Digital Commons Network^™

"I Want You The Feel The Fear That I Feel Every Day": An Analysis Of How Climate Change Affects Youth Political Participation, Kristina Norbury

Honors College

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the connection between climate change and youth political participation. Using data from a large, cross-national survey done by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, this project analyzed young people’s emotional responses to climate change. This project synthesized and brought together two threads of scholarly literature in order to make claims about how emotional responses to climate change may be influencing youth political engagement. The line of scholarship explores how emotions traditionally influence political behavior. This research indicated that emotions such as anxiety can have a debilitating effect on people and …

The One-Eyed Man And The Wicked Boar, Iaryna Iasenytska

Honors College

This thesis examines territorial authoritarian threats to the Western world through an examination of historical and contemporary case studies. The historical examples used in this thesis are fromEastern Europe, since it had many chances to engage in international law with the authoritarian state, leading its people to understand the nature of one of the oldest authoritarian states: Russia. The four case studies used are: 1) Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), 2) Soviet Invasion of Poland (1939-1940), 3) Soviet Occupation of Baltic states (1939-1945), and 4) Russian Annexation of Crimea (2014). Meanwhile, the thesis presents a table of predictions to theorize on …

Participation In The Belt And Road Initiative: Who Joins And Why?, Patrick Groening

Honors College

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a large-scale, global infrastructure project introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The primary goal is to invest in infrastructure projects across Eurasia and Africa in an effort to improve regional connectivity. This research explains who participates in the BRI through cross-country quantitative analysis and two in-depth qualitative case studies. Through a logit analysis of political economy factors such as GDP per capita, FDI inflows, aid data, and others, I find that economic need is a significant predictor of membership as well as previous involvement in Chinese organizations such as the AIIB. …

A Model For Student Success: How Immigrant/First-Generation Teachers Use Cultural Identity And Experience In Pedagogical Practices With Immigrant/First-Generation Youth, Lucie Bonneville

Honors College

The purpose of this study is to identify how immigrant/first-generation teacher populations in the United States apply their cultures and identities to the education of the immigrant/first-generation students that they teach. This study also aims to analyze the specific charter school management system, Ednovate, and how its innovative mission and model have led to its high rates of student success. Culture and identity are two significant factors in a student’s educational experience, as the school system is a critical site for developing identity in children. In this study, eight members of faculty and staff from the Ednovate charter school system …

The Most Critical Resource: How Climate Change Fuels The Crisis In Syria And The Implications For The World At Large, Edward Medeiros

Honors College

The Syrian crisis, both domestic and international in scope, may well be the defining geopolitical challenge of the generation. Climate change may be the single greatest challenge to face humanity in the entirety of our species’ life history. The dramatic effects of climate change can be seen in the origins of the Syrian crisis when one looks to humanity’s single most critical resource: water. We take the word critical to have two meanings in this context: first, that water is essential to human survival and second that water is a resource in critical condition. Syria’s water crisis pre-dates the civil …

Variations In Media Framing Of U.S.-Cuba Policy, Anna Foster

Honors College

This thesis looks at the usage of media framing in regard to Obama’s and Trump’s U.S.-Cuban policy. It analyzes articles from the New York Times and the Miami Herald and how they used framing techniques to present Obama’s 2016 opening of relations with Cuba, and Trump’s 2017 change in policy. After reading through the articles, content analysis was used in order to quantify the trends found in the framing techniques used by both papers. The findings of this paper show two very different approaches to both policies, despite many similarities in the framing techniques used by the New York Times …

Evaluating Sustainable Decision Making On Water Resources: Comparing Cooperation Around The Aral Sea And Penobscot River, Brawley Benson

Honors College

Natural-resource security is an increasingly important area of international affairs. While there is a great deal of cooperation at the international level between actors with a stake in shared natural resources, there is also contention. Military and security issues can arise out of the coming together of nations over natural resources. A waterway or reservoir that is abutted by one or more nations can be problematic. This study seeks to clarify processes surrounding two specific examples of water-resource decision making involving state and non-state actors. The following questions guide my research: 1) How do international cooperations focused on water security …

