College of Continuing and Professional Studies (CCAPS) Graduate Programs

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The American Front and Side Yard - From Colonial to Contemporary for a zone 4 garden
(2008) Grotans Luss, Gunda
This is an overview of garden and corresponding house styles in America from the 1600’s until the present. It considers how world view and a perception of “Nature” affects landscape design. Over time the fear of the wild turned to a desire to tame it and now to preserve it.
A Consultancy Approach to Sustainable Agriculture: Creating Meaning through Engagement, Communities of Practice, and Holistic Systems Thinking
(2012-01-24) Morawiecki, Teresa
Today’s conventional agricultural practices are created to meet our society’s global demand for food and energy products. However, these conventional practices have begun to create concern for the environment and human health. As a result, a related discipline, known as sustainable agriculture has been created within agriculture itself. Sustainable agriculture is a new concept in that much of society is not familiar with it or understands it. I propose a socially conscious framework that encourages connections, relationships, and knowledge building within sustainable agriculture to create growth and expand its current practice. Harnessing the disciplines of engagement, communities of practice and systems thinking, I encourage the use of consultants to guide sustainable agriculture communities and key players to develop and strengthen the social aspects of their community. I utilize the ADDIE model (analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate) to guide the community through the development of the social aspects of agriculture towards successful implementation. The result will ultimately enable sustainable agriculture communities to grow their practice by creating agricultural products that positively impact the economic, environmental and social aspects of our lives.
Martenitsa: The Sacred Thread that Connects the Bulgarians with the People of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent
(2012-01-24) Moussorlieva, Avrora
In this thesis, the Bulgarian martenitsa comes to be seen as an amulet - a sacred thread - historically connected with similar ones in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Armenia and the Hmong of Laos. They are all made of material that is not durable, and it is not likely to find them through archaeological excavations. Using a comparative method, I was able to prove their association with the ancient religion of the first farmers. The amulets are still used for one of their original functions, namely to bind together individual people and the community.
Schillinger and Shamanism: A Synthesis for Music Therapies
(2012-01-24) Stephani, Andre
A component of the Schillinger System for Musical Composition called the Psychological Dial has been used as a tool to compose music to elicit emotional responses from film audiences to support or disambiguate movie scenes for over fifty years. This same dial can be used as a tool to compose music, which when combined with entrainment technologies born of shamanistic healing practices for millennia, can elicit desired emotional responses from patients in certain medical settings. Such a setting could be to relax a pre-surgery or post-surgery patient which current medical science tells us will allow their immune system to better function in the healing process.
Strength and Order: Stories of Elizabeth Young and the Great Migration
(2012-01-24) Young-Williams, Lori
The author describes how she used academic research, family interviews, along with creative writing to evoke, conjure, her dead grandmother, whom she did not know, to life. The paper speaks about one's emotional truth, or subjective view, and how that can lead to family stories told often due to the emotional connection to the story.
The View from the Road: Tourist Routes and the Transformation of Scenic Vision in Western Norway
(2012-05) Tvedten, Kristian
This paper explores how Norway’s National Tourist Routes are emblematic of the ways in which scenic landscapes are appropriated and patterned on a historical model of visual distinction. By privileging scenic vision above other interactions, these travel routes profoundly shape our aesthetic responses to the landscape. The paper explores the many dimensions of the Norwegian landscape through readings of travel literature and visual art and the ways in which these cultural forms come have evolved and transformed scenic tourism in Western Norway.
Developing Altruism: Incentivizing Young Professionals to Become Art Museum Patrons
(2012-05-30) Linnemann, Mike
Museums have identified a major audience gap in the young professional demographic. In implementing young professional programs and groups, art museums are striving to develop and regain these non-users. In doing so, art museums have not had a strong strategic framework to cultivate these young professionals into members and donors. My investigation presents the current state of young professionals in art museums in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area and proposes a framework based in economic altruism to regain these lost young professionals and cultivate them into lifelong patrons.
