This study compares repertoire and framing between two protests in the early Dutch environmental movement and two protests in the modern Dutch environmental movement. The aim of the study is to find differences and similarities between the two time periods the protests take place in. The four cases are studied using the comparative case study method, specifically doing a historical comparison. In each case, the theoretical concepts of repertoire and framing are analyzed. Each case is studied through a qualitative analysis of archival and secondary sources, including newspaper articles, publications and social media posts. Using the theoretical concepts of framing and repertoire, several similarities and differences are found between the four cases. All four cases use the frame of the threat to human health in their campaigns and aimed for a low threshold for people to join their campaigns. Frames differed more across campaigns with different topics than across campaigns from different time periods. In repertoire, cases differed across time periods more than within time periods. The contemporary cases focus on commitment by showing the willingness to bear great personal risk, whereas the historical cases focus on showcasing their worthiness through alliances with strategic actors. Overall, the comparative historical analysis employed in this research reveals that there are greater differences between time periods when it comes to repertoire than in framing, showing that repertoire is defined more by time period than framing for the chosen cases.

Multiple accelerated cultural and social changes have been attributed to social media, from mobilizing social movements to problematizing or normalizing terms and concepts. Digital platforms are considered a vital element in the ecosystem for realizing change in societies, yet the focus is often on overtly sociopolitical content and the issue-driven or identity-driven networked society content. However, and despise the ubiquitous nature of digital media, the accumulative impact of mundane casual interaction has rarely been scrutinized beyond its ability to support rapport building. This research explores the influence of the mundane content in communities’ cultural repertoire. It positions it in the schema of narrative (re)building and meaning (re)making tools, processes that contribute to making lasting impactful change in society. The research especially highlights how the mundane content serves to aid the cultural evolvement of marginalized communities annihilated from the public sphere. Utilizing Paolo Freire’s critical consciousness, Andrea Brock’s work on Black cyberculture, and Zizi Papacharissi’s affective public thesis, this research explores how cultural and digital practices of the (stateless) Bidoon community in Kuwait intertwine in their everyday usage of Twitter. Through digital ethnography that involved discourse analysis of tweets and in-depth interviews with eight participants from the Bidoon community, this research exhibits how mundane Twitter usage has allowed the Bidoon community to reinterpret and recontextualize their cause through weaving their interpersonal grievances into a collective narrative, and how regaining power over their story and using the platform to spread their voice empowered a sense of agency to not only imagine a new world but also find creative ways to realize it. Mundane Twitter has allowed Bidoons to create counternarratives, penetrate the public sphere, control the advocacy rhetoric, and regain power over cultural symbols and thus their relationship with their collective memory. Through highlighting how what appears to be inefficient mundane tweets actually intertwine cultural with digital practices and motivate critical dialogue and reflective processes, this research identifies the importance of raising critical consciousness as an affordance of mundane Twitter, and it encourages extending the scoop of what is considered critical action to be inclusive of the accumulative digital efforts of communities suffering from cultural erasure. / Media & Communication

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<p>I studied acoustic and visual communication in the Smooth-billed Ani, a joint-nesting, cooperatively breeding cuckoo. I describe vocal repertoire of this species using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this first, formal description of the species’ repertoire, I provide verbal descriptions of each call type, the contexts in which each call is produced, spectrograms, and acoustic measurements for each call type. I used multivariate statistics to show that call types can be correctly classified based on acoustic measurements alone. Smooth-billed Anis are capable of complex communication, including the use of functionally referential alarms and signals of aggression that reliably predict attack. Functionally referential signals are produced in response to a specific set of stimuli and elicit predictable, appropriate responses in signal receivers, even in the absence of any other cues. I show that anis produce two distinct signal types, <em>chlurps</em> and <em>ahnee</em> <em>alarms</em>, in response to two different predator classes, aerial and terrestrial, respectively. I also show that receiver responses to playback of these alarm signals are distinct and appropriate to evade predation from aerial and terrestrial attackers. Aggressive signals should increase in aggressive contexts, predict subsequent aggression and elicit responses from signal receivers. I show that <em>hoots</em>, an acoustic signal, and throat inflation, a visual signal, both increase in aggressive contexts and reliably predict aggressive escalation in the form of direct attacks on a mount. The receiver response to <em>hoots</em> and throat inflation remains to be tested. In the synthesis, I provide suggestions for future research.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

The purpose of this research was to examine the potential relationship between students’ degree of familiarity with repertoire common to beginning band method books and aural-based music achievement after one year of study. Three research questions guided this study: (1) Which songs from the Familiar Repertoire Survey (FRS) are reported as being the most and least familiar to the sample? (2) For a familiar song, “Lightly Row,” can FRS scores predict (a) Familiar Music Achievement Singing Test (FMAST) scores, (b) Familiar Music Achievement Playing Test (FMAPT) scores, (c) Familiar Music Achievement Improvisation Singing Test (FMAIST) scores, and (d) Familiar Music Achievement Improvisation Playing Test (FMAIPT) scores? (3) For an unfamiliar song, “Finish Line,” can FRS scores predict (a) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Singing Test (UMAST) scores, (b) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Playing Test (UMAPT) scores, (c) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Improvisation Singing Test (UMAIST) scores, and (d) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Improvisation Playing Test (UMAIPT) scores? Participants (N = 17) were fifth and sixth grade students enrolled in their second year of beginning band in a New Jersey elementary school. I created two measurement instruments: FRS, designed to gauge the breadth and depth of students’ familiarity with songs common to beginning band method books, and the Music Achievement Test (MAT) designed to measure aural-based music achievement in singing, playing by ear, and improvising on a familiar and unfamiliar song. In the first session, participants completed FRS by listening to songs common to beginning band books and completing a Likert-type survey on their familiarity with each song. Later, participants watched MAT through an interactive video which prompted them to complete eight musical subtests. I recorded all performances. Judges rated each performance with two rating scales. I analyzed the frequency of responses for each song and found “Hot Cross Buns,” “Jingle Bells,” “Pierrot,” “Lightly Row,” and “London Bridge” to be the most familiar songs. Through linear regressions, I analyzed the ability of FRS to predict MAT scores. I found a significant regression equation between FRS and its ability to predict FMAST scores and UMAIST scores. The current exploratory study contained many limitations which restricts its generalizability to other beginning band populations; however, six conclusions can be made. Familiarity with common beginning band repertoire as represented by a selection of 24 songs common to beginning band method books does not predict students’ achievement (a) singing an unfamiliar song, (b) demonstrating through singing improvisation based on a familiar song, (c) playing by ear a familiar or unfamiliar song, and (d) improvising on an instrument, whether improvising within the context of a familiar or unfamiliar song. Familiarity with common beginning band repertoire does predict students’ achievement (a) singing a familiar song and (b) demonstrating through singing improvisation based on an unfamiliar song. / Music Education / Accompanied by one .mp3 file and one .xlsx file (Microsoft Excel 2007).