The plot of my novel in progress, Gentille Alouette, follows a sixteen-year-old female poltergeist named Alouette Tansy as she navigates her complicated relationship with her mother, Rhododendron “Rho” Tansy. Alouette is a violent entity, born out of her mother’s long simmering and manifested angry after Rho witnesses a catastrophic event as a child. Separated from her mother and raised by her grandmother, Elzina “Nona” Tansy, Alouette must come to grips with her otherworldly physicality and strange abilities all while trying to comprehend her own existence and sense of humanity. The short story, Rusalka Rusalka, follows a young girl named Remmie who is suspended from her high school after assaulting another student. She finds herself on work detail in the Great Dismal Swamp aiding Rusalka, the mysterious wife of a renowned marine biologist. Rusalka’s instability and affinity for exotic fish prove much more treacherous that Remmie could have ever imagined.

Globally, peatlands are vulnerable to degradation via drainage, with consequences for ecosystem structure and function such as increased fire vulnerability, soil oxidation, and altered vegetation composition. Peatland function is largely dependent on hydrologic regimes and their influences on the accumulation and properties of peat soil. Therefore, an understanding of soil-hydrology interactions is needed to inform management in drained peatlands, including expansive systems such as the Great Dismal Swamp (GDS; Virginia and North Carolina, USA) where hydrologic restoration is underway. Two physically distinct soil layers have been observed at GDS, the upper layer thought to be a result of past drainage and the lower layer more representative of an undisturbed state. To understand the occurrence and consequences of these distinct layers, we integrated continuous water level data, peat profile characterization, and analyzed soil physical and hydraulic properties. The transition from upper to lower peat soil layers typically occurred at depths below contemporary water level observations, suggesting that the upper layer may be a result of historical drainage with limited recovery following hydrologic restoration. We also found distinct differences between the properties of the two layers, where upper layers had lower fiber and organic matter contents and higher bulk densities. Further, upper layers had higher proportions of macropores, resulting in an overall lower water retention capacity. These differences in layer properties suggest the upper layer is more susceptible to drying, increasing fire vulnerability, oxidation, and shifts in vegetation composition that do not support current management objectives. / Master of Science / Peatlands provide many valuable ecosystem services, including carbon storage, water quality maintenance, and habitat provision. However, peatlands have been subjected to centuries of drainage (i.e., lowered water levels) to support timber harvesting, land conversion, and other land use actions. Drainage and the resulting drier conditions can lead to soil carbon loss, increased fire vulnerability, and changes in vegetation communities. Additionally, peatland drainage has consequences for peat soil properties and their role in ecosystem services. In an effort to restore peatland ecosystem services, hydrologic restoration, usually in the form of water control structures, is often implemented to reduce drainage and reestablish historical water levels. To guide restoration practices, research is needed to understand how drained peat soils respond to such hydrologic management. In this study, we investigated peat soil profiles, current water level regimes, and soil properties at the Great Dismal Swamp (Virginia and North Carolina, USA), a drained peatland currently undergoing hydrologic restoration. We found a visibly distinct upper soil layer, which we suggest developed as a result of past drainage and with little recovery under restored, wetter conditions. We also found that this upper layer has altered soil properties and thus is more vulnerable to drying, with implications for ecosystem function such as fire vulnerability, carbon sequestration and vegetation composition. Together, our findings will help inform restoration and water level management at GDS and our understanding of drained peatlands more broadly.

The evolution of African stateless societies and the diverse impact of their cultures, on political thought previous to and post-modernity, are not well understood. Scholars acknowledge the varied influence of precolonial African culture on the artistic, spiritual, and linguistic expressions of African-descended populations. However, observations regarding the impact of such acephalous societies on the political thought of the African Diaspora remain obscure. The organizational techniques of such societies are best described as a form of kinship-based anarchism. This study seeks to examine the persistence of such organizational techniques among African-descended populations in the United States. The political life and background of Ella Baker will be used as a historical case study to illustrate the possible strands of continuity that may exist between the organizational habitude of African acephalous societies, and modern African-American grassroots political structures.

The Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) is a forested peatland located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Once a mosaic of wetland communities, disturbances (e.g., timber harvesting and ditching) have resulted in altered hydrologic regime, homogenized forest communities, and increased peat subsidence. In response, hydrologic restoration and forest management aim to enhance community composition and function. To help inform these efforts, we investigated variability and drivers of forest communities by surveying vegetation composition and structure, hydrologic indicators, and soil properties at 79 monitoring plots across GDS. Data were augmented with modeled water levels and peat depths. Our results demonstrate red maple (Acer rubrum) dominance across GDS, which decreases tree density, richness, and diversity. However, hierarchical cluster analysis identified four community types: Gum (G), Maple-Gum (M-G), Sweetgum-Maple (SG-M), and Maple (M). These communities differed in tree composition and structure; differences in other growth forms (shrubs, herbaceous, and regeneration) were limited. Modeled water levels failed to explain vegetation differences, but community associations with soil properties suggest that communities exist along a hydrologic gradient. Specifically, the G community likely exists on wetter sites whereas SG-M communities occur at drier locations. Maple-dominated communities (M and M-G; 78% of plots) likely occur across broader hydrologic gradients, explaining their dominance. However, more characterization of hydrology (i.e., time-varying water levels and soil moisture) and other drivers (e.g., site history and soil hydraulics) is needed to further explain community variation. As such, we propose future strategies for long-term monitoring to inform ongoing hydrologic restoration and forest management efforts. / Master of Science

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This thesis details the literary and visual influences in my work, the definition of American Gothic, and its connection it to my work. Literary sources such as Edgar Allan Poe and Fanny Kemble help spark a vision of the landscape. Visual influences include Japanese woodblock prints, scenic wallpapers, vintage postcards and Victorian mourning pictures. My regional explorations span the James River, Tidewater swamps and architecture within the city of Richmond.My work depicts local history and ecology inspired by Richmond and the surrounding region. Subtle Gothic elements add anxiety to the otherwise pastoral scenes. Gothic foreboding in the work questions our ecological future and the permanence of our human presence in the landscape.