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.
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Item P(L)AYING FOR THE FUTURE: THE COALESCING OF YOUTH, SPORT, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN CHARM CITY(2024) Stone, Eric Alexander; Andrews, David L; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project explores how Sport-Based Youth Development (SBYD) has been arrived at as an ideal vehicle for youth development in contemporary Baltimore. To understand the SBYD approach, the project seeks to explore four interrelated empirically grounded sites/questions that explain why sport is expected to help develop, discipline, and prepare youth and communities for the future. Three key themes emerged from this work: 1) that youth must be problematized by different ideas, beliefs, and discourses to make them ‘amenable’ to being targets of SBYD; 2) that organizations are pushed into competing with one another rather than collaborating due to the need of the state to maintain control of how youth are incorporated into society; and 3) that various tools and techniques are used through the vehicle of sport to inculcate specific values into underserved youth and their communities. The first chapter identifies two of the key theoretical positions/approaches that inform the project: Governmentality and Articulation as theory/method. The second chapter provides an overview of how scholars have examined the phenomenon of Sport for Development and Peace as a historical, methodological, and empirical site. The third chapter identifies the methods and methodologies that underpin the project. The fourth chapter provides a brief reflexive overview of how I arrived in Baltimore to conduct the project. The fifth chapter seeks to (explore) how Baltimore’s underserved citizens have been positioned as targets of SBYD as conceived of by politicians, providers, public servants, and citizens of the city, state, and nation. The project found that SBYD in Baltimore is a product of specific policies, processes, decisions, ideologies, and discourses that conspire to create a specific understanding of youth and communities as ripe for and requiring intervention through sport and other recreational pursuits to reform their behavior and orientation towards neoliberal social values that has evolved over the last fifty years. The sixth chapter examines/explicates how discourses of youth, their future, and the role of sport are used by three SBYD organizations to connect with potential participants, to obtain resources and funding, and to report on their activities and programming to measure the impact on the targeted community. The project found that underserved youth and communities are subjectivated by discourses of responsibility, deficiency, the unknown future, and the perceived American values of neoliberal meritocracy. These discourses were conveyed by programs via their websites, curricula, tax documents, and other forms of media to funders, participants and other valueholders. The seventh chapter identifies how organizations make use of formal and informal relationships to support the implementation of programming, to obtain funding, and to support organizations as they seek to legitimize their operations and activities in the eyes of valueholders. The project found that the use of formal and informal relationships by valueholders and organizations enables SBYD providers to secure access to funding, space, and capacity to support program initiatives. The eighth chapter seeks to engage with the beliefs, perspectives, and values of SBYD providers and valueholders to understand how these personal ideas and views shape the implementation of SBYD in Baltimore by speaking to the staff of three organizations operating within the city. The project found that the production of SBYD programming is facilitated and challenged by perceptions of the youth and community, ideas about the purpose and value of sport, and a broader rooting of ideas about youth and communities in urban stereotypes. By examining these four sites/questions, the project identifies how SBYD is assembled into a disciplining, educating, rationalizing tool to create productive youth for the future. The project ends by identifying new areas of research such as education initiatives for volunteers to contextualize the communities they work in, challenges and limitations such as completing research during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and key takeaways such as connecting with youth to move away from abstract stereotypes of urban life.Item Marley's Resurrection: Reimagining an Anne Arundel County Community Hub(2024) Sanabia, Rafael Christopher; Cross, Marcus; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Shopping malls over the course of American history have served as key hubs for visitors (either local or distant) to shop, dine, and be entertained. Though many malls have evolved with time and society through the incorporation of modern architectural elements and consumer needs/amenities, several shopping malls have faced significant declines. The rise of online shopping, fast fashion, high maintenance costs, lack of modern consumer/community amenities/needs, and outdated environments are some of prevalent reasons that have caused these retail centers to fall victim to abandonment, neglect, continual ownership change, and financial issues– ultimately becoming “dead”. Exhibited distinctly by Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland, this historic community hub in Anne Arundel County is now an outdated, low tenant and visitor occupancy building that no longer serves its community efficiently. This thesis will explore the redevelopment of this historic dead mall site into a new, sustainable community hub that meets its community’s needs and supports the county’s general development plan, Plan2040 that will positively impact the future.Item Medford, Oregon | Community Resilience in a Time of Change(2024) Bowers, Jessica Jane; Matthews, Georgeanne; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In recent years, like many places around the globe, Medford, Oregon and the surrounding areas have been severely impacted by events such as the Covid-19 pandemic which caused severe illness and economic hardship for countless families in the region. At the same time, the Almeda Drive and Obenchain fires of 2020 destroyed thousands of homes and left over 4,000 people displaced. