Human Geography Commons^™

Redeveloping Mississippi: A Case Study On Brownfields In Central & Southern Mississippi, Sahrah R. Yeroozedek

Master's Theses

Brownfields, or properties that are or possibly are contaminated with dangerous materials, represent a common obstacle for communities in Mississippi. The real or potential presence of contaminants at these sites often deters investors due to costly cleanup requirements (EPA, n.d. -b). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Brownfield Revitalization Program, implemented guidelines for covering the costs and labor associated with the remediation of these properties. The EPA is not, however, responsible for redevelopment that supports long-term environmental and economic sustainability. Although the EPA maintains inventories of all Brownfields, there is also no comprehensive database of Brownfields and their current …

Mapping The Underthing: Literary Geography And Geographic Education In The Slow Regard Of Silent Things, Colby Mcclain

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the imagined geography of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Through textual analysis, it investigates how fictional spaces can be mapped, the significance of toponyms (i.e., place-names), and the broader implications for literary and geographic studies. Of the fifty-two (52) toponyms analyzed, thirty-eight (38) were meaningfully identified using the text and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), revealing deliberate naming schemes associated with function, emotion, or symbolism. These findings provide insight into the main character’s world, and her unique relationship with space and place. This study demonstrates that even wholly imagined settings have an underlying …

The Emerging Impacts Of Tourism On The Economy Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study Of Oil And Tourism, Dania Abu Jabal

Master's Theses

Saudi Arabia was heavily dependent on oil, which caused an economic crisis due to the collapse of global oil prices. In 2016, the Saudi government launched Vision 2030 to diversify the Saudi economy and avoid dependence on oil revenues. One aim of Vision 2030 is to initiate numerous tourism initiatives to boost the tourism industry's economic impact, elevating its contribution from 3% of GDP to 10% by 2030.

This paper provides the necessary assessment to understand tourism's role and contribution to the Saudi economy and to determine whether the industry's growth is on the right track. Also, this paper also …

Whose Woods These Are: Human-Environment Relationships Among Stakeholders Of South Mississippi's Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, Helen Greene

Master's Theses

Between 1870 and 1920, the longleaf pine belt of the southeastern United States experienced an extensive and unsustainable period of logging. In the years after the logging boom the landscape of the Southeast was reforested, but fire suppression and a preference among landowners for loblolly pine resulted in a dense and less resilient forest with reduced biodiversity. This research looks at the human geography of remnants of the longleaf pine ecosystem in South Mississippi and the nature of contemporary relationships between South Mississippi residents and this ecosystem.

In an effort to make sense of the complex relationships between people and …

Impacts Of The Poultry Industry In Mississippi, Sara Watts

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of the poultry industry in seven counties in the Piney Woods region of South Mississippi: Wayne, Jones, Forrest, Lamar, Jefferson Davis, Marion, and Pike. Current research indicates that the poultry industry has a significant impact on the cultures and economies of rural towns throughout the United States. There is no current research that examines the effects of the poultry industry on residents of the Piney Woods. This thesis addresses that gap in the research and contributes to current understanding of how the industry molds and impacts the lives of those intimately associated with it.

I …

The Plague And The Parthenon: Crusade, Climate Change And Disease In The Early Modern Mediterranean, John Mark Nicovich

Master's Theses

The present study examines the role epidemic diseases, specifically malaria and bubonic plague, played on the course of the Morean War (1684-1699). The Morean War was a major offensive by Christian powers, led by the Venetian Republic, against Ottoman controlled Greece. Christian victories during the war were widely celebrated across western Europe, but even in victory Christian forces took severe casualties from multiple disease outbreaks. First, this study seeks to explain the terrestrial and maritime networks the war was fought over, and how those networks either led the opposing forces into regions of endemic disease (malaria), or how they allowed …

Risk Perception And Response Among International Students Of The University Of Southern Mississippi, Elida Lopes Souza Rocha

Master's Theses

Given the exposure of university campuses to hazards, disaster mitigation is a critical element of higher education policy. Although U.S. higher education institutions are leaders in the global education market, emergency warning systems give little consideration to how international students perceive risk, prepare for hazards, or access warning technologies available to them. This poses several questions regarding the suitability of hazards mitigation practices and the welfare of international students.

