South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

International Student Orientations: Indian Students At American Universities Around The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, Param S. Ajmera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the writings and experiences of five Indian international students in the United States during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By drawing attention to these students, I attend to the ways in which notions of freedom, progress, and inclusivity associated with American higher education, and liberalism more generally, are related to structures of racialized and colonial dispossession in India. I build these arguments by reading archival sources such as university administrative records, student publications, personal and official correspondence, as well as understudied aesthetic works, such as memoirs, travel narratives, essays, doctoral dissertations, and public lectures. These historical …

Diasporic Women’S Mutability In South Asian Postcolonial Literature, Tasnim S. Halim

Theses and Dissertations

Though Western scholarship tends to homogenize South Asian experiences, researchers and novelists shed light on different classes of South Asian postcolonial and migratory women who experience mutability, or the internal and external changes as a trauma response after British colonial rule ended and the 1947 Partition abruptly fractured national identity. Though this mutability has positive and negative transformative qualities, it also allows women characters the power to remove themselves from cycles of oppression, work towards healing, and transforming their physical bodies from sites of repressed trauma to sites of expression and agency. What binds them is not only their physical …

The International Academy Of Language And Culture: The Global (Pre)K-12 Charter School Network, Dree-El Simmons

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The International Academy of Language and Culture (IALC) is a charter school based on the original concept of charter schools by Ray Budde and Albert Shanker, as an academic environment dedicated and designed to improving the educational outcomes for its students through innovative pedagogy. Committed to American (and global) education reform, the IALC incorporates elements from higher education into the early childhood and adolescent settings. We accomplish this by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in our language and culture-based program.

The IALC is a multilingual, full-immersion program. Food Studies (including culinary arts), the Arts, the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Martial Arts …

Gay For English: Postcolonial In(Queer)Ies Into Contemporary Hindi Cinema, Hardik R. Yadav

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, I study four recent Hindi-language Indian films for what I see as their queering of the English language, and, in turn, putting the Indian entity at a distance from both language and sexual orientation. The nation-making project of the Hindu political right in India today seeks an identity in distance from the English language: closer to the age-old conception of India as Hindustan (place of the Hindus). In Part I, I explore how such a resistance to English allows for the “Indian” within male protagonists of Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi (2013) and Aanand L. Rai’s Raanjhanaa (2013) …

A Description Of The Phonology And Morphology Of Kɔɖa, An Endangered Language Of Bangladesh, Ahmed Shamim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides a preliminary description of the phonology and morphology of Kɔɖa [cdz], an endangered language of Bangladesh and one of the least described Munda languages of South Asia. It has four chapters: 1) Introduction, 2) Phonology, 3) Morphology, and 4) Kɔɖa in the Context of Language Contact. Chapter 1 provides a demographic overview of Kɔɖa speakers of Bangladesh, a discussion of Kɔɖa as a Munda language, a typological sketch of the language, a summary of previous work on Kɔɖa, and a summary of the fieldwork and methodology used in collecting data. Chapter 1 also previews the descriptive frameworks …

The Performance And Patronage Of Baloch Culture Through Music (And Related Arts) In The Eastern Arabian Peninsula, George Murer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of Baloch musical—and ritual—idioms as cultivated (and variously innovated, embellished, patronized, and reconstructed) in the relatively prosperous and cosmopolitan urban environments of the coastal Eastern Arabian Peninsula—the third major concentration of Baloch population after Balochistan and Karachi. Due to historical and geographic particulars, the origins of Peninsular Baloch communities lie primarily in the Makran region that extends along the Arabian Sea coast and across the political boundary separating Iran and Pakistan. If musical activities play a significant role in orienting Baloch communities socially and politically, what are the presentational strategies implied in the foregrounding of …

A Heavy Rain Has Fallen Upon My People: Sindhi Sufi Poetry Performance, Emotion, And Islamic Knowledge In Kachchh, Gujarat, Brian E. Bond