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a plan for a revitalized community hub within a greater spatial network based around the Rogue Valley Shopping Center and the Bear Creek Greenway of Medford, Oregon. This place is intended to add another layer of sustainability and support to this community through the creation of programmed public space for finding peace, play, connection, and joy, while also connecting other supportive spaces within the community.Item ENVIRONMENT BUILT FOR HEALING(2024) Abel, Paul; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: ENVIROMENT BUILT FOR HEALING Paul Abel, Master of Architecture, Master of Community Planning, 2024 Thesis Directed By: Professor Kelly, School of Architecture Planning and Preservation Healthcare facilities can be intimidating places. To many people these facilities represent things that they fear like pain, disease, and death. However, while they are associated with these things the connection is misplaced. These facilities contain unpleasant human experiences for the purpose of resolving them. As advancements are being made in medical technology more operations are becoming available to patients. This means more patients are being exposed to fear inducing situations than ever before. These operations are also more commonly on an Out-patient basis where an extended hospital stay is not necessary. Healthcare facilities are often large hulking central hospitals with winding labyrinthine corridors separated from the world outside. These environments can cause fear and stress in their own right, piling on to the already difficult situations of the patients and their families. The typology of out-patient medical facilities provides an opportunity to address the fear and anxiety patients experience when anticipating an operation. This thesis will explore the role of the built environment in health and how architectural design can address medical fear, anxiety, and stress. Healthcare spaces can be welcoming, nurturing, healing, spaces that people no longer fear but recognize for their role of restoration and recovery.Item SOCIAL URBANISM IN MEDELLIN – INTEGRATION OF LANDSCAPE, LIFE, AND CULTURE(2023) Farieta, Maria Fernanda; Matthews, Georgeanne; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the last 50 years, the city of Medellín, Colombia has experienced a drastic urban transformation. The drug war and armed conflict in the late 20th century expedited urbanization as people were forced to leave their rural homes and seek shelter in major cities. However, the infrastructural capacity of larger cities has been unable to accommodate the basic needs of the growing population. As a result, people had to build habitats in the peripheries of the cities. These “informal settlements” were born out of necessity, with limited resources, and often under unsafe conditions. Nonetheless, these self-built neighborhoods are “the most common form of urbanization on the planet,” and as such, the processes behind “informal city making” are key to understanding the potential for development, innovation, and integration of a city. This paradigm shift regarding informality intends to bring visibility to the perseverance and creativity of migrants under limited resources, to challenge policies that shape urbanization and to explore alternative methods to address population growth.Item LIVE, LEARN, WORK, WALK: CREATING RESILIENT MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN(2023) Edwards, Joseph Chase; Kelly, Brian P.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Detroit, Michigan, and its residents have suffered through economic, social, and environmental hardships from the fall of industrialization since 1950. Some of the largest issues within the city of Detroit are high vacancy rates, high unemployment rates, poverty, and overall lack of acknowledgement to its residents. However, in recent years, organizations within the city have begun to implement various outreach programs to beautify Detroit, improve its current housing situation, and promote community engagement. This thesis proposition looks to help aid these efforts through the introduction of a vertical smart growth architectural hybrid typology used as a catalyst human-centric, resilient urban housing. This is accomplished through the introduction of a community-focused and supportive building program. Overall, creating a self-sufficient, live-work micro-ecosystem to bring life back into the city center.Item The Resilient Island - Revitalizing a Broken Home(2022) Peña, Alexander Bradley; Hu, Ming; Tilghman, James; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Disaster struck Puerto Rico on September 6th, 2017, when Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, breached the islands. Communities had no time to recover as Hurricane Maria, an even bigger threat, reached land not more than two weeks later. These two disasters happening in quick succession led to a devastating death toll of 2,975 people and caused a total of $90 billion in damages. This had been the most devastating disaster to hit in over 100 years. The people of Puerto Rico are still recovering to this day and are trying to find solutions to creating community resiliency. This thesis will focus primarily on what makes a community resilient and how to apply this to other Caribbean nations. Not all Caribbean islands face the same challenges and each one has its own identity. To assume that all islands are the same would be irrational. Additionally, this thesis will look at how a community can shift from being unconventional to very functional. Throughout the recent years, there has been a shift in design and function toward creating communities that are more sustainable, durable, and resilient. While this shift can occur easily in more modern societies, those that lack