Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Islands In The Making: National Investment And The Cultural Imagination In Taiwan, Krista-Lee Meghan Malone

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography looks closely at the Taiwanese company UrIsland, makers of Talking Island (TI) - an MMORPG to teach children English - in order to illuminate the increasingly important meeting point between technology, education, and games. At the level of national economic policy, companies like UrIsland have been at the focal point of the Taiwanese government’s hopes for their tech industry. With TI, UrIsland intended to create a revolution in ESL education. Despite compulsory ESL classes many Taiwanese struggle with English, and educational experts claim that the classes stress reading and writing too much, leaving many people’s listening and speaking …

Life Is Calling ... How Far Will You Go ... Back In The Closet? Identity Negotiation And Management Among Queer, Peace Corps Volunteers, Kate Elizabeth Slisz

Theses and Dissertations

There is little to no research surrounding the experiences of queer, foreign-aid workers. To address this gap, a study was conducted to explore how compulsory heterosexuality affects the social construction of sexuality in societies where queer, foreign-aid workers serve and how this influences their identity negotiation and management processes. Participants consisted of ten self-identified queer, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), as well as, the researcher herself who also identifies as queer. Data was gathered through both semi-structured interviews and autoethnographic research. Meaning structuring through narratives was used to analyze the data. Analysis revealed that strategies of silencing, counterfeiting, and lying …

Ideology Versus Clientelism: Modernization And Electoral Competition In Brazil, Cássio Da Silva Muniz

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates how parties utilize the political dimensions of ideology (left-right) and clientelism (programmatic-patronage) to compete electorally in developing democracies. It proposes a combined utility theory, which suggests polarized competitive elections in modernizing national electoral markets compel programmatic parties to coalesce with clientelistic parties to gain access to regional private electoral markets. Methodologically, this study draws on a mixed-method approach focusing on Brazil as a crucial test case. It applies spatial voting models to assess the validity of ideological competition as well as geospatial voting distribution based on clustering and dispersion to devise a new quantitative measurement of clientelism …

Expect The Unexpected: An Autoethnography Of Typhoon"Yolanda"( Haiyan ), Ashley Conrad

Theses and Dissertations

On November 8, 2014 one of the most powerful typhoons in recorded history made landfall in the Philippines leaving the country in a declared state of national calamity (NPR 2013; BBC 2013). This research seeks to place in sociological context my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in the Philippines during the landfall of typhoon "Yolanda". I utilized autoethnographic methods with a focus in personal narrative to analyze my experience.

Hearing The Voices Of Hiv Positive Women In Kenya: Secondary Analysis Of Interview Data Using Dialogic/Performance Analysis, Lenore L. Boris

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the use of the dialogic/performance methodology in health research by conducting a secondary analysis of interview data collected from women in Kenya who are HIV positive. Dialogic/performance analysis is a dynamic, interpretive narrative analytical technique. Qualitative research literature inadequately provides specific methodological guidance especially when reusing a data set. Further, the use of the dialogic/ performance method is very limited in health research. These factors point to the significance of this work in explaining dialogic/ performance analysis thereby potentially expanding its use by both novice and experienced qualitative researchers. Guidance for conducting …

José María Arguedas Y La Decolonialidad: Lectura De "Todas Las Sangres" Y "El Zorro De Arriba" Y "El Zorro De Abajo", Iván Andrés Espinosa Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to understand José María Arguedas’s literary production through the

lens of decolonial theory. The first chapter is an introduction to the objectives of this

project. Next, the second chapter is based on an approach to the concepts of decoloniality

and postcolonial studies, which serve as a theoretical background for the purpose of this

thesis. The third chapter is based on a decolonial reading of Arguedas’s "Todas las

sangres", which leads to problematize the aspects related to identity in Peru. The fourth

chapter is based on the analysis of Arguedas’s "El zorro de arriba y el zorro de …

Enlightening The Bats: Sound And Place Making In Burmese Buddhist Practice, Andrew Dicks

Theses and Dissertations

In Burma (Myanmar), the Abhidhamma, a rigorous and abstract soteriological treatise situated within the vast Pali Buddhist canon, is the focus of both monastic and lay practitioners’ close study and popular veneration. In particular, the Paṭṭhāna, the last and most complex volume of the Abhidhamma, is envisioned as a keystone in the long-term preservation of the Buddha’s teachings, which are also understood to inevitably disappear. As a result of these conditions and understandings, a popular ritualized and amplified recitation of this difficult text has developed in order to maintain the text’s presence in popular consciousness. This is a conscientious move …

Indicators Of Terrorism Vulnerability In Africa, Raymond J. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism in Africa has increased more than six-fold since 1997, with an increase in lethality as well. The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to counter this increase in terrorism; however, terrorism in Africa has increased seemingly unabated. Furthermore, these methods used to counter-terrorism have been reactionary as opposed to preventative. To address the terrorism threat to a country, we must first understand which characteristics make a country vulnerable to such a threat. A confirmatory analysis bridges the inter-discipline gap between quantitative and qualitative fields through as assessment of observational findings about the causes of terrorism. An exploratory analysis …

Media Policies And The Quest For Freedom Of Expression In Tunisia's Democratic Process, Olfa Rashid El Sellami

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines media policies in the context of Tunisia’s democratic process. It describes and analyzes these policies and to what extent they answer the quest for freedom of expression. The relation between media policies and democratization shows the role of media policy change in enhancing the democratic process and its consolidation. While applying several theories, this study emphasizes the role of free press for a sustainable democracy. The significance of this study is to call attention towards the function and the responsibility of media freedom during the country’s transitional period to be a contributor to the consolidation of policy …

International Agency Implementation Of Women's Empowerment Programs Under Secular And Islamist Governments: Comparative Cases Of Un Women And The International Labour Organization Experiences In Egypt, Whitney Buchanan

Theses and Dissertations

This research compares two international agencies, the UN Women (UNW) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), and their women’s empowerment programs specifically under the Mubarak government during 2010 and under the Morsi government during 2012 to determine how Islamist and secular government support shapes the effectiveness of international agencies’ gender empowerment projects. This project is a “snapshot” of attitudes of particular ILO and UNW staff members from regional and national offices regarding their work during two different time frames, and not the institutional policies, experiences, or positions of he UNW and ILO bodies as a whole. The principal investigator chose …

The Sacred Cow And The New Comer: A Comparative Study Of Nation-State And Umma, Ayat Abdulaty Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

International relations discipline witnessed debates among its mainstream theories. Today the debate worthy of attention is the Western-centrism of the discipline. There is an immense critique of the Westphalian state order, the nation-state, and the absence of religion in IR theory. This research aspires to partially account for the voids of the IR theory. It engages with the debate over the Western-centrism and the loopholes of IRT. This thesis introduces a non-Western contribution to international relations, an Islamic perspective of IR. This thesis argues that for IR discipline to be truly pluralistic and to claim universality it should be opened …

Becoming "A Good Wife, A Good Mother, And A Good Woman": The Experiences Of Six Non-Literate Rural Ghanaian Women, Mary Assumpta Ayikue

Theses and Dissertations

The topic of women's literacy is prominent, current issue throughout the world. In the villages of Ghana, west Africa, most women have not experienced a basic elementary education. Although Ghana has free and compulsory education, several factors influence a woman's ability to pursue formal educational learning. According to the 2008 statistics of UNICEF (2011), regarding the literacy rate of adult women in Ghana (females age 15 and above), 59.30% remain illiterate while the rate of illiterate men (males 15 age and above) is 19.4%. Most households in the rural areas of Ghana do not recognize the importance of literacy education …