Tag: International Studies

Sustainable Development and Climate Change Policy: Cooperation for the Mitigation of Climate Change Impacts on Communities

Presenter: Frances Bursch

International Studies

Poster Presentations

C2

Climate change and sustainable development are hot topics today as a consequence of increasing rates of climate change, the continued global disparity in wealth and resources, and the imminent exhaustion of non-renewable resources. However, climate change and sustainable development knowledge exist in unique fields and often don’t speak the same language. Integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts with sustainable development policy and practice helps communities achieve development goals such as adequate availability of food, water, and energy, and the augmentation of a diverse economy. Objectives of the collaboration between climate change and sustainable development knowledge are to reduce the climate related vulnerability and improve the adaptive capac- ity of climate-affected communities. As humans continue to be impacted by climate change it is important to understand the relationship between people and environment and to restructure policy and practice as climate changes.

Selling Sustainable Fashion: How Small Apparel Companies Communicate Social and Environmental Responsibility

Presenter: Aubrey West

Mentor: Kathie Carpenter

Oral Presentation

Major: International Studies

The apparel industry is responsible for much of today’s global pollution and many human rights violations, but quite a few small apparel companies are refashioning the industry’s dirty façade and becoming successfully sustainable by focusing on quality and consumer awareness. My research compiles the opinions of small apparel company managers and consumers regarding sustainable fashion in order to recommend viable solutions for creating a more sustainable fashion industry. Interviews were conducted with Hilary Fischer-Groban, VP of Operations and Sustainability at The Reformation in Los Angeles, California and Tina Cheung, Senior Manager of Social and Environmental Responsibility at Aritzia in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were chosen based on their company’s small size, brand image of sustainability, and willingness to participate. The interviewees agreed that the biggest sustainability challenge they face is lacking influence over their suppliers, but they believe that consumers feel well informed about their efforts. I also surveyed 80 male and female consumers contacted through my Facebook network, who called for an increase in accessibility and information about sustainable clothing and a decrease in these garments’ prices. Thus I discovered a crucial disconnect between company and consumer opinions about information exchange. Based on this information, I show examples of current marketing approaches, evaluate them, and make recommendations about how small apparel companies can better communicate their sustainability. These recommendations focus on efficient and informative marketing techniques that make known their garments’ origins, materials, and certifications in an accessible and interesting manner using technology such as Quick Response codes partnered with Smart Phones.

Barriers to Survival: The Japanese Legal Framework As a Risk Factor in Refugee Services

Presenter: Nobuyuki Tomiuga

Mentor: Kathie Carpenter

Oral Presentation

Major: International Studies 

Refugees in Japan who entered the country without a resident status (official passport and visa) are not given the right to work or obtain health insurance during the refugee recognition application process. The application process usually takes more than three years, but very few are granted refugee status. In 2013, only 6 out of 3260 applicants were admitted as refugees, and 856 of the applicants did not have a resident status. This study includes interviews with refugees who had to survive in Japan without the right to work or obtain health insurance, even though they fled their home countries to evade persecution and seek protection in Japan. The interviews found that many face a choice between living without any income or working illegally to survive, even if they risk incarceration. Most abstain from seeing a doctor because they cannot afford to pay the full medical fee without health insurance. The study also includes the kinds of assistance various organizations, social workers, and professionals have been giving to those refugees in need, and found that there is a limit to the number of people they can help and the degree of support they can offer. As a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, Japan has the obligation to protect refugees. The government needs to modify the legal framework by allowing refugees to work and obtain health insurance regardless of their legal restrictions, because these are fundamental rights for survival, and refugees often are unable to leave their countries with official documents.

Romani Migration and French Reactions

Presenter: Hannah Schmitz

Mentor: Carol Silverman

Oral Presentation

Major: French/International Studies 

This paper examines the expulsions of Roma that are occurring in France today in terms of history and reactions. First, I discuss the history of Roma populations in France, seeking to reveal the root causes of the prejudices against Roma that exist today. The time period studied is 1787 to the present, with some reference to earlier periods. Second, I analyze the current French government’s actions regarding Roma in terms of the legality of multiple policies and laws. By examining the various groups that are included under the term Gens de voyage (travelling people), and how the French government and its citizens have reacted to them, I shed light on the discriminatory nature of current policies and actions. I focus on both positive and negative reactions following the 2007 migration of Roma to France from Romania and Bulgaria. Data were collected from scholarly books, organizational reports, a range of media sources, and a small survey of French citizens. One aim of the research is to document the history of French discrimination against Roma and contribute to its mitigation.

