Browsing by Author "Fine, Elizabeth C."

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    The Appalachian Power Company Along the New River: The Defeat of the Blue Ridge Project in Historical Perspective
    Woodard, Robert Seth (Virginia Tech, 2006-05-11)
    The Appalachian Power Company is an operating company of the American Electric Power Company, the largest electricity producing private electric system in the United States since 1953. The Appalachian Power Company held almost exclusive development rights along the New River since its 1911 charter. From then until the 1940s, it built a few small dams, a very large hydroelectric dam with the highest generating capacity of its time, and the largest steam plant in Virginia on the New River. Besides a few navigation issues, conflicting developments, and brief clashes with the federal government, seen in Chapter Two of this thesis, the Appalachian Power Company's developments along the New River went largely unchallenged until the late-1960s. The Blue Ridge Project was the utility's next large hydroelectric project on the New River. It was slated to impound the waters of the upper New River in Grayson County, Virginia, with two reservoirs extending into the river's headwaters in the counties of Ashe and Alleghany in northwestern North Carolina. Though the initial project met no serious opposition, environmental lawyers and the State of North Carolina defeated a considerably enlarged version of the proposal after a legal battle lasting over a decade. Why was this double impoundment not successfully constructed? What had changed in the last decades to influence Appalachian Power's previously unchallenged right to generate electricity along the New River? The purpose of this thesis is to answer these questions.
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    A Case Study in Nineteenth Century Medicine: Robert Ellett's Medical Practice, 1850-1904
    Hebert, Keith Scott (Virginia Tech, 2001-04-24)
    This thesis focuses upon the practice and realities of 19th century rural medical practitioners located throughout segments of southwestern Virginia. The study particularly examines the career of Montgomery County physician Robert T. Ellett, M.D. Despite opening a practice located far from his family home, Ellett's medical career gradually thrived despite operating within an arduous social and geographic environment. Initially Ellett's entrance into Montgomery County society depended solely upon his elite stature and adherence to their established "common interests." However, as time passed his identity became increasingly multidimensional. Ellett carefully crafted fruitful doctor/patient relationships by cautiously negotiating the domestic sphere. Patients and family members alike thought of Ellett as a healer and a "man of medicine." Meanwhile, Ellett sustained the financial growth needed to support his large family by holding numerous local patronage positions. Ironically, while Ellett's domestic relationships constructed his professional identity, that role was preserved by constantly manipulating positions gained through that trust. Therefore, country physicians depended upon much more than personal character in building their practices. Instead, successful practitioners in similar social environments achieved stability by balancing a multidimensional identity that ultimately subscribed to both local and personal interests.
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    Civic Tinkering in a Small City: Imaginaries and Intersections of Art, Place and Marginality
    Tate, Anthony Scott (Virginia Tech, 2012-03-30)
    The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to explore the construction and alteration of Roanoke Virginia's cultural imaginary, as well as the engagement of marginal groups and their concerns in those processes. This research examined these issues through the experiences of key actors involved with the creation of Roanoke's first city-wide arts and cultural plan and the creation and growth of the Roanoke-based Marginal Arts Festival (MAF). Cities around the globe are increasingly engaged in transnational projects of place identification, reconfiguration, and attraction: attracting capital, residents, workers, tourists and attention (Cronin & Hetherington, 2008; Hague, 2005; Jensen, 2005, 2007; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Zukin 1995). Moreover, cities undertake various kinds of identity projects: on-going, dynamic processes through which spaces are produced and reproduced by conscious strategies of place making and identity building (Nyseth & Viken, 2009). Such initiatives are concerted efforts to establish or extend a particular idea, or imaginary, of a city. This study focused on one kind of urban identity endeavor that has become widespread during the past two decades: the effort to shape and market a creative, culture-rich place, to project a specific urban cultural imaginary. This analysis also responded to a straightforward problem, that of the manner through which people, in places pursuing arts and culture as a primary focus for development, come to terms with differing understandings of art and its role in development. This study identified four principal future paths for the analysis of cultural imaginaries and the practice of cultural development: studying and supporting civic tinkering activities, recognizing the relevance of localized imaginaries and urban identity projects, valuing full participation in the project of the city, and conducting place-specific and critical analyses.
