Untold Narratives: A Refugee Experience from Laos to Richmond, California is focused on the Mien refugee experience from Laos to Richmond, California. This thesis highlights the ways Cold War politics, the Secret War, and heavy industrialization have impacted Mien communities who have been displaced from their homelands into refugee camps, and again through sponsorship into the United States. This thesis looks at political theories that discuss inequalities that exist, particularly through environmental degradation and negative health impacts that Mien refugees are experiencing in their resettlement into Richmond, California. Due to the limited scholarly articles and documented narratives that are available in regards to Mien experiences, interviews were conducted to highlight the stories and experiences of Mien refugees paired with a historical background of their journey from China, to Laos, and to Richmond. Even in the face of so much struggle and hardship, many Mien people have been resilient and been successful in building community and fighting for justice.

Forty-three (43) schools in the City of Richmond were used for this study. The rooms in these schools that were selected for testing were those rooms in which complaints about air quality were made by school staff. Tests were done to find out the counts of the different mold species present in these schools. Air-O-Cell (AOC) samples were taken in all schools, swab samples were taken in a few and in the rest biotapes were used. Samples that were taken were analyzed and interpreted at AmeriSci Laboratories, an accredited industrial hygiene laboratory. Documentation was done for the sampling methods. Statistical analysis was run on the data received. Tables of results were made, discussions done and conclusions drawn from the laboratory results.The null hypothesis for this study is that "Total inside mold counts are not elevated above the total outside mold counts in Richmond Public Schools" and the alternative hypothesis is that "Total inside mold counts are elevated above the total outside mold counts in Richmond Public Schools". Biodiversity of molds in the indoor environment should be equal to biodiversity of molds in the outdoor environment for each of the classrooms sampled. Also, Total indoor mold counts exceeding 1000 counts/m3 means that particular school could be faced with a mold problem. In conclusion, it was found out that 58% of the schools sampled could be faced with mold problems, thereby rejecting the null hypothesis, and 42% had no mold problems at all, supporting the null hypothesis. Cladosporium was the most dominant mold genus in the schools and the school with the highest total count of molds in the rooms sampled was Maggie Walker School. Recommendations were then made to reduce the abundance of molds in Richmond Public Schools.

This thesis looks at Thalhimers department store through the lenses of story, history, and theory. It first introduces the intertwining narratives of the author's paternal family and the store's history, then shares the author's personal story of Thalhimers. The second half outlines the master narrative of the American department store then applies "fantasy-theme analysis" and the symbolic convergence theory to stories and artifacts related to Thalhimers. A conclusion discusses the end of the department store era including a deeply personal goodbye from the author.

The Richmond Outreach Center “The ROC” is an independent soulwinning megachurch in Richmond, Virginia. This thesis explores how rhetoric plays a role in the rapid growth of this urban church and considers the church’s response—rhetorically and politically—to the city’s social issues. Through a rhetorical analysis of sermons and written texts by Geronimo Aguilar, the ROC’s founder and pastor, it is concluded that Aguilar has generated a rhetoric of change that says social change must come to Richmond and that everyone, both rich and poor, are responsible for change. Aguilar galvanizes an audience to seek social change because he articulates roles for individuals within his vision and links the ideological and material concerns of his congregants and the city’s poor. Aguilar’s rhetorical strategies and rhetorical performances indicate that he follows logics of articulation rather than logics of influence. These findings may be useful to social movement and church leaders concerned with growth.

In this project I conduct two experiments in redistributing media power and reflect upon how successful they were. The experiments include a poster campaign specific to Richmond and a project dealing with educating people about guerrilla media techniques.

For this creative project, I am exploring alternate methods of navigating urban environments, and ways in which this activity can inspire creativity. This process is intended to create a new awareness of the urban landscape, break out of the prescribed, and to inspire innovation. The range of possibilities for this way of navigating is vast, and part of the challenge of my experience has been defining boundaries, assigning variables, and using strategies for exploration – making my process inherently morphological. I hope that my work here will encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and experience their environment in a new way.

This study analyzes two successful exhibitions on American slavery in the South: In Bondage and Freedom: Antebellum Black Life in Richmond, Virginia, 1790-1860 by the Valentine Museum and Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum South by the Museum of the Confederacy. It puts the exhibitions in the context of the social history movement, and explains the difficulties exhibiting a sensitive topic. It examines the creation of the exhibitions, the controversies because of the subject, both real and potential, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction.

