Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Considering The Shrinking Physical, Social, And Psychological Spaces Of Rohingya Refugees In Southeast Asia, Kendra L. Duran, Robin Al-Haddad, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Refugees experience shrinking social, economic, political, and physical spaces at astonishing rates. However, these shrinking spaces are challenging to trace simultaneously and are rarely considered in policymaking or analysis. Using the Rohingya case study, this paper implores policy analysis to include these spaces, conceptually categorizing them into physical, social, and psychological spaces. Here we chronologize the plight of Rohingya refugees and identify how their spaces have changed over time. Our findings reveal four primary causal relationships linked to Rohingya refugees' fluctuating spaces, including: (I) Bangladesh's policy framework has kept the Rohingya largely isolated, yet their public-private partnerships have expanded their …

Adaptation Outcomes In Climate-Vulnerable Locations: Understanding How Short-Term Climate Actions Exacerbated Existing Gender Inequities In Coastal Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed, Elizabeth Eklund, Elizabeth Kiester

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Adverse climate impacts present a significant challenge for the majority of the world’s population. It is especially true for smallholder farmers in coastal Bangladesh, where some adaptation initiatives appeared to be short-sighted and reproduced further inequity, poverty, and food insecurity. Based on empirical insights, this paper shows how short-sighted climate responses can adversely affect gender equity, illustrated through three adaptation strategies. First, agricultural institutions have traditionally and historically linked with gender roles. Outmigration from the region is gendered as males leave first. This forces increased household and farm responsibilities onto female household members and increased vulnerability. This gendered vulnerability becomes …

The Rhino Horn Trade And Radical Inequality As Environmental Conflict, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Nícia Givá, Francis Massé, Filipe Mate, Paulo Lopes Jose

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is one of the most acute global conservation challenges. This paper examines what is driving young men to enter the rhino horn trade while advancing theory on environmental conflict. We show how the illicit rhino horn economy is a telling instance of environmental conflict—largely between ground-level hunters and increasingly militarized state conservation forces—that emerges from a context of radical inequality. We examine how practices ranging from labor migration and sidelining rural development to biodiversity conservation itself have profoundly transformed the Mozambican-South African borderlands from which many hunters originate, in turn generating poverty, exclusion, and vulnerability …

Unpacking The Environmental Movement In Megacity Dhaka: How Does The Resource Mobilisation Theory Explain Local Urban Complexity?, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the Global South, urban policies are heavily influenced by colonial heritages, and people often experience citizens-detached urban development initiatives. The environmental movement is seen as a new addition that might contribute to society’s efforts to achieve equal urban environmental opportunities. The geographical focus of this article is the megacity Dhaka, which is the social, political, and economic capital of Bangladesh. Unfortunately, this hyper-urbanised megacity suffers from a large poverty-stricken population, leading to a gap in environmental services between the poor and rich. In recent years, Dhaka has experienced a growing momentum with the environmental movement, demanding environmental rights and …

Gender-Based Violence In A Complex Humanitarian Context: Unpacking The Human Sufferings Among Stateless Rohingya Women, Grace Priddy, Zoe Doman, Emily Berry, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rohingya is one of the ethnic minority groups that has faced profound ethnic violence against them in their home country, Myanmar. Almost a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and are currently living in extremely precarious conditions near the Myanmar–Bangladesh border. Despite the sufferings and oppressions of all Rohingya, women, in particular, have been victims of sexual violence. Using various information sources, this paper analyzes different dimensions of the gender-based violence that has endured in Myanmar for decades. This paper also highlights the health and wellness of Rohingya women, including impacts made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it provides a …

A Lost Generation: Perpetual Education Insecurity Among The Rohingya, Robin E. Al-Haddad, Kendra L. Duran, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Education security exists when every child has equal access to quality education. Rohingya refugee children suffer widespread rates of education insecurity both in their home country, Myanmar and in their host country, Bangladesh. While the right to education is recognized in several human rights instruments, access to education is not ubiquitous, making the ability to achieve this right challenging for many Rohingya. Government restrictions on accredited education, COVID-19 related school closures, failures in launching a pilot of the Myanmar curriculum, and recent government plans to relocate refugees to Bhasan Char Island have created a ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya youth. This …

More-Than-Human And Deeply Human Perspectives On Covid-19, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Neel Ahuja, Bruce Braun, Rosemary Collard, Patricia J. Lopez, Rebecca W.Y. Wong