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    Communication, "Clean" Coal Technology, and U.S. Global Warming Policy
    Fine, Elizabeth C. (International Colloquium on Communication, 2008)
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    Contributions of Autobiographical Performances by Breast Cancer Survivors to Narrative Medicine
    Fine, Elizabeth C. (International Colloquium on Communication, 2006)
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    Cross-Cultural Exchange and The Infinite Place
    James, Geoffrey Abbot (Virginia Tech, 1997-05-08)
    All places in the world have multiple levels of existence. Of these, we can establish a fairly clear distinction between the specific and the universal. Within the uniqueness of a place's specific, local qualities can be found the common universals that they represent. Here lies the shared experience of all mankind. When people travel, they come into contact with new places and people with whom they have mutually unfamiliar experiences. When they share these experiences, an important cross-fertilization occurs in which people learn not only about other possible existences, but also more about their own. Even more importantly, they gain new vantage points from which to examine universal truths and to know a poetic existence. This thesis is an exploration of this exchange and how it can reach its fullest potential using the means of architecture.
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    "Hear Dem Cryin:" Rastafari and Framing Processes in Reggae Music
    Skopal, Edward William Jr. (Virginia Tech, 2005-05-10)
    In social science, reality is too frequently conceived of from the point of view of European or American white men. I intend to examine the perceived realities and world-view of a marginalized oppressed group, the Rastafarians. The contemporary social movement literature focuses heavily on framing processes, how movement members portray their grievances to potential sympathizers. Reggae music is the most popular vehicle for the Rastafarians to disperse their world-view. This study explores how reggae music serves certain social movement functions for the Rastafarian movement. I seek to show that reggae music is indeed political and draws heavily from Rastafarian ideology. I will perform a content analysis of the lyrics of reggae music and identify the diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing used by the reggae artists.
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    Landscape in Peril: A Cultural Assessment of Thomas's Wharf and Woodlands Farm, Northampton County, Eastern Shore, Virginia
    Lewandowski, Bonny A. (Virginia Tech, 1998-04-24)
    This thesis develops a philosophy for management, preservation, and interpretation of Woodlands Farm and Thomas's Wharf in Northampton County on Virginia's Eastern Shore. The U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service methodology for historic properties, including cultural landscapes, is used to complete this study. The National Park Service method includes four interrelated steps: (1) historical research, and (2) inventory and documentation of existing conditions, (3) site analysis and evaluation of significance and integrity, and (4) recommendations for future management. Essential to the future of Woodlands Farm and Thomas's Wharf is continued use of the property while retaining character defining features that make them significant. The most suitable management philosophy for a historic property that allows for protection and maintenance of significant features, as well as future use and development, is Rehabilitation. Thomas's Wharf's significance is derived from fragments of many periods and histories can be read on the landscape; a palimpsest. The U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service evaluates a landscape much as one evaluates a historic building, defining it as a type or from a specific time period. The U.S. Department of the Interior's criteria for significance does not address a landscape, like Thomas's Wharf, as part of the continuum of history. Rather the study of landscapes is limited and the criteria does not acknowledge a site's broader continuum of significance. Landscapes that are records of change and evolution, palimpsests of a people, culture, and place, need to be identified and deemed significant for that quality.
