Kiran Brar
While the unbalanced sex-based division of labor has been explored in various parts of the developing world, it remains largely unstudied in Punjab (Northwest India). Punjab is a predominantly agricultural society with diverse family organizational forms, including joint and extended families. I will examine how the division of labor amongst heterosexual couples in Punjab, India is influenced by gender, religion, education, and area of residency. I will conduct 20 in-depth interviews in two cities and two to three rural villages, divided evenly into the following four groups: 1) rural and […]
Samara Michaelson
My work will focus on the autobiographical tendencies of James Baldwins texts as they engage with the sociopolitical and philosophical problems inherent to black autobiography’s genesisslaverywith the larger task of reexamining understandings of autobiography as a genre. The research will explore the history of African American literature in order to find how questions originating from the slave narrative are reformulated, and how the slave narratives resilient strain has injected itself into the nature of black literature so as to make autobiographical practice a fundamental method of communication. This will predictably […]
Sylvia Targ
Largely understudied, small-scale fisheries are critical to coastal livelihoods in the global south, yet are poorly represented in conversations about development, food security, human rights, and gender equity. The creation of marine-protected areas and parks along coastal regions with marine biodiversity in mind has displaced the livelihoods of traditional fishers. I will be investigating reactions and adjustments to this displacement along the caribbean coast of Colombia.
Jewelia Yao
The human brain is characterized by ridges, or gyri, and indentations, or sulci. Individual differences in sulci have been shown to be related to aspects of cognition, which is important for our everyday functioning. Despite these findings that a) sulci develop and b) individual differences in sulci are linked to cognition in adults, no study has yet examined the relationship between the development of sulci and the development of an essential cognitive ability known as working memory. Working memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information. It develops over […]
China Ruiz
In September 2016, Governor Jerry Brown passed a bill that called for the implementation of an Ethnic Studies program in California public high schools. This moment follows decades of student-led movements fighting for a culturally relevant education. The implementation of this bill necessitates an examination of the ways current Ethnic Studies curriculums are being practiced. As Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales alerted us to in Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy, this celebration comes with an urgency to address Ethnic Studies pedagogies given the number of teachers who will be placed in these classroom […]
Michael Cerda-Jara
Recently, the U.S. has seen a growing increase in the number of programs advocating for more formerly incarcerated college students. In California, the Bay Area is home to a number of these programs. One prime example, the Underground Scholars Initiative (USI), is a pioneering program located at the University of California, Berkeley that focuses on creating a pathway into higher education for formerly incarcerated individuals. As a leading institution, UC Berkeley has seen an increasing number of formerly incarcerated students graduate with a Bachelors degree. USIs first graduation ceremony was […]
Celine Liao
Tongqi, the abbreviation of gay man (tong)s wife (qi), is a term used in China to describe a self-identified straight woman who married to a self-identified gay man that both partners assume to maintain a heterosexual marriage. Chinas interactions with its ancestral-familial ethics stressing on offspring, reactionary attitude toward the Western knowledge/power on gender and sexuality, and the rigid legal status against same-sex marriage, complicated the struggles faced by the women in the mixed-orientation marriages. This research conducts participant observation and interviews in the tongqi online mutual-support group and related […]
Aaditee Kudrimoti
Western political scientists and multilateral development banks (MDBs) are speculating about the extent to which Chinese development finance (CDF), specifically via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may support or challenge the Western-led global economic order. To determine the extent to which Chinese-led projects may conflict with Western liberal policy agendas and the global economic status quo, as well as whether or not BRI actions may create a debt trap for borrowers, we need more data on how the Chinese conduct development infrastructure projects on the ground, and how they […]
Elena Mateus
If you turn on the television, chances are high that the news will be painted with violent criminals, Cops will be on all night, and Law and Order will be playing steady reruns. There is a plethora of scholarship investigating the ways media sensationalizes crime and portrays prison in a violent light; however, there exists a gap in research into understanding the ways in which people digest and make of use these images. People, whether they are affected by the criminal justice system or not, view fictitious media depictions that, […]
Jiaqian Zhu
Through this research, I want to find out how we should understand a social phenomenon of vehement linguistic violence on Chinas main social media sites as well as a newly-emerging netizen group keyboard warrior in the society. How does keyboard warriors collective action of expressing aggression against others produce a new form of youth culture or pop culture in contemporary China? Or does the Internet as a new medium offer a new possibility to wield violence beyond verbal communication and physical interaction? With a consideration of violent dictions on the […]