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This multi-authored contribution explores what the COVID-19 pandemic demands of critical inquiry with a focus on the more-than-human. We show how COVID-19 is a complex series of multispecies encounters shaped by humans, non-human animals, and of course viruses. Central to these encounters is a politics of difference in which certain human lives are protected and helped to flourish while others, both human and animal, are forgotten if not sacrificed. Such difference encompasses practices of racialisation and racism, healthcare austerity, the circulation of capital, border-making, intervention into non-human nature, wildlife trade bans, anthropocentrism, and the exploitation of animal test subjects. The …

Responding To Social Disruptions And Urban Complexities In Post-Pandemic Dhaka Using Resilience Framework: Implications For Low-Income Urban Populations, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social, economic, and spatial inequalities are not unknown in megacities like Dhaka, which have a degree of urbanization that could be termed “hyperurbanization” or “overurbanization.” Currently, Dhaka is the home of almost 18 million people and, prior to COVID-19, the population grew, mostly by the rural-urban migrants, by thousands of people every day. In Bangladesh, various natural hazards, food insecurity, low-investment, and policy priorities in rural areas have played a major role in mass-scale rural-urban migration. COVID-19 has brought a new reality. Despite an initial effort, the state is not in a position to provide food and other resources to …

Refugee Camps Can Wreak Enormous Environmental Damages: Should Source Countries Be Liable For Them?, Leonard Hammer, Saleh Ahmed

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2021

While it may seem that much of the world has been locked down during the past pandemic year, more than 80 million people are currently on the move – unwillingly.

Facing conflict in Syria, human rights violations in Myanmar and violence in Eritrea, among other hot spots, refugees are trying to relocate to North America and Western Europe, or at least to neighboring countries.

Fertility Intentions And Outcomes In Indonesia: Evolutionary Perspectives On Sexual Conflict, Kristin Snopkowski, James Joseph Nelson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Differential fertility preferences for men and women may provide insights into human sexual conflict. We explore whether pairbonded couples have different preferences for future offspring, which socioecological factors are associated with these preferences, and who achieves their desired fertility over time. We utilise the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), a longitudinal survey which collected data from 1993 to 2015, to compare desired future fertility for 9655 couples and follow couples who had divergent preferences. The majority of couples (64.8%) want the same number of future offspring. In 20.7% of couples, husbands want more future offspring than their wives, while the …

Do Gender Differences Lead To Unequal Access To Climate Adaptation Strategies In An Agrarian Context?: Perceptions From Coastal Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed, Elizabeth Kiester

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2021

While people around the world are increasingly facing various climate-related stresses, women with limited resources in low income developing societies are often at a greater risk largely because of their pre-existing constraints on social, economic, political, and cultural resources and opportunities. In this paper, we investigate how gender differences influence farmers’ access to various resources that are critical for local climate adaptation in coastal Bangladesh. As one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in not only the country but the world, coastal Bangladesh is experiencing a significant increase in sea level rise, tropical cyclones, storm surges, coastal flooding, coastal erosions as …

“Wilderness” Revisited: Is Canadian Park Management Moving Beyond The “Wilderness” Ethic?, Megan Youdelis, Roberta Nakoochee, Colin O'Neil, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Robin Roth

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper questions whether the rescaling of conservation practice in Canada to include local and Indigenous communities, NGOs, and private market-based actors represents a move away from wilderness-thinking in conservation, and what implications this might have for the future of conservation in Canada. We explore the links between Cronon's “wilderness” ethic and coloniality, racism/sexism/classism, and political economy, and the extent to which recent trends in conservation practice, such as co-management arrangements, private tourism proposals, and a shift in programming to attract a diverse public to parks, help us to move beyond the limited vision for conservation and environmentalism that the …

How The Coronavirus Increases Terrorism Threats In The Developing World, Nisha Bellinger, Kyle Kattelman

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the coronavirus reaches developing countries in Africa and Asia, the pandemic will have effects beyond public health and economic activity. As the disease wreaks its havoc in areas poorly equipped to handle its spread, terrorism likely will increase there as well.

We are political scientists who study the developing world and political conflict. Our recently published research identifies a potential link between the pandemic and an uptick in violence. We find that food insecurity – the lack of both financial and physical access to nutritious food, which leads to malnutrition and undernourishment in a population – makes citizens angry …

What Drives Commercial Poaching?: From Poverty To Economic Inequality, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Nícia Givá

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the last decade, South Africa and its iconic Kruger National Park have experienced a steep increase in the killing of rhinoceros for its horn, which is reaching staggering prices largely in Asian markets. This is a key piece of the larger illegal wildlife trade (IWT). Drawing on fieldwork in the Mozambican borderlands adjacent to Kruger where many poaching recruits originate, we respond to calls for better understanding of the drivers of IWT and in particular links between poverty and poaching. Our analysis shows that economic factors including poverty are the most central drivers of rhino poaching on the ground-level …

Coronavirus Closes In On Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh’S Cramped, Unprepared Camps, Saleh Ahmed

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2020

Coronavirus is spreading quickly in densely populated Bangladesh, despite a nationwide shutdown put in place a month ago.

This preventive measure has proven challenging to implement due to lack of awareness of the coronavirus and the absence of a social safety net. Extreme poverty also forces many Bangladeshis to keep working and looking for food despite the risks. Bangladesh had 2,948 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of April 20.

The disease has not yet spread into the refugee camps that house the Rohingya Muslims who fled ethnic violence in Myanmar in 2017, according to a recent update from the humanitarian organizations …

Road Development In Asia: Assessing The Range-Wide Risks To Tigers, Neil Carter, Alexander Killion, Tara Easter, Jodi Brandt, Adam Ford

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Roads are proliferating worldwide at an unprecedented rate, with potentially severe impacts on wildlife. We calculated the extent and potential impacts of road networks across the 1,160,000-km², 13-country range of the globally endangered tiger (Panthera tigris)—a conservation umbrella species. We found that roads were pervasive, totaling 134,000 km across tiger conservation landscapes (TCLs), even in tiger priority sites and protected areas. Approximately 43% of the area where tiger breeding occurs and 57% of the area in TCLs fell within the road-effect zone. Consequently, current road networks may be decreasing tiger and prey abundances by more than …

The Difference In Design: Participatory Budgeting In Brazil And The United States, Hollie Russon Gilman, Brian Wampler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is conceptually powerful because it ties the normative values of non-elite participation and deliberation to specific policymaking processes. It is a democratic policymaking process that enables citizens to allocate public monies. PB has spread globally, coming to the United States in 2009. Our analysis shows that the types of institutional designs used in the United States are quite different from the original Brazilian programs. What explains the variation in PB institutional design between Brazil and the United States? Most PB cases in the US are district-level whereas in Brazil, PB cases are mainly municipal. We account for …

Zimbabwe’S Coup Did Not Create Democracy From Dictatorship, Steven Feldstein

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many citizens and international observers cautiously hoped that the southern African nation of Zimbabwe would find its way from dictatorship to democracy this year. President Robert Mugabe was militarily removed from office in November 2017 after 37 years in office, opening the door for the country’s first real leadership transition since 1980.

Limits On Chinese Graduate Student Visas May Protect Us Intellectual Property But Drive Away Talent, Jack Marr

International Business Program

Some Chinese students studying STEM-related fields may not be staying in the U.S. as long as they’d planned. The Trump administration announced on May 29 that it may limit some graduate students’ visas to one year.

Armenia Rejects The ‘Politics Of Eternity’, Chase Johnson

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2018

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, three countries in the South Caucasus once ruled by the former Soviet Union, still operate in the shadow of what is now called Russia.

Moral Failure In Libya, Steven Feldstein

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay examines the roots to the Libyan migration crisis and European culpability for documented human rights abuses. It argues that failed efforts to rebuild Libya following the 2011 humanitarian intervention combined with recent European policies to outsource responsibility for the migration crisis to Libya have created a perfect storm of exploitation, predation, and abuse.

After Coup, Will Zimbabwe See Democracy Or Dictatorship?, Steven Feldstein

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

For decades, Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe in a ruthless, even reckless manner. Over nearly 40 years, he turned the “jewel of Africa” into an economic basket case that’s seen inflation of up to 800 percent.

Žumberak: A Sixteenth-Century Refugee Settlement Zone, Nicholas J. Miller

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the movement of Orthodox Christian refugees from Bosnia to the Habsburg Monarchy in the 1530s and their settlement in a district called Žumberak. The movement of these Uskoks has never been examined in the context of refugee studies. This study of a refugee movement and settlement over a five-century period offers the possibility of reaching a better understanding of the long-term outcome of refugee movements. Ultimately, this article suggests that the refugees affected the land they settled as much as the settlement zone affected them, and that, in this case, the refugees were able to define their …

Good Government And Politics As Usual?: The Schizophrenic Path Of The Workers' Party, Benjamin Goldfrank, Brian Wampler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

When Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva won Brazil's presidency in 2002, he and his Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores; PT) had most observers convinced that this was a watershed moment for the country's democracy. The victory of this former shoeshine boy, metalworker, and union leader symbolized to many the arrival to power of Brazil's excluded masses and the opportunity to put into practice the modo petista de governar (the PT way of governing), lauded as participatory, redistributive, and above all, transparent. Fourteen years of PT government and several astounding corruption scandals later, few illusions remain. The PT was gravely wounded …

The Vietnam War, The American War And The ‘Bridge Generation’, Nancy K. Napier

International Business Program

One April morning in the 1990s during my commute to work on a project teaching business concepts and practices to professors and managers at the National Economics University in Hanoi, I saw red.

Intercultural Ambassadors: Foreign Students’ Conflict And Expectations Revisited, Luz Elena Cortes

College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs Presentations

The recent increase of foreign students in higher education conflicts with resource budgeting and priorities. Universities are compelled to implement diverse strategies to keep them solvent. Interestingly, one of the responses to increase revenues is to recruit out-of-state students especially international students for higher tuition returns additionally, universities posit internationalization as a necessary component to becoming a “metropolitan research university of distinction” (Task Force 2006, 1). The goal is to elevate its standing in the global market of higher education. However, these efforts compromise the education of foreign students and how thesestudents are taught. By recruiting foreign students, universities transfer …

Contracting, Contesting, And Co-Optation: Civil Society Organizations’ Strategies Under New Institutional Arrangements In Brazil, Brian Wampler, Michael Touchton

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Civil society has exploded in Latin America as democratization has continued over the last 30 years. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are thought to improve governance and oversight and to increase social capital. Nonetheless, we have limited knowledge about what motivates CSOs’ political strategies, which include participating in formal political institutions, attending demonstrations, and providing services. We build knowledge here by evaluating data from a unique survey of nine hundred CSOs across seven Brazilian cities. Our findings showcase several parallel processes: poorer CSOs continue to rely on the state and actively participate in political processes despite protesting at greater rates than …

Immigrant Brides In Taiwan: New Land, New Hope?, Yuwen Chen

Student Research Initiative

In the last two decades, transnational marriages have been growing in Taiwan, Republic of China (R.O.C). Increasing numbers of Taiwanese men have married bride immigrants from Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia) and Mainland China. These women usually are from low socio-economic class and have little formal education (Chen, Katsurada & Wu, 1998; Tsai, 2006; Tsai & Hsiao 2006). Their offspring are the so-called “New Taiwanese Children”(NTC). The academic performance of New Taiwanese Children has become a contested issue in Taiwanese society, because these children are viewed by some as not being able to contribute to …

Immigrant Brides In Taiwan: New Land, New Hope?, Yuwen Chen

Student Research Initiative

In the last two decades, transnational marriages have been growing in Taiwan, Republic of China (R.O.C). Increasing numbers of Taiwanese men have married bride immigrants from Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia) and Mainland China. These women usually are from low socio-economic class and have little formal education. (Chen, Katsurada & Wu, 1998; Tsai, 2006; Tsai & Hsiao 2006) Their offspring are the so-called “New Taiwanese Children”(NTC). The academic performance of New Taiwanese Children has become a contested issue in Taiwanese society, because these children are viewed by some as not being able to contribute to …

A Difusão Do Orçamento Participativo Brasileiro: ‘Boas Práticas' Devem Ser Promovidas?, Brian Wampler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The "third wave" of democratization has been accompanied by the spread of new institutions that allow citizens to deliberate and decide policy outcomes. Leading international organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations, have disseminated "best practice" programs identified with "good government" policy reform efforts. One of the most well-known programs, Participatory Budgeting (PB), was first adopted by Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) in 1989 as a means to promote social justice, accountability, and transparency. There has been widespread adoption of PB in Brazil, led by the PT. Yet, by 2001, nearly half of PB programs had been adopted …