Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey

Pomona Senior Theses

The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living …

Moving In The Underground: The Politics Of Black Joy In Roller-Skating And Funk Music In Chicago, John West

Pomona Senior Theses

Skating provides a moment of limited protection from the dangers of being Black in the after-life of slavery. Skating provides a way to temporarily escape the pain of the outside that is depicted above. The pain of a modern post-racial colorblind slave society. A society plagued with hyper-surveillance, mass incarceration, and domestic militarism targeted at Black and Brown bodies. Our joy and pleasure are what sustain us. We turn to jubilee to offer a moment of freedom from the burden of racial capitalism. Subversive Black joy, the joy that allows Black folk to restore, recreate, and reinvent themselves is how …

Gopniki: Peripheral Masculinity In Post-Soviet Russia, Eli Loeb

Pomona Senior Theses

In the 1990s, packs of tracksuit-clad youth from the suburbs known as gopniki descended on Russia’s cities. These problematic youth, embodying a unique strain of violent masculinity, rapidly rose in prominence during a time of national crisis. The gopniki faded just as quickly when Russia entered the new millennium. The influence of gopnik worldview did not diminish with the movement, however, and gopniki continue to influence Russian culture. This study of primary Russian source material examines the theoretical, ideological, and historical origins of this under-researched group, and explains their lasting influence on Russians in a rapidly changing world.

The Stability Paradox Of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Backlogs: Unstable Policy Implementation For A Stability-Aimed Visa, Lanna Seline Sanchez

Pomona Senior Theses

As of May 2016, the U.S. State Department officially declared a priority date for all green cards for applicants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that capped the number of visas granted to individuals from these three countries to just 10,000 per year. This inherently created a two to three-year backlog for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status applicants from these countries as well, meaning that SIJS petitioners will remain undocumented for periods of up to six years until their petition is adjudicated by USCIS and their priority date arrives. I research whether the increasingly difficult path to obtaining permanent residency through …

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Reforming Organized Dentistry To Address Persistent Oral Health Disparities In The U.S., Aparna Chintapalli

Pomona Senior Theses

The importance of oral health has been largely neglected from the conventional standards of healthcare in terms of public understanding & prioritization, the industrial infrastructure, and the scope of prevention & early-intervention services. Its adjunctive locus to the field of medicine has lead to the bifurcation of the oral cavity from the rest of the human body. As a result of this divide, there have been multiple factors that have allowed socially stratified oral health outcomes to manifest. This thesis examines the determinants of oral health disparities through a multidisciplinary lens (i.e. biology, public policy, infrastructure), and offers evidence of …

Prisons, Policing, And Pollution: Toward An Abolitionist Framework Within Environmental Justice, Ki'amber Thompson

Pomona Senior Theses

Environmental Justice defines the environment as the spaces where we live, work, and play. The Environmental Justice (EJ) Movement has traditionally used this definition to organize against toxics in communities. However, within EJ work, prisons or policing have often not been centralized or discussed. This means that the approximately 2.2 million people in prison are excluded from the conversation and movement. Additionally, communities and activists are identifying police and prisons as toxics in their communities, but an analysis of policing and prisons is largely missing in EJ scholarship. This thesis explores the intersection between prisons, policing, and pollution. It outlines …

Restoration Of Mauri (Life-Force) To Okahu Bay: Investigation Of The Cultural, Social, And Environmental Restoration, Emily Freilich

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in …

Restoration Of Mauri (Life-Force) To Ōkahu Bay: Investigation Of A Community Driven Restoration Process, Emily Freilich

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in …

Deconstructing “Deviance” And “Disorder” As Systems Of Domination: Chicago Public Schools As A Case Study Of The Effects Of Zero Tolerance Discipline Policies On Educational Outcomes In Us Schools, Maya Kaul

Pomona Senior Theses

The rise of “zero tolerance” discipline practices in US primary and secondary schools has become increasingly well documented by the media and empirical studies. Despite the extensive scholarship that has emerged from these conversations, many of these analyses are limited in their scope and do not connect the phenomena of zero tolerance in schools to the diverse, shifting forces at play within American politics and policy today. As such, the goal of this work is to synthesize ideas about zero tolerance across disciplines by integrating historical thought, philosophical frameworks of punishment, shifting policy goals within the US education system, the …

Social Sustainability: The Role Of Ecotourism In Regenerating Cultural And Environmental Histories In Rio De Janeiro, Nia Mcallister

Pomona Senior Theses

Ecotourism is a rapidly growing global export industry that aims to uphold the ethics of responsible tourism by engaging with local communities and encouraging environmentally conscious travel. With existing critiques of the greenwashing of ecotourism and the tendency for tourism agencies to exploit host communities, I advocate for participatory community-based models of ecotourism. This thesis explores both the material and conceptual benefits of community-based ecotourism through the critical examination of community-based ecotourism projects in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Focusing on the implementation of ecotourism in of some of Rio de Janeiro’s peripheral communities, areas that are impacted by social and …

Lived Legal Expertise: Mobilizing The Political Agency Of Incarcerated Youth, Ian S. Schiffer

