Resistance Performances: (Re)constructing Spaces of Resistance and Contention in the 2010-2011 University of Puerto Rico Student Movement

On the night of April 20, 2010, a group of students from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Río Piedras campus, met to organize an indefinite strike that quickly broadened into a defense of accessible public higher education of excellence as a fundamental right and not a privilege. Although the history of student activism in the UPR can be traced back to the early 1900s, the 2010-2011 strike will be remembered for the student activists’ use of new media technologies as resources that rapidly prompted and aided the numerous protests. This activist research entailed a critical ethnography and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of traditional and alternative media coverage and treatment during the 2010 -2011 UPR student strike. I examined the use of the 2010-2011 UPR student activists’ resistance performances in constructing local, corporeal, and virtual spaces of resistance and contention during their movement. In particular, I analyzed the different tactics and strategies of resistance or repertoire of collective actions that student activists used (e.g. new media technologies) to frame their collective identities via alternative news media’s (re)presentation of the strike, while juxtaposing the university administration’s counter-resistance performances in counter-framing the student activists’ collective identity via traditional news media representations of the strike. I illustrated how both traditional and alternative media (re)presentations of student activism developed, maintained, and/or modified students activists’ collective identities. As such, the UPR student activism’s success should not be measured by the sum of demands granted, but by the sense of community achieved and the establishment of networks that continue to create resistance and change. These networks add to the debate surrounding Internet activism and its impact on student activism. Ultimately, the results of this study highlight the important role student movements have had in challenging different types of government policies and raising awareness of the importance of an accessible public higher education of excellence.

Resistance performances: (Re)constructing spaces of resistance and contention in the 2010-2011 University of Puerto Rico student movement

On the night of April 20, 2010, a group of students from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Río Piedras campus, met to organize an indefinite strike that quickly broadened into a defense of accessible public higher education of excellence as a fundamental right and not a privilege. Although the history of student activism in the UPR can be traced back to the early 1900s, the 2010-2011 strike will be remembered for the student activists’ use of new media technologies as resources that rapidly prompted and aided the numerous protests. ^ This activist research entailed a critical ethnography and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of traditional and alternative media coverage and treatment during the 2010 -2011 UPR student strike. I examined the use of the 2010-2011 UPR student activists’ resistance performances in constructing local, corporeal, and virtual spaces of resistance and contention during their movement. In particular, I analyzed the different tactics and strategies of resistance or repertoire of collective actions that student activists used (e.g. new media technologies) to frame their collective identities via alternative news media’s (re)presentation of the strike, while juxtaposing the university administration’s counter-resistance performances in counter-framing the student activists’ collective identity via traditional news media representations of the strike. I illustrated how both traditional and alternative media (re)presentations of student activism developed, maintained, and/or modified students activists’ collective identities. ^ As such, the UPR student activism’s success should not be measured by the sum of demands granted, but by the sense of community achieved and the establishment of networks that continue to create resistance and change. These networks add to the debate surrounding Internet activism and its impact on student activism. Ultimately, the results of this study highlight the important role student movements have had in challenging different types of government policies and raising awareness of the importance of an accessible public higher education of excellence.^

Jerash: The landscape, urban space, and architecture

The peculiarities of Roman architecture, town planning, and landscape architecture are visible in many of the empire's remaining cities. However, evaluation of the landscapes; and analysis of the urban fabric, spatial compositions, and the concepts and characteristics of its open spaces are missing for Jerash (Gerasa in antiquity) in Jordan. Those missing elements will be discussed in this work, as an example of an urban arrangement that survived through different civilizations in history.^ To address the characteristics of the exterior spaces in Jerash, a study of the major concepts of planning in Classical Antiquity will be conducted, followed by a comparative analysis of the quality of space and architectural composition in Jerash. Through intensive investigation of data available for the area under study, the historical method used in this paper illustrates the uniqueness of the site's urban morphology and architectural disposition.^ An analysis will be performed to compare the design composition of the landscape, urban fabric, and open space of Jerash as a provincial Roman city with its existing excavated remains. Such an analysis will provide new information about the roles these factors and their relationships played in determining the design layout of the city. Information, such as the relationship between void and solid, space shaping, the ground and ceiling, the composition of city elements, the ancient landscapes, and the relationship between the land and architecture, will be acquired.^ A computer simulation for a portion of the city will be developed to enable researchers, students and citizens interested in Jordan's past to visualize more clearly what the city looked like in its prime. Such a simulation could result in the revival of the old city of Jerash and help promote its tourism. ^