Human Resources Management in Nonprofits: Taking Our Future into Our Own Hands
(2012-05-30) Rucci, Catherine
The nonprofit sector is significantly behind the for-profit sector in building its next generation of leaders. Within the human resources management function of nonprofit management is the place in which organizations can begin to build the leaders needed for the best possible future of the sector. By melding the best practices from each of the nonprofit management perspectives, Social Work and Public Affairs, the nonprofit sector can take control of our destiny and create a style of management that remains in line with people-centered values but also supports efficiency and effectiveness as smart business practices.
Comprehensive Green Infrastructure Planning: The Way Forward for Ecological and Environmental Justice
(2012-05-30) Stewart, Paula
Green infrastructure planning is an alternative concept that takes a long-term strategic and holistic approach to urban and regional development. It focuses on limiting sprawl, preserving or reclaiming natural areas of high environmental significance, and reconnecting fragmented landscapes. It includes highly dense, highly energy and resource efficient, racially and socially mixed built environments with urban agriculture as a necessary component. It balances the needs of humans and nature, economic interests, and ecosystem health while furthering environmental justice for all.
Darwin and the Digital Body: Evolution, Posthumanism, and Imaginative Spaces of Possibility
(2012-05-30) Fierke, Jennifer
Talking about embodiment is political, whether the discussion is about “race,” gender, “ability,” size or body modification. Despite significant leaps forward in equity during the twentieth century, beings continue to be constrained—practically, intellectually, emotionally, sexually, and expressively—because of how we imagine bodies. This project brings embodiment into relief by focusing on two seemingly disparate theories: Victorian evolutionary theory and posthumanism. Both are explored via the dual lenses of nineteenth-century speculative fiction and works of fantastic digital media, providing theoretical and cultural frameworks for challenging dominant paradigms of embodiment.
The Lens Inverts the Image: How Cultural Differences beyond Language Affect Dialog between the US and Iran
(2012-05-30) DeKay, Cynthia
Communication through non-semantic and non-verbal means varies across cultures as much as vocabulary and grammar. Cultural misunderstanding has fueled conflict between the US and Iran in the recent past – conflict that was exacerbated by a political ideology that placed no importance on culture as a factor in international relations. At present, political relations between the US and Iran are hostile and there is talk of war. During such a critical period, effective communication between the two nations is essential. While both countries have excellent translators, language is only the beginning of cross-cultural communication. In this study I explore some of the most problematic differences in non-verbal and non-semantic communication between the US and Iran and propose action needed to overcome them.
Back to Nature for Good: Using Biophilic Design and Attention Restoration Theory to Improve Well-Being and Focus in the Workplace
(2012-05-30) Green, Judith
E.O.Wilson's biophilia hypothesis contends that "humans are still powerfully responsive to nature's forms, processes, and patterns." Relying on the strength of this connection, interior spaces can be created to promote physical well-being through the use of design elements that represent nature or aspects of nature. Since even brief exposure to nature has been proven to be beneficial, biophilic design, then, becomes a powerful tool in designing spaces where people work, learn, recuperate and recreate. Attention restoration theory builds on the foundation provided by biophilic design and goes one step further, suggesting that exposure to nature allows rejuvenation of focused attention. Therefore, the workplace is an ideal location for utilizing design principles that incorporate elements of nature.
"Changes in Time": A Transgender Journey in Three Acts
(2012-05-30) Boatner, Ethan
"Changes in Time" is a trilogy of plays dramatizing three key moments in my transgender protagonist's life over a span of time from the mid-1950s to a somewhat unspecified present. In the first, "Wishes," Lorraine McGowan is a 14-year-old just beginning to see how different she is; in "Dresses," Lorraine is in her mid-30s, on the cusp of emerging into her self; while "Changes" introduces Laurence, now transitioned and in charge of his life. The plays are set in an earlier era to show how powerfully the strictures of culture and time affect a person's ability to seek - or to find - help. Each play casts just one other character - Lorraine's friend, mother, or father - so that each can bring out facets of Lorraine/Laurence's emotions and explore the difficulties involved in claiming his proper gender.
