Browsing by Subject "Nature"

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Bringing nature inside: improving the indoor experience
(2024) Davidson, Maia
In the modern world, United Stated people spend 90% of the day indoors, going against the innate desire all human beings possess to be connected with nature. Understanding how the connection to nature benefits individuals, and what this lost connection may be causing or negatively enhancing, is an important part of future design because improving the design of interior spaces will improve the health of those using it. Expanding and deepening the design toolkit to include tangible elements, such as using tall potted plants as a spatial divider, purposefully placed colorful plants as wayfinding elements, hanging plants as light diffusers, and many other design solutions, offers clear opportunity to add natural benefits, such as improved mental health, cleaner air, and expanded attention, to any project. This study reviewed the literature of nature-based benefits and major issues people are struggling with and determined that the disconnect between humans and the natural world is harming society, and that a change must occur. These findings were used to determine an equitable solution that could be incorporated into the design world. Realizing the issues affect those of all economic and social standing, an affordable, small-scale solution became the focus of this study. Offering opportunity for anyone to include potted plants in design makes this solution as attainable as it is effective. Encouraging design professionals and those who seek to do so on their own to incorporate plants into interior design is the first step towards a more impactful reconnection with nature.
Changing Chapultepec: construction, consumption, and cultural politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944
(2013-12) Moerer, Andrea Kristine
"Changing Chapultepec: Construction, Consumption, and Cultural Politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944" asks to whom does the forest belong? A study about how Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City became an emblematic space filled with didactic institutions, it argues that actors involved in social stabilization and economic modernization institutionalized the concept of "nature" in the urban environment, propagating social divisions through metaphors of naturalness to shape subjects in an era of heightened concern with both Mexicanness and foreign investment. Thus it documents the shifting understandings of what constituted nature through four thematic chapters looking at a failed international exposition, two foundational museums, an exhibition-, print- and legislative-based crusade against the use of charcoal, and out-of-doors sporting and consumer activities. These chapters detail conflicts among symbolism and materiality, popular access and privatization, and national goals and an effort to appeal to foreigners. Criminals, presidents, elite and working women, foreign businessmen, schoolchildren, entertainers, scientists, and civil servants among others demonstrate that though Chapultepec is considered a public space, its meaning and usage have been highly constructed and restricted.
Ecology, conservation and climate-fire challenges on Uluguru Mountain biodiversity hotspot, Tanzania
(2010-12) William, Christopher Mungo Peter
In this research, I investigate the relationship between short-term climate variability and the fire ecology of the Uluguru Nature Forest Reserve (UNFR). I investigate the influence of relief, altitude, the Indian Ocean Dipole or Dipole Mode Index (DMI), and Niño 3.4 on short (November-December) and long rains (March, April, May) in the UNFR. Fire events correlate weakly with amount of annual local rainfall, suggesting that fire occurrence in the UNFR results from a combination of factors, such as rainfall anomalies, topography, type of vegetation (fuel), timing and use of fire by local people as a farm preparation tool, and teleconnections. A thorough understanding of fire behavior across time and space is necessary to design a successful UNFR management plan; the resulting plan must address both anthropogenic and climatic drivers of fire.
The Effect of a Canoe-Based Wilderness Immersion Experience on Young Adolescents' Connectedness to Nature
(2016-04-20) Feldbrugge, Ryan M
Wilderness areas can be very impactful places for young adolescents and experience in them has documented positive effects on their development. They may also be a means for increasing young adolescents' connectedness to nature. Participants in this study were young adolescents who took part in a canoe-based wilderness immersion experience. Prior to the experience, their level of connectedness was measured using the Connectedness to Nature Scale-Revised as well as two open-ended questions (Frantz, Mayer, & Sallee, 2015). Following their experience, their level of connectedness was measured again using the same instrument as well as focus group interviews at 2 of the 3 camps surveyed. The results of the study indicate that a canoe-based wilderness immersion experience has a positive effect on young adolescents' connectedness to nature. The results can be used to support existing and develop new wilderness programming for young adolescents. While the results are significant on their own, they also raise additional questions and directions for further research.
Four Poems About the Natural World
(Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays (JOIE), 2015-10-01) Gorham, Eville
These poems were written in the 1970’s, inspired especially by the English poet Kathleen Raine, a Cambridge M.A. in botany and zoology with a strong focus on the natural world. Soon I was asked by my friend Professor Dennis Hurrell to speak to a class on Women’s Literature entitled “Form and Function in Literature” and to provide a contrast by focusing on “Form and Function in the Biosphere.” In doing so, I read and described the significance of a set of poems that had an ecological context, and slipped in a couple of my own.
Imaging the decolonial spirit: Ecowomanist literature and criticism in the Chinese Diaspora
(2013-07) Pu, Xiumei
My work explores the interrelated themes of gender, nature, and spirituality in contemporary women's literature of the Chinese Diaspora. Drawing from three texts by diasporic Chinese women writers of "the wounded generation" and a piece of my own short fiction, my dissertation problematizes the alienating ideologies and practices in the process of China's modernization and urbanization. More importantly, my work examines the ways in which the bond of nature-woman-spirituality functions as a resistance to androcentric and anthropocentric beliefs and practices in the Mao and post-Mao eras in China, and as a catalyst for alternative ways of knowing and knowledge production. I argue that this bond can be better understood within the frameworks of the decolonial imaginary and ecowomanism. It is important to re-member this bond and to refocus it in order to move toward a more just world. My short fiction adds new threads to the fabric these three writers have woven, bringing rural women and folk knowledge to the forefront. Using womanist literary criticism and production, my work sheds light on the possibilities opened up by forgotten and subjugated ways of knowing and knowledge production to imagine a global healing praxis that helps bridge the gap between the East and the West. Thus it broadens our understanding of the links between interdisciplinary and diverse feminist theories such as the decolonial imaginary and ecowomanism by revealing an Asian dimension to these largely Western discourses.
Inclusion in the Outdoors to Address Social Determinants of Health with Wilderness Inquiry
(2019) Newcome, Elle Maureen
Outdoor time is important for maximizing health. Unfortunately, certain social determinants of health (SDH) — such as low socioeconomic status, differing physical abilities, and lack of knowledge of how to engage in an outdoor setting — hinder individuals from harnessing nature as a health tool. Wilderness Inquiry (WI) — an outdoor activity-leading organization — addresses these obstacles through inclusive, educational outreach programs. This qualitative assessment evaluates WI’s response to the aforementioned SDH through utilization of community assets and company programs.
Nature as impression for Dao: A theory of spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang - Viet-Nam
(2015-09) Tran-Tuan, Hung
To keep pace with the developing trend of spiritual tourism in Viet-Nam, the city of Da-Nang continuously expands the size of spiritual festivals, inaugurates new religious establishments, and prepares to build a spiritual cultural theme park. Given this form of tourism is young for Da-Nang, the issue is how the city should develop its spiritual tourism offering in a determinative and authentic way for the efficiency of its environment, socio-cultural, and economic sectors. This research aims to generate a theory of current spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang by a qualitative method, grounded theory, which refers to interview data and utilises a specific coding system. Discussion of the theory is based on comparisons and contrasts to cases and situations of heritage, cultural, and especially spiritual tourism development; and to the tourism development literature. Recommendation is made for a selective orientation for a more sound and effective development. Theoretical contributions of spiritual tourism development in Da-Nang, and future research directions are presented.
