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Scaling Development Policy of Sub-Saharan Africa: Local to Global Perspectives
No full textThis summer, I was a participant and primary witness to the upscaling and downscaling processes involved in the formation of international law and policy, and to the impact of the practice of diplomacy on domestic policy creation. Interning with the United Nations through the Permanent Mission of Ghana provided unrivaled exposure to the nature of the two-way interactions between states and the international community. I attended a series of high-level political meetings and got to meet important people both in Ghanaian foreign policy and international diplomacy. I will be discussing how my classes and extracurricular involvement prepared me for this experience, and what my major takeaways are moving forward. Students interested in international affairs and public policy on a global scale will find this panel useful.Within the breadth of policy-making, development, and education, Sub-Saharan Africa offers a vast range of opportunities. The members of this panel dispersed their interests and skills among the fields of community engagement, local and international government work, and scholarly research, thus assessing Sub-Saharan Africa from within its many socio-political environments. These panelists challenged their knowledge of what it means to: explore the differences of education systems in Ghana, build peace after war from locals and NGOs in Liberia, develop sustainable business environments through policy research with the Ghanaian government, practice diplomacy at the United Nations, and develop economic data on health and education for numerous African states. As they come together in the panel, "Scaling Development Policy of Sub-Saharan Africa: Local to Global Perspectives," Donari, Javeria, Rhema, Edith, and Sabah invite you to explore how the conventional notions of development were challenged during their internships and share in their experiences that incite cross-cultural discussion
A Spectrum of Ethical Witnessing in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved
No full textThis project interrogates the ways witnessing perpetuates racial violence, as well as its converse potential to engage with racial trauma in radically compassionate ways that constitute reconstructive healing. Identifying a spectrum of ethical witnessing in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved, I consider acts of witnessing that take place between the reader who witnesses the characters, between characters who witness each other, and within individual characters who witness themselves. I examine the voyeuristic qualities that exist in the process of bearing witness to racial trauma, and instances in these novels that reject voyeurism to instead invite critical compassion and an ethical mode of readerly participation. I argue that Morrison demonstrates in these novels how witnessing grounded in radical compassion and an intentional scrutiny of one’s own relationality to cultural positions of power is necessary to be in constructive conversation with historically silenced narratives of intergenerational racial trauma.
I present my argument using multiple theoretical frameworks including reader response theory, trauma theory, and affect theory. Considering the importance of holding space for multiple subjectivities, I focus not just on the critical response of the reader, but also on the redemptive ways the characters in these novels participate in a spectrum of ethical witnessing, examining how this impacts their relation to each other as well as their own histories of trauma. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, I argue that she makes uncomfortably visible a racial crisis in America propagated by the views of a ruling white patriarchy, and implores her readers to enact an alternative mode of witnessing that is conditional on critical compassion. In Sula, I explore moments of radically ethical forms of witnessing that encourage the reader to re-examine purportedly rigid moral binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in the context of multiple complex relationships between characters. My analysis of Beloved demonstrates how Morrison sets up a model of radically constructive witnessing wherein the characters create community amongst one another by witnessing one another with care and compassion in response to multiple deeply held traumas.Englis
4 Continents, 33 Countries, 5 Non-Profit Organizations, 1 Lynk
No full textThis summer I had the opportunity to complete an internship in non-profit management through an organization called GreeNest. Their mission is to aid individuals and families in their transition from unsafe living conditions into sustainable housing. This was my third internship involving non-profit work in my hometown, and these experiences have given me insight into how organizations work collectively within the community. As government support programs shrink, the demand for non-profit services grow. Non-profit organizations adapt to meet these needs by creating a network where organizations rely upon and refer to other non-profits within this web of services. Looking ahead, these internships have inspired me to enter the world of politics and public policy to help create and strengthen the government support programs that these non-profits work to supplement.Navigating nonprofits from different organizational perspectives, our summer experiences involved engagement with both local and global missions. While one panel member aided families in the transition from unsafe living conditions to sustainable housing in North Carolina, another panelist in New York provided legal services to LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals. From Washington DC, our third panelist used digital media to raise awareness about human rights violations in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Our fourth panel member helped create policies that advocate for quality education inclusive to all students in Ghana. Our final panelist in Boston contributed to research to further resettlement efforts for refugees overseas. The non-profit organizations where we worked spanned the globe; the projects we pursued were as diverse as the communities with which we engaged
The Effect of Methadone Administration on Cocaine-Conditioned Hyperactivity and Sensitization in Mice
No full textSubstance abuse disorder is characterized by compulsive drug-seeking behavior regardless of negative consequences. Methadone, a synthetic opioid, has been used as an effective treatment to aid rehabilitating patients to resist opioid relapse. One factor complicating opioid recovery is the frequent and concurrent use of cocaine during medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs. Both methadone and cocaine act on the reward pathway of the brain to produce distinct and complementary changes in drug-associated behaviors and memories. There are open questions about the effects of opioid treatment drugs on cocaine-associated behavior and memory. To that end, this study investigated the effect of chronic and acute methadone administration on cocaine-conditioned hyperactivity and sensitization in mice. In the first experiment, mice received daily methadone injections before undergoing cocaine-conditioning. After conditioning, mice were tested for locomotor sensitization (a cocaine-associated behavior), conditioned hyperactivity (cocaine-associated memory) and reinstatement (reflecting susceptibility for relapse). For the second experiment, mice received a single acute dose of methadone before undergoing cocaine conditioning and testing for locomotor sensitization, conditioned hyperactivity and reinstatement. Results indicated that chronic methadone does not affect the rate of cocaine sensitization, conditioned hyperactivity, or reinstatement. However, a trend suggests that chronic methadone may affect the magnitude of the locomotor activating effect of cocaine. Similarly, acute methadone was found to have no effect on cocaine sensitization or conditioned hyperactivity, but an interaction revealed that acute methadone enhanced cocaine reinstatement. These results could have important implications for the treatment of patients who continue to use cocaine while participating in MAT programs.Neuroscience and Behavio
Defoe's Mercantilist Ordeal: Understanding the Demise of Credit and the Rise of Racism
No full textBritish businessman and writer Daniel Defoe’s intellectual trajectory evolved alongside his personal history and British political and economic history. From 1719 to 1722, Defoe wrote about slavery, mercantilism, and racial ideology in his three novels, Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, and Colonel Jack. Failing to conduct colonial trade and pay his debt, he ceased his business career and worked as a Tory propagandist from 1704 to 1714. On the eve of the South Sea Bubble, he published his first novel, Robinson Crusoe, which marked the start of his career as a novelist. I argue that Defoe’s failed attempt to enter the colonial economy altered his comments about credit in his political writing, which shaped his thoughts about slavery, mercantilism, and race in the three novels.
I use the legal documents of Defoe’s failed trade, his Tory periodical Review, and other pamphlets, and his three novels to demonstrate the spiral development of his thoughts. Individual traders’ vulnerability smashed his fantasy of building credit on individuals’ mutual trust, forcing him to defend the network of public credit based on the nationalization of trade. Seeing the Parliament damaged the credit system during the South Sea Bubble, Defoe abolished his reliance on credit and used the racial ideology he developed from propaganda writing to establish whites’ dominance in his novels. The evolution of Defoe’s thoughts indicated the fragility of credit, the construction of racial ideology, and the connection between mercantilism and race.Histor
Design Across Borders
No full text“Design Across Borders” presents cross-continental perspectives in the interdisciplinary field of architectural design. The panel encompasses the thought processes, research and design principles that different cultures, traditions and geographies learn and influence. It offers four worldly perspectives, as the students come from Ethiopia, Nepal, Malaysia, and the United States. The panelists utilized their knowledge and experience gained in Mount Holyoke studios, courses and seminars and applied it to develop projects in fields related to architecture. The design experiences range from residential, commercial and ecological to sustainability metrics and general contracting for simple to complex spaces. The panelists brought their knowledge and perspectives to small private firms and international non-profits. These internships allowed the panelists to gain practical skills in a wide range of fields within architecture and encouraged them to address key issues within the building design and construction industry
4 Continents, 33 Countries, 5 Non-Profit Organizations, 1 Lynk
