International and Area Studies Commons^™

Redefining The Impact Of Public-Access Media In Worcester, Ma, Anthony Ortiz

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research presents findings from a study of how Worcester’s current public-access media center can serve as an anchor institution for two-way communication between the producers and the audience. More generally, it addresses two questions: 1) How to ensure maximum participation and 2) How can active communication be preserved (or maintained) between the producers and the audience. Drawing on case studies done around the U.S. this paper offers a model of community based media that can be essential for empowering people to serve as active receivers of information. The concept for community based media should allow as a grassroots oriented …

Gis And Coastal Basemap Research Summer Internship With Clark Labs, Po Hu, Zhuoyue Zhou

Sustainability and Social Justice

Our summer internship with Clark Labs will last for one and half of years, from October 2014 till the end of August 2016, while we’ve worked under the director of Dr. Ronald Eastman. The main duty for this project is to create a basemap for coastal line in three counties in the Southeast Asia, while during this summer, our duties were to wrap up the remaining tasks, such as adjusting the classification images based on the accuracy assessment results, combining all the images, making a final map, and calculating the area for each categories in each province of the three …

The Gendered Politics Of Natural Resource Management: Gender Mainstreaming In Un-Redd+ Programs In Latin America, Hannah Yore

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper uses a feminist political ecology framework to critically examine rural women’s relationship with UN-REDD programs throughout Latin America. It looks at the ways in which UN-REDD has attempted to integrate women into the larger REDD+ development paradigms vis-à-vis gender- mainstreaming. I pay particular attention to how gender dynamics operate in the context of REDD+ with respect to cultural sovereignty, access to land, and benefit sharing and draw on Ecuador’s National REDD+ Socio Bosque program to illuminate how National REDD+ programs can adversely affect rural women’s livelihoods despite UN-REDD’s discourse of “gender equality”. In light of these considerations, I …

Environmental Conservation As An Instrument Of National Political Economy: Culture, Livelihoods, And Territorial Rights Of The Emberá Of Panama, Sara M. Taylor

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper argues that areas of environmental conservation in the Panama Canal Watershed Zone were originally designed to fit an economic utility rather than to protect habitat. As a result there was an exclusion of forest-based communities in policy design and implementation, creating lasting impacts on indigenous Emberá territorial rights, livelihood opportunities, and traditional cultural practices. Based on recent fieldwork and a review of relevant secondary literature, this paper discusses how Emberá communities in in Chagres National Park have adapted their culture and livelihoods to accommodate environmental regulation and explores what prospects the Emberá see for future generations if they …

Lullaby For The Burning Ear: How Intersectional Feminism Can Help Decolonize The Latino Consciousness, Donovan E. Hernandez Garcia

Senior Theses

People exist with their own religions, cultures, and practices, which illustrate the ingenuity of humanity. Yet, because of major events that altered the fate of the Americas, a certain societal structure was created to maintain power. Due to colonization, the prolonged exposure to numerous cultures, and the continuation of oppressive systems, people have been forced to band together based on similar characteristics, be it race, gender, or sexual orientation, creating divisions within society. It is because of such colonial mentality, subliminal and apparent, political and cultural movements, such as Feminism and intersectionality, have been created to combat the harmful effects …

2015 Summer Gis Internship In Archipelagos, Institute Of Marine Conservation, Mengyi Chen

Sustainability and Social Justice

My summer internship is in Archipelagos, Institute of Marine Conservation, starting from June to July of 2015. My work includes manipulating geospatial data, conducting analysis, and creating maps for the conservation work in Archipelagos. This report introduces the organization of the internship, the detailed content of work I have done for this internship, and the assessment of the internship.

