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God in Pre- and Post- Genocide Rwanda: Understanding People’s Perspectives
Get PDFAfter the slaughter of over a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda in 1994, God remains an important part in the life of many Rwandans. In this study, 11 Rwandans including survivors, perpetrators, and refugees, were interviewed to provide their perceptions of God before and after the genocide. Through the use of these interviews and various studies on evil, coping, and trauma, this research intends to understand both the shift in belief before to after the genocide and the factors that caused the shift to occur. Informant testimony provides evidence of the way that God and Christian theology has been used as way to cope with the trauma and conflicts of the genocide. The vast majority of informants focused their attention on explaining how God can exist after genocide, rather than actually questioning God’s existence. In that way, the informants have placed a great deal of faith in God’s plan and have used their faith as a powerful tool to continue living and reconciling after the genocide. The study provides a look into the power of religion and God’s ability to heal the wounds of unthinkable trauma and conflict by just being something to believe in
Mind within the Body The Presence and Importance of Mental Health Within Traditional Tibetan Medicine
Get PDFThe purpose of this Independent Study Project was to identify aspects of mental health within the traditional Tibetan medical system that are both taught in the classroom and carried out in clinical practice, with a primary focus on the importance of maintaining mental health. Throughout the research process, aspects of illness etiology, diagnosis, treatment processes, and influence from Tibetan Buddhism were found to be deeply connected in maintaining mental health within patients of Traditional Tibetan medicine. As well, much emphasis was found on the mind\u27s influence on the physical wellbeing of an individual, suggesting that mental and physical health are not separate entities, but are constantly tied to one another. The researcher conducted a series of interviews within the Men-Tsee-Khang Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute in Dharamsala, India, that also extended to the Tibetan community of Upper Dharamsala, and to a Men-Tsee-Khang branch clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. Qualitative data from field research was then incorporated into information gained from literary sources, varying from ancient Tibetan medical texts to academic articles
A Resistance, Remembered? Remembrance, Commemoration and the Parallel System In Prishtina, Kosovo
Get PDFThough the 1999 war that liberated Kosovo from Serbian control is over fifteen years in the past, memories of the 1990s still remain in a state of chaos. This paper approaches the development of these collective memories through interviews with Prishtina residents about the memories and legacy of Ibrahim Rugova’s parallel structures in the 1990s. Though they draw from similar narratives as memories of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s armed resistance, memories of the nonviolent resistance play a vastly different and largely underrepresented role in current Kosovar Albanian public discourse. Through competing deployments of resistance memories, disproportionate memorialization of Kosovo’s violent resistance and a so-called “memory chaos” surrounding unsupported initiatives to deal with the past, memories of the 1990s and the parallel system are caught in a state of flux. This state of flux has revealed the tensions between past and present in Kosovo, and has left its impression upon the people who lived in the parallel system, the students who grew up in its wake and the activists tasked with keeping its memories alive
MIND THE GAP: UNDERSTANDING THE LACK OF SOCIAL INTEGRATION BETWEEN U.S. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Get PDFThis capstone paper explores the issue of social integration between international and U.S. national students and focuses on the international student community of the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), a non-profit that supports students at the University of Washington-Seattle (UW). A survey was administered to 106 UW students involved in FIUTS to test the hypothesis that the FIUTS community desired to have more U.S. nationals involved in the program. After establishing a desire for increased social integration between U.S. national and international students from within the FIUTS community, fifteen U.S. national students who were not involved in FIUTS were interviewed. The interviews of U.S. nationals not involved in FIUTS sought to identify the level of awareness of FIUTS, knowledge of its program offerings, and perceived barriers to entry into FIUTS programming at UW. The findings of this study show that awareness of FIUTS, English language proficiency, cultural differences, lack of incentive for U.S. national students to be involved in FIUTS programming, and the desire for natural friendships to be the most common rationales for U.S. national students not involving themselves in FIUTS. A list of recommendations for international educators to overcome the addressed barriers and suggestions for future research were compiled. Recommendations include collaborating with First Year Programs and Study Abroad to offer an event for all UW students during orientation and creating a marketing campaign targeting U.S. national students
Advocating for Sustainability at The City of Beaverton, Oregon: An Advocacy Initiative and Sustainability Strategy using the STAR Communities (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities) Framework and Rating System
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the policy and advocacy dimensions of an effort that secured approval from the mayor and city council of Beaverton, Oregon for an ambitious addition to its sustainability initiatives. As a result, Beaverton has now applied for STAR (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities) certification – a national program that uses the STAR Rating System, that includes hundreds of measurable indicators to assess a community’s environmental, economic and social sustainability. In addition, the paper analyzes the process by which STAR indicator data were collected and are being incorporated into a comprehensive planning document – the Sustainable Beaverton Community Strategy (SBCS).