Health care utilization behavior of elders in a multicultural urban environment

The objective of this research is to determine the influences of social, environmental, behavioral, and economic forces on the health care service utilization of four racial/ethnic groups of non-institutionalized elders in a multicultural urban environment. To address these issues this dissertation examines three intertwined themes of culture, aging, and health, using a sample of elders residing in Miami-Dade County, FL in four racial/ethnic groups: white non-Hispanic; black non-Hispanic English speakers; Cuban; and non-Cuban Hispanic. ^ The research questions were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative data. Data for the quantitative component uses telephone survey data from the Dade County Needs Assessment. The purpose of this component is to develop a more comprehensive model of elder health care utilization behavior. The qualitative component uses data from focus groups from Dade County Needs Assessment, archival data and a literature review of previous ethnographic research. The purpose of this component is to gain a better understanding of the social construction of the terms “age”' and “aging,” as well as to place issues of health and health care in the lives of elders. ^ The findings raised several important issues. First, just because people share a common chronological age does not mean that they are the same in every other respect. Examining elders as a homogeneous group of users of formal health care services in a community is simplistic. Placing “aging” and “health” in a cultural context is important. My findings confirm that the meaning of “aging” and “old” are socially constructed. Further, the term “aging” is NOT synonymous with ill health or frailty. This was a consistent finding in both the quantitative and qualitative results. ^ While all aging individuals share a mutual orientation toward aging (i.e., biological process), they do not age the same way (i.e., social construction of “aging”). Thus, policymakers and others serving the elder population must be aware of the particular cultural context, as well as the previous life experiences of the individuals that they serve. This analysis documents the importance of culture and geographic community in understanding health care service utilization of elders. ^

The dynamics of movement: Toward a definition of a Latin American identity in contemporary fiction

Concha Meléndez opened up a venue for the discussion of a Latin American identity in works of literature when she implied that the great Latin American novel would gestate in the cities, the space where the typical Latin American would achieve an ideal state of consciousness and intellectual capabilities. ^ Her point of view mirrored nineteenth-century debate on a Latin American identity. Similar to her viewpoint, intellectuals of this period viewed the cities and their inhabitants of European extraction, as the ideal spaces and people on which an identity could be defined. However, the present state of urban and rural areas in Latin America demonstrates that there is no such clear-cut division of city and countryside or of their inhabitants. The dynamics of movement, from rural to urban areas, of people of diverse ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, make it difficult to uphold descriptors of space, race, or culture, as sole descriptors of an identity. ^ A study of five twentieth-century novels from North and South America, La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962), Hasta no verte Jesús mío (1969), Los ríos profundos (1981), La casa de los espíritus (1982), and Los años con Laura Díaz (1999) reveal that the dynamism of movement, between countryside, and cities of peoples of distinct races and social backgrounds, hamper the definition of a collective identity in specific spaces. As characters move, they are constantly reconfiguring their identities and creating tensions and conflicts that intensify social, racial and economic divisions in society. This makes it difficult to ascribe permanent identity descriptors, much less define a collective identity. ^ However, as writers of fiction address the malaise in Latin American societies, they have unearthed descriptors such as history, economy, land, and movement that advance a collective definition of self in these societies. Additionally, female characters have been granted a new identity. The overwhelming evidence in this study points to ‘land’ as the prime factor in the identity dilemma and suggests that a definition will not be possible until the vast landless populace is granted a space they can call home. Only then, perhaps, will Meléndez novel surface. ^

Food customs of rural and urban Inupiaq elders and their relationships to select nutrition parameters, food insecurity, health, and physical and mental functioning

