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New Life Begins: Establishing an Environmental Analysis Major at Scripps College
No full textFor our final Capstone group project, my group and I had the privilege of designing a standalone Environmental Analysis major for Scripps College. Scripps College has been in need of stronger support for Environmental Analysis (EA) for many years. EA consistently ranks as one of the top majors for Scripps students (it’s been one of the top five majors for the past five years), and yet Scripps students wanting to major in Environmental Analysis have to do so through Pomona or Pitzer Colleges, meaning that they end up taking the majority of their classes at Pomona and Pitzer and seek advising from professors at these schools, who already have heavy advisee loads due to the popularity of the EA major.
Our group’s task was to envision a Scripps-specific EA major that could be implemented within the next 5-10 years. By interviewing current students, alums, and faculty, we collected data on the Scripps community’s unique visions for EA, as well as challenges in its current iteration and how to avoid these when EA at Scripps is established. We coded these interviews to organize the feedback we received and then transferred that feedback into tangible suggestions. We also conducted research on comparable environmental studies/humanities programs at other liberal arts institutions around the U.S. to get a sense for the components that other successful programs have implemented and get inspiration for envisioning our EA program beyond what has already been in play at the 5Cs through Pomona and Pitzer. Our research culminated in the proposal of two options: the gold and silver options, corresponding with different funding capacities that Scripps might have in the next few years. In the proposal of our final options, we balanced the need for Scripps to establish a tangible EA program quickly and the need for Scripps to serve its EA majors in the most expansive way possible.
Our project’s identity as a student-led initiative in the academic realm of an institution like the Claremont Colleges was not something we took lightly. We appreciated the unique opportunity we had to design a program for future generations of students and made sure to center their voices in every stage of our project.
In this reflection, I will contextualize the problem we were asked to address, outline our objectives, go into depth on my individual contributions, analyze some of the feedback we received and show how this highlights the broader institutional changes needed for EA to thrive at Scripps, reflect on our proposed options and the impacts they would have on Scripps, as well as propose some future directions for research in this realm
The Fight for Education: The Rise of Indigenous Oaxacan Teachers and Their Role in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the pivotal role of Indigenous Oaxacan teachers in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement, addressing a significant gap in scholarship that has often overlooked Indigenous political activism in Mexico prior to the 1990s. It argues that these teachers were critical actors whose prior organizing experience, cultivated throughout the 1970s in response to state assimilationist policies (via INI, IIISEO) and discriminatory practices (from SEP, SNTE), enabled them to significantly shape the 1980s movement. Drawing on theories of political identity (Yashar 2006), repertoires of strategies (Rossi 2023), and identity salience (Hunt & Benford), this study traces the development of their political consciousness and organizational structures like the Coalición de Maestros y Promotores Indígenas de Oaxaca (CMPIO). Key findings reveal that Indigenous teachers transformed the movement’s recruitment by fostering solidarity through their shared Indigenous and educator identities, particularly mobilizing rural teachers. Furthermore, their historical legacy of resistance informed the adoption of effective counter-hegemonic strategies against the PRI. These contributions were crucial in achieving significant victories, such as the democratization of the local union, Sección 22, in 1982, demonstrating the profound impact of Indigenous agency and political identity on broader social struggles and institutional change in Mexico
You Must Really Love Your Mother
Get PDFMy thesis, You Must Really Love Your Mother, is a documentary that explores the relationship between my mother and grandmother living together on my grandmother’s factory pig farm in rural North Carolina. I was motivated to create this project to document and memorialize a unique chapter in my mom’s life—leaving her career and community in New York City to spend invaluable time with her mother. This documentary takes place a year after both my mom’s step-mom and biological mom were in the ICU at the same time. My mom’s step-mom, Carol, passed away, while her biological mom, Judy, survived and required some caretaking. This project explores the aftermath of this profoundly emotional and painful “wake up call” for my mom 30 years after leaving the south, driving her to move back in with her mom. Through interviews, observational videos, and photography I explore themes of sacrifice, love, rural identities, queerness, and anticipatory nostalgia and grief. My film is about how much my mom must unconditionally love, support, and accept her mother to sacrifice her own comfort by living in such an unforgiving and gross environment
“Macroeconomic Determinants of Housing Price Growth in Thailand: A Segmented Analysis Across Property Types
No full textThis thesis investigates the macroeconomic determinants of housing price growth in Bangkok, Thailand, from 2013 to 2024. By disaggregating the Housing Price Index (HPI) into single detached homes, townhouses, and newly launched homes, the study applies Granger causality tests, OLS regressions, and impulse response functions to explore both contemporaneous and lagged effects of macro-financial variables. Key findings are that consumer price inflation (CPI) consistently affects all housing types, while credit-related indicators and COVID-19 policy shocks have segment-specific impacts. Unlike prior research on China, equity market performance and broad liquidity measures had limited predictive power in the Thai context. Condominiums were excluded due to data volatility and weak macroeconomic linkages. The study highlights the importance of housing segmentation and tailored policy responses in emerging market real estate
Beyond Teaching a Man to Fish: Smallholder Cultivation, Certification, and Cooperation in Southeast Asian Aquaculture
Get PDFThis thesis explores the barriers and opportunities facing smallholder aquaculture farmers in Southeast Asia, focusing on Thailand. It examines how certification systems, technical assistance, and policy interventions can effectively include smallholders in development and sustainability efforts. Based on field interviews with Thai shrimp farmers, analysis of certification schemes, and review of other agricultural intervention models, the research traces how market access, corporate concentration, and environmental change shape smallholder livelihoods.