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a study of the use and contestation of Sindhi-language Sufi poetry performance as a means of Islamic knowledge transmission and ethical self-formation in rural Muslim communities in Kachchh, a border district in the western Indian state of Gujarat adjacent to Sindh, Pakistan. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic research with Muslim performers and enthusiasts of Sindhi poetry between 2014-2018, I first examine an ecology of performative and interpretive practices revolving around the musico-poetic repertoire of the poet-saint Shāh ʿAbdul Lat̤īf Bhiṭā’ī (1689-1752 CE). I argue that the pedagogical efficacy of Sufi poetry performance is undergirded by its …

They Dance To Bring Attention To A War. But Who’S Watching?, Fruhlein Chrys Econar

Capstones

Potri Ranka Manis Queano has been at the helm of Kinding Sindaw, the heritage dance troupe she founded, for the last 27 years. When a group of ISIS-affiliated local terrorists attacked Marawi City, the home of the Maranao people, it infused a sense of urgency into her group’s work.

http://www.fruhlein.com/kindingsindaw

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, And Paradox In Subaltern Labor Photography, Mahnure Janis

Theses and Dissertations

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, and Paradox in Subaltern Labor Photography is an expanded cinema performance examining 'cheap' labor in the fast fashion industry through a self-reflexive diasporic lens. The images and narration explores the garment factories in Bangladesh and contains ‘a photographer’s cognitive meta-data’, including ethical dilemmas while taking the images.

Poetic Representation Of Immigrant Bengali Women From Queens, New York: A Qualitative Exploration Of Narrative In Relation To Physical And Cultural Migration, Tabashshum J. Islam

Publications and Research

Poetic Representation of Immigrant Bengali Women from Queens, New York: A Qualitative Exploration of Narrative in Relation to Physical and Cultural Migration is a qualitative poetic inquiry and collaborative creative writing project. Five participants were interviewed and invited to engage in a collaborative writing process with the themes of immigration, cultural negotiation, and oral family history. All participants identified as college-educated Bengali women with a connection to Queens, New York, as well as being an immigrant or relative of an immigrant in the United States. From transcriptions of one-on-one interviews and personal notes, research-poetry was created to center on the …

Creating Herstory: Female Rebellion In Arundhati Roy’S "The God Of Small Things" And "The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness", Priyanka Tewari

Theses and Dissertations

In The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness novels, the author Arundhati Roy is not only attempting to give feminist weight to the multiplicity of locations in which gender is articulated by recasting her female characters in their quest for selfhood, she is also focusing on women and women-identified characters as agents of history, thereby contributing to an ongoing project of feminist historiography.

Implicaciones De La Citación En La Voz Del Autor En El Discurso Académico Universitario: La Memoria De Máster Escrita En Español Por Estudiantes Españoles Y Filipinos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La investigación desarrollada en este artículo tiene por objeto explorar las conexiones que mantienen las funciones de las citas con el concepto de la voz para conocer cómo estas contribuyen a la construcción de la identidad del escritor en el texto. Con este fin, se analizan las funciones retóricas de las citas de 16 memorias de máster escritas en español por 8 posgraduados españoles y 8 filipinos. El procedimiento metodológico utilizado ha sido el del análisis textual del contexto lingüístico en el que aparecen las citas, mediante el cual se han clasificado las funciones retóricas de las citas en una …

The Price Of Being A Trans-Atlantic Hero: Struggles Of A Migrant Mother, Erica C. Davies

Capstones

Migration is a huge part of Filipino culture. Economic hardship often force some Filipinos to leave their home and their families behind in order to provide a sustainable life. This decision has resulted in over 2 million OFWs, or Overseas Filipino Workers, around the globe. OFWs are local heroes, often braving long distances, sub-par working conditions, and long work hours away from their families for months or years at a time to make sure they are properly taken care of. In a world where the 9 to 5 is seen as common practice, the stories of two women show the …

India's Dalit Moment, Gabriel Kenneth Carroll Conlon

Capstones

This summer a brutal attack on Dalit youths in the Indian state of Gujarat set off months of street protests. The attack and subsequent protests underscored the persistence of caste-based discrimination in rural India, and the often brutal manner in which Dalits – members of India’s lowest castes – are excluded from everyday society. “India’s Dalit Moment” is a field report examining the causes and protagonists of the revolt. With on-the-ground reporting in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, this multimedia piece – including print, radio and photo elements – conveys a synthetic, but detailed window into the Dalit community …