Culpability of France, the United States, and Belgium in the Rwandan Genocide

Presenter: Keaton Kell

Mentor: Galen Martin

Oral Presentation

Major: International Studies/Romance

The Rwandan genocide tends to be seen as the product of an isolated racial conflict that happened too quickly and too suddenly for anyone to do anything about it: however, much research shows that the violence occurring in Rwanda was well known. Because of this knowledge and the power of powerful nations in the UN, inaction is sometimes equated with culpability. More concretely, the Rwandan Mucyo report, among others, names France as culpable in the Rwandan genocide. By examining UN convention on Genocide, French commissions on the genocide from l’Assemblée Nationale, and documentaries and news from France and Rwanda, I demonstrate the relative innocence of the United States and Belgium, and the murky and possible culpability of France. The hope of this research is less an effort to render certain powerful nations vulnerable to the international criminal court, and more to push individuals to question where the bounds of culpability lie and to what moral standards should apply to the United Nations, and how the United Nations, and citizens of countries in the United Nations, should respond when they fail to uphold those standards and protect humanity from the repetition of genocide as the international community failed to do in Rwanda, and is failing currently to do in the Central African Republic.

U.S. Constitutionalism and Constitutions of the Arab Spring: A Comparison of Constitutional Evolution and the Role of ‘Common’ Citizens

Presenter: Lyssandra Golledge

Mentor: Joel Black

Oral Presentation

Major: International Studies

I will examine the similarities between constitutions that have arisen in the Middle East during the recent Arab Spring and the constitutions of the United Kingdom and the United States of America. I hope to prove that although the new Arab Spring constitutions reflect heavy British and American influence, the lack of culturally ingrained constitutionalism is part of the reason for their ineffectiveness. Constitutionalism is the idea that the power of government should have legal limits. This concept becomes convoluted when considering who creates and enforces these legal limits if not the government itself. I will examine constitutionalism as a key factor in defining the relationship of cultures to their constitutions and will ask specifically how constitutionalism gives constitutions their authority and makes them applicable to a nation’s populations over time. Through this comparison, I will investigate how a sense of constitutionalism is created, how it is passed down and who gives it authority—the governing body or bodies, the majority population, or dissenters/minority groups—and will apply my findings to Arab Spring constitutions.
My research examines the ‘common’ people as the enforcers of these legal limitations. I demonstrate that these common citizens, both the farmers in eighteenth century America and the demonstrators in Egypt use their collective understanding of constitutionalism, as it applies to their country, to enforce their views on government through the use of informal and formal media outlets. This research seeks to understand the current situation in the Middle East by examining the histories of its economic conquerors.

Best Practices in University Crisis and Mental Health Services

Presenter: Kylie Juggert

Mentor: Kristin Yarris, International Studies

Poster: 35

Major: International Studies 

Within the last decade there has been an increase in the number of students seeking university campus mental health and crisis intervention services, leading to long waitlists, delays in assistance, and redirected student searches for mental health aid away from trained providers to faculty and staff. Through thematic content analysis of counseling center websites and interviews with counseling center administrators from the University of Oregon and nineteen other UO similar institutions – public, large, coed, urban universities – we collate best practices for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) programs that address these issues. Our findings reveal common problems, including: increased severity and complexity of student needs, limited resources, and minimal faculty training around handling student mental health situations. A negative association between the number of CAPS service issues reported in the administrator interviews and the administrator’s overall level of satisfaction with the current services was also found. Content analysis of CAPS websites by three coders determined that functionality and accessibility was the most important feature for perceived successfulness of the center’s website, followed by provision of resources for “concerned others” and prevention services and programs. The latter finding provides significant insight to potential best practice intervention methods, where improving the web content and accessibility of CAPS online sites and expanding resources for “concerned others” and prevention programs could mitigate some of the initial CAPS’ issues presented.

