Date of Award
11-12-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Heritage Studies, Ph.D.
First Advisor
Edward Salo
Committee Members
Amy Buzby; Marcus Tribbett
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2021 M68
Abstract
The objective of this dissertation is to study, compare, and contrast the construction of identity by residents of Dyess Colony and the Rohwer Resettlement Camp in order to evaluate the crucial impacts of these two places on their identity. As a result, I have become curious to learn how such a short period of time in both towns had significant impacts on their lives and identity, especially when almost every one of them shows excellent connections to these places and how these two locations affected the rest of their lives even for those who left the areas a long time ago. Also, I want to see why citizens of Dyess and internees of Rohwer identify with places of hardship and misery, and how comparing the incomparable in both towns leads to similar outcomes. The dissertation uses the prism of Heritage Studies that allows for the use of psychology, theories of attachments, positive self-image studies, urban design models, experimental psychological models, and environmental psychology to investigate the identity construction in Dyess and Rohwer, Arkansas. Thus, the qualitative approach is used to observe, gather, and infer meanings through interviews, artifacts, life stories, personal experiences, and different types of cultural productions at Dyess and Rohwer in order to answer the question of this dissertation. This dissertation argues that the notion of homeland goes beyond a mere description of the place, it is rather a continuous emotive response to it, which revives the origins, memories, family, and people.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Moufdi, Ismail, "Comparing And Contrasting the Construction of Identity by Residents of Dyess Colony and The Rohwer Resettlement Camp" (2021). Student Theses and Dissertations. 306.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/306
