International and Area Studies Commons^™

Singapore: Managing Diplomacy In A Chinese Lake, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

As China muscles in on the South China Sea, Singapore adjusts to relations with Malaysia and Indonesia

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2016 - 2017, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

SMU has come a long way since we opened our doors to our first students in 2000. We have adapted and grown as we created and seized new opportunities. As a result, today we are blessed with a world-class campus in the heart of Singapore’s city centre, six schools offering both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as many other postgraduate, professional and continuing education programmes; and close to 10,000 students on campus. All this was brought into focus this year as we opened the splendid new School of Law building, with its jewel-like Kwa Geok Choo Law Library and …

Voices That Care: Bringing Speech, Weh Yeoh

Social Space

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” The only issue is, not everyone has access to education.

Pay For Social And Impact Bonds In Singapore, Richard Edwards, Kevin Tan

Social Space

Measurably Improving the Lives of People Most in Need

Taking Action For Social Change, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Research at the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation is helping to better understand and respond to the needs of vulnerable communities in Singapore.

See the papers:

• Elderly population in Singapore: Understanding social, physical and financial needs
• Single-parent families in Singapore: Understanding the challenges of finances, housing and time poverty
• People with physical disabilities in Singapore: Understanding disabling factors in caregiving, education, employment and finances
• A handbook on inequality, poverty and unmet social needs in Singapore

Dissecting A Giant: The Commodification Of Rural China, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Rapid growth is causing unprecedented transformations in the social fabric and market structure of rural China, Professors Forrest Zhang and John Donaldson, researchers at SMU investigate.

See the papers:

• Class differentiation in rural China: Dynamics of accumulation, commodification and state intervention;
• Political dynamics in land commodification: Commodifying rural land development rights in Chengdu, China
• The rise of agrarian capitalism with Chinese characteristics: Agricultural modernization, agribusiness and collective land rights
• China's agrarian reform and the privatization of land: A contrarian view

Balancing The Sacred And The Secular, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Lily Kong, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading social and cultural geographers, studies the complexities that surround a society’s religious spaces and practices.

See her book: Religion and space: Competition, conflict and violence in the contemporary world

and journal article:

Religious processions: Urban politics and poetics

Mergers & Acquisitions: The Asian Way, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Wan Wai Yee studies the laws that govern mergers and acquisitions in Asia’s fast-changing landscape.

See the related publications:

• Mergers and Acquisitions in Singapore: Law and Practice
• Independent financial advisers' opinions for public takeovers and related party transactions in Singapore
• Regulating squeeze-out techniques by controlling shareholders: The divergence between Hong Kong and Singapore

Asia’S Legal Tiger, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

The growing globalisation of Singapore’s legal profession presents both opportunities and challenges, says Professor Goh Yihan.

See his books:

• Singapore Chronicles: Law;
• Singapore Law: 50 years in the making

Internationalizing Community Colleges To Inspire Globally Competent Leaders, Miranda Morgan

MA IDS Thesis Projects

All industries are becoming ever more intertwined with the global market, which means that the need for workers with a more globalized mental framework has become much more important. Unfortunately, in higher education institutions, there is a gap between students who have the ability to be in a school with comprehensive internationalized programs (internationalized curriculum, established international partnerships between schools, mission statement with internationalization emphasis, professor exchanges, and study abroad programs) and students who do not. Students who have limited access to internationalized programs are often low-income, first-generation, or returning community college students. This study proposes a comprehensive internationalized program …

The Venezuelan Diaspora: A Cerebral Exodus, Liam Baldwin

Latin American Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In this piece, I identify the phenomenon of brain drain as a serious threat to Venezuela economically and socially. Although Venezuela has historically been regarded as a destination for migrants, its current political and economic climate has caused a massive exodus from the country, further debilitating a crumbling economy. First, I outline the problems that arise from loss of skilled human capital. Then, I examine the root causes of Venezuela's brain drain. And finally, I propose possible solutions to soften the blow of brain drain on the economy.

Christians’ Cut: Popular Religion And The Global Health Campaign For Medical Male Circumcision In Swaziland, Casey Golomski, Sonene Nyawo

Anthropology

Swaziland faces one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world and is a site for the current global health campaign in sub-Saharan Africa to medically circumcise the majority of the male population. Given that Swaziland is also majority Christian, how does the most popular religion influence acceptance, rejection or understandings of medical male circumcision? This article considers interpretive differences by Christians across the Kingdom’s three ecumenical organisations, showing how a diverse group people singly glossed as ‘Christian’ in most public health acceptability studies critically rejected the procedure in unity, but not uniformly. Participants saw medical male circumcision’s promotion and …

Desconocido: Conversion To Islam In México, Ashley E. Dunn

International Studies Honors Projects

Unless proven otherwise, subaltern subjects are assumed to lack agency. Through an exploration of conversion to Islam in México in the southern state of Chiapas, in the north along las fronteras, and in Mexico City, this project intervenes in discourses that deny the subaltern agency. Through the analytical frameworks of coloniality, this project redefines the choices that converts make and their expressions of faith as acts of creation, as inherently authentic, and as articulations of their desires. Converts to Islam in México serve as a case study of modes of resistance against the epistemological powers of coloniality.

