The mid-1970s was a turning point in the history of New York’s Asian/American communities. As the city stood on the brink of economic collapse, the broader labor movement’s membership declined, but many Asian/American New Yorkers demonstrated their labor activism in worker centers, grassroots organizations, as well as unions. This was also a moment, as the Cold War waned, when tens of thousands of Asian migrants resettled in New York City. With the influx of migrants in a tightening economy, the nature of the city’s workforce changed, adding to the growing labor surplus, just as work was disappearing. My dissertation titled “One Rise, One Fall: Labor Organizing in New York’s Asian Communities, 1970s to the Present,” is a study of labor activists’ strategies to deal with the economic crisis and reconcile their racial difference. Through oral histories and archival research, my dissertation bridges the fields of Asian American Studies, urban studies, and labor history. While historians have examined the intense economic transformations of the 1970s, noting the changes in the labor market and decline in trade unionism, few have examined the varied attempts to organize durable unions and labor organizations in this period. My dissertation contributes a class analysis to the literature on racial formation, examining the strategies of New York’s Asian communities in harsh economic times. Dominant discourses about race and class, like yellow peril and model minority narratives, became a barrier for Asian/American labor activists looking to build worker power and remake their city. In some instances, Asian/American workers were perceived as dangerous foreigners who were taking white working-class jobs, and in other contexts, they were docile and deserving subjects in contrast to black and brown Americans. These two poles – of yellow peril and model minority narratives – informed Asian/American labor mobilizations. This study examines how race and class were inextricably intertwined, affecting modes of labor organizing in every industry. Opening with a study of Asian/American building tradesmen and their fight for jobs in the mid-1970s, “One Rise, One Fall” examines the multiple strategies that Asian/American workers deployed in order to cope with economic changes and racial discrimination. In my study, Asian/American organizers struggled to organize new immigrants in the Chinese restaurant industry in the 1980s, and rank-and-file garment workers fought for fair piece rates despite the logics of a global supply chain in the 2000s. Each chapter is a case study of organizing strategies in midst of Asian/American laborers’ varied circumstances of citizenship, race, class, and gender. As labor organizing became increasingly difficult in an era of increased migrations, weakened labor laws, and globalized production, labor mobilizations in Asian communities occurred in and outside of unions. My research reveals the capacity and creativity of labor activism in grassroots organizations, worker centers, and labor unions, since the 1970s. Through this case-study approach, my dissertation analyzes the experiences of organizers and workers, in order to investigate how Asian/Americans navigated the politics of work, difference, and the radical restructuring of the urban-based global economy. / History

The Age of Innocence is an opera based on the 1920 novel by Edith Wharton. Set in New York high society of the 1870's, it tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer, his fiancée May Welland, and her cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned to her native New York in an aura of scandal, having left her husband, the dissolute Polish Count Olenski, in Europe. Although Archer and Ellen fall in love, he nevertheless follows the expectations of his family and marries the lovely but conventional May. For her part, while she sees a life with Archer as an escape from her loneliness, Ellen cannot allow herself to betray her cousin, insisting that she and Archer can love each other only if they remain apart. This love triangle is unique because of the social pressures placed upon Archer: he is a product of New York society, which has taught him to believe in the factitious idea of female innocence, as personified by May. Though he questions this and other conventions of his society, he is unable to bring himself to abandon the safety of these social norms that govern every aspect of proper behavior in New York. It is Archer's love for Ellen that prompts him to challenge these standards, pointing out New York's hypocrisy in welcoming May's cousin back to America while at the same time treating her as a pariah for abandoning her husband in Europe. None of their objections to Ellen is explicitly stated, however, for this is a world which has a morbid fear of "the unpleasant"--that is, anything that would disturb the calm surface of society's politesse and social grace. It comes as no surprise, then, that Archer's desire for Ellen (especially after he marries May), becomes a potential social nightmare for his family and all of New York, as they ruthlessly plot to drive the two apart, and send Ellen back to Europe. The main challenge in creating an opera out of this story, in addition to streamlining a lengthy and complex plot, was to delineate both in the libretto and the music the realms of the said and unsaid--that is, what the characters say in public, and what they say to themselves or to others that represents their innermost feelings. In the libretto, this was achieved by drawing upon Wharton's dialogue and narration in the novel in order to create these private and public utterances, in the form of recitatives, arias, duets, or ensemble pieces. The language of the libretto has been fashioned to serve these different musical forms, with dialogue from the novel employed in moments of recitative; and freely-metered verse, with a modest use of rhyme, for the "numbers" of the opera. The music, meanwhile, employs a system of codes to define the realms of the said and unsaid--motives, sonorities and key relationships that bring into focus the interactions of the characters, especially Archer, Ellen and May as their drama plays out under the ever-watchful eyes of New York society. The music has also been rendered to bring out the stresses and meter of the text, and heighten the import of the words as sung by a particular character. I have attempted in my opera to bring to life the timeless themes of Wharton's novel: unfulfilled love, the individual versus society, the potential corrupting influence of desire, and the moral choices that human beings face as they wrestle with these common issues. Opera, through the language of music, is one of the few art forms capable of fully realizing these themes in a dramatic context--in this sense, it is just as relevant to our time as it was to Wharton's, and therefore remains a viable medium for the twenty-first-century composer. / Music Composition / Accompanied by one .pdf file.

