I use W.E.B. Du Bois' reference to the worlds 'within and without the veil' as the narrative setting for presenting the case of an African-Bahamian urban cemetery in use from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. I argue that people of African descent lived what Du Bois termed a 'double consciousness.' Thus, the ways in which they shaped and changed this cemetery landscape reflect the complexities of their lives. Since the material expressions of this cemetery landscape represent the cultural perspectives of the affiliated communities so changes in its maintenance constitute archaeologically visible evidence of this process. Evidence in this study includes analysis of human remains; the cultural preference for cemetery space near water; certain trees planted as a living grave site memorial; butchered animal remains as evidence of food offerings; and placement of personal dishes on top of graves.;Based on the manufacture dates for ceramic and glass containers African-derived cultural behavior was no longer practiced after the mid-nineteenth century even though the cemetery remained in use until the early twentieth century. I interpret this change as evidence of a conscious cultural decision by an African-Bahamian population in Nassau to move away from obviously African-derived expressions of cultural identity. I argue that the desire for social mobility motivated this change. Full emancipation was granted in the British Empire by 1838. People of African descent who wanted to take advantage of social opportunities had to give up public expressions of African-derived cultural identity in order to participate more fully and successfully in the dominant society.

Transnational black American women writers' literary renderings of "home" evidence an intersectional relationship among black American literature and cultures. This dissertation analyzes, through the trope of home, these authors' portrayals of the multiplicity of experiences informing black American women's lives and identities both domestically and transnationally. Embracing the transnationalism of black American female subjects, as well as a paradigm of intersectionality, this dissertation creates a framework that challenges not only canon formation with regards to black women's literature in the Americas, but also the rigidity surrounding racial/ethnic and national identities generally. To this end, it distinguishes itself from other scholarship that has largely analyzed these women's writings comparatively or within a larger diasporic framework---which, while insightful, tends to undermine the impact and specificity of "New World" or black American cultures. This dissertation consists of an Introduction that delineates "intersectionality," explicating its significance and relational aspects to what I refer to as "transnational black American." Chapter I analyzes how these black women writers' representations of home problematize "nation"; and, it situates the novels within particular historical, sociopolitical, gendered, and literary contexts. Chapter II investigates Paule Marshall's depictions of African American and Caribbean settings as homespaces integral to protagonist Avey Johnson's black cultural consciousness and healing in Praisesong for the Widow. Chapter III examines the ways Haiti and the United States serve as sites of female sexual violation in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory . Chapter IV analyzes Toni Morrison's and Opal Palmer Adisa's delineations of African American women's attempts to establish a homespace and connection to their "black woman-ness" in transnational black American settings in Tar Baby and It Begins with Tears, respectively. Lastly, the Conclusion underscores this dissertation's significance in its challenging the rigidity of not only African American and Caribbean literary canons and their respective criticisms, but national boundaries and spaces, as well.

This dissertation examines how the work of four Puerto Rican poets – Julia de Burgos, Clemente Soto Vélez, Martín Espada, and Naomi Ayala – demonstrates a poetics of resistance. While resistance takes a variety of forms in their poetic discourse, this project asserts that these poets have and continue to play an integral role in the cultural decolonization of Puerto Rico, which has been generally unacknowledged in both the critical scholarship on their work and the narrative of Puerto Rico’s anti-colonial struggle. Chapter One discuses the theoretical concepts used in defining a poetics of resistance, including Barbara Harlow’s definition of resistance literature, Edward Said’s concepts of cultural decolonization, and Jahan Ramazani’s theory of transnational poetics. Chapter Two provides an overview of Puerto Rico’s unique political status and highlights several pivotal events in the nation’s history, such as El Grito de Lares, the Ponce Massacre, and the Vieques Protest to demonstrate the continuity of the Puerto Rican people’s resistance to oppression and attempted subversion of their colonial status. Chapter Three examines Julia de Burgos’ understudied poems of resistance and argues that she employs a rhetoric of resistance through the use of repetition, personification, and war imagery in order to raise the consciousness of her fellow Puerto Ricans and to provoke her audience into action. By analyzing Clemente Soto Vélez’s use of personification, anaphora, and most importantly, juxtaposition, Chapter Four demonstrates that his poetry functions as a dialectical process and contends that the innovative form he develops throughout his poetic career reinforces his radical perspective for an egalitarian society. Chapter Five illustrates how Martín Espada utilizes rich metaphor, sensory details, and musical imagery to foreground issues of social class, racism, and economic exploitation across geographic, national, and cultural borders. Chapter six traces Naomi Ayala’s feminist discourse of resistance that denounces social injustice while simultaneously expressing a female identity that seeks liberation through her understanding of history, her reverence for memory, and her relationship with the earth. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that Burgos, Soto Vélez, Espada, and Ayala not only advocate for but also enact resistance and social justice through their art.