An Analysis Of China’S Regional Emissions Trading System: Challenges And Lessons, Ronghui (Kevin) Zhou

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

China, the largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world, has faced environmental pressures both internationally and domestically over the last ten years. In early 2011, the Chinese government approved a carbon emissions trading program in seven cities and provinces, and started planning a national emissions trading framework. This thesis reviews these pilot programs and examines the issues that underlie them. Drawing lessons from the U.S. Acid Rain Program, the European Union’s ETS, and California’s CAT, the three largest emissions trading frameworks in the world, I find that: (1) lack of trades in China’s pilot programs is a consequence of permit …

Carbon Stocks In Shade Coffee: Strategies For Enhancing Carbon Storage In Smallholder Systems In Jinotega, Nicaragua, Vanessa Katheryn Kichline

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Climate change has recently shifted focus to adaptation and mitigation strategies in coffee production. Shade coffee systems, already widely recognized for their contribution to biodiversity and soil conservation, are now drawing attention for their role in carbon storage. Researchers have generally assumed that high carbon storage must come at the expense of reduced crop yields, implying that farmers must choose between sustainability and profit. This study uses field inventories of 70 farms in Jinotega, Nicaragua to estimate this tradeoff in smallholder shade coffee systems. Field inventories were used to develop three typologies representing different shade management strategies in use in …

The Macro Behind Microfinance: Cambodia's Financial Inclusion Success Story, Jonathan Chang

Social Space

Financial inclusion refers to the delivery of affordable financial services to disadvantaged and low-income segments of society. However, as it also involves striking a fine balance between managing businesses’ credit risks and improving customers’ access to credit, different countries have made varied progress in their financial inclusion efforts. To date, across both developed and developing nations, SMEs and individuals still struggle in the face of limited access to adequate financing. Yet there is one country that has made considerable strides in this area: judging from the tremendous success of its microfinance sector, Cambodia seems to have found the sweet spot …

The Blame Game, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

When parties outsource duties to independent contractors who then carry out the work negligently, is the hiring party also responsible? Professor Low Kee Yang believes so.

See the papers:

• Non-delegable duty of care: Woodland v Swimming Teachers Association and beyond
• Non-delegable duty after Tiong Aik

[Review Of] Estrada, Oswaldo, Ed. Senderos De Violencia. Latinoamérica Y Sus Narrativas Armadas, Cheyla Samuelson

Faculty Publications

A review of Estrada, Oswaldo, ed. Senderos de violencia. Latinoamérica y sus narrativas armadas. Valencia: Albatros (Serie Palabras de América), 2015. Impreso. 367 pp.

Securing Whose Peace? The Effects Of Peace-Agreement Provisions On Physical Integrity Rights After Civil War, Melvin R. Korsmo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When civil wars are resolved via negotiated settlement, peace-agreement provisions like power-sharing agreements and third-party security guarantees often are advocated for their purported benefits of ensuring a long-lasting and durable peace. Although scholars have explored the effects of peace-agreement provisions on enhancing the security of states, their influence on shaping individual security outcomes is largely unknown. The strong potential exists that these same provisions that improve a government's ability to deter future violence also increase that government's violation of its citizens' physical integrity rights as a means of coercion and governance. Also rare in the power-sharing literature is exploration of …

Terracing, Land Management And Agricultural Soils In The Andagua Valley Of The Southern Peruvian Andes, Blaise Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Demographic, socio-political and climatic changes can drastically alter agricultural land management practices, affecting the availability of agriculturally relevant nutrients in the soil. This project investigates the use, reconstruction and abandonment of agricultural terraces and the implications these conditions have on agricultural soil properties of the Andagua Valley in the Western Cordillera of the Southern Peruvian Andes. During the 2016 summer field season, topsoil samples were collected from cultivated and abandoned agricultural terraces between 3229m and 3688m a. s. l. with a range of aspects and ages. Collaboration with a team of archaeologists and anthropologists gave insight into the local and …

When Rhinos Are Sacred: Why Some Countries Control Poaching, Paul F. Tanghe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why are some countries more effective than others at controlling rhino poaching? Rhinos are being poached to extinction throughout much of the world, yet some weak and poor countries have successfully controlled rhino poaching. This dissertation presents a theory accounting for divergent patterns in the control of rhino poaching, explaining why rhino poaching has been controlled in some countries yet increases exponentially in others. It does so by examining the relational models predominant in each country with wild rhino populations, including institutional analysis of all rhino range states, detailed analysis of social constructions used by nearly two hundred conservationists in …

The Strategic Challenges Of Urban Warfare, Christian Aditya Niksch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With urbanization on the rise, policymakers cannot ignore urban conflicts. In the aftermath of the Cold War, several scholars were of the opinion that primitive modes of fighting, such as close combat, would cease to be used. However, as urban spaces have increasingly become battlefields in the 21st century, there has been a retrogression to a brutal and bloody mode of fighting. This return of primitivism affects the tactics that the military can use in urban warfare, which makes it a daunting strategic challenge. A combined focus on policy, strategy, and operations is necessary to improve thinking about how exactly …

Power, Prestige, And Intimate Partner Violence, Kennan Howlett

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Today's American women have the capability to be more independent from men than ever before. A cursory glance at U.S. society suggests that this transition to selfreliance has been relatively smooth. For example, women have consistently earned more bachelor's degrees than men since 1982 (Perry 2013, Francis 2016) and nine out of ten men claim to be comfortable with women earning more than them (Dunlop 2009). This cultural shift has empowered women to seek opportunities outside of the home and take on new roles within society. Women are accepted as confident, competent leaders who make substantial contributions to the U.S. …

Leonard Bagalwa, Leonard Bagalwa, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Leonard was forced to join the military at the age of 17 in his home country of the Congo. A Catholic priest smuggled me out of the country and I lived in refugee camps in several different countries until 2004 when he came to the United States.

In 2005, a couple came to Leonard when he was homeless in the Provo library. They found out that he needed help and offered to let me live with them. They ended up paying my tuition for my education and I went to college for five years.

Leonard uses his experiences to teach …

Review Of Jacob S. Eder, Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic Of Germany & American Holocaust Memory Since The 1970s, Carol A. Leibiger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

No. 78: Comparing Refugees And South Africans In The Urban Informal Sector, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Cameron Mccordic, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

This report compares the business operations of over 2,000 South Africans and refugees in the urban informal economy and systematically dispels some of the myths that have grown up around their activities. First, the report takes issue with the perception that South Africans are inexperienced and unmotivated participants in the informal economy. Many have years of experience and have successfully grown their businesses. Second, it contests the view that refugees enjoy a competitive advantage because they come to South Africa with inherent talent and already honed skills. On the contrary, over 80% of those surveyed had no prior informal sector …

Distribution, Diversity, And Den Locations Of Canidae And Hyaenidae Species Across Habitat Type At Enashiva Nature Refuge, Grace Bullington

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Due to the importance of top-trophic level predators have on their environment including regulating prey species and influencing ecosystem biodiversity, it is important to monitor top-trophic level predators to understand how they shape their ecosystem. While top-trophic level predators can benefit the ecosystem, they can also cause problems for surrounding human settlements like predation on livestock. Species in the Canidae and Hyaenidae families occupy the top-trophic level and can influence their ecosystem and cause human-wildlife conflict.

This study looked at the distribution, diversity, and den locations of Canidae and Hyaenidae species at Enashiva Nature Refuge over the course of 21 …

Creating Knowledge, Volume 10, 2017

Creating Knowledge

Dear Students, Colleagues, Alumni and Friends, This may sound like an act of contrition, but it is not. When I meet administrators of other institutions of higher education, it is predictable that the first few minutes of interaction will be devoted to a vigorous display of institutional pride. In that context, my practice has been to let them deliver along traditional marketing lines including glossy brochures with abundant well-staged pictures of buildings, faculty, and diverse students. Once they are done, I kindly commend them and in return, I present to them our latest issue of Creating Knowledge. I know that …

Berita Autumn 2017, Eric C. Thompson

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address...2

Editor’s Foreword ...3

Announcements ...3

Research Report: Mahathir’s 2018 Campaign ...4

Book Review: Taming the Wild ...9

Call for Papers: AAS 2020 (REVISIONING 2020) ...12

Call for Papers: Performing Citizenship in Singapore ...13

Call for Papers: Malaysian Politics and Peoples ...14

Call for Papers: Database of Religious History ...16

AAS 2018 Conference Panels with MSB Content ...17

No. 77: Living With Xenophobia: Zimbabwean Informal Enterprise In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Daniel Tevara

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s crisis of xenophobia is defined by the discrimination and intolerance to which migrants are exposed on a daily basis. A major target of the country’s extreme xenophobia – defined as a heightened form of xenophobia in which hostility and opposition to those perceived as outsiders and foreigners is expressed through violent acts – is the businesses run by migrants and refugees in the informal sector. Attitudinal surveys clearly show that South Africans differentiate migrants by national origin and that Zimbabweans are amongst the most disliked. Zimbabweans are certainly not the only small-business owners to have become victims of …