Digital Commons Network^™

Preventing The Clash: Reexamining U.S. Public Diplomacy In The Middle East, Clifton Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes U.S. public diplomacy in the Middle East. In explaining the concept of public diplomacy itself and its evolution in the United States, four factors are identified as most crucial to the capabilities and limitations of U.S. public diplomacy in the region: U.S. foreign policy options, institutions, strategies, and tools. These factors are shown to affect the outcome of U.S. public diplomacy programming in the Middle East and are the foundation for a new U.S. public diplomacy model.

The paper continues by examining the development of contemporary U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, providing a traceable landscape …

Sub-Saharan Africa: Searching For A Social Contract, David D. Mayen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the phenomenon of civil war and state failure in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from a social contract perspective. Its main hypothesis is that authoritarianism will lead to state failure in the context of SSA. In this regard, SSA states are political communities that have not done enough to promote and develop a social contract that is compatible with the region's sociopolitical and structural peculiarities. Since civil war and state failure have hampered different dimensions of human progress in SSA, analyzing the main patterns of conflict will inevitably lead to an underlying incompatibility between existing governing political structures and …

Protection Of The Natural And Cultural Heritage Of The Mongolian Altai, Ulikpan Beket, Hans D. Knapp

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The Altai-Sayan Ecoregion is known as a hotspot of biodiversity with large wilderness landscapes and a high rate of endemism in Central Asia and Siberia. There are many large and important protected areas of different categories. Parts of the Russian Altai, the “Golden Mountains of Altai”, are inscribed as World Natural Heritage. Also the neighbouring countries contain pristine landscapes, which could be a potential for an extension to a transnational serial World Heritage Site.

The Mongolian part of the ecoregion is characterized by very diverse landscapes and vegetation complexes: Deserts, semi-deserts and desert steppes in arid basins, river floodplains, salt …

A Study Of Primary Schools In The Elias Piña Province On The Dominican Haitian Border: Immigrant Haitian Access To Education In The Dominican Republic In The 2010 Post-Earthquake Era, Matthew D. Kaye

Mission & Culture Publications

The research question of the study asked "In the post 2010 earthquake, what are the conditions faced by Haitian immigrants in accessing primary public education in the Dominican Republic"? Within the context of primary education, the study takes place in the town of Comendador, the capital of the Elías Piña province in the Dominican Republic. Using a mixed methods approach, incorporating ethnographic methods and database analysis, the study documents the voices of Haitian and Dominican parents, Dominican school personnel, non-governmental organization (NGO) officials and community stakeholders. Within the construct of access, there are six areas of focus: educational policy, curriculum …

Beyond Coffee Plantations : Coffee Production, Emerging Economic And Social Spaces, And The Q'Eqchi' Maya In Senahú, Guatemala, Winston Kent Scott

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines various aspects of economic and social consequences associated with the history of coffee production in the rural municipality of Senahú, a province located in the central Guatemalan province of Alta Verapaz that is home to one of the four major Mayan language groups in Guatemala; the Q'eqchi' Maya. In particular, the investigation is concerned with how German and other Anglo-European entrepreneurs initiated large-scale coffee production in the late 19th century and the social and economic disparities that arose with the early successes of large-scale coffee production. This examination also presents how the collective society in Senahú became …

Spaces Of Healing : Clinical Effects On Indigenous Cosmology In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Fotini Constantina Spero

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this paper I hope to explain the levels of power at play between the Ecuadorian State and the indigenous of the Amazon. The indigenous in Ecuador, not only in the Amazon, though that is where my work takes place, attempt to maintain their separate identities from the Ecuadorian State. The main way they do this that I will be focusing on in this paper is their utilization of witchcraft and healing practices. These practices help to maintain the relationship between the indigenous and their land. These mechanisms clash with the state agenda of remaking autonomous indigenous people into state …

La Mujer Detective En La Literatura Latinoamericana--Tres Ejemplos, Ornella Lepri Mazzuca

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study analyzes the representation of women detectives in three Hispano-American novels. In the last three decades women detectives started to introduce themselves inside predominantly male literary models. Nevertheless, while there is an abundance of figures, both feminine and tough, in the Anglo-American and Spanish literature, women detectives appear later in time in the Hispano-American detective novels. An examination of the Latin-American context will evaluate the causes of this initial sporadic appearance of the women detectives. In relation to the works presented in this dissertation, the social function of the women detectives is explored and it is determined whether they …

Childrearing In The Discourse Of Friars And Nahaus In Early Colonial Central Mexico, Nadia Marín-Guadarrama

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation illustrates the terms in which indigenous' conceptions of childrearing and childhoods were discussed and depicted in a Mesoamerican setting of the XVI Century. During this early colonial period, Nahuas from Central Mexico realized that Spanish colonizers were interested in learning about and transforming even the most intimate aspects of their lives, including the meaning of a girl and a boy of different ages, and the practices of childrearing. In the process, friars and Nahuas had agreements or experienced contradictions regarding how girls or boys should be raised. The analysis is based on ethnographic, ecclesiastic, and civil documents written …

How Milk Does The World Good: Vernacular Sustainability And Alternative Food Systems In Post-Socialist Europe, Diana Mincyte

Publications and Research

Scholarly debates on sustainable consumption have generally overlooked alternative agro-food networks in the economies outside of Western Europe and North America. Building on practice-based theories, this article focuses on informal raw milk markets in post-socialist Lithuania to examine how such alternative systems emerge and operate in the changing political, social, and economic contexts. It makes two contributions to the scholarship on sustainable consumption. In considering semi-subsistence practices and poverty-driven consumption, this article argues for a richer, more critical, and inclusive theory of sustainability that takes into consideration vernacular forms of exchange and approaches poor consumers as subjects of global history. …

Mexican-Americans In Los Angeles: Strengthening Their Ethnic Identity Through Chivas Usa, Stephanie Goldberger

CMC Senior Theses

A large Mexican-American population already exists in Los Angeles and, with each generation, it continues to rise. This Mexican-American community has maintained its connection to its heritage by playing and watching soccer, Mexico’s top watched sport. In this thesis, I analyze how Major League Soccer's Chivas USA serves as an outlet through which many Mexicans in Los Angeles have developed their ethnic identities. Since the early twentieth century, Mexicans in Los Angeles have created separate residential communities and sports organizations to strengthen their connections with one another.

To appeal to Mexican-Americans, Chivas USA has branded itself closely to its sister …

Transnationalism And Identity: The Concept Of Community In Ghanaian Literature And Contemporary Ghanaian Culture, Devin M. Geary

Honors Theses

In my thesis, I use anthropology, literature, and adinkra, an indigenous art, to study Ghanaian concepts of community from an interactive standpoint. While each of these disciplines has individually been used to study the concept of community, the three have not previously been discussed in relation to one another. I explore the major findings of each field—mainly that in anthropology, transnational informants find communities upheld; in literature, transnational characters find the opposite; and in adinkra, there are elements of both continuity and dissolution—to discuss Ghanaian constructs of community in the transnational world. Throughout time, there have always been transnational individuals …

What Does It Mean To Be Prosocial? A Cross-Ethnic Study Of Parental Beliefs, Maria Rosario T. De Guzman, Jill Brown, Gustavo Carlo, George P. Knight

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explored parental beliefs surrounding prosocial behaviors and the parenting practices that promote them. A total of 47 mothers of young adolescents participated in one of the seven focus groups, three of which were conducted in Spanish with first-generation Mexican-American immigrants, two were conducted in English among second generation (US-born) Mexican Americans, and two were conducted with European Americans. Responses were coded using elements of the grounded theory approach, and results indicate patterns of shared and unique beliefs about prosocial behaviors in ways that reflect the sociocultural context and acculturative experiences of the respondents. Findings suggest that beliefs about …