The Inupiaq Tribe resides north of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska. The people are characterized by their continued dependence on harvested fish, game and plants, known as a subsistence lifestyle (Lee 2000:35-45). Many are suggesting that they leave their historical home and move to urban communities, places believed to be more comfortable as they age. Tribal Elders disagree and have stated, "Elders need to be near the river where they were raised" (Branch 2005:1). The research questions focused on differences that location had on four groups of variables: nutrition parameters, community support, physical functioning and health. A total of 101 Inupiaq Elders ≥ 50 years were surveyed: 52 from two rural villages, and 49 in Anchorage. Location did not influence energy intake or intake of protein; levels of nutrition risk and food insecurity; all had similar rates between the two groups. Both rural and urban Elders reported few limitations of ADLs and IADLs. Self-reported general health scores (SF-12.v2 GH) were also similar by location. Differences were found with rural Elders reporting higher physical functioning summary scores (SF-12.v2 PCS), higher mental health scores (SF-12.v2 MH), higher vitality and less pain even though the rural mean ages were five years older than the urban Elders. Traditional food customs appear to support the overall health and well being of the rural Inupiaq Elders as demonstrated by higher intakes of Native foods, stronger food sharing networks and higher family activity scores than did urban Elders. The rural community appeared to foster continued physical activity. It has been said that when Elders are in the rural setting they are near "people they know" and it is a place "where they can get their Native food" (NRC 2005). These factors appear to be important as Inupiaq Elders age, as rural Inupiaq Elders fared as well or better than Inupiaq Elders in terms of diet, mental and physical health.

The river, the railroad tracks, and the towers: How residents' worldview and use value transformed Wilton Manors into a diverse, gay-friendly, urban village

This case study examines the factors that shaped the identity and landscape of a small island-urban-village between the north and south forks of the Middle River and north of an urban area in Broward County, Florida. The purpose of the study is to understand how Wilton Manors was transformed from a “whites only” enclave to the contemporary upscale, diverse, and third gayest city in the U.S. by positing that a dichotomy for urban places exists between their exchange value as seen by Logan and Molotch and the use value produced through everyday activity according to Lefebvre. Qualitative methods were used to gather evidence for reaching conclusions about the relationship among the worldview of residents, the tension between exchange value and use value in the restructuration of the city, and the transformation of Wilton Manors at the end of the 1990s. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 contemporary participants. In addition, thirteen taped CDs of selected members of founding families, previously taped in the 1970s, were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. My findings indicate that Wilton Manors’ residents share a common worldview which incorporates social inclusion as a use value, and individual agency in the community. This shared worldview can be traced to selected city pioneers whose civic mindedness helped shape city identity and laid the foundation for future restructuration. Currently, residents’ quality of life reflected in the city’s use value is more significant than exchange value as a primary force in the decisions that are made about the city’s development. With innovative ideas, buildings emulating the new urban mixed-use design, and a reputation as the third gayest city in the United States, Wilton Manors reflects a worldview where residents protect use value as primary over market value in the decisions they make that shape their city but not without contestation.^

Stray dogs in Bucharest, and the political economy of Romanian socialism. From hunting the “enemies” of Stalinist economy, to poisoning urban parasites, and the rise of urban anarchy: 1950s-1990s.

My paper discusses three different ways in which stray dogs have been intertwined with ideologies of economic and urban development in Romania. I categorize results from archival and ethnographic research under three major time periods: early socialism, late socialism, and post-socialism. During early socialism stray dogs were seen to be damaging the soviet economy by killing species that humans could also hunt, like rabbits. During late socialism, stray dogs appeared as the enemies of the communist city, and the department of urban sanitation was given orders to poison dogs with strychnine. Finally, the increasing number of stray dogs in Bucharest after the collapse of communism was seen as a direct result of former communist demolitions, and was also taken as a sign of the collapsing state. Through such examples my paper discusses how the state and particular population groups have seen dogs as parts of an unwanted and dangerous nature, rather than a species that needs to be protected. I argue that distinctions of nature and culture have served discourses of civilization and the view of Bucharest as a model socialist, and then European city. Throughout my paper I juxtapose the treatment of stray dogs with other, more “valued” urban natures like the protection of parks, the wide-spread hobby of pigeon breeding during socialist years, the most recent debate on saving the rural area of Rosia Montana from non-environmentally friendly methods of gold extraction, and the current trend of healthy eating and living.

