South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Tropical Materialisms: Toward Decolonial Poetics, Practices And Possibilities, Christian Jil R. Benitez, Anita Lundberg

Filipino Faculty Publications

Tropical Materialisms concur on at least three things: humans are always entangled with non-human/material agents; such entanglement is necessary for any creative act to take place; and these same entanglements allow us to interrogate and re-evaluate preconceived notions about the world. This Special Issue aligns itself with the fields of new materialism and posthumanism. What is particularly exciting is the opportunity to rearticulate these fields in tropical terms, that is, with scholarly and creative practices from and about the tropical world. This focus is crucial given that current scholarship in new materialism and posthumanism predominantly comes from European temperate contexts …

Manila’S Black Nazarene And The Reign Of Bathala, Antonio D. Sison

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of how the dynamics surrounding Manila's Black Nazarene express crucial themes in the Filipino psyche. The article specifically addresses the importance of "felt-experience" (pagdama) in devotion to the Black Nazarene as well as its connections to indigenous Filipino religion.

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Humanist But Not Radical: The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Kural, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humanist ideas in education have been promoted by both Western thinkers and classical wisdom texts of Asia. Exploring this connection, I examine the educational philosophy of an iconic ancient Tamil (Indian) text, the Thiruvalluvar Kural, by juxtaposing it with a contemporary humanist classic, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As this comparative study reveals, both texts offer humanist visions of relevance to education, politics, and society. Notably, however, the Kural takes what might be described as a more mainstream humanist stance vis-à-vis Freire’s radical humanist approach. Nevertheless, both educational philosophies share a common humanist bond representing important breakthroughs within their …

Skeptical Buddhism As Provenance And Project, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The past century and a half has seen various attempts in both Asia and the West to reform or re-conceptualize Buddhism by adding a simple, often provocative, qualifier. This paper examines some of the links between “secular,” “critical,” “sceptical,” and “radical” Buddhism in order to ascertain possibilities in thinking Buddhism anew as a 21st-century “project” with philosophical, ethical, and political resonance. In particular, I am motivated by the question of whether “sceptical” Buddhism can coexist with Buddhist praxis, conceived as an engaged response to the suffering of sentient beings in a globalized and neoliberal industrial capitalist world order. Let …

Ancient Wisdom And Future Medicine: A Defense Of The Science Of Ayurveda, Michael Eatmon

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

A growing number of people turn to Ayurveda as a complement or an alternative to conventional Western medicine. What are they turning to—a genuine medical science or a patent pseudoscience? This paper claims that modern Ayurvedic medicine is a genuine science with a promising future.

Pilosopiyang Pinoy: Uso Pa Ba? (The Relevance Of Filipino Philosophy In Social Renewal), Romualdo E. Abulad

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

This paper evaluates the titular question and features a summative evaluation and critique of the works and contributions of Leonardo Mercado, Dionisio Miranda, Albert Alejo, Rolando Gripaldo (1947-2017), and Florentino Timbreza to the anthropological and cultural approaches that form a significant part of the discourses on Filipino philosophy. In this piece, Abulad maintains, as in his other writings, that any strict emphasis with regard to methodology restricts the true potential of Filipino philosophy. He buttresses this assertion by invoking postmodernism's 'incredulity towards metanarratives' We should be skeptical about the metanarrative of Filipino identity for it is precisely our rootlessness that …

From Davao City To Daly City: Examining Translanguaging And Transnationalism In The 1.5-Generation Filipin(A/O) Americans Of Daly City, Rita Ewing

Master's Theses

In the field of migration studies, research on transnationalism has been well

established. Applying an intersectional framework of post-colonial narrative and

linguistic anthropology to transnational migration, this research allows us to better

understand how the transnational immigrant deploys language. Through a nostalgia

studies approach, this study is able to analyze how transnational immigrants place value

on their heritage and second languages, and reflexively deploy their language sets to

reflect their unique positionality. This paper is a case study examination of five adult

members of the 1.5-generation of Filipin(a/o) American immigrants, who immigrated to

the US before the age of eighteen …

Effect Of Directed Study Of Mathematics Vocabulary On Standardized Mathematics Assessment Questions, Adel Marlane Waite

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problems under investigation included (a) Did a directed study of mathematics vocabulary significantly affect student performance levels on standardized mathematical questions? and (b) Did the strategies used in this study significantly affect student performance levels on standardized mathematical questions? The population consisted of eighth-grade pre-algebra students from two different middle schools in southern Indiana. This quasi-experimental study was of a quantitative, repeated-measures design, using a population of approximately 140 eighth-grade students with a control sample of 37 and an experimental sample of 52. I performed a repeated measures ANCOVA to analyze scores from a mathematics vocabulary posttest for each …

The Fluid Gaze In Virtual Reality, Soudhamini

Film and Media Arts Faculty Articles and Research

"In 2006, in the course of an Artists Residency in Munich I made a video triptych titled Meditations on the Tiger, in which a story unfolds over three adjacent screens... The story is as linear as it can get, but working with three screens I found I could move laterally as well... There were multiple tracks of time running together on that train - the real time of action and event, the hurtling projected time of anticipation and expectation, and the deep, reflective time of memory, thought and speech. 3 video timelines synchronized so we begin to approach image, just …

The Shingon Ajikan, Meditation On The Syllable ‘A’: An Analysis Of Components And Development, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This paper examines what has been described as the most basic and essential element of Kūkai’s (774-835) religio-philosophical system (Yamasaki 1988:190), meditation on the Sanskrit syllable ‘A’. According to Shingon Buddhist tradition, Kūkai introduced the meditation on the syllable ‘A’ (hereafter referred to as the Ajikan) into Japan in the early 9th century, at the time he transmitted the Shingon Dharma to that country from China. Materials clearly showing the origin and development of the Ajikan before Kūkai’s time have either not been discovered or have not been analyzed in relationship to the Ajikan. Indeed, some researchers have argued that …

Contributors To Indian Catholicism: Interventions And Imaginings, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Contributors to Indian Catholicism: Interventions and Imaginings, the inaugural issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism.

The Tying Of The Ceremonial Wedding Thread: A Feminist Analysis Of “Ritual” And “Tradition” Among Syro-Malabar Catholics In India, Sonja Thomas

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article presents a feminist analysis of patriarchy persisting in Catholicism of the Syro-Malabar rite in Kerala. The article specifically considers the impact of charismatic Catholicism on women of the Syro-Malabar rite and argues that it is important to interrogate this new face of religiosity in order to fully understand how certain rituals are allowed to change and be fluid, while others, especially concerning female sexuality, are enshrined as “tradition” which often restricts the parameters for women’s empowerment and may reinforce caste and patriarchal hegemonies preventing feminist solidarity across different religious- and caste-based groups.

Dalit Catholic Home Shrines In A North Indian Village, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines three Catholic home shrines in a Dalit community in North Indian and argues that it is misleading to think that home shrines and other collections of material objects are somehow static conveyors of meaning. “Meaning” can mean many things or nothing at all, depending upon the terms we are using and the scholarly methods we deploy. The crucial aspect of Dalit Catholic home shrines is that they are literally open to interpretation and reinterpretation, to touching and being touched. Their significance—their meaning—depends not on decoding their structure or symbolic logic, but interacting with them as part of …

The Grace Of God And The Travails Of Contemporary Indian Catholicism, Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay discusses the challenges faced by Indian Catholicism, particularly as it seeks to adapt to and in contemporary, post-colonial India through the process or program of what is called inculturation, a self-conscious program of adaptation to Indian religion and culture. Since Indian Catholicism is constituted by so many irreducible persons-in-relation, the article focuses on the life of the Catholic priest, Swami Ishwar Prasad in whose life we may chart something of the inculturation movement and the Catholic tradition as it is found in North India region, in one rather long and rich lifetime connecting two centuries. The article seeks …

In Continuity With The Past: Indigenous Environmentalism And Indian Christian Visions Of Flora, James Ponniah

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article considers whether Indian Christianity can be said to have a distinctive ecological vision. The first two parts of the article examine Christian environmentalism in two native forms of Indian Christianity: Tamil Christianity and Tribal Christianity. Continuing with the theme of conformity to the local culture—though of the elite—the third part of the article investigates how Christian Ashrams function as dynamic centers for ecological praxis. The last part of the article considers how contemporary Indian Christian communities can respond to the ecological challenges confronting them.

Antoniyar Kōvil: Hindu-Catholic Identity At The St. Anthony Shrine In St. Mary’S Co-Cathedral, Chennai, Pj Johnston

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article combines ethnographic description of the practices of Hindu and Christian visitors of the St. Antony Shrine in Chennai with the observation that this material cannot be understood using the standard world religions paradigm that essentializes Christianity as exclusivistic. Drawing upon the visual and material culture of the shrine in light of premodern and Vatican II templates for inculturation and the negotiation of religious difference, the article highlights overlap between Tamil Hinduism and the Tamil Popular Catholicism of the site to argue that the beliefs and practices documented should inform descriptive and normative accounts of Catholic Christianity. Because Tamil …

“If Apprehending Occurs, It Is Not The View” — Sakya Thinkers On The Madhyamaka View Of Freedom From Proliferations, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The Sakya thinkers whose views were addressed in this paper are consistently in agreement regarding what freedom from proliferations is, how it is utilized in contemplative practice, and how it is located within the broader universe of non-tantric and tantric Buddhism. Freedom from proliferations is not an object, and transcends all categories of existence, nonexistence, etc. Consequently, it cannot be approached and described in the same way we understand and describe colors, tastes, ideas, etc. Yet, it is also not a nonexistent thing similar to rabbit horns and other types of falsely imagined phenomena. It can be realized, but only …

Giving A Voice To The Powerless: Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation As A Tool For Inclusive Development Through Microfinance, Evan T. Burke

Capstone Collection

The greatest experts on the situation of the marginalized peoples of the world are the marginalized communities themselves. This paper explores how participatory monitoring & evaluation can be a powerful tool for giving voices to marginalized communities, ensuring that the voices of beneficiaries and local stakeholders are heard and inform sustainable project design. It analyzes a participatory monitoring and evaluation methodology implemented for women’s credit cooperatives in Gujarat, India by the Human Development & Research Centre, and examines lessons to be learned to design evaluations facilitating inclusive development.

Strategies for the monitoring and evaluation of microfinance have evolved along with …

Effective Practices For Student Success In Algebra, Michelle M. Ginkins

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to better understand the instructional strategies of Algebra I teachers and leadership characteristics of administrators among secondary public schools with high and low performance on Algebra I End-of-Course Assessments (ECAs). The impact of poverty on student achievement was also investigated in relation to first-time test taker Algebra 1 ECA passing rates. The study south to determine if schools’ free and reduced lunch rates, teacher characteristics, and/or principal characteristics were significant predictors of first-time test taker Algebra 1 ECA passing rates. Whether there were significant differences in implementation of Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock’s (2001) …

A Dendrochronological Analysis Of Insect Outbreaks And Climate Effects On Tamarack From Indiana And Michigan, Nicholas Lorin Flinner

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disturbances have a strong impact on tree stand dynamics across the world. In North America, the larch sawfly (Pristiphora erichsonii) and larch casebearer (Cleophora laricella) are two non-native species of insects affecting tamarack across much of their native range. The majority of research on the effects of larch sawfly on tamarack (Larix laricina) has been conducted in Canada with very little dendrochronological work in the United States along the geographical boundary of tamarack or on the effects of larch casebearer on radial growth. As a consequence, very little is known about the relationship between tamarack and these insects’ outbreaks in …

Urban Flash Flood Risk Assessment And Inundation Model Utilizing Gis For Terre Haute, Indiana, Zachary Scott Ishman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Use of ArcGIS to examine flash flooding variables and produce a flash flood risk assessment and inundation model for Terre Haute, Indiana. Risk assessment, produced within ArcGIS, indicates that an increase in developed area leads to an increase in very high flash flood risk area and majority of very high risk area resides in developed areas of Terre Haute. Inundation model, produced using ArcGIS and Python, indicates that the proposed model can determine locations of flash flooding, but spatial extent of model predicted flooding is not reliable based on field validation.

Effects Of Light Brushing On Clinical Pain Intensity And Experimental Pain Sensitivity In Fibromyalgia Patients, Melissa Wassink

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Ecology And Morphology Of Deep-Sea Benthic Foraminifera: The Australian Margin And Epifaunal Pore Characteristics, Jake Willingham

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The distribution and abundance patterns of modern benthic foraminifera are used by paleoceanographers to assess changes in ocean conditions over geologic time. Examination of modern foraminiferal analogs provides the means to determine how these single-celled protists record clues about ambient conditions in their morphology and abundance/distribution patterns. Abundance and vertical distribution patterns of deep-sea benthic foraminifera were examined along the South Australian Margin and Tasman Sea of Australia. This was one of the first studies to examine microhabitat preferences of living (Rose Bengal stained) deep-sea benthic foraminifera within the region. A total of 11 sediment cores were collected via multicorer. …

Introduction To Against Harmony: Radical Buddhism In Thought And Practice, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Foundations Of A Political Identity: An Inquiry Into Indian Swaraj (Self-Rule), Shantanu Garg

CMC Senior Theses

India is celebrated as the largest democracy in the world but is it truly democratic? Is it the nation-state that its founder’s envisioned it to be? Has it addressed it ancient issue of social diversity?

This paper seeks to assess the present problem faced by the Indian Democracy; problems based on India’s inherent social diversity. Furthermore the paper seeks to recommend a solution based on Amartya Sen’s Open Impartiality approach that will allow the country to reassess its democratic platform. The paper also aims at providing a starting point to execute Sen’s approach by exploring the vision of two of …

Difference Does Not Mean Deficient: The Cultural And Higher Education Experiences Of Appalachian Women, Andrea D. Welch

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Screening For Social Emotional Difficulties Among Elementary Students: A Comparison Of Screening Methods And Teacher Perceptions, Megan R. Kirk

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Appropriateness Of Consolidation In Illinois: A Study Of The Impact Of Poverty, District Type, And Size On Expenditures And Achievement, James Dunlap

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of Hypothetical Proteins Sas0760 And Sas1738 From “Community Associated Staphylococcus Aureus” Mssa476, Anupama B. Ramalinga

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.