Anaerobic digestion has been the preferred method for reducing and stabilizing waste sludge from biological wastewater treatment for over a century; however, as sludge volumes and disposal costs increase, there has been a desire to develop various methods for reducing the volume of sludge to be treated, improving the performance of the digesters, and increasing the energy value of the sludge. To this end, there have been numerous pretreatment and side-stream systems studied and developed over the past several decades with the overall goal of reducing the volume of biosolids to be disposed of in landfills or by land application. These technologies can be broken into four large groups: mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological, although there is often overlap between groups. This research approached the evaluations of these technologies through several methods in the hopes of developing effective tools for predicting the performance of each technology. Batch digestion studies mimicking several of these treatment methods and extensive analytical work on samples from full-scale installations were conducted to determine the effectiveness of each technology. From these studies a simple batch digestion methodology was developed to analyze the effectiveness of the Cannibal solids reduction process on wastewater streams that have never been exposed to it. Batch digestion of sludges pretreated with ozone, mechanical shear and sonication provided insight into the effectiveness of each technology. Extensive analytical work on samples collected from full-scale installations of thermal hydrolysis, mechanical shear and the Cannibal process provided some insight into the workings of each process and potential leads as to how to further characterize and evaluate each process. / Master of Science

abstract: Anchored to the Mexican-American and U.S. Latino historical experience, this dissertation examines how a Latino and Chicano Canibalia manifests itself in literary and cultural production across the different literary periods of the Southwest and the United States as formulated by Luis Leal and Ilan Stavans: Colonization: 1537-1810, Annexations: 1811-1898, Acculturation: 1898-1945, Upheaval: 1946-1979, and the fifth period, Into the Mainstream: 1980-Present. Theoretically, the study is primarily based on the work Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) by Carlos Jauregui. This Canibalia claims that the symbol Caliban, a character taken from the drama The Tempest (1611) by William Shakespeare and interpreted in Calibán (1971) by Roberto Fernández Retamar, is an indispensable reference that, today, links the discourse on Colonial Studies in Latin America and, for us, also in the Mexican-American Southwest. To particularize Jáuregui’s critical perspective, we draw from the work The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) by José David Saldívar, whose call for a School of Caliban not only brings together all subaltern subject positions but marks the value of the “schooling” such an institution will provide. For Saldívar, Chicano and U.S. Latino scholarship needs to be incorporated into Caliban Studies due to a shared anti-imperial resistance. We also rely on the theoretical work Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) by Walter Mignolo, which links colonial difference to border thinking and examines contemporary dialogues on Orientalism, Occidentalism, and post-Occidentalism with regards to Latin American, Chicano, and U.S. Latino cultures. Our study interprets such works as I Am Joaquín (1967) by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, the performances of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the novels Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) by Miguel Méndez and Entre la sed y el desierto (2004) by Óscar L. Cordero, US Latino films like Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), the Mexican film Acorazado (2010), and Chicano and US Latino poetry that features the literary symbol examined under our critical approach; in turn, we have learned that the Chicano and Latino Canibalia is a collection of cannibal discourses which have as an objective stereotyping civilians of Mexican and Latin American descent in the United States. Our critical discourse provides an understanding of today’s complex cultural ties between all countries. A Chicano and Latino Canibalia serves as a bridge of understanding regarding the discursive silences in the history of the United States and Latin America as well as the world. [TEXT IN SPANISH.] ABSTRACTO Anclada a la experiencia histórica mexicoamericana y eulatina, esta disertación examina cómo se manifiesta la Canibalia chicana y eulatina en su producción literaria y cultural de las distintas épocas del Sudoeste como diseñadas por Luis Leal y Ilan Stavans: la Colonización: 1537-1810, las Anexiones: 1811-1898, las Aculturaciones: 1898-1945, la Turbulencia: 1946-1979 y el quinto periodo, Hacia la corriente cultural dominante: 1980-Presente. Se fundamenta en la obra teórica Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) de Carlos Jáuregui. Esta Canibalia afirma que el personaje simbólico Caliban, tomado de la obra The Tempest (1611) de William Shakespeare e interpretado en el ensayo Calibán (1971) de Roberto Fernández Retamar, es un referente indispensable que hoy en día conecta los horizontes de los estudios de la colonialidad en América Latina y, para nosotros, en el Sudoeste de los Estados Unidos. Para profundizar la perspectiva crítica de Jáuregui, se acude el trabajo The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) de José David Saldívar, cuyo llamado por una School of Caliban reúne no sólo las posiciones de los sujetos subalternos, sino que nos acerca a entender la schooling o escolarización sobre lo que significa su resistencia. Para Saldívar, la lucha chicana y eulatina se incorpora a los estudios calibánicos de resistencia anti-imperial. También, nos apoyamos en el trabajo Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) de Walter Mignolo, el cual liga la diferencia colonial con el pensamiento fronterizo y explica los diálogos contemporáneos alrededor del orientalismo, el occidentalismo y el post-occidentalismo con respecto a las culturas latinoamericana, chicana y eulatina. Nuestro estudio se ha enfocado en los trabajos Yo soy Joaquín (1967) de Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, las performances de Guillermo Gómez-Peña, las novelas Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) de Miguel Méndez y Entre la sed y el desierto de Óscar L. Cordero, filmes eulatinos como Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), la película mexicana Acorazado (2010) y la producción de la poesía chicana y eulatina con el símbolo examinado bajo dicho enfoque crítico; como resultado, hemos aprendido que la Canibalia chicana y eulatina es un conjunto de discursos caníbales los cuales tienen por objetivo estereotipar a los ciudadanos estadounidenses de origen mexicano y latinoamericano en los Estados Unidos. Se trata de una nueva forma de entender los complicados lazos culturales que unen a los países de hoy en día. La Canibalia chicana y eulatina es el puente que conduce al entendimiento de los vacíos discursivos de la historia de los Estados Unidos y América Latina así como el mundo. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2015

