In the tradition of the Birmingham School of cultural studies, this thesis focuses on Miami’s graffiti subculture and the conflicts between market economies and economies of social meaning. As a reference point, I consider Miami’s “Penits”: the name given to the seemingly abandoned buildings where graffiti is performed. Short for penitentiary, the term derives from the 1980s after a large building rumored to be a prison was defunded midway through its construction. After this first reclamation, every other graffiti heterotopia in Miami has been similarly recoded as spaces that mock structures of discipline and industry. Through Michel Foucault’s biopolitical framework I argue that the sovereign state and marketplace conspire to dually criminalize and commoditize the subculture’s performative defiance. I conclude by illustrating how the market itself reinforces the carceral archipelago by framing the subculture’s vandal aesthetic through the normalized, self-interested boundaries of conduct that the market itself deems il/legal.

While much attention has been given to the ways local communities may be impacted by climate change, this dissertation focuses ethnographically on the local agencies decision-making processes, a less-studied aspect of this topic. The primary purpose of this dissertation research is to understand how government agencies in southern Florida integrate climate change into their decision-making processes while dealing with political resistance. This research expands our understanding on the cultural politics of a new kind of environmental change, where national and international climate-change politics is brought into local water politics to illuminate how new and not so new visions about life in the contemporary metropolis collide and collude. Using multiple research methods including ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and document research, I analyze the activities of the Miami-Dade County Climate Change Advisory Task Force Committee (MDC-CCATF) as well as the water management practices of the regional water management agency, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). My findings include the following: (1) the Task Force activities have spearheaded Miami’s institutional adaptation to climate change; (2) historic legacies have expanded and complicated decision-making processes at the District; (3) a focus on the certainties of climate-change science allows climate change to persist in politically contentious planning contexts. My dissertation concluded that while planning for potential climate-change impacts can be difficult due to multiple institutional constraints that resource agencies like the District have, scientists and policy-makers have crafted an innovative culture that is particularly visible at sites where science and decision making intersect.

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The objective of this master thesis The image of television journalist in American television series is to unveil personality traits of main characters in five selected American series during five decades (from the beginning of the 1970s to present) by means of combination of interpretative reading and semiotic (visual) analysis, and by that interpret representation of journalists. Subsequently the typologies of journalistic characters by Brian McNair and Joe Saltzman are used to categorize 27 central figures to types or stereorypes. Majority of characters combined more different types but it could be stated that all images of journalists were positive - possibly due to bigger popularity among viewers. Simultaneously it is neccesary to point out that characters across analysed series classified to same categories are not fully identical - characters show enough resemblance for type identification but similarities are outweighed by differences.

This thesis investigates the effectiveness of Low Impact Development Infrastructure (LIDI) and Green Infrastructure (GI) in reducing flooding resulting from heavy rainfall events and sea-level rise, and in improving stormwater quality in the City of Miami Beach (CMB). InfoSWMM was used to simulate the 5, 10, and 100-year, 24-hour storm events, total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) loadings, and in evaluating the potential of selected LIDI and GI solutions in North Shore neighborhood. Post-development results revealed a decrease of 48%, 46%, and 39% in runoff, a decrease of 57%, 60%, and 62% in TSS, a decrease of 82%, 82%, and 84% in BOD, and a decrease of 69%, 69%, and 70% in COD loadings. SWMM 5.1 was also used to simulate the king tide effect in a cross section in Indian Creek Drive. The proposed design simulations successfully demonstrated the potential to control flooding, showing that innovative technologies offer the city opportunities to cope with climate impacts. This study should be most helpful to the CMB to support its management of flooding under any adaptation scenarios that may possibly result from climate changes. Flooding could be again caused as a result of changes in inland flooding from precipitation patterns or from sea-level rise or both.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Indiana’s state park system developed as a result of state centennial celebrations in 1916. Government officials created state parks as a permanent memorial that glorified the Hoosier pioneer spirit, which celebrated actions of white colonists as they confronted challenges of the new industrial twentieth century. However, this memorialization erased the Lenni Lenape, Miami, Potawatomi, and Shawnee tribes played in the state’s history. This paper analyzes the Indiana statehood centennial celebrations as sites of erasure of Native American contributions to state and national history. It examines how Richard Lieber, the founder of the parks system, and others built the state park system to understand the ways individual state parks commemorated that Hoosier pioneer spirit at the expense of Native American voices. Turkey Run, McCormick’s Creek, Clifty Falls, Indiana Dunes, Pokagon, Spring Mill, and Lincoln State Parks are critiqued in this analysis to illustrate how each park encompasses and presents the story of colonization.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-68).

The anisotropy of the Biscayne Aquifer which serves as the source of potable water for Miami-Dade County was investigated by applying geophysical methods. Electrical resistivity imaging, self potential and ground penetration radar techniques were employed in both regional and site specific studies. In the regional study, electrical anisotropy and resistivity variation with depth were investigated with azimuthal square array measurements at 13 sites. The observed coefficient of electrical anisotropy ranged from 1.01 to 1.36. The general direction of measured anisotropy is uniform for most sites and trends W-E or SE-NW irrespective of depth. Measured electrical properties were used to estimate anisotropic component of the secondary porosity and hydraulic anisotropy which ranged from 1 to 11% and 1.18 to 2.83 respectively. 1-D sounding analysis was used to models the variation of formation resistivity with depth. Resistivities decreased from NW (close to the margins of the everglades) to SE on the shores of Biscayne Bay. Porosity calculated from Archie's law, ranged from 18 to 61% with higher values found along the ridge. Higher anisotropy, porosities and hydraulic conductivities were on the Atlantic Coastal Ridge and lower values at low lying areas west of the ridge. The cause of higher anisotropy and porosity is attributed to higher dissolution rates of the oolitic facies of the Miami Formation composing the ridge. The direction of minimum resistivity from this study is similar to the predevelopment groundwater flow direction indicated in published modeling studies. Detailed investigations were carried out to evaluate higher anisotropy at West Perrine Park located on the ridge and Snapper Creek Municipal well field where the anisotropy trend changes with depth. The higher anisotropy is attributed to the presence of solution cavities oriented in the E-SE direction on the ridge. Similarly, the change in hydraulic anisotropy at the well field might be related to solution cavities, the surface canal and groundwater extraction wells.

Nights in The City Beautiful is a collection of confessional, free verse poems that explores sexual trauma, mental health, the exigencies of marriage, and the complexities of human desire. These interconnected poems are grounded with a braided narrative and tackle taboo themes. In Part 1: Monogamy, the reader journeys into the world of Vincent and Victoria, their profound love, and their anxiety disorders. In Part 2: Polyamory, Victoria gets caught in a love triangle when she meets her publishing coworker, Peter Langley. The book evokes the movement of Romanticism and first-and-second-generation Romantic poets such as William Blake and Lord Byron. Contemporary influences on this collection include Aaron Smith’s Primer, Stacey Waite’s Butch Geography, and Tracy K. Smith’s The Body's Question. Nights in The City Beautiful merges lyricism with narrative, the ethereal with the physical. It is a novella in verse that delves into the boundaries of sexuality, love, and intimacy.

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