Master of Arts, Miami University, 2018, Geography

Tourism professionals rely on the uniqueness of place to market and promote destinations in a growing, competitive industry. In many places, urban destinations are co-promoted with natural amenities. In tourism-dependent regions like the Pacific Northwest, such tourism marketing is not limited to individual destinations, but also involves collaboration at larger scales in an intricate network of connections between places. The major question that drove my research was how does destination marketing link places, both cultural and natural, across western Oregon? Through a combination of discourse analysis of travel websites and semi-structured interviews, I gathered information on how tourism professionals situate their own destinations within a wider, regional context and how urban and natural settings are co-promoted for tourism. This organizational structure may hint at evidence of a tourism bioregion, connecting people across the Pacific Northwest through the incorporation of the natural amenities into destination marketing. This research analyzes the geographic context of tourism collaboration, establishing the various scales at which connections in the tourism industry exist.

Committee: Dr. David Prytherch (Advisor); Dr. Damon Scott (Committee Member); Dr. Toops Stanley (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, American Culture Studies

Existing cultural studies scholarship on New Orleans explores the city's exceptional popular identity, often focusing on the origins of that exceptionality in literature and the city's twentieth century tourism campaigns. This perceived exceptionality, though originating from literary sources, was perpetuated and popularized in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by film and television representations. As Hollywood's production standards evolved throughout the twentieth century, New Orleans' representation evolved with it. In each filmmaking era, representations of New Orleans reflected not only the production realities of that era, but also the political and cultural debates surrounding the city. In the past two decades, as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the passage of film tax credits by the Louisiana Legislature increased New Orleans' profile, these debates have been more present and driven by New Orleans' filmed representations. Using the theoretical framework of Guy Debord's spectacle and the methodology of New Film History and close "to the background" textual analysis, this study undertakes an historical overview of New Orleans' representation in film and television. This history starts in the era of Classical Hollywood (1928-1947) and continues through Transitional Hollywood (1948-1966), New Hollywood (1967-1975), and the current Age of the Blockbuster (1975-). Particular attention is given to developments in the twenty-first century, especially how the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the recent tax credit laws affected popular understandings of the city. Hollywood's representations have largely reinforced New Orleans' exceptional, "Big Easy" identity by presenting the city's unique cultural practices as every occurrences and realities for New Orleanians. While Hurricane Katrina exposed this popular identity as a facade, the lack of interest by Hollywood in meaningfully exploring Katrina, returning instead to the city's pre-Katrina identity (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cynthia Baron (Advisor); Marlise Lonn (Other); Clayton Rosati (Committee Member); Andrew Schocket (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Geography; History; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

In this dissertation, I will apply the scholarly, creative, and descriptive traits of rephotography to document the city of Pittsburgh's cultural landscape. Starting with images of W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project as my exemplar, I will conduct my own rephotographic survey and identify changes in the cultural landscape of Pittsburgh between 1955 and 2014. I will also continue and contribute to the transdisciplinary nature of rephotography by viewing Smith's project and my rephotography through the lenses of tourism, palimpsest, and performance. Used individually, these three lenses provide a better understanding of rephotography—used together in concert; they create a conceptual framework for the uses and study of rephotography in the future. My receptiveness to the relationship between these three topics to photography and rephotography will promote approaches to the study of photography that expand surveys pertaining to the photo-mechanical nature, subject matter, or formalist properties of the medium. The Pittsburgh scenes including birds-eye views of the city, individual buildings, and even street signs provide a broad overview of the city on both a macro and a micro-scale. Through more than twenty examples, I suggest that photography as utilized by Smith, exposes Pittsburgh as seen by an outsider, while rephotography reveals Pittsburgh as insiders have transformed it. The themes of tourism, palimpsest, and performance organize my study of rephotography and situate my rephotographic survey in terms of Smith's Pittsburgh Project. They are the threads that connect the photographer Smith, rephotography as methodology and subject, and my own survey of Pittsburgh's cultural landscape together.