The author was a member of the city’s Sustainability Program that developed and carried out an internal advocacy strategy to secure approval for the STAR initiative, has been the lead staff member for collecting and compiling the data for each STAR indicator included in the city’s report, and wrote the draft of the SBCS document. Drawing on those experiences and concepts from the field of policy advocacy, the paper evaluates the outcomes of these efforts and identifies key lessons
Un análisis del trabajo de equipos asistenciales de salud mental que acompañan a los hijos de desaparecidos en el proceso de restitución de su identidad en Buenos Aires / An analysis of mental health teams that work with the appropriated children of the desaparecidos throughout the judicial identity restitution process in Buenos Aires
No full textBackground: The Argentine national law of mental health (law 26.657) mentions human rights 11 times. This has particular importance in the context of the state of terrorism that the country was under surrounding the last “golpe militar” of 1976. Part of the implemented terror tactics included the kidnapping of 30,000 people—desaparecidos—who did not agree with state politics. The kidnappings were nondiscriminatory and included pregnant women. The babies, that were born in the clandestine centers of detention, torture and extermination, had their birth certificates falsified and became part of a systematic plan of appropriation. They were subsequently either taken in by military families complicit with the state of terrorism or adopted illegally. An estimated 500 children were taken this way and forced to live with their appropriators, unknowing of their true origins nor their real identity. The civil association known as Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo is a nongovernmental organization founded by the grandmothers of these lost children and is fighting to locate them and restitute their real identities. With the annulment of the laws Obediencia Debida and Punto Final, which granted impunity for those responsible for the countless crimes against humanity, identity restitutions have become national judicial processes that include trials of the appropriators. This investigation focuses on the work of three mental health teams that accompany the individuals going through this identity restitution process. Methodology: This is a qualitative investigation made up of primary and secondary sources. These sources are testimonies of coordinators of mental health teams and those of the recovered children of the desaparecidos. The primary sources are guided interviews with three licensed psychologists who coordinate a mental health team within a particular organization: Alicia Stolkiner from the Comisión Nacional de Derecho de la Identidad (CONADI), Alicia Lo Giúdice from the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, and Juliana Serritella from Centro Fernando Ulloa de Asistencia a Víctimas de Violaciones de Derechos Humanos. Testimonies of the restituted children for the most part came from the series documentary “Acá Estamos” and the documentary film “Quién soy yo?”, both of which were produced by the national Ministerio de Educación. Results: The three teams focused on in the paper accompany an individual through the identity restitution process in similar ways. The interdisciplinary team of CONADI principally serves to prepare the individuals for trial and prevent situations of maltreatment within judicial procedures. The team within the Abuelas and the team within Centro Ulloa both offer psychological and psychiatric treatments to assist with the psychological process of identity restitution, focusing predominantly on psychoanalytic strategies. The work of the three teams overlaps noticeably because their approach is characterized by the same three principles of do not force, do not generalize and try to dismantle tendencies of objectification
Redesigning the Harlaxton College Resident Assistant Training Program
Get PDFThis paper addresses the need for a comprehensive Resident Assistant (RA) training program for RAs participating in a study abroad program that includes both pre-departure and on-site trainings. This approach will “support students throughout the study abroad experience, highlighting ways to transform experiences into academic, personal, and professional growth” (Peterson et al., 2011). The program described here will be implemented beginning with the Fall 2015 cohort of RAs from Harlaxton College. Harlaxton College is a residential study abroad site in Grantham, United Kingdom that hosts approximately 160 students from U.S. universities each semester. This training program seeks to provide necessary resources for RAs and aid in developing the skills they will need to be successful during their study abroad semester and beyond. If diligently overseen, residence life can be an ideal avenue for promoting student development. Likewise, RAs are an indispensable part of residence life. By improving the existing RA training program at Harlaxton College, these student leaders will be better able to influence positive development in their peers, themselves, and the study abroad program as a whole. Through the use of experiential learning techniques and customized training curriculum, participants will take part in a program that is designed to fit the needs of their position as well as the demanding schedule of a study abroad student. While the trainings will be facilitated by site staff, “he learner role in this partnership involves active engagement in learning or work [and] taking initiative and responsibility for one’s learning or actions” (Baxter Magolda, 2002, p. 8). The purpose of this paper is to produce a training program that can be utilized not only in education abroad or residence life settings, but by any organization which seeks to provide a comprehensive training regimen for participants who may be geographically separated from one another and their facilitators during the pre-departure phase
