Digital Commons Network^™

Breakwater: Anti-Blackness In Geoscience Lessons From Long Beach, Ca, Christina Marsh

Pomona Senior Theses

Breakwaters are more than just physical structures that protect against storm surges and in the context of Long Beach, CA, my hometown, they are actualizations of economic, social, environmental, geologic, and policy challenges. Inspired by Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy, and Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, I use an extended metaphor and autoethnographic approach to connect a chronology of my educational life to the physical structure of a breakwater. Where the breakwater also acts as a signifier of my personal experiences of seeing it, questioning its purpose, and not always finding an answer. …

The Stateless Agent: A Multidisciplinary Analysis Of Transboundary Air Pollution In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Region Of The U.S.-Mexico Border, Elizabeth Hernandez

CMC Senior Theses

The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (EPJ) region has a history of nonattainment for ozone and particulate matter. Given transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region is not confined to the U.S.-Mexico border, it is important to implement a transnational response that accounts for the health and safety of everyone, including marginalized communities in EPJ. This thesis assesses the state of air quality and transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region through a multidisciplinary perspective that focuses on issues of data monitoring, environmental governance, and transnational environmental justice. Analysis of the quantity and placement of ambient monitoring stations reveals EPJ residents near …

Ecodrama And Sustainable Theatre: A Handbook For Creating Remarkable Change, Gigi Buddie

Pomona Senior Theses

The climate crisis is not new to us, nor are the art forms that have taken shape as vital components of the many activist movements that seek to save the planet. Yet, for the first time at Pomona College, a play about environmental devastation and our hand in it finally graced the stage of this progressive institution this past year. This mini handbook is a call-to-action (of sorts), one that stems from the idea that this should not be the last ecodrama performed at Pomona College. These chapters are structured and supported by both experience and research – formulated from …

Weaving Testimonio And Territory In La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, María J Durán González

Pomona Senior Theses

“Nosotras las mujeres ibamos al río a lavar la ropa pero sin con tanto químico y nada de esas cosas. Ahora, pues, cómo ve…” (Tomala, 2023).

The woman’s vignette of La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, or the Ancestral Commune of Las Tunas is a testimonio of the territory, yet women’s testimonios are registered separately from the dominant tales of territorial resistance of la Comuna. The analysis of testimonios arises from Chicanx/Latinx feminist studies that center the voices of Chicana/Latina women to form a collective narrative emerging from silences. I aim to interlace Latinx and Latin American geography principles with …

From Displaced To Displacers: Scottish Crofters, First Nation Peoples And Commons Enclosure From The 1700s To The 1800s, Anna Herrington

Theses and Dissertations--History

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the enclosure of common systems shaped the displacement of people on a global scale whilst bringing the people---Scottish Highland crofters and Mi’kmaq First Nation Canadians from the margins where they have dwelled for centuries in historical scholarship to of the centre of not just their history, but our collective history. Both populations experienced attacks on their ties to their lands, resources, and culture through enclosure. The enclosure process lasted over two centuries and was interspersed with violent protest, proactive resistance, interspersed with periods of acceptance and determination against their forced removals. Investigating …

The Fashioning Of Individual And Group Identities In The Thrifttok Community, Kathryn Andronowitz

Holster Scholar Projects

In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, a noticeable surge of videos focused on thrifted clothing appeared on the social media platform TikTok, coinciding with an increase in offline thrift store traffic. Individual contributors to these trends comprise a networked community of popular creators and lifestyle followers of these thrifting videos on TikTok, or “ThriftTok,” based on the commonly-used hashtag of the same name. The ThriftTok community is not monolithic. Its productions encompass a spectrum of videos ranging from flea market explorations and goth-style thrifted fashion, to reselling tips and “thrift with me” videos. Its participants range from indie band …

Topographies And Counter-Topographies Of Social Reproduction At People’S Park, Sarah Weaver

Scripps Senior Theses

Created at a key moment in New Left political rebellion and organizing in 1969, the mythic People’s Park still stands today between Dwight and Haste St. in Berkeley as open multi-use green space made of and for community development on lawful University of California Regent property. Despite repeated attempts by UC to take back the land, the insurgent space continues to pull defense from various parts of the local community, students and not, have accessed forms of self-determined social reproduction and created material critiques of UC as a vehicle for capital. For 54 years, the park was maintained significance as …