Parrotfishes (Scarinae) are dominant Caribbean herbivores that play an important role in reducing coral-algae competition by grazing algae; yet some species are also occasional coral predators (corallivores) and thereby can have direct negative impacts on coral growth and survivorship. There is concern that parrotfish corallivory may contribute to substantial long-term declines in targeted coral species, particularly in areas with a high biomass of parrotfishes and low cover of corals. However, the capacity of target coral species to heal from parrotfish predation and the ecological drivers of corallivory are poorly understood. In Chapter 1, we examined the patterns of coral healing from parrotfish predation scars on Orbicella annularis – an ecologically important framework building coral that is one of the most intensely grazed Caribbean coral species and an endangered species. While some researchers have suggested that parrotfishes may have significant long-term impacts on heavily targeted species such as O. annularis, the patterns of coral recovery from parrotfish predation scars remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we tracked the fate of parrotfish bite scars on O. annularis colonies across two Caribbean islands for up to two months. We evaluated differences in coral healing between islands in response to a number of variables including the initial scar surface area, scar abundance per coral colony, colony surface area, and water depth. We used these data to develop a predictive model of O. annularis tissue loss from recent parrotfish bite scars. We then applied this model to surveys of the distribution of bite scars at a point in time to estimate long-term tissue loss of O. annularis colonies from a standing stock of bite scars. Our findings suggest that the initial scar surface area is one of the most important predictors of coral tissue loss. The data also indicate that there are thresholds in patterns of coral tissue regeneration: we observed that small scars (≤1.25 cm2) often fully heal, while larger scars (≥8.2 cm2) had minimal tissue regeneration. The vast majority of observed scars (~87%) were 1.25 cm2 or less and our model predicted that O. annularis colonies would regenerate nearly all the corresponding scar area. In contrast, while scars greater than or equal to than 8.2 cm2 were infrequent (~6% of all observed scars), our model predicted that these larger scars would account for over 96% of the total tissue loss for grazed colonies. Overall, our results suggest that the immediate negative impacts of parrotfish predation on coral tissue loss appear to be driven primarily by a few exceptionally large bite scars. While further work is needed to understand the long-term impacts of corallivory and quantify the net impacts of parrotfish herbivory and corallivory on Caribbean coral reefs, this study is an important step in addressing factors that impact the recovery of a heavily targeted and ecologically important Caribbean coral from parrotfish predation. In Chapter 2, we examined the ecological drivers of corallivory across all coral taxa and across three regions of the Greater Caribbean – the Florida Keys, St. Croix, and Bonaire. To do so, we observed how parrotfish grazing intensity varied using both size and abundance-based metrics across multiple spatial scales. At the reef community and regional scale, we found no effect of the biomass of corallivorous parrotfishes or the percent cover of target coral species on the intensity of parrotfish corallivory. However, at the scale of individual coral colonies, we found that coral taxa and colony size were important predictors of corallivory intensity, and that predation intensity increased as colony size increased. Our findings suggest that previous assertions that conservation of corallivorous parrotfishes may have net negative impacts on coral communities, particularly as live coral cover declines, are not supported at the reef-scale. Instead, our research suggests that colony-level traits such as coral taxa and colony size may be stronger drivers of predation intensity. Additionally, our research suggests that parrotfishes do not heavily graze upon the majority of coral species, but have a higher level of grazing intensity on three taxa, Orbicella annularis, Porites astreoides and other Porites spp. across multiple regions of the Caribbean. Therefore, the direct consequences of parrotfish corallivory for coral tissue loss are likely low for the majority of coral species, but further research is needed to better understand the ultimate causes of selective predation and the long-term consequences of corallivory for heavily targeted coral taxa.

The primary goal of my research is to understand how practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are used to mitigate the elevated numbers of children of African heritage in child welfare. The disproportionate state-sanctioned child welfare apprehensions of Black children present as policing our most vulnerable members from communities of African heritage – our children. The anti-Black state violence in Ontario has been “acknowledged” by child welfare agencies who are now required to address the racial disparities within child welfare agencies. This thesis attempts to understand the histories, complexities, and current measures aimed at mitigating disparities of African, Caribbean, and Black children involved in child protective services from the perspective of child welfare service providers of African heritage. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are incorporated into hegemonic child welfare institutions while the provincial government has failed to publicly critique the current measures implemented to address the disparities for communities of African heritage. Five participants were recruited from the Greater Toronto Hamilton area to participate in one-to-one interviews / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW) / The primary goal of my research is to understand how practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are used to mitigate the elevated numbers of children of African heritage in child welfare. The disproportionate state-sanctioned child welfare apprehensions of Black children present as policing our most vulnerable members from communities of African heritage – our children. The anti-Black state violence in Ontario has been “acknowledged” by child welfare agencies who are now required to address the racial disparities within child welfare agencies. This thesis attempts to understand the histories, complexities, and current measures aimed at mitigating disparities of African, Caribbean, and Black children involved in child protective services from the perspective of child welfare service providers of African heritage. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are incorporated into hegemonic child welfare institutions while the provincial government has failed to publicly critique the current measures implemented to address the disparities for communities of African heritage. Five participants were recruited from the Greater Toronto Hamilton area to participate in one-to-one interviews

