Alicia Sidik
Indonesias governance of fintech remains nebulous and lacks the capacity to safeguard the integrity of data, algorithms, and platforms. Last year, reports surfaced of abuse by debt collectors, ranging from the dissemination of personal information, to intimidation, to sexual harassment. As a growing number of Indonesias unbanked turn to alternative lending platforms, these concerns are especially pertinent. I will be investigating the current regulatory frameworks governing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in Indonesia. Situating these predatory interests that emerge from distributed innovation as products of market-driven tactics, I will examine the marked […]
Calvin Nguyen
The Grove has become one of Los Angeless main attractions, housing a farmers market, an assortment of shops, entertainment, and picturesque features, and attracting over 18 million visitors a year–on par with the holy grail of Los Angeles attractions, Disneyland. Yet, despite its prominence in Los Angeles urban leisure, little research has been devoted to this space. The Grove presents such an intriguing place as it does much more to immerse its visitors than the average mall; for one, it claims and boasts historical roots in its design and presentation–the […]
Harriet Steele
In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide a term coined by Rafael Lemkin in 1944 as intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such The United States Senate did not ratify the Convention until 1988. I will use archival research to consider the Senates postwar (1949-1955) ratification debates debates about the codification of group rights in international law in the context of consciousness regarding […]
Clara Jimenez
My research project focuses on three major works of twentieth-century African-American literature: Toni Morrisons Beloved and Alice Walkers The Color Purple. I seek to explore how the female protagonists at the center of these narratives embody chronic depression. My research intends to validate the trauma these women undergo, as well as delineate the coping mechanisms they create in response to the physical, sexual, and psychological subjugation they face. These characters are not only linked by the oppressive structures they struggle against, but also by their roles as daughters who experience […]
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 […]