Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Avian Diversity And Anthropogenic Disturbance At Sendero Los Quetzales Cerro Punta, Panamá, Sloane Merdinger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This report summarizes the survey of land and avian diversity along a transect that runs from the exterior to the interior of the Los Quetzales Trail of Parque Nacional Volcán Barú in Cerro Punta, Chiriquí, Panamá. The region of Cerro Punta is Panamá’s primary producer of produce and also home to one of the most biodiverse land reserves in the world. Despite protection efforts the area is continuously threatened by human development. The study juxtaposes calculated Shannon-Wiener Biodiversity Indices across graduated levels of anthropogenic disturbance to determine if there is a significant difference in biodiversity between areas with low, intermediate, …

"Breaking Out Of The Bubble": Becoming Self-Reflexive In Community-Based Learning Classes At Swarthmore College, Natalia Choi , '15

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In my Sociology/Anthropology and Educational studies thesis, I explore the processes of self-reflexivity in the context of community-based learning (CBL) classes at Swarthmore College. Drawing upon interviews with professors and students in CBL classes, written materials such as syllabi and students’ reflections, and participant observation in CBL classes, my findings suggest that professors have a critical role to play in supporting students’ process of becoming more self-reflexive. By pairing students’ experiences with critical reflection in the curricula and leading by example, professors can guide students to have profound learning experiences about themselves as well as other communities. Such engagement in …

Waste Management And Environmental Initiatives In Accra, Ghana, Aoife Genevieve Duna

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Title: Waste Management and Environmental Initiatives in Accra, Ghana

Author: Aoife Genevieve Duna ([email protected]; Middlebury College, Anthropology and Dance major)

Objective: The objective of this project was fourfold: • To study the current waste management practices by government and private waste companies • To observe the perspectives of residents on waste disposal • To explore environmental initiatives by citizens, NGOs, and student groups • To investigate the potential projects that could reduce waste

Methodology: For my project, I conducted interviews, made observations, participated in daily personal waste management, visited a landfill, and visited a composting project.

Findings: Waste collection is …

Fighting For The Right To Breathe: Exploring Perspectives Of Environmenal Threats In The South Durban Basin, Kayleigh Bhangdia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this project is to understand the way in which community members in South Durban perceive the environmental threats that they face. I have contextualized the current environmental injustices present in the wake of the Apartheid legacy. I worked closely with the South Durban Environmental Conservation Alliance in preparing my questions and conducting my interviews. I conducted 24 interviews in three different communities in the South Durban Basin including Wentworth, Merebank, and Clairwood. Following the interviews in Merebank and Clairwood, I engaged the participants in a short participatory mapping exercise in which they highlighted where the pollution was …

Fauna Census Of Intertidal Cliffs, Mangapwani, Zanzibar, Emily Jankowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Due to their extreme variations in condition over the course of a day, intertidal zones are challenging environments. Organisms that live there must be prepared to cope with both exposure and submersion, not to mention the temperature variations that accompany these conditions. The differing tolerances and adaptations of various organisms to these conditions generally cause patterns of vertical zonation to occur in the intertidal zone, especially when the shore is steep and rocky. Understanding the ecology of shore environments is important to future conservation and management efforts. This study was conducted on a beach in Mangapwani, Zanzibar at at 6˚ …

The Industrial Impact On Wetlands In Jinja And The Nexus Of Industry, Wetlands, And Community (A Rights-Based Sustainable Development Approach), Ranger Ruffins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Uganda is a beautiful country filled with an extensive amount of natural resources, one of the most profound being wetlands. It is said that these wetlands are a crucial source of food and water for almost 3 million people (NEMA, 2012 and Oguttu et.al, 2008). They also provide many more invaluable socioeconomic benefits for the country. As Uganda experiences increasing development as well as a rapidly increasing population, the wetlands become increasingly necessary, at the same time they become increasingly threatened. It is written in the 1995 Ugandan constitution that Ugandan policy is aimed at ensuring sustainable development for the …

Herbs, Home Medicine, And Self-Reliance: A Study On The Current Status Of Traditional Home Medicine In Idukki District, Kerala, Richard Gaunt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Home medical knowledge, or knowledge of how one’s surroundings can be used to maintain and restore health, can be an important tool for health self-sufficiency in rural places as well as for the ecological conservation of important plants and natural materials. The Indian state of Kerala has a rich heritage of traditional medicine, found in the historically inter-related forms of codified Ayurveda and folk knowledge. In Idukki district, a region of Kerala nestled in the hills of the Western Ghats, rural households engage in small-scale home-gardening and agroforestry, which in addition to providing nutritionally diverse food is a source of …

The Himalayan Gold Rush The Untold Consequences Of Yartsa Gunbu In The Tarap Valley, Noah Stone

