Master's theses in visual cultural studies: Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 84
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Adaptation and Staying Social: Ways of Coping and the Use of Virtual Spaces During the Covid-19 Pandemic as Observed in the USA
(Mastergradsoppgave; Master thesis, 2021-06-01)The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entire world (Worldometer 2021). Some regions are worse off than others though. One of these areas is the United States of America which has been recorded having the highest number of Covid cases and deaths in the world, with 33,419,113 cases and 594,912 deaths from Covid-19 as of May 08, 2021 (Worldometer 2021). Despite its alarming numbers, citizens there ... -
”A living life” - Exploring Place attachment and ”The good life” on Sandøya, an island community in Southern Norway
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-05-18)The concept of lifestyle has become much more important in contemporary, and especially western, social life. This must be seen as part how individual are more free to choose who they want to be, and consequently how and where they want to live. Eith refers to lifestyle there is a growing number of people who relocate on the basis of a belief that there is a more fulfilling way of life available ... -
Ethnodrama: The making of a dramatized ethnographic film to give collaborators a voice
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-11-02)The production project of a fictional film through the collaboration between an ethnographer and a theater group from Ngaoundéré, Cameroon resulted in a film genre coined ‘ethnodrama’. This model of collaboration limits the authorship of filmmakers while preventing the ethnographic relevance of the film to be corrupted by them. This thesis describes the creative process behind the development of the ... -
Search for Sustainability and Connection in The Finnish Forest. "Figuring out the new lifestyle" - Reconstructing nature in a time of ecological crisis
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-22)This thesis is a discussion of the data that arose out of the ethnographic fieldwork I conducted over the summer of 2018 in Finland. I took part in discussions and practices at various locations in the the Finnish forest about engaging with nature in particular ways, some of which I will present in this paper. These interactions have played a role in furthering my understanding of my research ... -
Nous sommes ensemble. Uncertain contingencies and hope in urban Ngaoundéré
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-02)Uncertainty is becoming a fundamental new conceptual tool for anthropologists in order to understand the complex ways in which the vulnerable people living at the margins of African fast- growing cities create meaning out of a routinized sense of crisis. Many studies (Cooper & Pratten 2015; Whyte 2009; McGovern 2012; Waage 2015; 2018; etc.) have highlighted the importance of hope and social contingency ... -
Ancestral Medicine on the Rise. Reemergence of ancestral medicine and spirituality in Saraguro, and its transformative effects.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-01)The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the revival of pre-Columbian ancestral medicine and spirituality in Saraguro, Ecuador, catalyzed by a minority within the indigenous population of Saraguro. In the thesis, I look at how this resurgence is affecting and contributing to a meaning change towards their cultural identity by looking at local, global and historical influences. The methods I have ... -
Egyptian Diaspora, Power, and Resistance. An ethnographic study of the Egyptian diaspora in Berlin and Paris, summer 2019.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-02)The Egyptian revolution in 2011 ended dramatically in 2013 with the military taking control of the country in a coup. The current repressive government has forced many activists, journalists, professors, and other citizens to leave the country permanently, in fear of imprisonment and other penalties and harassment. Others left because of the deteriorating economic situation in the country. New ... -
Anak Hutan: Relationships to the West in Bukit Lawang and the effects of tourism on the masculine identities of young men.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2020-06-01)The focus of this thesis is on the young men working as guides in the village of Bukit Lawang in Indonesia. These men are influenced by and impacted by a dual side to the society in which they live: on the one hand, by the traditional and local norms of an Islamic community, and on the other, by the Western tourists and the industry of tourism in their small village. What the thesis grapples with ... -
A glove for two hands. Life history of a fisher-woman along the Adriatic coast
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-16)Abstract thesis The reflections contained in this thesis are a chronicle of my fieldwork in Italy. I explored a coastal community in a peculiar area called Trabocchi's Coast located in the Abruzzo Region, along the Adriatic Coast. My inquiry has been a video camera based fieldwork within and around the maritime area where I was born, thus identifying my fieldwork as a kind of anthropology at home. ... -
Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Big Smoke. Urban Paganism: Ritual performance, identity construction and meaning making within and without the city.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2019-05-15)The dilution and/or disappearance of religious ideals throughout western societies has been identified as a result of the turn of the enlightenment, the advent and advancement of scientific rationale, processes of industrialization and fundamentally the political and societal separation between church and state (Nietzsche 1882, Jung 1964). Post-enlightenment philosophies have worked to distance ... -