Immigration In The Context Of Religion With Case Studies Of France And Hungary, Melissa Garand

Honors College

In a backdrop of rising nationalism and far-right populism, the position of refugees and asylum seekers in the European Union (EU) since the 2015 immigration crisis has been placed under stress in both policy and practice. The identity of many of these recent immigrants as Muslim has further compounded the barriers faced in the immigration process as religiously motivated forms of marginalization through policy, practice, and rhetoric have been increasing in salience. This context allowed for the research question driving this thesis to develop as: How does the relationship between immigration and religion shape the experience for Muslims asylum seekers …

Explaining The Resilience Of The Balochistan Insurgency, Tiffany Tanner

Honors College

The Balochistan Insurgency is an enduring armed and nationalist struggle between Baloch Insurgents and the Pakistani government, embroiling Pakistan in five insurgencies since 1948. This research aims to analyze why the current insurgency has outlasted its predecessors by over two-fold, with over fifteen years passing since the most recent conflict erupted. Using historical primary source news articles from 1973-1977, secondary research, insurgency trend data, and the data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD); this study examines the evolution of the current conflict and analyzes how and why the contemporary insurgency is far more resilient. This study finds that the support …

Effects Of Government Reform And Creative Clusters On Chinese Entrepreneurship, Robert Mills

Honors College

This thesis analyzes the ways in which Chinese entrepreneurs have interacted with and responded to government policy. An examination of ethnographic research on the Shenzhen “Special Economic Zone” revealed that the forms entrepreneurship that emerged there during the early years of China’s economic reforms are rooted in the history and culture of the region. Analysis of modern policies, such as the 13^th 5-Year Plan (2016-2020) and the Internet Plus doctrine, determined that the state strategy for encouraging entrepreneurship is now focused on empowering local governments, rather than individuals, as entrepreneurial agents. The city of Hangzhou’s “Dream Town” creative cluster …

Feelings In Politics: How American Foreign Policy Can Benefit From Interpersonal Communication, Paden K. Stanton

Honors College

Misperception clouds good decision-making in international politics. American foreign policy doesn’t currently allow for ample strategic communication training for the President of the United States to prevent misperception from becoming an issue in international relations. Looking at influential political theorists, it’s easy to discover that they all warn of the detriment that comes with an ineffective communicator in the highest power position in the country.

My research provides an overview of different perceptions formed by the United States and China of each other throughout the Presidency of Donald Trump and his counterpart in Beijing, President Xi Jinping. By analyzing the …

Flyer For Panel Discussion "Nuclear Politics And The Future Of The Korean Peninsula", Kristin Vekasi

General University of Maine Publications

Flyer promoting a panel discussion with Florence Lowe Lee, President and Foundation of GABI and Jenny Town. Assistant Director of USKI to be held at the University of Maine on April 3, 2017.

A Comparison Of The Experiences Of Economic Adaptation And Integration For Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Maine, Grace Kiffney

Honors College

The migration of refugees and asylum seekers affects them and the communities where they resettle, as people from different backgrounds and cultures come together. In the United States, the federally funded refugee resettlement program supports refugees with welfare benefits, case management, and other services to assist with integration. However, no such federal program exists for asylum seekers, who are considered displaced people, but who have not received immigration status as refugees. This project sought to answer the question: How is the experience of supporting oneself different and similar for refugees and asylum seekers, in the context of Maine?