Binding Ochre To Theory, Simone E. Nibbs

Pomona Senior Theses

Widely found throughout the archaeological and artistic records in capacities ranging from burial contexts to early evidence of artistic expression, red ochre has been studied in archaeological and art conservationist communities for decades. Despite this, literature discussing binders is disparate and often absent from accessible arenas. Red ochre is important historically because its use can be used to help further the understanding of early humans, their predecessors, and their cognitive capabilities. However, there is not much written speculation on the processes involved in binder selection, collection, and processing. Based on the idea of these three activities associated with binders, I …

Sexual Racism In A Gay Community On The U.S.-Mexico Border: Revisiting The Latin Americanization Thesis Online, Jesus Gregorio Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this investigation is to examine racism in a sexual context or as it shall be defined here, sexual racism, along the border town of El Paso, TX by expanding upon Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's (2002) Latin Americanization Thesis of tri-racial stratification that posits that the U.S. will reflect a three tier racial structure with the White race on top, then an intermediary group of Honorary Whites and a Collective Black category at the bottom. This study will expand upon the Latin Americanization Thesis by examining the intersection of race/ethnicity with sexuality. Specifically, I will add to this thesis by …

Bodies For The Gods: Image Worship In Chinese Popular Religion, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Choice, Coercion, Capabilities And Conflict: Multilingualism, Human Development And Peacekeeping In A Globalized World, Megan R. Thompson

Honors Projects

The development of English into an international lingua franca is not an inevitable result of globalizing forces. Instead, the “triumph” of the English language and the consequent decline of the world’s linguistic diversity cannot be viewed in isolation of its parallel history of conquest, violence, power and exploitation. Today, the languages privileged by the powerful—not only English, but also other dominant languages or standard varieties of those languages—determine access to social, economic and political mobility. This fact renders any discussion of language “choice” irrelevant—when a choice yields the sacrifice of basic human capabilities on one hand and the denial of …

Somali Bibliography --2012, Elizabeth A. Eames, Mame Nyarko F. Bonsu

Somalis in Maine Bibliography

A bibliography of resources arranged alphabetically and published before 2012.

Through The Eyes Of Greek Cypriots And Turkish Cypriots: The Perception Of Cyprus, Mary N. Olin

Dissertations and Theses

It is important to consider the effects of past conflicts on the current perceptions of the people of Cyprus and of the future generations. This thesis contends that the ongoing division of Cyprus along with the many unresolved issues regarding past conflicts have had a profound effect on how the people of Cyprus perceive new information in regard to their future. The inquiry will explore the historical background of Cyprus and the affects of nationalism. The need for enemies, large group identity, divided societies and the need for dialogue will also be examined in relation to perception and new information. …

Somali Bibliography By Keyword --2012, Elizabeth A. Eames, Mame Nyarko F. Bonsu

Somalis in Maine Bibliography

A bibliography of resources organized by topical keyword and published before 2012.

Divergent Discourses: Development Knowledge And Malian Family Planning, Savannah A. Thompson

Master's Theses

I propose that in order to approach corrective recommendations for family planning initiatives an examination of initiative fitness is necessary. Using a Foucauldian approach, this analysis identifies the discursive formations (ideologies) at work in centralized family planning in order to elucidate the female normative model for whom initiative programs are constructed. This norm is contrasted with the lived experiences of Malian women in order to determine if the ideology dictating family planning structures is suitable for the local population. When combined with existing analyses of family planning structures and outcomes, this research helps triangulate family planning in a three-dimensional space, …

Violence Against Women In Pakistan, Amina Bath

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Systems At Play: The Construction Of International Systems In Social Impact Games, Jorge Albor

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how game makers conceive of and navigate the intersection between digital systems and real world systems by asking, how can social impact game designers shape procedural rhetoric to effectively address complex real world systems with digital systems? By examining three game case studies, I reach four significant findings regarding player agency, subversive play, design approaches to scale, and game difficulty in regards to systems fluency.

