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
15 results
Search Results
Item Typologies of Forced Labor Exploitation in Brazil(2021) Hickman, Shelby Nichole; Simpson, Sally; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Forced labor exploitation is the most common element of present-day institutional slavery. Despite the pervasive nature of this crime, little is known about the ways that perpetrators recruit workers and keep them in exploitive situations. Further, forced labor exploitation cases are rarely brought forward for prosecution and even more rarely receive a conviction. In this dissertation I examine the characteristics of forced labor exploitation in Brazil. Additionally, using a Focal Concerns framework, I examine the factors that influence the decision making of key investigative and court practitioners involved in processing forced labor exploitation cases. To do this, I analyzed administrative data from all (n=1,764) forced labor exploitation cases processed in the criminal and civil court systems in Brazil between 2008 and 2020. I also conducted 28 interviews with labor inspectors, federal police, and judges and prosecutors from the civil and criminal court systems. Using latent class analysis, I identified three typologies of forced labor exploitation: degrading conditions and debt servitude, degrading conditions, and degrading conditions and weapons and surveillance. I then examined the factors associated with different typologies of forced labor exploitation as well as the association between type of forced labor exploitation and sentencing outcomes. Respondents described several factors that increase uncertainty in forced labor exploitation cases, including: subjective interpretations of the criminal code, lack of formal training in handling forced labor exploitation cases, and uncertainty about who should be held accountable in larger organizational schemes. Interview participants further reported that cases that include physical violence, weapons, and ostensive surveillance are more likely to receive a conviction. In my analysis of the administrative data, I find that cases in the degrading conditions and weapons class are no more likely to receive a criminal conviction; however, cases in the degrading conditions and weapons class that received a conviction received more severe punishments. I discuss ways to improve investigation and prosecution of forced labor exploitation cases based on the study findings as well as potential alternatives to criminal court processing that may be more effective in reducing the burden of forced labor exploitation.Item THE WATER-ENERGY-LAND NEXUS OF BIOENERGY PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL(2020) Munoz Castillo, Raul; Sun, Laixiang; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Biofuels play a critical role in the Paris Agreement to help achieve climate change mitigation targets. However, a significant increase in production of biofuels might potentially be realized at the expense of overusing natural resources, particularly land and water. Understanding the tradeoffs between the development of biofuels and its impacts on land and water is a critical issue for sustainable development. This energy-water-land nexus might be particularly important for Brazil, given its position as top exporter and second top producer of bioenergy. Furthermore, Brazil itself has set up its own Intended Nationally Determined Contribution agenda with a significant growth of biofuel production by 2030. The aim of this research is to quantitatively characterize the nexus of biofuels production with the overall appropriation of land and water resources at the subnational level in Brazil by answering the following questions: (i) How will the implementation of international climate mitigation commitments adopted by Brazil impact water and land use and therefore water and land stress in Brazil?; (ii) what will be the geographical distribution of such impacts at subnational level? ; (iii) will increase competition among economic sectors aggravate such impacts?; and (iv) how will other socio-economic and physical drivers of change affect those impacts combined with INDC related policies implementation?. To answer these questions, I developed a set of socio-economic, policy and climate scenarios through an environmentally extended input-output approach that represents socio-economic activities in the 27 Brazilian states, allowing comparison of the resulting water and land demands among main competitive users under different scenarios. I also introduced the use of water scarcity and land stress as environmental impact indicators. My study confirms that to properly understand the impacts of biofuel production in Brazil on land and water and its “nexus”, the consideration of resource scarcity and its spatial variability are key to ensure sustainable planning of biofuel production. Moreover, I found that the mitigation policies committed by Brazil and its role as top global provider of biofuel will take a significant toll in both water and land consumption in the country, leading to increasing competition among food production, energy generation and human consumption, especially in the most vulnerable and already environmentally stressed states.Item ENGENDERED EXPERIENCES OF FREEDOM: LIBERATED AFRICAN WOMEN IN RIO DE JANEIRO, 1834-1864(2020) Nadalini Mendes, Ana Paula; Williams, Daryle; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“Engendered Experiences of Freedom: Liberated African Women in Rio de Janeiro (1834-1864)” investigates how gender differences in daily lives of liberated African women in Brazil shaped the way they experienced freedom. This research argues that gendered-based differences influenced their experiences of freedom in its various contexts, including their relationship to labor, their struggles for emancipation, and their approach to legal system. Moreover, this thesis follows the lives of particular liberated African women through their process of petitioning for emancipation twenty years after they got to Brazil. Although the first half of the nineteenth century was marked by legal efforts to bar importation of slaves from Africa to Brazil, many slave ships entered Brazilian ports successfully. The Rio da Prata, however, was an exception. In November 1834, the British marine intercepted the vessel, that was halfway between Africa and South America. The Anglo-Brazilian Mixed Commission judged the case as a transgression of the Treaty of 1826, that forbade Brazil to participate in the slave trade, condemned the vessel to be a good-prize and liberated more than two hundred Africans. These Africans worked for private houses and public works in a probation system for at least 20 years when the decree 1303 of 1853 allowed them to access the legal system and request their final emancipation. This process lasted for ten years, when in 1864 the Brazilian government declared emancipated all liberated Africans This thesis intervenes in debates about bondage and resistance by considering liberated Africans women inside the context of slavery in Brazil. It argues that these women had a particular way of fighting for freedom, due, first, to their own capacity of resistance, second to their conditions of labor, and, third, to specificities of the Brazilian set of laws. From legal petitions of emancipation, police records, guardians’ declarations, and newspapers advertisements the chapters follow lives of liberated African women from the Rio da Prata to show how they experienced freedom.Item WHICH TEAM DO YOU PLAY FOR?: VISIBILITY AND QUEERING IN BRAZILIAN SOCCER(2019) Snyder, Cara Knaub; Tambe, Ashwini; Women's Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Brazilians designate their country “O País de Futebol” (The Country of Football) with a singular vigor. But from its earliest years, the sport has been defined along masculine lines; women in Brazil were actually banned from playing soccer for four decades (1940 - 1979). The exclusion of women, gay men, and trans athletes has come under considerable challenge in the past two decades. This dissertation traces how marginalized groups have claimed access to soccer, and what it means for processes of visibility, assimilation, and ultimately, queering the game itself. Combining ethnographic, archival, and visual methods, the project unfolds over three case studies focused on women, trans, and gay players, respectively. The first chapter presents a history of Brazilian women’s soccer: using media sources and interviews, it tracks tensions between women athletes’ demands to be seen and the gendered forms of disciplining that have accompanied their increased visibility. Such disciplining has contributed to the whitening and feminization of women’s soccer, as seen in the case of the Paulistana tournament, and to the subsequent migration of Brazil’s top athletes. These migrant players have since used their transnational networks to jockey for recognition and a more equitable distribution of resources. My second chapter offers an ethnography of Brazil’s first trans men’s soccer team, the Brazilian Meninos Bons de Bola (MBB, or Soccer Star Boys), to explore futebol as a site for combating invisibility and violence, creating transness, and queer worldmaking. Using a combination of focus groups, ethnographic observations, and interviews, I explore how team members theorize oppression, survive transphobia, and thrive. My third chapter analyzes the challenges facing the Brazilian BeesCats, a cis gay men’s soccer team, as they form the first Brazilian contingent to participate in the international Gay Games. Drawing from ethnographic data from the 2018 Paris Gay Games, I examine the ethnosexual frontiers of this international LGBT sporting event. Ultimately, I argue, the athletes described in this dissertation make claims on their national sport as part of deeper struggles for belonging. In the context of a culturally rightward turn in Brazil, they are also queering futebol and subverting gender ordering.Item Development Begins at Home: Women and the Domestic Economy in Brazil, 1945-1975(2016) Moura, Shawn; Williams, Daryle; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A number of historians of twentieth-century Latin America have identified ways that national labor laws, civil codes, social welfare programs, and business practices contributed to a gendered division of society that subordinated women to men in national economic development, household management, and familial relations. Few scholars, however, have critically explored women's roles as consumers and housewives in these intertwined realms. This work examines the Brazilian case after the Second World War, arguing that economic policies and business practices associated with “developmentalism” [Portuguese: desenvolvimentismo] created openings for women to engage in debates about national progress and transnational standards of modernity. While acknowledging that an asymmetry of gender relations persisted, the study demonstrates that urban women expanded their