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes how caring relationships and an emancipatory approach to law related education (LRE) within juvenile justice facilities can cultivate political agency. I focused specifically on Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige, an LA County juvenile probation facility, in La Verne, CA, as a case study. During three months of teaching a law related education class and embedding myself at the facility with an asset-based framework, I encountered a wealth of knowledge that incarcerated juveniles possess, not from formal education or research, but based in their own lived experiences. Los Angeles County Probation spends $233,000 per student per year; assuming best intentions of …

Coping With Acculturative Stress: Mdma Usage Among Asian American Young Adults In The Electronic Dance Music Scene, Michelle Stephanie Chan

Pomona Senior Theses

The intersection of Asian American identity and illicit substance use is greatly understudied in psychological literature, especially with matters of mental health and drug use being stigmatized by Asian cultural norms. However, with an increasingly alarming number of fatal drug overdoses by Asian Americans at electronic dance music (EDM) events, attention must be drawn to the needs of this unique population. The present study characterizes this community by drawing from data of 1,290 Asian American young adults who participate in the EDM scene. This study also hypothesizes the impact of acculturative stress and feelings of social belonging on MDMA usage …

You Are What You (Can) Eat: Cultivating Resistance Through Food, Justice, And Gardens On The South Side Of Chicago, Ida B. Kassa

Pomona Senior Theses

Though food is widely recognized as a basic necessity for humanity, disparate access to it highlights whose bodies, environments, health, nutrition, and utter existence has mattered most in American society—and whose has mattered the least. Through interviews with residents of the South Side of Chicago about the alternative food pathway they’ve forged for themselves, we learn that food becomes much more than just sustenance. Interviewees describe our present day food system as undeniably rooted in a history of enslavement and exploitation of Black and Brown bodies; they regard food justice work by communities of color as an important source of …

Environmental Racism And The Movement For Black Lives: Grassroots Power In The 21st Century, Rickie Cleere

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explores the ways in which the environmental justice movement, which is in opposition to environmental racism, and the Black Lives Matter movement, which is in opposition to police brutality and other forms of racism, are part of the same struggle: a struggle against the neoliberal violence of the state. This struggle against neoliberal violence is at the same time a struggle for communities of color to achieve self-determination on a global scale, a monumental task which might be informed through a revolutionary intercommunalist framework of global grassroots solidarity. State oppression embodies violence in more forms that one, including …

Women In The Machinery Of War: Gender, Identity & Resistance Within Contemporary Middle Eastern Conflict, Nana-Korantema A. Koranteng

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to explore the ways in which gender and identity are imagined in times of war especially in the cases of women who participate in armed struggle within the Middle East. I focus particularly on how US and UK media's framing of these women's lives and experiences distort the ways in which we understand conflict within the contemporary Middle East. Through the case studies of female militants or supports of militancy in Palestine and the Islamic State I seek to highlight women's stories and lived realities in an attempt to understand what drives them to use particular model's …

Radical Housewife Activism: Subverting The Toxic Public/Private Binary, Emma Foehringer Merchant

Pomona Senior Theses

Since the 1960s, the modern environmental movement, though generally liberal in nature, has historically excluded a variety of serious and influential groups. This thesis concentrates on the movement of working-class housewives who emerged into popular American consciousness in the seventies and eighties with their increasingly radical campaigns against toxic contamination in their respective communities. These women represent a group who exhibited the convergence of cultural influences where domesticity and environmentalism met in the middle of American society, and the increasing focus on public health in the environmental movement framed the fight undertaken by women who identified as “housewives.” These women, …

Fish And Fruit For Food Justice Success, Nickelle A. Raschick

Pomona Senior Theses

Given the critical role of food justice organizations in providing for the 49 million Americans who live in food insecure households, one of the most important questions that can be answered today is what determines the success of such an organization. This paper analyzes case studies from Sitka, AK and Portland, OR, aiming to communicate a better understanding of which factors result in an organization’s success and which factors lead it to failure. That information is used to establish guidelines that other organizations seeking to be relevant contributors to the food justice movement can follow. Ultimately, my research discovers that …

International Relations Or International Sanitations? Exploring Student Perceptions Of Intro To Ir Course Content, Nick Sundback

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis draws on student testimony, curriculum analysis, and statistical tests to explore 1) the degree to which gender, financial aid status, and race/ethnicity correlate with student perceptions of Intro to IR course content and 2) the degree to which students conceptualize IR as interrelated with social identities, as opposed to an abstracted state-centric discipline.

