Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Kanjirowa Blues: An Exploration Of Environmental And Climate Consciousness In Lower Dolpa, Nepal, Casey Greenleaf

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

It has been scientifically demonstrated that high altitude, mountainous regions such as the Himalayas are extremely susceptible to and at accelerated risk of the effects of climate change. The regions of Lower Dolpa discussed in this work, Juphal, Dunai, Chun, and Dapu, lie in a glacial watershed, and are at present risk of landslides, floods, wildfires, and rely on agricultural and transhumant livelihoods that are uniquely susceptible to the impacts of changing temperature and weather patterns. People in this region are being forced to incrementally adapt and reframe their understanding of their surroundings due to both aforementioned severe events as …

“In Principle” Versus “In Reality”: Assessing The Potential Of Adaptive Urban Governance Toward Urban Flooding In Ho Chi Minh City’S District 7, Cindy Pham Nguyen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Flooding has become the new normal in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). During the rainy season, many areas of the city experience severe inundation that seriously impacts infrastructure, traffic, and economic transactions. As the effects of climate change unpredictably and rapidly manifest in Southern Vietnam, the frequency and impact of urban floods are projected to increase. In addition, within the last few decades, HCMC has rapidly developed and urbanized, transforming itself into the economic center of Southern Vietnam. However, previous studies and international experts have determined that rapid, poor development may be exacerbating urban flood issues.

In recent years, city …

The Process Of Conducting Socioeconomic Research In Vietnam: An Internship With The Development And Policies Research Center (Depocen), Kira Le

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As Vietnam continues its rapid development, its government and people will be increasingly reliant on research organizations such as the Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN) to study the socioeconomic issues that demand to be addressed in the interest of the sustainable development of the country. DEPOCEN is an independent research organization that has studied issues ranging from poverty and gender equality, to business & investment environment and trade liberalization. Since its establishment in 2005, DEPOCEN has developed collaborative relationships with many other research institutions like Oxford Economics and the Korean Institute of Economic Policy, and has offered its services …

Shaped By Changing Space: Exploring Gender And The Discourse Of Empowerment In Sikles, Nepal, Rachel Yanover

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Development work as it relates to women in Nepal is an ongoing topic of debate and discussion that may never have a concrete end. In the late 1970’s Indian women took a stand in defending their livelihood against commercial logging operations with authorities. This event was known as the Chipko movement and is often cited within the history of women and development as it caused people to “engage the question of gender and gendered livelihoods in the Himalayas” (Gurarani and Berry, 2015). It was women who served as the backbone of this movement in organizing nonviolent demonstrations against commercial deforestation. …

La Creación De Crianza: Un Retrato De La Niñez En Martín Centeno, Sara Dean

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the ever-shifting landscape of rural Nicaragua, how do new developments affect the ways in which children make sense of their worlds and their identities? Taking place in Martín Centeno, a cooperative community near Río Blanco in the Department of Matagalpa that was founded in the 80s for families displaced by the war, the present study borrows the theoretical framework of children’s geographies. Through observation, interviews, and visual research methods, this study paints a portrait of childhood in Martín Centeno today, as well as highlighting ways it has changed over time. The study places particular emphasis on the role of …

Kilombo Do Kioiô: The Use Of An Artesanato Program As A Program Of Social Justice, Anna Losacano

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The women’s artisan group, Kilombo do Kioiô, part of the Ação Social da Paróquia Sao Bras (Sao Bras Parochial Social Action Group) in the neighborhood of Plataforma, Salvador, Bahia, works to insert poor Afro-Brazilian women into the economic market and wider society. This community of women is struggling to survive in a society in which they are marginalized by their gender, race and socio-economic position. They are also struggling to survive two types of violence that are pervasive in Plataforma: domestic violence and violence related to drug trafficking.

This research project studies how working as artisans affects the participants’ social …

Sacred Work: Transforming Spirit And Community In Lucena, Paraíba, Jenny Schneider

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There has not been a great amount of research that has been conducted on Santo Daime. As such, my research will make a significant contribution to the body of knowledge available to those who are curious about the church, its practices, and their social implications. There is much stigma, prejudice, and even persecution of Santo Daime. Hopefully a more intimate look at the social ramifications of work with Santo Daime will ease these preconceptions.

Santo Daime is the only completely Brazilian religion: a unique syncretism of indigenous Amazonian traditions, Portuguese Catholicism, African spiritualism, and Kardecist Spiritism, whose convergence reflects Brazil’s …

Molding Memory: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Representations Of Candomblé In Public Places Of Memory And The Afro-Brazilian Community, Lauren Hobby

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over eighty-five percent of the population of Salvador, Brazil is of African descent, creating a rich history of cultural, political and social development. Nevertheless the majority of the museums in Salvador have historical spoken very little of this culture and its relationship to the city. In 1982, the Museu Afro-Brasileiro opened, introducing a small museum focused solely on the cultural exchange between Africa and Brazil as well as the development of Afro-Brazilian religiosity. Thinking critically about the importance of museums in the construction and dissemination of awareness, knowledge and respect for cultures as well as the current debates over the …

A Place In The World: Mh2o’S Construction Of A Peripheral Identity, Ryan Schutt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hip Hop and, more specifically, Rap music, has been a culture rooted in the notion of the social periphery, the section of society excluded from mainstream, capitalist, bourgeois society. It has historically been a way for this voiceless, disenfranchised, and alienated population to criticize, question, and protest its societal position. The Movimento do Hip-Hop Organizado uses this medium as a way of politicizing and mobilizing the excluded members of Brazilian society. Using Hip-Hop, the organization constructs a socially informed, politically aware, and critically conscious community that is united through their common identification with Hip-Hop culture and MH2O. The case is …

Spectator To Actor To Multiplier: Edisca’S Humanizing Methodology, Hannah Mcdowell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Augusto Boal, a Brazilian theater theorist and practitioner, transferred the means of production of theater to the oppressed. The oppressed, formally passive spectators filled by the elites’ images of the world, became liberated participants in the creation of dramatic action. Through “people’s theater,” Boal encouraged participants to critically analyze their relationships with the world and in the world through onstage action. EDISCA (Escola de Dança e Integração Social para Criança e Adolescente [School of Dance and Social Integration for Children and Adolescents]), located in Fortaleza, Brazil, introduces artistic languages to children and adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The youth then …

Sex-Education And Preventative And Contraceptive Services: Educação-Sexual E Serviços Contraceptivos E Preventativos, Elizabeth M. Ortiz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Maternal morbidity is one of the leading causes of death amongst women in Latina America. Lack of access to Reproductive Health services has incited a continental epidemic amongst adolescent women - and should be considered a public health crisis. Yet, there is little being done by the governing male bodies to secure access and the Right to Reproductive Health services. This is not only a means of re-enforcing gendered inequalities- but also class, and racial disparities. Reproductive Health in Brazil and Northeastern Brazil in particular, serves as an allegory for socio-economic, gender, ethnic, and racial inequality in the region. The …