Barriers To Energy Efficiency In Hospitals: Building A Better Business Case For Sub-Metering, Chris Davies

Sustainability and Social Justice

The natural world finds itself placed in an ever more precarious position as climate change is continually exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels. Achieving greater energy efficiency in resource intensive industries has emerged as part of the immediate solution to this problem, a solution which can be financially, environmentally, and socially beneficial. Healthcare is one such industry where energy efficiency has high relevance. With hospitals operating 24/7 and energy intensive equipment running all day long, the healthcare industry offers high potential for successful building energy efficient retrofits. Yet it also faces many unique barriers. This paper identifies some of …

Land Change Modeler Application:Summer Internship With Clark Labs, Siqi Cheng, Nan Ding

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper is a description of our internship with Clark Labs in the summer of 2015. We worked as research assistants in the Land Change Modeler Application (App) project. This project aimed to display the land cover changes in the United States from 2001 to 2010, show the vulnerability in 48 states and predict changes from the yaer 2050. Our responsibility was to extract eight variables (slope, elevation, surface water, roads, high intensity land, protected areas, county subdivisions, and cultivated crops) in TerrSet, and use them in several models to test the accuracy of prediction.

The internship is a great …

A Study That Critically Engages Secondary Language Acquisition And How It Relates To Immigrants Developing Cultural Competence, Susan Alecia Nelson

Sustainability and Social Justice

This study seeks to critically engage in the topic of secondary language acquisition to explore the role it plays in immigration, particularly as this relates to developing cultural competence. Further, the research examines the barriers to second language acquisition, and also makes recommendations for reducing those barriers. This will be done by examining literature that analyzes the role that secondary language learning plays in immigrants becoming culturally competent within the United States, and will look at this more in depth by focusing on Mexican immigrants who have come to the United States.

Innovations In City-Level Climate Policy: Building Energy Efficiency And Retrofitting Programs In C40 Cities, Benjamin Tweed

Sustainability and Social Justice

Abstract

Innovations in City Level Climate Policy: Building Energy Efficiency and Retrofitting Programs in C40 cities

Benjamin Tweed

Worldwide buildings account for approximately a third of global energy use and a quarter of GHG emissions. In large cities these proportions can double or even triple. Combined with a slow rate of building turnover, this creates a need for policy instruments designed to address the energy efficiency of existing buildings. With a lack of national attention, cities are stepping forward to offer a solution. This paper examines policy approaches taken by six cities, all members of the C40 Climate Leadership Group. …

Corporate Responsibility In Peace Building, Conflict Prevention And Development: The Role Of The Mining Sector In Ghana, Abdul Karim Issifu

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

This article seeks to explore the role of the mining sector in peace building, conflict prevention and community development in Ghana. After thoroughly reviewing secondary data, including articles, books, journals, newspapers, etc., via critical document review and qualitative research approaches the research found that, there is no legal document on CSR in Ghana, yet mining companies in a free will, have executed CSR programs laying down for peace, security and development in the country. More so, this article provides a theoretical support for the Integrative theory of CSR on the basis that, the socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental needs of …

Bridgers In The Third Space: An In-Country Investigation Of The Leadership Practices Of Us-Educated Chinese Nationals, Maria L. Martinez

Educational Studies Dissertations

This in-country grounded theory study examined the lived experiences of 24 Chinese returnees who completed advanced degrees in the United States. The study found that the four types of organizations in mainland China determine the social context of the application of Western education of the Chinese returnees. Returnees working in multinational corporations apply their Western education more than the returnees working in the other types of organizations. Themes that revolved around the international educational experiences of the Chinese students, including the development of cultural intelligence and new understanding of the ‘other’, and their realization of the differences between their home …

Young, Urban, Professional, And Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity And Nationhood, Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

Educational Studies Dissertations

By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and …

Preferential Trade Agreements And Quality Of Government In Sub-Saharan Africa, Sharon Camara

Dissertations

Objectives. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations have made concerted attempts at economic integration and openness with use of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) beginning in the latter half of the 1990s. These changes could result in increases in trade and growth. The World Bank’s Good Governance indicators are designed to assess the quality of institutions in a given country. The objective is to assess the impact of PTAs and Good Governance indicators on trade in SSA nations. Methods. Data on trade y was generated based on exports defined by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Direction of Trade statistics, and both OLS and …

Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (Tapas) Program: A High School Study Abroad Program For District 128, Michaela Kendzior

Capstone Collection

As colleges begin to internationalize campuses and global competencies continue to become a demand in the workforce, secondary schools should also aim to internationalize the curriculum and offer international education opportunities to their students. In an effort to do this, I have created the Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (TAPAS) Program for Community High School District 128 in Illinois. The TAPAS program is a 20-day summer intensive cultural and language immersion program created to maximize learning potential in D128 students. While the program’s focus is on Spanish language and culture education, the orientation and instructional activities have been designed …

El "Juego" De Los Voladores: Adaptación Indígena Y Vida Festiva En La Nueva España, Matthew J.K. Hill

Faculty Publications

El rito conocido como “los Voladores” existe hoy en día como testimonio a la tenacidad de los grupos indígenas en adaptar sus antiguas prácticas al nuevo orden sociopolítico impuesto por los españoles. Aunque parte del significado y las prácticas asociadas con este rito prehispánico se haya perdido, el hecho de que la práctica haya sobrevivido en lo más mínimo todavía resulta sorprendente. Dada la tendencia de los españoles por erradicar o modificar el pasado pre-Conquista, ¿cómo podía un rito de tal visibilidad como los Voladores permanecer más o menos intacto hasta hoy? En contestación a ese interrogatorio se examinarán algunos …

Barriers To Accessing Services By People With Disabilities In Nigeria: Insights From A Qualitative Study, C. Jonah Eleweke, Jannine Ebenso

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the experiences of people with disabilities in Nigeria and specifically the barriers they encounter in accessing various services in the country based on the framework of the social model of disability. Qualitative methods were utilized in the data collection and interpretation. The results indicated that people with disabilities in the country encounter a plethora of barriers in accessing various important services. These obstacles to accessing essential services deprive people with disabilities the opportunity to acquire services that would enhance the development of their potential and leading productive and contributing lives. These barriers to accessing services and the …

“Between The Yes And The No”: Alternative Ontologies And Literary Depictions Of Mysticism In Borges And Mahfouz, David Shane Elder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the advent of the modern era and the subsequent age of Enlightenment, the rational tradition has enabled the West to assert command of a large area of the globe and its population. While advancing the conditions of living for many, rational structures have also been used to control and repress others. The theosophy of the medieval Islamic mystic Ibn al-ᶜArabī, with its basis in irrational thought, offers a counterpoint to the rational and empirical traditions, the Social orthodoxies to which these epistemologies contribute, and the ontologies with which these epistemologies and orthodoxies are correlated. Yet mystical expression is very …

Introduction: Theorizing The Secular In Tibetan Cultural Worlds, Holly Gayley, Nicole Willock

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This special issue on ‘The Secular in Tibetan Cultural Worlds’ originated in a panel on The Secular in Tibet and Mongolia at the Thirteenth Seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2013. To contextualize the contributions to this issue, spanning diverse temporal and geographic contexts, this Introduction raises theoretical concerns and discusses contested terminology regarding ‘religion’ and the ‘secular’ in Tibetan discourse. The authors situate local articulations of the secular within broader academic discussions of the varieties of Asian secularisms and offer a key intervention to complicate the secularization thesis and prevailing views of …

The Effect Of Past Institutional Structures On Current Economic Development Levels: The Former French African Colonies, Ana May Jerolamon

Senior Honors Projects

By the early 1960’s, most of the French colonies in Africa had gained independence. Since then, these former colonies have reached economic development levels that vary widely by country. This project will argue that while most of these countries were official colonies for less than one hundred years, the institutions that were created during the colonial period still have an effect on the current economic development of such countries. Since political institutions become intertwined with the culture and structure of a country,

they are extremely hard to modify; therefore, we can expect to find the presence of institutions that are …

A Case Study Of The Yasuní-Itt: What Is New About The Twenty-First Century Socialist Development Model?, Haley Kulakowski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

