Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Digital Collections In The University Classroom: Inspiring Your Faculty With Regional Content, Kelley F. Rowan, Christopher Davis

Works of the FIU Libraries

This presentation explores a model collaboration between the Digital Collections Center of the library and the History Department that has been highly successful in introducing students to researching with digital collections. We consider the use of history department undergraduate and graduate interns in the library and discuss the benefits and challenges to both parties. Dr. Christopher Davis shares the research project that was embedded in his course syllabus, highlighting various relevant digital collections and the results of student research. He also discusses what aspect of the collections he found intriguing and inspired him to create a research project and his …

Quiet River, Heavy Waters: Un-Silencing Narratives Of Social-Environmental Inequalities In The Cradle Of Soviet Plutonium, Rosibel Roman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In December 1948, the Soviet Union’s first plutonium production facility, Mayak Production Association (PO Mayak), began operation in the Southern Urals region of Russia, at the western edges of Siberia, near the restricted city of Chelyabinsk-40, known in the present day as Ozyorsk. Since then, rural communities located downstream from PO Mayak have experienced health, economic, ecological and social impacts of contamination from high-level radioactive wastes released by the facility into the Techa River and its surrounding ecosystem. My research, drawing from archival research conducted in Russia and the United States, as well as secondary sources in English and Russian, …

Commemorative Bodies: (Un)Making Racial Order And Cuban White Supremacy In Little Havana's Heritage District, Corinna Jeanne Moebius

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation unearths memory- and place-making practices, processes and “racializing regimes of representation” in Little Havana’s heritage district, now a major tourism destination in Miami, Florida. It draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and consultations of various archives that span decades back to the 1960s and trace the origins of the district in plans for a “Latin Quarter.”

My analyses borrow from and combine various bodies of scholarly work to examine and deconstruct the use of always multi-vocal “commemorative bodies” for the production of racial narratives that are embedded in--and give shape to--acts of memorialization and commemoration.

By examining the …

The Notions Of The "Closet" And The "Secret" In Oscar Wilde's, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Jessica Maria Oliveira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will discuss the notions of the “closet” and “secret” within Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as offer a clear and precise definition of queer theory to assist in elucidating many of the concepts being discussed. Close reading techniques will be utilized to further uncover the metaphoric, symbolic, and otherwise figurative importance of certain aspects of The Picture of Dorian Gray and supporting texts. Through Judith Butler’s conceptualization of sex and gender, as well as Jacques Derrida’s interpretation of the “secret”, this paper will explicate the intricacies of Wilde’s work and unveil queered aspects …

Transnational Sex-Positive Play Parties: The Sexual Politics Of Care For Community-Making At A Kinky Salon, Christina Bazzaroni

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, feminist geographers and geographers of sexualities have yet to fully interrogate post sexual revolution society. In this dissertation I examine the politics of sex-positive play parties, through the case study of Kinky Salon (KS) – a global organization that claims to catalyze a contemporary sex culture revolution. This project expands on previous feminist geography and geographies of sexualities scholarship centering queer, kinky sex, demonstrating that non-normative sexual practices are informed by and contribute to sexual revolution legacies. I extend feminist geographies’ theorizing of affect and emotion to show how sexual intimacies are care-work, with the emotional power to …

Uprooting And Rerooting Religious Identities: Understanding The Experience Of Self-Identified Christian Millennial Migrants From South America In Miami, Ernesto M. Fiocchetto

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to understand the social configuration of religious identities of South American millennial migrants who self-identify as Christian in Miami-Dade County. The work entails an extensive description of the context of the study subjects, deep theoretical insight on religion and identity, and a qualitative approach. The narratives of the South American millennial migrants’ process of religious identity configuration and the relationships they establish with religious institutions emerged from in-depth interviews and focus group sessions. The analysis of such narratives grounded middle-range theory that makes sense of the study subjects and can potentially shed light on other experiences in …

The Impact Of Microaggressions And Minority Stress On The Psychological Well-Being Of Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities Of Color, Michelle G. Thompson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microaggressions impact psychological well-being (PWB) among sexual minorities and people of color (POC). Research to date has explored this relationship among White sexual minorities and POC independently, and not among sexual minorities of color (SMPOC). SMPOC may be at an even greater risk for low PWB due to compounded microaggressions. Emerging adults are also at risk for low PWB, but little is known about PWB among SMPOC emerging adults. The current study examined microaggressions and PWB among emerging adult SMPOC; it also examined outness and PWB among adult sexual minorities. It was hypothesized that: a) SMPOC would report greater microaggressions …