Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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.
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Item Mirror Made of Quartz(2024) Drummond, Kassiah Ania; Bertram, Lillian-Yvonne; Weiner, Joshua; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)"Mirror Made of Quartz" is a poetic exploration about community divided into four sections that reclaim the displaced emotion of rage with empathy. In the first section "Naming a Better Word for Love", the collection bargains the complexities of expressing love amidst trust and compromise. The next section "(Womb)an", explores how the gift of a name to a daughter, echoes the title of motherhood itself as both are becoming their new roles for the first time. The womb carries legacy, tradition, and trauma. The third section "I Think About Being Black a Lot", dedicates itself to exploring the aspects of the color as an identity, by delving into various culturally impactful folklores, redemption for the unsolved history, and new perspectives to the misunderstood. Finally, the title section, "Mirror Made of Quartz," serves as a supportive reflection of myself by commentating on my name, body, and the person I hope to become with tangible optimism.Item The Invisible Neighborhood: Designing for Intersectionality(2023) Clark, Kiara; Matthews, Georgeanne; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores a resilient neighborhood and school for Black and Brown disabled communities displaced by climate change in New York City, New York. Marginalized communities around the world are constantly displaced due to climate disasters. But the people most affected are those at the intersection of those groups. These communities typically live in lower-status neighborhoods incapable of withstanding a climate disaster, which is becoming more frequent as climate change becomes a more persistent issue. Black and brown disabled communities are at the heart of the groups, often overlooked during a climate crisis and often displaced from their support groups and at a higher risk for mortality during an event. Exploring the design of a resilient neighborhood that prioritizes these communities would set the framework for future development and prevention of disproportionate impact on them.Item STATE-LEVEL STRUCTURAL RACISM AND ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO USE BEHAVIORS IN A NATIONAL PROBABILITY SAMPLE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS(2023) Woodard, Nathaniel; Knott, Cheryl L; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Structural racism is how society maintains and promotes racial discrimination through established and interconnected systems. Structural racism is a historical driver of health disparities, including those in the area of cancer. One pathway posited for this effect is through the promotion of maladaptive coping behaviors, such as alcohol and tobacco use. This dissertation empirically assessed the association between state-level structural racism and alcohol and tobacco use behaviors among African Americans, including within various subgroups of African Americans based on age, gender, and household income. This project analyzed secondary self-report data collected from a national probability sample of 1,946 African Americans in the Religion and Health in African Americans (RHIAA) Study. Existing measures of state level structural racism were merged into the RHIAA dataset including a composite index of structural racism assessed using five dimensions (i.e., residential segregation, and economic, employment, education, and incarceration disparities). Analyses were performed in SPSS Version 28 using hierarchical linear and logistic regression models. In the first study, two models (Model A and Model B) were constructed for each of four outcomes, frequency of alcohol consumption (measured in days per month), frequency of binge drinking (measured in the number of occurrences per month), smoking status (current smoker or not a current smoker), and smoking frequency (never smoked, former smoker, currently smoke on some days, and currently smoke every day). Model A used the composite structural racism index measure to model the four alcohol and tobacco use measures and Model B analyzed the disaggregated dimensions of structural racism rather than the composite measure. All hierarchical analyses controlled for confounding variables (i.e., participant gender, age, education, income, and employment status). In the second study, analyses using the dimension-level approach in Model B from study one were repeated in subgroups stratified by participant age, gender, and income for the frequency of binge drinking and smoking status behaviors. Statistical comparisons of the slope estimates between corresponding subgroups (e.g., younger and older age) were used to test the moderation effects of age, gender, and income on the association between structural racism and alcohol and tobacco use behaviors. Results from these studies generally indicated a positive association between state level structural racism, especially in the incarceration dimension, and binge drinking and tobacco use behaviors. Stratified analyses generally did not support age, gender, or income as moderating variables of the association between structural racism and binge drinking and tobacco use behaviors. Current findings demonstrate a need for further research on structural racism and health and progress in structural racism measurement, including further emphasis of dimension-level measurement and analysis. Findings from the current dissertation highlight the importance of addressing structural racism, especially in incarceration, to reduce alcohol and tobacco use behaviors among African Americans and help address existing health disparities.Item Therapist Cultural Humility, Black LGB Identity Centrality, and Therapeutic Outcomes in Black LGB Adults.(2023) Teran Hernandez, Manuel; Shin, Richard Q.