Latin American Studies Commons^™

Carbon Stocks In Shade Coffee: Strategies For Enhancing Carbon Storage In Smallholder Systems In Jinotega, Nicaragua, Vanessa Katheryn Kichline

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Climate change has recently shifted focus to adaptation and mitigation strategies in coffee production. Shade coffee systems, already widely recognized for their contribution to biodiversity and soil conservation, are now drawing attention for their role in carbon storage. Researchers have generally assumed that high carbon storage must come at the expense of reduced crop yields, implying that farmers must choose between sustainability and profit. This study uses field inventories of 70 farms in Jinotega, Nicaragua to estimate this tradeoff in smallholder shade coffee systems. Field inventories were used to develop three typologies representing different shade management strategies in use in …

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, And Champeta: The Colombian Conflict As Case Study In Sovereignty, Anna Shepard

CMC Senior Theses

I will argue that a discussion of sovereignty as it relates to internal conflict deepens our understanding of the Colombian conflict, and in turn, the Colombian conflict deepens the ongoing discussion on sovereignty. Internal armed conflict is a tool to free and dominate populations, to save and kill individuals, and to destroy and build institutions. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke set an initial framework for understanding sovereignty. Armed actors use violence to create a sphere of influence that overlaps with the state’s legal jurisdiction: armed actors use violence as a strategy of hegemonic state building. Overlapping territorial claims challenge the …

Race And Affirmative Action In “Post-Racial” Democratic Brazil, Alejandra T. Vazquez Baur

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the ways that Brazilians are evaluated for their privileges in qualification for the affirmative action program. It critically examines the existing policies, how they function, and how they affect ideas of race in Brazil for both black and non-black Brazilians. Additionally, it proposes that the policies prioritize phenotype as a primary condition for qualifying for a quota in order to accomplish their initial objectives of fighting racial inequalities, compensating for historical injustices, contributing to the diversity of experiences and perspectives on campuses and in federal offices, and raising understanding of what it means to be black in …

A Case For Empathy: Immigration In Spanish Contemporary Media, Music, Film, And Novels, Constantin C. Icleanu

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This dissertation analyzes the representations of immigrants from North Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe in Spain. As engaged scholarship, it seeks to better the portrayal of immigrants in the mass media through the study of literature, film, and music about immigration spanning from the year 2000 to 2016. Because misconceptions continue to propagate in the media, this dissertation works to counteract anti-immigrant, xenophobic representations as well as balance out overly positive and orientalized portrayal of immigrants with a call to recognize immigrants as human beings who deserve the same respect, dignity, and rights as any other citizen.

Chapter 1 …

The Creation Of The Border Crisis: How The Media Influenced The Situation At The U.S./Mexico Border In 2014, Alejandra Baron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 2014, thousands of women and children from Central America trekked across Mexico to reach the United States border in hopes of seeking asylum. As oppose to previous immigration surges, it was the first time that this amount of asylum seekers had reached within a short period of time the border. The media in the United States took an important role in describing the occurrences at the U.S./Mexico border in the rhetoric and dialect used. The polarization of the audience mimicked the partisan government that could not agree on a solution and left the situation at the border in a …

Association Between Pediatrician Screening Practices And Age At The Time Of Autism Diagnosis Among Latino Children, Irma S. Diaz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability that affects all ethnic groups and is twice as frequent among boys than girls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with ASD. Despite guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics and clinical evidence that suggests that ASD can be diagnosed as early as 24 months of age, most diagnoses occur at age 4 or even later, resulting in fewer opportunities for children to receive early ASD treatment and help them reach the best outcome possible. There is limited information about the appropriate …

Social Responsibility Strategies To Improve Firm Performance, Dennis Vincent Reade

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historical research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on corporate financial and social results arrived at contradictory findings. Although 95% of the world's 250 largest corporations reported investing in CSR activities in 2011, some managers lack strategies to evaluate CSR effectiveness. This multiple case study explored strategies that 6 CSR managers with CSR oversight in privately owned companies in Brazil used to effectively enact CSR. The stakeholder theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected through individual interviews and supplemented with company annual reports to explore the strategies managers employed to evaluate CSR effectiveness. Member …

Social Change Initiatives For African-American And Latino Males In Los Angeles County, Kay Ramsey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the 21st Century, many Americans continue to fight battles for men of color who are at the forefront of criminal injustice, unemployment, and low matriculation. With great dominion and urgency, our Nation must ensure all men, regardless of the adversity can succeed and build legacies in their families, communities, and the economy. In this action research study, an ecological system theory was used to analyze the stakeholders who have implemented the following public polices under the Obama Administration: 21st Century Policing, My Brother's Keeper, and Race to the Top. This research answers the question how stakeholders are able to …

Evaluation Of The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Objective: Agricultural Production Yield Change, Tiffany Kwader Harbour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Brazil has an active agrarian reform policy program, publicly organized by the federal government and publicly administered at the state level by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The objective of the agrarian reform policy program is to retitle unproductive and underproductive rural lands to increase agricultural production and land use. Previous agrarian reform researchers have examined quantities of land redistributed, rural technology developments, and the impact of social movements on land redistribution, but a knowledge gap remains regarding the correlation of agricultural production yields in rural municipalities before and after policy program participation. The State of Ceará …

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 …

Partisanship In Mexico: Influence Of Violence And State Spending, Christopher White

CMC Senior Theses

This paper serves to further investigate factors influencing partisanship in Mexican politics with a focus on state spending and drug violence. With state spending, this paper builds on prior literature about political effects of federal social spending (Handelman 1997, Domínguez and Chappell 2004, Díaz-Cayeros 2009) to propose a similar theory regarding state social spending. The proposed panel data model for national elections between 2000 and 2012 finds that for diputados elections, a thousand-peso increase in state spending had a statistically significant influence on party voting – boosting PRI candidates (typically incumbents) by 0.66% and hurting both PAN and PRD candidates …

Cognitive Performance Across The Life Course Of Bolivian Forager-Farmers With Limited Schooling, Michael Gurven, Eric Fuerstenberg, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, Helen Davis, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g. “effortful processing” abilities including fluid reasoning, and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, while other abilities (e.g. “crystallized” abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling may impact performance and cognitive “reserve”, it has been argued that these age patterns of cognitive performance are human universals. Here we examine age patterns of cognitive performance among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia, and test whether schooling is related to differences in cognitive performance …

Cicig In Guatemala: The Institutionalization Of An Anti-Corruption Body, Greg M. Morano

Honors Theses

When is the institutionalization of anti-corruption bodies possible in Latin America? Central America’s Cold War era internal conflicts destabilized the Northern Triangle’s governments and greatly weakened judicial institutions. The legacy of these conflicts led to the creation of parallel corrupt networks that infiltrated state institutions and perpetuated impunity and violence. However, in Guatemala, the institutionalization of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala, CICIG) has improved the country’s ability to prosecute high-level corruption against the threat of powerful and corrupt state actors. A comparative analysis of the tenures of CICIG’s three commissioners reveals …

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 …

Desconocido: Conversion To Islam In México, Ashley E. Dunn

International Studies Honors Projects

Unless proven otherwise, subaltern subjects are assumed to lack agency. Through an exploration of conversion to Islam in México in the southern state of Chiapas, in the north along las fronteras, and in Mexico City, this project intervenes in discourses that deny the subaltern agency. Through the analytical frameworks of coloniality, this project redefines the choices that converts make and their expressions of faith as acts of creation, as inherently authentic, and as articulations of their desires. Converts to Islam in México serve as a case study of modes of resistance against the epistemological powers of coloniality.

Fraternity, Dignity, And Democracy: Forms Of Value In Northeast Brazil’S Health Care Reform Movement, Jessica Jerome

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This essay applies Terence Turner’s insight that production is the key to understanding social value to the context of an urban poor community in Fortaleza, Brazil. It uses this insight to address a contemporary tension in the community between democratic values espoused by city and state politicians and local forms of value which glorify fraternity and dignity. I argue that older women’s daily activities (such as courtyard maintenance, siestas, and dinner potlucks) produce the values of dignity and fraternity, which women regard as essential to sustaining their households’ viability. It is the dispossession of these values by government sanctioned forms …

Review Of Thunder Shaman By Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Robin M. Wright

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

Review Of Cultural Forests Of The Amazon: A Historical Ecology Of People And Their Landscapes By William Balée, Maria Gabriela Zurita-Benavides

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Unconquered: In Search Of The Amazon’S Last Uncontacted Tribes By Scott Wallace, Felipe Milanez

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Issue In Honor Of Terence S. Turner, Suzanne Oakdale

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.