Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Corr, Rachel

Abstract

The practice of trainhopping has historical roots in the post-Civil War period and during the Great Depression, when large migrations of penniless individuals caught rides on freight cars to find employment or adventure. Trainhopping is still widely practiced, however modern day trainhopping culture has not received appropriate scholarly attention as a specific subculture. To understand the choices and motivations of members of this subculture, I undertook an ethnographic project wherein I interviewed trainhoppers, in addition to analyzing the historical precedent set for contemporary trainhopping practice. Through my research I analyze the drive to live within a state of liminality in relation to society, where an individual is situated between the poles of interaction with predominant society and marginal society. This research will advance our understanding of self-identification with a liminal group within the context of a contemporary subculture.

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

50 p.

Identifier

FAUHT00076

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