This research will examine graduation rates from the 1999-2000 school year until the 2012-13 school year, which will shed light on the long-term impact of neoliberal policy on inequality. I begin with a discussion of the history of school reform in NYC, starting with the Brown v. BOE verdict and finishing at the current neoliberal reform era, to understand how various reform strategies have aimed to reduce segregation and inequality. I then use a dissimilarity index to examine changes in racial segregation by performance between 2000 and 2013, using high school graduation rate quartiles to measure performance. In the last empirical chapter, I use growth curve modeling to understand the factors that are associated with changes in graduation rates. I model the impact of several factors that measure the presence of neoliberal reform and inequality on graduation. These measures include: racial and socioeconomic composition, the impact of mandatory regents, being a small school and failing on NYC school accountability report. This research finds that policies aimed at desegregation have been unaggressive and poorly implemented, and this has resulted in persistent segregation. Neoliberal policies assume that by increasing individual choices and accountability, that all students will make the choices that are in their best interest, and inequality will be reduced. This indirect strategy proves to be ineffective. White students have experienced increased access and isolation amongst the best performing schools, while Black students have become increasingly segregated in the worst performing schools. Growth curve modeling shows a consistent increase in graduation rates over this time. This increase is lessened for schools that serve above average black, Hispanic, and free-lunch eligible students. These schools have the lowest graduation rate. / Sociology

The escalating temperature, annual precipitation, sea level rise and carbon footprint will likely lead to an unimagined future which does not have a bright side. With the rise in carbon footprint particularly due to greenhouse gas emissions, burning of fossil fuels and change in land uses; carbon dioxide is 40% higher as compared to era before Industrial Revolution. The constant increase in temperature is melting the glaciers and increasing the sea levels. The Hudson River is estimated to rise by 1.5-2ft by 2050, directly affecting the low-lying areas of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Amongst the multiple coastal cities in the world, New York City is one of the most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. Surrounded by water from three sides, the impacts are disastrous with densely populated neighborhoods along the shoreline. The shoreline needs to be revitalized with the vibrancy and diversity city offers to the people. With the rise in hot summer days which are estimated to be 50 days against 18 days currently; it would generate a warmer island thereby increasing the overall energy demands. Hurricane Sandy struck the New York City in 2012 and had severe impacts which tested the limitations of the city’s planning capacities. The impact on houses, subway system, power stations and overall economy was a major setback costing USD 19 billion. The frequency of such floods and hurricanes would be higher by 2050. The research done observes the impact of climate change and develops a model for New York City’s riverfront in the Meat Packing District. Revitalizing the Gansevoort Peninsula by creating public, research and informative spaces would transform the neighborhood allowing locals and visitors to have a visionary approach for future. The strategies and research in the current project would provide an architectural response to the existing condition and a model to design a more resilient New York City for the future.

The articulation of frame and skin forms the space concertedly. The project, stemming from this assertion, searches, explores and articulates the intricate relationship between structure, skin and space as prominent elements of architecture. / Master of Architecture

This thesis examines how the organizations ASPIRA and the Young Lords Party fostered a cultural identity within Puerto Ricans in New York or “Nuyoricans.” ASPIRA, founded in 1961 by Antonia Pantoja, aimed to create leaders who would later give back to their communities. They established clubs for Puerto Rican high school students in schools and at ASPIRA centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx. The Young Lords Party, founded in 1969, was a grassroots organization that fought against social injustices through their initiatives called “offensives.” ASPIRA and the Young Lords Party contributed greatly towards the development of a Nuyorican identity and instilled a sense of pride within their members and their surrounding community through utilizing various methods and strategies to teach Puerto Rican history and culture. Although the two organizations are connected, they differed significantly. ASPIRA operated with an institutional approach while the Young Lords used revolutionary and aggressive grassroots methods. This thesis studies the influence on the origins and structures of ASPIRA and the Young Lords Party, the institutional and grassroots strategies and tactics used to teach Puerto Rican history and culture and foster a Nuyorican cultural identity, and the major outcomes and impact of ASPIRA and the Young Lords on Puerto Ricans in New York.

