Thesis

Students may choose to pursue a senior thesis in Global Studies as one of their 9 unit electives.  Students should do so by arrangement with Global Studies faculty.

Students may also consider applying for the Dietrich College Senior Honors Thesis Program. The Senior Honors Program is an opportunity for the college's most accomplished and promising seniors to work independently, with the close guidance of a faculty member, in the design and completion of a year-long scholarly or creative project. Students should investigate eligibility requirements and application deadlines.

The following Global Studies graduates have completed a Dietrich College Senior Honors Thesis:

Meredith Ebel, DC '12: My Body is a Barrel of Gunpowder: Palestinian Women's Suicide Bombing in the Second Intifada
Advisor: Prof. Laurie Eisenberg

Kristen Minno, SHS '12: Learning from La Vara: Shaping Sephardic Identity in New York City after the Second Diaspora
Advisor: Prof. Richard Maddox

Amanda Russell, DC '12: Voting for Vichy: Careers of French Legislators, 1940-1958
Advisor: Prof. Katherine Lynch

Rebecca Yasner, DC '12: Maximizing Renewable Electricity in Israel: Energy Security, Environmental Impact, and Economic Development
Advisor: Prof. Laurie Eisenberg

The following Global Studies seniors are currently pursuing a Dietrich College Senior Honors Thesis:

Christian Aponte, DC ‘13: Education, Hip Hop, and 'Race' in the Americas: The Construction of Identity Amongst African American and Afro-Brazilian Youth

Advisor: Prof. Judith Schachter
Abstract: Over the past decade scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines have studied the changes in understanding "race" and "multiraciality" in the United States and Brazil, suggesting that these changes place both nations on "converging paths." The U.S. Supreme Court's reconsideration of the race-based affirmative action programs in higher education under the Fisher v. University of Texas case and Brazil's implementation of the Law of Social Quotas-the Western Hemisphere's most sweeping affirmative action law requiring public universities to reserve half of their admission spots in the nation's public universities-serves as a prime example of said convergence. My paper builds upon these themes as a part of African Diaspora literature by investigating education, both institutional and "lived," and its role in framing both "local" and "global" notions of identity amongst African Americans and Afro Brazilians. Through viewing hip hop as a form and practice of "lived" pedagogy, my research will be carried out in two parts (1) The first part will consist of a historical-comparative analysis of the education (institutional and "lived") experiences of African American and Afro Brazilian (2) The second component will be an ethnographic study which examines a community of young hip hop artists in Carnegie Mellon Center for the Arts in Society's Arts Greenhouse (AG) program. From this research, I hope to draw connections between global processes and structures of power that maintain oppressive societal systems to highly localized communities to gain an understanding of broad, often abstract, issues like "race," power, class, gender, and identity.

Elisabeth Arndt, DC '13: Greater Fools of History: Fighting the "Long Defeat" for Universal Health Care

Advisor: Prof. Caroline Acker
Abstract: This thesis is based upon the premise that access to health care is a fundamental human right and should never be dictated by profit, class, gender, or national identity. Given the quixotism of this objective for universal health care coverage, I am studying the works of the most prominent proponents of socialized healthcare--Rudolf Virchow, Henry E. Sigerist, and Paul Farmer. In our fee-for-service healthcare system today, medicine is focused on treating disease as oppose to maintaining health, and because of this, the economic incentive of treating disease has led to our 18% GDP spent on healthcare. Why would a socialized healthcare system--which would place the economic incentive upon maintaining health--be desirable, if even possible? I am trying to answer this question by exploring the reasoning upon which Virchow, Sigerist, and Farmer based their beliefs. Economically, such a system seems foolish, but the foolishness of this ideal is the essence of its brilliance. As noted by one of the characters in the HBO series called the Newsroom, “The greater fool is someone with the perfect blend of self delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where the others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools” (Newsroom.) The negative connotations surrounding the term “greater fool” are attached purely in an economical, realist sense, and yet the progress of capitalism is dependent upon the courage of such foolishness. In this sense, could socialized medicine, as defined by its alternative economic incentive for the improvement of health over the treatment of disease--actually be a facilitator of the very economic principles it is accused of denying, capitalism?

Sara Faradji, DC '13: Reconstructing the African Nation: An Analysis of Post-Conflict State Building in South Africa and Rwanda

Advisor: Prof. Rick Maddox
Abstract: After spending some time in South Africa and Rwanda this past summer, I became fascinated by the development of ethnic, regional, and national identities in these distinct Sub-Saharan African countries. In the nearly twenty years following the apartheid and the genocide, respectively, the people of South Africa and Rwanda are attempting to reconstruct their globalized national identities in similar ways. By emphasizing democratic policies in their newly made constitutions, strengthening secondary and tertiary education policies, and tapping into ICT markets, it is clear that both of these nations envision more prosperous, cosmopolitan societies. Nonetheless, the ever-present issues such as citizen censorship and mistrust of government, the suppression or erasure of human tragedy from the national memory, and the widening gap between the wealthiest and poorest individuals serve as significant obstacles in achieving actual growth in these post-conflict societies. On a social level, the question of what it truly means to be “South African” or “Rwandan” has certainly evolved over the past two decades as a result of these national political and economic changes. Through detailed ethnography, in addition to historical, anthropological, and journalistic research, I hope to further analyze the construction of a sustainable national identity in post-conflict Sub-Saharan African countries, emphasizing my knowledge of South Africa and Rwanda as specific case studies.

