Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
4 results
Search Results
Item BLACK REMOVAL AND INVISIBILITY: AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE 21st CENTURY(2018) Benjamin, Tatiana; Wong, Janelle; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation, Black Removal and Invisibility: At the Intersections of Race and Citizenship in the 21st Century, uses the experiences of Black immigrants as a lens to examine anti-Blackness and citizenship within the contemporary U.S. immigration system. I explore how Black immigrants sit at a unique intersection of Blackness and (un)documentation that produces significant vulnerabilities. Black undocumented immigrants occupy an ambiguous and often untenable position within the U.S. nation-state. They are simultaneously included in the broad category of “Black American” and excluded from the category of “American” by virtue of their lack of citizenship. Their exclusion, I contend, is based both on Blackness and status as unauthorized immigrants. I examine their exclusion by addressing the following questions: How does an emphasis on “invisibility” help us to better understand how immigrant rights organizations in the U.S. address and represent the needs of Black immigrants? In what ways have the experiences of Black immigrants been rendered marginal to social justice movements? What are the consequences of their marginalization for political representation? Lastly, how are Black immigrants responding and transforming the immigrants’ movement? I rely on qualitative methods, including participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore these questions.Item AWAKENING ACTIVISM: THE POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS(2018) Braun, Joseph; Reed, William L; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Individuals are an integral part of international human rights. While central to our leading theories of human rights change and to the efforts of human rights organizations in the real world, empirical scholarship has not systematically investigated how individuals choose to become advocates. Without the mobilization of individuals, human rights institutions and campaigns are deprived of the energy and material that fuel their success. In this dissertation, I closely evaluate the reasons why individuals choose to become engaged in human rights campaigns, what drives them to advocacy, and what this tells us about the relationship between political psychology and international human rights. In Chapter 1, I consider how incidental emotions influence individuals’ support for child hunger relief and refugee assistance, finding that negative emotions like disgust tend to amplify pre-existing views. In Chapter 2, I evaluate the effects of the negativity bias and loss-aversion bias on support for child hunger relief. I find that the combination of negative imagery and gains-focused messaging had a significant and positive effect on individuals’ support for both personal and government action to help feed and house the hungry. In Chapter 3, I discuss the important effects that political ideology had on the relationships I observed in Chapters 1 and 2. I illustrate how those on the political left and right responded in systematically different ways in each of the experiments, and note how these differences reveal the critical importance of targeted messaging with an emphasis on ideology. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of these dissertation findings as theoretically important and practically useful, with an emphasis on a focused and practically-oriented future research agenda.Item Undergraduate College Students' Perceived Sense of Civic Responsibility and Social Change Behaviors in the Context of Service, Advocacy, and Identity-Based Student Organizations(2010) Chowdhry, Chetan; Quaye, Stephen J; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study utilized data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) to explore the differences between college students involved with service, advocacy, and identity-based student organizations, as well as those not involved in any of these organizations, in their perceived sense of civic responsibility, as well as their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. In addition, it explored the relationship between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. The researcher utilized two one-way ANOVAs to see if there were significant differences in perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among students who were involved exclusively in service, advocacy, or identity-based organizations, as well as students who were involved in a combination of these organizations, and students who did not participate in any of these organizations. The researcher found significant differences between students in the different organizations, with students in a combination of organizations and students involved exclusively in advocacy organizations having the highest mean scores on perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. Students in identity-based organizations and those not involved in any of the organizations had the lowest mean scores on these two variables. In addition, the researcher found a positive, medium strength correlation between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among all of the involvement categories. Overall, this study provides important initial findings regarding the civic engagement characteristics of students involved in particular student organizations.Item Exploring the Empowerment Effects of the Internet on Active Publics(2007-12-10) Halvorson, Erik; Toth, Elizabeth; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the Internet on the power of active publics using qualitative in-depth interviews with 19 human rights advocates. The study examines how the participants make meaning of power, use the Internet to achieve their goals, and the extent to which they feel empowered by the Internet. The results suggested four types of power in human rights advocacy, while advocates themselves rely primarily on the power of persuasion to achieve objectives. While the Internet has led to empowerment in some limited instances, no uniform empowerment for advocates was suggested by the data. The findings suggest numerous practical uses for Internet technologies in advocacy as well as important themes and theories to be incorporated into future studies.