Nathan Menard
Lying hidden between the better discussed consequences of environmental degradation and destruction of the 21st century is an equal pressing issue that is receiving little attention: environmental refugee women. Grassroots Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have recently begun making concerted efforts to address issues of environmental refugee women, yet little research has been done to assess their effectiveness. Nathen’s research will address this gap in knowledge by engaging with NGOs in China, India, and Nicaragua. Nathen will spend time in the field observing the NGO and their projects and also conducting in-depth […]
Eden James
Eden will examine newspaper editorials and public opinion data to determine how interest groups advance and amplify specific frameworks to influence domestic discourse on the issue of free trade. This research will combine a quantitative content analysis of editorial opinion on free trade and the recent protests against it in Seattle and Quebec City along with in-depth interviews with political actors who seek to frame debate around this important issue. Within these “framing contests” on free trade, the potential for interest groups, as well as journalists, to influence public opinion […]
Saul Wainwright
Since 1994 there has been an explosion of South African corporate investment into the rest of Africa. It is a unique brand of investment because it does not fit the traditional extractive type of investment seen in Africa. Instead, much of this investment is in the form of grocery stores, shopping malls, cell phones and banking. Saul will be exploring the motivations for these investments into what are typically high risk and unstable economies. One of the essential questions is why are the South African companies leading the charge? Saul […]
Alex Kogan
In the last thirty years, psychology has seen an explosion in research on love and interpersonal relationships. Much of the work, however, has focused on either mapping styles of love or the functionality of romantic love within the evolutionary and attachment traditions, leaving much of the terrain unexplored. Alex’s research aims to go beyond the current models, encapsulated by three prime objectives: 1) establish the difference between “to love” and “to be loved”; 2) garner initial support for the love processor model, which attempts to unify and expand love outside […]
Annie Lin
Past research on the service sector indicates that workers often suffer from negative psychological consequences when forced by their managers to be friendly. Workers, workers’ rights advocates, businesspeople, and scholars alike have therefore searched for ways to set up the work environment such that workers will be friendly even without management coercion. Taking this search effort into an under-researched sector, Annie will join electronics retail teams this summer to examine how companies’ encouragement of relationship-building between employees and customers affects employees’ likelihood of providing “voluntary” friendliness. Annie will sell electronic […]
Cynthia Houng
This study seeks to understand how residents of the San Francisco Bay Area constructed definitions of Nature in the late 20th century, and how that construct in turn affected the development of the Bay Area landscape between 1940 and 1980, focusing specifically upon the construction and utilization of Bay Area parks. The dynamic interplay between designer and user reveals something of how humans relate to their environment as the park is physically adapted to shifting definitions of landscape and nature. Providing an entry point through which scholars can begin to […]
Mona Urbina
Mona’s proficiency as an environmental horticulturist and her interest in urban ecosystems led her to the Frankie lab, where she has been preparing pilot bee-gardens. Over time, urban sprawl has fragmented habitats necessary for the survival of California native bees and their natural host plants. Mona aims to document the most bee-attracting native plants to promote urban gardens that will provide new habitats and resources for native bees. She will survey bee-flower relationships at Mount Wanda at the John Muir National Monument (where exotic grasses are crowding out pollinator dependent […]
René Flores
Increasingly, Latino immigrants are steering away from large metropolitan areas, traditional immigration magnets, in favor of smaller, often rural communities. As Small Town USA is transformed by migration, the specter of xenophobia seems to lurk nearby. In recent months, dozens of towns have considered passing laws against undocumented immigrants ranging from criminalizing their labor (Escondido, CA) or penalizing their landlords (Hazleton, PA) to prohibiting their presence in public spaces (Springfield, TN). René will try to discover the factors that motivate the rise of xenophobic sentiments in small U.S. communities. He […]
Leila Yavari
Leila will travel to Iran this summer to research Iranian theater, in order to assess the extent to which live theatrical performances offer a location for the subversion of censorship laws–and with what repercussions. She will be investigating censorship guidelines, analyzing scripts, observing performances, attending theater classes at the University of Azad, and interviewing students, directors, actors and playwrights. Leila’s project is a particularly timely one, because of the new movement toward political reform in Iran and the resulting opening of academic exchange opportunities with the United States. Her research, […]
June L. Gruber
The primary objective of this project will be to examine the way in which patients diagnosed with schizophrenia use language to describe their subjective emotional experiences. Using a clinical interview, the Schedule for Deficit Syndrome, patients with schizophrenia will be asked to provide a brief narrative of salient emotional experiences in their lives (e.g. what makes you happy?). Trained research assistants will then transcribe and code the videotaped interview. Through the results of the study, the researcher hopes to shed light on the way in which emotion affects linguistic properties […]