abstract: Historically, colonizers, immigrants, and enslaved Africans served as carriers of Islamic culture to Puerto Rico, and today, that Islamic element is often unassumingly intertwined with the Puerto Rican culture. Using Bourdieu's concept of habitus as the framework, this dissertation engages customs and mannerisms of Puerto Ricans to reveal the imprint and legacy of Muslim Spain and the Islamic heritage of West Africa in Puerto Rico. It makes a study of the Spanish language to include vocabulary, proverbs, songs, and games that carry vestiges of Arabic language and culture. Most importantly, it also addresses an inherited religious and cultural tradition rooted in the history and legacy of Islam and Christianity and the human experience of cultural and religious phenomena of conflicts within Medieval Spain. Of particular focus, Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol in Loíza, Puerto Rico (a Moor and Christian celebration in honor of St. James, the Moor Slayer) offer a uniquely different expression. The celebration not only displays remnants of cultural and religious practices influenced by several world traditions such as folk Catholicism, Santería, Espiritismo, and Islam, but embraces the Vejigantes character which symbolizes the Muslim. The implications of these celebrations attest to a historically covert Muslim presence or at least a less biased conceptualization by the Puerto Rican people regarding Muslims. Unlike Medieval Spain, where Muslims were deemed invaders from 711-1600's, the religious, cultural, and political history of Puerto Rico does not suggest a deeper legacy of conflict that includes Islam as an adverse religious and cultural tradition. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2017

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Already one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Guyanas economy is experiencing a downward spiral under IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which ironically, were designed to boost the economy. This claim is analyzed with respect to three of Guyanas most important industries: logging, mining and sugar.<p>However, while SAPs have been a major force in influencing Guyanas recent development path, the nations colonial inheritance must also be considered. Specifically, this legacy set the conditions under which Guyanas two major political parties, the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and the Peoples National Congress (PNC), both claiming to be adherents to socialism, came to power. Their policies and actions, influenced by the colonial inheritance, eventually led to Guyanas adoption of austerity measures designed by the international financial institutions (IFIs). This analysis therefore begins with an examination of the rise of these two dominant political parties, the role of colonialism in their emergence and the impact their actions and policies have had in laying the foundations for SAPs. It then turns to examining specifically the effects of SAPs on three major areas of the economy, logging, mining and sugar.<p> This study is significant because it draws attention to the problems associated with SAPs. While structural adjustment has become a widely accepted form of financial assistance over the past two decades, upon closer examination, its negative effects far outweigh the positive ones. Therefore, SAPs should be better tailored to the specifics of Guyanas economy.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) on a sample of Afro-Caribbean college students. Participants were drawn from a larger national study on culture and identity collected at 26 universities from across the United States. Students included in this sample were either born in a Caribbean country, or had one or both parents from a Caribbean country. The students completed various measures of culture and identity. The ones utilized in this study were ethnic identity (Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale). Analyses were conducted using the Statistics Package for the Social Sciences and AMOS (SPSS for Windows Version 16.0.2, 2008). A confirmatory factor analysis was utilized in order to confirm the hypothesized factor structure of the MEIM with this sample in terms of goodness of fit. Correlations to determine the internal reliability and construct validity of the MEIM and multivariate analysis of variance to determine group differences within the sample were conducted. Additionally, criterion validity was examined between the MEIM and measures of self-esteem and depression. The results of this study indicate that the MEIM is a two factor structure for Afro-Caribbean college students. The results suggested adequate to good internal item consistency on all measures utilized with this sample. With regard to concurrent validity, the relationship between self-esteem and ethnic identity in this sample wasn't as remarkable and supportive of past research where there has been a more distinct and robust relationship. There was a statistically significant positive correlation with the affirmation subscale and depression. This was not true for the total MEIM measure and the exploration subscale. Ethnic identity does not have the same relationship with self-esteem and depression as it has in previously studied Black/African American and minority populations in the United States.