Aboriginal Andean Cosmic Vision And Rights Of Nature Challenges For "Good-Living" = 安第斯原住民的宇宙觀, 自然權及美好生活的挑戰, Victor Hugo Jijon

South South Forum 南南論壇

In the Andean countries of South America, the current political situation is determined by the need to find a new model of development, different and alternative to that imposed by neoliberal policies. This new situation includes the recognition by States of the cultural and ethnic diversity of population and, as an element of that, the need to guarantee specific rights to indigenous peoples effectively, with new public institutions and adequate resources, among the proposals that some authors call the new "multicultural constitutionalism".

This official recognition is a result of the struggles and demands of the indigenous movement, in their process …

Ecological Revival And Sustainable Living In The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest Of Tamil Nadu: A Measurement Of Residential Perception In Sadhana Forest, Elizabeth Collette Mcguire

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Since 1970, the role and function of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been to promote environmental quality and to form strategies for carrying out environmental policy¹. The EPA has committed to sustainability as the next level of environmental protection. The agency states that sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs². Presently, society’s requirements have resulted in natural resource exploitation and population distention- projected to reach 10 billion people within two human generations³. These paired occurrences are …

Muslim Women And The West: Faith, Feminism, And The Quest For Gender Equality, Kelly Haller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For centuries the West has seen the Muslim woman as an entire group of people in need of saving. Lacking a thorough understanding of Islam and an incredibly diverse Middle Eastern society, Western powers endeavored to shape women of the Middle East into secular, modern examples of "liberated" women. Completely unacknowledged in this pursuit are the grass roots movements that emerged out of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century. An attempt to understand why the West is so incredibly fascinated by Muslim is undertaken in this scholarly pursuit. Additionally, a case study on the nation of Egypt shows not …

Norms And Survival In The Heat Of War: Normative Versus Instrumental Rationalities And Survival Tactics In The Blockade Of Leningrad, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

When war challenges civilian survival, what shapes the balance between normative and instrumental rationalities in survival practices? Increasing desperation and uncertainty can lead civilians to focus on their own material interests and to violate norms in the name of survival or gain—to the detriment of the war effort and of other civilians. Do norms, boundaries against transgressions, and considerations of collective interests and identities persist, and, if so, through what mechanisms? Using diaries and recollections from the 872-day Blockade of Leningrad (1941–1944)—an extreme case of wartime desperation—this article examines how three forms of cultural embeddedness shape variation in the strength …

Authoritarianism And Economic Development: Ethiopia's Investment Gamble, Chuck Schaefer

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Prior to his positions at Valparaiso University, Dr. Schaefer taught at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia as a Fulbright Lecturer and has since focused his research in Ethiopia. As an economic historian, Dr. Schaefer analyzes Ethiopia’s integration into the world economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, looking strictly at economic indices such as trade, capital creation, money supply and credit and lending in order to partially answer the question: Why is Ethiopia poor? His research has since shifted to answer the question: Why is there conflict in Ethiopia and what can be done about it? This research …

Hyphenated Identities As A Challenge To Nation-State School Practice?, Edmund T. Hamann, William England

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This chapter concludes the edited volume Hyphenated Identities and affords a chance to juxtapose how transnational students negotiate school and identity with how school systems in turn view such students, and then it allows the examination of two different strategies -- situational ethnicity versus the assertion of hyphenated identity -- as a glimpse into the cosmology of transnationally mobile students as they come into adulthood.

Ajzenkol's "Crkva Pred Izazovima Medija [Church Facing Challenges Of Media: Liturgy Symbolism, Performance And Media Translation Of The Roman Catholic Service]" - Book Review, Dr. Dubravka Ðjuriæ

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Latino Population Of New York City, 1990—2010, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning the Latino population of New York City between 1990 and 2010.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The City’s Latino population continued its steady increase from 1.7 million people and 24% of the total population in 1990 to nearly 2.4 million and 29% of all New Yorkers in 2010. Within the Latino population …