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.
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Item TRACKING TRANSPORT OF ‘CHEMICAL COCKTAILS’ OF TRACE METALS USING SENSORS IN URBAN STREAMS(2020) Morel, Carol; Kaushal, Sujay; Geology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Understanding transport mechanisms and temporal patterns in metals concentrations and fluxes in urban streams are important for developing best management practices and restoration strategies to improve water quality. In some cases, in situ sensors can be used to estimate unknown concentrations and fluxes of trace metals or to interpolate between sampling events. Continuous sensor data from the United States Geological Survey were analyzed to determine statistically significant relationships between lead, copper, zinc, cadmium and mercury with turbidity, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and discharge for the Hickey Run, Watts Branch, and Rock Creek watersheds in the Washington, D.C. region. At Rock Creek, there were significant negative linear relationships between Hg and Pb and specific conductance (p<0.05). Watershed monitoring approaches using continuous sensor data have the potential to characterize the frequency, magnitude, and composition of pulses in concentrations and loads of trace metals, which could improve management and restoration of urban streams.Item DECENT, SAFE, AND SANITARY? PUBLIC HOUSING AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF EASTERN WASHINGTON, D.C., 1940-1965(2020) Shapiro, Justin; Zeller, Thomas; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the relationships between the physical environment and the history of public housing in Washington, D.C. from the 1940s to the 1960s. The environmental features of public housing complexes, as well as those of the landscape around them, significantly shaped the outcomes of the National Capital Housing Authority’s (NCHA) projects. The scale of public housing construction during that period entailed sweeping and dramatic transformations in the landscape. At the same time, the NCHA found itself constrained by material and financial pressures coming from a variety of bureaucratic and institutional sources. Those pressures limited the NCHA’s ability to respond to environmental stresses at various public housing sites. In the absence of adequate responses from the NCHA, the environment played a significant role in determining the outcomes of the District of Columbia’s public housing program. The physical nature of the NCHA’s choice of sites, as well as the materials that it used, turned public housing complexes into sites of environmental injustice rather than the decent, safe, and sanitary housing that the Authority envisioned.Item “LIQUEURS WITH THE LADIES AFTER DINNER”: PUNCH RITUALS IN DOMESTIC PUBLICS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY(2018) Daniels, Catherine Denise; Brewer, Holly; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Throughout the eighteenth-century, punch drinking was incredibly popular among groups of men. Sharing a bowl of punch with one’s associates created a bond of fraternity. In fact the punch bowl itself, with its wide brim and elaborate decoration, symbolized conviviality. But while men were enjoying this drink in public, they also imbibed in the home where women partook in the ritual. Because of the communal and genial nature of the flowing bowl, these gatherings created domestic publics, a space which defied the traditional public and private spheres. There are several artifacts which may provide examples of domestic punch consumption in the eighteenth-century. Cookbooks, illustrations and prints, and punch bowls and punch pots can provide some insight into the ritual in the home. After examining these artifacts, one can clearly see that women participated in the punch ritual in the home. Martha Washington, for example, often served punch to guests at Mount Vernon. Punch had the ability to temporarily blur the traditional public and private spheres of men and women and create a space in which both groups were briefly bound by the convivial spirit of the drink.Item SECRETIVE MARSHBIRDS OF URBAN WETLANDS IN THE WASHINGTON, DC METROPOLITAN AREA(2016) Nielson, Patrice; Bowerman, William; Baldwin, Andrew; Environmental Science and Technology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Secretive marshbirds are in decline across their range and are species of greatest conservation need in state Wildlife Action Plans. However, their secretive nature means there is relatively sparse information available on their ecology. There is demand for this information in the Washington, DC area for updating conservation plans and guiding wetland restoration. Rapid Wetland Assessment Methods are often used to monitor success of restoration but it is unknown how well they indicate marshbird habitat. Using the Standardized North American Marshbird Monitoring Protocol, I surveyed 51 points in 25 marshes in the DC area in 2013 – 2015. I also collected data on marsh area, buffer width, vegetation/water interspersion, vegetation characteristics, flooding, and invertebrates. At each bird survey point I assessed wetland quality using the Floristic Quality Assessment Index (FQAI) and California Rapid Wetland Assessment (CRAM) methods. I used Program Presence to model detection and occupancy probabilities of secretive marshbirds as a function of habitat variables. I found king rails (Rallus elegans) at five survey sites and least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis) at thirteen survey sites. Secretive marshbirds were using both restored and natural marshes, marshes with and without invasive plant species, and marshes with a variety of dominant vegetation species. King rail occupancy was positively correlated with plant diversity and invertebrate abundance and weakly negatively correlated with persistent vegetation. Least bittern occupancy was strongly negatively correlated woody vegetation and invertebrate abundance and weakly positively correlated with persistent vegetation. Species-specific models provided a better fit for the data than generic marshbird models. A comparison model based on important habitat variables in other regions was a very poor fit for the data in all sets of models tested. FQAI was a better indicator of secretive marshbird presence than CRAM, but neither method had very good predictive ability or goodness of fit. These results underscore the importance of having species- and region-specific models for effective conservation. Based on these findings, decreasing woody vegetation and managing for a variety of co-dominant species to avoid monocultures would improve habitat for marshbirds. Rapid Assessment Method scores should be interpreted with caution when applied to marshbird habitat conservation.Item "Jazz is Back": Alternative Jazz Venues and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.