Digital Commons Network^™

The Places Of Birth: Navigating Risk, Control, And Choice, Hannah E. Emple

Geography Honors Projects

Through qualitative research in the Twin Cities, Minnesota and a literature review grounded in health and feminist geography, this paper analyzes how women, their families, and health care providers view and navigate places of birth. Over four million births occur annually in the United States, making birth the most common reason for hospitalization of women. Although 99% of women in the U.S. give birth in hospitals, a small but vocal minority seek alternative places to birth – primarily at home. Where to give birth is a contested subject infused with social and political significance. I suggest that place is highly …

The Violences Of Capitalism: Privatization And Land Tenure In Uganda, Minnesota, And Mexico, Nicole S. Kligerman

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

This project analyzes the relationship between land privatization and violence in societies that previously employed non-capitalist land tenure systems. Exploring the cases of the Dakota in Minnesota, the Acholi in Northern Uganda, and indigenous communities in southern Mexico, I examine how the state forcibly incorporated collective land systems into capitalism through a combination of physical, structural, and intra-community violences. This results in the disintegration of previous means of agricultural production and the accompanying community-based cultural systems. Communities resist this process, however, as they battle for natural resource sovereignty and sustainable peace in their homelands.

Negotiating Everyday Islam After Socialism: A Study Of The Kazakhs Of Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia, Namara Brede

Geography Honors Projects

Using ethnographic interviews and participant observations from the Kazakh community of Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia in June 2009, this study examines how Islamic discourses, practices, experiences, and scales of influence are negotiated in post-socialist Central Asia. To do this, local, national, and transnational dynamics of Mongolian Kazakh religious practice are considered alongside the individual-scale mediating roles of personal preference, social position, life course, power, and social networks. Islam in Bayan-Ulgii is shown to be integral to community and ethnic identity but also multifaceted, dynamic, and multi-scalar, militating against essentialist portrayals of Islam as monolithic or dichotomously split between “high” and “low” forms.

Globalization And The Politicization Of Muslim Women: Consequences For Domestic Violence In The Netherlands And The United States, Mishal Khan

Macalester International

No abstract provided.

Showcasing Student, Faculty, And Campus Publications In A Small Liberal Arts College Institutional Repository, Janet Sietmann

Library Technology Conference

Institutional Repositories (IRs) offer a place to showcase student, faculty and staff scholarship. In addition, they provide an opportunity to have campus-wide discussions about many topics related to scholarly publishing.

In this presentation I will share Macalester’s experience in planning the IR, beginning with the need to provide open access for student honors projects, and I will highlight the expansion of our collections to include student award winning papers, PowerPoint presentations, and transcripts of college oral histories. I will tell how our efforts to populate our IR led to new opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty. And I will share …

Educating The Global Citizen: Redefining The Role Of Religion In Public Schools, Aurora Sekine

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

Working The System: The Role Of Islam In Student Negotiations Of A Midwestern Charter School, Liza Baer

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

Choosing Our Better History: Religion, Secularism, And American Public Life, Linell Cady

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

Contributors

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgments

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

Number 3 - August 2009

Annual Report for the Institute for Global Citizenship

No abstract provided.

Does Sorting Make A Difference In The Sat’S Prediction Of Course Grades And Cumulative Gpa At Macalester College?, Yuen Ting Liu

Economics Honors Projects

This paper estimates the predictive power of the SAT for college success. Most studies use GPA as a proxy for college success, but GPA is subject to differing grading standards across instructors and departments. Using individual course grades of Macalester College students from 1996 to 2005, this paper uses fixed effects to control for students sorting themselves into particular departments and courses. After controlling for sorting by major, a general trend emerges: the Math SAT is more predictive for science and math-related social science majors while the Verbal SAT is more predictive for language majors. After controlling for sorting by …

Editor's Note

Macalester Civic Forum

No abstract provided.

The Problem With Eating Money: Remittances And Development Within Senegal's Muridiyya, Rebecca F. Sheff

Political Science Honors Projects

Contemporary development theory is poorly equipped to understand remittance-based development occurring in transnational spaces that partially escape the control of the state. An extended case study of the Muridiyya, a Sufi brotherhood in Senegal, reveals how collective remittances from Mouride transmigrants become tools for community-level development when channeled through transnational religious associations. I argue that remittance-based development projects transform the political, economic, and social contexts in which they are embedded, including the relationship between the Muridiyya and the state. Development theory must be reconceptualized to account for how remittance-based development defies conventional understandings of the scales of economic and social …

Working The System: The Role Of Islam In Student Negotiations Of A Midwestern Charter School, Elizabeth J. Baer

Religious Studies Honors Projects

“What should the role of Islam be in American public life?” Rather than answer this question through broad, theoretical discourse, I turn to a case study of Somali Muslims in a Midwestern charter school. Through this case study, I analyze how individual Muslims, tied to communities and Allah in diverse ways, actively negotiate how to incorporate their religious practices into public space. I argue that by examining specific strategies used by individuals in an actual school setting, as opposed to making generalizing assumptions, one can better understand that Islam already plays a variety of constantly changing roles in American public …

Showcasing Student, Faculty And Staff Publications: Promoting, Populating And Publishing In A Small Liberal Arts College Institutional Repository, Janet Sietmann, Teresa Fishel

Staff Publications

Institutional repositories are more than just a place to deposit faculty pre-prints, post-print, and OA articles. IRs offer colleges and universities an opportunity to showcase student senior theses, award winning papers, and student peer-reviewed journals. We have also found that IRs can provide a means of distributing campus publications in an open access environment. What began as a solution for managing student honor theses has expanded to include three student peer-reviewed journals, a campus alumni publication, and the entire series of publications for our Institute for Global Citizenship. Using the bepress software in DigitalCommons, the Macalester College library has taken …

"Dhikr Will Echo From All Corners:" Dada Masiti And The Transmission Of Islamic Knowledge, Mohamed Kassim

Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies

No abstract provided.

Interview With The Late Abdullahi Qarshe (1994) At The Residence Of Obliqe Carton In Djibouti, Mohamed-Rashid Sheikh Hassan

Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies

No abstract provided.

Macalester Today Fall 2008, Macalester College

Macalester Today

No abstract provided.

Interview With Patrick Schmidt, Professor Political Science, Patrick Schmidt

Political Science Department Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Interview With Henry West, Professor Of Philosophy, Henry West

Philosophy Department Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

The Art Of The Pink Nun: Evangelical Christianity And The Performance Of Capitalism, Sonia M. Hazard

Religious Studies Honors Projects

The Pink Nun is an underground feminist performance artist, chastity advocate and pious evangelical Christian. In her artwork, the Pink Nun ironically deploys the methodologies and visual vocabulary of late American consumer capitalism, such that the evangelical Christian values of chastity and sexual purity become products to be bought and sold. In this unorthodox appropriation of capitalism, the Pink Nun finds an alternative way to preach her message, engage a self-announcing secular culture, and perhaps ultimately “harvest souls.” I argue that religion here does not perform in a conventionally “religious” way; it may be manifest more subtly, entwined with and …

Finding Faith: Ghana, The Netherlands, And My Year Abroad, Elissa Vinnik

Macalester International

No abstract provided.

Interview With Juanita Garciagodoy, Class Of 1974 And Professor Of Hispanic Studies, Juanita Garciagodoy

Hispanic Studies Department Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Interview With Rabbi Bernie Raskas, Professor Of Religious Studies, Bernie Raskas

Religious Studies Department Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Macalester Today Summer 2007, Macalester College

Macalester Today

No abstract provided.

Interview With David Hopper, James Wallace Professor Of Religious Studies, David Hopper

Religious Studies Department Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

American Children Encountering The Bible: Ensuring Engagement Through The American Education System And The Children’S Bible, Zachary S. Teicher

Religious Studies Honors Projects

Society and parents continue to ensure that American children are familiar with the stories of the bible. The bible is part of the American cultural milieu and has been inculcated in successive generations through schools and children’s bibles. Parents in the twenty-first century have turned to adapted children’s bibles as the principal means by which to teach their children the bible. This is due in large part to the bible loosing its place in the curriculum of American public schools. This paper examines how children's bibles developed, why teaching the bible has been a priority, and who have been the …

Toward A Common Currency: Using Item Response Theory To Adjust For Grading Inconsistency, Daniel W. Allen

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

Grading inconsistency results from the application of different standards such that grades provide an inaccurate, and sometimes misleading, evaluation of student performance. Many attempts to correct for grading inconsistency have either not accurately corrected for inconsistency or have been too complicated to constitute politically feasible solutions to the problem. Within this context, Item Response Theory (IRT) is offered as a solution to grading inconsistency. IRT corrects for inconsistencies in the distributions yielded by the various grading practices of professors and departments as well as the failure of current practices to accurately account for differing student quality by course.

About The Authors

Macalester International

No abstract provided.