Browsing by Author "Folch, Christine"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Acting Natural: The Sociopolitical Construction of Nature in the Mesilla Valley
(2017-05-05) Hadfield, Elizabeth
This thesis explores how nature is imagined in the Mesilla Valley of Southern New Mexico. Through analyzing multiple forms of ethnographic fieldwork data collected in the Mesilla Valley, this thesis illuminates the ways in which current understandings of nature in the Mesilla Valley are deeply rooted in colonialism, domination, escapism, and white supremacy. The ethnographic fieldwork data collected and analyzed in this thesis primarily consist of (1) interviews and interactions with interlocutors in spaces of nature in the Mesilla Valley, (2) experiences with different forms of nature in the Mesilla Valley, and (3) representations of nature in the Mesilla Valley through sources such as advertisements, articles, museums, and archives. Based on this data, this thesis produces a counternarrative to the popular idyllic representation of nature; rather than a pristine entity, autonomous from humans, I show that the Mesilla Valley as nature only exists in relation to human brings, always connected to people, via the social, political, and historical forces that impact it. IN doing so, this thesis challenges the idea that nature can be defined in any one specific way; instead, nature emerges as a host of constellated meanings, holding multiple definitions, experiences, and realities within it and around it that make it nearly impossible to characterize as one essentialized thing. The thesis therefore calls for a more inclusive discourse surrounding nature, allowing for perspectives that show nature and human activity as inextricably linked.
Open Access
If You Build It, Perhaps Too Many People will Come: How Night Games Disrupted Wrigleyville , with lacking coverage from the Chicago Tribune
(2015-12) Dolgin, Jack
In 1988, the Chicago Cubs became the last team in Major League Baseball to install lights at their baseball stadium. That meant the team could play games at night, which was a popular idea among its fans. But Wrigley Field was also unique in its urban location—situated in the middle of a neighborhood in Chicago, home to Victorian houses, and a mile from Lake Michigan. A question that often gets asked about the installation of lights is, what impact did that have on the team and attendance? This paper asks two different questions—what was the toll on the neighbors in Wrigleyville who lived next to the stadium, and how did newspaper coverage portray these effects? To answer both questions, this paper includes an analysis of every article in the biggest two Chicago newspapers, The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, that featured the words 'Wrigley Field' or 'Wrigleyville' in the year and a quarter following the installation of lights at Wrigley Field. The paper finds that while there were significant social and political impacts of the installation of lights on Wrigleyville—including a noisier neighborhood, parking problems, and reduced political leverage for constituents—The Chicago Tribune, owned by the owners of the Cubs at the time, focused much less on the impacts of night baseball games on the neighboring community than did The Chicago Sun-Times. The paper provides insight into the ways something as innocuous as night baseball games can shape a community—that adding a community center open at night can have significant repercussions. It also raises questions about the ways newspapers handle the real-life implications of sports events beyond merely boxscores and fans.
Open Access
New Hope Submerged
(2018-04-27) Wicker, Cole
New Hope Submerged explores the complex histories of Jordan Lake and how these histories interact with the “public”. This paper is guided by two important questions: 1) who lived in the New Hope Valley before Jordan Lake’s creation and 2) who was the lake built for. This paper answers the first question in two parts, first examining the relationships inhabitants had with the physical qualities of land. The second method takes a narrative approach and uses both archival and interview data to paint a picture of the people impacted by Jordan Lake’s creation. The final chapter examines the relationship the Army Corp of Engineers and the North Carolina State Park System have with the “public” (those who visit the lake). The goal of this paper is to create an anthropological work that explores the nuanced impact Jordan Lake had on many different groups of people, while also pushing for more in-depth cultural history education by both the Army Corp of Engineers and North Carolina State Park System.