Nature and Society Relations Commons^™

Art/Place Making In A Settler Colonial Context: A Critical Place Inquiry On The Haldimand Tract/Kitchener-Waterloo From A White Settler Perspective, Haley Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although critical place scholars implicate artists in settler colonial processes of placemaking, there is little information on how white settler artists (WSAs) might use their creative practice to support practices of accountability and solidarity with Indigenous resurgence. This research responds to this gap by investigating the creative practices of WSAs located on the Haldimand Tract/in Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), and how they might approach critical, contextual practices in their creative work. A critical place inquiry was combined with ethnographic research principles and a transformative critical research paradigm. Six WSAs participated in mobile interviews, which took place in a location significant to them. …

Co-Creation, Interpretations And Engagement With A Movement-Based Symbol For Climate Justice: A Qualitative Inquiry, Kai Reimer-Watts

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The climate crisis demonstrates with complete clarity the need for massive systems-level changes towards far more sustainable societies. Global and local emissions need to decline rapidly to mitigate intensifying climate breakdown, accompanied by climate and sustainability solutions, to secure a far more stable, safe, and just future for all people and all life. Within these changes, engaging in our communities is essential to support and co-create broader solutions to help advance more sustainable societies, reduce negative impacts of a changing climate, and to move towards cultures and systems that recognize natural limits and centre care for people and planet.

‘Climate …

Indigenous Access And Use On Private Land: A Toolkit For Heart Of The Rockies Land Trust Members, Ian James Craighead

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Methods In Environmental Studies, Erika Dunagan, Maya Mendoza, Posey Graber, Alex Cullins, Emma Mcginnis, Ally Nepomuceno, Isabella Buchan

Featured Student Work

This publication is a collection of undergraduate research conducted in the Methods in Environmental Studies course at the University of San Francisco in Fall 2024. The student-led projects explore the intersections of place, policy, ecology, and cultural identity through applied environmental research methodologies. Topics include a decolonial examination of the Forest Park Mound Group and Indigenous resilience in St. Louis; a comparative study of Navajo cosmology and ecological justice; a social and environmental impact assessment of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan; a psychogeographical analysis of Golden Gate Park and its impact on the psyche, emotions, behaviour, and health of urban …

Navigating The Anglo-Irish Landscape: Imaginative Geographies In Bram Stoker And Elizabeth Bowen's Novels, Natalie Pearson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

There has been great work done by scholars of Anglo-Irish Gothic tradition to assess the place of classic fictional characters within that tradition. Could a character’s identity contain an Irish dimension? Could they be, perhaps, an allegorical embodiment of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy or native Irish peasantry? All excellent questions; however, this present study looks to explore a different perspective by considering “place” itself across four Anglo-Irish Gothic novels: that of Bram Stoker’s The Snake’s Pass (1890) and Dracula (1897) and Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September (1929) and Bowen’s Court (1942). I seek to highlight the physical landscape in each …

Reclaiming Healing Spaces: A Phenomenological Study On The Transformative Power Of Outdoor Therapy From The Lived Experiences Of Black Clinicians Working With Black Clients, Lynn Murphy

Dissertations

This phenomenological study involved assessing the experiences of Black therapists who engaged Black clients in outdoor therapeutic contexts. The study was founded on the existing literature that shows the quality of the therapeutic relationship is pivotal for client retention and the Western standards that have historically favored treatment within indoor environments. To contextualize this research, a comprehensive literature review was commenced, covering topics such as the decolonization of therapy, the historical and present-day relationship between Blacks and the outdoors in the United States, sedentary lifestyles, the psychological benefits of time spent in nature, various types of outdoor therapy, and the …

Assessing, Restoring, And Centering Social–Ecological Relationships For Advancing Social–Ecological Resilience In The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Katia Pilar Carranza Bernal

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Northern Great Plains grasslands are social-ecological systems that were shaped by evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships. European colonization disrupted many of these interactions, including the coupling of fire and grazing, and degraded social-ecological resilience, shifting these grasslands to a new state. For those reasons, my research focused on assessing, restoring, and centering evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships for advancing social-ecological resilience in the Northern Great Plains grasslands. I first performed a study in the Nebraska Sandhillls assessing the potential of patch-burn grazing to support grassland resilience by comparing its effects to those of rotational grazing. Through vegetation and bird …

We're Swarming Again! Swarming, Collectivity, And Trope: The Case Of Extinction Rebellion, Tyler J. Behymer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetoric of the eco-movement Extinction Rebellion, focusing on the use of swarming and nature tropes to mobilize collective action and revivify contemporary notions of collectivity. Drawing on rhetoric of social movement scholarship, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, this essay theorizes swarming as a tropological economy that expands the conditions of propriety in the context of collectivity. Through an analysis of Extinction Rebellion’s discourse, this study demonstrates how the naturalization of swarming tropes works in various ways to rewild conventional political discourse, galvanize disruptive collective assembly, and challenge green neoliberalism.