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite the fact that it has been used in tradition medicine for centuries, the caterpillar fungus known as yartsa gunbu (Othiocordyceps sinensis), has only become a popular medical supplement in the last fifteen years. Demand in China has driven what has been dubbed ‘the Himalayan gold rush’, a scramble for the fungus that has utterly transformed the agro-pastoral economies of the remote Himalayan regions where cordyceps is found. In many cases, the locals have prospered economically from the commodification of yartsa gunbu. In one such region of Nepal, the Tarap valley of the Dolpa district, while the villagers have benefitted …

Existential Avalanche The Lived Experience Of Climate Change In Dolpo And Mustang, Nepal, Keegan Mcchesney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Himalayan communities stand precariously in an era of phenomenological uncertainty. Climate change is merely a lens through which we may observe and begin to understand such localized modern complexities. The people of the Tarap Valley in Dolpo, Nepal have experienced an increase in avalanches, snow leopard attacks and unpredictable precipitation patterns in recent years. In upper Mustang, Nepal, people have endured the harshest winter in generations and suffered from reduced water access. Environmental, climatic and weather related changes in both Himalayan districts have severely impacted traditional livelihoods and led some to adopt modern means of adaptation. Despite the scientific evidence …

What People Know, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Sociology

No abstract provided.

Loving Animals: Toward A New Animal Advocacy By Kathy Rudy, Elana Santana

The Goose

Review of Kathy Rudy's Loving Animals: Toward a New Animal Advocacy.

Ecologies Of The Moving Image: Cinema, Affect, Nature By Adrian J Ivakhiv, Edie Steiner

The Goose

Review of Adrian J. Ivankhiv's Ecologies of the Moving Image: Cinema, Affect, Nature.

The Lost Letters By Catherine Greenwood, Vivian M. Hansen Ms.

The Goose

Review of Catherine Greenwood's The Lost Letters.

Thinking With Water Edited By Cecilia Ming Si Chen, Janine Macleod And Astrida Neimanis, Ryan Palmer

The Goose

A review of the edited collection Thinking with Water (Chen, MacLeod, Neimanis) which addresses the place of water in our daily lives, cultural imagination, and ecological systems.

Modeling Associations Between Public Understanding, Engagement And Forest Conditions In Theinland Northwest, Usa, Joel N. Hartter, Forrest R. Stevens, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Russell G. Congalton, Mark J. Ducey, Paul T. Oester

Sociology

Opinions about public lands and the actions of private non-industrial forest owners in the western United States play important roles in forested landscape management as both public and private forests face increasing risks from large wildfires, pests and disease. This work presents the responses from two surveys, a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1500 residents and a mail survey targeting owners of parcels with 10 or more acres of forest. These surveys were conducted in three counties (Wallowa, Union, and Baker) in northeast Oregon, USA. We analyze these survey data using structural equation models in order to assess how …

Animals As Neighbours: The Past And Present Of Commensal Animals By Terry O'Connor, Derek Woods

The Goose

Review of Terry O'Connor's Animals as Neighbours: The Past and Present of Commensal Animals.

High Clear Bell Of Morning By Ann Eriksson, Lauri Chose

The Goose

Review of Ann Eriksson's High Clear Bell of Morning.

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley, University College

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Sybil Unrest By Larissa Lai And Rita Wong, Emily Mcgiffin

The Goose

Review of Sybil Unrest by Larissa Lai and Rita Wong.

International Migration Of Health Professionals And The Marketization And Privatization Of Health Education In India: From Push-Pull To Global Political Economy, Margaret Walton-Roberts

International Migration Research Centre

Health worker migration theories have tended to focus on labour market conditions as principal push or pull factors. The role of education systems in producing internationally oriented health workers has been less explored. In place of the traditional conceptual approaches to understanding health worker, especially nurse, migration, I advocate global political economy (GPE) as a perspective that can highlight how educational investment and global migration tendencies are increasing interlinked. The Indian case illustrates the globally oriented nature of health care training, and informs a broader understanding of both the process of health worker migration, and how it reflects wider marketization …

La Igualdad De Género En Las Carreras De Conservación: Ucayali, Peru En Un Contexto Global, Anna Sangree, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Las mujeres aportan las habilidades y las perspectivas importantes para la conservación, pero menos mujeres completan estudios superiores en campos como la silvicultura y la agronomía. Las mujeres que entran en estos campos profesionales también tienen menos oportunidades de alcanzar las posiciones del liderazgo. Las investigaciones internacionales sugieren que muchas veces los esfuerzos hacia la sostenibilidad son perjudicados por los bajos niveles de participación de las mujeres y la falta del liderazgo femenino. Este estudio conecta los resultados de una revisión de la literatura internacional con experiencias personales de los estudiantes, los docentes, y los administradores en la Universidad Nacional …

The Role Of Professionalization Regarding Female Exploitation In The Nonhuman Animal Rights Movement, Corey Lee Wrenn

Animal Rights Movement Collection

Adams (2004, The pornography of meat. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd), Deckha (2008, Disturbing images: PETA and the feminist ethics of animal advocacy. Ethics and the environment, 13(2), 35–76), Gaarder (2011, Women and the animal rights movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press), Glasser (2011, Tied oppressions: an analysis of how sexist imagery reinforces speciesist sentiment. The Brock review, 12(1), 51–68), and others have criticized People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for sexually exploiting young women in outreach and fundraising efforts. This article extends these critiques in addressing the problematic relationship between objectified volunteer female activists and …

Moishe Postone And The Critique Of Traditional Marxism: Helplessness And The Present Moment Of The Great Acceleration, Alexander M. Stoner, Andony Melathopoulos

Book Sections/Chapters

This chapter situates Moishe Postone's critique of traditional Marxism in relation to the present moment of the Great Acceleration. We engage a close reading of Postone reinterpretation of Marx's mature theory of capital with specific focus on the linkage between economic growth and ecological degradation, and how this linkage is necessary connected to social domination in modern capitalist society. Postone's Marxian theory is significant because, as we demonstrate, it allows one to grasp societally induced environmental degradation following WWII in a critical and reflexive manner. The chapter concludes by discussing the growing sense of helplessness that defines the present moment …

Georg Lukács (1885-1971) And The Critique Of Reification: On The Dialectical Genesis Of The Great Acceleration, Alexander M. Stoner, Andony Melathopoulos

Book Sections/Chapters

This chapter situates Lukács' critique of reification (1923) in relation to the emergence of the Great Acceleration. We develop Lukács' critique through the issue of the increasing rationalization of industrial and administrative work in the early twentieth century. In do so, we show how Lukács is able to relocate the continued relevance of Marx's insights with respect to the deeper structure of capitalist society in his consideration of the differential manner in which proletariat and bourgeois class consciousness approach the problem of social contradictions. We then discuss how, for Lukács, the overcoming of reification (or the failure to do so) …

“A Give And A Take”: Lived Experiences In A Real Sharing Economy, Lauren F. Phipps

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis contrasts a “real” sharing economy with the commonly held understanding of this new mode of exchange. By examining the lived experiences within a successful example of sharing, we can see its true value and acknowledge where other businesses fall short. Based on in-depth interviews with users of freecycle.org, this thesis illustrates the importance of motivation within a real sharing economy, highlighting the existence of generalized reciprocity, the value of community, and altruism between members of this gifting platform.

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …

Sociological Effects Of Wind Farms In Maine, Jeanne E. Barthold, Jeanne Barthold

Honors Theses

Renewable Energy is an extremely important topic in today's energy discussions. In Maine, with the motivation of Governor Baldacci, there was a rapid push towards utilizing wind energy, starting with the Wind Energy Act in 2008. While the theory of wind farms and wind energy seems intelligent at a first glance, it is not an energy source that lacks issues. Many of the Maine wind farms constructed in the last ten years have had a large impact on human health, altered the beauty of Maine, created a change in wildlife habitats, and completely torn apart communities. Every new energy source …

Exploring The Moments And Memory Of Tourist Experiences In Peru, Sarah Quinlan Cutler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Tourist experiences offer anomalous and complex interactions between tourists and tourism places. The study of these experiences is the focus of this doctoral dissertation, which aims to explore subjective aspects of the tourist experience. This exploration involves the conceptualisation of tourist experiences and the development of a multi-phased research design that captures the perceptions of momentary in situ experiences and examines how these perceptions change over time.

The dissertation addresses under studied areas in tourism and answers calls for research into immediate conscious experiences and tourist centred methodology. This investigation into tourist experiences involves 21 participants who took an educational …

The State Of Sachets: Ghana’S Private Sector Solution To A Public Infrastructure Problem, Robert J. Little

Pitzer Senior Theses

Known colloquially as “purewater”, sachet water has outcompeted all alternatives to Ghana’s unreliable government water infrastructure and serves as the cheap, portable, omnipresent solution for narrowing the safe water access gap. Each single-use sachet holds 500 ml of filtered potable water and is heat-sealed in a high-density polyethylene bag. Insufficient and often skeptical scholarship exists surrounding the state of sachet water in Ghana, and almost no research incorporates qualitative data into analysis and future recommendations. In the face of incomplete and decontextualized research on sachet water, this study aims to use qualitative data concerning Ghanaian viewpoints to showcase the …

May You Walk In Beauty: The Decline Of Navajo Land And Culture, Jocelyn Catterson

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Navajo homeland, Dinetah, is bordered by four mountains that are sacred to the Navajo people: two in Colorado, one in New Mexico, and one in Arizona. Historically, Navajo medicine men have traveled to these mountains to renew prayers and collect medicinal herbs. Today, the mountains, which exist outside of the reservation boundaries, are used for resource extraction and various recreational pursuits. While many Navajo are fighting for the protection of these sacred lands and their traditional culture, others are disinterested. Traditional practices and beliefs are slowly disappearing within the Navajo Nation. The land-use issues associated with these sacred mountains …