International and Area Studies Commons^™

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

A Widened Angle Of View: Teaching Theology And Racial Embodiment, Mara Brecht

Journal of Global Catholicism

Today’s undergraduate students are digital natives, shaped by constant access to information and countless experiences of encountering the world through the convenience of a screen. The ostensible comfort students have with difference gives way to a paradox, and one that’s made especially apparent in the theology classroom: Students are comfortable with seeing difference and particularity at a distance, but not adept at locating difference and particularity “at home.” I contend that Catholics & Cultures can help students from the dominant culture—namely, white students who comprise the vast majority of Catholic college students—destabilize their notion of the Catholic tradition as tightly …

Introducing Catholics & Cultures: Ethnography, Encyclopedia, Cyborg, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In introducing the Catholics & Cultures site and the articles in this special issue, this essay initially locates the overall Catholic & Cultures project within the traditions of ethnography and encyclopedia. Drawing extensively on the work of J. Z. Smith, this essay reflects upon the theoretical implications of emphasizing the diversity of Catholicism in and through a web-based platform that facilitates comparative study and pedagogy. This essay then more specifically considers the web-based aspects of Catholics & Cultures by identifying a nascent cyborgian aesthetic in the site and considering how the site might eventually engage post-modern themes and concerns.

Abenomics’ Effect On Gender Inequality In Japanese Society And The Workplace, Arianna C. Johnson

Honors College Theses

In this study, I determine the extent to which Japan’s shrinking workforce population has been affected by gender roles. Many Asian countries are experiencing a prominent decline in birth rate and population, which has increased global interest in these issues. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese government officials have eagerly responded, pushing Japanese women into the labor force as a possible solution. However, this decision has unanticipated drawbacks, which require officials to address Japanese women’s concerns in and outside of the workplace. I argue that the Japanese government will have more success by addressing these needs, creating a more gender-equal …

Book Review Of Eating Nafta: Trade, Food Policies, And The Destruction Of Mexico By Alyshia Gálvez, Laura Kihlstrom

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

This is a book review of the book 'Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico' by Alyshia Gálvez.

Participatory Mapping With High-Resolution Satellite Imagery: A Mixed Method Assessment Of Land Degradation And Rehabilitation In Northern Burkina Faso, Colin Thor West, Elisabeth Kago Ilboudo Nébié, Aaron J. Moody

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Sahelian West Africa is a region that has high population densities and that has frequent severe droughts and enormous pressure on natural resources. Because of these challenges, it is the place where the term desertification was originally coined. Recently, however, experts have identified large zones of greening where the amount of vegetation exceeds what one would expect based on rainfall alone. This pattern is well documented, but its mechanisms remain poorly understood. This research employs participatory mapping linked with high-resolution satellite imagery to better understand the human role behind regional vegetation trends. Through a case study of three communities in …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

Transnational Perspectives And Euroscepticism: A Strategical Rhetoric Of Blame, Madeline F. Bercher

Honors College Theses

The increasing success of Eurosceptic parties in national and European elections is undeniable. In the last twenty years, the European Union (EU) has faced economic, social, and political crises without much time in between. As a result, we are now the witnesses to an institutional crisis rendered even more real by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU in January 2020. In this paper, I analyze the changes in rhetorical strategies employed by Eurosceptic parties to gather stronger electoral support.

Many scholars have now agreed that Euroscepticism and the parties representing it have become mainstream and accepted by …

Call For Proposals 2021: The Social Practice Of Human Rights Conference, University Of Dayton

Content presented at the Social Practice of Human Rights Conference

The global pandemic has rapidly broken down boundaries and structures—from personal to social to institutional. Long-standing practices and norms have changed radically to respond to the current crisis, while some institutional and political dynamics contrary to human rights and democracy have become further entrenched. New pressures on human rights are also heightened by the pandemic, including rights to privacy, access to health, and digital capitalism. This crisis has shown that for human rights, the perils and potentials have increased hand in hand.

The stark upending by the pandemic provides proof-of-concept for the disintegration of silos and the erosion of exclusionary …

Should The State Of Israel Pursue Krav Maga As An Intangible Cultural Heritage Of The Jewish People? History And Politics Say Yes., Guy Mor, Andrea Molle

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Krav Maga (‘contact combat’) is an Israeli combat discipline arguably one of the many intangible cultural heritages of Israel and the Jewish people. It has played a unique role in the (re)creation and preservation of the Jewish identity and the formation of the state of Israel.

