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 ENHANCING QUALITY OF LIFE ON URBAN RESIDENTIAL STREETS BY CREATING PLACES FOR PEOPLE AND TREES(2019) PARKER, PAMELA; Ellis, Christopher; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Lower income urban rowhouse neighborhoods are often treeless with only narrow sidewalks separating the front door from the street. This thesis explores the opportunity to capitalize on the predicted shift from private automobile ownership to fleets of autonomous vehicles and the subsequent significant drop in parking demand. Space previously designated as parking lanes can be converted into continuous tree planting strips and social spaces along inner-city residential streets. In this thesis, I propose three streetscape models utilizing the space no longer needed for parking: 1) the James Street Private Model that designs a 10’ wide continuous tree planting strip, allowing trees, gardens and patios to be installed along the foot of the rowhouse steps; 2) the James Street Public Model that creates the same tree strip design but positions it between the sidewalk and the street; and 3) the Shared Street Model, set along a narrower alley street, that forms a meandering road shared with pedestrians, public spaces and trees. These streetscape improvements directly address the quality of life of the residents by enhancing their safety and security, physical surroundings, social relations and health.Item A COMPARISON OF THE EXPERTISE OF UNIVERSITY FACULTY AND STUDENTS IN AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON HIGH SCHOOL CIVICS AND GOVERNMENT(2012) Budano, Christopher; Monte-Sano, Chauncey; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated the disciplinary knowledge and nature of expertise among political science experts studying American political science. A comparison group of students who had completed an introductory undergraduate course in American political science also participated in the study. Numerous research studies have found that civics and government courses often focus on the transmission of information from textbooks and teachers to students. The result of this type of teaching, at least according to the measures we currently utilize, has been the failure of the majority of students to learn about American government, become invested in our system of government, and indicate their desire to participate in the future. Civic and educational leaders have called for the development of curriculum to promote critical thinking and improve student learning and participation. Yet, there is no research base for understanding what critical thinking looks like in civics and government and its related discipline of political science or what activities and methods will lead to increased student achievement. With history education as a model, where defining the discipline has led to a better understanding of critical thinking in history and a more robust approach to teaching, the author investigated what expertise in this subfield of political science looks like, how experts conceptualize the discipline, and what cognitive processes they use in their work using a concept sorting and mapping task, two problem-solving tasks, and an open-ended interview. Experts defined political science as an empirical discipline focused on phenomena related to government, power, and the allocation of resources. Experts also recognized relationships and connections between concepts in the discipline and used a variety of conceptual knowledge and strategic processing when engaging in their work, including recognition of context, the identification of sub-problems and constraints, and an acknowledgement of what they did not know. A comparison to the students allowed for the description of different levels of expertise. Implications of the study include the need for additional research on the strategic processing of political science experts and the potential to define educational outcomes for teaching and learning in civics and government classes.Item A History of the International Labor Communications Association(2012) Bates, Matthew Clark; Steiner, Linda; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: A HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION Matthew C. Bates, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Linda Steiner Philip Merrill College of Journalism Keywords: labor, unions, press, media, journalism, International Labor Press Association, ILCA, ILPA, AFL-CIO, social movements This dissertation examines post-World War II debates within U.S. unions over the role and character of the labor press. I use archival sources and interviews to construct a history of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). The AFL-CIO created the ILCA (originally, the International Labor Press Association) in 1956 to strengthen communications with union members and the public. Representing hundreds of publications, the ILCA remains the only national organization of journalists working on behalf of U.S. unions. The debates over the role and character of union media are put in the context of social movement and organization theory. Like most modern social movements, organized labor exists as both a set of bureaucratic institutions and as diffuse agglomerations of individuals struggling against dominant social actors. Policies and practices that prioritize the needs of union organizations and leaders (i.e. tendencies towards "business unionism") frequently conflict with the needs and impulses of rank-and-file workers ("social movement unionism"). The debates I examine--a campaign in the 1960s to win AFL-CIO support for community-based labor newspapers; divisions among union editors and leaders in the 1980s and 1990s over the use of electronic technologies for national public relations instead of local campaigns; a dispute in the late 1990s over editorial freedom for union journalists--express the underlying tensions between business and social-movement unionism. Movements use internal media to create member identities, define opponents, frame issues, and set goals. Debates over the content of movement media and who those media should mobilize are debates over the nature of the movement itself. U.S. unions are shrinking in size and influence. I conclude that union media will be indispensable in any successful effort to spark a new workers' movement. Given the constraints imposed by union leaders on the labor press, however, I conclude that the chances of igniting a new movement will be greatly enhanced if union journalists collaborate outside the current union structures. Digital media and networks of progressive media activists offer unprecedented opportunities for union journalists to communicate with vast numbers of wage earners rapidly, and at relatively low cost.Item Verbal and Nonverbal Expressions as Indicators of Social and Emotional Functioning among Social Anhedonics(2006-05-08) Mann, Monica Constance; Blanchard, Jack J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social anhedonia has received increasing empirical attention and support as a vulnerability marker for the development of schizophrenia. Although social anhedonia implies a reduced capacity for pleasure, the relationship between this construct and the experience and expression of emotion remains unclear. The current study sought to better understand the emotional expression of anhedonics by examining the self-report of emotional experiences and social relationships. Results indicated that social anhedonics used fewer positive emotion words in social descriptions and fewer social words in positive experience descriptions. Social anhedonics did not use significantly fewer positive facial expressions than controls, although gender differences were observed. Correlations with symptom ratings were inconsistent. Thus, this research was able to integrate the study of social and emotional functioning to describe the emotional correlates of social anhedonia which adds to an accumulating body of knowledge on behavioral characteristics for identifying individuals at putative risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.