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Imagining The “Day Of Reckoning”: American Jewish Performance Activism During The Holocaust, Maya C. Gonzalez

Masters Theses

Scholars of American Jewish history have long debated the complicity of the American Jewish community in the loss of six million Jewish lives in Europe during the Holocaust. After Hitler took power in 1933, American Jewish leaders took to the streets to protest the Nazi Party’s abuse of German Jews. Two central figures in this history are Reform Rabbi Stephen Wise and Revisionist Zionist Ben Hecht because of their wide-reaching protest movements that operated in competition with each other. Although the historiography presents Wise and Hecht's inability to unite as the product of difference, my examination of their protest performances …

Rules Of Recognition: Indigenous Encounters With Society And The State, Erica Kowsz

Doctoral Dissertations

For Indigenous peoples, being recognized has come to mean not simply being known and acknowledged by one’s own relations but also being seen in the right way by the eye of authority. For decades, to gain access to the resources, rights, and legitimacy that state recognition confers, Indigenous political actors globally have navigated bureaucratic processes, from court proceedings to paperwork petitions. While the notion of Indigenous rights emerged at a global scale, they are specified in national jurisdictions. Indigenous people confront problems of their recognizability at all scales in their everyday lives and where they engage with state processes determining …

Three Essays On Labor And Marriage Markets: Farm Crisis And Rural-To-Urban Migration In The United States, 1920-1940, Jennifer Withrow

Doctoral Dissertations

Race and gender create differential responses to, and outcomes of, economic crisis. In this dissertation, I study the intersection of race and gender in the context of steep declines in farm commodity prices during the U.S. farm crisis of the 1920s and 1930s. Against this backdrop, women altered their marriage timing, increased their labor force participation, and migrated off-farm. Previous quantitative studies of this period typically omitted women due to challenges linking women from one historical census to the next after marriage. I create new datasets following women over both decades and draw on archival sources to explore the impact …

Coronavirus Fiscal Policy In The United States: Lessons From Feminist Political Economy, Katherine A. Moos

PERI Working Papers

Using the U.S. fiscal response to Covid-19 in March and April 2020 as a case study, this paper explores the implications that the U.S. coronavirus legislation had on the societal distribution of responsibility for social reproduction among U.S. households, employers, and the U.S. federal government —and its effect on women and racialized minorities. It builds on feminist political economy research that argues that, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis and stagnating conditions for workers in the United States had increased the role of households and the U.S. government in social reproduction, relative to the contribution of employers. This paper …

The State's Response To The Crisis Of Neoliberalism: A Comparison Of The Net Social Wage In China And The United States, 1992-2017, Katherine A. Moos, Hao Qi

PERI Working Papers

We compare the welfare states and taxation regimes of the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States, from 1992 to 2017. We begin with a comparison of each country’s net social wage—that is, the difference between total benefits received by and taxes paid by labor—using two established methods. While the net social wage in the two countries exhibited similar trends, the increasing net social wage has distinctly different implications in the two countries due to their specific historical trajectories in the neoliberal era. In the US, the increasing net social wage reflects an ambivalent and reluctant …

What Smartness Does In The Smart City: From Visions To Policy, Burcu Baykurt, Christoph Raetzsch

Communication Department Faculty Publication Series

This article examines what smartness does on the ground by examining how its anticipatory media visions have been interpreted and acted on in policy decisions and local implementations since the early 2000s. Using a comparative-historical analysis that draws on fieldwork in aspiring smart cities in the United States and Europe, we argue that the visions of smartness are neither singular nor fixed across time and space. Instead, the role of smartness in diffusing new technologies is recruited and reshaped in the present to lend legitimacy to future public and private interventions. We first demonstrate that the narrative of crisis, often …

An Unending War: The Legacy Of Agent Orange, Miranda Burrage-Goodwin

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), the United States military dropped nineteen-million gallons of a chemical defoliant commonly known as Agent Orange. In the direct aftermath of this conflict, many U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers, civilians, and related progeny experienced severe and often life threatening diseases and birth defects. This paper seeks to establish a more concrete link between the chemical defoliants and these diseases. Despite the overwhelming evidence, many scholars and scientists are reluctant to acknowledge this connection. In the years following the Vietnam War, the abortion rate in Vietnam saw a drastic increase. This study provides evidence for causation, not …