Recently we observe a growing academic literature debating the role of martial arts in international affairs and domestic political processes. It is the scope of this paper to contribute to this proposing a framework for understanding Krav-Maga as a means of cultural diplomacy as seen in other nations.

Us Media’S Coverage Of China’S Handling Of Covid-19: Playing The Role Of The Fourth Branch Of Government Or The Fourth Estate?, Wenshan Jia, Fangzhu Lu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The present study is an analysis of a sample of reports on China’s handling of COVID-19 by several major US media with a focus on a controversial op-ed by the Wall Street Journal. It is found that instead of covering it objectively as a public health crisis, these media reports tend to adopt the strategy of naming, shaming, blaming, and taming against China. In other words, they seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan as an opportunity to serve Trump’s “America First” doctrine by a coordinated attempt to destroy the Chinese dream and arresting China’s ascendency. First, the naming/shaming …

This Is It: Latina/X Representation On One Day At A Time, Camille Ruiz Mangual

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the tensions between contemporary Latina/x representations and problematic tropes in the sitcom, One Day at a Time (2017-2020) [ODAAT]. ODAAT centers of Elena, Penelope, and Lydia, three generations of a Latina/x family. Many entertainment reviewers and fans praised the series for its progressive and nuanced portrayals of Latina/x characters. However, I argue that while ODAAT depicts Latina/x characters that transcend some United States mainstream media tropes about Latinas/xs, the series also relies on conventional markers of Latina/x identity as tools with which to communicate progressive messages around identity. I expand upon scholarship in Latina/o media …

Un Rompecabezas Americano: La Identidad Y Los Escritores Hispanos En Estados Unidos, Keren N. Benalcazar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Hispanic immigrant authors in the US portray the process of identity formation in diaspora affected by the act of immigration itself through the analysis of four main themes: cultural identity, language, alienation and the immigrant's experience with borders and border culture. While Hispanic literature of immigrants has evolved over time in the United States, many of its general themes remain the same. Focusing on authors from the 19th to 21st centuries, this thesis covers 18 works ranging from novels, to essays, to poetry to short stories, all by various Hispanic authors, most of them immigrants or …

Factors Associated With Chronic Kidney Disease Of Non-Traditional Causes Among Children In Guatemala, Alejandro Cerón, Brooke M. Ramay, Luis Pablo Méndez-Alburez, Randall Lou-Meda

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Objective. To identify factors associated with chronic kidney disease of non-traditional causes among children in Guatemala. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. The study population was all pediatric patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease active in FUNDANIER’s pediatric nephrology unit (N = 156). Simple random sampling led to a total of 100 participants. Data collection consisted of a questionnaire addressing individual and household characteristics, access and utilization of health care, and place of residence when the disease began. Chronic kidney disease etiology was obtained from medical records. Municipality-level secondary data were collected. Descriptive statistics were estimated. Logistic regression was …

Covid-19 Pandemic And Opportunities For Digitalisation Of Smes, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Perspectives@SMU

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about disruptions in all sectors of economy. With lockdown being implemented in most of the countries around the world, it has necessitated changes in the business models of SMEs. A glaring area of business opportunity focuses on online business. For instance, retailers who do not yet have an online presence or have not been paying much attention to conducting sales online were caught off-guard during the circuit breaker period which has resulted in decreased footfall and plummeting sales in most physical stores. Therefore, having an online retail presence has become critical for businesses, as they …

Digital Learning And Innovative Possibilities From The Pandemic As Part Of Singapore Management University (Smu) Libraries’ Digital Transformation, Rajendra Munoo

Research Collection Library

No abstract provided.

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2020: Full Year Overview, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. The fourth quarter results mark the end of measurement for CSISG 2020. Singapore’s 2020 national score was computed using the data collected during these four quarters.