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Using a mixed methods approach informed by feminist and gender studies methodologies, this thesis explores foraging in Sweden as a socio-cultural practice, examining its relevance in narratives of identity, belonging, space, and environmental engagement amid contemporary ecocrises. The material used is nearly two hundred responses from a questionnaire, distributed to members of Swedish Facebook foraging groups, and five qualitative semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows that foraging appears to be part of national representations of nature, connecting to discourses of Swedish/Nordic exceptionalism. Foraging narratives shape understandings of nature, particularly in relation to Swedish landscapes, and inform current conflicts in the forests. Clear-cut forestry practices erase cherished foraging spots, lead wider reflections on capitalist-driven ecological crises and trigger feeling of loss and grief in foragers. These experiences foster a deeper awareness of environmental challenges and lead to subtle, routine practices of ‘soft activism’ as a form of gentle response. Analysing foraging from a feminist environmental perspective opens up opportunities to look at how discourses on nature influence identity formation, but also create cracks in dominant narratives. Although foraging has been coopted in processes of national identity reproduction, it also functions as a catalyst to trigger ecological awareness and sustains individual practices, framed as soft resistance to neoliberal forces, nurturing forms of hope in the face of current multiple environmental crises.

This essay argues that cannibalism is not inherently immoral. To demonstrate this, I have analyzed the ethics of cannibalism through the perspective of consent, rights, autonomy, and consumption of flesh. I have defined the concepts of cannibalism and morality. The case of the German Cannibal Armin Meiwes is used throughout the essay as it gives factual examples of a case where cannibalism is in accordance to consent. I have analyzed cannibalism as a taboo, in the ways this taboo has formed and how we differentiate cannibalism in humans and nonhumans. Following this I have demonstrated how the relations surrounding human rights, the law's interpretation of consent and autonomy can alter its morality. With discussing consumption of flesh, whether it be from an animal or a human being, followed by how our view on treating nonanimals as a means to an end, I illustrate a comparison to cannibalism in human beings. By exploring the relationship of cannibalism with morality through these theories I conclude that cannibalism in fact cannot be inherently immoral.

La lecture est fréquemment associée dans la modernité à un exercice de l’esprit vers l’acquisition des informations et de savoir. Cette façon de concevoir l’acte de lire comme une action centrée majoritairement sur le mental, toutefois, cache une tradition de lecture amplement corporelle pratiquée entre la basse Antiquité et la fin de la période médiévale. Cette thèse s’occupe d’examiner alors une rupture historique entre corps et lecture, un processus qui sous-tend l’avènement de la façon moderne de lire, c’est-à-dire d’un modèle qui est enraciné dans la vision et dans les fonctions intellectuelles. Ce travail s’appuie sur les études des théoriciens de l’histoire de la lecture, ainsi que sur une ample réflexion sur la sagesse émanée du corps dans le but de récupérer une lecture associée à la pratique synesthésique. Pour accomplir cette tâche, l’on cherche à l’intégration de perspectives historique, analytique et pratique pour discuter et mettre en action une lecture de teneur corporelle. Ceci implique une pratique qui entre aussi dans la dynamique de la thèse. Ainsi, on part de l’analyse de la Poésie Concrète majoritairement brésilienne pour atteindre à deux objectifs à la fois : tout d’abord, on caractérise ce mouvement poétique qui est une référence dans le contexte de la poésie visuelle, ce qui corroborait à l’importance de la vue dans le contexte de l’histoire de la lecture. D’un autre point de vue, le travail de cette thèse avec la Poésie Concrète rend tangible aussi la démonstration d’une force corporelle dans la lecture en action qu’on y apporte. Ainsi, comptant sur une approche de lecture qui est aussi pratique, la thèse vise à démontrer qu’il y a une implication inexorable du corps dans l’acte de lire. / Reading is frequently associated in modernity with a mental practice seeking to acquire knowledge and information. Nevertheless, this way of conceiving reading as an act focused mainly on intellectuality conceals a vast tradition of bodily reading practiced from late Antiquity up to the end of the medieval period. This dissertation thus aims to examine the historical rupture between the body and the reading process underlying the emergence of our modern way of reading, which emphasizes the sense of sight and purely intellectual functions. This research is grounded on theoretical studies of the history of reading, as well as on a broad reflection on knowledge emanating from the body, and thus proposes recovering a reading model associated with synesthetic practice. To accomplish this task, this study seeks to integrate historical, analytical and practical perspectives as a way to discuss and enact a reading method conscious of the body's existence; the role of the body in the act of reading is part and parcel of the dissertation’s dynamic. The analysis of Brazilian Concrete Poetry allows for achieving two objectives at once: first, a characterization of this poetic movement, considered exemplary of visual poetry, corroborates the singular importance of sight in the history of reading in modernity. In addition, however, working with the Concrete Poetry offers a tangible demonstration of the body’s force in the context of interactive reading. In other words, in endorsing an understanding of reading based on practice, the dissertation strives to show how the act of reading implies the irrepressible presence of the body.

Both Temple and Tomb is a dissertation in two parts. The first part is an examination and analysis of a collection of 'colonial' sculptures on permanent display in the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren Belgium. The second part is a reflection on the author's own paintings, drawings and film and an examination of the critical potential of these images in challenging the colonial narratives of the RMCA. Part I presents two arguments. The first is that European aesthetic codes have been used to legitimize the conquest of the Congo and to award sanction to a voyeuristic gaze. The second is that the organization of the sculptures of Africans (and European females) into carefully managed spaces and relationships results in the creation of erotically-charged formations that are intended to afford pleasure to male European spectators. Part II examines the strategies used in Re-Turning the Shadows to disrupt (neo)colonial patterns of viewing that have become ritual and 'naturalized'. Against RMCA narratives that pay homage to the objectivity of science and research, the paintings and film present images that explore multiple subjectivities, mythologizing impulses, and metaphoric allusions. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Both Temple and Tomb is a dissertation in two parts. The first part is an examination and analysis of a collection of 'colonial' sculptures on permanent display in the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren Belgium. The second part is a reflection on the author's own paintings, drawings and film and an examination of the critical potential of these images in challenging the colonial narratives of the RMCA. Part I presents two arguments. The first is that European aesthetic codes have been used to legitimize the conquest of the Congo and to award sanction to a voyeuristic gaze. The second is that the organization of the sculptures of Africans (and European females) into carefully managed spaces and relationships results in the creation of erotically-charged formations that are intended to afford pleasure to male European spectators. Part II examines the strategies used in Re-Turning the Shadows to disrupt (neo)colonial patterns of viewing that have become ritual and 'naturalized'. Against RMCA narratives that pay homage to the objectivity of science and research, the paintings and film present images that explore multiple subjectivities, mythologizing impulses, and metaphoric allusions. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Two prominent historians, David Cannadine and Brad Gregory, have recently contended that history is distorted by overemphasis on human difference and division across time and space. This problem has been acute in studies of Native-Newcomer relations, where exaggeration of Native pre-contact stability and post-contact change further emphasized Native-Newcomer difference. Although questioned in economic, social and political spheres, emphasis on cultural difference persists. To investigate the problem, this study examined the Algonquian wihtiko (windigo), an apparent exemplar of Native-Newcomer difference and division. With a focus on the James Bay Cree, this study first probed the wihtiko phenomenon’s Native origins and meanings. It then examined post-1635 Newcomer encounters with this phenomenon: from the bush to public opinion and law, especially between 1815 and 1914, and in post-1820 academia. Diverse archives, ethnographies, oral traditions, and academic texts were consulted. The cannibal wihtiko evolved from Algonquian attempts to understand and control rare but extreme mental and moral failures in famine contexts. It attained mythical proportions, but fears of wihtiko possession, transformation and violence remained real enough to provoke pre-emptive killings even of family members. Wihtiko beliefs also influenced Algonquian manifestations and interpretations of generic mental and moral failures. Consciously or not, others used it to scapegoat, manipulate, or kill. Newcomers threatened by moral and mental failures attributed to the wihtiko often took Algonquian beliefs and practices seriously, even espousing them. Yet Algonquian wihtiko behaviours, beliefs and practices sometimes presented Newcomers with another layer of questions about mental and moral incompetence. Collisions arose when they discounted, misconstrued or asserted control over Algonquian beliefs and practices. For post-colonial critics, this has raised a third layer of questions about intellectual and moral incompetence. Yet some critics have also misconstrued earlier attempts to understand and control the wihtiko, or attributed an apparent lack of scholarly consensus to Western cultural incompetence or inability to grasp the wihtiko. In contrast, this study of wihtiko phenomena reveals deeper commonalities and continuities. They are obscured by the complex evolution of Natives’ and Newcomers’ struggles to understand and control the wihtiko. Yet hidden in these very struggles and the wihtiko itself is a persistent shared conviction that reducing others to objects of power signals mental and moral failure. The wihtiko reveals cultural differences, changes and divisions, but exemplifies more fundamental commonalities and continuities.