This thesis investigates the relationship between USM international students and natural hazards. Responses from online surveys and semi-structured interviews data were analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods to document the extent …

Marketing To The New Generations Of Lgbtq+ Tourists, George Smith

Master's Theses

As social acceptance for LGBTQ+ people grows, it is essential to research and understand more about tourism and its important role in the lives of LGBTQ+ populations. There are tourism communities around the country that may not be familiar with this market segment and are not sure where to start. This can leave the LGBTQ+ market segment under-represented in the tourism industry. This research sets out to answer the question, “Can tourism communities who wish to expand to newer generations of LGBTQ+ travelers market to them successfully?” Mixed research methods include an exploration of city tourism websites, interviews with tourism …

A View From Above: Alternative Perspectives On Smallholder Livelihoods And Agrobiodiversity Conservation In Northern Ecuador, Chris Hair

Dissertations

Food security and deintensification of agriculture are serious concerns in Latin America. Agriculture, especially at small-scale subsistence levels, is hard work, and comes with some economic and physical risk. Transitions from traditional multi-cropping to mono-cropping systems introduce two particular risks that are new to most smallholders: (1) the loss of agricultural diversity and (2) the potential for widespread failure when focusing on the cultivation of a single crop. This research explores how Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), or drones, can be used for rapid inventories of crop diversity and to enhance crop management techniques on small-scale farms. In the community …

Hope For Struggling School Districts, Mary D. Travis

Master's Theses

Education improves the opportunities and life-chance outcomes of our children, and is a key factory in both economic and community development. Although high school graduation rates have shown improvement nationwide in recent years, public education is suffering from increasing inequality between different school districts and within the same school districts. Such inequalities widen academic outcome gaps and can result in entire school districts being branded as academic failures. However, there is also encouraging evidence of struggling schools and school districts moving toward improvement. Innovative leaders who are committed to inclusive and rigorous academics, shared leadership, and an in-depth understanding of …

Geographical Analysis Of Offender Vulnerability: Modeling Coastal Hazards And Social Disorganization In Southern Mississippi, Ashleigh Nicole Price

Master's Theses

Hazards research continually examines how specific groups are affected by damaging events and how their unique sociodemographic characteristics contribute to variations in resilience and recovery. Studies have shown that underprivileged communities suffer more adversely and take longer to recover from hazard events. Probationers and parolees are uniquely disadvantaged regarding demographics and economic opportunity, both of which contribute to increased vulnerability and reduced resilience. Numerous legal restrictions and widespread discrimination towards former criminals means offenders are often relegated to underserved, criminogenic neighborhoods. Given such severe social and financial limitations, offenders have little capacity to prepare for or recover from disasters.

The …

Are You Happy? Local Economic Development In Northern Thailand, Katherine Sorensen

Master's Theses

Thailand has had a long history of economic development. In recent years, Thailand began to focus on economic development initiatives a local level. The implementation process has been slow, but the introduction of social enterprise programs has proven a promising strategy in local economic development. Successful examples of economic development can be found in Thailand wherein this paper argues through collaboration between government agencies and local communities lies the key to success.

Qualitative techniques including a two months of fieldwork in Thailand, first hand observations, and appreciative inquiry interviews are used to analyze economic development initiatives in the communities of …

The Rebel Made Me Do It: Mascots, Race, And The Lost Cause, Patrick Smith

Dissertations

Public memory is commonly tied to street names, toponyms, and monuments because they are interacted with daily and are often directly associated with race, class, and regimes of power. Mascots are not thought of in the same manner although they are present as part of everyday life. The childish or sometimes comedic nature of the mascot discounts it from many considerations of its influence, symbolism and history. Nonetheless this research focuses on the term “Rebel” as a secondary school mascot. The term possesses the trappings of race because the American vernacular ties the word to the Confederate States of America …

Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania, Kevin Frank

Dissertations

Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. …

You Are What You Eat: Gastronomy & Geography Of Southern Spain, Katherine F. Perry

The Catalyst

Using empirical and numeric data, this study explores the use of food as a proxy to understand the cultural-historical geography of southern Spain. After spending three months in Granada, Spain, I compiled the most commonly used thirty-five ingredients from a selection of Spanish cookbooks and contextualized them within the broader history of Spain. The elements of traditional Andalucían cooking fit into three primary chapters of Iberian history: Roman occupation, the Moorish invasion beginning in the 8^th century, and the Columbian exchange, or the exchange of goods that took place between the Americas and Old World following European discovery of …

The Invisible People Of The Invisible Coast: The Resilience Of People Experiencing Homelessness To Disasters On The Alabama, Louisiana, And Mississippi Gulf Coasts, Nicole Elizabeth Callais

Master's Theses

While extensive research has been conducted on vulnerability and resilience with regard to hazards, very few studies have researched the resilience of homeless populations. The Gulf Coast region is densely populated and susceptible to natural and anthropogenic hazards. Climate change studies indicate that this region will experience an increase in severe and intense tropical cyclones[1], thereby increasing the risk of experiencing adverse impacts from future coastal hazards. While local government agencies in this region have policies in place to protect communities, these policies tend to exclude any action regarding the evacuation and safety of the homeless population.