Grieving Climate Change: A Psychological And Personal Exploration Of Emotionally Processing The Climate Crisis, Hava Chishti

Pitzer Senior Theses

The psychological concept of grief, although not typically associated with climate change, has strong applications to the emotional processing of climate change for human beings. Grief can be related to climate change in many ways, including the grief that individuals may feel over the anticipated loss of their future, losses that may be experienced due to climate-related disasters, and grief for the overall implications of anthropogenic climate change. A mixture of traditional literature analysis and creative nonfiction essays, which focus on personal narratives from interviews and the author’s experience, are used to outline the ways in which the psychology of …

Sustainable Roots: The Environmental Genealogies Of Chicanas And Latinas, Marlene Andrade

Master's Theses

Ingenuity and tending to the land are anything but contemporary to Communities of Color (COC). Even when our communities become targets of environmental racism and experience the brunt of institution-based degradation, COC resist in a multitude of ways. While there is a plethora of documented social movements led by the Chicanx community for civil, educational, and labor rights, there is a paucity of Chicanx presence in environmental discourse. Thus, my scholar-activist commitments are to highlight Chicana/Latina herstories, epistemologies, and praxes that debunk the narrow white-heteropatriarchal male narrative in mainstream environmentalism. This dominant narrative fails to: (a) address the historical and …

Lorax (1971) By Dr. Seuss, Megan Jane Laverty

Picture Books

Megan Jane Laverty interprets Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (the 1971 book, the 1972 television cartoon, and the 2012 feature film) as a multi-layered philosophical fable. First, she examines how the story reveals the dangers of our enthusiastic but short-sighted pursuit of innovation, success, and wealth—ambitions that can lead to far-reaching and often tragic consequences. Secondly, she explores how the narrative vividly illustrates the environmental devastation that results when commercial enterprises treat nature as an inexhaustible resource for production and progress. Laverty proposes several ways for students to engage with the story’s philosophical themes, including the aesthetic exploration of their local …

Reshaping The Narrative, Crystal Little Owl

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Monstrous Oil: Theorizing Petromodernity's Monsters, Madalynn Lee Madigar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Petroleum, a primary global energy resource, serves as a foundation of our contemporary society. However, the pervasive influence of oil as substance, commodity, and industry in our petromodern lives often goes unrecognized. In the present moment of biogeocultural crisis surrounding fossil fuels, recognizing and understanding our multifaceted engagements with petroleum is critical. This thesis contributes to the growing field of Petrocultural Studies by considering the conceptualization of petroleum through the associated tropes and figure of the monster. Through the petromonstrous, a term that encapsulates the massive scale, haunting effects, and human-other entanglements of petroleum, cultural attitudes and anxieties about oil …

“That’S Just The Way It Was”: A Critical Analysis Of Guilt, Evasion, And White Supremacy, Sommer Mahoney

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

In the public discourse around American slavery, there is an apologist evasion that can be summarized as such: that slavery was “just the way it was back then.” The word “just” in that phrase connotes a rather casual finality - that slavery in the American colonies, and then in the United States, could not have been avoided. But even a cursory overview of slave rebellion history and abolitionist history prove that this is not true. This reaction is an attempt at evading the feeling of guilt often associated with historical atrocities. However, as Americans avoid their guilt, they also evade …

A Quaker Theology Of The City: Placing Quaker Testimony, Ecotheology, And “Place” In Conversation, Christy Randazzo

Quaker Religious Thought

Quaker theological and ethical frameworks are underappreciated resources for exploring the space, and (notably) the meaning, of the city, particularly in the ways that Quaker testimony—the holistic expression of the Quaker community’s core theological beliefs and ethical convictions in both individual actions and in an embodied communal “way of life”1—both undergirds Quaker work in environmental justice, and can inform conversations occurring at the intersection of urban planning, sustainability, and movements for social justice. When examined through the lens of historic Quaker approaches to the built environment, certain themes emerge, which—when placed in dialogue with contemporary concerns—frame an outline for a …

Review Of Mark Russ, Quaker Shaped Christianity: How The Jesus Story And The Quaker Way Fit Together (Winchester, Uk, And Washington, Dc: Christian Alternative/Quaker Quicks, 2022), Mike Huber

Quaker Religious Thought

Mark Russ longs for a spiritual community where he can be fully present. He could not find that kind of connection in a Christian church. As a gay man, he writes, “I couldn’t praise God in a community where I wasn’t fully embraced” (30). While Mark eventually found a spiritual home with Quakers in Britain, these Friends often seem uncomfortable with his devotion to Jesus; among British Friends, that part of him does not feel entirely welcome.