An impairment is an attribute of an individual whereas the extent to which it is a disability is influenced strongly by the environment in which they operate which is a product of society. This research focuses on people with physical impairments in the belief that improvements in accessibility for them will decrease the disabling effects of their impairments and improve accessibility for all. A social rather than a medical approach to impairments is adopted. This approach focuses on the abilities of people with impairments and stresses that limitations are placed upon them as a result of the attitudes and actions of the broader society, of which they are a part, the majority of which is comprised of able-bodied people. Thus, this thesis examines the physical barriers experienced by physically impaired individuals and the attitudes held towards them by service providers. The concepts of universal design and barrier-free design are reviewed and used to formulate a comprehensive checklist which is used to measure and compare the state of accessibility of selected resorts in the Caribbean. This checklist is simple to administer and can be used by non-experts. It can also be used to inventory other structures in addition to resorts. The availability of such a tool will enable researchers and facility managers to record information systematically on touristic and other sites. Jamaican and Aruban all-inclusive resorts are examined to obtain a better understanding of the accessibility provisions at all-inclusive resorts for physically disabled individuals. This study is the first to examine all-inclusive resorts for their accessibility. The researcher conducted facility inventories and interviews with staff and guests at three facilities in the Caribbean in order to obtain an understanding of the physical accessibility of the resorts, the staff’s attitudes towards physically impaired guests, as well as guests’ reflections on the treatment of physically impaired individuals by staff. The results show that physical accessibility in the resorts was mixed but that staff attitudes are generally positive. The Accessibility and Attitudinal Barriers Model (AABM) is used to examine the four main areas which need to be improved in order to make traveling for physically disabled persons a pleasure and not a problem. These are accommodation, transportation, recreation activities and staff attitudes. The current research has extended the application of the model both by applying it to all-inclusive resorts and also by incorporating different kinds of information, including that collected by the check list discussed above. This has extended the application of the model and has provided greater understanding of the role of the different sectors of the model in contributing to accessible tourism. Through defining the group under discussion and explaining their difficulties, and examining the barriers that they experience and related policies, the thesis outlines the steps that already have been taken and that need to be taken to make traveling for pleasure available to all individuals. The creation of more accessible tourism establishments could help to remove doubts concerning whether or not impaired tourists travel and whether or not the number of such travelers is increasing. Often, there is a belief that few impaired individuals travel due to financial constraints and this is one of the main reasons why accessibility has not been a priority. It can be argued that, since there are few accessibility provisions for the impaired in tourism establishments, few impaired people travel. Once this barrier is eliminated, it would be more clear whether it is finances that restrict impaired tourists from traveling or whether it is the inaccessible nature of the physical space which leads them to stay home.

Already one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Guyanas economy is experiencing a downward spiral under IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which ironically, were designed to boost the economy. This claim is analyzed with respect to three of Guyanas most important industries: logging, mining and sugar.<p>However, while SAPs have been a major force in influencing Guyanas recent development path, the nations colonial inheritance must also be considered. Specifically, this legacy set the conditions under which Guyanas two major political parties, the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) and the Peoples National Congress (PNC), both claiming to be adherents to socialism, came to power. Their policies and actions, influenced by the colonial inheritance, eventually led to Guyanas adoption of austerity measures designed by the international financial institutions (IFIs). This analysis therefore begins with an examination of the rise of these two dominant political parties, the role of colonialism in their emergence and the impact their actions and policies have had in laying the foundations for SAPs. It then turns to examining specifically the effects of SAPs on three major areas of the economy, logging, mining and sugar.<p> This study is significant because it draws attention to the problems associated with SAPs. While structural adjustment has become a widely accepted form of financial assistance over the past two decades, upon closer examination, its negative effects far outweigh the positive ones. Therefore, SAPs should be better tailored to the specifics of Guyanas economy.

Economic competitiveness and liberation are treated as dual objectives of innovation in traditional industries in developing countries that have endured both slavery and colonization. In developing nations that slave and colonial histories, the objective of innovation may be more than the assumed one, economic competitiveness; it may be liberation as well. The objective of innovation may be to wrest domestic control over national resources from international agencies and multinational corporations. This dissertation explores this idea with case studies of the sugar industry in Barbados and Guyana. Evidence from semi-structured interviews in both locations is used to determine whether liberation is indeed an objective of the innovation process and if so, whether it is complementary or contradictory to the standard relationship between innovation and economic competitiveness. The results suggest that the concept of liberation is not only present in large philosophical discussions of national strategy, but also in the practical "bench-level" discussions about technical options for the Caribbean sugar regime. The connection of sugar to the slave and colonial past introduces notions of powerlessness and resentment into innovation discussions that customarily revolve exclusively around research agendas, technological options and their economic costs and benefits. Consideration of this dimension is a necessary addition to the National Innovation Systems framework when it is being applied to the developing world.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 395-421). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.