In …

Mississippi College Towns: Assessing The Geography Of Collegiate Culture, Jordan Glynn Moore

Master's Theses

This study assesses the appearance of collegiate culture on the landscape of college towns in Mississippi. The research will add to the understanding of this phenomenon by contributing more focused studies of college towns not yet explored. Refining and adding to the concept of a “college town” by identifying physical and cultural factors that characterize it will open opportunities and provide options that will serve as a gateway for more pointed cross-disciplinary research. Not only are these towns havens for geographic research, but also for cross-disciplinary research pursuits due to their unique cultural characteristics. Using U.S. Census-derived maps and a …

Crops Or Crafts? Changes In Land Use In The Imbabura Valley Of Ecuador, Christopher Richard Hair

Master's Theses

In rural societies where urbanization and modernization are contributing to rapid growth, changes in land use can both reflect and bring about broader changes within a community. This study seeks to investigate changes in land use in the Imbabura valley of Ecuador from the perspective of the local inhabitants. To accomplish this, three data collection techniques were employed: repeat photography, ethnographic interviews, and archival research. Repeat photography involves re-photographing historic photographs from the original site. A combination of 35 historic photographs taken in the 1950s were re-photographed during the summer of 2015. The resulting repeat photo pairs were used in …

The Manifestation Of Blight: Examining The Effects Of Inner City Decline On Populations In The Bronx, New York And New Orleans, Louisiana, Bianca R. Stewart

Honors Theses

Urban decline, and the developments that trigger a collapse among formerly prosperous cities, is a phenomenon that is capable of leaving a lasting mark on any urban system. The collapse and disintegration of the urban landscape carries a variety of facilitators, and with that, this research sought to examine two distinct representations of urban decline and the populations that shifted in tandem with blight: the New York City fiscal crisis of the 1970s and post-Katrina conditions in New Orleans, Louisiana. Through New York City’s fiscal crisis and the act of condensing a city in hopes of rectifying urban decline, known …

Feeding The South: An Assessment Of Food Availability In Rural Mississippi, Nicole Baiza Lawrence

Master's Theses

The overall goal of this project is to investigate Mississippi’s rural food environment by assessing the food resources available to rural Mississippians. The primary objectives were to identify sample locations in each of the four cultural regions of Mississippi and determine the food resources available to residents of those counties. The intellectual merit of this research lies in its in-depth exploration of food accessibility in rural areas. Though there is a wealth of literature on the topics of urban food access and food deserts, very little research has been done in rural areas. Most studies focus on urban environments which …

Dirt Roads And Dual-Sports: Geography And Mobility Of The Trans-America Trail, Joseph Samuel Miller

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to examine the mobility that has become associated with the Trans-America Trail (TAT). I explored the ways this motorcycle route changes across space, how the characteristics of adventure motorcyclists have created the representation of the TAT, and how the mobility of this route can be described in terms of Cresswell's six politics of mobility––motivation, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction. Using a mixed methods approach, I measured quantitative characteristics of the route using maps and GIS; I used ethnographic methods collected from my own trip across the TAT to understand the landscape and the …

A Settlement Geography Of Three Ports On The Northern Gulf Of Mexico: The Role Of Rivers, Railroads, And Hurricanes: 1830-1930, Zachary Evan Kalina

Master's Theses

The settlement geography of the Gulf Coast of the United States possesses and shares unique cultural and historical characteristics. The thesis analyzes three selected towns along the coast: Indianola, Texas; Pascagoula, Mississippi; and Apalachicola, Florida. The thesis focuses on describing each town’s historical background and early efforts at permanent settlement, the expansion of the settlement using various modes of transportation such as shipping and railroads, the economic and agricultural base that was used to improve the settlement’s reputation, the characteristics of the settlement’s concept of folk housing, and the impact and recovery of the settlement from disasters such as fire …

Geographical Analysis Of Hub City Transit, Joshua Adam Watts

Master's Theses

This study assess Hub City Transit, the public bus system of Hattiesburg, MS. Statistical analysis is used to determine how well the transit system serves low income areas of the city. A 0.5 mile buffer was applied to the bus routes to determine the coverage of the transit system. Areas of disorder along the routes were also assessed to analyze the landscape routes pass through. Lastly, an analysis of ridership on each route was performed to determine the most heavily used areas, as well as to assess where riders are going on each route.

The findings show that Hub City …