Picture This: The Role of Digital Storytelling in Motivating Action for Refugee Relief

Presenter(s): Mitra Lebuhn Lebuhn − International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Graboyes, Stephen Wooten

Oral Session 1C

Research Area: Humanitarian Communication, International Studies, Psychology, Social Science

Funding: Presidential Scholarship, Summit Scholarship, SIT study abroad scholarship

It is often assumed that powerful photographs and film footage have the ability to move viewers in the developed population to action. Frank Fournier, the photographer who captured the face of 13-year-old Omayra Sanchez in her last hours of life, said, “I believe the photo helped raise money from around the world in aid and helped highlight the irresponsibility and lack of courage of the country’s leaders (BBC, 2005).” His statement encompasses the common perspective that imagery can motivate action, but there is a lack in data regarding this transition from emotion to action. This study is concerned with the effectiveness of various digital storytelling appeals (shock effect, positive images, and post-humanitarian communication) in encouraging agency in refugee relief efforts. Refugees are perhaps more distant from the donor population than any other victimized group, and have struggled through periods of severe anti-refugee sentiments that have made the collection of aid and process of reintegration challenging. The extreme discourse between populations and the ever-growing number of displaced persons makes refugees the ideal population to study. This study asks what in a digital story, particularly the imagery, motivates developed populations to not only react emotionally towards refugee issues but also make contributive action for refugee relief efforts? Through literature and interviews regarding image-evoked empathy, identity, and group influenced responding, and the analysis of photographs and digital storytelling platforms that unpack various imagery appeals, it is evident that image use for humanitarian campaigns has evolved to it’s most effective form yet. This study explores how advancements in technology have brought forth digital storytelling, which combined with the implementation of the post- humanitarian communication appeal generates evocative and accessible campaigns that fit the framework necessary to motivate action for refugees relief more effectively and ethically than has been done in the past.

How does legislation of foot traffic in Machu Picchu affect the economic livelihood of indigenous groups in Peru?

Presenter(s): Emma Ziari—International Studies, Political Science

Co-Presenter(s): Edwin Guerrero, Eloise Navarro

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

How does the legislation of foot traffic in Machu Picchu affect the economic livelihood of indigenous groups in Peru? In January of 2020, Peru deported five tourists accused of damaging a temple in Machu Picchu, the famous ancient Incan ruins in the Andes . Our presentation discusses how tourism in Machu Picchu has disaffected indigenous culture, indigenous people, and the environment in the Peruvian Andes . We examine societal and economic pressures and argue that each has been magnified by tourism as our analyses of policy changes, environmental degradation in Machu Picchu, and indigenous narratives show . We contend that while tourism in Machu Picchu seems to have clear economic benefits, the societal and environmental costs have been steadily increasing . Culturally, tourism has led to the desecration of indigenous burial sites . Environmentally, because the number of tourists has been increasing, the erosion of the site has continued to increase . Our research of this issue wants to contribute to a better understanding of the effects of global tourism . This information will be useful in identifying key global issues in tourism and contribute to informed decision-making processes for the implementation of a more environmentally and culturally-conscious tourism industry .

Yakuza in Japan: Why are they still there?

Presenter(s): Caitlyn Yost—International Studies

Co-Presenter(s): Calvin Parker-Durost

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

For generations, Japan has been trying to control and contain their mafia organizations known as the yakuza . The yakuza groups have, since the Tokugawa era in the early 1800s, been an issue and to this day they continue to defy the Japanese government which has never been able to fully rid the country of these organizations . In our research, we examine why the Japanese government has such a hard time trying to deal with yakuza and why the yakuza have a big impact on Japanese society . For our research, we will be using sources such as historical documents, police reports, articles/newspapers, and first-hand accounts on dealing with yakuza . Taking a look at such sources has led us to finding out that the Japanese government is starting to crack down on yakuza more since 2011 with the support of the United States government though the yakuza still continue to hold roots in Japanese businesses and citizens still go to yakuza to deal with issues rather than deal with the Japanese legal process . We hope to bring awareness to this topic and teach people how the yakuza organizations have changed and adapted over the years, how they are currently being handled in Japan, and how they could be dealt with in the future .