Ziza Delgado
My research analyzes the education reform that took place at UC Berkeley at the end of the 1960s to determine whether social movements such as the Free Speech Movement and Third World Liberation Front affected University curricula and pedagogy. Imperative to the research is a critical discussion of the power dynamic between students and the UC administration. I analyze the effect that the FSM had on curriculum reform, through the creation of a Free University and other experimental programs. The second component of my research looks at the historical context […]
Stephanie Neda Sadre-Orafai
Stephanie’s project will explore the connection between consumption and self-identification within the rapso community of Trinidad and Tobago. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Trinidadian musical form of rapso has been a vehicle for social change and cultural activism; however, to date, it has received almost no scholarly attention. In order to test her hypothesis that rapso offers a grassroots alternative to the colonial legacy of externally imposed identity, Stephanie will conduct field-research in Trinidad this summer, using participant-observation methods and formal and informal interviewing techniques with artists, […]
Marc Wolf
Marc’s interdisciplinary interest in the phenomenon of Israeli tourism in the millennial year is informed by religious studies, marketing, and the anthropology of tourism, as well as his history major. He will undertake a comparative analysis of how Israel uses its Ministry of Tourism to create a range of images in order to market itself to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim pilgrims, as well as secular tourists as an “official destination of the millennium.” Marc plans to travel to Israel this summer to interview officials in the Ministry of Tourism and […]
Timoteo Rodríguez
Throughout Mesoamerica the effects of archaeological practice and the prospect of tourism on communal farmlands have caused native communities and foreign scholars to interact in roles ranging from adversarial to collaborative. A major in social/cultural anthropology, Timoteo’s project is to examine the relationships of North American archaeologists to the Maya farming communities of Chunchucmil and Kochol in rural Yucatan, Mexico. The local communal farmland is a largely unexcavated, non-touristy ancient Maya archaeological site embedded with tens of thousands of artifacts and dozens of pyramids. Archaeologists seasonally conduct research in this […]
Jin S. Lee
Why do we live? What is so profound about life that drives us to live? Western philosophy overwhelmingly suggests the answer to be reason. Like Nietzsche, I rather believe the answer has to do with our passions (i.e. emotions). I wish to substantiate this intuition by critically assessing Nietzsche’s main texts, as well as pertinent secondary texts. Based on these investigations, I propose to write an expanded honors thesis in Philosophy that will examine Nietzsche’s insights on the passions, the role the passions have in his overall philosophy, and the […]
Abby Stein
Shrouded in mystique and controversy, the U.S. development of belly dance remains tied to appropriation, orientalism and popular entertainment. Abby Stein’s written thesis will examine the dance phenomenon within the context of 20th and 21st century American culture and values. Through a survey of existing scholarship, interviews with influential belly dance artists, firsthand training experience, and analysis of video and live performance and instruction, Abby will analyze how Western thought has adopted and transformed this Middle Eastern tradition. She will attempt to explain the development of the dance forms many […]
Sabrina Carletti
Sabrina Carletti’s project will inquire into Japanese postwar calligraphy within the Zen’ei bijutsu (avant-garde) movement while focusing on the calligraphy of Morita Shiry_ (1926-1999), who brought radical changes to calligraphy practice by leading the bokujin-kai, or the Human Ink Society. Sabrina intends to depart from the familiar influence model of Japanese and Western avant-gardes by arguing for a more complex understanding of Zen in Japanese modern calligraphy. Sabrina will travel to Japan to study works by Morita at the Museums of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, and to New York […]
Reem Jubran
The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 enforced dislocation and fragmentation upon the Palestinian people. Nevertheless, while the old may have died, dense history and culture has been passed on to the youth by way of oral history. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has dramatically transformed in the past 60 years, leaving the physically divided Palestinians today with an indefinable identity: do you consider yourself Arab, Arab-Israeli, Palestinian-Arab, or just Palestinian? Reem will create an artistically compiled short film that will capture a collection of voices and stories unique to […]
Anny Song
Anny will investigate Asian-Latin literary production in Argentina, focusing particularly on a vibrant literary community of Chinese and Japanese immigrants and descendants in contemporary Buenos Aires. In order to understand how these Asian-Latin writers represent their multiple identities in a homogeneous culture lacking a multicultural vocabulary, she will travel to Buenos Aires this summer to interview writers and editors and to examine published and unpublished works. In addition to conducting face-to-face interviews, she will be undertaking primary source research at cultural center archives in Buenos Aires that house contemporary materials, […]
Ariana-Bree Stamper-Gimbar
A double major in Linguistics and Native American Studies, Bree will study the social stratification of American Indian English, a single dialect of English that is shared by Native Americans of very different backgrounds across the United States and Canada. Indian English shows parallels to Ebonics, but has been poorly researched by comparison. Bree proposes to investigate the sociolinguistic variation of American Indian English among Wintun and Kumeyaay tribal members within the tribally owned casinos of Cache Creek, Sycuan and Viejas in California, in order to investigate how speech communities […]