Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Population 7 – Lyman Street Art Intervention, Carli Foster, Elizabeth Ann Englebreston, Eric Wojtowicz, Yiwei Huang

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

POPULATION 7 started as an experiment in the fall of 2011 as an Urban Art Laboratory “Art – Place – Tour” with the vision to make a tangible impact to the culture of public art in Springfield. At first sight art seems to be not existent in the public realm. We are searching for an organic, sustainable concept with the potential to grow from inside to outside. Our goal is to invite to a discussion about public art and art in general that is introduced through minimal but diverse, economical eventually temporary, site-responsive interventions. We see our art as personal …

Social Meanings Of Mortality: The Language Of Death And Disease In 19th Century Massachusetts, Jeffrey Keith Beemer

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the emergence and development of cause-of-death registration in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. I examine the historical, demographic, sociopolitical, and theoretical conditions that gave rise to the first state-implemented cause-of-death registration system in the United States, Massachusetts's vital registration system. Developments in almost every arena of social life during the nineteenth century were shaped in some fashion through disease. The disease ecology changed dramatically during this period shifting from acute infectious to chronic degenerative diseases, which marked the beginning of the epidemiological transition. Registration systems were key components in this transitional period, providing the raw data on which nineteenth-century public …

Resisting Schools, Reproducing Families: Gender And The Politics Of Homeschooling, Brian Paul Kapitulik

Open Access Dissertations

The contemporary homeschooling movement sits at the intersection of several important social trends: widespread concern about the effectiveness and safety of public schools, feminist challenges to the patriarchal family structure, anxiety about the state of the family as an institution, and challenging economic conditions. The central concern of this dissertation is to make sense of homeschooling within this broader context. Data were gathered through interviews with forty-five homeschooling parents, approximately half of whom are religious and half of whom are secular. The interviews were organized around three central questions: 1) What are the frames that parents use to justify homeschooling? …

French Postcolonial Nationalism And Afro-French Subjectivities, Yasser A. Munif

Open Access Dissertations

This research examines urban renewal in Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb of 30,000 inhabitants located in the northeast of Paris. It studies the modalities of spatial racialization, nation building, and subject formation among Afro-French young men living in the city. It also builds on a world-historical perspective to explore the diasporic webs in which the lives of Afro-French are embedded. Taking spatial racialization as a point of entry, the study attempts to understand how governmental strategies and urban policies regulate lives and residential patterns in the city. Three lines of investigation are pursued: 1) an examination of Afro-French racialization and genealogies; 2) …

Defining Legal Parenthood: The Intersection Of Gender And Sexual Identity In U.S. Child Custody Decisions, 2003-2009, Kristina A. Watkins

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the contested terrain of family through qualitative analysis of child custody decisions. Legal parenthood was historically based on the heteronormative family ideal of a legally married monogamous heterosexual couple and their biogenetically related children. In the context of diverse family forms of the twenty-first century, however, courts struggle to draw the boundary lines of legal parenthood. Although previous research has examined the role of parental gender or sexual identity on child custody decisions, my research fills an important gap, as I analyze variations in gender, sexual identity, and path to parenthood for heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual …

Power In Coalition: Strategies For Strong Unions And Social Change, Dan Clawson

Dan Clawson

No abstract provided.

Reclamation - An Eco-Industrial Park In Greenfield, Massachusetts, Sage W. Sluter

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Honors Projects

Sustainable Industrial Design
Reclaiming a Brownfield in Greenfield, Massachusetts
Abstract:
For the senior capstone project at the University of Massachusetts, this student completed a conceptual site design project for the City of Greenfield. The City of Greenfield wishes to redevelop the Brownfield site, currently known as the Bendix Property, into an eco- industrial park. Working closely with the City’s officials, the student created a realistic vision for the site. After twenty years of soil and groundwater treatment, the site is ready to come back to life. The student investigated what an eco -industrial park is, and how the businesses cooperate …

Restoring The Power Of Unions: It Takes A Movement, Dan Clawson

Dan Clawson

No abstract provided.

Proposed Greenway Of Hatfield, Massachusetts - La497c - Senior Studio, Anthony D. Brow, William C. Bunker, Nicholas J. Mastroianni, Wesley A. Lomax, Philip A. Morrison Jr

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.

The town of Hatfield needs a Master plan to keep the town up to date on zoning regulations amongst other topics. They need to preserve rural character and enhance its economic base without overstepping private property rights. The town needs to attract new business, provide housing opportunities for the elderly, and standards for clustered residential development that will help preserve open space. The residents in Hatfield are concerned with three specific areas.

1. Managing growth and economic development

2. Preserving agriculture, natural resources, open space, …

Proposed Greenway Of Hatfield, Massachusetts - La497c - Senior Studio, Matthew G. Bent, Henry A. Hess, Andre E. Belperron

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.

This proposed greenway plan will be assessing the features of Hatfield such as, History, natural features, and open space within the town. After a thorough assessment of the towns features the report will cover the extensive proposed greenway plan, focusing mostly on the town center of Hatfield. The town center is the hub of the town where the major community buildings are such as the elementary and high schools, town hall, the town library, and most of the public recreation fields. Once the overall greenway …

Proposed Greenway Of Hatfield, Massachusetts - La497c - Senior Studio, Michael A. Brescia, Rachel L. Grigorian, Zachary M. Kingston, Carl M. Mccrae, James A. Rebello

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.

The purpose of this report is to show the results of a partnership between the Town of Hatfield Massachusetts, and the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts.