The Use Of Public Plazas In China And The United States: Measuring The Differences Using Direct Observation In Boston And Chongqing, Maozhu Mao

Masters Theses

China’s development during the last several decades has happened at an amazing speed, and public plazas in China have changed considerably. For example, public dancing has become a very popular activity in most public plazas, and many more people than before are using these new plazas. However, some plazas are less popular than others. Therefore it is important to know what are the elements that affect people’s use of China’s public plazas? In the United States, William H. Whyte’s research proposed seven elements in public space that affect people. This study tried to answer the following questions: 1) Do William …

America’S Destination Image As Seen Through Chinese Outbound Tourists’ Eyes, Xian (Robert) Li, Svetlana Stepchenkova

Travel and Tourism Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally

The paper attempts to obtain a mental picture of the United States as a travel destination in the collective mind of Chinese travelers, and compare image perceptions of different groups of past and potential U.S. travelers. Preliminary findings of this study highlighted that, overall, Chinese outbound tourists’ perception of America is highly urban, featuring advanced economic development, open and democratic system, high technology, and big cities. Further, the four groups of respondents reported somewhat different perceptions of the U.S., which may correspond to their different travel experiences, and different levels of familiarity with the U.S.

Digital Storytelling With Refugee Youth: A Tool For Promoting Literacy And Youth Empowerment And A Catalyst For Social Action, Christina Chen

Master's Capstone Projects

For my master’s project in the International Education concentration, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I chose to conduct an action research project where I worked with refugee youth aged twelve to fourteen in Springfield, Massachusetts, to facilitate them in creating digital narratives about their lives and experiences coming to the United States. From November 2014 through March 2015, I recruited seven students to participate in a 22-hour workshop I facilitated over twelve weeks. During the workshop, they learned about digital storytelling, wrote their stories, and created multimedia videos of these narratives. They shared their digital stories with each …

Productive Stagnation And Unproductive Accumulation In The United States, 1947-2011., Tomas N. Rotta

Doctoral Dissertations

My doctoral research addresses the question of how productive and unproductive forms of capital accumulation interact in the United States. My contribution is to first develop a new understanding of the labor theory of value in order to better explain how financial and rentier forms of revenues relate to the wealth created in productive activities. Second, I offer an innovative analysis of historical trends regarding unproductive accumulation in the postwar United States economy. For that purpose, I propose a new methodology to estimate Marxist categories from conventional input-output matrices, national income accounts, and employment data. A core feature of my …

The Good, The Bad, And The Benevolent Interventionist: U.S. Press And Intellectual Distortions Of The Latin American Left, Kevin Young

History Department Faculty Publication Series

U.S. journalists and commentators have helped popularize the image of two distinct Latin American lefts: a “bad” left that is politically authoritarian and economically erratic and a “good” left that is democratic and committed to free-market economics. This binary image oversimplifies the Latin American left in three ways: by overstating the contrast between the two alleged camps, by ignoring complex realities within each camp, and by exaggerating the failings of the so-called bad-left governments. The distinction makes sense, however, as a strategy for countering the rise of independent left-leaning governments in Latin America. Binary characterizations of subordinate peoples reflect a …

The Potential Impact Of United States Tourists On The Cuban Market If Travel Sanctions Are Lifted; As Well As The Identification Of Their Push-Pull Travel Motivational Factors, Lehi M. Dowell Mr.

Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism

This investigative study will focus on the potential impact on Cuba’s tourism industry by United States citizens if travel sanctions are lifted. The research will also aid in understanding the push and pull (push-pull) travel motivational factors that United States (US) citizens exhibit towards booking a vacation to Cuba.

Through this study, collected data will assist in future marketing endeavors so that when the travel sanction is lifted, US travel agencies will be able to prioritize the push-pull travel motivational factors and translate them into captivating promotional packages for this new market segment.

Although current travel is prohibited by US …

Centers Of Polymer Science: Introduction, Otto Vogl

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

Centers of Polymer Science describes polymer research activities taking place in Europe, Asia, and Australia primarily during the years between 1980 and 2000. This series of articles shows and records the activity in Polymer Science in this part of polymer history.