As someone standing in-between communities, the author hopes to open a couple of doors. First, he wants to make the story of Jesus …

Nepantla/Coatlicue/Conocimiento, Gerald Torres

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. By Gloria Anzaldúa.

Public Participation In Georgia’S Environmental Permitting Process, Joyce A. Stanley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is no meaningful way for Georgia residents to participate in the environmental decision-making process before environmental permits are approved. As a result, hazardous waste facilities are disproportionately placed in African American communities, exposing them to poor air quality and a higher prevalence of heart and respiratory diseases than Whites. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and better understand how African American residents living in Stonecrest, Georgia felt about the hazardous waste site being placed in their community without an opportunity to provide input into the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s (GEPD) decision-making process before a decision …

Mai Bhago And Amrita Devi Bishnoi: Women Of Strength, Sowmya Ayyar

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Mai Bhago (1670-1720), also known as Bhag Kaur, distinguished herself on the battlefield to defend the Sikh faith. Amrita Devi Bishnoi (d. 1730) is said to have sacrificed her life with 362 others to protect the Khejari trees in the Rajasthan desert. Both women continue to inspire social justice and ecological activism.

Rather Than To Seem: Black And Indigenous Narratives In A Stormy, Swampy South, Jennifer Denise Peedin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

I examine the narratives of the South that have been historically overlooked, ignored, or hidden in order to establish a dominant narrative of the region. The narratives examined here are by southern Black and Indigenous authors who restore lost knowledge and offer histories that help complete the South culturally and ecologically. The conceptual methodology develops from LeAnne Howe’s tribalography which explains that Indigenous people create stories and histories that transform the space around them and offer an understanding of the world around us. Another methodology used is Anthony Wilson’s ecocritical swamp studies; each chapter analyzes a narrative centered around a …

The Walls At The Ends Of Empires: Towards A Political Ecology Of The Imperial Border, Benjamin Allen Stahnke

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation study investigates the intricate and complicated interplay between the border walls of imperial states, environmental change, and dispossession. Employing a multidisciplinary approach rooted in Political Ecology, and drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Social Metabolism, Social Kinetics, and Green History, the study is built around an analysis of two historical examples: the Roman border walls in the north of England (Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall), and the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The research uncovers two overarching conclusions: firstly, imperial border walls serve as discriminatory structures, targeting and segregating Indigenous populations while asserting control over Indigenous geographies; secondly, the …

Exploring The Lives Of Animal Activists: A Qualitative Study, Erin K. Mckenney

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The animal rights movement, despite its historical roots, has only recently garnered attention in the realm of social sciences, increasingly being recognized as a facet of social justice. This dissertation delves into the intersection of animal rights activism and gender, primarily focusing on the parallels drawn between the oppression of women and animals/nature. The noticeable dominance of women in the animal rights movement, as suggested by previous studies, formed the basis for adopting an eco-feminist approach to explore this issue, highlighting the shared oppression and exploitation faced by women and animals. In-depth, in-person interviews were used to collect data on …

Children Tell Landscape-Lore Among Perceptions Of Place: Relating Ecocultural Digital Stories In A Conscientizing/Decolonizing Exploration, Meredith Jean Bird Miller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

We know that when children feel a sense-of-relation within local natural environments, they are more prone to feel concern for them, while nurturing well-being and resilience in themselves and in lands/waters they inhabit. Positive environmental behaviors often follow into adulthood. Our human capacities for creating sustainable solutions in response to growing repercussions of global warming and climate change may grow if more children feel a sense of belonging in the wild natural world. As educators, if we listen to and learn from students’ voices about how they engage in nature, we can create pedagogical experiences directly relevant to their lives. …

The Political Ecology Of Death: Chinese Religion And The Affective Tensions Of Secularised Burial Rituals In Singapore, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the political ecology of death and the affective tensions of secularised burial rituals in Singapore. Although scholars have recently acknowledged the roles of biopower and affect in shaping environmental politics, religion and death as socio-affective forces have not been substantively engaged with by political ecologists. We argue that death is inherently both a spiritual and ecological phenomenon, as it exposes not only the spiritual geographies that structure how people see the natural world, but also the affective tensions and struggles over what counts as a “proper” form of burial in relation to religion and nature. First, we …

