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 Sunday Morning Matters: The Production of Gendered Subjects in White Evangelical Life(2021) Michael, Kelsey Sherrod; Wong, Janelle; Padios, Jan; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As evangelical Christian demographics in the United States have increasingly diversified, pundits and scholars have sought to understand the persistent political power of white American evangelicals. This interdisciplinary dissertation argues that a key mechanism of the political formation of white evangelical Christians has been hiding in plain sight: The weekly church worship service in predominantly white congregations has provided remarkable continuity as a means of political formation for churchgoers, particularly through worship rituals indebted to ideologies of gender and race. Drawing on Black feminist thought, phenomenology, and the anthropology of religion, I describe the white evangelical church worship service as an axis of “haunting” across time and space, where patriarchal relations of power built on racialized discourses of manhood and womanhood continue to shape the everyday lives of churchgoing women. I rely on textual analysis of evangelical digital culture and original ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews, with churchgoing women in the southern U.S. to uncover how women’s experiences in church structure their consciousness in dimensions of their lives not often considered inherently “religious”—work and labor, sex and marriage, performance and material culture, and the knowledge and discipline of the self. In clarifying this phenomenological process by which churchgoing women become gendered and therefore political subjects, the project identifies the significance of the white evangelical church worship service to white evangelical subject formation and the implication of white supremacy in this process. More broadly, the dissertation calls for a reappraisal of the importance of religious ritual to the construction of identity and difference in and through white American Christianity.Item "Priestesses Unto the Most High God": LDS Women's Temple Rituals and the Politics of Religious Identity(2011) Kane, Nazneen; Hill Collins, Patricia; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study enters into broader debates surrounding the study of women in traditional religions by examining the ways in which LDS women utilize temple ritual in the ongoing production of religious identity. In-depth interviews with eighteen LDS women are explored to highlight themes in LDS women's perspectives regarding temple rituals. I demonstrate that LDS women's perspectives on these ceremonies reveal that LDS women draw from an amalgam of competing dominant, alternative, and oppositional discourses to define their religious experiences and identities. These self-definitions revealed that the women in this study drew from ritual symbols, gestures, images, and dialogue to shift normative definitions of LDS women as mothers who bear and raise children to more expansive identities as "priestesses unto the most high God." I argue that examining the practices of women in traditional religions reveals hidden layers of their experiences, identities, and ways of knowing.Item Community journalism as ritual: A case study of community and weekly newspapers in Laurel, Maryland(2011) Wotanis, Lindsey Lee; Steiner, Linda; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is a study of the intersection of community and community journalism in Laurel, an area with just over 100,000 residents in central Maryland. The case study utilizes ethnographic interviews with 40 stakeholders, including journalists, advertisers, city officials and readers. Using James W. Carey's theory of ritual communication as its theoretical foundation, the study examines the role of Laurel's two weekly newspapers in creating and maintaining community in Laurel. Findings suggest that when the community newspapers failed to meet readers' expectations for community content, the readers' news reading ritual was interrupted; as a result, their sense of community weakened. Furthermore, place, sharing and relationships proved key to the formation and sustenance of community, with the weekly newspapers playing an important role in the process. The study also found that stakeholders wanted the weeklies to maintain editorial spaces in Laurel, dedicate more resources to hiring more reporters, and be more accepting of user-generated content.Item MOZAMBICAN NATIONAL ANTHEMS: MEMORY, PERFORMANCE, AND NATION-BUILDING(2010) Curtis, Katherine June; Provine, Robert C; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis examines the national anthems of Mozambique. Crises in Mozambique's history prompted the search for a new national anthem three times, with only two of the searches ended in a new national anthem--namely, "Viva, Viva a FRELIMO" the anthem adopted at independence and the current national anthem "Patria Amada." Using theory from ethnomusicology, anthropology, political science and others, the role of these national anthems in national unification and cultural solidification are discussed. In order to analyze the anthems of Mozambique, national anthems will be explored as static symbols and performed rituals. The history of Mozambique from its first contact with colonization through the present day will add insight to the associations that make anthems powerful in those roles.Item Class by the Glass: The Significance of Imported Wine Consumption in America, 1750-1800(2007-05-03) Thomas, Catherine Stewart; Sies, Mary C; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This paper analyses the ritual of imported wine consumption in America between 1750 and 1800 and its significance in establishing a wealthy gentleman's power and place within a social hierarchy. My research was conducted by exploring contemporary written and visual records, as well as examining material objects and architectural spaces, specifically pertaining to the Annapolis, Maryland region. Beginning with a study of the varieties of wines consumed and their influence in the politically-charged environment prior to the American Revolution, the paper then explores why and how gentlemen used wine bibbing as an indication of one's identity in a burgeoning society. Quantities of wine-related furniture and decorative objects, in combination with architectural storage spaces, conveyed a life far above that of the average citizen. Finally, this paper examines to what degree historic house museums are interpreting the wine ritual and suggests steps that might be taken to do so more effectively.Item El Rocío: A Case Study of Music and Ritual in Andalucía(2007-04-26) Poole, W. Gerard; Robertson, Carolina; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Music is central to the processional pilgrimage of El Rocío, which attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Andalusia, Spain, late each spring. The pilgrimage affords a unique view, in microcosm, of the relationships between music and ritual from both ritual-studies and ethnomusicological perspectives. Based on extensive fieldwork and other research, this dissertation explores the