the resources to do so will continue to struggle unless proper support can be given.Item POCKET CITY: PROMOTING HIGHER DENSITY WALKABLE COMMUNITIES(2022) Eckard, William Edward; Crawford, Douglas; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As a result of the growing population of the United States our urban planners and architects have begun to research ways in which we can provide more sustainable housing for a diverse group of people. New practices have emerged with the aim of creating stronger communities within the setting of a suburb. Cohousing and pocket communities are two of these urban design strategies. While they differ in some of their practices, they both follow a few specific beliefs: walkability, a sense of community and place, and a feeling of privacy. However, the practice of creating a sense of privacy, for the most part, is conducted strictly by creating mostly single family homes or duplexes. The Pocket City explores how urban growth can be changed to focus more on a human scale community. This community focused city works to create the missing density of our current urban growth patterns. With connectivity through public transportation options, it looks to see if a new car free urban design strategy can thrive within the sprawling context of the United StatesItem WHY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS BECOME SUSTAINED: THE ROLE OF DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATION SURVIVAL(2021) Partridge, Diana M; Telhami, Shibley; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Why do some social movements become sustained while others fade away? Is it chance, the strength of the grievances, the type of claims, access to resources, or some other movement feature? Current social movement theory focuses on what sparks social movements rather than what sustains them. Yet arguably, social movements can achieve more profound and long-lasting change when they endure, while short-lived movements are more prone to bring about cosmetic change. This dissertation refocuses on how social movement organization (SMO) decision-making affects SMO sustainability. I argue that SMOs that use community-anchored decision-making processes are more adept at survival because these processes bolster the SMO’s legitimacy; foster interpersonal trust among activists; provide the SMO a modus operandi for how to continue operations during challenging times, and increase the changes the SMO has a contingency plan; and slow the onset of collective action burnout. These four mechanisms render SMOs more resilient to organizational disruption and deterrence from the authorities, increasing the likelihood of SMO survival. By contrast, SMOs that use decision-making processes unanchored in the community are more vulnerable to disruption and deterrence. Community-anchored decision-making processes are not synonymous with highly participatory movements, robust solidarity among activists, or even strong community. A movement can have all these features and still have unanchored decision-making processes, highlighting that not all strong communities are equal in their ability to sustain collective action. I test my hypotheses with case material from contemporary North African social movements. Based on dozens of interviews with social movement activists, journalists, academics, and officials; SMO statements; and government documents and secondary source material, I find strong support for the first and second hypotheses, moderate support for the third, and minimal support for the fourth. The results indeed suggest that SMOs’ decision-making processes affect their survival.Item Drawn from the Well of the People: The Living Stage Theatre Company and their Groundbreaking Community-Based Practice(2020) Crowley, Patrick Abram; Harding, James M; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Drawn from the Well of the People is the first full-length history of the Living Stage Theatre Company. Founded in 1966 by Robert Alexander, Living Stage was the education and outreach arm of Arena Stage in Washington D.C. until their closing in 2002. A multi-racial, improvisational, and community-based company, Living Stage broke ground with many socially engaged theatre practices, and through their process-based approach they created theatrical engagements with, not just for their constituents. Famous for engaging the “forgotten” people of D.C. and beyond, Living Stage worked with young people besieged by poverty and segregation, seniors, the deaf and hard of hearing, disabled students, and inmates at correctional facilities like Lorton Prison and D.C. Jail. This project relies on the Living Stage Records at George Mason University Library’s Special Collections Research Center and is the first major work to do so. Additionally, long-tenured company member Jennifer Nelson donated her personal archive, which was gifted to her by Robert Alexander, to aid in the completion of this project. Oral histories from five company members were collected to supplement and enliven the written records. The dissertation also addresses the work of Haedicke and Biggs, the only extant scholarship on the group. Living Stage’s contributions force us to reconsider the intellectual history of socially engaged theatre in the United States, as they devised similar strategies to those found in Theatre of the Oppressed but did so before Augusto Boal created and published on his system. Similarly, how they obliterated the fourth wall and troubled the hierarchy between artists and audiences by engaging participants as co-creators expands the canon of radical and experimental theatre in the U.S. While their participatory approaches and commitment to marginalized communities radically democratized theatre practice, their institutional practices replicated systems of domination in important ways. For scholars and practitioners alike, Drawn from the Well of the People, offers potent models and philosophies of socially engaged theatre, case studies to illustrate the work in action, and some cautionary tales about failing to apply the ethos of the work to the internal workings of the company.