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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    Information Avoidance in the Archival Context
    (2024) Beland II, Scott; St. Jean, Beth; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Information avoidance (IA) has been researched across several disciplines like psychology, economics, consumer health informatics, communications, and the information sciences, but the exploration of this phenomenon in archives is nearly non-existent. As information professionals, IA should be seen as a relevant concern to archivists as it may impact how people interact with archival materials, and more importantly how they may avoid certain materials, or the archives altogether. My study provides an extensive overview of IA in the archival context with a systematic literature review across disciplines and through qualitative interviews with 12 archivists across the United States of varying experience levels and from varying institution types. The aim is to explore how they think about IA in archives and how they may have experienced it in their work to answer the two research questions: 1) What abstract ideas do archivists have about IA as it relates to archives? 2) How do archivists experience IA in their daily work? Thematic analysis and synthesis grids were used to converge the transcripts into five key themes and findings about who is susceptible to IA, the contributing variables that impact and are impacted by IA, how IA manifests, real life applications of IA, and specific archival practices and concepts that impact and are impacted by IA in the context of archival work and research. Interpretations of this data resulted in theoretical models and implications that draw on existing understandings, as well as new understandings of IA that impact the information lifecycle of archival records and how people interact with them. These contributions to the archival and IA literatures can be used as a roadmap that will allow archivists to approach their work with a more mindful, and hopefully empathetic, ethic of care in handling information, understanding the costs and benefits of those decisions and actions, and better serving their patrons.
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    RHETORICS OF RIOT: ATTICA, ARCHIVES, AND AFFECT
    (2024) Robbins, Carolyn; Woods, Carly S.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Rhetorics of Riot: Attica, Archives, and Affect revisits the Attica prison uprising of 1971 through an abolitionist lens. Drawing on Aja Martinez’ theory of counterstory and Lisa Flores’ theory of racial rhetorical criticism, this project incorporates archival materials to curate the story of Attica from the perspectives of those who were inside the prison. Much of this curation is conducted through the medium of podcasts in order to platform the literal voices of the Attica Brothers and to reproduce facets of their affective experience. The first chapter offers a theoretical framework for the project as a whole, discussing methods and grounding the research in scholarly and activist literature and praxis. Chapter two offers the stock story of Attica as told by Attica administrators, the Grand Jury, and the New York State Police. Chapter three refigures our understanding of riots. By troubling the hegemonic version of events, it offers an abolitionist approach to riot rhetorics that honors the identity and agency of incarcerated people. Chapter four examines the hypocrisy and oppressive power of hegemonic civility discourses. It then offers an alternate view of civility and citizenship rooted in counterstories from the Attica Brothers. Chapter five concludes the project by discussing broader applications of the abolitionist reading of Attica counterstories. The podcast elements throughout the project constitute a critical public memory countersoundscape, troubling hegemonic memorialization of Attica and adding to the abolitionist efforts to tell these counterstories and speak truth to power.