Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

The “Arab Spring” In The Discourse Of The Western Media, Logan De La Barre-Hayes

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Influences Of The American Boxer Indemnity Reparations Remissions On Chinese Higher Education, Xiaojuan Zhou

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to consider the influences of the American Boxer Indemnity Reparations Remissions (ABIRR) on Chinese higher education. These remissions were used to establish two universities, to establish the American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) to support Chinese students’ studying in America, and to support other higher education- related projects.

This study focused on higher education considering ABISP as an individual case. The ABISP students were selected from all the students who studied in America in the corresponding period in part because of the inconsistencies of research before 1949.

Through tracking 1,152 ABISP students of Type …

In Search Of Ubuntu: An Examination Of Enslaved African Domestic And Labor Environments On St. Eustatius, Deanna Lynn Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

The discovery of dry stone rock features in the northern hills on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius presented a unique opportunity to investigate an enslaved African environment during the time of enslavement. Abandoned after emancipation, the area has remained virtually undisturbed by eco-tourism, making it an archaeological gem. The intact nature of the sites held potential to add significantly to our understanding of choices enslaved Africans made in slave village design, orientation, and the construction of their dwellings, as well as the labor activities of daily life. In doing so, this investigation attempted to detect whether higher levels of …

Craniometric Ancestry Proportions Among Groups Considered Hispanic: Genetic Biological Variation, Sex-Biased Asymmetry, And Forensic Applications, Meredith L. Tise

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today, groups considered Hispanic in the United States consist of populations whose complex genetic structures reflect intermixed diverse groups of people who came in contact during Spanish colonization in Latin America. After coming in contact and wiping out most of the Native Americans who occupied North and Latin America, the Spanish also introduced West African individuals for labor to begin developing crops to be shipped back to Europe, resulting in the Trans-Atlantic African slave trade. These migration events and differential gene flow among males and females that occurred throughout Latin America have led to populations that have been genetically transformed …

The Impact Of The Icty On Atrocity-Related Prosecutions In The Courts Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Yaël Ronen

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia was not mandated to proactively promote domestic prosecutions of war-related crimes. However, its operation may have had some impact on domestic proceedings concerning war-related crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The object of this article is to identify and explain this impact, with respect to qualitative (institutional legal capacities), quantitative (rates of prosecution and trends in sentencing), and normative (the adoption and application of criminal law norms) benchmarks.

Wmu International News Spring 2014, Haenicke Institute

WMU International News

In this Issue

• Second-year nursing students review skills during a CHHS pre-fall refresher session.
• Demand high for WMU’s College of Health and Human Services nationally recognized academic programs
• Alumna helps China advance services for people with vision disabilities
• Sudanese “Lost Boy” finds home in WMU occupational therapy program
• International researcher honored by American Speech- Language-Hearing Association
• WMU, Fetzer Institute collaborative program responds to Latino demographics
• Sabbatical work in Bangladesh widens perspectives for OT professor
• Nigerian nursing major finds way to Kalamazoo through WMU TNE program
• Former Croatian National Team basketball player takes the court at WMU

Effects Of Online Oral Practice On Japanese Pitch Accentuation Acquisition, Mayu Miyamoto

Open Access Theses

Even though there is a constant learners' need for pronunciation instruction in a Japanese language classroom, some teachers are hesitant to include pronunciation instruction due to time constrains or lack of knowledge on how to teach pronunciation. These problems occur due to the fact that pronunciation instructions were mostly conducted in classrooms. Computer-Assisted Language Learning is a great way to overcome these problems since learners can practice pronunciation through an online program outside of class. For this reason, this study was conducted outside of class using an online program. This research investigated the effectiveness of online oral practice on Japanese …

Imagined Communities: Changing Markets And The Implications For 21st Century Mali China Migration, Mamasa Camara

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in engagement between China and Africa across all fronts of foreign relations especially in the realms of trade, finance and migration. As China continues to push into Africa in pursuit of economic resources and diplomatic relations, many Africans are migrating to China and specifically Guangzhou in search of economic opportunity backed by cheap labor markets and the prospects for “low end globalization.”As the contemporary African presence in China is a relatively new phenomenon, so are the discourses surrounding its presence, discourses often relegated to the spheres of economics, boasting China …

La Voz Spring 2014, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Alturas Duo
• Dominican Citizenship
• Magdalena Gomez
• Roberto Tejada

“Little Soldiers With Big Guns”: The Language Of Child-Soldiering In Africa, Karen J. Norris

Student Publications

This project examines the language of child-soldiering in Africa, specifically in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda, comparing its use between Western observers and the Africans who experienced the conflict first hand. It concludes that Westerners unilaterally display ethnocentric conceptions of the sanctity of childhood in their admonitions of child-soldiering, while former child-soldiers, perpetrators, victims and local aid workers exhibit more diverse perspectives that more accurately reflect the complexity of the conflicts. Furthermore, it concludes that the use of rhetorical, monolithic language regarding child-soldiering perpetuates stereotypes about African conflict and state-failure while diverting attention from underlying root causes of conflict, and …

Vodou Value In Haitian Life, Brandi E. Lauer

Student Publications

Ever since the night of August 14, 1791 at Bwa Kayman, where Boukman Dutty declared war on the French during a Vodou ritual, Vodou has shown its dominance in the Haitian culture (Dominique 103). Along with being a religion practiced across the class boundaries of over six million Haitians, Vodou is a philosophy as well; a way of life for the majority of Haiti. Vodou “brings coherence where there might otherwise be chaos” (Michel 282-283). Used as a common ground for the intermixed Africans in the New World, Vodou has played a key role in the daily life of the …

Sac Outreach Bulletin 2014, South Asia Center

Newsletters from the South Asia Center

No abstract provided.

Examining Acculturative Stressors Of The International Student: Following Study Abroad Students In South Korea And Morocco, Chin Yi Chen

Honors Theses

International students, particularly students studying abroad for a limited period of time, face certain challenges in entering and adjusting to a new cultural environment. This research focuses on different acculturative stressors including language, differences in nonverbal communication, discrimination, and academic pressure. By comparing and contrasting the perspectives of various students with the researcher’s experience, this qualitative study provides insight into the lived experience of international students and the research through on-site fieldwork conducted over a year on university campuses in South Korea and Morocco. It discusses the results of the undertaken research and offers suggestions for resolving or minimizing these …

From Genocide To Dialogue Christian-Muslim Relations In The Former Yugoslavia, Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Extremely complex historical circumstances and modern political manipulations have caused in the Balkans three major waves of genocides during the twentieth century. The conflicts were so varied and widespread that it will not be possible to provide an adequate overview in this paper. The first one took place during the I and II Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, in which genocides occurred in the effort of four allied countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia) to liberate themselves from the Ottoman Empire. Then the second war broke out leading to genocidal ethnic cleansing as the embattled nations of the Balkans attempted to …

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

The Pivot To Asia: South Korea As A Strategic Partner For U.S. Foreign Policy In Asia, Rachel M. Hale

Senior Honors Theses

The relationship between the United States and the Republic of South Korea requires reexamination due to the recent U.S. foreign policy shift from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region. The nature of the relationship has altered considerably over the past 70 years. South Korea is a leading country in East Asia, and a strengthened partnership could have many benefits for the United States. South Korea tends to be overlooked in foreign policy discussions because of the security concerns posed by North Korea; but South Korea possesses many qualities which could be utilized to the advantage of U.S. foreign policy. …

When In The Maghreb: The Western Tourist’S Quest For Meaningful Experiences In Post-Colonial Morocco, Erin Willahan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to shed light on why Western tourists come to Morocco and to analyze how cultural tourism developed here as an institution. In doing so, the research hopes to explore the implications of cultural tourism in Morocco with respect to modernization and imagined geographies inherited from a colonial past. Through analysis of official tourism strategies, trip packages, online reviews, interviews, and personal experiences the research will examine tourists through a sociological lens and attempt to characterize the relationship between tourist and attraction. It will find that the tourists observed tend to place a great deal …

Equality Isn’T All It’S Cracked Up To Be: The Price Of Duality And Bilingualism, Alexandria Roberts-Mendel

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In the province of New Brunswick, English and French have shared co-official status since 1969, with the approval of the Official Languages Act. Francophones (French-speakers) make up a little over 31% of the population, and Anglophones (English-speakers) are the majority at 69% of the population. Even with equal linguistic rights, the Francophone minority often struggles to receive equal treatment in areas such as health care and education. From May-July 2013, I worked with Professor Keating Marshall on a SURP project, collecting 17 months’ worth of op-ed articles and letters to the editor from two of Southeastern New Brunswick’s Anglophone newspapers, …

Remembering How It Was When We Were Still Brothers How Russion Evanglelicals Are Responding To The Crisis In Ukraine, William Yoder Ph.D.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

No Blood In The Water: The Legal And Gender Conspiracies Against Countess Elizabeth Bathory In Historical Context, Rachael Leigh Bledsaw

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explains and discusses the conspiracies reported against the Hungarian noblewoman, Countess Elizabeth Bathory, regarding her confinement and the arrest of her accomplices in December 1610. The conspiracies state that the Countess was unjustly targeted and charged not because she was guilty of the deaths of several dozen girls from torture, but because she represented a threat to the Hapsburg Empire due to her wealth, her political influence, and her widowhood. This thesis explores the rationality of these two conspiracies using historical context regarding the position of noblewomen in Central and Eastern Europe and the function and use of …

Analyzing To Live Through The Mediums Of Literature And Film: Two Vastly Contrasting Presentations Of Twentieth Century China’S Radical History, Abbie Doll

International ResearchScape Journal

This essay examines the acceptance and public interpretation of modern China’s rather turbulent past in light of Yu Hua’s novel To Live and Zhang Yimou’s film adaptation. It explores how fictionalized traumatic experiences have the ability to ultimately and effectively communicate social truth. Other aspects examined are the utilization of death as an effective political critique, the overall significance of and interpretive variances caused by the urban-rural divide in Chinese society, and also the particular molding of citizens’ lives that occurs due to either Mao’s overbearing presence or the conspicuous lack thereof. Types of sources referred to and used throughout …

Syria And The Olympics: National Identity On An International Stage, Andrea L. Stanton

Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Since its 1946 independence, Syria has fielded a team for every summer Olympic competition except 1956, yet has won only three Olympic medals. In contrast with its smaller, higher-powered neighbor Lebanon, its participation at the Olympics has been consistent but limited, with the country making little impact internationally. Yet the history of Syria’s involvement with the Olympics reflects key elements of its political and social history: its ambitious but short-lived partnership with Egypt, the Baathist-supported promotion of women as athletes and head of the National Olympic Committee, and its commitment to participation in the vexed but ideologically important Pan-Arab Games. …

From Backlash To Mobilization: Muslim American Prayer Spaces In Post-9/11 New York, George E. Melissinos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper argues that Muslim Americans mobilized against the threat of backlash post-9/11 through the creation of new prayer spaces and maintenance of prayer spaces already in existence before the terrorist attacks. I suggest that the successful mobilization of prayer spaces continues to provide a mechanism of support and unity against backlash for Muslim Americans in New York City since the events of September 11, 2001. I also explore how ineffective mobilization efforts, such as demonstrated by the Park51 project, fail to protect the Muslim American community against backlash.

An Examination Of Western Representation Of The Muslim Brotherhood Through Various Media Outlets, Popular Literature And How Has Recent History And Outside Influences Affected The Viewpoint Presented To The Public?, Lynn Andrew Perkins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In depth study of Western media's coverage of the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Not only using key events between the West/ United States and the Middle East over the last 40 years to show how current events are reported but also investigating where and how the media receives their information to report. The outside and internal influences put upon western media are also under investigation in this paper and how those influences insure that their own interests supersede that of complete and accurate reporting …

Cadê O Mico? Where Is The Tamarin?: Locating Monkeys In The Politics Of Land And Conservation In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Analía Villagra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The golden lion tamarin is a small, endangered monkey found in only a few municipalities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This dissertation explores the project to conserve this rare primate, a project that links together agrarian reform, forest restoration, agroforestry, and conservation biology. Informed by Brazil's social and political history, and drawing from 12 months of fieldwork conducted in 2008 and 2010, this dissertation argues that by looking carefully at and for the tamarin, we discover the interrelated political, social, and animal relationships that weave together to produce conservation in southeastern Brazil.

Market Integration, Soccer, And The Eu: Changes In The Game’S Core Territories, John Y. Ray

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This paper uses soccer as a lens to look at governance structures and how they affect labor markets and economic outcomes in major European countries. It looks at three different models of soccer governance: “coordinated,” “liberal,” and “neutral,” found in the five major European soccer leagues (England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France) and suggests that coordinated structures may have a comparative advantage over liberal structures.

The Vernacular Discourse Of The "Arab Spring": An Analysis Of The Visual, The Embodied, And The Textual Rhetorics Of The Karama Revolution, Fatima Zahrae Chrifi Alaoui

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Vernacular Discourse of the "Arab Spring" is a project that bridges the divide between the East and the West by offering new readings to Arab subjectivities. Through an analysis of the "Arab Spring" through the lens of vernacular discourse, it challenges the Euro-Americo-centric legacies of Orientalism in Western academia and the new wave of extremism in the Arab world by offering alternative representations of Arab bodies and subjectivities. To offer this new reading of the "Arab Spring," it explores the foundations of critical rhetoric as a theory and a practice and argues for a turn towards a critical vernacular …

Subjugated Bodies, Normalized Subjects: Representations Of Power In The Panamanian Literature Of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia And Mauro Zúñiga Araúz, Sara Escobar-Wiercinski

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines the dissemination of power represented in the works of Panamanian writers Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz. My work focuses on two important periods in Panama's history: the repressive dictatorial era of Manuel Noriega and the post-dictatorial era during which subjugation and power operate in subtle ways, through institutions, mechanisms of civil society, and globalization. The primary sources are Díaz Herrera's testimony, and the novels of Tapia and Zúñiga Araúz. In my analysis, I draw upon the notions of power, subjugation and normalization developed by the French philosoher Michel Foucault. I also draw …