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
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item MENDING COMMUNITY(2022) Moore, David Pernell; Gabrielli, Julie; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this thesis is to create a development that will be a catalyst to revitalize Capitol Height’s dilapidated resources. Like many other predominantly African American towns, Capitol Heights Lacks the resources that it once had, such as fresh food, community education, and healthcare. Capitol Heights is located on the outer edge of Southeast Washington, D.C. The density of Capitol Heights needs to move from a horizontal scale (detached single-family housing) to a vertical scale (mid-rise buildings).The poverty rate in the United States averages 10.5%. Having a small population Capitol Heights averaged 10.7%. The crime rate in Capitol Heights is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America. Which in turn makes it hard for large companies to see the value in investing in real estate and jobs there. Capitol Heights being next to Southeast D.C. allows for a great guide on how to go about development. The development in Southeast D.C. has created jobs as well as brought resources that once were scarce to that area. With an addition to a mix-use development building in Capitol Heights, the attention on the area will increase which may increase the population. The Capitol Heights Transit station’s adjacency to public transportation is a huge driving factor in having people live there. With the station, as well as the new building typology, being the leading factor, this will be a great investment for the town of Capitol Heights. Amenities such as a library, grocery store, and urgent care are crucial to this development. Capitol Heights needs major improvements to the living situation that its residents live in currently. This development will bring higher-paying jobs, increase the population, promote healthier living, and be the blueprint for the future of Capitol Heights.Item Beyond Racial Stereotypes: Subversive Subtexts in Cabin in the Sky(2008-09-02) Weber, Kate Marie; King, Richard; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The 1943 film Cabin in the Sky holds an important place in cinematic history as one of the first "all-Negro" pictures produced by a major Hollywood studio. The movie musical reflects a transitional period in American racial politics and popular culture, when long-established stereotypes and themes associated with blackness were still prevalent, but were shifting to reflect more progressive attitudes. On the surface, Cabin seems to reinforce reductive and conventional notions. It presents a folkloric story of Southern blacks, the corrupting influence of modern urbanity, and the redemptive power of marital devotion and religious piety--replete with the entire pantheon of Negro caricatures. Upon careful analysis, however, the film's stereotypical topics are rendered superficial by subversive undercurrents. In addition, Ethel Waters' appearance as herself exposes the story and characters as fictional constructs, and paves the way for a more liberal image of blackness to emerge.Item Sisters in the Spirit: Transnational Constructions of Diaspora in Late Twentieth-Century Black Women's Literature of the Americas(2007-04-24) Minto, Deonne Nicole; Collins, Merle; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is an interdisciplinary project that draws upon literary theory, diaspora and transnational studies, black feminism, and anthropology. It argues that, in contrast to their male counterparts who produce "high theory" about the African diaspora in the Americas -- a theory that tends to exclude or marginalize women and remains tethered to nationalist constructions -- black women writers use their literary works to unsettle the dominant gendered racial hierarchy, to critique national discourses, and to offer a vision of a transnational Americas. This study invokes an 1891 conception of the Americas advanced by the Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, and it explores how the vision of these women writers rearticulates Marti's early concept of "Nuestra America" (Our America), transcending geographic, temporal, and linguistic boundaries. Organized around issues of historiography, black cultural formation, gender and sexual politics, and racial spacialization, this project cuts across the North/Central/South/Caribbean division of the Americas, topples the primacy of "America" (read as the United States of America) in diasporic discourses, and engages the writing of black women of the Americas in terms of their literary characterization of the transnational exchanges that have produced and continue to re-articulate diaspora in the region. Furthermore, this study engages and enlarges a notion of a "Dutch pot diaspora," as presented in Maxine Bailey and Sharon Mareeka Lewis's play Sistahs. This transnational conception of diaspora recognizes the persistence of nation and the ways in which black subjects across the Americas negotiate limiting national constructions through transnational identifications. Using poetry, drama, and novels by authors from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America, such as Toni Morrison, Erna Brodber, Luz Argentina Chiriboga, and Tessa McWatt, this dissertation reveals a transnational, diasporic poetics of the Americas.