International and Area Studies Commons^™

Capturing The Unseen Experience Of Asian International Students In The United States, Martel Pipkins

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

International students bring unique elements to the campuses everywhere. Through their efforts we are able to experience their culture through events such as Japan Night, Nepal Night, Vietnamese New Year, and Africa Night among others. However, there are experiences of international students that are less likely captured. Through one-on-one semi-structured interviewing, the unseen experience of international students from Asia was brought to light. The specific focus here is on challenges they may face during their time of study. The three core challenges presented are 1) living situations, 2) developing relationships, and 3) language. These core challenges seem to have a …

How Does A Battleground Become Common Ground? Lessons From Post-Conflict Countries, Mary Fran T. Malone

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Recruitment To Leadership Positions In The German Bundestag, 1994-2006, Melanie Kintz

Dissertations

This dissertation looks at the recruitment patterns to leadership positions in the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2006 with the objective of enhancing understanding of legislative careers and representation theory. Most research on political careers thus far has focused on who is elected to parliament, rather than on which legislators attain leadership positions. However, leadership positions within the parliament often come with special privileges and can serve as stepping stones to higher positions on the executive level. Based on a data set I compiled of all members who served in the Bundestag from 1994 to 2006, this dissertation looks at …

Nationalism And Its Expression In Cuba’S Art Music: The Use Of Folklore In Mario Abril’S “Fantasia (Introduction And Pachanga)” For Clarinet And Piano, Nikolasa Tejero

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In the centuries since the colonization of the New World, the people of Cuba created a strong musical tradition. Initially, their music mirrored the European composition canons of structural, melodic and harmonic order. The eventual confluence of its distinct cultural elements (i.e. the European, African, and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian) led to the emergence of a new, distinctly Cuban musical tradition.

The wars for independence that began in the United States and Europe in the eighteenth century created a surge towards political and cultural autonomy that swept across the Latin American colonies, generating a wave of nationalism during the …

[Introduction To] Propaganda State In Crisis: Soviet Ideology, Indoctrination, And Terror Under Stalin, 1927-1941, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

The USSR is often regarded as the world's first propaganda state. Particularly under Stalin, politically charged rhetoric and imagery dominated the press, schools, and cultural forums from literature and cinema to the fine arts. Yet party propagandists were repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to promote a coherent sense of "Soviet" identity during the interwar years. This book investigates this failure to mobilize society along communist lines by probing the secrets of the party's ideological establishment and indoctrinational system. An exposé of systemic failure within Stalin's ideological establishment, Propaganda State in Crisis ultimately rewrites the history of Soviet indoctrination and mass …

Speaking In Thai, Dreaming In Isan: Popular Thai Television And Emerging Identities Of Lao Isan Youth Living In Northeast Thailand, Catherine Hesse-Swain

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is an ethnographic study of how Lao Isan youth living in the northeastern provincial capital Khon Kaen and nearby town Mahasarakham experience Thainess or khwampenthai in its most popular form – television. People who inhabit the northeast of Thailand interchangeably label themselves and are labelled by others as Isan, Thai Isan, Lao Isan, Thai or Lao, depending on the ethnic, political, social or familial nuances of any given situation. I use the term Lao Isan to refer specifically to Isan people of Lao origin or ethnicity. Lao Isan are subject to complex and often competing notions of Isanness, Laoness …

The People’S Republic Of China’S Stance On Human Rights In Selected Crises, Brian T. Kopczynski

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines China’s policy towards human rights internationally with the intent of discerning real support for human rights. It compares China’s responses to two cases of mass human rights violations (the Darfur and Israel-Palestine conflicts) in which it has a serious interest (energy in particular). It finds that China treats human rights self-interestedly, but also has some support for them when its interests are not at stake.

