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
7 results
Search Results
Item SOUNDING SALVADORAN: POPULAR MUSIC AND POSTWAR IMAGINARIES OF SALVADORAN IDENTITY IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. METROPOLITAN AREA(2023) Villalobos Benavides, Mariángel; Lie, Siv B.; Rodríguez, Ana Patricia; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the role of popular music genres in constructing and enacting an imaginary of national and diasporic community among the Salvadoran diasporic community in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Two music genres with rich transnational histories, rock de las buenas épocas and cumbia salvadoreña, are central to the analysis. The research investigates how cumbia salvadoreña may be considered representative of El Salvador by D.C.-based members of Departamento 15, an “imaginary” additional state of El Salvador formed by its citizens living in the diaspora. The genre aligns with the myth of the perseverant and patriotic immigrant, one who stays connected to their home country through remittances. Before the reign of cumbia salvadoreña, rock de las buenas épocas served as an avenue for Salvadoran youth to imagine alternative realities to those of mainstream Salvadoran society—a parallel of the counterculture movement of the 1960s in North America and Europe. Despite aesthetic differences, both genres are performed at events for the Salvadoran community in the Washington D.C. area, as emblems of nostalgia. I also explore how, in the diaspora, these narratives are reaffirmed and contested. For instance, second-generation Salvadoran Cindy Zavala (also known as La SalvadoReina), performs cumbia salvadoreña with a twist. She presents the stories that have surrounded her as the daughter of immigrants to showcase a "bitter" alternative to the joy and perseverance usually conveyed through the genre. Another example I present is 1.5-generation Lilo González, Jr., a musician who is part of the renowned D.C. punk scene, who has integrated cumbia into his socially committed music. This study is based on intermittent ethnographic research conducted from 2019 to 2022 in the D.C. area, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key events I participated in included the Salvadoran Independence Day festivals in Maryland, which reaffirm the nostalgia that maintains the diaspora as a key player in the economy and national imaginary of El Salvador. The music performed at these festivals, especially cumbia salvadoreña and rock de las buenas épocas, strategically support this narrative, what has been referred to as the mythology of los hermanos lejanos (Rodríguez 2019, 170-174), the “heroic figure of the migrant entrepreneur” Pedersen (2012, 8), and the “model transnational citizens in the global division of labor” (Rivas 2014, 21). Throughout this dissertation, I refer to these mythologies as the narrative of the perseverant immigrant, stemming from the lyrics that describe an immigrant who is facing hardships and misses El Salvador, but nevertheless persists in their endeavor to succeed financially in a foreign country. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the role of music in diasporic communities and the complexities of transnational cultural production.Item Counter-Capital: Black Power, The New Left, and the Struggle to Remake Washington, D.C. From Below, 1964-1994(2023) Kumfer, Timothy Daniel; Hanhardt, Christina B; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)"Counter-Capital: Black Power, the New Left, and the Struggle to Remake Washington, D.C. From Below, 1964-1994” traces how grassroots organizers in the nation’s capital fought for greater control over the city and its future between the War on Poverty and rise of neoliberal austerity, helping to shape its recent past and present. Comprising a set of linked case studies, it explores how a generation of activists forged in the crucibles of the Black freedom struggle and resistance to the Vietnam war responded locally to redevelopment schemes, planned inner-city freeways, nascent gentrification, and an exponential rise in homelessness from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. The campaigns they waged brought them into confrontation with federal administrators, legislators, mayors, and even the president. They also led to moments of collaboration with the state, altering the course of urban and social policy locally and nationally and contributing to the growth of community development and direct service approaches. Going beyond the boundaries of policymaking, the radicals it follows fostered emancipatory and participatory visions for the District and urban life more generally rooted in their movement ideals, ones which remain instructive even as they encountered obstacles to their full realization. Drawing on a diverse array of archival materials including organizational newsletters, meeting minutes, event flyers, campaign brochures, and correspondence; underground press and community papers alongside mainstream news outlets; documentary film and preserved footage; and oral histories and personal interviews, “Counter-Capital” contributes to debates in the fields of African American, social movement, and urban history. The project is further animated by and participates in discussions taking place across the correlating interdisciplinary fields of African American studies, American studies, and urban studies, bringing aspects of these fields that don’t always speak to one another into closer conversation. Laboring at these intersections, it shows how sustained attention to space—and specific places—can reframe the historiography of Black Power and the New Left and how centering activists and their campaigns expands the literature on Washington while troubling conventions in