(2016) Jackson, Benjamin James; Rios, Fernando; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gentrification has dramatically changed the urban landscape of Washington, D.C. Non-profit alternative jazz venues have become important sites for negotiating this complex process that is re-shaping the city. Each such venue aligns itself with one of the two primary factions of gentrification: new urban migrants or long-term residents. Westminster Presbyterian Church’s Jazz Night in Southwest fosters a community of repeat-attendees resisting social displacement. The Jazz and Cultural Society unabashedly foregrounds ties to long-term residents in highlighting a black identity and its local interconnectedness. CapitolBop’s Jazz Loft demonstrates the difficulties that come with trying to cater to a young audience, and at the same time, resist gentrification. These venues present three perspectives on gentrification and together bring light to the overlapping complexity of gentrification.Item Ledroit Park, A Portrait In Black And White: A Study Of Historic Districts, Social Change, And The Process Of Neighborhood Placemaking(2016) Henry, Christine Rae; Linebaugh, Donald W.; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research examines the process of placemaking in LeDroit Park, a residential Washington, DC, neighborhood with a historic district at its core. Unpacking the entwined physical and social evolution of the small community within the context of the Nation’s Capital, this analysis provides insight into the role of urban design and development as well as historic designation on shaping collective identity. Initially planned and designed in 1873 as a gated suburb just beyond the formal L’Enfant-designed city boundary, LeDroit Park was intended as a retreat for middle and upper-class European Americans from the growing density and social diversity of the city. With a mixture of large romantic revival mansions and smaller frame cottages set on grassy plots evocative of an idealized rural village, the physical design was intentionally inwardly-focused. This feeling of refuge was underscored with a physical fence that surrounded the development, intended to prevent African Americans from nearby Howard University and the surrounding neighborhood, from using the community’s private streets to access the City of Washington. Within two decades of its founding, LeDroit Park was incorporated into the District of Columbia, the surrounding fence was demolished, and the neighborhood was racially integrated. Due to increasingly stringent segregation laws and customs in the city, this period of integration lasted less than twenty years, and LeDroit Park developed into an elite African American enclave, using the urban design as a bulwark against the indignities of a segregated city. Throughout the 20th century housing infill and construction increased density, yet the neighborhood never lost the feeling of security derived from the neighborhood plan. Highlighting the architecture and street design, neighbors successfully received historic district designation in 1974 in order to halt campus expansion. After a stalemate that lasted two decades, the neighborhood began another period of transformation, both racial and socio-economic, catalyzed by a multi-pronged investment program led by Howard University. Through interviews with long-term and new community members, this investigation asserts that the 140-year development history, including recent physical interventions, is integral to placemaking, shaping the material character as well as the social identity of residents.Item THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY: HOMICIDE, DYNAMIC CHANGE, AND DETERRENCE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. NEIGHBORHOODS, 1998-2006(2014) Goodison, Sean Edmund; Paternoster, Raymond; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies examining homicide rates often have two limitations. First, there is a lack of rich, dynamic data to account for change, and second, no consideration of formal social controls at the neighborhood-level. To address these limitations, longitudinal data from Washington, D.C. was collected at the neighborhood level. This homicide incident and neighborhood demographic data, which spans from 1998-2006, allow for a test of two theoretical perspectives within a classical/social control sphere, namely social disorganization and deterrence. This work poses two main questions: Do dynamic structural factors influence homicide rates across neighborhoods? Does aggregate deterrence influence homicide rates across neighborhoods? Results suggest that dynamic structural factors predict homicide rates better than static factors, though deterrence results are insignificant. Implications and avenues for future research are also discussed.Item "To the Advantage of the City": Playgoing, Patriotism, and the First Washington Theatres, 1800-1836(2012) Saunders, AnnMarie Thomas; Nathans, Heather S; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 1803, a group of budding civic leaders in the fledgling capital city of Washington D.C. laid the cornerstone for what they hoped would be the first truly "national" theatre of the United States. Yet their grandiose dreams for a playhouse encountered as many obstacles as the rest of the city in the first decades of its development. My project, "'To the Advantage of the City': Playgoing, Patriotism, and the first Washington Theatres, 1800- 1836," represents the first full-length scholarly study of Washington D.C. theatre during the early national period. In my work, I examine the complex networks of economic and political associations that facilitated the development the district's theatre culture. I map the numerous experiments, the sporadic successes, and the traumatic failures that nearly drove theatre from the nation's capital. I explore the ways in which the presumption that theatre could and would contribute to narratives of American nationalism may have contributed to the failures of the early Washington theatre efforts as well as the determination with which theatre proponents in the District worked to rise above these failures and incorporate theatre into the culture of the capital, and thus the nation.Item Heads of State, Heads of Households: Social and Political Power Relationships in Early America(2011) Johnson, Mark Allen; Lyons, Clare A; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores familial and political power relationships in the American colonies after the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 through the establishment of the independent American republic. It investigates how early American statesmen, such as Presidents and state governors, related with their families and with the public. By examining the private and public correspondence and public addresses of these characters as government leaders and heads of household, it will explain how patriarchal ideals, laws, and practices persisted and changed during the political upheaval of the American Revolution and establishment of the republic with the creation of the Constitution. It will also demonstrate how familial relationships affected people's political understandings.Item BUILD to WIN: Community Organizing, Power, and Participation in Local Governance(2009) Bullock, John Thomas; Kaufmann, Karen; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation focuses on community organizing and uses it as a mechanism to compare the political environments in Baltimore and Washington over the last three decades. By conducting comparison case studies, I identify the contextual circumstances that affect the ability of grassroots organizations to achieve desired ends. The fact that both cities have functioning Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) affiliates - Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) - provides the opportunity to investigate the conditions that give rise to community organizing. Examining the interactions between BUILD/WIN and mayoral administrations over time sheds light on the varying temporal contexts while also explicating the different managerial styles of central political actors. By conducting these case studies, I highlight the optimal political conditions for the inclusion of grassroots organizations representing the interests of neglected neighborhoods.