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Black lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults experience discrimination at individual and institutional levels (Page et al., 2020) in part due to simultaneous experiences of anti-Black racism and heterosexism. Despite this, Black LGB adults continue to underutilize therapeutic services and also report high rates of premature termination from therapy (Garrett-Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2018). The current study advances the literature by investigating the association between therapist cultural humility, Black LGB centrality, and therapeutic outcomes among Black LGB adults. A sample of Black LGB adults (N = 157) participated in an online survey to respond to measures on demographic information, therapist cultural humility, centrality with their race x sexual orientation (Black LGB centrality), and therapeutic outcomes. Results showed that therapist cultural humility was a significant predictor of therapist satisfaction but not future utilization of counseling services while controlling for age and socioeconomic status among Black LGB adults. The analyses found that Black LGB centrality was not a significant moderator in the association between therapist cultural humility and therapist satisfaction, and only significant in the relation between future utilization of counseling services for participants who reported high levels of Black LGB centrality. Recommendations for future clinical practice and research efforts are provided.Item APPLICATION OF A CULTURALLY RELEVANT HEALTH BELIEF MODEL TO BLACK AND AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE DURING TRANSITION TO ADULT HEALTHCARE SERVICES(2022) Pantaleao, Ashley; Fish, Jessica; Anderson, Elaine A.; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary chronic illness hallmarked by pain and functional disability that impacts psychosocial well-being. Within the United States, SCD largely affects Black and African American populations, and general health disparities present in these populations may be further magnified by SCD. Due to the complexity of symptom management, consistent healthcare adherence is imperative and is often scaffolded by family caregivers prior to transition. The transition from the pediatric to adult healthcare facility is a life stage public health concern for young adults with SCD, as it is a time characterized by high mortality and morbidity. Navigating new medical systems and working with new providers are factors contributing to delays in treatment-seeking behavior. Unexplored factors that may impact illness course and outcomes include health-related stigma, racial discrimination, and preparation for bias. This research assessed whether the perceived barriers (e.g., racial discrimination, externalized stigma, and internalized stigma) are linked to SCD-specific self-efficacy and transitioning to the adult healthcare setting, utilizing an adapted Health Belief Model. It additionally explored whether a culturally relevant factor, preparation for bias, contributes to transition readiness. Questionnaires were administered to young adults with SCD who were preparing for transition or actively transitioning to an adult healthcare facility. This work was a first step at exploring the relationships between these variables utilizing a culturally relevant Health Belief Model. Strong positive significant correlations among perceived barrier variables were noted as well as a positive significant correlation between SCD-specific self-efficacy and transition readiness. Results from multivariate models suggest that externalized stigma was significantly positively related to SCD-specific self-efficacy. Counter to expectations, no significant predictors of transition readiness were identified. Additionally, results did not support preparation for bias moderating the relationships between racial discrimination or externalized stigma with SCD-specific self-efficacy or transition readiness. These findings may highlight that our study was underpowered to detect large effects, or that there are additional complex relationships that need to be further explored. A short-term goal of this study was to highlight the value of identifying youth with low self-efficacy or preparation for bias in order to guide educational resources and interventions to increase self-efficacy and readiness to transition for this underserved illness group.Item TRANS WORLDING WITHIN: DECOLONIAL EXAMINATIONS OF TRANS OF COLOR INTERIORITY(2021) Aftab, Aqdas; Avilez, GerShun; Lothian, Alexis; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation argues for the importance of reading for interiority in trans of color cultural productions. With so many representations of racialized trans people foregrounding the violated body, the cultural imaginary around trans of color life is saturated with notions of corporeality. In this context, I develop a transworld hermeneutic that refuses an emphasis on the racialized and colonized trans body, which is fetishized by the medical industrial complex and by cultural productions, and instead, turns towards the interior. Examining Black and Dalit diasporic texts, from postcolonial classics such as Nuruddin Farah’s Maps to contemporary novels like Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater to Mimi Mondal’s speculative short stories, I argue that while the corporeal is surveilled by the cis colonial gaze, the interior shows glimpses of world-making practices that are protected from the pornotropic violence of spectacle. While Western epistemologies define trans identity through the lens of Enlightenment-based models of science that focus on the sexed body’s transitions, my emphasis on interiority reconceptualizes trans of color life as intuitive, ecstatic, speculative and spiritual. Using the affective interior as a central framework, my transworld reading strategy offers a departure from essentialist as well as performative understandings of gender: informed by the theories of the spirit, the interior strives to remain opaque to the external gaze, hence guarded from performative effects. Overall, my research reveals how Black and Dalit exclusions from the colonial Human create the possibility of trans becoming; in other words, colonial and racist violence forcibly constructs transness, an experience that is utilized strategically by Black and Dalit writers as a decolonial tool for challenging, dismantling, and rewriting