Author ORCID Identifier

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8718-9795

Date Available

4-11-2017

Year of Publication

2017

Degree Name

Master of Science in Community & Leadership Development

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Agriculture, Food and Environment

Department/School/Program

Community and Leadership Development

First Advisor

Dr. Patricia Hyjer Dyk

Abstract

Short-term missions participants encounter difference in purportedly captivating ways. Current research, however, indicates the practice does not lead to long-lasting, positive change. Brian M. Howell (2012) argues the short-term missions experience is confined to the limitations of the short-term missions narrative. People who engage in short-term missions build assumptions, seek experiences, understand difference, and convey meaning, as a result of this narrative. The process of telling and retelling travel stories is integral to the short-term missions experience. Drawing upon literature on tourism, narrative, development, and photography, this study intends to evaluate the inefficacy of short-term missions through the stories which produce and are produced by photography. Through storytelling and photography from 21 short-term missions participants who have served in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, this project deconstructs the short-term missions narrative to understand, what is the relationship between the use of photography and the short-term missions experience? The results indicate a unique relationship between people, photography, and experiences within the framework of short-term missions.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.055

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