Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Anthropology

This study examines the causes and effects of agricultural change in a lowland Khon Muang hamlet in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Lucien Hanks' classic study of agricultural change in the Central Plain of Thailand drew upon agricultural economist Ester Boserup's emphasis on population growth to explain farmers' intensification of irrigated rice fields. This study applies Hanks' model to a northern Thai multi-cropping hamlet in an intermontaine valley, which overcame annual rice deficits two decades ago due to the introduction of high-yielding rice varieties by a Royal Thai Government-U.S. Agency for International Development project. Rice yields have nearly tripled, providing food security for the hamlet. Meantime, farmers have expanded to cash-cropping in harvested rice paddies and to ecologically vulnerable hills where they grow seed maize under contract to the Thai multinational agroindustrial firm, Charoen Pokaphand Group. This study found that 76 percent of the hamlet's agricultural land area was in hill crops, or five times the amount of ground in rice paddies. Continuous hill production can pose potential problems for watershed functioning and the ecological stability of the highland area. In addition to the development intervention, an extensive road system is an impetus for change by linking farmers to middlemen and outside markets. The study concludes that Boserup's population thesis is too reductionistic because the changes in this hamlet occurred while population stabilized. Hanks' overall model provides some insight because its holism takes into account state interventions in terms of infrastructure improvements and the effects of globalization. This study conforms that environmental deterioration is not necessarily the result of poverty or low-producing agricultural systems, but it can be due to a state-promoted “development dynamic,” as asserted by geographer Philip Hirsch. This study also contributes to our understanding of north (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chung-min Chen (Advisor); Robert Agunga (Other); Richard Moore (Other); Amy Zaharlick (Other) Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Comparative Studies

This dissertation theorizes the concept of enchantment, articulating it as an orientation towards affects, embodied experiences, and material cultures. The experience of enchantment is amplified by confusing space and time, calling forth social fantasies, and attuning oneself to the natural world. Enchantment is also a potent energizing force, capable of transforming the world around it, whether by arranging subjects and relationships in ways that produce and maintain antiblackness, orientalism, and misogyny, or offering life-giving possibilities that resist the harm of hegemonic forces. Enchantment informs grotesque and fantastical representations of racialized subjects and encourages sustained investment in consumer practices that are never satisfied. Yet enchantment also resides in moments of respite, wonder, and nostalgia for subaltern people. This dissertation aligns the life-giving possibilities of enchantment with creative practice and expression, demonstrating how imagination and fantasy allow the formation of new and more expansive worlds where marginalized peoples can thrive. Yet even while engaging in liberative artistic praxis, subjects must often negotiate dominant capitalist and colonial logics that inform the materials and practices of their world-making.

Committee: Maurice Stevens (Advisor); Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member); Ashley Pérez (Advisor) Subjects: Aesthetics; African American Studies; African Americans; African History; Art Criticism; Arts Management; Asian American Studies; Asian Studies; Black Studies; Comparative; Comparative Literature; Cultural Anthropology; Design; Ethics; Ethnic Studies; Fine Arts; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Social Structure; Sociology; Spirituality; Technology; Theater; Theology; Therapy; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2023, History

This project explores the political organizing and intellectual writings of Mae Mallory during the 1950s and the 1960s. Mallory is a Black working-class woman who emerged as an influential figure during the struggle to integrate public schools in 1950s Harlem, New York. Mallory's maintained her commitment to self-determination, self-defense, and Black internationalism, despite the pervasive anti-communism of the Cold War. Mae Mallory's opposition of the Cold War climate by the refusal to dilute her ideology and organizational goals, complicates the idea of the “classical narrative” of the Civil Rights Movement. This conception of the movement, coined by Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin, is defined by male-centered leadership, non-violence, integration, and inclusion into American citizenry. Mallory, her writings, and her organizing were antagonistic to these notions, throughout her career she maintained a community-centered and militant approach.

Committee: Michael Stauch (Committee Chair); Chelsea Griffis (Committee Member); Shingi Mavima (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2011, English

This thesis examines the ways the post-modern horror films, Carrie and Shutter, culturally construct ideal femininity. Cross-culturally, the female body has been associated with being inherently monstrous. In order to repress the monstrosity, females are expected to adhere to social standards of femininity; however, horror films, like Carrie and Shutter illuminate the struggle that many women feel to adhere to these standards. The monsters in Carrie and Shutter, Carrie White and Natre, have failed in their attempts to repress their monstrosity that stems directly from the sexual potency of the female body. Despite failing to fulfill cultural expectations, Carrie and Natre release their monstrosity. By accepting their inner monstrosity, Carrie and Natre show the failures of a social system that requires women to observe specific guidelines. In addition to showing the flaws social understandings of gender, Carrie and Natre use their monstrousness to empower themselves against those who have wronged them. While the elements of these films are supernatural, they also shed light on inherent fears about femininity and sexual taboos. The audiences are forced to come in close proximity to the female body and reconcile their bounded experiences of horror with their own cultural understandings.

Committee: John P McCombe PhD (Advisor); Bryan Bardine PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Slade PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies