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- Title
- REIMAGINING DRUGS: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF U.S. DRUG POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND STUDENT ACTIVISM.
- Creator
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Sarmento, Megan A, Harris, Shana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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As the repercussions of the nearly 50-year U.S. War on Drugs are revealing themselves to be harmful and life-threatening, especially to lower-class and minority populations, social movements aimed at drug policy reform have been on the rise. While today's generation of college students were raised on abstinence-based discourses, which constantly warned and threatened them about the dangers of drug use, these same students often change their perspective, some as early as high school, when they...
Show moreAs the repercussions of the nearly 50-year U.S. War on Drugs are revealing themselves to be harmful and life-threatening, especially to lower-class and minority populations, social movements aimed at drug policy reform have been on the rise. While today's generation of college students were raised on abstinence-based discourses, which constantly warned and threatened them about the dangers of drug use, these same students often change their perspective, some as early as high school, when they begin having their own experiences with drugs and engage in more drug-related conversations. As a result, many students become motivated to change drug policy and education and address the stigma associated with drug use in order to reduce drug-related harm to individuals. This thesis examines the ideas and efforts of students at a university in the southeastern United States who are actively engaged in making these changes. Based on interviews with students involved with two drug policy reform groups in 2018, this thesis highlights the role of student activism in the larger drug policy reform movement. Student activists raise awareness of the need for a critical examination of U.S. drug policy frameworks and their place in this endeavor. I argue that student activists' involvement in the drug policy reform movement is motivated by the numerous disparities they experience and observe in the dominant abstinence-based drug approach. Based on these students' perspectives, I argue for a shift towards a more holistic harm reduction education that aims to increase the quality of care and livelihood for drug users, an accomplishment they believe is inextricable from U.S. policy.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFH2000439, ucf:45742
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000439
- Title
- Reproductive Rights and Justice Advocacy in Central Florida: Who is Represented?.
- Creator
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Hager, Mary, Mishtal, Joanna, Harris, Shana, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This thesis examines the racial understanding and social relationships of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida staff and volunteers. As well, this research explores how Planned Parenthood supporters organize and promote diverse advocacy work to promote reproductive justice in social media and volunteer education. Planned Parenthood has been at the forefront of reproductive rights campaigns for over a century, and their work has often tied into contemporary feminist and...
Show moreThis thesis examines the racial understanding and social relationships of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida staff and volunteers. As well, this research explores how Planned Parenthood supporters organize and promote diverse advocacy work to promote reproductive justice in social media and volunteer education. Planned Parenthood has been at the forefront of reproductive rights campaigns for over a century, and their work has often tied into contemporary feminist and political issues. Of note, feminists of color have called for a shift from advocacy for (")reproductive choice(") to (")reproductive justice(") as a way to identify the needs and predicaments of a wider range of women and to promote advocacy that is more representative of the population it aims to serve. Yet, how key non-governmental organizations such as Planned Parenthood engage with intersectional issues of ethnicity, race, sex, gender, and socioeconomic class in their advocacy work has been understudied. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this research examines how volunteers and staff apply their understandings of racial disparities and inclusive advocacy efforts to better aid Central Florida's marginalized communities and communities of color. This project contributes to the greater call for policy and organizational analysis through applied anthropology and feminist studies in the United States and addresses how organizations balance the desires of their funders against the diverse needs of their patients.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007011, ucf:52048
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007011
- Title
- Trouble in Paradise: Impacts of Theme Park Tourism on the Mental Health of Employees in Orlando, Florida.
- Creator
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Harvey, Lea, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, Falu, Nessette, Harris, Shana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Tourism is a topic that has gained much attention within the realm of anthropology over the past few decades. Anthropological research of the tourism industry has been largely devoted to the study of the tourist gaze and its subsequent sociocultural impacts as well as the benefits that travelers reap from their colonialist excursions. However, the voices of those who form the foundation of this industry, the laborers, remain almost entirely absent from said discourse. Furthermore, there is a...