Advisor: Casey Ryan Kelly

Spatial Mapping With Polaroid Post-Its, Angela C. Dittmar, Katie Claiborne

Arts-Based Collaborative instructional materials

No abstract provided.

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

Naturify 2300, Yarina Yiwei Dai

Masters Theses

In my art practice, I explore the interplay between human desires to manipulate and anthropomorphize nature, as seen in the technological augmentation of plants and living entities. This investigation delves into how this intersection, alongside empathy towards these creations, contributes to fears of uncontrollability and the risks of addiction and excessive dependence on technology.

Bioengineering and genetic modification have cultivated unprecedented developments, allowing humans to manipulate the fundamental building blocks of life. My research speculates on this technology further, modifying the genetic code of organisms and creating bioengineered wearable entities with enhanced traits or entirely new functionalities. The primary objective …

Timeless Teachings & Unbridled Possibilities, Ruijie Tai

Masters Theses

I am looking at is process of TRANSLATING AND BRIDGING.

Qi, traditionally understood as the vital force that flows through and animates living beings and the environment, lies at the edge of our perceptual capabilities.

The notion that what we cannot "see" holds significant influence over our world suggests that there are aspects of reality and forces at play beyond our direct sensory experience. AI, with its capacity for analyzing vast amounts of data and recognizing patterns beyond human capability, offers a unique tool for exploring these unseen forces.

The potential of AI to perceive and understand Qi could open …

Replication And Growth In Cassava Cultivation And Uxorilocal Women’S Relations Among The Waiwai: A Mother's Reckoning With Death And Social Change, Laura H. Mentore

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Through an ethnographic examination of the shared capacities of cassava and womanhood for what I term growth and replication, I argue that Waiwai sociality seeks to curtail the trajectory of life towards finite death through the intervening act of cutting and replanting or replicating life in a vegetatively inspired form of the “episodic present” (Strathern 2021). An extended vignette demonstrates how these features of Waiwai sociality take shape in mother-daughter and sister relations at the core of uxorilocal residential living, and in a senior woman’s reckonings with illness, death, and social change.

Du Undergraduate Showcase Abstracts: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, August Alexander, Kevin Summers, E. Paige Lloyd, Alyssa Aragon, Lauren Wols, Erica Larson, Colton Arciniaga, Lily Baeza, Ellie Barnett-Cashman, Sidney Barbier, Maverick Bartholomew, Ryan Bell, Trevor Briggs, Amanda Brown, Cory Marchi, Maddy Pontius, Jennifer Gallagher, Claire Kwok, Channing Bullock, Alex Mccollister, Kim Gorgens, Daniela Chavez, Yamilet Espinoza Nuñez, Giovanni Valladares Giron, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Daniel Cierasynski, Brandon Cohen, Spenser Dobbs, Lindsay Goolsby, Noah Craver, Nyah Cubbison, Liam Doherty, Nicole Doris, Yan Qin, Alexander Nguyen, Lily Harmon, Shubh Todi, Naichen Zhao, Noah Fagello, Stacia Fritz, Paola Gascot-Chinea, Alex Volkova, Janelyn Geronimo, Elsie Harrington, Shane Simmons, Clarice Hise, Laura Moreno Palmer, Henry Xu, Yesu Leela Pasupula, Emily Fisher, Zachary Hogan, Colin Kleckner, Alyssa Knaus, Erin Kubat, Sam Werkema, Katie Lamberton, Lilliya Larson, Allie Leary, Vanessa Leon-Gamez, James H. Gallagher, E. Dale Broder, Robin M. Tinghitella, Emma Loeber, Alina Mali, Ixchel Marquez, Lauren Mcgrath, Ella Matthews, Grace Naegelen, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Rachel Brough, Alexandra Norman, Joe Ontiveros Rodriguez, Ben Dossett, Ori Miller, Janamejay Sharma, Christopher Reardon, Vincent Pandey, Regan Parish, Ren Pratt, Alisha Pravasi, Sanchari Das, Cari Reichel, Emma Robson, Victoria Rockwell, Jayce Rumsey, Steven Said, Norah Schroder, Alaina Smith, Shannon Murphy, Shujan A. Sharafeldeen, Stanley M. Kanai, James T. Nichols, David E. Clouthier, Macalia R. Augustus, Daniel Silva Rios, Scott Simpson, Anna Sparling, Chase Spurbeck, Kimberly Chiew, Christine Stadnik-Poteroba, Jacqueline Stephenson, Evelyn Stovin, Mia Supan, Lauren Tapper, Will Thrush, Anna Vogt, Michaela Walheim, Jon Weber, Hunter Whitehouse, Kansas Wood, Hayley Sayre, Lydia Mccann, Maread Mclaughlin, Kelly Krumrie, Olivia Wuttke

