Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 31

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Covered Monuments And Black Erasure In Nashville, Tennessee, Kayla S. Roulhac May 2023

Covered Monuments And Black Erasure In Nashville, Tennessee, Kayla S. Roulhac

Masters Theses

Centennial Park is a staple of downtown Nashville, Tennessee because of its founding after the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in 1897, and also for the urban green space it provides for contemporary residents and visitors. A family-friendly space is presented to the visitors, yet there is a history of slavery within the park boundaries and Black removal. The lack of acknowledgement of the former plantation, the later removal of an African American university nearly adjacent to Vanderbilt University, and the modern presence of a Confederate monument in this space brings about questions regarding the memory of this particular landscape …


Examining Housing Experiences Among International Students At The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville (Utk), Rosemary Achentisa Ayelazuno May 2023

Examining Housing Experiences Among International Students At The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville (Utk), Rosemary Achentisa Ayelazuno

Masters Theses

As more students from across the world enrol in higher education to take advantage of the opportunities it offers, schools and universities are starting to address a problem that an increasing number of their students are experiencing, namely housing insecurity. With an increase in the number of students due to growing interest in higher education institutions, student housing has become a significant area of concern. More overseas graduate students are pursuing their degrees without regular access to their housing needs due to a lack of inexpensive and accessible housing, high tuition prices, and insufficient financial help. To better understand the …


“Knoxville Is Home Because I Have Made It That Way”: Drag Family And The Politics Of Joy In Knoxville, Tennessee, Devyn J. Kelly May 2023

“Knoxville Is Home Because I Have Made It That Way”: Drag Family And The Politics Of Joy In Knoxville, Tennessee, Devyn J. Kelly

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I uncover narratives of joy and love for a queer and trans drag family in Knoxville, Tennessee. Considered to be in a region that is openly hostile towards queer folk, I use documentary filmmaking to see how a family trans drag entertainers create queer space for themselves and others in the South. Current legislature is slashing rights for queer folk in Tennessee, directly affecting the lives and wellness of my participants. Through interviews I discover how this drag family, The House of Commitment, bands together to navigate their conservative surroundings, and form deep connections of home here. …


Covid-19 Renters And Housing Instability: Combatting The Eviction Epidemic During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Knox County, Tennessee, Samantha B. Myers-Miller Aug 2022

Covid-19 Renters And Housing Instability: Combatting The Eviction Epidemic During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Knox County, Tennessee, Samantha B. Myers-Miller

Masters Theses

COVID-19 has exacerbated preexisting inequities in Knox County, Tennessee. The disruption to employment caused by the pandemic has imposed a great financial burden for many individuals who rent housing. The primary relief that was afforded to renters during the pandemic was enabled by a federal eviction moratorium order, where covered renters could defer payments to avoid eviction while the moratorium was in effect. Some additional rental assistance was provided to local governments through the federal CARES Act pandemic relief package. Despite these provisions, many people experienced housing crises in Knox County, where over 3,000 renters have faced eviction filing from …


Exchange And Social Interaction In The Tennessee River Valley: A Geospatial Approach To The Analysis Of Late Archaic Archaeological Sites, Justin S. Bailey Aug 2022

Exchange And Social Interaction In The Tennessee River Valley: A Geospatial Approach To The Analysis Of Late Archaic Archaeological Sites, Justin S. Bailey

Masters Theses

The cultural manifestation known as the Shell Mound Archaic persisted in the lower Midwest and Midsouth region of the Eastern United States for over four millennia beginning in the Middle Archaic ca. 8900 cal BP and terminating at the end of the Late Archaic ca 3200 cal BP. A geospatial approach is applied to the analysis of exotic material exchange of the Late Archaic (ca. 5800-3200 cal BP) to assess how foraging peoples in the Tennessee River Valley interacted and persisted during this time. Exotic material items manufactured from copper, marine shell, steatite, and other nonlocal materials demonstrate distinct spatial …


From Page To Place: Speculative Fiction, Future Space-Making, And Community Formation In Theory And Practice, Victoria L. Haynes May 2022

From Page To Place: Speculative Fiction, Future Space-Making, And Community Formation In Theory And Practice, Victoria L. Haynes

Masters Theses

This thesis shows how Black and queer-authored Southern climate fiction can serve as a guide for constructing better futures. Established as two separate academic papers, the first chapter analyzes two climate fiction novels set in the U.S. Southern landscape: Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts and Tenea Johnson’s Smoketown. Through this analysis, I name three key commonalities between both narratives that I believe are critical to facilitating future change: creating community, envisioning resistance, and fostering empathy and accountability. My identification of these three themes and discussion of their articulations is grounded in the work of Black geographies and queer …


