International and Area Studies Commons^™

Engaging Non-State Armed Groups (Nsags) In The ‘Fight’ Against Sexual And Gender-Based Violence In Eastern Congo (Drc), Mackenzie Kennedy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

While the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has managed to achieve a greater level of stability more than a decade after finding itself at the center of “Africa’s World War,” the Eastern region of the country continues to face insecurity developments as poorly controlled domestic and foreign armed groups have undermined attempts to secure peace in the region since the end of the Rwandan genocide. Sexual violence has been used as a tool to humiliate, dominate, terrorize, displace, and control civilian populations. Despite much needed international attention towards assisting SGBV survivors, there remains a lack of effective preventative efforts …

Pro, Navegando Un Nuevo Tipo De Político: Estrategias Para Atraer Votantes / Pro, Navigating A New Type Of Politics: Strategies To Attract Votes, Bailey Armstrong

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation explores the change in Argentina’s political sphere looking from a global perspective and compares that to what is currently happening with the voters, parties, and the way in which political parties run their campaigns. In the election of 2001 there was a strong negative reaction from the citizens, shown through many null and blank votes on the ballot, expressing their discontent with the parties and their options for candidates. In 2003 many new parties emerged, and one lasted and grew to be one of the strongest parties today, the PRO party. In this work I will examine this …

Deterritorialización Y Resistencia En El Sur De Buenos Aires: El Qué, El Por Qué Y El Cómo De Preservación De La Identidad En El Barrio De Barracas En Una Era Del Cambio Y Inversión Por Parte Del Gobierno. / Deterritorialization And Resistance In The Southern Barrios Of Buenos Aires: The What, Why And How Of Identity Preservation In The Neighborhood Of Barracas In An Era Of Change And Outside Investment., Paige Moody

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following study explores the processes of change in Barracas, a neighborhood in the southern zone of Buenos Aires. Barracas is the oldest neighborhood of the city, steeped in a rich history and comprised of a population that holds a strong collective identity. In the past couple of decades there have been extensive urban renewal projects applied to the area, bringing with them a struggle for the residents to maintain their identity and control over the future of the neighborhood. The questions this investigation seeks to answer are: What are these changes that have recently come to Barracas? Why were …

Rodney Papers At Auc Robert W. Woodruff Library

Groundings

No abstract provided.

Remembrances

Groundings

No abstract provided.

Foundation News

Groundings

Updates from The Walter Rodney Foundations.

How Europe Underdeveloped African At 40, Michael O. West

Groundings

Michael O. West digests the impact of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa 40 years after its publication. He brings to the front the atmosphere that Rodney endured leading up to the publication of his seminal work.

Memorable Moments

Groundings

We highlight some of the memorable moments of that members of the Foundation have experienced since the last issue.

Announcement Of The Walter Rodney Press

Groundings

Introduction to and announcement of The Walter Rodney Press, which recently republished The Groundings with My Brothers.

Advertisement For The 12th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium

Groundings

The poster for the 12th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium to be held March 20th and 21st, 2015.

Notes On Ayotzinapa, Boca Floja

Groundings

Scholar and hip hop artist, Bocafloja, relates the current state of Mexico, specifically what has happened in Ayotzinapa.

2nd Annual Walter Rodney Speakers Series (2014)

Groundings

We take a look at the semester-long project to bring together intellectuals from all backgrounds and educations. Included: A brief synopsis of the Series and a photo narrative

11th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium Wrap Up

Groundings

We take a look at the monumental occasion that was the 11th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium, held on March 21st and 22nd. Included: A brief synopsis of events and a photo narrative.

Introduction

Groundings

This is the Introduction for Groundings Vol. 1, Iss. 1

Cover And Table Of Contents

Groundings

This is the Cover and Table of Contents for Groundings Vol. 2, Iss. 1

Groundings Volume Two, Issue One

Groundings

This is the full isee of Groundings Vol. 2, Iss. 1.