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    Producing Authenticity: The Process, Politics and Impacts of Cultural Preservation in  Washington, DC
    Heck, Allison Jane Abbott (Virginia Tech, 2013-08-15)
    This dissertation investigates how the process, politics, and impacts of culturally-framed redevelopment balance growth and equity within inner-city neighborhoods experiencing change. Redevelopment programs that draw upon existing arts and cultural assets have been supported and identified by planners as a strategy of local economic development. However, critiques of cultural preservation as a form of economic development argue that the norms and goals of such planning efforts and their impact on existing residents require further evaluation. For example, planning scholars find that cultural preservation may reinforce both existing spatial divides and forms of social exclusion. At the same time, the recognition of ethnic and minority heritage by non-local forces has been identified by some scholars as an opportunity to further the multicultural transformation of public history as well as locally sustainable community development that benefits the neighborhood's original inhabitants. I employ an extended case study research design and ethnographic methods to analyze how the process of producing authenticity contributes or impinges on development and market potential as well as social preservation efforts in a historic African American neighborhood, U Street/Shaw, within Washington, DC. An analysis of the implementation of the guiding vision for the neighborhood's cultural redevelopment, The DUKE Plan, occurs on three scales: neighborhood, anchor institutions, and individual (residents and visitors). Pro-growth strategies that bolstered the marketable "Black Broadway" place brand were supported at each scale rather than opportunities to preserve the neighborhood's identity through the retention of long-term residents and interpretation of the breadth of the community's identity. As a result of culturally-framed redevelopment, the U Street/Shaw neighborhood continues to gentrify causing a loss of belonging and ownership of cultural heritage among long-term residents. Solutions to ensuring that social equity provisions are delivered in culturally-framed redevelopment requires the adoption of accountability measures defined by existing residents during the planning process that commercial and government stakeholders must continually adhere to throughout and after implementation.
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    Recreating and Deconstructing the Shifting Politics of (Bluegrass) Festivals
    Laney, Jordan (Virginia Tech, 2018-08-27)
    Utilizing archival research from Berea College's Appalachian Sound Archives and Appalachian State University's Belk Special Collection, more than 45 survey results, 15 extensive interviews, and participant observations from 15 festival field sites, I examine bluegrass festivals as sites of identity production through feminist methodologies and a participatory ethnographic approach. This requires careful analysis of the nature of the genre's audience and audience members' investments in the process of framing the performance of bluegrass music's history through a shared historical narrative. More broadly, this analysis clarifies the nuanced role of bluegrass festivals in constructing generalizations about place-based identities, race, and gender within the performative space of festivals. In this assessment, the political and economic actions generated as a result of bluegrass performances are explored as temporal and spatial organizers for the (re)production and consumption of generalized ideals which are projected onto both literal and figurative southern stages. I perform this research utilizing the conceptual frameworks of theories of space and place, politics of culture, and feminist methods, combined through critical regionalism. My hypothesis is that bluegrass festivals serve as spaces to perform white patriarchal capitalist desires while relying on marginalized and hidden cultural productions and exchanges. My findings reveal that in order to gain a fuller understanding of politics culture, the stage must be subverted and the researcher's gaze must go beyond that which is typically traditionally framed to encompass the festival in its entirety. This requires seeking out not merely that which is intentionally framed but also narratives that create the stage or are omitted by dominant ways of interpreting the festival space. Ultimately, I find the significance of temporary physical sites for identity construction and the potential for dynamic social change within these spaces relies on the ability of scholars and participants alike to re-historicize and retell dominant narratives.