Marcy Held, DC '13: (Spring 2013-Fall 2013): Selecting, Documenting, and Interpreting: Creating a Visual Narrative in India

Advisor: Prof. Nico Slate
Abstract: The purpose of documentary photography has been developed and contested since photography’s introduction to the world in France in 1839. From Roger Fenton’s iconic photograph “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” during the Crimean War, to the work of Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and other Farm Security Administration photographers in the United States during the 1930s, to the influence of the Magnum Photography cooperative beginning in 1947, and to Robert Frank’s depiction of life in 1950s America, the issues of: 1) what set of contexts permit a photograph to be considered “documentary” and 2) what ethical and ideological limits the label of “documentary” places upon a photograph have been challenged and explored.

In my project, I want to utilize this rich and varied history that documentary work brings to the practice of photography as I complete a semester abroad in India this spring in 2013. India, as a modern locus of vast cultural, political, and economic change, is a country that has increasingly become the subject of academic inquiry. During my travels in India this coming spring, I will use the medium of photography to create a visual narrative that draws on the documentary tradition as expressed through Robert Frank’s and, more recently, Alec Soth’s emphasis on the cadence of image sequencing. Rooted in a particular set of motifs that are expressed visually and metaphorically, I plan to incorporate a variety of subject matter and photographic genres (i.e. portraits, landscapes, and interiors) in my study. I envision my final collection of photographs as being varied in their content, but similar in their visual and thematic elements.

The final product of my project will be two-fold: 1) I would like to publicly put together a cohesive showing of my photographs in an online gallery and potentially in a formal exhibit, and 2) I will compose an analytical essay that draws from the historical development of documentary photography and deals with the politics of photography – from the power dynamics that are navigated during the process of making photographs to the social significance of the contents of the photographs themselves. By completing this project, I hope to improve my skills as a writer, a researcher, and an observer.

Ava Murphey, DC '13: Womens' Participation in Sports in Guatemala

Advisor: Prof. Karen Faulk
Abstract: My research will focus on the trajectory of female participation in sports in Guatemala. I aim to consider the development of this involvement while taking a primarily contemporary stance in looking at the reality of Guatemalan women athletes in recent years. This research will be complemented with a series of personal interviews conducted in Guatemala. The goal of these interviews (primarily with women who participate in sports) is to investigate the extent of this participation, the reasons behind it, and the potential impacts/conflicts with their personal and professional lives. Through investigating the development of female sport activity and in gaining insight to the reality of female athletes in Guatemala (and the dynamics of their involvement), I hope to address relevant gender and societal issues present in Guatemala today. Understanding the intricacies and progression of this reality can ideally help foster a crucial understanding of cultures other than our own.

Marielle Saums, DC '13: Local government and NGO Impacts on Rural and Urban Water System Development in India

Advisor: Prof. John Soluri
Abstract: Water has a unique and longstanding significance within Indian history, religion, and culture. Access to water is both a human right and a marketed commodity, which affects how government and non-government (NGO) organizations develop water systems and conservation programs at a local level. Local support organizations perform administrative functions well but have struggled in the development sector, specifically with the sharing of technical information and proper technical training of all involved parties. While adequate funding is always of concern, the successful communication of technical and logistical information is critical to ensuring community ownership of water programs. The successful dispersal of this knowledge directly contributes to the fair allocation of water and the ecological and social sustainability of local projects.

I will partner with the Kamalnayan Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation (KJBF) in Wardha, India, and with an urban water NGO in the Indian city of Chennai during the spring of 2013 to develop a diverse set of approaches for water conservation and effective organizational logistics. Working within these regions will enable me to recognize differences in urban and rural resource demands, the significance of water within Indian history and culture, and geographical and environmental variances that impact water conservation and development.

Jena Tegeler, SHS '13: Aesthetic Positioning: Locating Global Feminisms in Five Japanese Artists

Advisor: Prof. Yoshihiro Yasuhara
Abstract: The impulse to define a narrow and essentialized Japanese or female identity within artworks produced by Japanese female artists is pervasive among curators and art historians. This paper instead suggests a diverse body of artistic production that speaks to conceptions of feminism much more heterogeneously and broadly conceived. In this way, it questions historical patterns of artistic analysis and presentation, and expands current understandings of global feminisms.