Democratization In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Ashley W. Munetsi

CMC Senior Theses

Democracy's advance on the African continent has been mixed, this article analyzes three countries which reflect this situation. Ghana represents the good, a country now considered a liberal democracy; Kenya represents the bad, although possessing the right conditions to advance its democracy the country has slid into an ambiguous zone; the Democratic Republic of Congo represents the ugly, after showing initial promise it still has significant issues halting its burgeoning democratic progress. These three countries represent the prototypical situations facing democratizing Sub-Saharan countries and analyzing them can inform what factors aid or have hindered democratic progress not only for them …

Une Nouvelle Voix Narrative À La Recherche De Son « Moi », Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Trente ans après les crises d'indépendances, l'Afrique a connu des secousses particulièrement paralysantes dont le prix en vies humaines se mesure au nombre élevé de personnes décimées par des fléaux tels que la famine, les épurations ethniques, les guerres, les génocides et la mauvaise gouvernance. Devant cette tragique situation, l'art, en tant qu'expression du beau, se vide de son attrait sous la pesanteur de l'anormal (l'horreur) qui nécessite, sinon une réparation imminente, tout au moins une dénonciation immédiate. Se sentant abandonnée à son propre sort - l'élite a misérablement échoué - le petit personnage issu du peuple, le délinquant, le …

Ferdinand Oyono, Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Ferdinand Oyono was a Cameroonian statesman and a Francophone novelist of the first generation of African writers who became active after World War II. He entered the literary scene at a time when writers such as his fellow Cameroonian Mongo Beti and the Senegalese Sembene Ousmane and Leopold Sedar Senghor were at their peak. Oyono and Mongo Beti are known as "the forefathers of modern African Identity" for their anticolonial novels.

Beyond The American Dream : Tales Of Hispanic Mutimillionaires Who Rose Above Poverty After Immigrating To The United States, Ricardo Norton

Dissertations

Problem. A review of the literature on Hispanics reveals the absence of academic studies on the conditions and life experiences that helped poor Hispanic immigrants become multimillionaires after arriving to the U.S. at 18 years of age and older and without conversational English. Most Hispanic immigrants live in poverty right after arriving to the U.S. and only a few become multimillionaires. A study on how they rose above poverty has the potential to uncovering useful information for other poor immigrants who are still looking who seek financial success. Such study will also add to the larger body of literature information …

Disjuncture Among Classic Period Cultural Landscapes In The Tuxtla Mountains, Southern Veracruz, Mexico, Wesley Durrell Stoner

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Teotihuacan was the most influential city in the Classic Mesoamerican worldsystem. Like other influential cities in the ancient world, however, Teotihuacan did not homogenously affect the various cultural landscapes that thrived in Mesoamerica during the Classic period (300-900 CE). Even where strong central Mexican influences appear outside the Basin of Mexico, the nature, extent, and strength of these influences are discontinuous over time and space. Every place within the Classic Mesoamerican landscape has a unique Teotihuacan story. In the Tuxtla Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico, Matacapan, located in the Catemaco Valley, drew heavily upon ideas and symbols fostered at Teotihuacan, …

Creating Trust In Piranha-Infested Waters: The Confluence Of Buyer, Supplier And Host Country Contexts, Akbar Zaheer, Darcy Fudge Kamal

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Research by Dyer and Chu (2000) suggests that trust in exchange varies significantly across borders and influences the level of trust in cross-border exchange dyads. However, while a good start, research has yet to develop the concept that not only can the countries of origin of the partners to the exchange influence the nature and outcomes of dyadic trust, but also the country where the exchange dyad is located. Furthermore, such home and host country differences may interact with dyad-level differences in trust creation capabilities and influence trust violation and repair. We develop a framework and propositions along these lines.