The findings show that while certification is promoted as a tool for sustainability and market integration, in practice it often excludes the very farmers it seeks to empower. Redundant standards, limited price premiums, and administrative burdens disproportionately impact smallholders, reinforcing structural inequalities. Farmer cooperatives and informal peer networks emerge as critical sources of resilience, enabling knowledge-sharing, collective adaptation to disease, and shared investment in technology and practices. Approaches to technical assistance and risk mitigation must work alongside these cooperatives.
The findings recommend tiered certification pathways, peer-led extension models, cooperative purchasing systems, and climate-adaptive community strategies to mitigate adverse effects of climate change on aquaculture. Building inclusive systems is essential to support farmers’ livelihoods and secure the long-term sustainability of global aquaculture supply chains
The Pen is the Sword: A Re-Examination of Chinese “Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy, 2009-2024
Get PDFDuring and for some period after the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable international recognition of the phenomenon dubbed “wolf warrior” diplomacy, where Chinese diplomats acted in an unusually unprofessional manner, often leveraging ad hominem attacks, violent rhetoric, and occasionally physical aggression to communicate specific points. In this paper, I question the fundamental assumptions that we make of “wolf warriors” – that they are young, early-career professionals that acted only during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – and find instead that “wolf warriors” are often mid-career professionals. I also note that there are occurrences of “wolf warrior” diplomacy in nearly every year since 2009, with the trend of “wolf warrior” diplomacy peaking in 2020, rather than only occurring during the latter year. I also analyze the occurrence of the “wolf warrior” as a concurrent phenomenon with Xi Jinping’s focus on “discourse power” and “discourse control” in foreign policy through an in-depth examination of the subjects that I found that “wolf warriors” most frequently discussed: US-China relations, Taiwanese sovereignty, and the COVID-19 pandemic
Regional Realignment: Mexico\u27s Appeal in the Era of Nearshoring
No full textWith growing geopolitical tensions and increased uncertainty over global trade, foreign companies are considering nearshoring (relocating their production to be closer to the end-market) and altering their supply chains to reduce risk and be more efficient. From growing demand for industrial parks to large public investments in Mexico’s manufacturing sector, evidence suggests that Mexico is one of the most attractive nearshoring locations. Therefore, using the process tracing method, in this thesis I explore why Mexico is such as compelling option for nearshoring. I find that Mexico’s strategic location, not only as a neighbor of the United States but its abundance in lithium and an isthmus, along with its multiple free trade agreements and investment incentives, make it an attractive option for companies looking to nearshore. The nearshoring discussion is relatively recent, having gained momentum since the COVID-19 Pandemic as multiple supply chain vulnerabilities were highlighted. Therefore, it is important to discuss nearshoring as its adoption and potential effects are and continue to unfold. This reconfiguration of supply chains entails new potential beneficiaries, like Mexico, and it is important to study nearshoring and its implications, not only in global trade dynamics but also domestically
Assessing the Impact of Digital Privacy Regulations on Firm Level Marketing Efficiency
No full textThis thesis examines how recent digital privacy regulations, specifically the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Apple\u27s iOS 14.5 App Tracking Transparency update, have affected the marketing efficiency of a subsample of 63 publicly traded companies across various sectors, firm sizes, and ecommerce status. Marketing efficiency is defined as total revenue divided by marketing expenses. The analysis uses firm-level financial data from 2017 to 2023, spanning industries such as apparel, sporting goods, consumer goods, food and beverage, and online tech services. While previous literature suggests that privacy laws negatively impact firm performance by reducing consumer purchases, my findings show an overall increase in marketing efficiency across firms following the enactment of the CCPA and iOS 14.5. However, the effects were heterogeneous across sectors, with certain industries, such as fashion, experiencing more significant declines
Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Chicago’s Universal Pre-K Expansion on Short Term Academic Outcomes
No full textThis paper investigates the impact of Chicago’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) expansion in 2019 on early childhood academic performance. The analysis uses publicly available school-level data from the Illinois State Board of Education between the years 2015 through 2023 excluding data from 2020 due to COVID. Using a differences in differences (DiD) approach, I compare standardized test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math between public schools in Chicago and Springfield. Across both baseline and fixed effects regressions, the results suggest no statistically significant effect of the UPK expansion on early childhood academic performance. While the results suggest that the UPK expansion did not yield immediate gains in standardized test scores, it does not imply that the UPK expansion was ineffective. These null results add to a growing body of literature that suggests that early childhood education programs like UPK often influence non-cognitive skills which can’t be fully captured in standardized tests. Instead, the benefits of UPK may appear gradually over time as a child progresses through the education system. UPK’s lack of a measurable impact on students standardized test scores should not be misinterpreted as a policy failure because programs like UPK still can remain essential for expanding access, narrowing socioeconomic gaps, and giving all children the opportunity and foundation to thrive in their educational journey
Analyzing Political Sentiment on Micro-Blogging Data: A Lexicon and Machine Learning Approach to the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Get PDFThis paper explores the trends in sentiment towards U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump through micro-blogging social media text during the five months leading up to the election. Two datasets of varying sizes and origins were used to contextualize and validate analysis findings. The analyses include both a lexicon-based approach and a machine learning predictive method. Common sentiment analysis techniques like term frequency, term frequency inverse, various lexicons, and n-grams were utilized during the lexicon approach. During the modeling, a random forest was utilized in addition to the methods used during the lexicon approach. Results showed that overall sentiment toward Harris was more negative and exhibited greater polarization. These trends intensified as the election neared. Comparatively, sentiment towards Trump was more positive and lacked personal criticism. Also, over the five months leading to the election, sentiment towards the Republican candidate took on a gentler tone. These trends were identified during the lexicon phase and validated throughout emotion mining and modeling. This exploration highlights the value of using sentiment analysis to capture public opinion especially in political discourse