The Clarification Of Proposition 209: Gauging The Impact On Native Americans At The University Of California, Charles R. Herman

Pomona Senior Theses

Proposition 209 banned the consideration of race or ethnicity in admission decisions to the University of California (UC). The UC “clarified” their policy in 2008, recognizing that Native Americans enrolled in a federally recognized tribe enjoy a political status that enables them to be offered affirmative action, even when the consideration of race or ethnicity is banned. The Clarification led to a statistically significant surge in the Native American applicant share, acceptance rate, admit share, and enrollment share. Enrollment share increased by 56% from 2008 to 2010 at the UC, even as the three-tiered California system of higher education saw …

Wind Energy Opposition In Vermont: Perspectives On The State's Energy Future, William R. Pitkin Iv

Pomona Senior Theses

Due to its high levels of concern and awareness of environmental issues, rural character, and sparse population, Vermont would at first glance appear to possess the ideal recipe to become a national leader in renewable energy development. Renewable initiatives have focused primarily on wind energy, as over a dozen wind farms have been proposed in the last few years across the state. However, in spite of the widely held belief in Vermont’s wind energy future, its proponents have run into vehement opposition at every proposed site, often successfully impeding the planned developments.

This report develops a wide-level framework of the …

Cooking Up A Course: Food Education At Pomona College, Christina A. Cyr

Pomona Senior Theses

Cooking skills are important but declining, with significant health, social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental implications. Food and cooking education can begin to address some of the negative effects of the cooking skills decline. This thesis makes the case for cooking classes in the education system, especially in higher education. The paper begins with a history of cooking education and skills, outlines the implications of the decline in skills, and discusses the potential for cooking education in higher education. The second part consists of a course syllabus, designed for Pomona College. The third section includes a discussion of the implementation …

Identity On Trial: The Gabrielino Tongva Quest For Federal Recognition, Alice Mirlesse

Pomona Senior Theses

In this paper, the author looks at the impact of the policy of federal recognition on a Los Angeles basin Native community: the Gabrielino Tongva. The first section, the literature review focuses on the difficulties of defining “indigenousness” in the academic and political realms, as well as looking at Native scholars’ conceptualization of this unique and multifaceted identity. After a consideration of the theoretical framework of the study, the crossroads between anthropology and public policy analysis, the author presents the tools she used in her study, namely: participant observation, key-informant interviews, and the analysis of published documents and personal files. …

Get Your Butt Off The Ground!: Consequences Of Cigarette Waste And Litter-Reducing Methods, Joyce Lee

Pomona Senior Theses

Cigarette butts are rapidly accumulating on our planet; trillions of them are discarded every year. In this paper, I examine why cigarette litter is a problem. I first discuss the biodegradability of filters and its scientific basis, including ways to enhance degradation rates by chemically manipulating filters. I also talk about the persistence of cigarette chemicals and their potential toxic effects on children and animals. I consider other social, economic, and environmental consequences of cigarette filters and chemicals. Furthermore, I discuss various solutions smokers and non-smokers alike have created to address the problem of cigarette litter; these methods come from …

Cultivating Youth Earth Connections Summer Internship Program (Yec): A Hands-On Environmental Justice Focused Farming Program At The High School Level, Samuel Lewis

Pomona Senior Theses

YEC’s main goal was to open dialogue with high school students from under resourced communities about environmental injustices and to create and explore positive alternatives. The summer program, which was funded by the 2010 Davis Projects for Peace and the Pomona College Summer Undergraduate Research Project Award, included a group of 11 high school students from Pomona, Montclair, La Puente, and Chino Hills, CA. The students were paid to participate in the program for 6 weeks in the summer of 2010, five days a week, for 30 hours each week. The program was designed to consistently connect movements for food …

A Place Like This: An Environmental Justice History Of The Owens Valley - Water In Indigenous, Colonial, And Manzanar Stories, Monica Embrey

Pomona Senior Theses

This text provides an environmental justice analysis of the stories of the people who lived in the Owens Valley, who watered its land and cultivated its crops—pine trees, apple trees, and kabocha alike. Telling the personal stories of challenge and resistance that manifested alongside the oppressive forces of military and state domination provides the opportunity to align forcibly relocated, exploited and incarcerated people’s struggles throughout time. This text starts with The Nü’ma Peoples who were the first humans to live in the Owens Valley and continues with the struggle for empire between rival colonial empires of agriculture and distant urban …

The Claremont Foodshed: A Historical Analysis, Allie Comet

Pomona Senior Theses

On the southeast corner of the Pomona College campus a small community farm and lush oasis is nestled in the suburban jungle of Claremont, California. ‘The Farm’ is a two-acre food forest that produces a wide variety of annual vegetable crops, fruits, and perennial herbs and berries in a landscape otherwise covered largely in asphalt and lawn.From my experiences on the Farm and in the classroom studying environmental analysis , I have developed a great interest in sustainable food and farming. The failures of the modern food system, destructive to the natural environment and inadequate in providing the world’s population …

Niche To Mainstream In Sustainable Urban Food Systems: The Case Of Food Distribution In Portland, Oregon, Bowen Close

Pomona Senior Theses

To address the negative environmental, political, and social consequences of the dominant, industrialized global food system, communities around the world have developed goals and values underlying a sustainable food system. Conceptualizing food production, distribution, and consumption as systems helps clarify the ways food affects social and natural environments, with the distribution element as the critical juncture where the product reaches the consumer. Urban food systems are a particularly important environment in which to study movements toward sustainability. This paper focuses on the movement for a sustainable food system in Portland, Oregon, with particular focus on the city’s markets for …