Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Smoking, Drinking, And Binge Drinking: An Empirical Study Of The Role Of Price On Consumption By High School Seniors, Jorge L. Medina

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I estimate time-series demand functions using Ordinary Least Squares in order to examine the effects of real cigarette and alcohol prices on their respective consumption. My targeted population is high school seniors in the United States. The data I use come from Monitoring the Future, The Tax Burden on Tobacco, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using the Ordinary Least Squares real price coefficients, I evaluate how much of the observed change in consumption is explained by the observed change in real price during a particular period of time between 1976 and 2008. Then, I repeat the …

Mother Country: Reproductive Tourism In The Age Of Globalization, Lauren Jade Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mother Country is a multi-sited, qualitative study of the United States fertility industry. I analyze the industry in two dimensions: as a particularly American institution and nascent profession, and as a destination for "reproductive tourism." The United States fertility industry, buttressed by lax federal regulation, free market principles, and high technology resources, is organized to benefit certain classes of American citizens and foreign nationals in their quest to have children. As such, the United States has become a prime destination for people seeking assisted fertility services such as commercial surrogacy, egg donation, and sex selection, which are unavailable, inaccessible, or …

Personal Narratives Of Women's Leadership And Community Activism In Cherkasy Oblast, Martha Kichorowska Kebalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ukraine's women's movement is part of a complex social field characteristic of formerly Soviet countries, but it also emerges from its own specific political history. Post-Soviet period, (neo-) nationalism, feminism and (neo-) socialism are significant forces shaping women's collective behavior. Their activism resonates with the pre-Soviet liberation struggle while it is shaped also by practices from the recent Soviet past. It also is sensitive to external pressures, including the agendas of Western aid and the Ukrainian diaspora.

This study accepts the emergence of non-state women's organizations as indicative of an incipient movement and examines this field of social activism in …

Dominican Related Dissertations In The U.S.: An Analytical Approach (1939-2009), Sarah Aponte

Publications and Research

This article seeks to present an overview of Dominican-related dissertations produced in the United States from 1939 to 2009. All dissertations that are known to deal in any way with Dominican affairs have been included. Some factors explored include: 1) trends in the annual production of doctoral degrees; 2) characteristics of doctorate recipients, including race/ethnicity and gender; 3) significant topics, concepts, and institutions that have shaped this diverse list; and 4) the most popular fields of study and the most frequently attended institutions of higher education. Entries include highlights on seminal works, lesser-known important dissertations and feature essays that will …

Lacuny Junior Faculty Research Roundtable Meeting Minutes, December 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Marginalized Stakeholders And Performative Politics: Dueling Discourses In Education Policymaking, Celina Su

Publications and Research

American urban education policy debates pivot around dueling lines of discourse on what ails inner-city youth; such students are portrayed as emblems of a largely African-American and Latino ‘culture of failure’, even as their voices remain largely absent from debates about them. In response, youth-led organizations attempt to forward youth as political stakeholders. I draw upon ethnographic data from two such organizations to examine the performative aspects of their campaign work. I focus on how they engaged in (1) counter-scripting, to imagine themselves as political stakeholders and substantively prepare themselves for their new roles, and in (2) counter-staging, to gain …

Future Is Now: Introducing Ereaders To Cuny Libraries, Stefanie Havelka, Jennifer King, Rebecca Arzola, Alevtina Verbovetskaya

Publications and Research

Amazon.com’s announcement in July 2010 that eBooks out sold print books for the previous three months indicates that eBooks are here to stay. What effect will this have on teaching and learning? Will ease of access and portability facilitate cheating and plagiarism? How will eBooks and eReaders work in an urban academic environment? Are eReaders and eBooks the new digital divide?

Faculty from the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College will share their experience with Sony eReaders and downloadable eBooks via OverDrive. Following this presentation there will be a guided discussion on eReader and eBook issues, such as:

• How do …

Brave New World: Redesigning Lehman College Library’S Website, Stefanie Havelka, David Stevens

Publications and Research

Since today’s students are digital natives, they naturally expect more from an academic library website. Well-designed websites, virtual games, social networking as well as search engines are an integral part of their daily digital lives. Consequently, challenges faced during redesign of a library’s website are two-fold:

• Concepts of web usability must be applied. The website needs to be well organized and present its information and content in a user-friendly manner.
• The website needs to be visually appealing since it serves both as the virtual extension of the physical library, as well as a significant outreach tool promoting the Library’s and …

Lacuny Junior Faculty Research Roundtable Meeting Minutes, November 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Website Founders Early Access, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the website Founders early access.

Review Of The Book Jewish Responses To Persecution, Vol. I: 1933-1938, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Jewish responses to persecution, Vol. I: 1933-1938.

