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 Paradise Remixed: The Queer Politics of Tourism in Jamaica(2023) Abdullah-Smith, Hazim Karim; Mirabal, Nancy R; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Employing an interdisciplinary approach, “Paradise Remixed: The Queer Politics of Tourism in Jamaica” examines the dominant historical, literary and ideological narratives of tourism in Jamaica. At the same time, it examines the intersection of tourism and sexuality through an analysis of media representations of homophobia and queer Jamaican discussions of progress. Noting that tourism is a privileged form of mobility, this dissertation uses tourism to interrogate the array of historical and contemporary tensions of class, race, sexuality and how such tensions are negotiated through Black diasporic and queer Jamaican ways of knowing. This dissertation begins by tracing how the promotion of Jamaica as an ideal tourist destination, since the early 1900s, heavily shaped politics and culture on the island and abroad. Jamaica’s reputation as a tourist paradise was manufactured and depended on a continual rearticulation of what Jamaica is and who Jamaicans are. Drawing on a range of media archives from Jamaican newspapers to African American lifestyle publications, this dissertation argues that the success of Jamaica’s paradisical tourist image comes after difficult debates about how Jamaica should be represented. Interestingly, the successful touristic representations would greatly impact how African Americans would imagine Jamaica as a tourist destination. By the late 20th century, tourism again becomes a site of fracture and precarity. The calls to end homophobic music and a proposed boycott threatened Jamaica’s image as a welcoming paradise. The leaders of these campaigns, primarily North Americans, deployed a global strategy that brought attention to homophobia in Jamaica. However, these same leaders failed to amplify the nuanced voices of queer Jamaican activists who were progressively gaining visibility, strengthening their own organizations and articulating for themselves what it means to be queer and Jamaican. In recent years, some have even established their own tourism businesses. For example, initiatives like Connek create safe spaces for queer people, spark genuine transnational connections and transform perceptions of queer life in Jamaica. In centering queer Jamaican experiences, this dissertation highlights the nuanced voices, artistic expressions and activism of queer Jamaicans, and acknowledges the safe spaces they have and continue to create through tourism and beyond.Item CRAFTING CONVERSATIONS: ARCHITECTURE AS A MEANS AND A VENUE FOR EXPLORING CONTEMPORARY,POSTCOLONIAL, JAMAICAN IDENTITIES(2017) McKenley, Joseph Stephen; Lamprakos, Michele; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis will explore the relationships between postcolonialism, the formulation of identities, architecture, fine art and folk art, making and craft-making. It will delve into postcolonial discourse to understand what postcolonialism is, how it is defined, and what it means in the Jamaican context. It will explore how identities are defined and what factors are considered in the creation or unearthing of identities. It will explore what role making and craft-making have in creating and/or expositing identities as well as the relation between making and craft-making with architecture. Ultimately, the research will lead to the question, in what ways can architecture manifest cultural identity and how can architecture illustrate a Jamaican, contemporary, postcolonial identity.Item Promoting Citizenship in a Postcolonial Space: A Study of Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Jamaica(2011) Williams, Dierdre Alicia; Klees, Steven J; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Evidence suggests that the values, attitudes and skills teachers emphasize in preparing students to participate as adult citizens in wider society are informed by the meanings teachers ascribe to citizenship and these meanings can in turn be traced to the contexts of teachers' lives. Given that teachers' practices are informed by their beliefs, these beliefs must first be understood. However, few studies have examined teachers' beliefs about citizenship or the underlying factors that inform those beliefs. This research examined the beliefs about citizenship espoused by a group of secondary teachers in the nation-state of Jamaica and the factors informing those beliefs. This qualitative case study utilized an analytic framework incorporating literature on conceptions of citizenship; and literature on teacher beliefs, including belief formation. The findings of the study highlight the ways in which the postcolonial context of Jamaica problematizes these teachers' understandings of citizenship and this in turn has implications for research and practice in the field of citizenship studies. The study illuminates the connections among: (i) teachers' beliefs about citizenship and about their students' needs, abilities, and life trajectories; (ii) teachers' lived experiences; and (iii) traditional race and class hierarchy in postcolonial