Behind the mask. A Traditional Circus in Times of Change
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2018-11-01)This thesis is describing the life of the circus community, considered to be a specific type of group recognized by a traveling way of life, behavioural signs, different values, or cultural practices etc. This research is based mainly on participant observation with and without a camera following a small, traditional family from a Czech circus, consisting of 16 members founded in 2010. In this ... -
The montage of the life course of Alexander Maloletov: searching for happiness in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-12)This work is focused on the life course of 67 years old Alexander Maloletov. In my study I question the role of happiness for the individual, connected to present self-identity and «personal memory museum». I am considering happiness as an emotional lens, through which it is possible to think evaluatively and narratively about people’s selves and lives. The main informant is an eccentric man named ... -
Mater omnium. A study of belonging, care and social change in superdiverse Italy
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-16)Crisis can be considered a context in the modern European narrative, as economy, mass-migrations and environmental factors create a superdiverse, ever shifting social and cultural pavement. Set in Ostia, a suburban area of Rome, under the spotlight due to the influence of organized crime and the raising conflicts between socio political realities, this paper investigate how solidarity and belonging ... -
Art and the expression of indigenous identity. From "Angry sámi" to "Happy sámi"
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-14)Thesis Abstract: This thesis explores the theme "Sámi art", questioning how we can define the concept Sámi art in the contemporary society and how the way Sámi artists express their ethnic identity through their art has changed over time. The thesis is written based on the fieldwork that was conducted in northern Norway area during the spring and the summer in 2016. It follows seven artists of Sámi ... -
The socio-cultural organization of artisanal gold mining and its impacts on the local livelihood. The case of Kemogola mine site in southern-Mali
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-05-12)The thesis explores the socio-cultural organization of the artisanal gold mine of Kemogola located in southern-Mali. I carried out this fieldwork during three months in the gold mine of Kemogola. Through the participant observation method with the extend use of the video camera recording and the block notes I gathered the empirical data which reflect social realities of my informants. ... -
A school in the forest. From boys to men in a rural community in Hedmark, Norway
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2017-06)Why do young rural men chose to stay in their home county in district Norway in order to become forest workers? This thesis is a case study among 35 boys from the age 16 to 19, under education to become forestry workers at a forestry school nearby Finnskogen in Hedmark, Norway. The study was conducted through fieldwork at the vocational school, the school dormitory and the local forestry community, ... -
A bankrupt Spanish baker and the eco-farm in Norway. A micro level study of cooperation and conflict across life opportunities, in perspective of global crisis
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-05-15)People`s different life- opportunities can come close upon us as the interconnection of world processes continues with a high speed. Crisis in environment, economy and mass-movements of people are of our time, and from different positions and corners people “on the ground” are responding to these processes. How people respond contributes to further shaping of the world´s outlook. With this perspective, ... -
Grass. Understanding agro-based traditional knowledge of Sami indigenous group in northern Norway (Karasjok) and discovering a new way of making ethnographic film.
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-08-15)Nature plays a great role in every society. In many cases it shapes the form of a society in every direction possible. Therefore the essence of different societies are different according to their geographic location. Also there are many elements in a single society that can be worth to study. I chose nature, land and farming. It can be said that I tried to do visual anthropology of nature. As a ... -
Beyond stigma? A case of a disabled female entrepreneur from the Bamilike ethnic group of West Cameroon
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-08-15)ABSTRACT This work was carried out among the Bamileke in the Menoua Division in the West Region of Cameroon. It presents my main informant, Kenfack Tsopmo Cecile, a handicapped woman of 44 years who uses entrepreneurship as a means to break the social rejection that many people face because of their handicap. Despite her handicap, Cecile is very active and present on various social arenas. She ... -
Football and femininity. A phenomenological study of gender, football and motivation seen from a female perspective in a sociocultural context
(Master thesis; Mastergradsoppgave, 2016-05-18)Football is in Norway today the most popular sport across genders. Football is also a very male dominated arena because of its masculine features and because the masculine has for a long period been seen as a male trait. The females have since the day they entered this environment been exposed to the men’s embodiment of football and have therefore been working as the other. This again is shown through ...