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This essay analyzes the cultural concepts of wilderness, utopia, and the pastoral in relation to The Beach from ecocritical and postcolonial perspectives. Evidently, the pastoral is critical in shaping the Western idea of wilderness, and the utopistic mindset plays an equally crucial role in wilderness gazing. The backpackers in the novel seek authenticity—which they feel their everyday lives lack in society—in the remote, ostensibly pristine nature to escape people like themselves. As established in the analysis, the beach dwellers thus undermine their own ideologies when colonizing both nature and people and, in some ways, culturally slum their existence at the beach. They feel better about themselves when living under so-called harder conditions with moderated luxuries and provisions; this ultimately presents how the Western backpacker’s view of nature and indigenous cultures is highly influenced by American pop culture.

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This dissertation focuses on the influence of political and social history in the novels of Ana María Shua, an Argentine author who critiques her own contemporary society based upon her nation’s history and her Jewish ancestry. It examines the relationships between individuals, such as parents and children, spouses, or friends to demonstrate that people are unable to change their own situation: the circularity of time and the repetition of the past will always haunt the inhabitants and marginalize them. This work analyzes Shua’s five novels: Soy paciente (1980), Los amores de Laurita (1984), El libro de los recuerdos (1994), La muerte como efecto secundario (1997), and El peso de la tentación (2007). These selected works explore the transformations of the protagonists through their interactions with their environment in order to prove that the individual will remain isolated within the hierarchies and institutions created by contemporary society. The introduction offers an overview of Shua’s biography and literary works as well as an exploration of the connections between the history of Argentina and the author’s novels. Chapter 1 focuses on the influence of history in the present and future of the protagonists in Los amores de Laurita, El libro de los recuerdos, and La muerte como efecto secundario. Chapter 2 makes use of Michel Foucault’s system of power to explore the way in which society victimizes the protagonists. The chapter studies: Los amores de Laurita, La muerte como efecto secundario, and El peso de la tentación. Chapter 3 analyzes the hierarchies established in the institutions and how they convert the body of the individual into a jail. The novels studied include: Soy paciente, La muerte como efecto secundario, and El peso de la tentación. Chapter 4 demonstrates how the history of Argentina is represented in the political and social institutions of El libro de los recuerdos, Soy paciente, and El peso de la tentación. It connects the contemporary desire of a utopian future with Jewish tradition and the hope of a messiah. The conclusions recapitulate the pessimistic, dystopian future that remains for each of the protagonists. / Spanish

This thesis is an eutopian project: it examines what is with a sense of what should be to see what must be done. The project is a rerouting of Interstate 581 in Roanoke, Virginia through a reinforced concrete tunnel from the Orange Avenue exit to the Elm Avenue exit with towers placed at intervals along the tunnel to provide light. A reinforced concrete pedestrian bridge links the towers and provides a path from downtown Roanoke to the Civic Center. / Master of Architecture

This paper is a cross-genre pilot study in Anarchist thought experiments. It is not an attempt to produce an encyclopedic review of the emergence or function of anarchism in critical dystopias. My objective is not so ambitious; my aim is to plot the evolution of each rebellion within its own context. In the end, I hope to broaden an understanding of Anarchy and Anarchism: not an understanding that congeals and grows more rigid, but rather an understanding that expands and flows, nearing a point of superfluidity. The primary focal points of analysis are Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed, the graphic novel V for Vendetta, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, and the film The Matrix, written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers. These texts and film have been selected for this project because they each present disparate versions of anarchistic rebellions. Drawing from Thomas Hughes' characterization of the evolution of large technological systems, I analyze the responses of the protagonist Anarchists in these works to the oppressive components of their respective technological infrastructures. The aim of this paper is not to conclude definitely what Anarchism is but what it does, how it works within the boundaries of each thought experiment. Ultimately, each of these texts is a performance, an acting out of Anarchistic ideals embodied in each character's response to the demands of their environment. / Master of Arts

"Looked into the streets - the glaring lights and the tall buildings - and there I conceived Metropolis" exclaimed the Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang at the sight of New York. This visit inspired him while creating the sets and background for the radical movie Metropolis released in 1927. Taken right after World War I, the movie set in 2026 was heavily symbolic with German expressionism and it captured a projected socio-economic condition which was a direct result of the fears of the people at that time. The working class lived in subterranean spaces distraught with mundane labor while the affluent lived in skyscrapers and exotic terraced gardens and drove around in elevated highways. The city seemed to be this well-oiled machine existing only to cater to the needs of the upper class. The poor eventually try to overthrow the rich. The movie finally ends with the message of hope, that the mediator would create harmony among the classes and create peaceful coexistence. The city of Mumbai in 2018 is in many ways - the Metropolis. When a city develops, it does not seem to cater to all sects of people. In fact, there seems to be a parallel relationship between the size of the city and its level of socio-economic disparity: the larger the city the less equal it tends to be. More often than not, the true soul of the city lies within that lower stratum of society who often live in slum-like settlements. Can architecture play the Mediator and bring about a connect? / Master of Architecture / At the time of Indian Independence in 1947, Gandhi said that “India is to be found not in its few cities but in its 700,000 villages. Villages were self-sustaining units which were rich in culture and tradition. He believed that the revival of the villages and all its cottage industries, handicrafts and agriculture was India’s answer to development. However in 2018, there are only about 597,464 census villages . At this rate, within a few centuries, India would loose its identity and will look like every other country in the world. Anybody who could afford to travel. moved to the cities. Villages are constantly abandoned and some get engulfed or morphed into cities. Cities grow at such rapid rates with the latest building technologies usually ignoring the needs of the people its supposed to serve. Is the city developed only for the rich and affluent? Can architecture support social inclusion and break down spatial segregation within a megacity? Can we capitalize on a city’s history and rich traditions without destroying them? Can a village survive a city? My thesis attempts to answer some of these questions through case studies, research and finally applying some of these theories and concepts on to a project that involves the redevelopment of a fishing village in the heart of Mumbai, India.