the composite portrait of late 20th C. US cities.Item FROM STIGMA TO STRENGTH(2023) Roberts, Vasilea Christine; Curry, Daniel B; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Helping homeless LGBTQIA+ youth from a place of uncertainty to a place of security to ensure the wellbeing of future city dwellers. This thesis aims to help the ongoing issue of homelessness in Washington, D.C. This will be achieved by creating a wellness facility for LGBTQIA+ youth. This thesis is overall attempting to create a more healthy, lively, green city, starting with transforming the lives of its youth. The goal of the wellness facility is to welcome the homeless LGBTQIA+ youth population of the city and those less fortunate and help them transition to a life that focuses on their success and wellbeing. This involves rehabilitation, education, and transitional housing, in order to help the occupants begin a new chapter of life. There will also be physical necessities for the occupants like food, water, and shelter - the basic things that these people may struggle to find on a daily basis. The occupants can stay and be fully immersed into a life-rehabilitation program or use the facility until necessary. The multi-use facility will be part of a larger master plan for Howard University, integrating mixed-used commercial, residential, and retail space for more sustainable urban design that involves the community. Helping people get off the street and start a stable life will also increase the lives of all city dwellers and create a more livable and healthier city. The goal of the exterior of the wellness facility is to create a space on the street for a more enjoyable pedestrian experience. The interior exterior will also introduce local art and context in order to engage the community and embrace the passions of the wellness facility’s occupants. Overall, this thesis aims to create a city that is kind to its occupants and creates an environment of peace and success.Item Growing the Game: Soccer in America(2017) Bradshaw, Adrian Khalil; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis looks to explore the history and culture of soccer in America, relative to that of the top nations in the sport, in order to design a youth academy to bolster the cultural interest. Soccer, although one of the oldest sports in history, is relatively unpopular in America, compared to the “Big” sports: Football, Baseball and Basketball. Sports play an important part of our daily lives economically, politically and socially. As entertainment they act as a catalyst in developing close-knit communities. The objective is to integrate these pieces of architecture into the city to create a social hub, focused around developing the youth and interest in the sport.Item Integrating Infrastructure South of the Capitol(2017) Camargo de Albuquerque Sanchez, Pedro Henrique; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis looks at the role that infrastructure plays as it relates to the city. It is about taking an area of uninhabitable and divisive infrastructure and elevating it to something civic. It focuses in an area just south and west of the U.S. Capitol Building. It aims to embrace railroad and highway infrastructure as elements that serve multiple city needs, as part of the everyday, while adding artistic and monumental attributes to Washington D.C. It accepts the premises that the presence of, and the need for, the infrastructure will remain. This thesis proposes a master plan, involving the redevelopment of portions of Interstate 395, 695, and 295 highways and the railroads, to provide better use of valuable land, re connection of neighborhoods, and to create place, experienced through a series of civic spaces. Ultimately this thesis aims to set a new ideal that embraces infrastructure and elevates it to civic quality.Item Obsolescence and Renewal: Transformation of Post War Concrete Buildings(2016) Johnston, Kara Mary; Gardner, Amy; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this thesis I investigate issues of post-war concrete buildings and how we can both add value and make adaptable what we have traditionally defined as not valuable and not adaptable. 55% of United States’ commercial building stock was built between the years of 1960 and 1980, leaving 36 billion square feet of building material to be adaptively reused or at the bottom of a landfill. Currently, our culture does not value many character defining features of these buildings making the preservation of these buildings difficult, especially at this 50 year critical moment of both the attribution of a “historic” status and time when major renovation of these buildings needs to occur. How can architects add value to a building type, sometimes called “brutalist”, that building culture currently under values and thinks is “obsolete”? I tested this hypothesis using the James Forrestal Building in Washington D.C. After close study of the obsolescence, value,history and existing conditions, I propose a design that adds value to Southwest Washington D.C. and may serve as an example for post-war renewal around the country.Item Dupont Underground(2013) Fox, Kristen Ashley; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The construction and subsequent abandonment of the streetcar tunnels below Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. speaks volumes about our culture and how we choose to treat our resources. The current tension regarding the fate of the site is an opportunity to re-evaluate the possible uses for the structure. This thesis will explore the roles of public space, historic preservation, and civic discourse in the urban environment. Topics of focus include: overcoming barriers to reuse, analyzing abandonment and desire, and questioning existing notions of authenticity.