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Chinese Immigrant Women as Home Care Workers: Performing and Disrupting Narratives Through Labor Practices
Get PDFThis article explores how labor practices perpetuate narratives, or stereotypes, which produce various forms of anti-Asian violence. By looking at labor trends of Chinese immigrants in America, specifically on the current increase of Chinese immigrant women home care workers, the author argues that labor trends are guided by narratives surrounding certain demographics while simultaneously reinforcing these narratives. For Chinese immigrant women, the stereotype of the hardworking and subservient worker, paired with their hypersexualization and association with sex work, combine to justify their increased presence in the domestic work or home care industry. These harmful narratives create violence both within and beyond the workplace. Use of collective organizing practices by workers not only leads to better working conditions, but also counters narratives of Chinese immigrant women as submissive and silent. Labor organizing has the immense power to transform stereotypes which guide labor practices and perpetuate violence. Despite its deprioritization in mainstream Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) political organizing spaces, labor organizing should be seen as an essential site for the future of AAPI organizing
Molecular Line Search in Archival ALMA Imaging of M87
Get PDFWe present a molecular line search in spectral imaging of the elliptical galaxy M87 using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). The primary goal of this project is to verify and characterize possible CO transition lines, which can be used for future studies to determine the dynamics of the system, or the mass of the supermassive black hole (BH) in the center of the galaxy. After performing extensive atmospheric modeling, we found that most of the absorption features have a corresponding atmospheric ozone transition, so it is unlikely that these features are either Galactic or extragalactic. We also found and corrected a calibration error that introduced an overly sharp absorption feature. After careful continuum subtraction, we calculated line strengths of these absorption features and identified CO emission from high-velocity gas very near the central BH. After analyzing the CO absorption and emission properties, we present a pathway forward for future spectral imaging programs of M87
Investigation of the Role of Turn Residues in β-hairpin Catalytic Peptides of Aldol Reactions
No full textPeptides are intriguing catalysts because they occupy a middle ground between enzymes and small-molecule organocatalysts. Although too short to form tertiary and quaternary structures, peptide catalysts can incorporate secondary structures that have potential benefits for catalytic activity. Our group specifically focused on peptides that can form β-hairpins. A β-hairpin is a structural motif of peptides and proteins that contain two antiparallel β-sheets with turn residues at the bend. Peptides that contain β-hairpin structures have been reported to catalyze a variety of organic reactions. We have been interested in the aldol addition reaction between 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and hydroxyacetone catalyzed by a four-residue peptide that has the potential to form a minimal β-hairpin. More specifically, we aimed to test and compare how the initial rates of reaction and stereoselectivity vary based on different catalyst sequences with the same catalytic group (primary amine in the N-terminus) but different i+1 and i+2 turn residues. We used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) to identify peptide secondary structures, determine peptide concentration and record reaction kinetic data under controlled concentrations. We observed significant variation in the initial rates of reactions catalyzed by peptides with different turn residues, indicating the significant role of structure on catalytic activity. Our studies of peptide catalysts may lead to the discovery of design principles that could be used for the development of next generation catalysts
“Abolition as Presence”: An East Bay CA Case Study of Black Food Geographies
Get PDFUsing abolitionist methodologies, the author argues that food activism contests “food deserts” by making food present in sources alternative to supermarkets. The project can be broken into two central inquiries: (1) How do race and class formations in the East Bay generate landscapes of food inaccess that are labeled “food deserts”? and (2) How does food activism in the East Bay generate lasting alternatives to supermarkets?, which is explored through three case studies of food justice organizing in the East Bay
Forgiving Without Forgetting? Privacy in an Age of Digital Permanence
Get PDFThe 21st Century has been marked by increasing digital globalization, and an extensive, complete record of most individual’s public and private lives. This posed enough of a risk to privacy that in 2014, the European Union began to outline and articulate the digital privacy rights of European citizens in a set of policies known as “right to be forgotten” laws. As of 2018, these right to be forgotten protections had been codified into the General Data Privacy Regulation for the EU (GDPR). This paper explores the construction of privacy and subsequent adoption of the right to be forgotten specifically in France, relative to the divergent evolution of privacy—and lack of digital privacy protections—in the United States. Namely, this paper compares the right to be forgotten as a potential tool of rehabilitation in conjunction with criminal expungement practices and considers the connections between a punitive criminal justice system and digital remembering
How does the crowd affect home field advantage? Evidence from COVID affected seasons in the Top 5 European soccer leagues.