Accumulation, Excess, Childhood: Toward A Countertopography Of Risk And Waste, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

This piece grows out of my on-going project, ‘Childhood as Spectacle’, and my enduring concern with social reproduction and what it does for and to Marxist and other critical political-economic analyses. After more than 30 years of Marxist-feminist interventions around these issues, symptomatic silences around social reproduction remain all too common in analyses of capitalism. Working through these issues and their occlusion, I offer what I hope is a useful and vibrant theoretical framework for examining geographies of children, youth, and families. Building this framework calls into play three overlapping issues; neoliberal capitalism in crisis and David Harvey’s notion of …

Lacuny Executive Council Meeting Minutes, October 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Disability Services Roundtable Meeting Minutes, October 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Serials Roundtable Meeting Minutes, October 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Lacuny Reserves Roundable Meeting Minutes, October 2010, Lacuny

Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Wow Cafe Theater Unveils 30th Anniversary Festival After Three Decades, Fierce Performers Prove The Show Will Go On, Esther Zinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

WOW Cafe Theater, a collective for female and and trans performance artists, strutted its stuff during its Pearl festival in May by celebrating thirty years of producing risk-taking, genre-defying theatre during the entire month of May 2010. Featuring more than twenty performances and fifty artists spanning a broad spectrum of music, dance, and multi-media, the Pearl festival was arguably the biggest and longest running theatrical event for women in New York during this summer, made possible by a generous grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Lesbians In The 1970s, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The 1970s was a period of intense excitement, change, activism, and activity for lesbians. As lesbian feminism redefined what qualified as a "political issue" and challenged every assumption about gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, and any number of other social categories, lesbians of all kinds created cultural, social, political, economic, and regional organizations and networks.

The Robert Giard Fellowship, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

For several years we at CLAGS had wanted to work with the Robert Giard Foundation on a project for LGBT artists, but couldn't come up with the right vehicle. Eventually we hit on a perfect project: a fellowship for photographers and video artists working on queer and trans themes that would honor Robert Giard's legacy while directly supporting emerging and mid-career artists.

The Robert Giard Foundation Fellows Enlighten Our World, Carl Sylvestre

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This spring, the Robert Giard Foundation's partnership with CLAGS completed the first of what is anticipated to be an annual event in both organizations' calendars.

Director's Letter, Sarah Chinn

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Dear Friends: CLAGS's mission to nurture LGBT scholarship means that we're often looking into the past and into the future at the same time, remembering the queer past as we encourage cutting-edge scholarship. This feels especially true right now, since we're preparing for our 20th anniversary and putting the finishing touches on our historic (in all senses of the word) conference, "In Amerika They Call Us Dykes: Lesbian Lives in the 1970s."

International Resource Network (Irn) News–Middle East Participates In The 5th Annual Anti-Homophobia Conference In Turkey, Naveed Alam

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

"No disenfranchised minority is free unless all disenfranchised minorities are free." With this introductory statement Judith Butler went on to draw the links between precarity, performativity, and sexual politics as she delivered the keynote lecture during the 5th Annual Anti-Homophobia Conference at Ankara University on May 15, 2010.

Black Lesbians In The 70s, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

During the initial planning session for In Amerika They Call Us Dykes: Lesbian Lives in the 70s Spring Series, there was lack of clarity about the activity of Black Lesbians in the early part of the 1970s. The aim for Black Lesbian Herstory in the 70s: An At Home Tour and Guide to the Black Lesbian Herstory of the Collection was to present information to the lesbian community and increase Black Lesbian invisibility.

"I Am", Sonali Gulati

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

It was the summer of 1999 in Toronto at my very first public screening of my film titled "sum total" that someone asked me what my next film project was. And I had barely formalized my ideas in my head but I spoke from my heart and spoke of this film about parents of gay and lesbian youth living in India. It had only been a year and a half since my mother had passed away and that feeling of regret of not having come out to her before she died was on my mind.

The Geography Of Black Candidate Electoral Success, Marcus Allen, Marvin King

Publications and Research

In this manuscript, we reexamine claims about the geography of electoral success of African American candidates. Barack Obama's historic election in 2008 prompted journalists, partisans, and scholars to review prior notions of where African American candidates can successfully contend for elected office. Although Obama's victory is just an anecdotal national example (albeit an important one), we review the available evidence at the state level to understand what factors might impede African American electoral success. Heretofore, the literature focused on the density of the black population, and the interconnectedness of region and white racial attitudes. This paper shows that these old …

Peruvians In The United States, 1980—2008, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Peruvians in the United States between 1980 and 2008.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The Peruvian population of the U.S. increased dramatically between 1980 and 2008 from about 70,000 to over 550,000 people. Migration increased in each decade and there is no reason to believe that migration from Peru will decrease in …

Puerto Ricans In The United States, 1900—2008: Demographic, Economic, And Social Aspects, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Puerto Ricans in the United States between 1990 and 2008.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: By 2008 there were as many Puerto Ricans living in the United States — about 4 million — as living in Puerto Rico. About two-thirds of all Puerto Ricans in the United States were born on the …

The Colombian Population Of New York City, 1990 — 2008, Haiwen Chu

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in New York City between 1990 and 2008 – particularly the Colombian population.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The Colombian population of New York City, which increased nearly 25% between 1990 and 2000, declined to 97,580 in 2008 from 109,710 in 2000, representing a decline of about 11%. While in …

Public Health Insurance Utilization In New York City, 2008, Rachael Varra

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in New York City between as of 2008 – particularly the utilization of public health insurance (PHI) benefits.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Of the 25% of New Yorkers receiving PHI in 2008, the absolute number of whites, blacks and Latinos receiving PHI was similar. However, greater proportions of Latinos …

Forecasting The New York State Economy With “Terraced” Vars And Coincident Indices, Eric Doviak, Sean P. Macdonald

Publications and Research

This paper introduces “Terraced” Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models, an innovative twist on traditional VAR modeling, which allows the econometrician to simultaneously forecast both exogenous and endogenous variables and the confidence intervals around those forecasts. In an application of our Terraced VAR framework, we have estimated coincident indices of economic activity for the United States, New York State and the six largest metropolitan areas of New York State and incorporated them into Terraced VARs, which forecast the unemployment rate, total non-farm employment, real wages and average hours worked in manufacturing in those regions.