by, an argument can be made that a more current investigation may yield new findings. Using data from the Atlanta Constitution Journal, a logistic regression analysis is conducted. Results reveal that although race of victim is still relevant to a prosecutor's decision to seek a death sentence, its influence has diminished.