No full textThe LGBTQ and HIV unit at Brooklyn Legal Services provides free legal services to LGBTQ and HIV+ residents of Brooklyn on problems related to housing, public benefits, immigration, and employment law. Paralegal interns meet with clients, attend community meetings, accompany attorneys to court, and do advocacy research and writing on behalf of clients. I was responsible for doing research related to conditions for LGBTQ and HIV+ people in Venezuela and in Turkmenistan for asylum applications. I also worked on reaching out to current clients to see if they were eligible for a rent freeze program and helped them apply if they were. Working side by side with the committed advocates at BLS showed me the power of understanding how the legal system works and how that knowledge can be used to help those who our society seeks to disenfranchise.Navigating nonprofits from different organizational perspectives, our summer experiences involved engagement with both local and global missions. While one panel member aided families in the transition from unsafe living conditions to sustainable housing in North Carolina, another panelist in New York provided legal services to LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals. From Washington DC, our third panelist used digital media to raise awareness about human rights violations in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Our fourth panel member helped create policies that advocate for quality education inclusive to all students in Ghana. Our final panelist in Boston contributed to research to further resettlement efforts for refugees overseas. The non-profit organizations where we worked spanned the globe; the projects we pursued were as diverse as the communities with which we engaged
International Affairs and Development
No full textThis summer, I interned at the Arab American Institute in Washington D.C. where I was also an external intern for No One Left Behind, an association that assists with the resettlement of Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who served American forces in combat. My time was spent between the Arab American Institute’s D.C office and lobbying on Capitol Hill. I was further given the opportunity to conduct research, develop writing and organizational skills, and build valuable DC contacts while observing the extensive political and policy-related happenings in the metropolitan DC area. As an important member of the team, I gained valuable exposure to the functions of a highly productive non-profit organization working on issues of national and international significance.In an increasingly globalized world, international affairs affect all of us in one way or another and shape the environment in which we live. This past summer, each of us worked for international NGOs and nonprofit organizations, working on a myriad of projects concerning different parts of the world. Our experiences include researching the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, working with the United Nations, researching Iran’s foreign policies, and working in the international development sector by providing support for elections in new and emerging democracies. Our panel will capture the range of experiences we went through as we tried to better the world from New York City and Washington D.C. Collectively, we gained valuable research experience as well as insights into the inner workings of international organizations and the realities of the world in which we live
A PUZZLING CLAM—UNCOVERING THE LIFE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE WATERING POT SHELLS (BIVALVIA: ANOMALODESMATA: CLAVAGELLOIDEA) THROUGH THEIR GROWTH PATTERNS AND SHELL MICROSTRUCTURE
No full textBiological Science
Variability of the Unresolved X-Ray Background
No full textThe cosmic x-ray background is diffuse, uniform x-ray radiation originat- ing from outside our galaxy. Over the past several decades since its discovery, much of it has been resolved into discrete sources. However, a fraction of the x-ray background still remains unresolved. This remaining fraction is com- posed of sources from the very early universe, and high energy processes from this time period have major impacts on the modern universe. We can- not observe these sources directly, but we can observe how the unresolved x-ray background varies over time. Sources such as active galactic nuclei are known to have variable fluctuations in brightness while galaxies do not, so by measuring the variability in brightness of individual x-ray background pixels over time, we can infer whether or not it is comprised of mostly ac- tive galactic nuclei or galaxies. We analyze x-ray images of the same area of sky taken at different points in time and measure the standard deviation of individual pixels in order to measure how they vary in brightness over time. We compare this to a mock dataset generated using the average pixel value of our experimental dataset following a random Poisson distribution that simulates a non-variable x-ray background. Our results indicate that the unresolved cosmic x-ray background is not variable, thus we infer that it is most likely primarily due to galaxies from the very early universe. This has significant cosmological implications because these are likely to be x-rays radiated from the very first generation of stars. Studying the unresolved cos- mic x-ray background provides insight into what sort of high energy processes occurred in the early universe and how those processes shaped the universe that we observe today.Astronom