nexus of the Catholic ritual system in Andalusia, flamenco, and the specific music of El Rocío: the Sevillanas Rocieras. That nexus becomes clear through exploration of three particular features of the pilgrimage: (1) the devotional processions that generate a single, focused, collective emotion; (2) the Andalusian musical form called the palo; and (3) the informal musical gatherings called juergas, which take place nightly along the route. Analysis of structural and morphological relationships between ritual, music, and emotion yields surprising realizations about how these three elements come together as embodied aesthetics within a communitas to generate popular culture. Another important finding of this work is the necessity of placing, at the center of the inquiry, the religious experience—including the curious Andalusian phenomenon of the “chaotic” emotional procession and its role within the overall pilgrimage and ritual system. The dissertation concludes with two theoretical positions. The first addresses the process of “emotional structuring” and its role within the musical rituals of El Rocío and, by extension, Andalusia. The second advances a theory of ritual relations with potential application to ritual systems beyond Andalusia. The author presents both positions within an evolutionary framework based on the tenets of biomusicology, neurophenomenology, and Peircean semiotics.Item CHASING THE RAINBOW: GENDER-RELIGIOSITY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENITY IN THE MUSIC AND RITUAL OF THE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA(2005-04-01) Lotrecchiano, Gaetano Romano; Robertson, Carolina; Jensen, Luke; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The intersection of belief, identity, and performance enacted in the Metropolitan Community Church of Northern Virginia (MCC NOVA) - a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community of faith, provides an arena for ethnomusicological inquiry into ritual performance and its relationship with identity construction. As a safe-haven for persons marginalized by mainstream religious traditions, MCC NOVA serves as an alternative to historically oppressive and suppressive worshipping environments where LGBTQ lifestyle is often considered antithetical to the goals of religiosity. It grounds ritual and musical practices in its core values: elastic theology, inclusiveness, diversity, community, member-ministers, and love and acceptance. These core values are the basis of a variety of performative events which allow for the self-fashioning of identity and spiritual exploration on both an individual and corporate level. Affected by a variety of "cradle traditions", this LBGTQ group draws on a complex assortment of sacred musics and ritual practices which form a unique gender-religiosity as MCCers journey to describe and re-invent their collective self. MCC NOVA intensifies the experience of faith through its multi-gendered condition, alternative spiritualities, and idiosyncratic performance events by fashioning a Judeo-Christian-based LBGTQ spirituality in light of freedoms which allow for exploration beyond the boundaries of the Christian ordo. This project deals with a series of unexplored important ethnomusicological questions concerning the significance, process, problems, negotiations, and repercussions involved in performing a variety of ritual musics and acts in light of MCC NOVA's central core values. Foremost is the question of the relationship between individual existenz and corporate identity and the role this relationship plays in ritual. The aesthetics which promote this process are a culmination of blended beliefs rooted in LBGTQ lifestyle, concerns about gender, religious priorities, and the historical faith traditions of the congregants. Performances vary in their ability to describe the intersection of these major contributions to identity construction. Therefore, the investigation of a truly gender-religious stance requires a consideration of the behavioral, ritual-musical, and ontological realities of MCC NOVA membership as they interact to construct an identity where liturgy is both source and outcome of this unique religiosity.Item TEACHING EXPERTISE AS A CULTURALLY-EMBEDDED PHENOMENON: A CASE STUDY OF ONE ESOL DEPARTMENT(2004-08-06) Bramblett, Shannon Rene; Cossentino, Jacqueline; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: TEACHING EXPERTISE AS A CULTURALLY-EMBEDDED PHENOMENON: A CASE STUDY OF ONE ESOL DEPARTMENT Shannon Bramblett, Ph.D., 2004 Dissertation directed By: Assistant Professor Jacqueline Cossentino,Department of Education Policy and Leadership The United States has an unprecedented number of ELLs (English Language Learners) attending public schools. Research on programs for ELLs has not kept pace with the mushrooming growth of the programs themselves. The relative newness of programs for ELLs, the rapid growth of the ELL population in public schools, and the variety of programming available means that researchers know comparatively little about the culture of available programs or the types of teaching expertise teachers develop and use in them. In this dissertation I examine the phenomenon of culturally embedded expertise in one type of program for ELLs, an ESOL program, in a large, public comprehensive high school. The aim is twofold: 1) to identify and analyze less-frequently understood aspects of teaching expertise with culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and 2) to use this knowledge to improve the way researchers approach understanding teaching expertise. In this ethnographic case study I explore culture and expertise in one ESOL department in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Unlike most studies of teaching expertise, I broadened the scope of the study to include not only teacher interactions with students, but also teacher interactions with other teachers. In the dissertation I describe and analyze the teaching expertise of three ESOL teachers. I collected data primarily through interviews and observations. ESOL teacher expertise and culture were assessed through the lens of ritual (Bell 1992, 1997). Teaching expertise was not limited to effectively helping ELLs learn to speak English. Rather, ESOL culture members "coconstructed" a cultural value that was more broadly focused on the overall flourishing of ELLs. ESOL teachers strengthened their commitment to ELLs through ritualized interactions that included keeping the value of students in the foreground of their interactions. Teachers also cultivated personal relationships with other ESOL teachers; this fostered stronger professional relationships that led to sharing expert practices and collaboration. Expertise in the ESOL culture revolved around two cultural goals. The first entailed helping ELLs make a cultural transition to the ESOL classroom. The second involved helping ELLs prepare for life beyond the ESOL classroom. This study suggests that some aspects of teaching expertise are closely linked to the shared cultural values of ESOL teachers. Thus, it is important to consider the complexity of time, place, and culture when attempting to understand teaching expertise as it applies to ELLs.