Stable isotopes of mammoths and mastodons have the potential to illuminate ecological changes in late Pleistocene landscapes and megafaunal populations as these species approached extinction. The ecological factors at play in this extinction remain unresolved, but isotopes of bone collagen (δ13C, δ15N) and tooth enamel (δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr) from midwestern North America are leveraged to examine ecological and behavioral changes that occurred during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. Both species had significant C3 contributions to their diets and experienced increasing levels of niche overlap as they approached extinction. A subset of mastodons after the last glacial maximum exhibit low δ15N values that may represent expansion into a novel ecological niche, perhaps densely occupied by other herbivores. Stable isotopes from serial and microsampled enamel show increasing seasonality and decreasing temperatures as mammoths transitioned from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e to glacial conditions (MIS 4, MIS 3, MIS 2). Isotopic variability in enamel suggests mobility patterns and life histories have potentially large impacts on the interpretation of their stable isotope ecology. This study further refines the ecology of midwestern mammoths and mastodons demonstrating increasing seasonality and niche overlap as they responded to landscape changes in the final millennia before extinction.

Soil erosion undermines agricultural productivity, limiting the lifespan of civilizations. For agriculture to be sustainable, soil erosion rates must be low enough to maintain fertile soil, as was present in many agricultural landscapes prior to the initiation of farming. However, there have been few measurements of long-term pre-agricultural erosion rates in major agricultural landscapes. We quantified geological erosion rates in the Midwestern U.S., one of the world’s most productive agricultural areas. We sampled soil profiles from 14 native prairies and measured concentrations of the cosmogenic nuclide 10Be and chemically immobile elements to calculate physical erosion rates. We used the erosion rates and measurements of topographic curvature to estimate a pre- agricultural topographic diffusion coefficient. We find pre-agricultural erosion rates of 0.0001–0.1 mm yr-1 and a site-averaged diffusion coefficient of 0.005 m2 yr-1. The pre- agricultural erosion rates and diffusion coefficient we measured are both orders of magnitude lower than anthropogenic values previously measured in adjacent agricultural fields. The pre-agricultural erosion rates are one to four orders of magnitude lower than the 1 mm yr-1 soil loss tolerance value assigned to these locations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hence, as currently defined, tolerable soil loss will lead to unsustainable erosion of Midwestern soils. However, quantifying natural erosion rates via cosmogenic nuclides provides a means for more robustly defining rates of tolerable soil loss and developing management guidelines that promote soil sustainability.

This thesis establishes the concept of Rust Belt aesthetics, a term for the artistic and cultural narratives that define, analyze, critique, or otherwise describe the deindustrialized U.S. Midwest, a region commonly referred to as the Rust Belt. This thesis explores how aesthetic projects re-present the experience of deindustrialization. The locus of this analysis is the region, and the thesis argues that the region operates as a discursive device that can mediate between and through other spatial “levels,” like the local or the global. Rust Belt aesthetics emerge from a moment of regional, national, and global transformations, and these aesthetics can construct the region to various political ends. The thesis analyzes aesthetics projects like advertisements, literature, and visual art in order to provide insight into the shifting economic, cultural, and social forces at play in the region and beyond. The goal of my analysis is not to arrive at a static definition of Rust Belt aesthetics. Instead, I hope to understand how aesthetic projects from and about the region communicate specific narratives about the Rust Belt, often through the lens of critical regionalism and the everyday life of the working class. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis will investigate the effect of extractive industries on the economy of an average Midwestern town from the mid-1800s until the conclusion of the WWII. Primary and secondary sources were studied to gain an understanding of the effect of extractive industries on the development of Midland Michigan. Due to its complete reliance on extractive industries for its economic welfare Midland suffered extreme economic upheavals. In conclusion Midland’s intensive boom and bust economy mirrors Michigan’s own rocky relationship with extractive industries.

These stories examine the lives of working class people in light of the current economic and social climate. They address and attempt to empathize with the despair and disillusionment many working class Americans express in response to their economic and social realities, and the stories attempt to walk a non-judgmental line regarding the attitudes these characters espouse. Instead of judging the characters or championing a particular moral stance, the pieces attempt to present individuals faced with major failures: child abandonment, guilt over preventable death, overriding selfishness, racism, and shame regarding social status. These failures of character or morality echo the larger failings, as the characters perceive them, of their time and place. Within this worldview of disillusionment and despair, many of the characters in these stories choose to struggle toward self-betterment—not economic or social betterment per se, but individual betterment, a reckoning with themselves and their failures that necessarily reflects and interacts with the world they inhabit. These are stories rooted in the Midwest and its rust-belt inhabitants, but for all their contemporary socio-economic concerns, the stories are first and foremost concerned with the individual and representing each individual portrayed accurately and honestly. / Master of Fine Arts

No description available.

No description available.

Dans cette étude, nous examinons la trajectoire d’un migrant canadien-français au XIXe siècle, Sam Gravel, ainsi que les changements identitaires qu’il subit en fonction des lieux de migration qu’il atteint. Sam se rend en Nouvelle-Angleterre en 1882 pendant quelques mois. Il revient brièvement au Québec puis immigre dans l’Ouest canadien en 1883 et y demeurera jusqu’en 1891. Il s’établira ensuite dans le Midwest américain jusqu’en 1897. Il rentrera finalement au Québec et s’installera dans le village de Somerset en 1897. Il décède en 1899 d’une noyade à Québec. C’est en analysant son parcours migratoire, son mode d’établissement et son discours que nous pouvons déterminer comment s’insère sa migration dans les courants de migration du XIXe siècle. Est-ce que ses choix sont représentatifs de la majorité des migrants de l’époque ? Comment ces choix influencent-ils sa perception des autres groupes ethniques ainsi que ses valeurs religieuses et familiales? Sam tient un discours qui se rapproche beaucoup de celui des Canadiens français de l’époque alors qu’il se trouve dans l’Ouest canadien et tend à s’en dégager alors qu’il atteint le Midwest américain.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Christy Craft / In this study, I sought to determine how the multicultural competence scores of entry-level housing professionals were impacted by the demographic characteristics of race, gender, sexual orientation, years of experience, and graduate school diversity curricular content and experiences. Additionally, it was important to establish a baseline of knowledge related to multicultural competence for this particular population of entry-level housing professionals. I selected participants for this study from the 2016 membership directory of the Upper Midwest Region of the Association of College and University Housing Officers (UMR-ACUHO). I used quantitative data analysis methods to answer four research questions. I analyzed the first research question using ANOVA and post hoc tests for each of the demographic variables of race, gender, and sexual orientation. I found statistically significant differences in multicultural competence scores based on race and sexual orientation, while I found no differences by gender. The post hoc examinations revealed that for the various racial categories, there were no statistically significant differences by group. With regard to sexual orientation, I found that gay male participants had multicultural competence scores that were statistically significantly higher than their heterosexual/straight colleagues. I analyzed the third research question using linear regression in an attempt to determine if there was a relationship between years of experience and multicultural competence scores. There was no statistically significant relationship. The final two research questions used ANOVA and post hoc analyses to determine if there were differences in the multicultural competence scores of participants based on the diversity content in their graduate programs and their most impactful multicultural graduate school experiences. I found no statistical differences for either of those research questions.