The Town of Hatfield initially approached the University for assistance in understanding the options available for Greenway development in Hatfield, while maintaining the charm and character the town is proud of.

In his ground-breaking book, Greenways for America, Author Charles Little (1990) provides a simple definition of a Greenway:

“A …

Human Variation In Skin Color And Race As A Social Construct, Jennifer Welborn

STEM Digital

This lesson is part of evolution unit which follows heredity and genetics

The lesson is interdisciplinary in nature in that I discuss the concept of race as a social construct and the idea that there are “black, white, red, yellow” skinned people is something that people developed. It is not based on biology. Race groupings are human-made groups.

Students first learn about mixing light and how to determine black and white from an ADI analysis. They learn that red and green = yellow, etc.

They then photograph each other’s forearms and analyze the images using ADI.

We then discuss skin …

An End To The “Vichy/Algeria Syndrome”?: Negotiating Traumatic Pasts In The French Republic, Justin W. Silvestri

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Within the past few years, France has exhibited a changing relationship in regards to its memory of its collaborationist and colonial past. The controversies of the loi du 23 février 2005 and the 2007 Guy Môquet Commemoration displayed a new openness to discuss and evaluate traumatic pasts. Public debate during the two controversies focused on the difficult process of how to incorporate these traumatic events into the national narrative. Furthermore, this process of negotiation has opened up a vibrant discussion over what parties in France possess the authority and the right to construct the nation’s history. Medical metaphors of neurosis …

The Jante Law And Racism: A Study On The Effects Of Immigration On Swedish National Identity, Kevin J. Turausky

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This paper focuses on how the Swedish social code known as The Jante Law plays a role in the prevalence of racism in Sweden, both on the individual and societal levels. Its core message that no one is superior to another fundamentally contradicts racism and informs government policy, but also reinforces institutionalized discrimination. I use literature review, ethnographic observations and interviews to examine the ways in which racism is understood and experienced in Sweden. This paper also investigates how concepts of sameness and community have changed over time and how the shifting of these concepts have resulted in greater inclusiveness …

Ripped From The Land, Shipped Away And Reborn: Unthinking The Conceptual And Socio-Geo-Historical Dimensions Of The Massacre Of Bellavista, Aurora Vergara Figueroa

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The monograph Ripped from the land, shipped away, and reborn introduces the concept Destierro-which translates as uprooting, deracination, exile, exodus, and banishment- to unthink the intellectual, political, and legal categories used by prevailing intellectual models to narrate/explain the 2002 massacre, occurred at the community of Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó-Colombia. This thesis offers a critical prospect of the event. It highlights ethno-historical analytics to deconstruct the concepts of forced displacement, and forced migration. I study the racial, class, gender, generational, and regional dimensions undergirding this phenomenon to propose an Afrodiasporic Decolonial Critique of the field of Forced Migration. Single-axis explanations of this event and …

Landscapes Of Compassion: A Guatemalan Experience, Travis W. Shultz

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

ABSTRACT

LANDSCAPES OF COMPASSION: A GUATEMALAN EXPERIENCE

MAY 2011

TRAVIS WILLIAM SHULTZ

A.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Directed by: Professor Peter Kumble, PhD

If landscape architecture can intertwine with the practice of social justice, how should academic training provide an atmosphere where this correlation is developed? In a professional degree program, such as landscape architecture, there are a plethora of skills among students that can be utilized no only in their future careers, but during their academic experience. By learning the tools while implementing them, there is a profound educational …

The Dynamic Lives And Static Institutions Of The "Two Armies:" Data From The 1999 Survey Of Active Duty Personnel, Daniel Burland, Jennifer H. Lundquist

Dr. Jennifer H. Lundquist

The U.S. Army consists of two distinct functional components: soldiers serving in combat roles, on the one hand, and those who serve in support positions, on the other. Do these two functionally distinct segments differ culturally as well? Empirical researchers utilizing qualitative methods have supported a ‘‘Two Armies’’ concept. This article examines the phenomenon quantitatively by using a nationally representative sample of the active duty population. The authors find that there is a statistically significant difference between support and combat soldiers that holds even after taking into account differing demography. Interestingly, this is true mainly of White soldiers, and the …

Gender, Work Time, And Care Responsibilities Among Faculty, Joya Misra, Jennifer H. Lundquist

Dr. Jennifer H. Lundquist

This study explores how faculty at one research-intensive university spend their time on research, teaching, mentoring, and service, as well as housework, childcare, care for elders, and other long-term care. Drawing on surveys and focus group interviews with faculty, the article examines how gender is related to time spent on the different components of faculty work, as well as on housework and care. Findings show that many faculty report working more than 60 hours a week, with substantial time on weekends devoted to work. Finding balance between different kinds of work (research, teaching, mentoring, and service) is as difficult as …

It’S An Academic Question: Why Progressive Intellectuals Should Not Stay Out Of Internal Union Battles, Dan Clawson

Dan Clawson

No abstract provided.

Hegemonic Masculinity On The Sidelines Of Sport, Laura A. Grindstaff, Emily West

Emily E. West

Nearly a quarter of a century old, the concept of hegemonic masculinity as developed by R. W. Connell remains both influential and contested among gender scholars. In this essay, we use our research on coed cheerleading in the United States as a springboard to explore the bounds and limits of hegemonic masculinity as both cultural script and analytic construct. Cheerleading constitutes a public stage for ‘doing gender’ in ways that highlight normative, taken-for-granted notions of gender difference; consequently, we use cheerleading as a vehicle for asking under what circumstances and to what degree heterosexuality remains central to the enactment of …