Re-Imagining Home: Operation Pedro Pan In The Cuban-American Imaginary, Yvette Fuentes

Quadrivium: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship

An exploration of the traumatic events of Operation Pedro Pan, where over 14,000 Cuban children traveled alone to the United States between December 1960 and October 1962. The program was organized by the Catholic Welfare Bureau of Miami and the U.S. State Department due to requests from Cuban parents who feared their children would be indoctrinated in Marxism by the new revolutionary government.

Textualizing Cultures: Thinking Beyond The Mit Controversy, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay examines how the MIT Controversy hardened identities in terms of the time worn template of geopolitical conflict of national stereotypes. It critically analyzes the Chinese students’ response to the “Visualizing Cultures” project by putting it in the context of the PRC’s patriotic education policy that securitizes culture by focusing on identity as difference in a zero-sum game that distinguishes civilization from barbarism, and China from the rest of the world. It critically analyzes the professors response to the controversy by highlighting how meaning is not only produced by the author; it is also consumed by various audiences that …

Fidel Valdez Ramos [Philippines, President], Fidel Valdez Ramos

Digital Narratives of Asia

Fidel V Ramos was the 12th President of the Philippines. As Director-General of the Integrated National Police and Acting Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he rose up against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos, to lead the military in the People Power Revolution of 1986. He tells DNA why he decided to stand up to his second cousin, what led him to run for the presidency and the thinking behind one of the key achievements of his term - the peace agreement with the MNLF.

Dominic Puthucheary [Malaysia, Member Of Parliament, Founder Barisan Sosialis], Dominic Puthucheary

Digital Narratives of Asia

Founder Vice-President, Barisan Sosialis, and former Malaysian Member of Parliament for Nibong Tebal, Dominic Puthucheary, recalls how he was inducted into politics, then trade union movement during the anti-colonial era. He presented his retrospective views on Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and the failure of the Left movement in the Cold War realities.

Arifin Siregar [Indonesia, Minister Of Trade], Arifin Siregar

Digital Narratives of Asia

Former Indonesian Trade Minister Arifin Siregar talks to DNA about his higher education in Holland and Germany, and his services as the Governor of Central Bank in Indonesia, during which handling the Pertamina crisis led to radical economic development. He presents his take on past Presidents Soekarno, Suharto, Habibie, Gus Dur, Megawati and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, including how corruption had occurred.

Localists And “Locusts” In Hong Kong: Creating A Yellow-Red Peril Discourse, Barry Sautman, Hairong Yan

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

Hong Kong’s “localists” depict mainlanders as locusts ruining the territory and bringing an end to a vaunted way of life.

In this article, we first discuss anti-mainlander prejudice in Hong Kong and its resemblance to earlier biases by Shanghai people against Chinese from neighboring provinces. We then empirically test claims localists make about the mainlander presence in Hong Kong and show that mainland visitors and migrants are not working the harms attributed to them. There follows a review of “insect language” as integral to racial vilification in several settings, with Hong Kong’s anti-locust movement a recent example. We go on …

Nation-State Personality Theory: A Qualitative Comparative Historical Analysis Of Russian Behavior, During Social/Political Transition, Mark George Bound

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The study theorizes that a nation-state can manifest a condition similar to that of personality commonly associated with humans. Through the identification of consistent behaviors, a personality like condition is recognizable, and the underlining motivations dictate national policy independent of any current social/political influence. The research examines Russia during two historical periods examining the conflict events and social/political transitions of the period, to identify common behavioral characteristics, which indicate the existence of any independent personality like trait.