"New" Social Movements: Alternative Modernities, (Trans)local Nationalisms, and Solidarity Economies

My dissertation is the first project on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development- PAPDA, a nation-building coalition founded by activists from varying sectors to coordinate one comprehensive nationalist movement against what they are calling an Occupation. My work not only provides information on this under-theorized popular movement but also situates it within the broader literature on the postcolonial nation-state as well as Latin American and Caribbean social movements. The dissertation analyzes the contentious relationship between local and global discourses and practices of citizenship. Furthermore, the research draws on transnational feminist theory to underline the scattered hegemonies that intersect to produce varied spaces and practices of sovereignty within the Haitian postcolonial nation-state. The dissertation highlights how race and class, gender and sexuality, education and language, and religion have been imagined and co-constituted by Haitian social movements in constructing ‘new’ collective identities that collapse the private and the public, the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern. My project complements the scholarship on social movements and the postcolonial nation-state and pushes it forward by emphasizing its spatial dimensions. Moreover, the dissertation de-centers the state to underline the movement of capital, goods, resources, and populations that shape the postcolonial experience. I re-define the postcolonial nation-state as a network of local, regional, international, and transnational arrangements between different political agents, including social movement actors. To conduct this interdisciplinary research project, I employed ethnographic methods, discourse and textual analysis, as well as basic mapping and statistical descriptions in order to present a historically-rooted interpretation of individual and organizational negotiations for community-based autonomy and regional development.

Parallel relationships, architecture and water : the urban spa

This thesis explores the relationship of architecture and water through the design of an urban spa that offers both a bodily and a poetic experience of water. Research included investigation of recent architectural projects that enhance and order the view, sound, and touch of water as well as projects that integrate fountains, showers and reflecting pools into the experience of a building. In the design of the spa, the movement of water was based metaphorically on the natural water cycle: evaporation, condensation and collection of water in pools. The building presents fountains, rivulets, and pools in a descending sequence that represents the natural flow of water. The temperature of water and the activities of the spa follow the same descending sequence, progressing from a warm water bath at the top of the building to cool swimming pool at the plaza level in a contemporary interpretation of the experience of a Roman Bath.

New Haitian social movements: Alternative modernities, (trans)local nationalisms, and solidarity economies

My dissertation is the first project on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development- PAPDA, a nation-building coalition founded by activists from varying sectors to coordinate one comprehensive nationalist movement against what they are calling an Occupation. My work not only provides information on this under-theorized popular movement but also situates it within the broader literature on the postcolonial nation-state as well as Latin American and Caribbean social movements. The dissertation analyzes the contentious relationship between local and global discourses and practices of citizenship. Furthermore, the research draws on transnational feminist theory to underline the scattered hegemonies that intersect to produce varied spaces and practices of sovereignty within the Haitian postcolonial nation-state. The dissertation highlights how race and class, gender and sexuality, education and language, and religion have been imagined and co-constituted by Haitian social movements in constructing ‘new’ collective identities that collapse the private and the public, the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern. My project complements the scholarship on social movements and the postcolonial nation-state and pushes it forward by emphasizing its spatial dimensions. Moreover, the dissertation de-centers the state to underline the movement of capital, goods, resources, and populations that shape the postcolonial experience. I re-define the postcolonial nation-state as a network of local, regional, international, and transnational arrangements between different political agents, including social movement actors. To conduct this interdisciplinary research project, I employed ethnographic methods, discourse and textual analysis, as well as basic mapping and statistical descriptions in order to present a historically-rooted interpretation of individual and organizational negotiations for community-based autonomy and regional development. ^