Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

3rd Place Research Paper: Cultural Attitudes Towards Ethnic Cuisine In Italy, Rachel Berns

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

Italy has become a common “landing country” for many European and Asian immigrants, creating a perception of invasion that has led to cultural reactionism masked in the reinforcement of “traditional cuisine.” For so-called traditional foods to endure, they must continually be reinvented, bearing different meanings and social values throughout time and space while accumulating rich, cultural baggage that serves as a powerful marker of identity in a given society. This paper explores the role of traditional cuisine in Italian national identity and pride, and the subsequent historical culinary antagonism maintained in widespread attitudes toward ethnic cuisine in Italy. Through an …

Resistencia Artística Bajo Dictaduras En Argentina Y España A Través De La Lente De Las Teorías De Comunicación, Adrian Self, Adrian Self

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

Under dictatorships in Spain and Argentina, artists used their mediums to criticize the actions of the Catholic church and oppressive conditions enforced by the government, using allegories, metaphors, and symbolism in their art. While many artists tried to create works that fell within authoritarian guidelines, others intentionally created cinema and literature criticizing the Argentine and Spanish governments, values, and practices, knowing the works would be banned. This investigation uses examples of cinema and literature created and published deliberately to be prohibited or censored under the regimen of Francisco Franco from 1939-1975 in Spain or the last civil-military dictatorship from 1976-1983 …

An Absent "No" Is Not A "Yes": A Legal Analysis Of Consent In Japan's Amended Penal Code And International Rape Legislation Standards, Larissa Truchan

University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review

On June 16, 2023, the Japanese government passed a law to partially amend the Penal Code that explicitly outlines eight scenarios prosecutable as the crime of rape that make “it difficult for the victim to form, express, or fulfill the intention not to consent.” This article will reveal that the June 2023 amendment does not criminalize all “non-consensual sexual intercourse,” as its text suggests, but is premised on defining coercive circumstances that may interfere with a victim’s presumed duty to demonstrate their “intention not to consent.” As a result, Japanese courts will continue to possess the subjective power to determine …

Table Of Contents

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Experimental Evidence On Leadership Experience And Women’S Political Participation In Malaysia, Grace Burns

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Across the globe, there is a lack of gender parity in the political realm (Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994). Solving this important issue will ensure increased representation for women’s issues (Bratton 2005), greater diversity and effectiveness in leadership styles (Kathlene 1994), and better outcomes for countries as a whole (Cole et al. 2017; Garikipati and Kambhampati 2020). In Malaysia, women rank highly on many indicators such as literacy and labor force participation (“World Bank Open Data” n.d.), but lowly in political polarization, due to cultural and religious factors (Ariffin 1992). Women are not socialized to view themselves as leaders and …

The United Kingdom And Brexit: A Case Study In Affective Polarization, Tannah Carter

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Political polarization has become an increasingly hot topic in recent years as countries around the world have seen a greater divide in their national politics. In general, polarization refers to the process whereby people become increasingly sorted into separate camps that hold distinct and opposing identities and interests (McCoy, Rahman, and Somer 2018). However, this divide is not limited to ideology: countries have also seen an increase in affective polarization. Affective polarization occurs when individuals move beyond simple policy disagreements into seeing themselves as belonging to an “in-group” while those who oppose them belong to the “out-group” (Iyengar, Sood, and …

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Chinese Digital Yuan, Mikayla Cheng

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

China’s rapid progress toward a completely cashless society through the release of its digital yuan marks a pivotal point in monetary history. In recent years, China has taken the next step in digital payment technology by proposing and implementing a fully digital, government fiat, legal tender currency known as the digital yuan. The focus of this paper is understanding the implications of the widespread adoption of digital yuan from the perspective of the Chinese people. I propose that there are three main advantages of the digital yuan for the Chinese people. First, the digital yuan reduces transaction costs through eliminating …

The Effects Of Racial Prejudice And Humanization On Private Aid Donations, Mary Harris, Ashlynn Hokanson, Zeke Peters, Phoebe Roberts, Daniel Nielson

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

World Vision predicts that there are more than 719 million people living in poverty (Peer 2023). Charitable organizations often strive to fill gaps of government programs and alleviate poverty by offering food, clothing, and support to these millions of individuals in need. To be successful in realizing the goals of these charitable organizations, the quantity of charitable donations must be large to create change. Charitable organizations regularly attempt to obtain donations through means of advertising; however, are these methods of advertising effective in soliciting donations to help underprivileged populations across the globe? By improving the understanding of effective donation solicitation …

Smu Opens Representative Office In Vietnam To Boost Knowledge Exchange With Businesses, Academia And Upskill Talent Pipeline Locally, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Singapore Management University (SMU) announced the establishment of its representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, known as the SMU Overseas Centre Ho Chi Minh City (OCHCMC), taking a significant step in its mission to foster knowledge-sharing and regional collaboration as a gateway university in Asia. This strategic move, which follows the successful launch of SMU's two overseas centres in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2022 and Bangkok, Thailand in 2023 is part of SMU’s Vision 2025 which aims to boost Asian growth by offering a deep understanding of Asia’s economy, polity and society. By utilising the university's resources and offerings, …