Centers Of Polymer Science: Introduction, Otto Vogl

Otto Vogl

Centers of Polymer Science describes polymer research activities taking place in Europe, Asia, and Australia primarily during the years between 1980 and 2000. This series of articles shows and records the activity in Polymer Science in this part of polymer history.

When The Girls Came Out To Play: The Birth Of American Sportswear, Patricia Campbell Warner

University of Massachusetts Press Books

A study of the evolution of American women’s clothing, When the Girls Came Out to Play traces the history of modern sportswear as a universal style that broke down traditional gender roles. Patricia Warner shows how this profound cultural shift, which did not reach fruition until World War II, originated during the previous century with the gradual expansion of socially acceptable physical activity for women. Behind this development was a growing interest in sports and exercise that was further nurtured by the establishment of schools of higher education for women.The participation of women in athletic pursuits previously reserved for men …

Prospects And Challenges: Teaching An Introductory Course On International Education In U.S. Classroom, Manaslu Gurung

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of teaching an introductory course on International Education in a US classroom. The study focuses on some of the leading challenges of discussing links between international education and international development from a variety of global perspectives, particularly the Third World perspective. The underlying goal of this reflective research is to address the importance of International Education is today’s world where education continues to be political and where what we see, understand, and value in the First World impacts the Third World more directly and severely than ever before. Free Market …

What Do We Think About Them? Stereotypes In Russia About U.S. High Schools., Svetlana Pivovar

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Osaka University: A Focus Of Polymer Science: 70th Anniversary Celebration, Otto Vogl, Koichi Hatada

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Osaka University: A Focus Of Polymer Science: 70th Anniversary Celebration, Otto Vogl, Koichi Hatada

Otto Vogl

No abstract provided.

Immigrant Students In The Context Of Us School System Case Study Of Russian-Speaking Immigrant Community In West Springfield, Massachusetts Based On “Bridge” Project Materials, Natalia Oleshko

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this paper is to describe Russian-speaking immigrant school students’ experiences in the United States and to explore issues of self-identification and the adaptive strategies associated with schooling. The case may shed some light on complex problems of clashes in cultural values, how the might influence the choice of adaptive strategies and efforts to excel in academia. The study of the case will not be limited by school environment; rather it will explore the issues and problems of students’ acculturation in a broader context that will include community, family, socioeconomic, cultural and historical factors.

The case study deals …

Evaluating Attainment Of Global Education Goals, Silva Kurtisa

Master's Capstone Projects

Movement that might be labeled "global education" has been existent in the United States for about 30 years. Global education content has been substantially expanding during evolution of the term. It may be drawn from all social sciences subjects but should not be limited to them. Recognizing that global education cannot be defined in terms of discipline, educators may infuse a global perspective in all subjects. A number of learning activities, resources, and teaching methodologies that contribute to a truly global curriculum have also been emerging and are described here. However, various descriptions and vague definitions of global education have …

Providence Place: The Development Of A Downtown Mall, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This study examines the history of urban mall development in the United States and the role of such sites in widespread revitalization efforts that are intended to protect the city from further decline and bring it back to its once thriving existence, before the mass relocations to the suburbs.

Providence Place in downtown Providence, Rhode Island is the primary focus of the study which has three objectives. The first objective is to analyze the development patterns of suburban malls in the Providence region. The second is to identify the economic factors that prompted the development of a large scale downtown …

Polymer Science In Vietnam, Otto Vogl, Dang Van Luyen, Dang Mai-Huong

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Polymer Science In Vietnam, Otto Vogl, Dang Van Luyen, Dang Mai-Huong

Otto Vogl

No abstract provided.

Polymer Science In Croatia, Otto Vogl, Franjo Flajsman, Zvonomir Janovic, Helena Jasna Mencer

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Polymer Science In Croatia, Otto Vogl, Franjo Flajsman, Zvonomir Janovic, Helena Jasna Mencer

Otto Vogl

No abstract provided.

Polymer Science In Australia Iv. Universities In Victoria And Southern Australia, Otto Vogl, David Solomon, Ezio Rizzardo, Robert A. Shanks, David Williams

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Polymer Science In Australia Iv. Universities In Victoria And Southern Australia, Otto Vogl, David Solomon, Ezio Rizzardo, Robert A. Shanks, David Williams

Otto Vogl

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court And The Legal Status Of Political Parties., Paul R. Petterson

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

No abstract provided.