Scars As Cartography: Bodily Commemorations And Memorials, Bethany Craig May 2022

Scars As Cartography: Bodily Commemorations And Memorials, Bethany Craig

Masters Theses

This paper seeks to study the interdependence of scars and memory to the newly emergent field of bodily cartography, specifically investigating the dynamic between scars and the spatially situated memories they preserve, produce, and commemorate within and through the body. In this thesis, I argue that scars are a form of bodily cartography which map, mark, inscribe, and pinpoint the experiences of our spatial movements through time, location, and emotion. The project’s urgency lies in recognizing and validating the body as a cartographic space; it addresses the normalizing effects of the (re)articulation and (re)production of memory through the body. Whether …


Statistical And Spatial Analysis Of Hurricane-Induced Power Outage And Restoration, Dakotah Daniel Maguire May 2022

Statistical And Spatial Analysis Of Hurricane-Induced Power Outage And Restoration, Dakotah Daniel Maguire

Masters Theses

Tropical cyclones (TC) cause billions of dollars in damage to coastal areas in the United States annually. Global climate change is increasing favorable environmental conditions for TCs which produce heavy flooding and precipitation. It is important to understand the communities that will be most affected, and will likely suffer the longest power outages. County-level power outage data from the Department of Energy’s Environment for Analysis of Geo-Located Energy Information (EAGLE-I) were used to analyze the relationships of environmental and socioeconomic variables on power outage trends, response, and recovery for power outages caused by two North Atlantic Basin hurricanes: Hurricane Florence …


Messy Zoning And Studentification: Fort Sanders In Knoxville, Tennessee, Yael Uziel May 2021

Messy Zoning And Studentification: Fort Sanders In Knoxville, Tennessee, Yael Uziel

Masters Theses

This study explores the unique intersection of the current coronavirus pandemic and studentification by looking at college neighborhoods in cities through a case study of at University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the near-by Fort Sanders neighborhoods. It introduces the idea of "messy zoning" to characterize the unclear and conflicting land-use regulations and their applications by local and institutional actors contributing to further studentification. Using secondary data collection and archival urban planning documents from the City of Knoxville, this study works to question the reasons neighborhoods become studentified. Particularly, it fills the gap that is blaming HMO (Houses in multiple occupation) …


Social Inequity In Memories Of Shakespeare: The Fetishizing Power Of The Globe Theatre, Reagan A Yessler May 2021

Social Inequity In Memories Of Shakespeare: The Fetishizing Power Of The Globe Theatre, Reagan A Yessler

Masters Theses

William Shakespeare’s works are widely regarded as the pillar of English literature in Western society. An understanding of Shakespearean literature is a form of symbolic or cultural capital, and a lack thereof signals that a person is uncultured, uneducated. However, in his own time, Shakespeare was not so highly regarded. To fully understand the evolution that Shakespeare and his works have undergone, one must consider the modern memory politics that reify the contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare in the Western world at liex de memoire (places of memory), which are shaped by the tumultuous sequence of historical movements that formed Shakespeare’s …


Operational Jakarta: The Problem Of Representation, Kevin Patrick Jeffers May 2017

Operational Jakarta: The Problem Of Representation, Kevin Patrick Jeffers

Masters Theses

As the twenty-first century unfolds with newly formed degrees of hypercomplex interactions and reactions amongst space, time, economy, politics, social dynamics, and cultural paradigms, we are observing new typologies of urbanism that are different in kind, rather than degree, from the previous “urban” upon which the vast majority of present theoretical and practical discourse has been based. The techniques, strategies, and methodologies of the twentieth-century no longer serve to adequately represent or to explain the phenomena of today’s incipient mega-cities. A new vocabulary must be developed. A new way of seeing is required in order to understand and therefor to …


Understanding The Vulnerability Of The Population Of Afghanistan Under Multiple Natural And Anthropogenic Risks With An Indicator-Based Analysis, Matthew Repine Miller May 2017

Understanding The Vulnerability Of The Population Of Afghanistan Under Multiple Natural And Anthropogenic Risks With An Indicator-Based Analysis, Matthew Repine Miller

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand the vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic hazards of the population of Afghanistan and the social factors which enhance or moderate such vulnerability. While vulnerability studies are commonly conducted in the United States, as well as many other global north countries, most studies of this type utilize data collected by central government entities in the form of a census which is periodically executed and uses standardized collection methods. In the case of Afghanistan, and many other countries in the global south, such data is hard to acquire, lacks a high level of confidence, …