Stakeholders' Roles In Prioritizing Technical And Vocational Education And Training In Postconflict Liberia, Edward S. Forh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Postconflict governments and counterparts have collaborated to provide skills training to communities as a critical postconflict development strategy. In these undertakings, the role of community members remains largely undefined. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to understand the perceptions held by rural community members regarding the role they played in influencing government's policy priority for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as a local human development strategy in postconflict Liberia. The conceptual framework was based on human capital theory and concepts of motivation and achievement. Fourteen participants were purposefully selected for the study. Data were collected …

Thomas Jefferson In Nairobi: The United States, Kenya, And The Democratization Debate, Cullen Haskins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work is an intellectual history focussing on the ideas surrounding the implimentaiton of democratic systems in Africa, and specifically Kenya, at the end of the cold war. Taking the constitutional change to multi-party politics in Kenya in late 1991 as its fulcrum, this work examines the ideas about democracy put forth by politcians and policy-making cirlces in the United States and Kenya during this period. The work begins with an examination of the attitudes toward democracy in Africa as expressed at the U.S. congressional hearings on aid to Africa in 1991, and ends with an afterward looking at the …

The Border Mural In The Electronic Age: Xican@ Literacy As Rhetorical Agency, José Angel Maldonado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Border Mural in the Electronic Age is a project that responds to blanket statements, not only about a people's literacy (or illiteracy), but to the ways in which we define and measure literacy in the electronic age. In this study, literacy is located on the US-México border, and this specific location serves as the social, political, and economic grounds on which to study the types of literacies used by the local population. A cultural ecology approach is necessary when studying niche literacies, and in today's world, traditional literacies coexist among emergent forms of literacy most likely attributed to technological …

Pacto Por La Cultura: The Power And Possibility Of Cultural Activism In Ciudad Juárez, Kerry Doyle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a qualitative study of Movimiento Pacto por la Cultura , a group of cultural activists that operate in the hyper-violent reality of 21st century Ciudad Juárez. This work looks at Pacto as a case study to explore the possibilities of culture as a tool of activism in a particular time and place, exploring in the ways in which economic development policies, deficiencies in infrastructure, and rising violence both effect and can be affected by cultural processes. Through analysis of the group's original documents and qualitative interviews with organizational members, the paper documents both the successes of the …

La Patria Perdida O Imaginada: Translating Teodoro Torres In "El Mexico De Afuera", Ethriam Cash Brammer

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

LA PATRIA PERDIDA O IMAGINADA: TRANSLATING TEODORO TORRES

IN "EL MÉXICO DE AFUERA"

by

ETHRIAM CASH BRAMMER

December 2011

Advisor: Dr. Renata Wasserman

Major: English

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

One resent result of the Recovery of the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project has been the "rediscovery" of the novel La patria perdida (1935), written by acclaimed Mexican journalist Teodoro Torres while in exile in the United States. This novel is a kind of Mexican-American Horacio Algiers tale, detailing the success story of Luis Alfaro, who is eventually able to create a utopian Mexican-American hacienda, called Buenavista, outside of Kansas …

Spring-Migration Ecology Of Northern Pintails In South-Central Nebraska, Aaron T. Pearse, Gary L. Krapu, Robert R. Cox Jr., Bruce E. Davis

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Spring-migration ecology of staging Northern Pintails, Anas acuta, was investigated in south-central Nebraska, USA. Habitat associations, local movements, settling patterns, arrival dates, residency times and survival were estimated from 71 radiomarked pintails during spring 2001, 2003 and 2004, and diet determined from 130 females collected during spring 1998 and 1999. Seventy-two percent of pintail diurnal locations were in palustrine wetlands, 7% in riverine wetlands, 3% in lacustrine wetlands, 6% in municipal sewage lagoons and irrigation reuse pits and 10.5% in croplands. Emergent wetlands with hemi-marsh conditions were used diurnally more often than wetlands with either open or closed vegetation …

Foreword, From Holy Places And Pilgrimages: Essays On India, Robert H. Stoddard

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

This collection of twelve articles continues a long and rich body of information about pilgrimages. Written materials in the form of pamphlets, guidebooks, manuals, itineraries, and treatises about pilgrimages date from antiquity (see, e.g. the discussion in this volume by Rana Singh about ancient epics, pp. 15-20). Travelling to places regarded by worshippers as having extraordinary spiritual power is a phenomenon permeating all religious traditions so it is logical that it appears in various literary forms.