Jamaican society.Item Constructions of Violent Jamaican Masculinity in Film and Literature(2008-07-28) Harewood, Gia; Collins, Merle; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Greg Dimitriadis and Cameron McCarthy sketch out what they see as an emergent postcolonial aesthetic percolating in the postcolonial artist's imagination. According to their analysis, postcolonial artists make meaning in their work through three critical motifs that help shape this aesthetic: "counterhegemonic representation, double or triple coding, and emancipatory or utopic visions" (19, italics in original). Counterhegemonic representation "rework[s] the center-versus-periphery distinction . . . to look beyond its strictures to new histories, new discourses, new ways of being" (24). Double coding combines "two or more fields of reference or idiom in any given work" pulling images from places such as "the East and the West, the first world and the Third, the colonial master and the slave" (26). And utopic visions are about "imagining possibility even when faced with impossible barriers" (30). My project is fundamentally interested in constructing healthy (masculine) identities and its arguments are ultimately guided by their first and third motifs. Using feminist theory, masculinity studies, cultural studies and postcolonial theory, I focus on the representation of black Jamaican men as violent criminal beings in three films (The Harder They Come, Third World Cop and Shottas), two novels (The Harder They Come and For Nothing at All) and one ethnographic travelogue (Born Fi' Dead). I argue that "real/reel" Jamaican masculinity is ultimately connected to gun violence and the most popular films out of Jamaica over the past thirty years only perpetuate this image. While not the only source for role models, visual images play a significant role in the lives of young men (and women) who are trying to live up to social standards of masculinity. With limited access to social mobility, they often emulate the shotta (gangster) glory that they see sparkling on the screen. Through close readings of these texts, I show how hegemonic masculinity is reinforced and reveal that non-violent models of masculinity do exist, despite being overshadowed by violent "heroes." I call for that "utopic vision," to excavate the vulnerable and intervene on behalf of peace to help young men and boys find alternative models of masculinity and ultimately create sustainable communities.Item Analyzing the Impact of Participatory-Planned Conservation Policies in the Negril Environmental Protection Area, western Jamaica(2007-05-06) Miller Anderson, Lovette; Defries, Ruth S.; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF PARTICIPATORY PLANNED CONSERVATION POLICIES IN THE NEGRIL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AREA, WESTERN JAMAICA Lovette Miller Anderson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Ruth Defries Department of Geography This dissertation research sought to determine the ways in which the participatory-planned conservation policies influence changes in local populations' natural resource use. The research took place in the Negril Environmental Protection Area, western Jamaica and covered the period 1990 to 2005. The two major questions asked were 1) In what ways do participatory-planned conservation policies influence changes in the protected area's natural resource use? 2) How does group membership and demography influence the perception of the conservation policies and of changes in natural resource use? The research employed trend analyses, content analyses, a population survey, discriminant analyses and semi-structured interviews to answer the research questions. In general, the research finds that national socioeconomic development interests were given priority over the participatory-planned conservation policies. The changes in local populations' natural resource use were primarily due to the national socioeconomic policies that were in place prior to the protected area designation as well as those that were implemented during the study period. Second, the research finds that, in general, groups that have shared histories were homogeneous in their views of conservation and/or development. In contrast, newer entrants to the protected area were generally heterogeneous in their views of conservation and/or development. Further, the research finds that changes in the demographic characteristics of local populations significantly influence the perception of conservation and development. For example, respondents who were relatively new to the protected area generally had a positive perception of conservation and of the decline in fishing jobs. In contrast, respondents who have lived there relatively longer had a negative perception of conservation and of the decline in fishing jobs. By examining the complexity of implementing the participatory-planned conservation policies in Negril's postcolonial and non-colonial socioeconomic and political landscape, this research extends the discourse on protected areas from large, relatively low populated areas to the complex geographic landscapes that currently describe some newer protected areas.