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
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Item Forum Theatre as Theatre for Development in East Africa(2017) Warheit, Emily Jane; Frederik, Laurie; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Theatre for development (TfD) includes a variety of performance practices that aim to communicate or foster dialogue in a development context. Forum Theatre, developed by Brazilian Director Augusto Boal as part of his Theatre of the Oppressed movement has become one of the most widely used forms in TfD. This dissertation looks at the use of Forum Theatre specifically in public health-focused programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Uganda and Kenya. The appeal of Forum Theatre for addressing development issues stems from its participatory nature, particularly as it aligns with current trends towards community involvement in development. However, power imbalances inherent in foreign-funded projects, public health communication theories modeled after advertising, and the realities of life- and livelihood-threatening conditions on the ground all work against the liberatory potential of the form. The focus of Forum Theatre is on identifying and combatting oppression; in developing communities, what oppressions can theatre projects initiated from the top down by USAID actually address in practice? This study is a multi-sited exploration of the organizations and individuals involved in the funding, planning, and executing of two forum theatre projects promoting global public health goals. Through interviews of stakeholders and organization publications including training manuals and project reports, I examine how the organizations involved implement, evaluate, and justify the effectiveness of the use of theatre in their work. Despite the popularity of theatre for development in Sub-Saharan Africa, many development professionals, particularly in the US, have limited knowledge of how to use theatre in their programs. This study has the potential to improve the understanding of the use of Forum Theatre for both development professionals and theatre artists, allowing for more effective application. It will also place theatre for development in its context in the complicated web of the development industry, illuminating how TfD projects are planned and funded for an audience of theatre scholars and practitioners.Item The Empowerment Paradox: Hope and Helplessness in a Tanzanian Community-Based Cultural Tourism Initiative(2014) Stevens, Melissa Aileene; Chambers, Erve; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Community-based tourism (CBT) has been conceived by its supporters as a pro-poor community development and empowerment strategy. One such initiative is the Longido Cultural Tourism Enterprise, which was established by a Dutch NGO to promote socio-economic development in a Maasai community in northern Tanzania. The enterprise has created opportunities for local participants to build economic and social capital, especially women who do not have many options to earn or control income outside of tourism. However, the promises of tourism are limited by the "tourism gatekeepers" who control access to tourists and the opportunities that they represent. This research explores the paradox of empowerment by investigating the ways that tourism engagement encourages both independence and dependence in Longido, and how conflicting ideas concerning definitions of CBT and its goals affect the residents whose livelihoods have come to depend on tourism. Ethnographic research was conducted in Longido over a period of nine months, and involved participant observation, semi-structured interviews with key informants and Longido residents, a tourist questionnaire, and comparative site visits to other cultural tourism enterprises in Tanzania. This research found that the potential that the Longido enterprise has for transforming relationships of power, particularly between women and men, is limited by the very nature of the community-based tourism (CBT) model employed to achieve this goal. CBT enterprises such as the one in Longido cannot achieve transformative change that leads to the self-determination of its participants when the tourism industry necessitates continued dependence on foreign markets and intermediaries and local people lack market access and knowledge. Attempting to accomplish both development and business goals when they are in direct conflict with one another has led to a failure to fully achieve either. This dissertation concludes that if the Longido enterprise has transformative development as its goal, the CBT model might be the wrong tool. Most significantly, the approach taken in developing and conducting tourism in Longido must consider the diverse priorities and motivations of participants, as well as the touristic relationships of power which limit the agency of local participants in achieving the realization of their own goals in tourism engagement.