The study focuses on two historical periods: the Monarch Period of Peter I (The Great), and the Post-Soviet Union period of Vladimir Putin, …

Threads And Stitches Of Peace- Understanding What Makes Ghana An Oasis Of Peace?, Hippolyt Akow Saamwan Pul

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Ghana is considered an oasis of peace despite having the same mix of ethno-political competitions for state power and resources; north-south horizontal inequalities; ethno-regional concentrations of Christians and Muslims; highly ethnicised elections; a natural resource dependent economy; and a politically polarized public sphere, among others, that have plunged other countries in Africa into violent and often protracted national conflicts. Use of the conflict paradigm to explain Africa's conflicts glosses over positive deviance cases such as Ghana. This study used the peace paradigm in a mixed method, grounded theory research to examine Ghana's apparent exceptionalism in staving off violent national conflicts. …

Specters Of Kurdish Nationalism: Governmentality And Counterinsurgent Translation In Turkey, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

This essay examines translations of the Kurdish epic poem Mem û Zîn into Turkish, tracing the logics behind these state-sponsored translations and examining how acts of translation are also efforts to regulate, translate, and erase Kurdish subjectivities. I argue that the state instrumentalizes Mem û Zîn’s potent nationalist currency in order to disarm present and future claims of Kurdish national autonomy. Using translation as a counterinsurgent governmental tool, the state attempts to domesticate Kurdish nationalist discourses even as it reproduces them, thereby transforming Kurdish nationalism into a specter of itself. Attending to this specter, however, allows us to see how …

Against The Grain: The Imf, Bread Riots, And Altered State Development In The Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan, David M. Leathers

CMC Senior Theses

Since the end of World War II, and especially over the past three decades, there has been a dramatic increase of interactions between international financial institutions (IFIs) and states. This paper will explore these interactions by examining the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This paper rests on the assumption that the complex implications of these interactions are not yet comprehensively understood and will move towards that goal by setting forth a collection of new approaches to further understand IFI-state interaction. It will discuss Jordan’s economic and political history, structural adjustment policies implemented by the IMF, …

Creating Knowledge, Volume 8, 2015

Creating Knowledge

Dear reader,

I am delighted to introduce this eighth volume of Creating Knowledge: The LAS Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship. This volume features 19 essays and 14 art works, representing advanced coursework produced in twenty different departments and programs during the 2014-2015 academic year. Several of the essays have been honored with department awards and several draw on research supported by undergraduate research grants. Many were originally written in senior capstone seminars, research-intensive seminars, and independent studies, and many were presented in some form at one of the numerous conferences and showcases sponsored by departments and programs throughout the year. All …

Combating Corruption At The Grass-Roots Level: The Case Of Individual Oath Takers, Emmanuel Funso Oluyitan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Nigeria ranks as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Its abundant natural resources are being exploited by some privileged few while the majority suffers abject poverty. In spite of a series of laws and reforms directed at waging war against corruption and campaigns against corruption by both government and non-government organizations (NG0s), corruption still reigns in Nigeria and has become part of Nigerian culture. The Association of Nigerians Against Corruption (ANAC), which I founded in 1984, is one such NGO campaigning against corruption through a series of seminars. ANAC focuses on appealing to the minds of individuals …

Value-Based Land Management Conflict: Alpine Cattle Grazing In Victoria , Matthew Luciani

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In Victoria, the practice of cattle grazing in alpine areas has shaped land, culture, and history since the early nineteenth century. Characterized by early gold mining, grazing, and skiing tourism, the Victorian Alps eventually seized the attention of conservationists who understood its ecological significance and need for protection, with beginnings of an Alpine National Park idea in 1969 (Johnson, 1974, p. 180). Not until 1989, however, did the park enter into existence, meeting much resistance from farmers and graziers along the way (Mosley, 1999, p. 80). Today, however, the region remains contested between two very distinct groups of people: environmentalists …

Exploring The Preservation Of Pastoralism And The Natural World In Western Mongolia , Josephine Brownell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

At a time when Mongolia is experiencing the intense effects of land degradation, human activity, and climate change, it is crucial that a new land management framework is developed with conservation in mind. Pastoralism’s unique relationship with the land serves as a method of protecting the natural world for the future. This study focuses on a pastoral community in Western Mongolia while considering a main research question: Is a herder’s historically deep connection with the land enough to protect the modern pastoral lifestyle in Mongolia for years to come? In answering this question, a review of related previous studies on …