scripts of humanness.Item BLACK COMPOSERS OF THE CLASSICAL MUSIC GENRE FROM THE EIGTHTEENTH CENTURY TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY(2019) Joyner, Amyr; Salness, David; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation research paper will be an examination of a number of prominent Black composers in the Classical music genre and their influences and contributions to the Classical music violin literature. The overall intent of the paper is to act as an additional resource for violinists and musicians that are interested in exploring the composers and their works, while also increasing exposure to and awareness of Black classical composers. While the purpose of this dissertation lies specifically with exploring influential Black composers, their chosen works in the programs, and how they fit within the broad spectrum of classical music, I am hopeful that it will nevertheless promote a further discussion regarding incorporating a more extended study of minority and women composers in the general curriculum of music institutes, as well as encourage more widespread practice and performances of their works along the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, and Bartók.Item RELEVANCE, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND UNIVERSALITY THROUGH ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S GOSPEL CHOIR(2019) Visceglia, Victoria Lynn; Lie, Siv B.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Second Vatican Council provided ample opportunity for individual Catholic parishes to choose music that suited their congregations and contribute to the “Universal Church” through their particularity. St. Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. formed a gospel choir in light of this newfound freedom. Based on about one year of participant observation, this thesis analyzes the Gospel Choir’s role in making the Mass more relevant and interactive for parishioners. Singers maintain certain practices and ideals of the Church that they know make their ministry more effective while acknowledging the shortcomings of Catholicism at an institutional level. They animate listeners to respond dialogically with the Mass, allowing their lived experiences to inform their spiritual transformations. After more than 40 years, the Gospel Choir continues to navigate the boundaries between sacred and secular, Catholic and Protestant, and contrasting conceptions of African American identity.Item "Triggered": How the exposure to or experiences with Police are affecting Black Women's psychological functioning(2018) Madison, Jordan Ashley; Mittal, Mona; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Interactions between the Black community and the police have gained national attention recently. There is emerging literature on how being a victim and/or being exposed to these deaths and other incidents of police brutality is affecting the Black community. This study used qualitative interviews to explore the relationship between the exposure to and interactions with police and Black women’s psychological functioning and to further the understanding of coping strategies being used by Black women (n=5) to deal with this stressor. Results indicated that Black women feel fear, hyper-vigilance, and the randomness of negative interactions with the police. They reported using prayer, activism, and avoidance as ways to cope and discussed needing therapists to normalize therapy, as well as acknowledge and understand their experiences. Findings have the potential to address a significant gap in literature and can inform the development of trauma-informed programs for Black women.Item Evidence of Being: Urban Black Gay Men's Literature and Culture, 1978-1995(2014) Bost, Darius; Hanhardt, Christina B; Williams-Forson, Psyche; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of black gay men's literary and cultural production and activism emerging at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, focusing in particular on cultural formations in Washington, DC, and New York City. Through an exploration of the work of black gay male writers and activists from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, I argue that recognizing the centrality of trauma and violence in black communities means accounting for its debilitating effects, alongside its productivity in areas such as cultural and aesthetic production, identity-formation, community building, and political mobilization. Though black gay men's identities were heavily under siege during this historical moment, I show how they used literary and cultural forms such as poetry, performance, novels, magazines, anthologies, and journals to imagine richer subjective and social lives. This project makes three key interventions in the existing scholarship in African American studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Queer Studies, and Trauma Studies 1) this project recovers a marginalized period in U.S. histories of race and sexuality, in particular the renaissance of black gay literary and cultural production and activism from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s 2) the project examines how black gay men have used literary and cultural production to assert more complex narratives of racial, gender, and sexual selfhood 3) it explores how historical trauma has functioned as both a violently coercive, as well as a culturally and politically productive force in black gay lives. The project focuses on cultural movement activities in two cities, Washington, DC, and New York City, to offer a more broad, comparative perspective on urban black gay subcultural life. The first section on Washington, DC, explores the work of DC-based writer and activist Essex Hemphill, and the black LGBT-themed magazine, Blacklight. The second section on New York City looks at black gay writer's group, Other Countries Collective, and writer and scholar Melvin Dixon's novel, Vanishing Rooms. I include individual black gay voices in my study, positioning these voices alongside larger structural transformations taking place in cities during this moment. I also foreground the efforts of self and social transformation that emerged through black gay collectivities.