Get PDFIt is well documented that home field advantage is a significant determinant of team success. The specific mechanism of this advantage is difficult to identify. Is it players’ superior knowledge of the home field, the convenience of not having to travel, or the cheering fans of the home crowd? Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no direct way to isolate the crowd\u27s effects on home field advantage. Due to the pandemic, the top five European soccer leagues barred fans from their stadiums. The pandemic created a quasi-natural experiment to study a crowd\u27s effects on the match outcome and refereeing. Using data from Football Reference and FiveThirtyEight from 2015 through the 2021 season, I use a stadium fixed-effects model to better understand crowds\u27 effect on goal differential (a proxy for match outcome). Similarly, I use a three-way fixed effects model on stadium, season, and referee to test the crowd\u27s effect on the referee. With an extra season of data (previous research only used until the 2020 season), I found that fans are worth 0.23 more home goals than away goals across all leagues. I also found that fans were worth 0.46 more yellow cards in favor of the home team, and the other referee outcomes follow this trend. However, in both cases, league-specific results vary. The results support the hypothesis that fans influence match outcome and refereeing, though any conclusion must be tempered with the disclaimer that COVID changed many factors in addition to the absence of fans
Looking Up and Playing Down: The Paradoxes of Performing Wealth at a Liberal Arts College
Get PDFColleges and universities bring together people with varied economic backgrounds, but sociologists have demonstrated that social class and family resources stratify students’ experience of higher education. In this paper, I examine how consumerist and activist cultures influence the meaning of money, which influences those who perform wealth. Using interview data from twenty-four students at a small liberal arts college in the midwest, I find dynamics of both displaying and playing down wealth which associate with guilt about money and family wealth, and attempts to distance oneself from the “oppressive” economic class. Together, these collective emotions create an overt culture of wealth hiding; however, these efforts fail to reduce the visibility of wealth inequality due to continued displays of wealth through engagement with the consumerist culture
Is Title IX Enough?: Analyzing Feelings of Institutional Betrayal Among College Students Who Experienced Sexual Assault
Get PDFInstitutional Betrayal reflects the failures of an institution to accurately prevent or respond to students after sexual violence has occurred. Previous literature shows that survivors of sexual assault are at an increased risk of PTSD and anxiety. The goal of this study was to understand what supportive services Macalester survivors want/need and to analyze if students feel supported by their institution. Grounded in analyses of the domestic violence movement, hookup and rape culture, the neuroscience of trauma, the history of Title IX, and commonly used survivor support services, the goal of this study was to understand what survivors of sexual assault at Macalester want from the institution. This study is based on an analysis of data provided by 79 undergraduate college students (41.7% of whom reported having experienced sexual violence), who reported their opinions anonymously about Macalester’s role in supporting survivors of sexual assault and feelings of institutional betrayal. Students who identify with a marginalized identity expressed high levels of institutional betrayal; especially those who identity as 1) Lesbian, 2) Black, Asian, or LatinX, and/or 3) having a disability. Findings highlight that Macalester should invest in more supportive services for survivors that are not directly linked to Title IX. Findings result in a call of action to the college to implement policy changes consisting of, but not limited to: using the Hamre Center’s $300,000 grant to fund transformative and restorative justice initiatives and student health services, cultivating campus-wide cultural change surrounding sexual violence, and focusing on transitioning into anti-carceral activism in the years to come