Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Introduction, Adam Kasti

Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs

It is with great excitement that I introduce you to the Fall 2025 edition of Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs. In this first edition of its third volume, the journal continues its work of platforming insightful academic research and writing undertaken by undergraduate students.

Women, Life, And Freedom: The Changing Landscape Of Iranian Women’S Movements Before And After The Islamic Revolution, Emily Snyder

Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs

Iranian women’s movements, both pre- and post-Islamic Revolution, have continually adapted to the repressive tactics of those in power to advocate for women’s rights in an authoritarian environment. With the introduction of social media, Iranian feminists have been able to counter political suppression and successfully organize against the regime. In this paper, I analyze how Iranian women’s movements have changed before and after the Islamic Revolution, and how social media has allowed modern women’s movements to succeed amidst state surveillance and political violence at the hands of the regime. I determine that social media has been a crucial factor in …

Nepal’S Lost Generation: Emigration And Fertility In Asia, Kalina Kulig

Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs

This paper examines the causes and impacts of Nepal’s “lost generation,” a group of young people

leaving the country in high numbers. I begin by analyzing the causes of emigration, dividing factors into push and pull, and identifying the most important reasons young Nepalis are leaving the country. Next, I explore the impacts of emigration on Nepali society, explaining why the trend of young people working abroad makes Nepal an artificially aged nation. Here, I suggest that rapid population declines can erode the social fabrics and economies of smaller, less developed countries. Finally, I argue that political scientists interested in …

In Defense Of The Care Economy, Emily Daniel

Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs

Women are burdened with caregiving, yet their contributions are frequently undervalued and undercompensated. During the nineteenth century, women worldwide gained the right to vote, access to education, marital freedom, and the right to join the workforce. Yet today, they contribute significantly to unpaid or low-paying care work, tending to domestic responsibilities while participating in the labor force. These roles are motivated by moral or altruistic values rather than financial compensation and provide for needs in childhood, old age, and sickness. With women doing an average of 2.5 times more unpaid domestic work than men, they are at the heart of …

To Praise “Xi Dada”: Analyzing The Personality Cult Of Xi Jinping, Olivia Gondek

Araneum: Richmond Journal of American & Global Affairs

In 2018, just three days before the National People’s Congress abolished presidential term limits, Chinese citizens piled into sold-out theaters to watch Amazing China. This 90-minute documentary about China’s rejuvenation under President Xi Jinping has since become the country’s highest-earning documentary. However, reports failed to acknowledge that state-sponsored companies were the sole producers, reviewers, and marketers of the film. Moreover, Amazing China premiered during a time when accusations of Xi governing through a personality cult—a legitimacy technique based on a sole figure’s unique charisma and God-like qualities—“were intensifying rapidly.” Since taking office in March 2013, Xi Jinping’s presidency has been …

Venezuelan Migrants In Prostitution: A Personal Decision?, Yazmin Maria Lucila Cadena Camargo, Izara Maite Mondragon Moreno, Isabela Osorio Jaramillo, Paula Angélica Suárez Álvarez, Andrés Duarte Osorio, Carlos Gómez-Restrepo

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper explores the multifaceted experiences of Venezuelan migrant women engaged in prostitution, framed through three critical moments: the “decision to enter in prostitution,” the unique abuses faced, and the resultant consequences on mental, physical, and social health. The study highlights how socioeconomic vulnerabilities—exacerbated by migration and poverty—significantly influence the likelihood of entering prostitution. It also shows how traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood and adolescence, coupled with a lack of support networks, contribute to a heightened risk of exploitation. Eleven life stories were collected through a phenomenological approach, revealing a common narrative of abuse, poverty, and the search for survival …

A Data-Driven Framework For Optimal Retail Store Location, Ming Hui Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study develops a data-driven framework for optimal retail store location planning that integrates road network analysis, mobility data and optimization techniques. By addressing the limitations of traditional approaches that rely on outdated census data and manual site selection, this research offers a scalable and adaptable solution for retail expansion in diverse urban environments. Chapters 1 and 2 establish the foundational context and theoretical underpinnings of this research. Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and motivation, highlighting the limitations of existing approaches and defining three key research objectives: automating candidate site identification, improving footfall estimation, and developing a scalable multi-site …

The Motherhood Penalty On Health: Evidence From China, Ang Sun, Fang Xia, Xuan Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Understanding women’s physical and mental well-being following childbirth is critical for informing policies on labor market equity, family support, and fertility. Using event study methods and panel data from China, we document a persistent motherhood penalty in both physical and mental health, whereas the health impacts on fathers are minimal. While mothers experience a temporary reduction in paid work hours, they face a sustained increase in unpaid domestic labor — housework and childcare — resulting in a net increase in total work time. This additional workload likely contributes to deterioration in health. Mothers are also more likely to engage in …

Product Technology Adoption And Aggregate Innovation, Qiugu He, Xuan Luo, Fan Zheng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We document that a firm's research and development (R&D) expenditure depends on its product diversity. Combining with the fact that Chinese manufacturers often enter new product markets via technology adoption, we develop a quantitative framework of innovation and technology adoption, allowing firms to expand their product scopes. Firms adopt technologies across multiple fields to expand their knowledge base, which in turn serves as an input for subsequent innovation or adoption. Counterfactual analysis from the 2000s reveals that two-thirds of knowledge privately held by all firms is generated through adoption, accounting for one-third of aggregate innovation.

A Debt To Whom? The Nature Questions In Sino‑Sri Lankan Development Narratives, Orlando Woods, Kanchana Ruwanpura, Loritta Chan, Barnabas Mah

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This chapter critically examines dominant narratives around Sri Lanka’s debt and development in the context of Sino‑Sri Lankan relations and the Belt and Road Initiative, questioning assumptions about “debt‑trap” explanations and highlighting how narratives about development, nature and agency shape understanding of the country’s economic and ecological futures.

The Obsession With Staying On Track Is Holding Singapore Students Back, Kenneth T. Goh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship (Education) and Academic Director of SMU’s Business Families Institute Kenneth Goh, reflected on a former student who built a successful e-commerce business while studying, using his story to challenge Singapore’s “linear progression fallacy”. He argued that the education system reinforces this narrow view and stressed the need to value adaptability, experimentation, and creativity over rigid achievement. He called for reforms, concluding that Singapore should nurture a generation that values exploration and flexibility over simply staying “on track.”

Short-Term Mortality And Healthcare Utilization Consequences Of Pension Income Receipt: Evidence From South Korea, Mimi Jeon, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine short-term consequences of pension income receipt on mortality and healthcare utilization within the monthly payment cycle. Using the national death registry data of South Korea, we document that the mortality rate decreases by 1.2–1.4 percent in the week of the disbursement date. The mortality-reducing effects are larger for causes of death that could have been avoided through timely and effective healthcare interventions. Using healthcare claims data, we document that the number of hospital admissions increases during the disbursement week. We provide suggestive evidence of greater mortality-reducing effects from a smaller but more frequent disbursement than from a monthly …

Juxtaposing Approaches To Risk-Based Ai Governance In Different ‘Rights’ Contexts: A Comparative Analysis Between Singapore And The Eu, Jane Loo, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Comparative analysis of European and certain Asian approaches to governance often degenerates into simplistic dichotomies based on universal human rights assumptions. This chapter rejects such dualities, ill-informed by theory and historical reflection. The emerging argument is founded on a historical realist approach to theorising difference. Assisted by Polanyi’s double movement, the detailed substantive comparison is preceded by considerations of how recent trends in governing AI have uniformly adopted a countermovement against the dis-embedding of data and technology from the social leading to a risk/responsibility paradigm. From here, a more nuanced reflection of AI governance approaches in the EU and Singapore …

A Review Of The 2024/25 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the 11th annual review of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions. In a nutshell, 2024/25 has been a tremendous, record-breaking season for Singapore – and a particular duck has finally been broken. In the highest-tier or Grand Slam competitions, Singapore Management University emerged world champions in the Jessup, Vis East, International Criminal Court, and Frankfurt competitions; the previous world record for most Grand Slam wins in a season was 2 (held by various universities), and this new record may well increase to 5, depending on whether SMU can successfully defend its world championship at the Lachs Space …

Southeast Asia Higher Education Changes And Emerging Futures, Muhammad Hali Aprimadya, Lily Kong, Angel Calderon, Hamish Coates

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper unpacks recent developments and future directions in Southeast Asian higher education. It takes stock of higher education systems in three selected countries, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore. It sketches these systems, distils several changes around 2024, and discusses emerging directions for education, research and universities. The paper concludes by looking at what is required to catalyse transformations likely to impel future progress.

Information Provision And Search Frictions: Evidence From The Taxi Industry In Singapore, Sumit Agarwal, Shih-Fen Cheng, Jussi Keppo, Long Wang, Yang Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Search frictions and misallocation are common in decentralized transportation markets. Using novel trip-level data of taxis in Singapore, this paper examines the impactof real-time demand information at airport terminals on search frictions. The information reduces taxi supply misallocation, increasing deadheading speed by 16.3% and decreasing deadheading time by 10.77%, benefiting both passengers and drivers. It raises daily earnings by $3.70 USD and adds 6.2 minutes of operational time per airport-trip taxi. Spatial spillovers are primarily observed among drivers in adjacentdistricts. Taxis from the Budget Terminal and drivers with fewer prior airport pickups benefit more from this information.

Turkish Eyes For America: How Turkey Embraced The United States In The Interwar Period, Jack Goodwin

The Ozark Historical Review

This research discusses the unique relationship developed between the United States and Turkey between world wars and invites us to reconsider the popular understanding of the United States’ place in Turkey and questions the ways American officials believed were the most effective at spreading their national ideals and culture.

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The Ozark Historical Review

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Title Page

The Ozark Historical Review

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The Ozark Historical Review, V.52, 2025

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Women And Religion In The Mongol Empire, Karlie Barnett

The Ozark Historical Review

This article contributes toward the effort to uncover the impact of women on the making of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It also considers how women among the Mongols interacted with religion in varied and distinct ways and how these relationships influenced the development of Eurasian religions and the Mongol Empire overall. These interactions, which took place in the personal realm, the political realm, and in the realm of patronage, had profound effects on the development of Eurasian religions and the Mongol Empire.

Contents

The Ozark Historical Review

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Editors

The Ozark Historical Review

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The Ozark Historical Review, V.51, 2024

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Oral History Interview With Alan Chan, Alan Chan

Oral History Collection

The interview covered:

• Starting at SMU
• Administration
• Challenges and Future; Teaching and Curriculum
• Research
• College of Integrative Studies 
• Students
• Advice for Students

Plastic Makes Perfect: An Analysis Of Plastic Surgery As Rehabilitation In Early To Late 20th Century Prison Populations, Jack West

The Ozark Historical Review

As early as 1910, journalists from around the United States reported on the cause-and- effect relationship between a criminal’s physical appearance, their offenses, and the plastic surgeons willing to help them. These surgeons were interested in changing the physical “causes” of criminality to sever the mental roots of crime, inferiority, and anti-social attitude. This paper examines the use of plastic surgery programs as reform in prison through the lens of popular newspaper and journal articles and argues that public perception and reaction revealed in these articles shaped the prison program’s journey from its underground beginning to its eventual demise.

The International Perception Of The Irish Republican Army And Chechen Insurgency, Henry Forteith

The Ozark Historical Review

The purpose of this article is to explain how acts of violence influenced the media’s description of the Irish Republican Army and Chechen insurgencies and how the label of ‘terrorist’ affected the perception of the Anglo-Irish and Russo-Chechen conflicts. Quantitative data from the New York Times and International Newsstream databases are used to examine the change in word frequency to describe the IRA and Chechen fighters across a twelve-year span and four-month span before and after certain international events.

Disruptions And Continuity In The Singaporean Chinese Community: Social Networks, Collaborationists, And The Black Market Under The British And Japanese Administrations, 1819-1960, Alison Fong

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper focuses on the Chinese community of Singapore and their experiences under the British colonial administration and the Japanese military administration from 1819 to 1960. It argues that the Chinese community utilized and transformed social networks formed during the British colonial era (1819-1942) to adapt to the upheavals that the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942-1945) and the return of the British administration (1945-1960) introduced. These social networks shifted to meet the needs of the Chinese community in response to changing social hierarchies and status quos. Some were based on traditional kinship systems, and others were based on mercantile and …

Contents

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Editors

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.