This study investigates both space and time aspects of neighborhood crime distributions using social disorganization as a theoretical framework in the City of Richmond, VA. Neighborhood crime, in this study, might be considered as any type of index crime aggregated to neighborhood level. For the purpose of the present study, however, neighborhood crime only includes "homicide" categorized as an index crime in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Homicides in neighborhoods have been realized as rare events, and have become problematic to establish robust statistical models in the literature. With the focus of neighborhood homicide, this study questions the consistency of Social Disorganization Theory (SDT) by the longitudinal research setting. It, therefore, constructs and verifies seven hypotheses (residential mobility, race/ethnic heterogeneity, family disruption, socio-economic status, population density, youth, and vacancy) to test SDT, while it establishes and further confirms its main hypothesis "Neighborhood homicide increase is likely to be associated by the increase in neighborhood social disorganization over time."This study constructs a longitudinal research design with 10 years, uses Census 1990, Census 2000 and homicide data (From the City of Richmond Police Department) as secondary data. Nonetheless, this study uses only two main census decennial years to calculate the other years' structural covariates by the linear interpolation technique such that this study is able to include additional years to construct the essential difference models. Population includes all neighborhoods in the City of Richmond such that this study works with entire population, but no sampling procedure. As an analytical strategy, this study constructs eleven different binomial logistic regressions, whereas it constructs multinomial logistic regressions as difference models to verify the main hypothesis for neighborhood homicide. Once this study realizes clustered neighborhoods with respect to experiencing homicide hotspot(s), it constructs a stepwise multiple regressions model to explore the most important social disorganization variables for the most problematic neighborhoods.In terms of findings, the most important social disorganization variables attributed to homicide distribution in the City of Richmond are: The low SES (Socioeconomic Status), residential mobility, vacancy, population density (across only the concentrated neighborhoods), and family disruption.Accordingly, this study has successfully contributed to the literature around SDT, social crime prevention, and spatially integrated crime policy analysis.

Introduction: The following risk factors have found to be associated with inadequate health care and have been found to affect the well-being of children: racial or ethnic minority, poverty status, median family income, family structure of household, maternal education level, and parental employment status. Also, there has found to be health indicators including, teen pregnancy, asthma hospitalization, and lead poisoning cases that affect the well-being of a child and are associated with the presence of these risk factors in a population. Objectives: The objectives of this study is to (1) compare the presence of risk factors and health indicators in Richmond, Virginia to two surrounding counties and with the state of Virginia and (2) to assess the need for a program designed to conduct an annual physical examination program for selected Richmond Public Schools.Methods: The United States Decennial Census data was collected for Richmond City, Chesterfield County, Henrico County, and for the state of Virginia. Also, data on health indicators was collected from Virginia Health Communities and Kids Count Data respectively. Ratios were calculated for the risk factors aforementioned, as well as for health indicators available. Poisson regression was used to determine the cumulative effect of a child have multiple risk factors. Results: There was a significant difference between the four localities in regards to distribution of racial/ethnic minorities, poverty status of children, family structure of households with children, maternal education level, and parental employment status. Richmond was found to have higher ratios for all risk factors tested. In terms of the health indicators analyzed, there was a significant difference between Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, and Virginia in regards to teen pregnancy, asthma hospitalization, and lead poisoning cases, with Richmond having the highest prevalence of each of these indicators. Discussion: Because of the prevalence of risk factors in Richmond children for inadequate access to health care, a program was designed to conduct an annual physical examination program for select Richmond Public schools. The initiative would attempt to identify populations within the city at greatest risk and provide a program that would not only provide annual physical examinations, but also provide continual care for children with additional health needs. Conclusions: The use of public school systems for an avenue to provide needed health care for children has been found to be beneficial. The program described to provide annual physical examinations for children in selected Richmond Public Schools, can serve as a template for other communities with similar risk factors.

This is a project about an old city block. It once housed confectioners, jewelers, restaurateurs, pharmacists, and retailers in street-level parcels with residents in the apartments above. Now, it is home to a barber, a few restaurateurs, and street vendors. Over 200 years of building and development have shaped what is now the north 100 block of E Broad Street and although most of it still stands, it shows the effects of renovations, time, and neglect. This is also a project about paths. As sidewalks move pedestrians along streets they provide paths to retailers, employers, homes, and places to gather and be. Instead of traveling alongside the city block, this project proposes a pedestrian path through it. By stitching together a series of fractured building parcels, the path begins and ends three hundred feet apart at the sidewalks of Broad and Marshall streets. Lastly, this is a project about movement. This bridge between Broad and Marshall Streets serves as a bridge between two different types of places. The collection of parcels that are united in purpose for the sake of this work touch with walls, floors, and ceilings and where they do, create opportunity for passage. Horizontal movement through the city block happens through large volumes defined by planes and program. Vertical movement occurs through perforated shafts and open layers that allow for users to comprehend distance and direction traveled.