© Haley Kulakowski 2016

Abstract

This paper explores and challenges the development strategies of Rafael Correa in Ecuador and, more generally, the new Latin American left through the Yasuní-ITT case study. Claiming to implement a post-neoliberal development model that stands to uphold the principles of buen vivir, post-neoliberalism, and the 2008 Ecuadorean constitution, the Yasuní-ITT case study seems less like a commitment to the rights of the Pachamama and the rights of indigenous tribes, and more like a political tactic, the creation of a hollow narrative that positions the new Latin American left as anti-Northern, anti- IMF, and as “post-neoliberal.” …

Reclaiming Identities: Intercultural Bilingual Education In Peru And Bolivia, Emily Malina

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project involves analyzing indigenous intercultural bilingual education (IBE) and the reclaimation of identity. The intercultural nature of IBE models has the potentional to cause an ideological transformation and reclamation of culture through indigenous autonomy and inclusion in nation-building processes. Through comparing the histories of Peru and Bolivia, it becomes evident that there is a correlation between historic polity structures and the successful implementation of IBE.

Shared Perspectives Of Divided Space: Perceptions Of The Urban Environment Among Jerusalemites, Andie Duplantis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multidisciplinary research and philosophical discourse have long explored the complex relationship between the objective environment and subjective human perception. No two humans perceive, experience, and form attitudes about the same phenomenon in exactly the same way. Individual demographics (sex, age) and group identity (culture, religion, ethnicity, political ideology) have been shown to have a profound effect on perception of phenomena; research has also focused on the effect of the physical environment itself. Differences in perception, experience, and resulting behavior have great implications for governance, particularly in regards to planning and development. Recognizing these differences, modern urban planning increasingly seeks to …

The Chinese Culture And Hungary, Attila Kasznár

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom And The Making Of A World Safe Diversity: A Pastoral Perspective, Aco Girevski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Biblioworks: Advocating For The Creation Of Libraries For Children In Chuquisaca, Bolivia, Jhasmany Saavedra

Capstone Collection

During 2015-16, I completed my SIT professional practicum as an intern with BiblioWorks based in the Asheville, North Carolina office. Founded in 2005, the focus of this very small organization has been to provide funding and support for libraries and other educational programs in one part of Bolivia. I am from Bolivia and, prior to my scholarship to study at SIT, had worked with local NGOs. During my on-campus phase, I took a sequence of courses in policy advocacy and thus, along with other assignments, I became BiblioWorks’ US-based resource person working with the Bolivia-based director as the organization began …

Financial Health And Corporate Performance: A Comparison Of Manufacturing Companies In China And India, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The People’s Republic of China (China) and India are two leading economies in Asia Pacific. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in these two markets. A linear regression was conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a fourteen-year period are also analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2013 (inclusive) and yielded a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for both …

The Changing Face Of Church And Mission In Eurasia (With William Yoder's Response To Mykhailo Cherenkov), Mykhailo Cherenkov, William Yoder

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Review Of Bubík And Hoffman's "Studying Religions With The Iron Curtain Closed And Opened: The Academic Study Of Religion In Eastern Europe", Branko Sekulić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened: The Academic Study of
Religion in Eastern Europe. Edited by Tomas Bubík and Henryk Hoffmann, Leiden-
Boston: Brill, 2015. 338 pp. Paperback, ISBN: 9789004283077

Investigating How Restaurant Week's Price Promotion Affects Diners' Online Perceptions, Jian Zhao

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Price promotion is being widely employed in the global restaurant industry. This exploratory study uses online user-generated content (UGC) to investigate how price promotion affects diners’ perceptions. The study uses secondary data extracted from a Chinese third-party review website, Dianping.com. The data was separated into Restaurant Week’s price promotion group and non-price promotion group for comparison. Structured content analysis and further chi-square tests were used to analyze qualitative data, and a two-way MANOVA was applied to analyze quantitative data. Empirical evidence shows that food, service, and environment are the top three determinant attributes for full-service restaurants, and they are not …