The Nature of Defense: Coevolutionary studies, ecological interaction, and the evolution of 'natural insecticides,' 1959-1983
(2009-11) Mason Dentinger, Rachel Natalie
The field of "coevolutionary studies" became a vigorous domain of discovery in the 1960s, and its practitioners were direct inheritors of the modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1940s. They were also direct inheritors of a natural environment that seemed increasingly on the decline, thanks primarily to the destructive actions of humans. Thus, in my account, knowing--the pursuit of knowledge about the natural world--is inextricably interwoven with doing--the practical business of interacting with and altering the natural world, for better or worse. In the case of coevolutionary studies, the act of changing nature through technological intervention with chemical insecticides profoundly changed the way that biologists understood the natural world and the way that humans understood our own place in the natural world. In building this argument, I draw from the work of a variety of science studies scholars, especially environmental historians and historians of science who have examined the boundary between nature and technology, and so-called "basic" and "applied" sciences. I find that the values of control and intervention that are implicit in the applied sciences can have a direct, substantive effect on shaping the direction and form that basic science assumes. As a result, coevolutionary theory was, to a large extent, predicated on the role of humans as participants--interactors--in the very natural systems that coevolutionists strove to understand. To understand this dynamic, I analyze how methods, metaphors, and materials derived from the applied sciences of economic entomology and agronomy formed a foundation for coevolutionary studies. It is no coincidence that most of the scientists in this narrative were disciplinarily rooted in entomology or insect physiology, two fields where potent toxins aimed at destroying insects were of significant importance. These insect scientists were intimately familiar with the methods, metaphors, and materials used to intervene technologically in the operation of nature. Moreover, the model of chemical activity, of the causal agency of potent molecular tools, which dominated both insect physiology and economic entomology, shaped the model of biochemical interaction that drove early coevolutionary studies.
Political economy of agriculture in the Yazoo Delta: how federal policies shape environmental quality, livelihood possibilities and social justice.
(2010-01) Mcdonald, Moira Therese
This dissertation examines the environmental, social and economic consequences of federal flood control and agricultural policy in the Yazoo Delta, that portion of the Mississippi alluvial valley located in the state of Mississippi. It traces the history and development of the regional economy and explores its implications for economic and social justice and environmental restoration, using an approach that integrates political economy, natural resource analysis, and public policy. It contributes to several current geographic debates. First, this work brings renewed attention to the state's role in regulating agricultural production by suggesting that federal policy and practices have played important roles in determining not only what crops are planted, which plots of land they are planted on and how they will be cultivated (industrialization), but also in selecting who would farm. Second, this work addresses recent scholarship on neoliberalism and the environment. In contrast to scholarship that highlights the transformative effect of neoliberalization, this research documents a more nuanced and unpredictable dynamic. On the one hand, this work suggests that programs designed to transform nature, like the civil works program of the Army Corps of Engineers, may be less affected by neoliberal practices than those designed to regulate nature. On the other hand, this dissertation examines how and under what circumstances environmentalists deploy neoliberal rhetoric to advance their goals of creating more "public goods," like improved water quality and expanded wildlife habitat, whereas farmers use rhetoric associated with state-led regulation to argue that an entitlement approach will make them more globally competitive. Finally, this work contributes to the literature on the environment and justice by examining the ramification of the political success of environmental justice movement. Specifically, this research details how advocates of flood control policies that would primarily benefit wealthy landowners have mobilized discourses of racial equality to suggest that federal funds should be used to support flood control rather than other measures that might more directly address racial and economic inequality.
The positive story of couples and wilderness
(2014-12) Miller, Matthew Collins
Interdisciplinary researchers from a variety of fields have recently become interested in studying the consequences of wilderness experiences. Different scholars have theorized about the impact of time spent in the wilderness, including implications for individual-level physiological, psychological, and emotional health. Before attempting to incorporate wilderness experiences into programming for couples, we must first begin exploring the relational implications of shared time in the wilderness. The purpose of this study is to develop a preliminary understanding of how wilderness experiences affect couples. The specific research question being addressed in this work is: What are the perceived relational implications of positive shared wilderness experiences for couples? Using a qualitative methodology and a phenomenological approach, the author gathered and analyzed stories from times that couples ventured into the wilderness together. Ten couples participated by telling twenty stories of positive shared wilderness experiences. Findings shed light onto the lived experience of couples in wilderness. Shared wilderness experiences allowed for uniquely intimate encounters, provided opportunities for rest and rejuvenation, and brought couples closer together through both challenges and conversations. Implications for programming and future research are discussed.
Windows, Mirrors, and the Unrepresentable Earth
(University of Minnesota, Department of Art, 2017) Johnson, Michael T
"Windows, Mirrors, and the Unrepresentable Earth" is Michael Johnson's written thesis submitted to the faculty of the Department of Art in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Art 2017.

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