This thesis examines six trans feminine informants in New York City's experiences of oppression, trans-misogyny, femi-negativity, racism, and classism, as well as their experiences of community support, conflicts and resistance practices through the lens of the term sisterhood and the practice of sisterhooding. Focus has also been placed on the informant's views on allyship and coalition, and their relationship to other communities, such as the trans masculine community. The research has been conducted through in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews with six trans feminine activists in New York City. The informant group was heterogenous in regards to age, race/ethnicity, as well as in regards to where in the city they resided and which parts of the movement they were engaged in. My findings follow Jenny Gunnarsson Payne's (2006) theory on sisterhood as an empty signifier, as my informants had different definition's of the term and concept of sisterhood, and while all of them expressed ambivalences towards the term and concept, they also all used the term to varying degrees. Several saw advantages in using the term to describe kinship and solidarity between trans feminine people. The participating informants in the study listed several different conflicts within trans feminine movements. Many of them were generally skeptical to conflicts, especially to those related to cattiness, competition, language and terminology – sentiment's which I agree with, albeit with the addition, which some of my informant's also stressed, that certain conflict's regarding differences in oppressions related to intersectional hierarchies, may be necessary. In the concluding chapter I argue for an understanding of trans-sisterhood based both on an understanding of similarities and difference's in experience and an understanding of solidarity that prioritizes the voices, perspectives and leadership of the most marginalized. My informant's described grave street harassment, employment discrimination and experiences of desexualization from gay/queer men and hypersexualization from so-called tranny chasers. Because of the lack of previous research on trans femininities from the perspective of an understanding of the specific oppressions of trans-misogyny and femi-negativity, this thesis has had a broad, rather then detailed, perspective and following in the foot steps of Julia Serano (2007) argues for an analysis on the position of trans women and other trans femininities beyond the gender neutral category of transgender. A majority of my informants sharp statements on the subordination of trans femininity to trans masculinity supports my argument for the need of more research in the field of trans femininity studies with perspectives from both transgender studies and critical femininity studies. / Genom djupintervjuer undersöker uppsatsen sex olika transfeminina informanter i New Yorks erfarenheter av förtryck, trans-misogyni, femi-negativitet, rasism och klassism, såväl som deras erfarenheter av stöd, konflikter och motståndspraktiker, vilket sker genom ett undersökande av deras inställning till termen systerskap och den systerskapande praktiken. Fokus har också legat på informanternas syn på allierade, koalitioner och deras relation till andra grupper, som till exempel transmaskulina personer. För att fånga in en intersektionell bredd av erfarenheter var informantgruppen heterogen i förhållande till ålder, “ras”/etnicitet, samt i förhållande till var de bodde i staden och vilka delar av rörelsen de var engagerade i. Informanterna beskrev grova erfarenheter av trakasserier på gatorna och diskriminering på arbetsmarknaden, samt erfarenheter av hypersexualisering från så kallade tranny chaser's och avsexualisering från homosexuella och queera män. I linje med Jenny Gunnarsson Payne's (2006) teori om systerskap som tom signifikant, hade mina informanter många olika definitioner av begreppet systerskap, och medan många av dem uttryckte ambivalenser i förhållande till termen, använde sig alla av begreppet i varierande grad. Flera av dem såg stora fördelar i att använda termen för att beskriva samhörighet och solidaritet mellan transfeminina. Mina informanter listade flera olika konflikter inom de transfeminina rörelsen och var allmänt skeptiska till konflikter, framförallt till de som handlade om elaka attityder, tävlande, språk och terminologi – vilket jag håller med dem om, med tillägget, som en del informanter också tydliggjorde, att visa konflikter gällande intersektionella hierarkier kan vara nödvändiga. Jag argumenterar  för en förståelse av trans-systerskap som baseras både i en förståelse av likheter och skillnader i erfarenheter sam i en förståelse av solidaritet som prioriterar perspektiven och ledarskapet av de mest marginaliserade rösterna. Uppsatsen har ett brett perspektiv eftersom det tidigare gjorts väldigt lite forskning om transfemininiter utifrån den specifika förståelsen av trans-misogyni och femi-negativitet. I likhet med Julia Serano (2007) argumenterar jag för ett analyserande av transkvinnors och andra transfemininas situation bortanför trans som könsneutral kategori och får stöd i majoriteten av mina informanters skarpa uttalanden om den hierarkiska underordningen av transfemininitet gentemot transmaskulinitet. Slutligen menar jag att det behövs mer forskning inom fältet transfemininitetsstudier med perspektiv både från kritiska femininitetsstudier och transstudier.