Using original analysis of the artworks of contemporary artists Miwa Yanagi, Aya Takano, Tabaimo, Tomoko Sawada, and Mariko Mori, and an examination of post-colonial feminist theory, I elucidate distinct and diverse methods of agency employed by these artists. The artists may be read as engaging Western traditions of feminism--pushing against what the West encodes as local patriarchal forces such as strict gender roles, the notion of the self-sacrificing female figure, and the historic exclusion of women from the realm of fine art. Pushing further, the paper suggests that the artists are challenging constraints that go beyond issues of gender, from pressures of conformity and subcultural politics within Japan, to the global art world’s tendency to discuss Japanese female artists only in relation to kawaii (cute) aesthetics. I show how these artists are diversely positioned within the micro and macro worlds around them, turning personal experience into global cultural dialogue through visual expression. Although the works respond to a commonality in local social landscapes, histories, and artistic traditions, they resist hegemonic forces that promote racialized or gendered worldviews.

Audrey Tse, DC '13: Chinese Comrades Through the Lens and Camera of Cui Zi'En

Advisor: Prof. Elisabeth Kaske
Abstract: The first vernacular use of the word tongzhi, meaning comrade, to describe Chinese queer, gay, LGBT, and non-heterosexual individuals was in 1989. It was wittingly appropriated from the Communist Party’s rhetoric for use at the first Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Hong Kong. Tongzhi has since been used in all regions of China as a word separate from Anglo-Saxon constructions of homosexuality, and the word’s origins in the Communist and Nationalist Party struggles in the latter half of the twentieth century results in a word that embodies positive cultural references, gender neutrality, and desexualization within the stigma of homosexuality. Tongzhi thus becomes an indigenous cultural identity that has been embraced from the 1990s onward, particularly after China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it as a mental illness in 2002.

In the past two decades, tongzhi culture, activism, and identity have increased its presence in mainstream China despite institutional discrimination. But how are queers in China ‘coming out’ into mainstream Chinese culture using cinema? Individuals, groups, and activists are using film and the subsequent formed communities to create, and create/ recreate/ rectify preconceived conceptions of homosexuality or ‘deviants’ from sexual norms. My thesis work focuses on the films of director, activist, and writer, Cui Zi’En. His nine queer films and active discourses beginning from the early 1990s serve as a dynamic repertoire in which queer Chinese culture can be deconstructed to compose a more cohesive representation of Chinese sexuality. Questions such as how queer culture was formed through social film screenings during festivals, and academic gatherings in universities, through internet forums, and Chinese terminology, vocabulary, and linguistics will also be addressed.

Katy Wells, DC '12: (Spring 2012-Fall 2012): Decision Making and Control in American Birth

Advisor: Prof. Karen Faulk
Abstract:  Control has been identified as a key theoretical principle in how we as an American culture perceive and provide care to women during pregnancy and birth. Matching expected control with received control has been found to be a determinant in satisfaction. In the beginning, I examined birth culture in the United States, looking at its history, and the evolution of two distinct models of care during birth, the biomedical and normative models. I hypothesize that women make decisions while planning their births based on control—those desiring control over their space and person during labor and birth choose birth options more in line with the normative model of care, which those who desire control over the course of their labor and want options for medical intervention tend to choose more biomedical model-oriented options. Secondly, I wanted to know how perceptions of control shaped the impact of birth on women. I interviewed 17 women over the course of eight months about their pregnancy and birth stories. I also spoke to 11 care providers on their opinions on their role in birth. Interviews focused on their perception of and thoughts on importance of control in their personal or professional perspectives on birth. I found that, in line with psychological theories on control, women who received control that matched their expectations, regardless of the model, displayed more positive outcomes postpartum than for those who experienced a control mismatch. Positive outcomes included satisfaction with birth, ease of breastfeeding, bonding with their infant, and a general ease of early parenting. In conclusion, I relate the found importance of control in birth to the movement for universal rights for childbearing women.

Ema Woodward, DC '13: How the European Union and its Economic Crisis have influenced Contemporary French Nationalism and Immigration Policy

Advisor: Prof. Rick Maddox
Abstract: Since the end of the Second World War, France has evolved dramatically in terms of its nationalism and immigration policy. Even more apparent during this era is its involvement in developing what is now the European Union. With the current economic crisis that many Euro Zone countries face, the legitimacy of establishing the EU in the first place has been put into question. Issues of nationalism and immigration policy have resurfaced, as nation-states struggle not only to survive economically, but also to maintain their unique cultural identities as the EU continues to expand. My thesis will focus on how France’s participation in the EU and the current economic crisis have changed the notion of French nationalism as well as its current immigration policy. From this research, I hope to discover which economic and immigration policies promise to be most effective for France in the future, both as a nation-state and as an important EU member.