agency in this period, especially over areas of economic and family life deemed "domestic." This dissertation examines periodicals, consumer research statistics, public opinion surveys, personal interviews, corporate archives, the archives of key women’s organizations, and government officials’ records to identify the role that women and household economies played in Brazilian developmentalism between 1945 and 1975. Its principal argument is that business and political elites attempted to define gender roles for adult urban women as housewives and mothers, linking their management of the household to familial well-being and national modernization. In turn, Brazilian women deployed these idealized roles in public to advance their own economic interests, especially in the management of household finances and consumption, as well as to expand legal rights for married women, and increase women’s participation in the workforce. As the market for women's labor expanded with continued industrialization, these efforts defined a more active role for women in the economy and in debates about the trajectory of national development policies.Item CONTEXTUALIZING THE POLITICS OF “BRAZILIAN” SPORT MEGA EVENTS(2015) Lopes, Victor Brito; Andrews, David L; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The first two decades of 21st century were times of great social, economic and political changes in Brazil where sport mega events (FIFA WC 2014, Rio 2016) played a key role in how the nation portrayed and promoted itself in a global scale. Despite the undeniable importance of Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff in attempt to present the country as global protagonist with more political power and social advancements, this works is intended to discuss and extended the discussion upon mega events as different ways of repeating old traditions and practices, (radically) contextualizing the role of other players and agents (sport officials, local politicians, sponsors and local media), their biases and interests, in accordance to traditional colonial processes and the dominant neo-liberal paradigm.Item FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND PERSISTENCE OF QUOTA STUDENTS IN STEM: A CASE STUDY OF A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN BRAZIL(2015) Childs, Porsha Yasmin; Stromquist, Nelly; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In order to maintain competitiveness in the global economy nations around the world are heavily investing in access to higher education and more specifically the production of skilled workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Whereas upper social-class majority males have traditionally dominated this field, the expansion of university enrollments as well as the presence of rapidly growing minority populations signals a shift in which a larger number of minorities and women will add to the STEM talent pool. To date, much of the research on underrepresented minorities in STEM has focused on women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities in universities in the U.S. (Espinoza & Cole, 2008; Museus et al., 2011; St. John & Musoba, 2011). Few studies have focused on the persistence and academic achievement of underrepresented minorities in countries and institutions outside of the Unites States and none have specifically targeted minority students who are beneficiaries of affirmative action policies. The current study seeks to explore factors that affect the academic performance and persistence of quota students majoring in STEM fields in a public university in Brazil. The major research questions guiding this study were: (1) In what ways do institutional factors affect quota student persistence and academic performance in STEM fields? (2) To what extent does campus climate affect the academic performance of quota students in STEM fields? (3)What barriers (major academic, social, and financial concerns) do quota students in STEM fields face after admission and how do student and faculty perceptions of these barriers differ? (4) What institutional services are available to support quota STEM students and which of these services do STEM students use most frequently? Using qualitative methods and an ethnographic case study design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten undergraduate quota students, two graduate students, and six university personnel. In addition, the researcher observed students on campus, both in and out of class. Additional observations were made of location students frequented such as the residence hall, library, campus restaurants, and the physics, chemistry, and engineering buildings. Findings revealed four broad themes: pre-college experiences, college experiences, college outcomes, and barriers to graduation and institutional responses. Participants indicated that their pre-college academic experiences had the largest effect on their academic achievement and persistence. Quota students in STEM disciplines routinely reported having failed their core math and science courses during the first year and experiencing difficulty with others as they matriculate. This was largely attributed to the fact that they entered with a lack of a strong academic base. Additional barriers students faced were lack of finances, and a lack of family support and cultural capital. While the university has implemented various financial supports to address quota students’ needs, they lack structured academic supports such as bridge programs, supplemental instruction, and tutoring.Item ILE AIYE: PERFORMING AFRO-BRAZILIAN IDENTITY THROUGH MUSIC(2011) Mills, Gisèle-Audrey; Witzleben, J. Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Originating in Salvador, Bahia, the musical genre and carnival performance known as "bloco afro" combines rhythms based on Afro-Brazilian ritual music played on percussion instruments with lyrics that highlight themes of black pride and resistance. The term `bloco' refers to groups that parade together during carnival, and `afro' describes the emphasis on manifestations of African and Afro-Brazilian culture. At its founding in 1974, the first bloco afro, Ile Aiye, inspired a cultural movement by establishing a visible and intentionally black bloco afro in Liberdade, a historically black community in Salvador. Performed by large collectives of drummers and dancers dressed in brightly colored African clothes, many performers with intricately braided hairstyles or dreadlocks, the music was initially linked to a growing movement of Afro-Brazilian activists in black neighborhoods of Bahia promoting racial consciousness and organizing political interventions to combat racism. This study explores bloco afro as a musical movement within the broader context of the contemporary Movimento Negro (Black Movement) in Brazil, and its role in constructing racial identity among black Brazilians. Primarily an ethnomusicology-based study, a trans-disciplinary approach using cultural studies and performance studies is applied toward developing an analytical framework for bloco afro performance, with a focus on identifying specific factors and processes that create and promote musical meaning and the role they play in constructing black identity.Item MODERNIZATION AND VISUAL ECONOMY: FILM, PHOTOJOURNALISM, AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA, 1955-1980(2010) Halperin, Paula; Weinstein, Barbara; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the relationship among visual culture, nationalism, and modernization in Argentina and Brazil in a period of extreme political instability, marked by an alternation of weak civilian governments and dictatorships. I argue that motion pictures and photojournalism were constitutive elements of a modern public sphere that did not conform to the classic formulation advanced by Jürgen Habermas. Rather than treating the public sphere as progressively degraded by the mass media and cultural industries, I trace how, in postwar Argentina and Brazil, the increased production and circulation of mass media images contributed to active public debate and civic participation. With the progressive internationalization of entertainment markets that began in the 1950s in the modern cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires there was a dramatic growth in the number of film spectators and production, movie theaters and critics, popular magazines and academic journals that focused on film. Through close analysis of images distributed widely in international media circuits I reconstruct and analyze Brazilian and Argentine postwar visual economies from a transnational perspective to understand the constitution of the public sphere and how modernization, Latin American identity, nationhood, and socio-cultural change and conflict were represented and debated in those media. Cinema and the visual after World War II became a worldwide locus of production and circulation of discourses about history, national identity, and social mores, and a space of contention and discussion of modernization. Developments such as the Bandung Conference in 1955, the decolonization of Africa, the Cuban Revolution, together with the uneven impact of modernization, created a "Third Worldism" and "Latin Americanism" that transformed public debate and the cultural field. By researching "peripheral" nations, I add to our understanding of the process of the transnationalization of the cultural field and the emergence of a global mass culture in the 1960s and 1970s.Item Managing Water: Efficiency-Equity Tradeoffs in the Participatory Approach(2010) O'Donnell, Anna; Korzeniewicz, Roberto P; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the hypothesis that participation can overcome trade-offs in equity and efficiency. Literature within the field of economics and sociology has argued for tradeoffs in outcomes of allocative efficiency and equity and institutional efficiency and equity, respectively. Community-based participatory institutions are expected to overcome this tension by introducing institutional accountability and local-level decision making, which serve to enhance technical and allocative efficiency while retaining mechanisms for equitable allocation and empowerment. This research draws on fieldwork from a community-managed water supply program in rural Bahia, Brazil to examine whether outcomes of efficiency and equity are mutually compatible. Findings from the field research indicate that explicit and implicit subsidies to the water supply systems led to outcomes of allocative equity in the sites visited, but that these generated tradeoffs with allocative efficiency. Findings from the research also indicated that the community organizations were relatively efficient in their administrative practices, but that this efficiency came at a cost to equality of membership and voice in the community organization. This suggests that participatory water supply programs generate certain and specific costs, although the findings also suggest additional positive externalities associated with participation.