Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons^™

Examining The Challenges To The Anti-Human-Trafficking Movement In Russia, Stephen Alexander Barton

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper examines the success of the anti-human trafficking movement in curbing the enslavement and trade of Russians to other parts of the country and world. This paper outlines how and why human trafficking is a major human rights and security issue for Russia and the “destination” countries to which traffickers send their victims. The anti-trafficking movement in Russia, which gained strength in the late 1990s through grassroots organization and international backing, successfully lobbied the Russian government to pass the country’s first anti-trafficking legislation in 2003. This paper analyzes the many challenges this law has faced, while also focusing particularly …

American Zionism And The Evolution Of ‘Pro-Israel’ In U.S. Politics, Samuel Taylor

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis will determine how and to what extent the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in U.S. mainstream political activism has undergone a change. In light of recent publications and polls indicating that ‘support’ for or ‘connection’ to Israel was waning among college-aged Jewish students in the United States, I decided to examine the potential causes for this attitude shift, and determine how the shift is being reflected in the U.S. relationship with Israel, if at all. To adequately identify changes in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in the United States, one must first distinguish between, at least, two …

The Pinochet Project: A Nation’S Search For Truth Memory Struggles In Post-Pinochet Chile, Christine Mehta

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Chile has fought for 21 years to overcome General Augusto Pinochet’s violent legacy, but moving past the pervasive influence of Pinochet’s 17-year reign is a difficult task, even today. The following work is an investigation on memory, and Chile’s struggle to come to terms with its memory of the dictatorship. The key questions asked are: How do Chileans remember the dictatorship? What does each individual’s memory mean to the collective whole? Why is confronting the past important to Chile’s future?

The investigation is divided into two parts: a journalistic portion in which individual accounts are highlighted, and an academic thesis …

Spanish Language Acquisition: Gender-Marking Parameter, Marissa T.Y.O Kanemura

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This study further examines past studies that have examined the gender marking value of a parameter of variation allowed by UG in L1 and L2 speakers of French and Spanish. Child L1 French speakers were found to make few errors in assigning gender to both actual nouns and nonsense nouns. An L2 Spanish learner was found to default one gender for the definite article and another gender for the indefinite article. Adult L2 French speakers were found to display similar defaulting, to a lesser degree, perhaps attributed to experience with exceptions to patterns.

To enhance these results, I conducted a …

Acquisition Of Violations Of English Principle B By Native Speakers Of Japanese Or Chinese, Clarion C. Mendes

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This work focuses on Principles A and B of Binding Theory as applied to English. While English has a very strict interpretation of Binding Theory, it has a violation of Principle B with sentences with locative prepositional phrases and verb phrases of caused movement or perception.

In contrast, Chinese and Japanese have a very liberal interpretation of Binding Theory. The study is involved with investigating whether or not Japanese or Chinese speakers adapt to the English violation which is typically not taught in a classroom setting, but something acquired through natural exposure.

A custom survey was designed to see if …