Show moreTourism is a topic that has gained much attention within the realm of anthropology over the past few decades. Anthropological research of the tourism industry has been largely devoted to the study of the tourist gaze and its subsequent sociocultural impacts as well as the benefits that travelers reap from their colonialist excursions. However, the voices of those who form the foundation of this industry, the laborers, remain almost entirely absent from said discourse. Furthermore, there is a lack of anthropological consideration for the relationship between tourism and mental health experiences of employees within the tourism industry. One specific region that is rife with information on tourism and its effects is Orlando, Florida. This research employs participant observation and semi-structured interviews to analyze the lived mental health experiences of current/former Disney cast members as a direct result of their employment within Disney and the Orlando theme park tourism industry. Not only does this thesis aim to backtrack the erasure of the perspectives of tourism employees and help create a space for them to make their voices heard, but it also attempts to bridge the gap of consideration for the impacts of tourism on the mental health of tourism employees within anthropology and touristic studies. Through the application of my own research as well as the minimal amount of relevant anthropological and touristic studies literature, I argue that Orlando theme park tourism exists as a type of structural violence that utilizes performativity and a neoliberal market to cast tourism employees in a slot of servitude that is nearly impossible to escape. As a result, this research possesses great potential to highlight the ways in which Orlando can become the happiest place on earth for its residents and employees, not just those who engage with it for their own leisurely gain.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007815, ucf:52336
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007815
- Title
- Managing an Epidemic: Zika Interventions and Community Responses in Belize.
- Creator
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Gray, Deven, Mishtal, Joanna, Harris, Shana, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, Branting, Scott, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Implementing effective health interventions in recent epidemics has been difficult due to the potentially global nature of their spread and sociocultural dynamics, raising questions concerning how to develop culturally-appropriate preventive measures, and how these health threats are understood locally. In Belize, health policy makers have only been marginally effective in managing infections and mosquito vectors, and Zika has been declared endemic in multiple regions of the country,...
Show moreImplementing effective health interventions in recent epidemics has been difficult due to the potentially global nature of their spread and sociocultural dynamics, raising questions concerning how to develop culturally-appropriate preventive measures, and how these health threats are understood locally. In Belize, health policy makers have only been marginally effective in managing infections and mosquito vectors, and Zika has been declared endemic in multiple regions of the country, particularly on the island of Caye Caulker. With one locally confirmed case of microcephaly on this small island already, this disease has the potential to severely impact the health and wellness of pregnant women and future generations. Based on ethnographic and Geographic Information Systems research conducted primarily in 2017, I examine how perspectives of Zika-related health risk are shaped, and how state interventions to manage Zika are understood. I argue that despite its declared endemic status, Zika is not perceived as a true health concern for community members due to numerous neoliberal structural challenges. Moreover, the state's restrictive form of reproductive governance which limits family planning services is forcing individuals to weigh conflicting conceptions of health consequences. This also contributes to an ambiguous healthcare environment for health practitioners, giving them an unclear picture of the scope of Zika as a public health concern and limiting their ability to treat patients. This thesis also considers how critical medical anthropology and feminist analytical approaches are useful in exploring these questions and contributing to understandings of the health impacts of Zika.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007402, ucf:52068
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007402
- Title
- Teach them to eat: Complexities of Community Based Organization and Nutrition Education Initiatives in the Prevention of Chronic Disease.
- Creator
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Matos, Allison, Mishtal, Joanna, Matejowsky, Ty, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, Harris, Shana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This thesis examines how participants of an eight-week nutrition education class utilize disseminated information to manage chronic disease, as well as explores the challenges a community based nutrition education resource center faces in the arena of chronic disease prevention. Per the World Health Organization's Global Report on Diabetes, 422 million adults currently live with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, a four-fold increase since the 1980s. Within the U.S., approximately nine percent...
Show moreThis thesis examines how participants of an eight-week nutrition education class utilize disseminated information to manage chronic disease, as well as explores the challenges a community based nutrition education resource center faces in the arena of chronic disease prevention. Per the World Health Organization's Global Report on Diabetes, 422 million adults currently live with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, a four-fold increase since the 1980s. Within the U.S., approximately nine percent of the adult population suffers from diabetes, and obesity, a major contributor to the disease, afflicts nearly thirty-five percent. While medical professionals frame the controlling of chronic disease from a pathophysiological perspective by promoting self-care methods and using language rooted in personal responsibility for successful treatment plans, implementation of such strategies by patients is more nuanced. In Orlando, Florida, staff at a community based, non-profit, nutrition resource center, Hebni Nutrition Consultants Inc., has played a key role in advocating for African-American community health in Central Florida, educating clients about chronic disease prevention and management since their establishment in 1995. Using ethnographic methods of participant-observation and semi- structured interviews, this project explores the challenges the staff of Hebni face operating at the intersection of the public and private sectors, as well as how participants of Hebni's programming understand discourses of empowerment, neoliberal ideas of self-care, and individual versus collective identity, when navigating the biomedical world. This project contributes not only to the growing body of research surrounding health disparities in minority communities, but also how neoliberal policies have shifted responsibility of community health and wellbeing from the state and onto private organizations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006478, ucf:52893
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006478
- Title
- Life After the Boat: Understanding the Needs of Refugees Living in Second Reception Centers in Sicily.