The F Word: An analysis of the perceptions and performance of feminisms amongst five Black, Xhosa women living in Langa
Get PDFThis independent study project analyzes the perceptions and practice of feminisms amongst female township residents through a small-scale research project that involved interviewing a group of five women living in Langa as well as research on the development of feminist thought on the African continent and in South Africa. Some might say that the South African constitution is decidedly feminist with Section 9 of its constitution guaranteeing equality for all, regardless of gender or sex. Despite the development of feminist thought in South Africa, especially in “the Academy”, articles often hint at the skepticism feminism receives in Black, female spaces and how the latter group often views feminism as a White, middle-class pursuit. Moreover, certain patriarchal practices in Xhosa communities are either deemed wholly sexist or protected under the guise of culture. However, few articles include in depth interviews of Black, Xhosa South African women who supposedly reject feminism and feminist thoughts so adamantly. Through my interviews, I examined my interviewees’ perceptions of feminisms through an, empirical, generational and linguistic lens. Although these interviews are hardly representative of the vastly different experiences of Black, Xhosa women living in Langa, let alone Black women living in other townships throughout South Africa, they do provide specific insight into how feminist thoughts and practices may or may not function in the domestic lives of five Xhosa women. In summation, the insights that can be taken away from this independent study project include, but are not limited to, the difficulties of using Western terminology to gauge equity in the interviewees’ domestic lives, the potential of a generational shift in attitudes about gender equity, and the real words and lived experiences of five Xhosa women living in Langa
Theravada Buddhism and Dai Identity in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna
Get PDFThis ethnographic field project focused upon the relationship between the urban Jinghong and surrounding rural Dai population of lay people, as well as a few individuals from other ethnic groups, and Theravada Buddhism. Specifically, I observed how Buddhism manifests itself in daily urban life, the relationship between Theravada monastics in city and rural temples and common people in daily life, as well as important events wherelay people and monastics interacted with one another. This research was intended to fulfill a need to observe how Theravada Buddhism influences Dai lives on the mundane level.This involved a several week study period in Jinghong and its surrounding rural areas, wherein I engaged in participant observation and interviews. Specifically, I interviewed (semi-structured and structured) 17 individuals throughout the study period, whose pseudonyms and positions are listed in the Methods section of this paper.
The ultimate findings resulting from this study period were that Theravada Buddhism plays a pivotal role in the daily lives of Dai people in both urban and rural settings and is a key component of Dai ethnic identity. The assertion of Dai Buddhist identity through traditional tattooing, in particular, is very widespread in the urban setting of Jinghong and its surrounding communities. The relationship between lay people and monks is also of great importance, as monks have influence over every stage of a Dai individual’s life and youth education. Finally, I discovered special events and festivals are occasions where Dai people celebrate their identity as Theravada Buddhists and the union between Buddhism and other aspects of their culture.
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The Lucrative Business of Children: A Study of Child Trafficking in Nepalese Orphanages
Get PDFThe purpose of this research paper is to shed light on and explore the detrimental effects orphanage volunteer tourism has on communities in Nepal, especially the orphans themselves and their families who become subject to different degrees of manipulation, deceit and abuse due to the industry. This study will also delve into the Nepal Civil War’s effect on orphan trafficking in Nepal, the effects of institutionalization, media and campaigns launched against voluntourism, and other related topics. The paper particularly focuses on orphanage voluntourism in the tourist heavy and capital of Nepal, Kathmandu.
The information in this report was attained through interviews conducted with several non-governmental organizations and other individuals related to tourism, orphanages, and child trafficking. This paper also relied heavily upon already existing reports, media articles, laws and policies, and other online research. The paper serves to make the issue of voluntourism within orphanages more accessible and better understood, without oversimplifying this extremely complex issue. This report should inspire debate and discourse between people, further publicizing an issue that, until recently, has been shrouded in secrecy