Barira Rashid
Since the fall of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, street art has become the most widespread form of political expression in Egypt since the Egyptian Revolution began on January 25th, 2011. As a means to proclaim the goals of the revolution and mock the military regime in power, Barira will further explore how political graffiti and street art have come to signify a powerful form of expression of social justice in the ongoing movement. Barira will travel to Cairo to document political graffiti and street art through photography and video, interview underground […]
Humberto Ortiz
Humbertos project will examine how Latino/a undocumented migrant youth negotiate migrant illegality in their everyday lives through relationships of love, kinship, and companionship. While a growing literature has examined how this population navigates public contexts of higher education and civic engagement, no scholarship has analyzed how these youth negotiate their undocumented status in their private, personal lives. In order to investigate how undocumented young adults develop unique attitudes, beliefs, and experiences with respect to friendships, dating, and marriage, I will interview 20 self-identified Latina/o undocumented young adults from the Bay […]
Kristen Norman
In an effort to narrow the gap in gender equality and improve public health, microfinance institutions are increasingly creating products for women in developing countries. Experts caution against assuming that women’s empowerment is an automatic outcome of microfinance, and call for accompanying soft services such as health education, literacy training, and discussion groups on domestic violence. Organizations offering such services have had great results. However, the majority of micro lending institutions are for-profit entities uninterested in offering these expensive social services. Kristen’s project investigates the dynamics of group lending and […]
Gabriela Monico
An estimated 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants live in the U.S. 2.1 million youth may attempt to legalize through the DREAM Act, if enacted. An activist movement led by eligible youth has mobilized around this legislation, which has given rise to a narrative that casts eligible youth as deserving, othering the 67% that would not qualify. Through interviews and participant observation of two support groups, Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education and 67 Sueos, Gabriela will explore how the DREAM Act narrative has triggered a divergent process of oppositional consciousness among ineligible […]
Seung-Keun Martinez
Modern day pirates are among the most seemingly altruistic collaborators in the world. At least they are in reference to sustaining a public good. In fact, these internet based pirates provide a stunning real world example of a self-sustaining public good despite strong incentives to free ride. We observe this phenomenon in peer to peer (P2P) file sharing. The crux of Seung-Keun’s research project centers upon the question: How do P2P networks form and sustain themselves, and how can this be extended to influence better outcomes for other public goods? […]
Alana Mailes
Current Bio: Alana has been in graduate school for musicology and sings semi-professionally. Haas Scholars Project: Alanas project focuses on the 1664 English translation of Giulio Caccini’s preface to Le nuove musiche (1601), one of the best-known texts about ornamentation of vocal music during the Baroque period. She will investigate the unknown identity of the translator, assess whether the translation of Caccini’s words may have affected the translation of musical practices from Italy to England, and trace the texts possible influence on seventeenth-century English composers such as Henry Purcell. She […]
Jessica Lopez
In an anthropolitical and linguistic analysis that values human agency, individual thought, and community discourse, Jessicas work explores the embodied experience of Latino parents who attend court-mandated parenting classes in East Los Angeles. Current research on minority populations shows that Latino parents continue to view state intervention as judgmental, manipulative, and oppressive. Jessica will use transcribed speech from discussion circles and testimonios of the Latino parents involved in parenting to define, nuance, and problematize currently accepted parenting ideologies. This project aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics […]
Kristine Lawson
Drawing on over five decades of folklore from U.C. Berkeleys Folklore Archives, as well as interviews and ethnographic participant observation to be conducted at Occupy events this summer, Kristine’s project draws comparisons between the folklore of the Free Speech Movement of 1964 and of the Occupy Movement of 2011-2012. With an understanding of folklore as promoting group identity and perpetuating notions of group boundaries, Kristine will trace pieces of folklore through each movement to demonstrate these tendencies. She will also examine the significance of the UC Berkeley campus as a […]
Keng Lam
Worldwide, we have more than 33 million people living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). It remains a challenge to find the best prevention methods. Keng’s research compares two new biomedical prevention methods that have used ART (antiretroviral therapy) to prevent HIV transmission in discordant couples (one member is infected but the other is not). One method is PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), where the uninfected person takes antiretroviral drugs, and the other method begins ART in the infected member earlier than is clinically recommended to prevent transmission. The clinical trials data from […]
Yosub Jung
Korean policy makers fear an impending education bubble caused by an over-supply of college graduates. Analysts point to the presence of three million unemployed college graduates as evidence that there are already too many young people with advanced education in Korea. The recent national Half-Tuition protests that paralyzed colleges and shut down roads suggests that students and parents are deeply concerned about the over-education problem facing Korea. This research project will use comprehensive schooling and labor market data, combined with econometric methods to analyze: (i) the existence of an education […]