This thesis examines unsewn cloth pieces which once belonged to Victoria Wood and places them into their social and historical context. It uses the biography of Victoria Wood and her fabrics to argue for the importance of fabric collecting and dressmaking for New Zealand women from 1935 to 1955. It questions why ubiquitous fabrics bought for dress making are not represented in historical accounts of women, or in more general accounts of historical clothing and dress. Aspects of material culture theories are employed to analyse the material properties of the fabric pieces. These are situated within a wider domestic context to demonstrate that there were intrinsic qualities of fabric that influenced and were imagined by many women in this period. Oral histories and other documentary research add to the wider account and provide evidence of the way that dressmaking fabrics reflected the shifting notions of domesticity. The thesis suggests that fabrics bought for the creation of clothing can represent the past or a person. It also demonstrates how dressmaking fabrics simultaneously embody personal and social narratives which reflect the emotional and cultural values of a particular period. In this thesis I construct narratives which are based on the social and historical findings to highlight the importance of fabric collecting and dressmaking as an everyday domestic practice.

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In this thesis I investigate the relationships between mass media and popular notions of archaeology in Australia, and consider the implications of these relationships for the public outreach strategies of Australian archaeologists. First, I review the limited survey data available regarding public opinions of archaeology in Australia, together with the results from more extensive surveys conducted in North America. These surveys suggest that popular perceptions of archaeology include a variety of misconceptions that are incongruous with the ethical goals of the profession. Second, I develop a theoretical model of mass media that articulates the nature of the relationships between the producers of mass media and their audiences. This model predicts that widespread popular notions of archaeology are likely to be reflected in the texts of mainstream mass media. Third, I present the results of a content analysis study undertaken in relation to archaeological documentary programs screened on Australian television, demonstrating that a number of misconceptions about archaeology are strongly reinforced by these programs. This suggests that such misconceptions are deeply entrenched within contemporary Australian society. Finally, I identify a number of pathways along which archaeologists might seek to engage mass media as part of a broader 'popularisation' approach to public outreach in Australian archaeology.

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The relevance of the sustainable development approach for land conservation in tropical hill regions is often assumed, but is seldom evaluated against local realities. This study analyses the causes of land degradation and unsustainability in the seasonally fire-prone region of Navosa, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands. A complex and multi-layered set of connections exists between livelihood strategies and the environment in this region where fire is used as a tool. Traditional institutions governing land management have been undermined, however, and the sustainability of the vanua (or land-people nexus) is threatened. Despite their reliance on fire, local participants reported uncontrolled burning (caused by a minority of villagers) and deforestation leading to land degradation, lower productivity and damage to fisheries. Degradation was increasing parallel with escalating human and animal populations, despite relatively equitable, resilient and livelihood-enhancing cultural institutions. Non-indigenous models of resource use, imposed by colonial and neocolonial authorities, have exacerbated land degradation and compromised indigenous resource management. Traditional tenure and leadership are impeded, leading to inequities in access to land as populations increase, and leaving local leaders unable to enact conservation. An intrusive market-based economic system encourages increased resource exploitation with little regard for environmental sustainability. A traditional model of agroarboriculture and indigenous development in the form of still-observable (but largely disused) irrigated terraces suggests the relevance of a sustainable alternative based on indigenous knowledge. To achieve sustainable development in Navosa, the emphasis should be on socio-environmental amelioration rather than on economic development (which exacerbates degradation), and to this end, local participants expressed a desire for particular conservation strategies.

This thesis focuses specifically on student media consumption around the Syrian Refugee Crisis at the Claremont Colleges through interviews and participant observation in order to understand the role of media photos in knowledge production around the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Looking at the role of photos in a cross-cultural understanding of the Refugee Crisis, this thesis analyzes the way individuals read and interpret these photos. I argue that photos have a vital role in knowledge production of the Syrian Refugee Crisis however their presentation and consumption occurs in a complex world without guidelines of what photos impact are and how they should be used. Finally, I aim to understand the potential for more ideal representation of the Syrian Refugee Crisis.

The goal of this research is to analyze the stigmatization of opioid addiction within the framework of emergency care from an ethnographic perspective. Interviews with those who have been swept up in the current opioid epidemic indicate that stigma, or a shame or dishonor, and socioeconomic insecurity emerge often as common themes in their emergency care experiences. In many cases, socioeconomic insecurity most intensely translates into a lack of access to healthcare and emergency rooms across the country often function as primary care for uninsured populations. The central field site selected for this study was the emergency department of an urban trauma-level research hospital in an attempt to document the process of care for those in opioid crisis and the challenges healthcare providers face in facilitating this care. The aim of this research is to discover how stigma affects care in emergency room settings during an acute opioid crisis. This is a moment when patients may be most open to the idea of detoxification and sobriety. In this study, I argue that addiction can be shifted from being viewed as a disgraceful state to a medical condition, by uncovering what experiences overdose victims have while under emergency care, how patients experience stigma related to their opioid crisis, and what challenges healthcare providers describe while facilitating care during crisis. Findings suggest that stigma permeates the interactions drug-addicted patients have with healthcare professionals and that it may have a negative impact on their decision to seek further treatment. Application of results in the form of a community resource guide made available to patients and hospital staff indicate the potential for reducing stigma of intravenous/opioid-related addiction as healthcare providers are more able to discern gaps in care for addicted patients and facilitate greater follow-up care and access to resources. This thesis illustrates the potential for qualitative analysis of acute care to uncover vital next steps in reducing the stigma surrounding opioid addiction. Reducing stigma in the provision of care could foster more integrative approaches to treatment, help inform new protocols for caregivers, uncover resources to aid healthcare providers, and potentially provide a more substantial level of care and access to resources for the patient in crisis—one that may facilitate recovery in lieu of relapse.

A source of emigration until the early 1970s, Greece has become home to a rising tide of immigrants since 1991, and its foreign-born population rose from below one to over 11 percent. Equally important is the fact that the Greek state has historically premised national belonging on ethnicity, and striven to exclude people who did not exhibit Greek ethnic traits. My study examines how immigration has challenged this nationalist model of ethnically homogeneous belonging. Further, it uses the Greek case to problematize the hegemonic assumption that the nationalist model of social organization is a human universal. Data consist of reactions to a 2010 landmark law that constituted the first jus soli bill in the nation’s history, and include a plurality of voices found in parliamentary proceedings, newspapers, a government-sponsored online forum and Facebook discussions. Voices examined correspond to three main conceptual camps: people who premise belonging on ethnicity and hegemonic definitions of what it means to be Greek, people who mitigate nationalist norms enough to include immigrants, but reproduce a nationalist worldview, and people who seek to divorce political belonging from ethnicity altogether.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Argentine wine industry experienced a shift from quantity to quality production which occurred while economic policies in Argentina opened economic opportunities for investment in the country. With these new opportunities, the industry began to focus on producing quality wine because of the desire to export and compete in the international market. As foreign investment entered Mendoza, the heart of Argentine wine country, new ideas and knowledge about wine production began to disseminate into the region and everyday practices. The shift from quantity to quality production was a paradigm shift in that it ushered in a new way of understanding quality in relation to the land, resulted in the younger generation of winemakers excelling in the region, and ultimately led to a new way of viewing production practices and techniques entirely separate from the previous century of production. This project asks: to what extent did this shift impact the implementation and regulation of geographic indications in Mendoza? It seeks to understand the impact that terroir-driven wine production imparted on Argentine winemakers to illuminate the resilience and perseverance of a growing wine center in the Global South.