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    Revolutionary Afghani Women and Their Internet Rhetoric for Political Change
    Fine, Elizabeth C. (International Colloquium on Communication, 2002)
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    The Social Importance of a Small-town Theater: A Case Study of the Pulaski Theatre, Pulaski, Virginia
    Allen, April Diane (Virginia Tech, 1999-11-01)
    The purpose of this study was to discover the various meanings that the Pulaski Theatre held for the residents of Pulaski and the theatre's social importance to the town. The following research objectives directed this study: 1) to document the theatre's history from the time it was built in 1911 until the present day, 2) to uncover memories or feelings associated with the theatre, and 3) to determine if design features of the theatre building influenced those feelings/memories. In documenting the history of the theatre, design features of the original 1911 building were examined as well as changes over time. To determine if design features of the building influenced the feelings/memories that were associated with the structure it was important first to discover which architectural and design features people remembered, if any, and then to determine if these design features reflected a meaningful association, i.e. sense of place to participants. Also of interest was whether this association or sense of place would be similar or different for all. Participants were fifteen males and females aged 43 to 82 who had attended the theatre over time. All participants grew up in Pulaski and six had lived there their entire lives. Both African Americans and Caucasians participated. Subjects were asked to draw a picture of the theatre that expressed their experience of the space. After the drawing, they were asked to discuss the picture and its meaning to them. Clare Cooper Marcus and others used this environmental autobiography technique as a method to bring a person's experiences of a place to a conscious level. Tape-recorded interviews were conducted and transcribed by the researcher to discover memories of the theatre and the meaning of the theatre to the participants. Data were analyzed by coding to look for emerging themes or categories that relate to the research question. Of interest was whether or not the Pulaski Theatre represented a sense of place to residents and if that sense of place varied for different participants. Document research was conducted through old newspapers and artifacts in the Raymond Ratcliffe Museum (the historic museum in Pulaski), documents from scrapbooks, architectural plans, and the files of the Town of Pulaski. Themes that were identified from the research were (1) the structure was an integral part of the community, (2) the theatre was a reflection of the community's social norms and roles, such as segregation, and (3) the theatre interior contributed to the social atmosphere of the space. The theatre building, while transformed over time, retained a presence in the town and memories associated with it across time were significant in creating a sense of place in the community. The theatre was remembered as a setting that brought excitement and stimulation to children and adults for many years. Participants felt "at home" in the theatre, having favored sections of the theatre where they routinely sat. School children attending the weekly matinees in the summer and African Americans sitting in their special section of the balcony developed a special identity with that particular space within the theatre. Even after segregation, many African Americans continued to sit in the balcony where they had sat for many years and felt at home. The unique characteristics of these spaces were dependent on the people that frequented them rather than the architecture of the building. The sense of place was one of personal relationships and emotional attachments rather than of bricks and mortar. Memories of the theatre were stories of groups or individuals and their interactions in the space. The building represented these individuals and what they brought to this place and time. The Pulaski Theatre played a great role in interactions with friends and neighbors and was significant in reflecting a sense of place in this community.
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    Up and Down These Roads: A Rural County in Transition
    Fine, Elizabeth C. (Reynolds Homestead Continuing Education Center, 1982)
    Documents the continuity and change in Patrick County, an isolated rural county in southwestern Virginia. Includes interviews with local residents Ruth Jean Bolt, Dorn Spangler, Jim Shelor, Judge John D. Hooker, and the Foddrells.
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    Winds of Change: Mexico in a Town in Appalachia
    Knowles, John William III (Virginia Tech, 2006-07-14)
    This qualitative study examined the changes that have occurred due to global and hemispheric market forces, and particularly through Hispanic immigration, in a small town in Southwest Virginia. The interdisciplinary study is written as a narrative, and includes descriptions of the town and people of Galax, Virginia and of the predominately Mexican immigrants who have come to live there. The primary focus is on the changes and challenges that occur in schools from the perspective of teachers and administrators, as well as from the students. Local residents and Hispanic immigrants alike share their perspectives on the impacts of immigration and their efforts to accommodate changes in their lives and communities. The researcher draws from his personal experience as an immigrant to Mexico to probe the search for identity and meaning that are common to immigrants. The study found that Hispanic children have devised an unofficial dual-language peer support system for learning in the classrooms that circumvents the assimilationist approach to which the schools have adhered. Immigrant children experience marginalization even in caring school environments such as those found in the Galax schools, due largely to the lack of preparation of teachers and administrators in culturally appropriate pedagogy. The study calls for more direct involvement between the university and local communities experiencing significant change due to global forces. Demographic change through immigration impacts schools implicitly, and requires the support and education of teachers and administrators through regional schools of education.