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Research Showcase.

What's In A Name? Plant Naming As Cultural Artifact And Story In The Midwestern United States, Sophie Wesseler

Undergraduate Theses

This project sought to collect and contextualize the historical and contemporary names given to plants by inhabitants of the Midwestern United States, understanding plant names as cultural artifacts that can offer insight into the communities in which they were created and evolved. Formatted as a series of entries, this collection gathered these names and contextualized them within other artifacts of cultural significance, such as art or poetry, and alongside historical research on their origins and cultural environments. Examining plant names through the fields of linguistics, semiology, anthropology, cultural studies, taxonomy, and ethnobotany, this work traces the names of various plants …

The Effect Of Water Scarcity On Gender Dynamics In Egypt, Zahwa Kortam

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This article investigates the complex relationship between Egypt's agriculture, water scarcity, and gender dynamics. It highlights the challenges facing the agricultural sector due to water shortages in a country highly dependent on the Nile River for food security and agricultural development. Women, who have been traditionally integral to agriculture, have to deal with multiple challenges posed by water scarcity. For men, their roles are changing, and with that, the power dynamics and social norms. This article attempts to reveal opportunities for gender equality and sustainable use of water resources through the examination differences in experiences between men and women in …

Beauty And The Anthropocene: On The Emancipatory Potential Of Experiences Of Beautiful Places In The Natural World, Matthew John

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation investigates the proposition that beauty—specifically, experiences of beautiful places in the natural world—can contribute to the emancipation of modern persons (and thereby developed societies) from instrumental rationality, which is theorized as a major driver of contemporary socioecological crises of the Anthropocene. Buber’s concept of the I–Thou relation provides a framework for conceptualizing ideal non-instrumental relations. The project’s methodology, rooted in post-phenomenology, consisted of semi-structured remote interviews and four follow-up focus groups with 35 then current and recently former residents of Juneau, Alaska. Taken together, data confirm that experiences of beautiful places in the natural world can and do …

Making The Pluriverse Visible: World-Making On The Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula, Lauren Judge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation argues that visual artists who live and work on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula, in Ontario, Canada, are co-creating artworks with non-humans, which is evidence of more-than-human world-making. Such co-creative experiences are the result of, and catalysts for the kinds of enchantment our human worlds need to form meaningful and holistic connections with non-humans, effectively creating a more inclusive pluriverse. After reviewing interdisciplinary literature in posthuman studies, creative geography, arts-based practices, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledges, and political ontology, I designed my research to include a combination of qualitative methodologies and methods, including autoethnography and research-creation, to investigate fourteen visual …

Mapping With The Land: Co-Developing A Cumulative Impact Monitoring And Land Stewardship Framework With Sambaa K’E First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada, Michael S. Mcphee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, Indigenous populations are striving to achieve effective environmental protection, whilst navigating complex methods, policies, and research relationships within co-management contexts. This thesis seeks to identify how differing cultural systems, environmental change, and fractured partnerships may be unified to align with the needs of the Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a remote Dehcho Dene community. Indigenous methodologies guided co-development of research questions with SKFN leadership which yielded objectives a) develop a GIS-based method to manage, organize and mobilize cultural and environmental data; b) develop a new stewardship monitoring procedure so that users can apply the …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Economic Method: The Science In Trade, Arthur I. Keegan

Student Publications

In observing the universe, philosophers have offered their thought processes for understanding the perceivable reality, which we know as science. These thought processes are constructed into scientific methods to conquer the unknown. Economics existing through human interaction in society holds its own characteristics that scholars have sought out to outline the nature of trade. Within this book, the various approaches of science will be presented and tests across various case studies in Economics to test validity of arguments and connections between thought processes across different disciplines. This work is guided by Steven Gimbel and his work Exploring the Scientific Method …

Bruno Latour's Constructivism And Its Implications For The New Agency Of Sociology, Robertus Robet, U. Abdul Rozak R

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

Abstract

Latour removes the boundaries between natural sciences and humanities. Science for Latour is cultural practise, at the same time in every cultural practice, nature and objects are also actively involved. In that sense, Latour's constructivism encourages the emergence of non-human actors as drivers of the societal changes. By that, he provoked sociology to expand its subject matter. The Social in sociology must be seen as an association involving human and non-human actors.

Key words: Constructivism, Expansion of agency, actant, actor network theory.

Long Before Gps, Leanne Shirtliffe

The Goose

Poetry by Leanne Shirtlife.

Citing Seeds, Citing People: Bibliography And Indigenous Memory, Relations, And Living Knowledge-Keepers, Megan Peiser Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma

Criticism

By turning the page or reading further, you are accepting a responsibility to this story, its storyteller, its ancestors, and its future ancestors. You are accepting a relationship of reciprocity where you treat this knowledge as sacred for how it nourished you, share it only as it has been instructed to share, and to ensure it remains unviolated for future generations.

This story is told by myself, Megan Peiser, Chahta Ohoyo. I share knowledge entrusted to me by Anishinaabe women I call friends and sisters, by seed-keepers of many peoples Indigenous to Turtle Island, and knowledge come to me from …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

A Guide For The Everyday Woman Surfer: How Surf Culture's Patriarchy Marginalizes Ocean Lovers, Alexis S. Di Stefano

Women's, Gender and Queer Studies

Humans are naturally drawn to the water by wind and tide. It is a place of solace that we have a desire to know deeply, yet we have kept one another from experiencing it through biases that perpetuate inequality. White-supremacist hegemony has historically kept communities of color from coastlines, women from lineups, and queer communities from participating in surf culture. As more people from all social groups return to the water through surfing in the 20th century, surf culture needs to adapt to become more inclusive. This paper outlines surf culture's historical transition into whiteness and how female beauty standards …

Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article is concerned with the relationships through which children have been born, raised, and made into Amahuaca people over the past 75 years, and within contemporary Native Communities on the Inuya River since their formation beginning in the 1980s. The process of making children into kin among Amahuaca people is similar to that described throughout much of lowland South America. The production, preparation, and sharing of proper food (manioc, plantains, fish, and game) as well as manioc beer are central aspects of sociality and the formation of specific kinds of bodies. While the processes of sharing substances, demonstrating care, …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

Bridging Knowledge Systems In The Peruvian Andes: Plurality, Co-Creation, And Transformative Socio-Ecological Solutions To Climate Change, Domenique Ciavattone

Capstone Collection

In the current era of anthropogenic climate change, Quechua farmers in the Peruvian Andes are some of the most impacted by, yet some of the lowest contributors to global warming. Dominant Western systems alone have proven insufficient in tackling the climate crisis, and there have been increasing efforts to elevate and center Indigenous voices and epistemologies when addressing climate change. Researchers and communities are calling for a bridging of knowledge systems, in which Indigenous and Western methods collaborate to co-create innovative solutions to climate challenges. This research sought to explore methods and successes in bridging Indigenous and Western knowledge systems …

Environment, Power, And Justice : Southern African Histories, Graeme Wynn, Jane Carruthers, Nancy J. Jacobs

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Spanning the colonial, postcolonial, and postapartheid eras, these historical and locally specific case studies analyze and engage vernacular, activist, and scholarly efforts to mitigate social-environmental inequity.

This book highlights the ways poor and vulnerable people in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe have mobilized against the structural and political forces that deny them a healthy and sustainable environment. Spanning the colonial, postcolonial, and postapartheid eras, these studies engage vernacular, activist, and scholarly efforts to mitigate social-environmental inequity. Some chapters track the genealogies of contemporary activism, while others introduce positions, actors, and thinkers not previously identified with environmental justice. Addressing health, economic …