Haptic Heritage And The Paradox Of Provenance Within Singapore's Cottage Food Businesses, Orlando Woods, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper offers a “more-than-representational” understanding of how heritage value is reproduced by cottage food businesses in Singapore. It advances the notion of haptic heritage to highlight the importance of touch and feel in inculcating food with a sense of heritage value. Haptic heritage is reproduced through the physical handling of ingredients in ways that contribute to more “authentic” products. However, it also foregrounds food production processes that are more tactile, time-consuming and thus unscalable than their automated counterparts. Accordingly, the reproduction of haptic heritage is becoming increasingly unviable in Singapore’s competitive economic landscape. These ideas are explored through a …

Amjambo Africa! (March 2021), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue

Museveni of Uganda..........2/3

College applications andscholarships ........................4/5

Publisher’s Editorial/BetterDays Ahead? ..........................6

Translations

French ............................7/24

Swahili............................8/24

Somali ............................9/24

Kinyarwanda...............20/24

Portuguese ...................21/24

Influential Black leaders .....10

Community masks fromTracey Sesselberg.................11

World Market Basket ..........12

Fishermen feed MainersHealthy cooking with Yvonne ElingaOrganization updates .........13

Burundi Star.........................14

Messan Jordan Benissan inCamden ................................15

Photo essay/Onyx Emelo ...16

Helping kids in Angola.......17

News from Africa................18

Avoiding scams & fraud .....19

Biden proposes immigration changes .................................27

Book Review: Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, And Strategy, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this book Dmitry Adamsky tells a remarkable story which, only thirty-five years ago, would have come across as a wild-eyed dream (or, possibly, nightmare). As he shows, though, this is not a phantasm: it is the reality in Russian today, a reality the rest of the world does well to take note of.

Regional Economic Impacts Of China's High-Speed Rail Development And Its Institutional Challenges, Hankun Zhao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This article studies the impact of connecting to high-speed rail (HSR) network on regional development and the replication and sustainability of China’s GIUR system, aiming to summarize the experience of China’s HSR, which can provide several policy references for developing countries. This article conducts two research: (1) explore the impact of connecting to HSR network on the urban industrial structure, urban creativity and urban-rural income gap of cities in different regions and cities with heterogeneous locations along the HSR lines in the long and short term; (2) explore the advantages and disadvantages of the Government-Industry-University-Research (GIUR) system in the process …

Emigration, Home, Identity: An Ethnological Examination Of The Identity Of Jewish Emigrants From Czechoslovakia, Peter Salner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Stretnutie (The Meeting) is a group formed in October 2004 by Jewish emigrants from Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) who fled Czechoslovakia following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The original intention behind its founding was to hold a reunion that would bring together people who, forty years after emigrating, lived in Israel, in different states across Europe and North America, and in Australia. The meeting took place in May 2005 in Bratislava, drawing over 200 participants. Encouraged by this initial success, the group and its website continued its activities, and it remains operational to this …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 2), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Mama! I Hear Your Silence: Grief And Covid-19 On The Global North And South Disparity, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Faculty Publications

In this conversation with Mama, I use my mother’s voice as a reflexive mirror to explore the social work silences that the COVID-19 pandemic expresses so eloquently in my own life and work. I seek to highlight the intimate link between Mama’s silence and social work silence.

The Role Of Religion In The Lives Of The Last Soviet Generation In Lithuania, Milda Ališauskienė

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper contributes to the academic debates about the compatibility of religion and modernity and reveals the way Soviet modernization has affected the religious values of the last Soviet generation in Lithuania. It discusses the role and dynamic of religion, intergenerational transmission, and the manner in which religion becomes or does not become a resource for an individual’s social mobility. The article, focusing on the last Soviet generation (b. 1970–1985) living in Lithuania, is based on analysis of 88 narratives of representatives of this generation. Trends of religious individualism, critical engagement with institutional religiosity and conformity with religious identification with …

Terror Threat At Tokyo Olympics 2021, Daiju Wada

Japanese Society and Culture

While we witnessed collapse of Islamic State’s territorial control, Jihadists threat will continue for decades. But the real threat will not come from groups such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State but its Salafi Jihadism. Of course, the ideological threat is not visible and can never be eradicated by military actions. Cyberspace has facilitated the threat to be transnational pandemic phenomenon, as proved by inspired individuals. The backgrounds of those vary by person and this ideology performs as a detonator in driving individuals into violent terrorists.

Japan is located at the periphery of Jihadist’s interest. But Islamic State declared their …