Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item DUAL IDENTITY AND ETHNIC PROTEST IN DIVERSE SOCIETIES(2019) Ives, Brandon Jeffrey; Cunningham, David E; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)What are the conditions in which some countries experience ethnic protests, while others do not? What are the conditions in which an ethnic community member will protest? What explains why some ethnic community members initiate an ethnic protest and some join later? Ethnicity is a crucial societal cleavage and ethnic protest a critical subtype of protest. It is not gender or class that challenge the territorial sovereignty of states, but ethnic-based opposition groups, often in the form of self-determination movements, that make the most extreme demands in terms of separatist policies. This dissertation adjudicates between conflicting expectations in the literature for why ethnic community members protest and why countries experience ethnic protest. It argues that an ethnic member’s decision to join an ethnic protest is affected by whether the ethnic member identifies primarily with the ethnic group, or with the ethnic group and the national group (dual identity) as well as if the ethnic member resides in a democracy or non-democracy. An ethnic member’s likelihood of ethnic protest participation impacts a country’s likelihood of ethnic protest. A multimethod approach tests the theoretical expectations. Survey-experiments amongst Afro-Panamanians in Panama (which is a democracy), and Greek Orthodox in Lebanon (which is less democratic) examine the micro-level expectations. Interviews with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and with Syrians in Syria via Skype complement the survey-experimental work. The micro-level analysis finds that in non-democracies, dual identity is associated with a decrease in ethnic protest participation likelihood. The decrease is greater during later stages of an ethnic protest. In democracies, however, higher levels of dual identity do not associate with a decrease in ethnic protest participation likelihood. Event data and Afrobarometer survey data are used to examine the conditions in which countries experience ethnic protest. Consistent with the micro-level analysis, in non-democracies, dual identity is associated with a decrease in ethnic protest likelihood. The dissertation finds a previously unexplored conditional effect of identity. In non-democracies, even with a simultaneous ethnic identity, maintaining a national identity can decrease intent to protest.Item BEYOND HONORARY WHITENESS: IDEOLOGIES OF BELONGING AND KOREAN ADOPTEE IDENTITIES(2018) Laybourn, Wendy Marie; Ray, Rashawn; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Using Asian Critical Race Theory as a framework, this dissertation examines how Korean adoption contributed to constructions of race – racial meanings and a racial order – and the effects on Korean adoptees’ identity development. This dissertation asks the following questions: What role has Korean adoption played in the U.S. racial formation? What role do various levels of social structure (e.g., media, interpersonal interactions) play in adoptees’ understanding of their belonging, both as it relates to the U.S. and Korea, and how do adoptees resolve any competing messages about their social and national citizenship? And, how do Korean adoptees make-meaning of their adoptee identity? In order to answer these questions, I draw upon three original data sources: 18 months of participant observation, an online survey (N=107), and in-depth interviews (N=37) with Korean adoptee adults.Item A VOICE OF THEIR OWN: MUSIC AND SOCIAL COHESION IN TURKISH ALEVI LIFE(2016) Pinkert, Melanie Terner; Witzleben, J. Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the role that music has played in the expression of identity and revitalization of culture of the Alevis in Turkey, since the start of their sociocultural revival movement in the late 1980s. Music is central to Alevi claims of ethnic and religious difference—singing and playing the bağlama (Turkish folk lute) constitutes an expressive practice in worship and everyday life. Based on research conducted from 2012 to 2014, I investigate and present Alevi music through the lens of discourses on the construction of identity as a social and musical process. Alevi musicians perform a revived repertoire of the ritual music and folk songs of Anatolian bards and dervish-lodge poets that developed over several centuries. Contemporary media and performance contexts have blurred former distinctions between sacred and secular, yet have provided new avenues to build community in an urban setting. I compare music performances in the worship services of urban and small-town areas, and other community events such as devotional meetings, concerts, clubs, and broadcast and social media to illustrate the ways that participation—both performing and listening—reinforces identity and solidarity. I also examine the influence of these different contexts on performers’ musical choices, and the power of music to evoke a range of responses and emotional feelings in the participants. Through my investigation I argue that the Alevi music repertoire is not only a cultural practice but also a symbol of power and collective action in their struggle for human rights and self-determination. As Alevis have faced a redefined Turkish nationalism that incorporates Sunni Muslim piety, this music has gained even greater potency in their resistance to misrecognition as a folkloric, rather than a living, tradition.Item CITIZENS, FOREIGNERS, OR GERMANS? THE STATE AND PERSONS OF IMMIGRANT BACKGROUND IN THE MAKING OF MEMBERSHIP IN GERMANY SINCE 1990(2012) Williams, Daniel Aaron; Kestnbaum, Meyer; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines citizenship and nationness in contemporary Germany. It argues that citizenship and nationness represent two forms of membership which are constituted at the level of state and at the level of prospective citizens. At the level of the state, it considers changes in German citizenship policies in 1990, 1992, and 2000. At the level of prospective citizens, it examines forty-seven persons of immigrant background and their understandings of German citizenship and their own nationness. Though not the same, citizenship and nationness may be related in various ways. Previous scholarship shows that nationness has been a key category and criterion for who may become a citizen at the level of state, as expressed in citizenship policies. Similarly, the self-understandings of individuals as members of the nation may inform their decision to become citizens. Equally, their citizenship status may inform their sense of their own nationness. Finally, understandings of citizenship and nationness which are institutionalized in the state may inform the understandings of persons of immigrant background. Beginning in 1990, citizenship policies became increasingly more liberalized and accessible to persons of immigrant background without German descent. This dissertation shows that these changes after 1990 are explained by understandings of nationness, as expressed in narratives of political parties about immigrants and foreigners, Germany and the nation, and citizenship as an institution. Contrary to scholarship emphasizing nationally-specific traditions of citizenship, as well as shifts towards liberalizing access to citizenship, this dissertation shows that understandings of nationness differ mainly by political parties. The self-understandings of persons of immigrant background reflect some, but not all, of the changes at the level of the state. In particular, most persons of immigrant background see themselves as German and as belonging in everyday life in Germany. However, their citizenship status is largely independent of their sense of national belonging. This suggests that national belonging and citizenship are largely disconnected for ordinary people. In addition, the disconnect between nationness and citizenship is more pronounced for persons who are citizens, indicating that they view their membership as citizens should be met with a sense of national membership.Item The Motivations and Experiences of Mexican Americans in the U.S. Marine Corps: An Intersectional Analysis(2012) De Angelis, Karin Kristine; Segal, David R.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As one of the largest and fastest growing minority groups in the United States, Mexican Americans are reshaping the major institutions of American life, including the military. The Mexican American military population, although still underrepresented when compared to their presence in the American population generally, is a growing ethnic group. Although growth is occurring across the services, Mexican Americans have a large presence in the U.S. Marine Corps, a trend unlike the military behavior of African Americans, the next largest minority group in the military. This trend holds for both Mexican American men and women, even though the Marine Corps is the most combat-oriented of the service branches and the service branch with the lowest proportion of occupations open to women. Using an intersectional approach and through in-depth interviews of Mexican American men and women serving in the Marine Corps, I examine the personal characteristics, motivations, and experiences that are associated with the decision to join the Marine Corps. I argue that Mexican American Marines, regardless of gender, share common motivations for service grounded in the intersection of their common ethnicity and socioeconomic position. However, while the majority of respondents were drawn to the military because of occupational considerations, I also argue that they felt a connection to the Marine Corps because of its more institutional nature, which intermeshed well with their own individual values. I also compare the experiences of the respondents while in the service. In regard to ethnicity, the majority of respondents discussed the large number of Hispanics in the Marine Corps, even as they noted stratification in the population. They did not view themselves as a minority, but as a population growing in size and influence. These commonalities decline with the application of an intersectional analysis, as gender becomes the most salient and divisive characteristic. Despite their diversity, the women were considered a unified category and as a token population, their proportions shaped the group culture in predictable, visible ways. I conclude by discussing how lived experiences are not only shaped by one's social characteristics, but by the social institutions in which one operates.Item The Changing Spatial Distribution of the Population of the Former Soviet Union(2009) Heleniak, Timothy Edmund; Geores, Martha E; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When it existed, the Soviet Union was a closed economic and migration space with tightly-controlled movement of goods, people, and ideas across its borders. It was also an ethnically complex region with 130 different nationalities, fifty-three with territorially-based ethnic homelands, of which fifteen became the successor states to the Soviet Union. The breakup of the Soviet Union, the transition towards market economies, and the liberalization of the societies have together greatly impacted the lives of people in the region. Many found themselves in countries or regions with dramatically shrunken economies or as ethnic minorities in newly independent states and many have chosen migration as a strategy of adaptation to the new circumstances in which they found themselves. Using established migration theory, this dissertation examines the causes of migration among the fifteen successor states since 1991. The main test was to compare the relative impact of economic factors versus ethnic factors driving migration movements in the post-Soviet space. The results showed that while some of the movements could be classified as people migrating to their ethnic homelands, a majority could be explained by neoclassical economic theories of migration and the large income differentials that have resulted from the economic transition. Other theories that have been found to explain migration in other world migration systems were found to also be applicable in the former Soviet Union.Item Risking War: Regime Crises, Political Exclusion and Indiscriminate Violence in Africa(2007-08-28) Roessler, Philip; Lichbach, Mark I.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Between 1956 and 1999 one-third of the civil wars in the world occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. The prevailing explanation given to account for this fact is the economic weakness of African states. While low income is a robust determinant of civil war onset in global models, it is not as precise a predictor within sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, I argue that civil war is often a consequence of how African rulers respond to threats to regime survival, such as failed coups d'etat and other regime crises. In the wake of regime crises, rulers, concerned by their tenuous hold on power, seek to reduce the risk of future coups by eliminating disloyal agents from within the government and increasing spoils for more trusted clients to try to guarantee their support should another coup or threat materialize. The problem for the ruler is distinguishing loyal agents from traitors. To overcome this information problem rulers often use ethnicity as a cue to restructure their ruling networks, excluding perceived 'ethnic enemies' from spoils. The consequence of such ethnic exclusion is that, due to the weakness of formal state structures, the ruler forfeits his leverage over and information about such societal groups, undermining the government's ability to effectively prevent and contain violent mobilization and increasing the risk of civil war. To test this hypothesis, I employ a nested research design. The first part quantitatively tests the causal logic on a sample of 40 African countries between independence and 1999. I find that in the five years after a regime crisis there is a significant increase in the risk of civil war onset, often when the government resorts to indiscriminate violence to regulate the opposition. Part two examines this argument at the micro-level by examining two cases in Sudan based on hundreds of interviews during more than 14-months of fieldwork between 2005 and 2006. The second Sudan case illustrates that the civil war in Darfur in 2003 was a consequence of how the central government responded to a crisis within the Islamic movement in 1999 and 2000.Item Recognizing High Achievement in Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Friends' Values and Individuals' Motivation and Background as Associated with the Identification of Tenth-Graders by Teachers and Test Performance(2007-04-25) Barber, Carolyn; Torney-Purta, Judith; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The relationships of school context, motivation, and individual background to receiving teacher nominations for advanced work and/or scoring in the top decile on a standardized test of achievement were examined in both English and mathematics using survey data collected from a nationally-representative sample of tenth grade students as part of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. This study builds upon previous research examining the relationships between students identified as high-achieving by test score criteria and by teacher nomination criteria by exploring whether certain characteristics of students and their schools systematically make them more or less likely to meet them. Students' individual perceptions of their school context were only associated with achievement criteria met in math. Students who perceived their friends to be the least socially-oriented were most likely to meet both criteria. Further, male students who perceived their friends to be the least academically-oriented were the most likely to have high test performance but no teacher nomination. Students who were self-efficacious and intrinsically motivated were the most likely to meet both criteria in English and in math The relationship of intrinsic motivation in math to having high achievement recognized by teachers in this area was especially prominent for male students. Further, students of Black or Hispanic ethnicity were more likely than were white students to be nominated as high achieving by teachers despite lower test performance, as were students from lower socioeconomic statuses. Male students, on the other hand, were more likely than females overall to have high test performance without being nominated as high-achieving by teachers. Specific aspects of these relationships vary between subject areas. In addition to several associations with individual characteristics, the proportions of students identified as high-achieving only by teachers differ systematically among schools. This variation can be explained by several school-level variables, including school socioeconomic status and minority composition. These findings affirm that there are systematic differences between students identified as high-achieving by teacher nominations and by test scores. Learning more about these differences will help teachers and administrators to consider explicitly these factors when identifying adolescent students for special programs and other recognitions.Item Race, Sentencing, and the Pretrial Process(2006-08-29) Hart, Michelle Hart Elizabeth; Bushway, Shawn; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research has suggested that racial disparity originates from judicial decisions at sentencing; however I argue that racial disparity may originate at the pretrial stage. First, research has consistently demonstrated a potential discriminatory link between race/ethnicity and incarceration. Second, other research has demonstrated that minorities are likely to be assigned a high bail, less likely to afford that bail, and more likely to be detained pretrial. Finally, recent research has also suggested that pretrial detention can lead directly to more guilty pleas and a higher likelihood of incarceration. I predict that accounting for pretrial outcome will decrease the impact of race on the probability of incarceration at the conviction stage. I argue that utilizing a sample of indicted individuals (opposed to convicted offenders) is appropriate approach in type of study. I find that the impact of race on sentencing outcome is reduced when pretrial outcomes are included in the model.