The twin crises of the Covid pandemic and the climate emergency have led to a need to reconsider the way we use our cities. Many cities have implemented street conversion programs, aimed at shifting away from prioritization of cars in street usage. Two fairly successful examples of these types of programs are the Open Streets program in New York City and the Future Streets program in Stockholm.This study uses thematic coding to examine how local journalism portrayed these programs to readers, supplemented by interviews with the planners in charge of the programs as well as academics studying the programs.The outcome of this study reveals differing local coverage of the programs in New York City and Stockholm. Local coverage in New York City tended to be more detailed and focus more on the theory behind various decisions. This coverage also relied heavily on opinion. Local coverage in Stockholm was more sparse, and relied more on close reporting of practical details of the program, as well as direct quotes from residents. The reporting in both instances provides insight on how planning projects are written about in local media, as well as the way public participation plays out with the help ofreporting.

There is much potential to decrease energy consumption in the U.S. by encouraging compact, centralized development. Although many studies have examined the extent to which built environment and demographic factors are related to household energy use, few have considered both building and transportation energy together. We hypothesized that residents living further from city centers, or urban cores, consume more energy for both purposes than their inner city counterparts, resulting in a direct relationship between building and transportation energy usage. This hypothesis was tested with two case studies. The first focused on New York City. Annual building energy per unit of parcels, or tax lots, containing large multi-family structures was compared to the daily transportation energy use per household of traffic analysis zones (TAZs) (estimated with a regional travel demand model). Transportation energy showed a strong spatial pattern, with distance to urban core explaining 63% of variation in consumption. Building energy use was randomly distributed, resulting in a weak negative correlation with transportation energy. However, both correlation with distance to urban core and transportation energy became significant and positive when portion of detached single-family units for TAZs was used as a proxy for building energy. Structural equation models (SEMs) revealed a direct relationship between log lot depth and both uses of energy, and inverse relationship between portion of attached housing units and transportation energy. This supports the notion that sprawling development increases both the building and transportation energy consumption of households. For the second analysis, annual building and automobile energy use per household were estimated for block groups across the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan regions with Esri Consumer Expenditure Data. Both forms of energy consumption per household were lowest in inner cities and increased at greater distances from urban cores. Although there may be some error in estimates from modeled expenditure data, characteristics associated with lower energy use, such as portion of attached housing units and commuters that utilize transit or pedestrian modes, were negatively correlated with distance to urban core. Overall, this work suggests there are spatial patterns to household energy consumption, with households further from urban cores using more building and transportation energy. There is the greatest gain in efficiency to be had by suburban residents.

In this thesis it is argued that a full and complete understanding of the eugenics movement may only be gained by examining those who were implicated in its criticisms. Using the example of three Christian missionary organisations that worked amongst largely poor and immigrant communities in London and New York, it is demonstrated that eugenics was a pervasive ideology outside its 'official' societies. Moving away from an understanding grounded in ideas of conflict and concession, it will be demonstrated that those whose work was challenged by eugenic claims were able to interpret the ideology according to their existing reformist agendas. Hereditarian ideas did not sound the death knell for reformers, and these organisations demonstrated both the willingness and capacity to shape eugenic ideas within and outside their organisations. From these examples it is argued there is a need to move beyond definitions of eugenics that limit the movement to a small subset of its methods. Far from being a peripheral aspect to the history of eugenics, it will be seen that these missionary agencies occupied a position at the centre of eugenicists' concerns. As prominent providers of charity, a work charged by eugenicists with unnaturally hindering the natural laws of selection, religious communities were, in part, one of the reasons that eugenics was deemed necessary in the first place. This picture is confirmed by an examination of two eugenics societies, one on each side of the Atlantic, where the impact of religious sentiment and ideas exerted a dramatic effect upon policies and propaganda work. There was no one-way flow of ideology from eugenicists towards reformers, but rather a two-way dialogue which created a marked impression on both groups.