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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Subject: search.filters.subject.Cultural Anthropology

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CARE AND PROVIDE SCHOOLING FOR A CHILD ORPHANED DUE TO HIV/AIDS IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE?: A QUALITATIVE STUDY
    (2012) Briggs, Liza EA; Klees, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This is a qualitative study about how a family describes what it means to care for and provide schooling for a child orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. The study offers a perspective beyond the lens of a family through the inclusion of interview data from representatives of the Ivorian Ministry of Health, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) located in Côte d'Ivoire. Descriptive data reveal how care and schooling are nearly synonymous constructs in the family at the center of this study. To care for a child means to provide schooling. The form of care and schooling are ordered through practices linked to established matrilineal and ethnic family system practices. The child, orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, offers rich descriptive insights about how the loss of his parents affected his care needs, how he negotiated the matrilineal system and how he embraced school achievement and religion to manage his sense of loss and the stigma attached to his status as an orphaned child. This study also offers descriptions that explore the complexity of the political dynamics, support mechanisms, and psychosocial constructs that delineate care and schooling practices in this family and, more broadly, in Côte d'Ivoire. This study contributes to existing scholarly literature by offering a nuanced depiction of the impact of HIV/AIDS from a variety of perspectives. This contrasts with studies that converge on demographic and statistical analysis. This study also places a great deal of emphasis on the inclusion of the perspective of Ivorians. Ivorian representation allows for Ivorian-centered depictions and responses to the research questions and reflects concerns about post-development critiques on discourse and representation.
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    Our Musical School: Ethnographic Methods and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Elementary General Music
    (2011) Strab, Emily Theresa; Witzleben, John Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The current study has uncovered the complexities of childhood musical culture in a rural public school in Maryland with a diverse student population. Through daily interaction with her students, the researcher learned about their particular culture, including musical preferences, practices of music consumption and expression, and how students conceptualize music. The breadth and depth of knowledge the investigator was able to discover through participant observation during teaching duties demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographic methods in learning about students' musical culture for classroom music teachers. The use of this information proved to be productive in developing culturally relevant lessons that students responded to positively. In conclusion, the researcher found that pursuing an ethnographic project in order to create a culturally relevant pedagogy for her students was a worthwhile undertaking as an elementary general music educator.
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    "TAKE IT UPSTAIRS:" DECONSTRUCTING CULTURE AND GLOBAL COMPETENCY IN AN UNDERGRADUATE LIVING-LEARNING PROGRAM
    (2011) Haugen, Caitlin Secrest; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Popular conceptions of American college students traditionally include young men and women who live on a university campus in a residence hall. Today's university campuses do not always fit the traditional mold. Institutions have begun to explore drastically different learning and on-campus residence hall configurations that better meet students' needs and create a stronger sense of community. Living-learning programs (LLPs) are one alternative that college administrators utilize to better meet student needs. This research investigates a single living-learning program called International House (IH), an LLP with the stated purpose of developing global competency skills in its participants. The research period spans one academic year, August 2009 to May 2010, with data collection continuing into the fall semester of 2010. Using ethnography as a methodology, this research investigates the culture of IH, how the formal and non-formal learning experiences shape that culture, and whether the program develops global competency skills in its participants. This study aims to fill existing gaps in living-learning program literature using qualitative methods - so far underrepresented in LLP research - and contributes to overall LLP discourse about the nature, culture, and effectiveness of existing programs. This research also contributes to the body of ethnographic inquiry because there is no evidence of published research uses the methodology to study living-learning programs. Finally, this investigation aims to add a further dimension to intercultural competency literature by examining the role of living-learning programs in developing competency. The findings suggest that International House's culture is shaped by three main values: openness, cross-cultural appreciation, and a strong sense of community. According to student experiences, the intersection of the formal and non-formal learning experiences is most meaningful to them, or the "take it upstairs" phenomenon. "Take it upstairs" means that when students learn practical, concrete skills and then are given the opportunity to apply them in cross-cultural settings, their experience is more meaningful. This research also suggests that students show strong evidence of developing global competency skills. This is attributed to relevant, experiential activities intentionally designed to develop those skills in a multi-cultural environment with a strong community connection.
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    SINGING BOUNDARIES: TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF VOCALITY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF IDENTITIES IN THE CANT VALENCIÀ D'ESTIL
    (2011) Pitarch Alfonso, Carles A.; Provine, Robert C.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The cant valencia or cant valencia d'estil of Valencia is one of the four main living monodic expressive song traditions of Spain. Comprised of non-metric cant d'estil and metric albaes songs mostly used in street serenades, it features a distinctive vocality characterized by a highly-projected, clear, inflected, and flexible voice as well as two melodic styles, of which the more ornamented cant requintat developed at the turn of the twentieth century. I take a historical, theoretical, and ethnographic approach to this Valencian vocal genre and explore the ways in which vocality can help us to understand it better. After examining the origins of the cant valencia and the antiquarian, journalistic, folkloristic, and (ethno)musicological approaches to it, I probe the notion of vocality in a transdisciplinary way: drawing on ethnomusicological theory, anthropology, folklore, semiotics, and other disciplines I show its significance for the development of a musical anthropology of the voice productively based on the ethnographic exploration of the iconicity of style and of two sets of central vocal issues: on the one hand, identity, gender, authority, and sonic histories and geographies; on the other, acoustemology, interpellation, and transcendence. Vocality not only expands usefully the scope of vocal or singing style by encompassing larger bodily-dependent traits of the human voice as central or salient means of aesthetic and ethical production of meanings, but also acknowledges its pre-eminent position in the hierarchy of musical values, since the material/textural qualities of (vocal) sounds iconically shape our first sonorous perceptions and identifications and are thus paramount for communication. I make a first approach to vocality and the performance of collective identities in the cant valencia by showing that its modern stylistic development is linked to two diachronic frameworks: the moments of modern radical situational change in Europe and the construction of Spanish national identity. I also explore how issues of interpellation and transcendence bear on the formation of personal identities of the cantadors d'estil, the specialized cant valencia singers. I show that an emically-informed, etic approach to vocality can afford an understanding of how people can create their own history and affirm their own collective or personal identities in response to larger social processes.