<p> About half the Caribbean hermatypic corals died out at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary, about 25 Ma. Roughly two thirds of those corals which died out in the Caribbean are still extant in the Indo-Pacific. The coral and coral associate faunas of three Upper Oligocene and three Middle Miocene fossil reefs in western Puerto Rico were compared. Corals on these sites suffered 59% generic extinction, and 54% species extinction. Nearly all coral genera which are tolerant of turbidity or turbidity and cold water survived. All corals found exclusively or principally on Oligocene shelf-edge reefs became regionally extinct. There are no shelf-edge reefs documented from the Miocene in the Caribbean.</p> <p> Coral associates, the endolithic organisms which live in coral skeletons, were almost completely unaffected by this extinction. Likewise, reef and off-reef gastropods, bivalves, and echinoids suffered only insignificant reductions in diversity. Only corals and large benthic foraminifera were strongly affected by the extinction. It is significant that zooxanthellate organisms were the primary victims of this extinction. There is no evidence to suggest effects at higher trophic levels.</p> <p> Paleontological evidence from corals, coral associates, and gastropods suggests enhanced upwelling in the Caribbean during the Miocene and Early Pliocene. This enhanced upwelling could account for the extinction by cooling Caribbean coastal surface waters and restricting reef development to on-shelf patch reefs, where corals would be subject to more intense sedimentation. Paleoceanographic models indicating West to East deep circulation through the Central American Seaway during the Miocene provide a mechanism for this enhanced upwelling.</p> <p> Life history characteristics may have influenced survivorship among the corals, but apparently had no effect on coral associates. Corals which brood their larvae survived in greater proportions than corals which broadcast. This pattern is opposite that observed in studies on molluscs and other invertebrates.</p> <p> This regional extinction was important in the division of a previously cosmopolitan reef fauna into the modern provincial faunas. Explaining this minor mass extinction may contribute to an understanding of the volatile record of reefs in the larger mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The benefits of occupational therapy (OT) intervention for children with disabilities are numerous and impactful. Among many other advantages, OT can help children to develop their functional living skills, form relationships with others, improve in motor co-ordination, and transition to adulthood (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2015). Restricted access to treatment, therefore, can deprive the child, and his or her family of the opportunities to reach their fullest potential. In Trinidad, pediatric occupational therapy is available at private clinics at great costs to families. This is incongruous with the healthcare climate of the nation, in which public-sector care is offered free of charge. Unfortunately, there are no pediatric Governmental OT positions available. Families who cannot afford OT simply will have no access to the services. Three major explanations for the lack of public-sector OT could potentially include doubts of the demand for OT, lack of qualified therapists in the country, and the inability to supply necessary space and equipment. Project Kids CLUB responds to each of these concerns. Primary research demonstrates the irrefutable desire for services, the local Master of Occupational Therapy program provides sufficient staff, and past attempts to begin such a unit resulted in designated space and materials at the Eric William’s Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), a public-sector hospital in Trinidad. The realization of Project Kids CLUB has the potential to change the landscape of pediatric care for children and families, the Government, and occupational therapists. Families will benefit from free access to quality care that can increase participation, quality of life and wellbeing. The Government will meet an important societal need, as well as fulfill some of its promises to human rights treaties. Occupational therapists will have the opportunity to impact the public-sector and serve one of the most vulnerable groups of clients. The information presented in this project will be disseminated to the target audiences to raise awareness of pediatric OT in hopes that one day, the proposed Centre for Learning and Understanding Behavior (CLUB) may come to fruition. Findings demonstrate that there is demand for and benefits of pediatric occupational therapy, as well as a realistic means of establishing a unit. This project demonstrates that there is no excuse for the lack of services, and no excuse for any child to be left without access to occupational therapy intervention. / 2019-07-06T00:00:00Z

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Caribbean island of Tobago was contested by several European powers. Among them was an unlikely colonizer, the small Duchy of Courland, located in the western part of modern-day Latvia, which established the New Courland colony on the west coast of Tobago, in May 1654. The aim of this study was to determine the exact geographic location of this settlement through examination of historical texts, maps, and geographic information systems (GIS) data. Remote sensing and GIS methods were used to map the Courlander Fort Jacob on the site of an earlier Dutch fortification, Nieuw Vlissingen. Subsequently, a predictive model was created in ArcGIS to analyze the probability of a 17th-century animal-powered sugar mill location on the territory of an 18th-century British sugar estate. Several locales were identified as matching the model criteria. The results of this study contribute to the knowledge about the New Courland colony and can be used in the design of a future archaeological fieldwork project.

No description available.

No description available.