Kind Regards: Negotiating Connection To Country And Place Through Collective Storying, Wendy Somerville, Vahri Mckenzie, Lisa Fuller, Naomi Joy Godden, Ashley Harrison, Renae Isaacs-Guthridge, Bethaney Turner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Within this paper we explore the process and outcomes of a year-long exchange that investigates how active learning can emerge through collective place-based storying. Beginning with Country as our guide, we shared, responded, yarned, listened and revisited one another's contributions. Using the "threads"of an extended email exchange and online yarning sessions, we wove together this collaborative work to present findings generated from the creative practice of storying and sharing knowledge. This work required ongoing openness to vulnerability; we resisted the urge to remain silent and risked being wrong. Our responses, and the writing styles reflecting them, incorporate both academic and …

Making The Case For The Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area: A Scoping Review, Madelyn Newton, Chandler J. Berry, Bethany Arrington, Nick Wilson, Colin Mccormack, Michael Wilcox, Alexis Barmoh, Chris A. B. Zajchowski

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

National Heritage Areas (NHAs) are nationally distinct landscapes that represent unique cultural, historical, and/or natural attributes significant to the legacy of the United States of America (U.S.). The Great Dismal Swamp, located in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, is a prime candidate for NHA designation with diverse qualifications, among which was its antebellum role as a refuge for formerly enslaved people. The goal of our research, conducted in 2022 during the period of the U.S. Congressional debate on designation, was to investigate and expound upon the rationale for NHA designation of the Swamp. To do so, we used a …

Scott’S Reparative Land Ethic, Nigel Leask

Studies in Scottish Literature

A review essay discussing Susan Oliver's "important and convincing" book Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland: Emergent Ecologies of a Nation (Cambridge University Press, 2021), noting Scott's land ethic and active role in managing his estate at Abbotsford and in afforestation, and suggesting that Oliver's book presents "a cumulative literary history of Scotland’s ecologies," so that Scott's poetry and novels "assume a new relevance for 21st century readers".

The Power Of Counterstory With Martín Alberto Gonzalez, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Chicano & Latino Studies Professor Martín Alberto Gonzalez discusses the counterstory. As Gonzalez explains, counterstories are a narrative form of scholarly communication that uses stories to disrupt oppressive narratives established by empowered groups. Counterstory does so by pointing to the roles that systems of oppression, like white supremacy, racism, sexism, and capitalism, play in society, and higher education, in particular, by providing alternative narratives.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

Wrack Lines Volume 22, Number 2, Fall-Winter 2022-2023, Nancy C. Balcom, Juliana Barrett, Judy Benson, Ben Crnic, Sto Len

Wrack Lines

With the theme, "Looking Ahead: People and Projects Shaping the Future," the Fall-Winter 2022-2023 leads with the first in what will be a series of articles about offshore wind development impacting Connecticut. That is followed by the inspiring story of how a dying forest was replanted for climate resilience. Next, a profile of longtime marine educator Tim Visel tells about his lasting impact on Connecticut schools and students. Lastly, the complex challenge of dealing with Contaminants of Emerging Concern is examined, with descriptions of how Sea Grant is involved and the particularly troublesome group of substances called PFAS.

Integrating Media Literacy Into General Education Core Courses For Undergraduates, Christen Embry

Dissertations

This study aimed to understand the essential nature of media literacy, evaluate pre-developed higher education classes for existing media literacy context, and recommend best practices for incorporating media literacy into an undergraduate curriculum. This mixed-methods study of media literacy in undergraduate college courses explored the presence and absence of media literacy lessons within core classes by auditing 15 online course shells accessed through the university’s Learning Management System (LMS). Specifically, all the courses surveyed included the first skill of media literacy, Access; 33% of the classes included Analyze; 27% included Creation; 20% included Reflection; and 20% included Action. Once the …

Under New Direction: Using Theatre To Combat The Climate Crisis, Brian Kirsch

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Earth is growing unsuitable for human society as we know it at an unprecedented rate. Among the latest in a set of increasingly grim statistics, the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide concentration is now a staggering 150% of its value for most of human history (Stein). This has triggered global warming on track to meet or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, which comes with extreme and irreversible changes to the planet (Jackson). However, this information fails to both command its merited attention and spark the urgent action needed to preserve our way of life. Less than half of American voters consider climate …