Research involved …

Decoupling And Displaced Emissions On Swedish Consumers, Chinese Producers And Policy To Address The Climate Impact Of Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

New developments in consumption-based emissions accounting suggest that the reductions claimed by wealthy, environmentally progressive nations have often come at the expense of increased emissions elsewhere – and thus net growth in global GHG concentrations. This paper traces Sweden's attempts to translate growing recognition of displaced emissions into national environmental policy. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research and policy analysis in Sweden and China, we argue that while the logical implications of consumption-based analyses point to the need to address production and consumption as an integrated system, complex governance challenges and the political precariousness of these ideas have thus far limited …

The Role Of Culture In Social Displacement: Afroreggae In The Favelas Of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Brianna Duhaime

Honors College

This thesis focuses on the work of AfroReggae, a non-profit, social organization that works within the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Unlike the state policies of the Police Pacification Units (UPP) that have existed in the favelas since 2008, AfroReggae is targeting the main cause of the favela’s problems: their social displacement. The favelas have been socially displaced from the rest of the city of Rio de Janeiro through decades of inequality and persecution. These stigmas create lived experiences of prejudice for favela residents, pushing them to the marginalized borders of their favelas in the hills of Rio, a …

The U.S.-Russian Bilateral Counterterrorism Efforts, Maja Bedak

Honors College

This work focuses on the unique U.S.-Russian counterterrorism partnership. Following 9/11, the two states identified terrorism as a mutual enemy that posed utmost concerns to their national securities. Despite decades filled with antagonism, their teamwork reached unprecedented levels of cooperation on a multiplicity of matters; counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, and nuclear security are three concerns which this research centers on. Areas of such collaboration include multidimensional efforts in Afghanistan to eradicate drugs, to build infrastructure and to train Afghan police and military to fight the Taliban and to eliminate its sources of funding, which mostly come from the narcotics trade. The goal …

Robin Hood Or Villain: The Social Constructions Of Pablo Escobar, Jenna Bowley

Honors College

Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and leader of the Medellin Cartel which at one point controlled as much as 80% of the international cocaine trade. He is famous for waging war against the Colombian government in his campaign to outlaw extradition of criminals to the United State and ordering the assassination of countless individuals, including police officers, journalists, and high ranking officials and politicians. He is also well known for investing large sums of his fortune in charitable public works, including the construction of schools, sports fields and housing developments for the urban poor. While U.S. and Colombian …

A Study Of Corruption In The Bulgarian Legal System, Stephanie A. Littlehale

Honors College

In modern Bulgaria corruption is one of the significant concerns plaguing the current legal system. With historical roots in the Ottoman Empire and the Communist regime, Bulgaria faces challenges in sustaining a strong judicial system that holds its members accountable. Since the transition from communism to democracy in 1989, Bulgaria’s biggest challenge has been reforming its judicial system to combat corruption. Despite the number of reforms to the system, the Bulgarian legal system is perceived to be among the most corrupt in the world. Addressing the issue of corruption in Bulgaria’s legal system is only possible through reforms centered around …

Diy Media: Movement Perspectives On Critical Moments, Produced By Mark Read. A Dvd Series From Deep Dish Tv (1988-2010), Martin Wallace

Library Staff Publications

This is part one of a two-part review of the DVD Series DIY Media: Movement Perspectives on Critical Moments, produced by Mark Read. This part of the review covers the following parts of the video series: Expression = Life – ACT UP, Video, and the AIDS Crisis; Many Yeses, One No – Confronting Corporate Globalization; and Resistencia Y Solidaridad – El Salvador, Colombia, and the U.S. Solidarity Movement. Both the technical quality of the series and its content are reviewed. The second part of this review, covering other parts of the series, was written by another …

Umaine, Egyptian Students To Discuss Iraq Conflict, Susan Young

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

To help them gain a better understanding of the causes and potential consequences of a U.S.-Iraq confrontation, a dozen University of Maine students will discuss the issue with their counterparts from the American University in Cairo on Dec. 9, [2002] beginning at 12 p.m. The students will discuss Middle Eastern issues – with a focus on the situation in Iraq – via a livevideoconference hook-up in the Soderberg Center in Jenness Hall. The discussion will also be broadcast to the university’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast.