Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Haiti To Durban: Repairing The Crime Against Humanity, Aimee Beatrice Shukuru

Theses - ALL

Black people have been at the center of the liberation struggle since the transatlantic slave trade that saw black people as property. The various forms of resistance within the struggle have taken many shapes, from jumping off the slave ships in the Atlantic to breaking tools and refusing to work to outright organized resistance that led to a revolution in Haiti that defeated slavery, colonization, and white supremacy that made capital accumulation based on the dehumanization of black people possible. Because the transatlantic slave trade was a global project, black people have demanded nothing short of an international recognition of …

Innovating Chinese Folklore: The Modernization Of The Eight Immortals Through Illustration And Licensing, Xiaodi Zhang

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the traditional Chinese folk story "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" and its related works, aiming to identify strategies for the preserving and advancing this folk-art form. The initial focus of this thesis is to analyze the folktale "The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea," which involves a description of each of the Immortals, their distinct personalities, and their individual magical objects. Through the analysis of artistic works associated with this folk tale, this thesis reveals the potential of integrating them with modern technologies and reimagining the characters, resulting in consistently generating engaging artworks. This approach effectively facilitates the …

Innovating Chinese Folklore: The Modernization Of The Eight Immortals Through Illustration And Licensing, Xiaodi Zhang

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the traditional Chinese folk story "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" and its related works, aiming to identify strategies for the preserving and advancing this folk-art form. The initial focus of this thesis is to analyze the folktale "The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea," which involves a description of each of the Immortals, their distinct personalities, and their individual magical objects. Through the analysis of artistic works associated with this folk tale, this thesis reveals the potential of integrating them with modern technologies and reimagining the characters, resulting in consistently generating engaging artworks. This approach effectively facilitates the …

Watering The Desert, Draining The Oasis: Navigating Drought, Development, And Irrigation Politics In The Draa Valley, Morocco, Jamie Fico

Theses - ALL

No abstract provided.

Ideological And Strategic Influences On Hezbollah's Decisions To Deliver Social Service Provisions, Morgan Mcminn

Theses - ALL

Hezbollah is a unique organization that acts as a transnational group, an insurgent group and a major political party in Lebanon. Since the founding of Hezbollah, they have found social service provisions to be an important aspect of their organization and have had immense control over the territory, acting as a state within the state of Lebanon. Hezbollah offers an organizational structure, a conflict resolution mechanism, healthcare, education and much more to their primarily Shi'a constituents, however to other sects as well. My master's thesis seeks to examine the reasons that Hezbollah does offer these social service provisions. Through the …

The Politics Of Security: Syrian Refugees In The Middle East And Western Europe, Sefa Secen

Dissertations - ALL

Under what conditions do governments view and respond to the arrival of refugees primarily as a security threat? Comparatively analyzing the securitization of Syrian refugees in two pairs of countries, Turkey and Lebanon and Germany and France, this dissertation proposes a domestic political context-based theory and typology of securitization. Based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the media data including mainstream national newspaper articles, political speeches, and policy documents, this research differentiates between different levels of securitization. It finds that moderate securitization was present in Lebanon during the early years of the refugee crisis (2013–2014) and coincided with …

Mental Health Service Use Disparities Among Latinx Communities: An Intersectional Examination Of The Role Of Skin Color, Acculturative Stress, Racial Discrimination, And Mental Health Literacy, Kirsis Allennys Dipre Montes De Oca

Dissertations - ALL

This study utilized logistic and hierarchical regression to examine the impact of skin color, acculturative stress, mental health literacy, and experiences of racial discrimination on the lifetime use of mental health services through an intersectional lens. More specifically, the current study examined the Latinx ethnic identity, US-born status, across the skin color spectrum to better understand mental health service use disparities. Participants' (n = 173) mental health service use was measured at two levels, first, the overall number of hours of sessions attended and second overall hours of sessions of specific types of mental health services attended. Results indicated skin …

North Korea's Policy Toward The United States: Rappochement To Confrontational Diplomacy In The 1970s And The 1990s, Seongryeol Kim

Dissertations - ALL

This research project challenges the common belief that North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and their related delivery systems in the 1990s was a fundamental shift in its foreign policy objectives toward the United States. It argues instead that North Korea has continued to pursue the rapprochement policy announced by Kim Il Sung in the early 1970s. Its findings demonstrate that the shift from rapprochement in the 1970s to provocation in the 1990s was a tactical rather than a strategic change in North Korea's foreign policy. The U.S.'s indifference to the acute security anxieties caused by exogenous factors associated with …

Culture And Practice Within The Construction Industry In Kenya And Its Contribution To Income Inequality, Zachary Obwora Osolo

Theses - ALL

This research focuses on providing findings on the level of income disparity among construction workers in Kenya. The research has placed much of its emphasis on laborers working within the Nairobi metropolitan area and its surrounding areas, which have the largest groups of people representing construction workers in Kenya. It galvanizes mathematical principles to calculate income disparity gaps that result from economic policies and business practices in Kenya. This research seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge that can be used to establish a minimum wage for the construction worker in Kenya, by demonstrating how awareness of the existence …

Gender And The Political Economy Of Oil In The Niger Delta: A Feminist Critique, Nneka Eke

Dissertations - ALL

The exploitation of women's labor is central to the international political economy. Since the 1980s, the trend has been towards a 'feminization of labor' in which women are confined to low-skilled, low-paying, and mostly part-time work. The exploitation of women's labor is not just confined to waged labor, as women's domestic and subsistence labor is necessary to make the economy function but remains unpaid and undervalued. Despite these findings, studies on the oil political economy have not sufficiently dealt with oil's impact on women's labor. These studies—albeit in different ways—undertheorize the link between oil, women's labor (waged and unwaged), and …

"Black And African Cultural Influences On American Pop Culture", Bennie Braswell Iii

Theses - ALL

The aim of this thesis is to show the impact that Black and African culture has on the entertainment industry specifically in the USA. The first portion of the discussion retraces Black and African cultural influences in the 1920's, beginning with Black-owned newspapers, then on to comic books, until arriving in the 21st century with an exploration of such influences in the film and musical industries. An introduction of relevant African mythology figures will follow this historical look at cultural influences on entertainment. We will discuss the adaptations of these mythological figures in modern-day heroic beings. Providing detailed information about …

Mobilization Of Women In Africa: The 2019 Sudanese Uprising, Mahder Serekberhan

Theses - ALL

In 2019 we witnessed the possibilities of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-gendered democracy and a bottom-up democratization process led by women. Sudanese youth and women led and participated in mobilization and demonstration that not only reflected the mass character of the social formation, but also managed to subvert the Islamist military dependent capitalist state (and its apparatus). Over the span of 30 years, the regime, under Omar al-Bashir, managed to entrench and escalate structures and systems of exploitation and oppression necessary for capital accumulation. The intensified neoliberalization and militarization, at the expense of women's super-exploitation, was made possible …

Archaeology And Settlement Histories Along The Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970, Samuel Amartey

Dissertations - ALL

Archaeological and historical data are used to examine transformations in settlement organizationand settlement patterns along the Pra River, southern Ghana, from the first millennium BC to the mid-twentieth century. The study’s focus is on Supomu Island and Wawase, two abandoned settlement sites located in the lower reaches of the Pra River, 15 kilometers north of the coastal trading and port town of Shama. Mapping of surface features, surface collections, shovel test pits, and test excavations are used to document intra- and inter-site artifact distributions. These lines of evidence are used in conjunction with historical sources to explore the processes of …

Gender Differences In Child Care And Household Tasks: An Exploratory Study From An Indo-U.S. Perspective, Danielle Lippman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The rate of immigrants coming from Asia in to the U. S. is growing at a rapid rate. However, research on Asian-Americans is scarce, particularly South-Asian-Americans. This group of immigrants face the same issues that the majority of immigrants coming to the United States face, but also face some additional unique challenges due to cultural background, religion, family expectations, and heritage. Most of these immigrants belong to transnational families. There are many discrepancies between what is expected of husbands and wives, especially when it comes to raising children and doing household chores in the Indian context. It is important to …

Mapping Cuban Migration: The Art Of Spatial Storytelling, Madeline Lorang

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

There are millions of immigrants in the United States, each with stories and experiences to share. Sharing those stories provides benefits to the teller; it builds community bonds and creates a sense of belonging. In the case of immigration, storytelling enhances political awareness and breaks down stereotypes. La Casita, a Hispanic cultural center in Syracuse, New York, is trying to provide a platform for immigrants share their stories. The organization will partner with a group of Cuban artists to create an art installation about the Cuban immigrant experience. To enhance this experience and share more stories, I will be interviewing …

Challenging Structures: A Case Study Of Middle East And North African States In The United Nations System, Emilie Scardilla

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project consists of two complementary studies exploring structural challenges of the United Nations through a case study of the Middle East and North African states. The research focuses on the major organs of the General Assembly, Security Council, Peacebuilding Commission, and Human Rights Council to analyze and assess their representativeness and legitimacy. The project is framed as supportive of increased diverse representation in order to provide legitimacy to organs and policies within the United Nations.

Power Shift: Germany's Energy Transition, Gabrielle Lichtenstein

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project is an analysis of the German energy transition, called the Energiewende, and the dual power shift that is underway in the country’s electric sector. It is both a physical shift from conventional fossil fuels to renewable energy, as well as a socio-political shift in power from centralized utilities to community ownership of energy. The project examines three policy mechanisms — the feed-in tariff, emissions trading, and auctions — through the lens of ordoliberalism, a German variant of economic liberalism that believes in state intervention to maximize fair market competition. Using qualitative research of Anglophone sources, this project draws …

A Case Study Of The Yasuní-Itt: What Is New About The Twenty-First Century Socialist Development Model?, Haley Kulakowski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

© Haley Kulakowski 2016

Abstract

This paper explores and challenges the development strategies of Rafael Correa in Ecuador and, more generally, the new Latin American left through the Yasuní-ITT case study. Claiming to implement a post-neoliberal development model that stands to uphold the principles of buen vivir, post-neoliberalism, and the 2008 Ecuadorean constitution, the Yasuní-ITT case study seems less like a commitment to the rights of the Pachamama and the rights of indigenous tribes, and more like a political tactic, the creation of a hollow narrative that positions the new Latin American left as anti-Northern, anti- IMF, and as “post-neoliberal.” …

Reclaiming Identities: Intercultural Bilingual Education In Peru And Bolivia, Emily Malina

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project involves analyzing indigenous intercultural bilingual education (IBE) and the reclaimation of identity. The intercultural nature of IBE models has the potentional to cause an ideological transformation and reclamation of culture through indigenous autonomy and inclusion in nation-building processes. Through comparing the histories of Peru and Bolivia, it becomes evident that there is a correlation between historic polity structures and the successful implementation of IBE.

At Risk: Conflict Resources And The Right To Water In Sub-Saharan Africa, Madeleine Durbin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the relationship between water and natural resource extraction to expand the understanding of conflict resources to include water stress as a human rights violation. My research question asks how the human right to water can further our conceptualization of conflict resources and conflict risk. If we understand conflict resources broadly as those whose exploitation leads to human rights violations, then any resource extraction resulting in water stress should be considered a conflict resource, as it violates the human right to water and could lead to increased conflict risk. I examine diamonds and coltan as “widely accepted” conflict …

Afghan Narcoterrorism: The Problem, Its Origins, And Why International Law Enforcement Should Fight It, Steven Fantigrossi

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper provides insight into the issue of opium trafficking in Afghanistan. In 2014, despite U.S., Afghan, and international efforts since 2001, poppy-opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached an all-time high. The Afghan opium trafficking industry provides funding to terrorist groups and transnational crime organizations and is responsible for the continued corruption of government officials, police officers, and intelligence agents in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and other nations. Aside from increased corruption and funding of terrorists and criminals, the opium trade creates opium and heroin addicts out of men, women, and children across the globe. The history of how the opium problem …

“Chinese Chess” – A Proposed United States Policy To Denuclearize The Democratic People’S Republic Of Korea, Jolene Sproviero

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) currently has a small supply of nuclear weapons, and the country continues to develop its nuclear weapons capability through advancement of its facilities and supplies. North Korea has violated several international agreements in which the nation consented to being a nuclear-free state, but continued to test missiles and expand its nuclear facilities. The DPRK’s nuclear weapons capability and testing threatens the safety of the United States and its allies in East Asia. Since this issue has been evolving for years and remains a priority in foreign affairs, the United States has developed and …

A Refugee Paradox? Processes Of Inclusion And Exclusion Of Bosnian Refugees In Germany And Sweden, Brittany S. Beyer

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The aim of this project is to explain what factors account for the differentials in treatment of Bosnian refugees in Sweden and Germany. Although both of these states are signatories of the same international conventions that govern states’ humanitarian obligations toward refugees, the resources available to the refugees varied greatly between both countries, which in turn influenced the lived experiences of the Bosnian refugees. This paper examines these discrepancies within the contexts of ideas about national citizenship, the existence of governmental institutions designed to foster refugee integration, and external, non-state factors such as the media and other charitable organizations that …

A Path To Peace: Reconciling The Sunni-Shi’A Conflict In Iraq, Kelsey L. Modica

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Iraqi state has a long history of division between Sunnis and Shiites. This conflict has often been violent and continues even today. Ultimately, this division dates back to the seventh century after the death of Muhammad. In order to better understand why there is a conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and not other countries, it is essential to understand the similarities and differences between their ideologies but also how they have been rooted against each other throughout history. Therefore, I begin with a description of the similarities and differences between Sunnis and Shiites to show the common …

Localizing The International: Examining How Fieldworkers Combat Adolescent Pregnancy In Northern Ghana, Alexandra C. Sloss

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

International aid is often ineffective because it is delivered without an understanding of local ideologies and contexts. My Capstone examined whether or not international aid in northern Ghana could be effective when addressing adolescent pregnancy. The Ghanaian programs I address in my Capstone are six non-governmental organizations, a government sub-district clinic and government junior high schools. The majority of my data was collected through interviews with individuals at all levels of the organizations, including directors, staff members, volunteers and individuals seeking the organization’s services. Alongside interviews I also spent time in the field, participating in youth group discussions, visiting regional …

The End Of The Means: Using The Arab Spring Revolutions As A Case Study For Machiavelli’S The Prince, Conor Sullivan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study sets out to examine if Machiavellian, realpolitik, style repression of unrest by autocratic regimes is still a viable tactic. To accomplish this, the Arab Spring revolutions in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria will be used as a case study. As the revolts were for similar economic and political reasons in a similar population, they present excellent case studies. The Prince itself will be used to develop a “Machiavellian regime,” encompassing a summary of Machiavelli’s prescriptions for rulers. This is done to avoid propagating clichéd or incorrect generalizations of Machiavelli’s work. The result of the study was not …

Chilean Media And Public Opinion (1973-2013), Tara Schoenborn

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In this thesis, I examine the extent to which the media censorship of the Pinochet dictatorship, which ended over 20 years ago, continues to influence Chilean public opinion and policy today. The dictatorship’s control, penetration and censorship of the press in the 1970s and 1980s appears to have created a lack of pluralism in the media that helped the dictatorship retain political power for 17 years. However, it seems that the dictatorship’s influence did not end with its reign and that this lack of media pluralism still exists today and could be correlated with a widespread conservatism in Chilean public …

The Moralist’S Perspective: An Analysis Of A Contemporary Reader’S Connection To Leo Tolstoy’S Themes Of Life As Presented In Five Selected Works, Kelly Almeter

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For my honors capstone I examined the development of Tolstoy’s philosophies and how they are illustrated throughout his literature. I have compared two of Tolstoy’s works written before his theological conversion: “The Cossacks” and Anna Karenina, to three short stories written after, “The Death of Ivan Ilych”, “The Kreutzer Sonata,” and “Master and Man”. As time passed, the moralistic undertones of Tolstoy’s works became more apparent. His literature, whether short story or novel, includes a vast number of complex themes ranging from topics such as death and infidelity to a spiritual awakening and nature. As a result, I chose …

Addressing Modern Slavery In Haiti And The Dominican Republic: The Evolving Role Of Nongovernmental Organizations, Meghan Schneider

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project examines the forms of modern day slavery that are most prevalent in Haiti and the Dominican Republic: domestic servitude and forced prostitution for the purpose of sex tourism, respectively. This paper seeks to answer the following questions:

What is the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in combatting trafficking in persons (TIP) and modern day slavery in Hispaniola? How should NGOs work with national governments, especially in states with a weak rule of law? How have the presence and scope of NGOs evolved and/or expanded over time to address modern forms of slavery?

In this paper I argue that …

Perceptions Of Safety Across Race, Class, Gender, And Location: A Study Of Women In Cape Town, South Africa, Ellen Blanche Moore

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Policing in South Africa has a long, twisted history that is still evident in some current police practices and especially in the public’s perceptions of the police. In addition to historical factors such as colonial rule and apartheid, people’s perceptions of the police are affected by their race, class, gender, and geographic location. Although these factors have an individual effect on perceptions, it is through a complex analysis of how they relate to one another that a true understanding of a person’s perception can be reached. The goal of this research was to discover perceptions women in Cape Town have …