Near Future Cities in Film: The Dystopic Erosion of Globalization's Rising Tides
(2012-09-14) McGarry, Robert William IV
Film, as a popular culture artifact, serves both as a medium for social reflection and a mechanism for provoking and predicting future changes in our increasingly interconnected global culture. In terms of cities and their social, political, and physical characteristics, cities in film serve as a means of commentary, expression, and a vehicle of experimentation with regard to possible future developments. This research project explores the topic of how near future First-World cities are projected in film with an emphasis on the consequences of globalization for future urban populations. By employing social entropy theory, the dystopian imagery and narratives of selected films are used to explain and contextualize the potential erosion of boundaries in near future cities brought about under the pressures of globalization.
Primitivism and Paradise: The Myth of Innocence as Depicted in the Works of Ruud van Empel and His Artistic Influences
(2012-09-14) Moore, Shauna C.
Ruud van Empel is a contemporary photographic artist. The images he manipulates are lifelike to nature and depict a fictional paradisiacal world populated with adolescents and children who personify innocence. Despite the beauty of his extraordinary photographs there is something disturbing that lies within them. This paper attempts to demonstrate that Ruud van Empel is commenting on primitivism as shown in great works such as the work of Paul Gauguin and Henri Rousseau, ultimately stating that the innocence of Eden is a beautiful but damaging myth. After taking bites out of the metaphoric apple, we have obtained knowledge, but with it, we can never look at such art in the same way. Innocence in not all it appears to be.
From Waste to Wares: Upcycling Plastic Bags for Relief, Aid, and Development
(2012-09-14) Golynskiy, Kimberly
Upcycling plastic bags may be a viable method to provide basic necessities for people living in poverty. I created knitted and fused designs from plastic bags including; ropes, shoes, tarps, rainwater catchers, toilet seats, neonatal warming bags, fishing nets, and construction webbing. Plastic bags are ubiquitous in every part of the world, but particularly in the developing world where more than 40% of the population lives on less than $2.50 per day. Plastic bags are an environmental and health hazard, but they are also a useful raw material. Using simple knitting and fusing methods, it is possible to turn plastic shopping bags into useful items for relief, aid, and development needs.
Power to the People: Street Art as Agency for Change
(2012-09-14) Gleaton, Kristina Marie
What started as a simple tag - just a name - and a marker, has evolved into a global phenomenon that communicates to us an uncensored message of advocacy, humanity, and freedom. Street art acts as a reflection of our very existence, and continues to speak to us in ways we all seemingly can understand. Forcing us to pay attention, the graphic displays of artistic expression and subversion shout out to us to stop, look, and think about our environments and to actively assign meaning to what it is we see.
Overcoming the Past: A Project for Improving the Economic Security of Older Women
(2012-09-14) Battiste, Barbara
America’s older women are in economic crisis; over 60 percent of women age 65 or older have insufficient income to cover basic expenses. This paper explores the reasons for this dire situation and proposes a solution: the design of a pilot project to give older women in-demand job skills and to overcome age bias in the hiring process. It is shown that jobs are a preferable strategy to public subsidies for helping women achieve economic security.
From Experiment to Experienced: The Cultivation of a Gallery - and a Curator - at the University of Minnesota
(2012-09-14) Wilson, Rebecca
Drawing from primary sources from the archival collection of the University Archives, this thesis presents a case study of the practices and methods employed by Ruth Lawrence, the first permanent full-time curator/director of the Weisman Art Museum. Through the pursuit of exhibitions, relationships, and outreach initiatives that were relevant to University students and to the greater community, Lawrence transformed a gallery experiment into an art establishment at the University of Minnesota, and in turn, cultivated her personal growth and professional career to become and experienced Curator/Director. Completed as part of a hybrid project, the thesis is complemented by a website designed by the author: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~wils0952/index.html
The Arts Involvement in Social and Political Issues: The Minnesota Arts Community and the Same-Sex Marriage Amendment
(2013-01-14) Carlson, Cortney
On November 6, 2012, Minnesota became the first state in the country to defeat a constitutional amendment to limit marriage equality. Focusing on the proposed marriage amendment, this thesis explores how the arts can be involved in social and political issues. Working together or with outside disciplines, the arts can be an asset to advocacy or campaign efforts.