Right To Land And The Rule Of Law: Infrastructure, Urbanization And Resistance In India, Preeti Sampat

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Special Economic Zones Act 2005, a critical infrastructure model, was enacted in India in two days amid total political consensus. Within two years, intense conflicts over land and resources erupted in SEZ areas across the country between corporate developers, the state, and peasants' and citizens' groups. In the ensuing furor, several SEZs foundered and Goa state unprecedentedly revoked its SEZ policy, suspending 15 SEZs, some with construction underway. Amid raging debates and accusations of corrupt real estate deals over SEZs and other "infrastructure" and urbanization investments, the central (federal) government attempted to redraft land acquisition policy, eventually enacting a …

Some Languages In Nepal In Danger Of Disappearing, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Retention And Invention In Bhojpuri Diasporic Music Culture: Perspectives From The Caribbean, India, And Fiji, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Ladakhi Traditional Songs: A Cultural, Musical, And Literary Study, Noe Dinnerstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the place of traditional songs in the Tibetan Buddhist culture of the former Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh. I look at how Buddhism and pre-Buddhist religion informed the texts and performance contexts of traditional songs, and how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Some songs reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, connecting the former Namgyal dynasty to both the legendary King Gesar and Nyatri Tsangpo, the historical founder of the Tibetan …

"India", In "Classical Aesthetic Traditions Of India, China, And The Middle East", Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Taman Shamanism (Borneo), Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Plot Surveys For The Study Of Ethnobotanical Knowledge: A Brunei Dusun Example, Jay H. Bernstein, Roy Ellen, Bantong Bin Antaran

Publications and Research

This paper describes a technique for using plot surveys to measure individual informants' ethnobotanical knowledge of forests, as applied to the Dusun community of Merimbun in Brunei. Two knowledgeable but non-literate Dusun informants enumerated marked plots of both recent and old secondary growth mixed dipterocarp forest near the village. They were able to provide names (other than life-forms or the most general basic and intermediate categories) for 86-97% of species growing in the plots. Between 152 and 170 plant names were elicited by the surveys. In all cases, about 88% of the names were at the basic naming level and …

Music, The Media, And Communal Relations In North India, Past And Present, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Higher-Order Categories In Brunei Dusun Ethnobotany: The Folk-Classification Of Rainforest Plants, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Licuala Palms In Brunei Dusun Ethnobotany, Jay H. Bernstein, Roy F. Ellen

Publications and Research

Several species of Licuala occur in the Merimbun area of Tutong district, Brunei Darussalam. One kind of Licuala, called benjiru by the local Dusun population, is often collected for sale as a vegetable. While Licuala is not generally considered an important economic plant, overharvesting in the Merimbun area suggests that conservation measures may be needed to protect it from local extinction. Besides benjiru, other kinds of Licuala recognized by the Dusun are called silad and ukang. The three kinds of Licuala do not have one overall name in the Dusun language, but constitute a covert category at the "intermediate" ethnobotanical …

Poisons And Antidotes Among The Taman Of West Kalimantan, Indonesia, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Among the Taman of kabupaten Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, certain oils are used to cast and counteract spells. Antidotes are said to be made from the same substance as poisons, and thus a given antidote implies ownership of the poison, and this is one reason people are furtive in using, exchanging, and discussing this aspect of folk-medicine. Magical oils are generally obtained outside Taman society, and are used most often to cure illnesses presumed to have been contracted outside the society. These oils contain essences, and so can be reproduced by adding oil. However, specific knowledge is needed to use …

The Shaman's Destiny: Symptoms, Affliction, And The Re-Interpretation Of Illness Among The Taman, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Infusion Of Teachers From Eastern Indonesia Into West Kalimantan, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Perils Of Laura Watson Benedict: A Forgotten Pioneer In Anthropology, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Prosodic And Musical Rhythms In Urdu Ghazal-Singing, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

A study of how prosodic meter in Urdu ghazal is treated in light-classical singing