Committee: Marina Peterson (Committee Chair); Jennie Klein (Committee Co-Chair); Condee William (Committee Member); Tim Anderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Fine Arts; Geography

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2014, Geography

The Israel National Trail and Jesus Trail are fascinating examples for geographers to look at in terms of sustainable tourism development. Interviews and participant observation conducted show that hikers and personnel along the trails are becoming more aware of issues within sustainability such as large amounts of trash and lack of water. Surveys conducted show the hikers along these trails are not doing much to be sustainable. These results can be seen from a lack of education and understanding of ecotourism along Israel's trails. Ecotourism is a fast growing sector of tourism and can offer ways to help preserve Israel's Trails environment, culture, as well as help out areas economically. By using the approach of surveys, interviews, and participant observation, this thesis examines how stakeholders perceive and address aspects of ecotourism along the Israel National Trail and Jesus Trail in Israel, focusing on the Lower Galilee and Negev Region.

Committee: Stanley Toops Dr. (Advisor); David Prytherch Dr. (Committee Member); Carl Dahlman Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, Art Education

This doctoral study concerns itself with how primarily White, suburban, middle-class Art Education pre-service students are prepared in academia to teach in urban/inner-city schools. As a researcher, student-teaching supervisor, Cooperating teacher, and public school Art Educator, the author examines the shifting demographics of public education in an attempt to investigate alternative practices to mitigate problematic issues in the current teacher education model. Drawing heavily on the works of the Critical Geographer Doreen Massey, the author suggests that if “space is seen as being and time as becoming” (2005, p. 29), then a focus on becoming art teacher advances a temporal epistemology. He questions how a shift to a spatial paradigm with an ontological emphasis could allow PSS to focus on being an art teacher instead of becoming one. This particular study investigates the site observations of four undergraduate students at the Ohio State University that requested and/or agreed to be placed in an urban/inner-city school during their Winter Quarter in 2012. During the 12-week study, the participants collected visual and narrative data of their travels to, entrance into, and occupancy of the school and the surrounding area. Employing the use of hand-held media and ethnographic methods, participants were encouraged to document their experiences and engage in reflexive practices throughout the process. The participants used Google Maps to map out their trajectory to the site as a means of critically examining their positionality in relation to the school. Participants created a visual representation of their learning to disseminate with their peers in a formal presentation at the conclusion of the study.

Committee: Christine Ballengee-Morris PhD (Committee Chair); Karen Hutzel PhD (Committee Member); Jack Richardson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Theory; Geographic Information Science; Pedagogy

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Art History (Fine Arts)

This thesis accompanies the exhibition Gallery 66: Selling the Southwest at the Kennedy Museum of Art in Athens, Ohio. Gallery 66 explores the specific historical and cultural climate in which the museum's Southwest Native American Art collections were acquired. It demonstrates the way in which tourist traffic along Route 66 affected the perception of Native Americans in the Southwest and led to a national desire for their art forms. Many of these forms resulted from interactions between Native American artists, the trading post system, and the tourist. The thesis elaborates upon these interrelationships by referring to images and objects within the exhibition. It also discusses Route 66 as an ongoing performance in relation to the concept of Manifest Destiny, calling into question the recent enthusiasm surrounding the road by exploring the notions of narrative, nostalgia, and identity that seem to be at the root of the Route 66 "revival."

Committee: Jeannette Klein (Advisor) Subjects: Art History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2010, Geography

This thesis is informed by the literature on sustainable tourism development and homestay projects in various countries worldwide. The research problem in Dominica is that remote portions of the island that are far from the island's cruise ship ports are not receiving significant tourism income. This thesis examines the establishment, operation and successes to date of a community-based homestay project of which I was a key organizer in the remote village of Grand Fond. This homestay project acts to counter the inaccessibility to cruise tourism money while offering tourists a culturally authentic experience. The research is informed by an analysis of participant feedback from both hosts and visitors. Results show that the Grand Fond homestay project, while still in its infancy and fragile, is resilient, culturally positive, and brings tourism money into the village. It has also inspired homestay projects elsewhere on the island, and therefore helps to contribute much-needed funds to remote portions of Dominica.

Committee: Thomas Klak PhD (Committee Chair); Charles Stevens PhD (Committee Member); Robbyn Abbitt (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography