Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The 2008 Municipal Elections According To Nicaraguan Women: Nihilism, Hope, And Pragmatism, Teresa Cheng

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Transnational Anti-Imperialism: A Case Study Of Witness For Peace And Their Relationship With El Regadío, Estelí, Sam Menefee-Libey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Nicaragua: Revolution, Transformation, and Civil Society

Hambre Cero And Its Impact On The Holistic Health Of Its Female Beneficiaries, Chelsea Duttweiler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation focused on the study of Hambre Cero (meaning “Zero Hunger”), an anti-poverty program funded by the Nicaraguan government which gives voucher packages to poor rural women. Items given include pregnant cows, pigs, chickens, seeds, and technical assistance with the goal of generating profit for use by the families and women’s cooperatives. The study of this program is important for government accountability, and will also add to the body of knowledge concerning rural development, sustainable health programs, and the feminization of poverty so that more effective development programs can be developed in the future. I specifically studied the program’s …

Give Life Without Losing Life: The Casa Materna Of Matagalpa And The Struggle To Prevent Maternal Death, Lily Emiko Friedman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Maternal mortality has a face. It is the health indicator with the greatest disparity between the developed and developing worlds, disproportionately affecting poor women with low levels of education, high levels of fertility, and inadequate access to health services. It is the health inequality that most clearly shows how poor health outcomes continue to be directly linked to poverty and socioeconomic disadvantage, while the right to safe pregnancy and motherhood comes with economic privilege. As it occupies such a critical position in community health, maternal mortality has been widely studied and the target of countless health interventions aimed at its …

Phoenix Or Phantom: Residents And Sarajevo’S Post-War Changes, Katherine Marple-Cantrell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project looks at the changes that Sarajevo endured as a result of the war of the nineties and at how those changes affected residents’ relationships with the city, approaching the topic from an urban perspective. To answer these questions, I conducted historical and theoretical research on the city and conducted a series of ten interviews. Two of my interviews were factual interviews that augmented my knowledge of the city and it’s physical changes, and eight of the interviews were sociological interviews that helped me to understand residents’ experience of change in the city. This paper presents my findings by …

Responsibility, Reconciliation, And Remembrance: Serbian Youth Perspectives In Dealing With The Past, Erica Getto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Dealing with the past is a process in which a society determines truthful facts of previous events, and with the support of civil society and its leaders, undergoes a transformation from a culture of conflict to one of peace, through reconciliation and depolarization . Youth between the ages of 18-30 are the future of Serbia. They grew up in the midst of war, under a regime that greatly affected the economical, social, and political stability of the newly independent country. Because of these factors, their perspectives and opinions become critical in determining how this country is approaching topics of the …

Immigration: An Escalator To The American Dream Nicaraguans’ Experiences With Immigration To The United States In The Midst Of The War On Terror, Allison Koenker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

What’S A Girl To Do: Repatriarchalization And Croatian Women’S Reproductive Freedom, Brittany Rast

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Croatia is a country in transition. After decades of officially minimizing differences between itself and the rest of the former Yugoslavia, Croatia is now fiercely fighting to establish its own unique identity. As part of that battle, Croats have embraced their folk traditions, and they have brought the Catholic Church back into prominence. Approximately 85% of Croatians are Roman Catholic, and the Croatian government and the Catholic Church have very strong ties (Drakulic 1993: 125). As is the case in many transitional countries, the embracing of folk culture and its norms, coupled with the resurgence of the Catholic Church has …

Caring And Treating Post – Traumatic Stress Disorder In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Colleen M. Boley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a major issue whenever there is a war or natural disaster. From 1992 through 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina was subject to one of the most destructive wars of the 20th century. The groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina that are working with posttraumatic stress disorder are investigated to see if they are truly helping people with posttraumatic stress disorder. This paper explores the ways in which posttraumatic stress disorder has affected individuals and the societies of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the organizations attempting to help people dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Democratic Control Of Armed Forces: An Analysis Of The Role Of The Parliamentary Assembly In The Defense Reform In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Elisabeth Hubbard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The research beings with a discussion of the legal framework for defense reform in 2003 and in 2005 followed by an analysis of the role of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in implementing the legislation for reform.

The analysis focuses on efforts to build the capacity of the Parliamentary Assembly and asks the question: have the efforts to build the capacity of parliamentary oversight of the defense reform implementation been successful in increasing democratic control of the Armed Forces of BiH?

I conclude that yes, the capacity-building efforts have been successful in increasing democratic control. However, the Parliamentary …

Volviéndose Rebelde: Participación Política Juvenil La Historia De Participación Política De La Juventud Nicaragüense: 1975-2006 Recurring Rebellion: Youth Political Participation In Nicaragua, Julia Beaufait

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Youth act as both reflections of and protagonists within history and society. This is even more apparent in Nicaragua, where the 1979 triumph of the Sandinista revolution was sustained by the high levels of youth participation. In the following two and a half decades, youth have continued to play a defining role both following the example of and rejecting the proceeding models of participation. This essay is an exploration of the history of youth political participation in Nicaragua in the years between 1975 and 2006: from the insurrection to the most recent elections. I work under the assumption that the …

Feminist Justice In Practice: Witness Experiences Of Survivors Of Wartime Sexual Violence In The Sud Bih, Brett A. Smith-Hams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Wartime sexual violence is currently being prosecuted in numerous legal institutions across the world. In order for survivors of this sexual violence to have the best possible experiences, many improvements in the care, protection, and support of those who come forward to testify in these institutions need to be made. This study looks at the practices of one particular legal institution, the National Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently in the midst of trying several war crimes cases, many of which involve incidents of mass, systematic sexual violence as part of a larger military campaign in the region …

Searching For A Path: Evangelicals In Nicaraguan Politics, Jacob Siegel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Evangelicals now comprise approximately 20-25% of the Nicaraguan population, but the Nicaraguan political system has remained dominated by the specter of the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, in the 1990s, some evangelical leaders, including ones who had previously been vocal opponents of political involvement, sought new outlets for political participation. I claim that the evangelical political movement has drawn on three justifications: a struggle against political marginalization, a crusade for “traditional moral values,” and a fight for economic betterment.

Here, utilizing interviews with 18 Nicaraguan Protestants involved in Christian political or social movements, I trace evangelical political parties though …

Campesinas En Resistencia: Estrategias De Sobrevivencia Para Construir Una Cultura De Paz, Camia Crawford

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This essay speaks of the rural Nicaraguan woman, survival, and the development of strategies of "resistance" to construct a Culture of Peace. It discusses how society creates and reinforces the oppression of this woman, and how this woman confronts (resists) this oppression. This is a paper that documents the struggle of the woman that looks to access power from her impoverished and gendered condition from the time of the revolution until the present. Through a process of formal and informal interviews with rural women over a one month period in Paiwas Nicaragua, the goal of this project was to investigate …

From Soldiers Of War To Soldiers Of Peace: La Red De Promotores De Paz Y Desarrollo, Stephanie Gharakhanian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Reconciliation, one told me, “is to throw away the land of the past, to forsake the hate that we have.” “It is a friendship,” said another, “If I don’t have it, I can’t break the silence that I carry.” The poetry of these words astonished me. Both quotes were of women ex-combatants, one had fought for the Resistencia and the other for the Sandinistas during the dreadful Contra War that beleaguered Nicaragua for much of the 1980s. Today, these women are fellow Promotores de Paz y Desarrollo, colleagues in a network of war veterans and community leaders working together to …

Male Istine: A Collection Of Short Stories And Prose Exhibiting Pre-War Lifestyles, Experiences, Ideals, & Memories, Adriana Lebaron

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Muslim Women’S Religious And Feminist Identities: A Study Of Muslim Feminism In The Bosnian Context, María Lis Baiocchi

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research paper explores Muslim Feminism in Bosnia Herzegovina as a phenomenon that has been developing in the past ten years or so among Muslim women.

The introduction to this paper defines the concept of Muslim feminism and examines how women’s identities as Muslim believers and their identities as women fighting for gender equality (i.e.: feminists) shape and determine one another.

I then move on to examine my ethnographic research methodology and my self reflections from the field.

Later, I give an account of the history of feminism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I pay particular attention upon the noticeable absence …

Trazando Fronteras, Persiguiendo Sueños: La Realidad De La Migración Del Campo En Nicaragua Hacia Costa Rica, Becca Telzak

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Este viaje en búsqueda de una mejor vida es lo que llamaremos migración y a sus pasajeros trabajadores migrantes.”

Durante este proyecto, yo escuché muchas veces las palabras Trabajadores Migrantes. Pero quien es un trabajador migrante? Según la organización ATC (asociación de Trabajadores del Campo del Nicaragua), “toda persona que se traslade de un país a otro para buscar empleo, trabaja o que haya realizado una actividad laboral remunerada.” Hay muchos tipos de trabadores que son migrantes: temporal, Semi permanente o permanente. Los trabajadores temporales son por un año o menos y trabajan durante las cosechas para exportación y dependen …

History And Society: Fact, Fiction And Reform In The Serbian Education System, Valerie Ullrich

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

History instruction is a means of disseminating political and cultural “truth” in societies all over the world. History occupies only a small space in the educational schemes that socialize and politicize children to their societies, but it could be argued that it plays a disproportionate role in these processes. In societies with contentious historical records and/or histories of conflict, it is particularly important to examine the role that history instruction does in fact play, as it can have positive or disastrous consequences over the long term. Serbian society provides one example of the potential effects of incomplete, politically influenced historical …

El Movimiento De Mujeres Y El Estado Nicaragüense: La Lucha Por La Autonomía, Sarah Moberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Movimiento de Mujeres ha sido un movimiento social vital, diverso e influyente en la historia de Nicaragua, comenzando a mediados del siglo veinte. Ha tenido tres etapas en su evolución, bajo las tres diferentes estructuras del Estado: la dictadura Somocista, el gobierno Sandinista, y los gobiernos neoliberales. Durante las tres etapas, el Movimiento tuvo cambios en sus agendas, sus debates, su membresía y su forma de organización. La relación con el Estado es un gran factor en el rumbo de un movimiento social. Ha influido en las estrategias políticas y las formas de participación, las cuales también han influido …

La Participación De La Juventud En El Desarrollo Comunitario: Un Estudio En La Organización Juvenil De Cantera, Ciudad Sandino, Surya Karla

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cuando pensamos en las formas de exclusión, discriminación y opresión que existen en la sociedad, usualmente pensamos en términos de clase, género o raza. Muchas veces, se nos olvida pensar en otro sector enorme de la población oprimida: los jóvenes, adolescentes y niños. El poder en la sociedad puede ser concentrado en personas ricas, blancas y masculinas, pero significativamente también en las personas adultas. En una entrevista con Aura Lila Ulloa, Directora de la organización CANTERA, respecto al enfoque de este proyecto, me informó:

… “Vivimos, desgraciadamente, en una sociedad adultista. Dejar de ser una sociedad adultista y dar espacio …

“Sacar A La Familia Adelante:” El Impacto De La Emigración En La Comunidad Salvadoreña De Nuevo Amanecer, Elisabeth Golub

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La camioneta azul saltaba por el camino pedregoso, y pensé que si no fuera por la vista dramática de los cerros del campo salvadoreña podría ser en el carro de un@ de mis amig@s en los Estados Unidos. Un disco de Bob Marley sonaba en la casetera, y estaba platicando con el muchacho que conducía sobre nuestras carreras universitarias. Le pregunté que estaba estudiando. “Sistema ingeniería,” me dijo. “¿Y que piensa hacer cuando termine?” Se reía, y me contesto, sin hesitación: “Voy a los Estados, a trabajar en la lechuga.” Hoy en día en El Salvador, su respuesta no es …

El Papel Del Café En La Economía De Nicaragua: Desafíos, Estrategias, Y El Futuro, Matt Shuman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este programa, SIT en Nicaragua, atrae a estudiantes que les interesan en (muy obviamente) revolución, transformación político, y la sociedad civil. Aunque, estos temas me interesan mucho, una gran parte del porque yo vine a Nicaragua fue para conocer en lo intimo las complejidades de una economía de un país en desarrollo. Un aspecto de muchos países en desarrollo es una economía basado en unos pocos productos de exportación. Algunas veces son: el oro, el algodón, o la gasolina, pero con frecuencia el café es el producto que da de comer a países con su moneda extranjero y mantiene sus …

Identities In Dialogue: Deconstructing The Dynamics Of Bošnjak-Muslim Identities In Novi Pazar, Christine M. Debacker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research was aimed at understanding how individual identify with larger, collective identities (national, ethnic, religious, etc.). In studying the history and current social situation of the former Yugoslavia countries, I learned that often individuals identify themselves within the terms of nation, ethnicity and religion. And I learned that often in this region those terms were used exchangeably. To better understand how differences among individuals and groups were conceived, I turned to the abounding academic theories written on the topics of nation, nationhood and nationalism.

In looking though the mass of theories, I realized that each academic creates theories of …

A Learning Process: The Implementation And Effects Of Returnee Policies In Post-War Bosnia-Hercegovina, Danielle Kuczera

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Bih In Black And White: Photo-Diary Of My Adventure Learning How Ngo’S Anti-Trafficking Prevention Programs Work In Small Communities In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Rebecca Johnson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

From the very beginning of my immersion in the Balkans, the issue of Trafficking of Human Beings has found a nook in my mind of righteousness, and ever since, the interest of learning how this crime is being prevented has festered. In the one-month period of time I had for my research, I spent 5 days in Modriča, 8 days in Ključ, 5 days in Mostar, 7 days in Sarajevo, and 2 days in Dubrovnik. The goal of my travels was to see first hand the actual and physical actions that NGO’s in small towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter …