Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Vertebrate Scavenger Diversity And Ecosystem Services Along An Elevational Gradient In Central Nepal, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A growing number of studies recognize the ecological significance of vertebrate scavengers, and several species belonging to this diverse, functional guild are of high conservation importance around the globe. Studies on taxonomic and functional components of biodiversity often use elevation gradients to comprehensively examine patterns and drivers across multiple spatial scales. Yet, there are relatively few elevational studies on large vertebrates or multi-taxa guilds, and the related variation of their ecosystem services. In particular, scavenger research has largely focused on local-scale studies or regional/global comparisons of local-scale investigations. Moreover, these studies primarily consider taxonomic community characteristics and the patterns of …

Contemporary Human Displacement: A Comparative Analysis Of Syria, Yemen, Honduras, And Venezuela, Rav Carlotti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What is causing the surge in human displacement around the world? Large-scale displacement in Syria, Yemen, Honduras, and Venezuela has generated unprecedented humanitarian crises in Latin America and the Middle East as millions of displaced people end up as refugees or immigrants. Humanitarian organizations like the UNHCR and host countries have had their resources overextended by these ongoing crises, and there is no end in sight. This thesis shows that contemporary human displacement is rooted in the increasing inability of governments to manage their societies amid great political demands and socio-economics strains. These causes are difficult to tackle because they …

Environmental Cues And The Sociospatial Imaginary: An Examination Of Spatial Perception And Meaning-Making In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Todd Levon Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What could be more ordinary or pedestrian than two people walking down an urban street and talking about what we see and what we make of it? Yet this simple, quotidian act of walking a street—seeing, perceiving and experiencing physical spaces, places and objects—and making meaning of what is encountered, is the basis of my dissertation. It is also my basis for claiming that I have learned a great deal—and much unexpectedly—about how differently different people see and interpret the urban streetscape. What are the various environmental cues that stand out to different individuals? What are the psychosocial imaginaries that …

Monumentality, Fortification, And Movement: Preclassic Maya Developments As Seen At Muralla De León, Petén, Guatemala, Justin D. Bracken

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analysis of settlement patterning in relation to natural and constructed defensive elements expands understanding of the impact of warfare well beyond the relatively brief period of active battle. Advance preparation in advance of conflict, including reshaping the landscape for defensibility and conscription of labor toward that end, alters patterns of movement, social interaction, and physical settlement, effects that can extend for generations beyond the cessation of hostilities. This project investigates the role played by warfare in shaping the physical and social landscape of the Maya of the central Petén during the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C. – A.D. 150), as …

Constructing The Adaptation Economy In Antigua, West Indies: A Grounded Analysis Of Framing Climate Resilient Development Within A Post-Colonial Political Economy, Erin Friedman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) are projected to bear the most economic costs from climate risk due to their limited ability to recover from disaster. From 2010-2015, external donors have provided $1477 million in climate financing for the region, of which 32 % has been allocated for climate adaptation activities. At the same time, Caribbean SIDS have an extensive history of participating in regional climate policymaking programs—primarily administered by the development sector (e.g., the World Bank, the Overseas development Institute). These policymaking trainings have promoted an integrated or mainstreamed approach to climate adaptation which seeks to align national development …

Mexico’S Northern Border Migrant Attention Plan: A Case Study In Neoliberal Human Rights And Non-Punitive Extraterritorial Spaces Of Containment, Anita Michele Cannon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs), also known as “Remain in Mexico”, and Mexico’s response program, the Northern Border Migrant Attention Plan, embody how human rights have developed under neoliberal capitalism. Historically and presently, US asylum policy serves as a type of extraterritorial mobility control which manipulates non-domestic space to detain and contain asylum seekers. Despite an international legal framework, widely held popular ideals of human rights as wellbeing for all are challenged by the breakdown of human rights in practice, as in the case of the MPPs and the response of the Mexican state. Contradictions in human rights can be …

The Legacy Of Car-Share And Light-Rail Transit For Mobility And Accessibility Improvements In Economically Marginalized Neighborhoods In The New York Metro Area, Kyeongsu Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the value of the car-share program and a new light rail system with respect to their impact on mobility and accessibility improvements in economically and transportation access-wise marginalized neighborhoods in NYC and its adjacent communities. It consists of three main essays that took deep dives into how each new service or system altered mobility or accessibility for those in need. The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates car-share vehicle utilization rates of the Zipcar across NYC. It assesses the utilization rates by vehicle type, service location, time period, and weekday usage compared to weekend activity. With a multivariate …

Producing Movement Space In New York City's Solidarity Economy, Lauren Taylor Hudson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is a project about how New Yorkers are sharing time, space, resources, and risks to meet their collective needs. To these practitioners the interlocking methods of collective production, use, distribution, and surplus allocation unite to form a ‘Solidarity Economy’ (SE) strengthened by values of cooperation, social justice, ecological sustainability, and mutualism. This work takes many forms, from cooperative businesses, to collective housing, to community gardens—each with their own discrete histories. One thing remains common throughout: In New York City, those who use ‘Solidarity Economy’ as a framework for their work, do so to communicate a shared social and political …

Hybrid Ethnobotanical Practices: Afro And Indigenous Place-Making In The Contemporary Colombia Andean Pacific, Rafael A. Mutis Garcia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an ethnography of Indigenous and AfroIndigenous ethnobotanical practices in four communities in Cauca, in the Andean Pacific region in the Western Amazon of Colombia. Through collaborative field work, including interviews and active participant observation, I document the use of herbs and food as medicine, and agricultural and land tenure practices that depart significantly from those of racial-capitalist agribusiness. These ethnobotanical practices recuperate precolonial and ancestral knowledge as one of many efforts to build community autonomy and self-determination in Colombia as it fitfully enters the post conflict period.

Through an intersectional and topographic analysis, I show both the …

Framing The Border: Liminality In The Network Narratives Of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Muhammad Muzammal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores liminality conveyed as displacement before death in the network narrative films of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. Due to their depiction of existential crises and possibly fatal scenarios of several characters in different countries and regions, these network narrative films are colloquially referred to as the “Death Trilogy.” Therefore, rearranging the many strands of death-related abstractions and notions in these films around liminality becomes a jumping-off point to explore deeper layers of these works. Through interdisciplinary yet markedly film studies excavations, this thesis projects the liminal spaces of Iñárritu’s films onto border spaces. With borders considered as sites of …