- Creator
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Manzano, Russell, Mishtal, Joanna, Harris, Shana, Matejowsky, Ty, Geiger, Vance, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Migration to Italy has drastically increased, with thousands of refugees traveling by sea to Sicily every month. International refugee policy is largely managed through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and although it attempts to regulate refugee assistance, immigration policy within the European Union is complex and continuously fluctuating. Upon arrival in Sicily, authorities send refugees to first reception centers, and then transfer them to second reception centers...
Show moreMigration to Italy has drastically increased, with thousands of refugees traveling by sea to Sicily every month. International refugee policy is largely managed through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and although it attempts to regulate refugee assistance, immigration policy within the European Union is complex and continuously fluctuating. Upon arrival in Sicily, authorities send refugees to first reception centers, and then transfer them to second reception centers operated by local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The implementation of Italian immigration policy varies among regions; resettlement agencies often transfer refugees among centers where they receive different economic assistance, thus creating further harm to this marginalized population. While there is abundant scholarship regarding refugee resettlement, there is little anthropological research concerning the conditions of second reception centers for refugees in the specific geopolitical region of Siracusa, Sicily. Further, little is known about centers for unaccompanied minors, and due to the increasing number of minors arriving in Italy, additional anthropological research is critical in understanding the conditions of second reception centers for children in Sicily.I conducted ethnographic research in 2015 and 2016 at six refugee centers in Siracusa: three for unaccompanied minors, two for adults, and one for men, women, and children. In this thesis, I explore the perceptions of refugees concerning the treatment and services that they receive at second reception centers after arriving in Italy. I examine how resettlement policies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) shape refugees' experiences in transitioning within Sicilian society, arguing that certain policies and NGO practices restrict refugees' socioeconomic mobility. Specifically, this project aims to answer the following research questions:•What challenges do refugees face after arriving at reception and resettlement centers in Sicily?•How do current migration policies affect newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers?I argue that current policies, and their implementation, place refugees in circumstances that restrict their socioeconomic mobility, keeping them in impoverished conditions. The effectiveness of humanitarian aid is important to understand, not only within anthropology, but also concerning refugee policy to identify ineffective practices, as well as successful non-governmental practices for assisting refugees. Through ethnographic analysis, this research will deepen the understanding of the effects refugee policy creates in the lives of refugees in Sicily; therefore, contributing to the scholarship of how policy can prevent future harm to refugees after they arrive in Italy.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0007142, ucf:52308
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007142
- Title
- The Wonder Women: Understanding Feminism in Cosplay Performance.
- Creator
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Grissom, Amber, Mishtal, Joanna, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, Harris, Shana, Tollefson, Kristina, Falu, Nessette, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Feminism conjures divisive and at times conflicting thoughts and feelings in the current political climate in the United States. For some, Wonder Woman is a feminist icon, for her devotion to truth, justice, and equality. In recent years, Wonder Woman has become successful in the film industry, and this is reflected by the growing community of cosplayers at comic book conventions. In this study, I examine gender performativity, gender identity, and feminism from the perspective of cosplayers...
Show moreFeminism conjures divisive and at times conflicting thoughts and feelings in the current political climate in the United States. For some, Wonder Woman is a feminist icon, for her devotion to truth, justice, and equality. In recent years, Wonder Woman has become successful in the film industry, and this is reflected by the growing community of cosplayers at comic book conventions. In this study, I examine gender performativity, gender identity, and feminism from the perspective of cosplayers of Wonder Woman. I collected ethnographic data using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with cosplayers at comic book conventions in Florida, Georgia, and Washington, about their experiences in their Wonder Woman costumes. I found that many cosplayers identified with Wonder Woman both in their own personalities and as a feminist icon, and many view Wonder Woman as a larger role model to all people, not just women and girls. The narratives in this study also show cosplay as a form of escapism. Finally, I found that Wonder Woman empowers cosplayers at the individual level but can be envisioned as a force at a wider social level. I conclude that Wonder Woman is an important and iconic figure for understanding the dynamics of culture in the United States. In the era of #MeToo and TimesUp, Wonder Woman is a character that defies normative boundaries of gendered expectations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007641, ucf:52515
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007641