Remittance Behavior Of Us Immigrants, Nathan Edward Trombley Aug 2016

Remittance Behavior Of Us Immigrants, Nathan Edward Trombley

Masters Theses

Remittances, the sending of a portion of an immigrant’s income to friends and family, have become an undeniable and significant part of the global economy. This is especially true in some common immigrant sending regions where remittances make up a dominant portion of the local economy. The New Immigrant Survey has released the second wave of data in its cohort study of immigrants recently achieving Lawful Permanent Residence status in the United States. In light of this newly available information, this study seeks to highlight demographic and background characteristics of immigrants that have a statistically significant relationship on their sending …


Social Capital: Helping Hand Or Source Of Friction? A Case Study Of Knoxville, Tn, Michael Davis Hodges Aug 2016

Social Capital: Helping Hand Or Source Of Friction? A Case Study Of Knoxville, Tn, Michael Davis Hodges

Masters Theses

Social capital is defined as the use of social substitutes for resources that usually must be purchased. Social capital can be an impetus for upward residential and social mobility or a source of friction that leads to stagnation. Social capital is often considered as a valuable resource with a potential to lift the urban poor out of poverty, putting them into more equitable housing situations. In low-income communities, however, this resource has the potential to suppress mobility as the quality of such social relationships is affected by fault lines of society like racism, gender disparity, and the increasingly unequal distribution …


Pre- And Post-Crisis Geographies Of New Urbanism In Atlanta's Inner Suburbs, Scott Nyland Markley May 2016

Pre- And Post-Crisis Geographies Of New Urbanism In Atlanta's Inner Suburbs, Scott Nyland Markley

Masters Theses

Since the 1990s, Atlanta’s historically white and affluent northern inner suburbs have experienced increasing rates of poverty alongside growing racial/ethnic diversity, challenging a region notorious for private property politics and a history of supporting anti-immigrant and anti-poor legislation. Meanwhile, on the built landscape, high-end (re)development projects incorporating New Urbanist planning and design features, such as pedestrian accessibility, compact densities, and mixed land uses and housing types, have become increasingly common in this region, especially since the onset of the Great Recession. As Hanlon (2015) has noted, the “green turn” in public planning exemplified by New Urbanism may have adverse consequences …


Drinking And Remaking Place: A Study Of The Impact Of Commercial Moonshine In East Tennessee, Helen Rosko Dec 2015

Drinking And Remaking Place: A Study Of The Impact Of Commercial Moonshine In East Tennessee, Helen Rosko

Masters Theses

Moonshine has undergone resurgence in recent years with the passage of the 2009 liquor laws in Tennessee, allowing for 41 counties to open and operate commercial moonshine distilleries. The rise of legalized moonshine is connected to broader economic changes and has already had a significant impact on the cultural landscape and the selling and remaking of place, in both East Tennessee and Appalachia, two historically underserved regions of the United States. Specifically this thesis research asks: How is place being sold, represented, and re-made through the proliferation of moonshine in East Tennessee? I address this question through an analysis of …


An Ethno-Historical Account Of The African American Community In Downtown Knoxville, Tennessee Before And After Urban Renewal, Anne Victoria Dec 2015

An Ethno-Historical Account Of The African American Community In Downtown Knoxville, Tennessee Before And After Urban Renewal, Anne Victoria

Masters Theses

Urban renewal programs that applied large-scale removal of community urban space and structures, have a long history of differential impact to its community members. These effects persist. Furthermore, current redevelopment projects continue to negatively adjust the landscapes for African Americans. Most research on these impacts tends to focus on the economic failure of downtown, or the displacement of community structures, such as businesses, homes, and churches. Less is studied on the human experience before and after the change. Based on an ethno-historical account of three African American communities in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, this thesis examines the memories of the landscape …


Visualizing The Historic Landscape Of Montserrat: Social Justice Through Community Mapping In A Post-Colonial Environment, Kevin Patrick Russell May 2015

Visualizing The Historic Landscape Of Montserrat: Social Justice Through Community Mapping In A Post-Colonial Environment, Kevin Patrick Russell

Masters Theses

Scholars across the disciplines of geography, archaeology, and history argue for need to reconceptualize representations of history in post-colonial environments and to actively orientate scholarly research towards increasing the inclusion of local knowledge with 'expert' academic knowledge through participative methods. This thesis will show that the landscape surrounding the Little Bay Plantation contains cultural associations vital to a "socially just" interpretation of Montserrat culture that is not captured by existing archaeological research centered on ruins of the plantation infrastructure and European historical discourse. Through a participatory research methodology this thesis shows that there are many memories inscribed within and upon …


