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 DECOLONIZATION THROUGH REPATRIATION: A NEW GLOBAL HERITAGE MUSEUM FOR AFRICA(2022) Okubadejo, Adeola Olubusayo; Lamprakos, Michele; Cronrath, David; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis investigates and examines the impact of European colonization and imperialism on West African cultural identity through the tracking and placing of items back into their historical contexts. The museum facility aspires to be a symbol of pride and awareness for West African arts and culture; serving and celebrating the West-African community and its arts and cultural heritage beyond borders by repatriating and, in effect, decolonizing its art and artifacts. The establishment of a facility to exhibit and recontextualize looted and returned art and artifacts is a long-awaited, challenging request that would allow them to be seen in its native West African gestalt. As a focal point for international engagement and reflection across a variety of urban contexts, The Museum and Cultural Center facility, through simultaneously redistributing and rehousing, caters to more culturally invested populations, where there is an eagerness for ethnically diverse representation as well as access to people and civilizations the broad populace may not typically engage with.Item SOUTH KOREAN FAMILIES’ CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF MUSEUM-BASED SCIENCE LEARNING(2020) Jeong, Hannoori; Elby, Andrew; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This exploratory research study examined how three South Korean families in theU.S. conceptualize museum-based science learning by exploring varied contexts in which they are embedded. In applying a sociocultural perspective, I investigated the families’ backgrounds, views of school and museum learning, in conjunction with their virtual museum tours to address my overarching research question: How do South Korean families in the U.S. conceptualize museum-based science learning? The purpose of this study is to understand how, or by what means, South Korean families’ conceptualizations about museum-based science learning are socially and culturally situated. In adhering to the guidelines of Yin’s (2018) suggestions to conduct multiple case research, I collected individual interviews prior to and following the families’ self-guided virtual museum tours, observations, self-reflections, and self-generated photographic images that captured their views of museum learning. Guided by the Contextual Model of Learning framework (Falk & Dierking, 2000), I used three analytic lenses to explore and analyze the data: personal context, sociocultural context, and physical context of learning. Through the use of narrative analysis, I reported within-case and cross-case findings across the three cases of families. In doing so, I first synthesized each family’s background setting, views of school and museum learning, and museum-based learning interactions to seek insights into how they shaped the family’s conceptualizations about museum-based science learning. Findings showed that the interweaving of each family’s varied contexts, namely personal, sociocultural, and physical, appeared to shape how they conceptualized museum-based science learning. Aspects of the families’ personal context—such as individual goals and beliefs—appeared to motivate their learning experience during the virtual museum tours mediated by sociocultural and physical contexts—such as within- group interactions and orientations to the physical space, respectively—that reinforced or shaped their conceptualizations of museum learning. Thus, in connection with prior literature, the families’ views of learning and authoring their sense of self that manifest their unique contexts may have spurred their conceptualizations of museum-based science learning. Broad implications of the study for museum education research, virtual museum learning, and future research related to informal science education are also discussed.Item "What's in the Basement?" A Thesis on Florida Curation(2021) DeVanie, Sierra; Lafrenz Samuels, Kathryn; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The curation crisis is an ongoing problem with the lack of space and resources to properly curate collections throughout the country. There are many papers and research studies about the curation crisis: how to solve it and how to keep more from piling up. I will review these and their ideas for solving the problem and how they could be put towards Florida’s collection problem. Florida has a curation facility for artifacts collected on state land. However, if the artifacts are collected on private land and the landowners do not want the artifacts they remain with the CRM firm that collected them. Two surveys will be undertaken for this thesis to ascertain the public and professional opinions on curation, the purpose of curating, and if the collections recovered from archaeological investigations are worth the cost to curate them in perpetuity.Item Center for Media Art and Technology(2006-05-23) Marchant, Ethan Allister; Ambrose, Michael; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Digital Harbor initiative in Baltimore, Maryland, has recently been established as an attempt to re-invent the industrial city as a high-tech center. Initiatives and Task Forces have been created in order to encourage high-tech entrepreneurship while the recent attention to various educational centers marks a strong attempt to foster a digital education for the youth of the area. However, a digital culture and identity have not been established in the city. This thesis deals with the phenomenon which occurs at the intersection of art, architecture and digital technology. By mixing the diverse aspects of artistic digital creation, a cultural intersection will form between education, performance, and display. As a fictional non-profit collaboration between local art institutes, universities, and cultural institutions, the center will provide a venue intended to establish a cultural identity a post industrial city poised to accept the challenges of the temporal environment of the digital age.