From Bulls to Music: Social, Religious, and Economic Aspects of a Pilgrimage to Nuestra Señora, La Vírgen de Altagracia

Every August 10th, about 800,000 pilgrims begin a five-day pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Altagracia in Higüey, Dominican Republic. In this paper, I will show some interesting aspects of this pilgrimage’s economy that, while not unique to this pilgrimage, become much more tangible because of the presence of bulls as alms. I will continue, through the study of the music making and ritual, to show the role that music (and especially improvisation) plays in the social and devotional aspects of this pilgrimage. By examining the complex web of assumptions and expressions that contains the acts of music production, we can gain some insight into the significance of the pilgrimage as a whole

Afro-Latinx Online communities: Creating Connections Through Social Action.

Considering the power of online media to create communities, this thesis examines how the power of social media is harnessed by the Afro-Latinx individuals to mobilize and call to actions those who identify under the same social category and create a powerful online community to come together in support and advocacy virtually. Through a digital ethnography, this research observes three Instagram pages and performs a textual analysis on 3 posts to further understand the Afro-Latinx community and their adoption of Instagram to create online communities. Find-ings emphasize the importance of creating and maintaining a niche, user engagement and mem-ber satisfactio

Performing Blackness in a Mulatto Society: Negotiating Racial Identity through Music in the Dominican Republic

My dissertation analyzes Dominican racial and ethnic identity through an examination of music and music cultures. Previous studies of Dominican identity have focused primarily on the racialized invention of the Dominican nation as white, or non-black, often centering on the building of Dominican identity in (sometimes violent) opposition to the Haitian nation and to Haitian racial identity. I argue that although Dominicans have not developed an explicit verbal discourse of black affirmation, blackness (albeit a contextually contingent articulation) is embedded in popular conceptions of dominicanidad ( Dominicanness ) and is enacted through music. My dissertation explores ways in which popular notions of dominicanidad are negotiated and ways in which they align with or diverge from official elite notions of national identity, particularly in relation to blackness. By analyzing the evolution of Afro-Dominican genres of music in the last half of the twentieth century and by studying urban pro-black social movements, I reveal a more complex Dominican identity than has generally been acknowledged. For example, I explore the movement of previously marginalized Afro-Dominican music (e.g., the music of Vudú) from strictly rural and ceremonial settings to more urban locations and even into dance clubs as a form of popular music, in the process changing the practice of defining ethnic and religious identities. Other chapters explore recent urban music influenced by hip-hop and Jamaican dancehall, which has vindicated an emerging--if still somewhat controversial--positive Dominican attitude towards blackness

Helande trädgård i sjukhusmiljö

De positiva effekterna på hälsan av att vistas i naturen är något som varit känt i många decennier och som idag är fastställt. Numera börjar vi förstå vikten av helande trädgårdar och hälsodesign, ett forskningsområde som får allt större uppmärksamhet. Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka utformningen av Karolinska sjukhusets park i Solna utifrån designrekommendationer utformade av Clare Cooper Marcus och Patrik Grahn. Undersökningen baserades på en litteraturstudie, tre platsbesök, en intervju, en inventering samt analyser av platsen. En SWOT analys utfördes samt en analys av rörelsemönster, solexponering och samlingspunkter. Analyserna gav en fördjupad förståelse för parkens användning och potential. De visade att sjukhusparken vid Karolinska sjukhuset saknade många av de designaspekter som gör en park till en helande sådan. Analyserna visade också att det finns potential till att öka de helande kvalitéerna i parken genom att tillföra fler hälsofrämjande designelement och samtidigt bevara den befintliga parkstrukturen. En programplan med tillhörande programpunkter presenteras som en avslutande del av resultatet. I programpunkterna får sjukhusparken bland annat fler sittplatser, fler rumsbildande element som möjliggör olika nivåer av återhämtning samt en ökad tillgänglighet. Tilläggen är framtagna för att uppnå en ökad mental återhämtning för patienter och andra parkbesökare.The positive effects that being in nature have on our health is something that has been known for many decades and is today an established position. We are beginning to understand the importance of healing gardens and health design, a research area that is gaining increasing attention. The purpose of this essay was to investigate the design of the Karolinska Hospital Park in Solna based on guidelines designed by Clare Cooper Marcus and Patrik Grahn. The investigation was based on a literature study, three site visits, an interview, an inventory and site analyses. A SWOT analysis was performed as well as an analysis of movement patterns, sun exposure and gathering spaces. The analyses provided a deeper understanding of the park's use and potential. They showed that the park lacked many of the design aspects that make a park a healing one. The analyses also showed that there is potential to increase the healing qualities of the park by adding more health design elements while preserving the existing park structure. A plan with sketches is presented as the last part of the results. The plan provides the park with more seating areas, a greater sense of enclosure that enable different levels of recovery, as well as increased accessibility. The supplements are designed in hope of achieving an increased mental recovery for patients and other park visitors

Religion on the Dance Floor: Afro-Dominican Music and Ritual from Altars to Clubs

In this essay, I examine the current New York scene and the emerging discourses surrounding the recent visibility of Dominican Voodoo (Vudú) and its music. When Dominicans migrated, they brought with them these marginalized genres of music including the music of Vudú, and, since the 2000s, this music (palo) has moved from the religious arena to the popular music world, in turn changing the nature of the religious rituals. In New York City, Vudú ceremonies can now publicly feature drumming and possession and are practiced in commercial venues rather than in private homes and altar spaces. While this move of religious ceremonies from concealed spaces to public dance clubs has led many believers to complain of a compromised authenticity, from the perspective of ‘lived religion’, all such actions within this environment could be seen as forms of religion. Public and secular performances have changed how practices such as spirit possession are experienced, enacted, and perceived. For example, club goers have developed a new way of dancing to the music where mimicking spirit possession is part of the dance. It is precisely these new seemingly secular practices that have given Dominicans the freedom to exercise more agency in their religious identification