International Student Migration For Development: An Institutional Approach To The Norwegian Quota Scheme, Scott Eric Basford Dec 2014

International Student Migration For Development: An Institutional Approach To The Norwegian Quota Scheme, Scott Eric Basford

Masters Theses

This paper addresses a call to acknowledge the varied actors that are involved in international student migration (ISM). In particular, this paper takes an institutional approach to investigate international education as a form of development aid. Research on ISM often omits non-student actors, which contributes to an incomplete understanding of the process. I study the Norwegian Quota Scheme to explore broader mechanisms of ISM. I first situate the Quota Scheme within literature on the internationalization of higher education and international education as development aid. I then use 26 interviews with 31 stakeholders at multiple scales of involvement in the Quota …


Belgian Identity Politics: At A Crossroad Between Nationalism And Regionalism, Jose Manuel Izquierdo Aug 2014

Belgian Identity Politics: At A Crossroad Between Nationalism And Regionalism, Jose Manuel Izquierdo

Masters Theses

The cultural-linguistic divide that separates Belgium’s two main ethnic groups, the Walloons and the Flemings, has contributed to a national identity crisis. The tension between the groups is often blamed on their cultural-linguistic differences. However, the political parties have also influenced Belgian identity. There are historical, political, and economic factors that have provided the political parties substantial influence over national identity in Belgium. Since the parties are regionally based, the regions have affected territorial identity. Consequently, attachment to the nation has significantly declined among Belgians. Political party power is all too often ignored. This key factor is usually overshadowed by …


Place And Crowdfunding: An Examination Of Two Distressed Cities, Brenna Elrod Aug 2014

Place And Crowdfunding: An Examination Of Two Distressed Cities, Brenna Elrod

Masters Theses

Crowdfunding is a relatively new form of funding made possible by Web 2.0. This study examines community-based projects made possible through the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. Projects were compiled that were successfully funded between the dates of April 28, 2009 and July 26, 2012. These projects were collected for all cities listed on the site in the United States. Subsequently they were compared across three measures: raw numbers of projects, normalized city population, and against the creative class index of Richard Florida. Using these measures, Detroit and New Orleans emerged as cities for further in depth analysis. Interviews with initiators in …


Exploring Institutional Responses To Climate Change: A Case Study Of Adaptation And Vulnerability In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Jamie Allison Haverkamp May 2014

Exploring Institutional Responses To Climate Change: A Case Study Of Adaptation And Vulnerability In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Jamie Allison Haverkamp

Masters Theses

This research was undertaken to understand the role institutional actors play in shaping the social process of adaptation to climate change. Through a case study of coastal adaption in Hampton Roads, Virginia, I investigated the socio-political landscape in which institutional adaptation activities (e.g. planning, and formal and informal decision-making) are occurring. Using a qualitative methodological approach, data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with key actors, direct observation at regional Adaptation Forums, and content analyses of local and federal level adaptation planning documents. In this research, I examine the case of adaptation in Hampton Roads through a political ecology lens and …


An Analysis Of The Patterns Of Crime And Socioeconomic Status Visualized Through Self-Organized Maps, Jason Carlin Kaufman May 2014

An Analysis Of The Patterns Of Crime And Socioeconomic Status Visualized Through Self-Organized Maps, Jason Carlin Kaufman

Masters Theses

This work is research to explore the association of spatial patterns between crime and socioeconomic status (SES) through the use of self-organized maps (SOM). It had been found that the spatial patterns of crime could be associated with those of socioeconomic, and this work sought to further these analyses in order to better understand how crime patterns and SES were related. To explore this association, patterns of crime and SES were examined in three cities: Nashville, TN; Portland, OR; and Tucson, AZ. Three SOMs were used in each city: one to analyze the patterns of crime, a second to analyze …


Modeling The Effects Of Distance And Spatial Dependence In International Trade, Jesse Oakes Piburn May 2013

Modeling The Effects Of Distance And Spatial Dependence In International Trade, Jesse Oakes Piburn

Masters Theses

The gravity model has been widely used estimate the effect that distance has in international trade; however, two important areas have seen little attention in the literature, namely, the influence of using a more accurate measure of distance and how distance effect estimates change when controlling for spatial dependence in observed trade flows. Using transportation networks to measure distance and estimating both a spatial lag and spatial error gravity model, Canadian provincial exports to the lower 48 states in the United States were analyzed to address these previously ignored issues. It was found that the traditional distance measure of great …


Justice, Truth, And Community Organizing In Boston, Ma, Melanie Ann Barron Aug 2012

Justice, Truth, And Community Organizing In Boston, Ma, Melanie Ann Barron

Masters Theses

In 2010, community organizers in Boston, MA began to lay the groundwork for a truth and reconciliation process about the long-term impacts of the violence and racism surrounding the desegregation/busing crisis in the 1970s. Organizers believe that the busing crisis still presents impediments to the ability of communities of color in Boston to live well and participate in public life. I contextualize their efforts first as a response to the failures of the liberal democratic reforms that marked the civil rights movement. Rather than truly reforming the structures that permit the existence of racialized inequalities, I argue that the liberal …


Redefining Memorial Landscapes: The Stolpersteine Project In Berlin, Matthew Russell Cook May 2012

Redefining Memorial Landscapes: The Stolpersteine Project In Berlin, Matthew Russell Cook

Masters Theses

Geographers have long been interested in the ways that states and individuals use cultural landscapes to shape the meaning and understanding of the past. In this thesis, I argue that individuals and the state embed different interpretations of the Holocaust past in the German landscape. In particular, I focus on the German artist Gunter Demnig and his Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) Project as a case study of memorial projects created by an individual. The Stolpersteine are small memorial stones for a single Holocaust victim. The stones are installed in front of homes and businesses that were the last known location of …


"Motorbike Guide For Westerners": Entrepreneurial Development And The Creation Of A Cultural Tourism Product In Transitional Vietnam, Karl Russell Kirby Aug 2011

"Motorbike Guide For Westerners": Entrepreneurial Development And The Creation Of A Cultural Tourism Product In Transitional Vietnam, Karl Russell Kirby

Masters Theses

Vietnam is undergoing economic transition from a command economy to an economy with greater market characteristics. Transition is fundamentally reshaping the country through economic liberalization and increased exposure to foreign markets. The Vietnamese are developing institutions necessary for market growth and international tourists are arriving in ever-larger numbers. This research project is a case study of businesses that provide guided motorbike tours and evaluates the businesses based on two criteria: as a study of institutional growth during economic transition and as an examination of tourism production through guide interpretation. The author interviewed and observed sixteen guides in Vietnam—from Dalat in …


The Shadow State And Refugees: The Role Of Nonprofit Organizations In Refugee Participation, Austin Penrod Judkins Aug 2011

The Shadow State And Refugees: The Role Of Nonprofit Organizations In Refugee Participation, Austin Penrod Judkins

Masters Theses

The devolution of welfare services in the United States has increased the importance of the nonprofit sector. Geiger and Wolch argue that decentralization has left nonprofit organizations (NPOs) under the purview of the state. They refer to this as the “shadow state.” Trudeau argues for a more nuanced view of the shadow state in which governmental agencies and NPOs are highly interdependent. This research expands on the findings of Trudeau by extending the shadow state construct to the individual. I examine the role of refugees in the shadow state construct and their ability to affect government policy through participation in …


Performance Space: Shaping The Arts Scene In Asheville, Nc, Elizabeth Adair Ahrens Aug 2010

Performance Space: Shaping The Arts Scene In Asheville, Nc, Elizabeth Adair Ahrens

Masters Theses

While many factors influence an arts scene, performance space shapes the scene in many discernible ways. Performance space is an integral part of the arts scene. Every artist, musician, actor and dancer must perform in order to participate in the arts scene. The spaces of these performances are often overlooked when considering how the arts scene functions or how to best support the arts in a community. Through interviews with owners and managers of performance spaces in Asheville, I determined how performance space shapes the local arts scene. I defined the arts scene as the quantity, variety and quality of …


Change In The Textile Mill Villages Of South Carolina's Upstate During The Modern South Era, Claire E. Jamieson May 2010

Change In The Textile Mill Villages Of South Carolina's Upstate During The Modern South Era, Claire E. Jamieson

Masters Theses

While the textile mill and the textile mill village were once prominent features of the landscape of the American South, textile mills are rapidly falling into disuse. Because the mill village housing stocks were sold by owners of the mills to their employees in the 1950s and 1960s, the fate of the mill villages was, in part, divorced from the fate of the textile industry. This thesis demonstrates that mill villages are not abandoned after plant closures and explains why residents remain. This is achieved through a history of South Carolina’s mill villages, a quantitative analysis of Spartanburg County, South …