Assessing The Impacts Of The Us-China Trade War On Asian Economies, Ruoqing Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China have reverberated globally, sparking concerns about economic stability and growth. What are the most affected industries and economies among Asia? What will happen if the US and China further raise their tariffs? Are there any useful trade policy adjustments for the Asian economies to improve their lots under the not-so-optimistic world trade climate? This paper employs a multi-country, multi-industry, general equilibrium model to analyze the impacts of the US-China trade war and potential further tariff war on 13 Asian regions across 20 industries in the year 2017. The results indicate …

Motivations Behind The Rise And Success Of Homeopathy In India, Kavya Patchipulusu

Senior Theses

Homeopathy is a form of medicine that is incredibly controversial and is often labeled as a fraudulent, placebo effect drug, that can have potentially dangerous side effects. This is the picture that is painted of homeopathy in the United States and many other countries in which these medicines are banned in distribution or highly unregulated. In contrast, India has popularized and well-integrated homeopathy into their medical systems with government backing and consistent funding towards accredited homeopathic institutions and funding hospital systems. This paper will explore the circumstances and health care dynamics of India that allowed homeopathy to gain the level …

The Future Is Here, Kazi Uzayr Razin

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay explores the devastating impacts that global warming currently has on women living in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest globally, located in South Asia. Womanist ideas are employed to identify the underlying injustices within environmental policies like the Paris Agreement, which undermine the effects of climate change in the global south. Initiatives led by women in vulnerable regions are then shared to offer ideas for improvement.

Diversification, Policy Shock, And Firm Performance: An Empirical Study Of The Game Industry In China, Weiwei Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Based on the reform of the game licence approval system in 2018, this thesis studied how diversification strategies influence the ability of game enterprises to withstand risk shocks. Specifically, using financial data from A-share enterprises and third-party game product data, this thesis applied econometric methods to examine and obtain a comprehensive picture of the policy effect on the performance of game enterprises, and explored how different diversification strategies affect risk.

Taking other application software enterprises as the control group, this thesis explored the effect of the policy shock on business performance using a difference-in-differences method. The profitability of game enterprises …

The Place Of Nuclear Weapons In Russian Identity: An Ontological Security Analysis, Peter Ernest Yeager

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

On May 9, 2008, Russia’s Victory Day, four 14-wheeled MAZ-7917s drove through Red Square carrying Topol intercontinental ballistic missiles. This was the first time nuclear weapons had been paraded through Moscow since before the end of the Cold War. The previous August, Russia had resumed nuclear-capable bomber patrols, and in January, 2007, President Putin acknowledged Russia had begun to build new nuclear weapons. These remarkable events were met with little acknowledgement in the West, as if they were completely normal. Instead, they represented a major evolution in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia. Sixteen years of fitful …

A Letter From The Editor, Amelia Watterson

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

In a world that is increasingly plagued by insensitivity, ignorance, and incivility, there is an exigent need for individuals to learn to look past their own cultural and ideological boundaries. Investing time in learning about other people, viewpoints, cultures, and communities is an enabling process that allows us to recognize our blindspots and step outside of our own privileges, prejudices, and preconceptions. Even if we never come into personal contact with the communities or people we learn about, we honor them by learning their stories and ensuring they are not forgotten in the world. People need to be understood, and …

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey 2023, Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Management University undertook the sixth wave of the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) with 2,010 Singapore residents providing responses to the survey from November 2023 to January 2024.

Similar to the findings from the 2022 wave of PCSS, the 2023 wave of the PCSS continued to reflect an overall satisfaction with public cleanliness in Singapore. Majority of survey respondents (94%) were satisfied with the cleanliness of public spaces that they had recently visited, which was an increase of 2% from 2022. Satisfaction with the cleanliness of food outlets saw the largest increase (by 3%) among all location types, …

Unraveling Cuban Exceptionalism: Cold War Dynamics And Lobbying Strategies, Zoe Hovde

Research Honors

Immigrant inequality becomes most apparent with the privileges granted to the Cuban-American expatriate community. Cuban exceptionalism was fostered most explicitly through the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 and has remained in effect since. The preservation of this exceptionalism brings forth the question of the conditions continuing to support it. Previous studies give theoretical approaches, including “policy capture” and “new Cuban” negligence, to exceptionalism, as well as argue for human rights considerations by the United States. However, they fail to observe the collective influence of anti-Communist sentiments, comparisons to Venezuelans, attitudes of Cuban-Americans, and lobbying. This study achieves just that. It …

Why Citizens Engage In Co-Production: A Theoretical Framework And Experimental Evidence, Seulki Lee, Chongmin Na

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Co-production has been embraced as a robust strategy to improve service quality and create public value. Despite growing interest in citizens’ motivations to engage in co-production, there remain some major gaps in the literature. This study proposes a theoretical framework of factors that influence co-production and offers experimental evidence as to the effects of those factors from an online survey experiment with a sample of 1,297 Koreans. The findings show that public service motivation, driven by normative motivations, is associated with greater willingness to co-produce. We find little effect of monetary or non-monetary rewards, input legitimacy, or individual characteristics such …

Independent Study Project: The Impact Of Digitization And Payment On Community Health Promoter (Chp) Motivation And Effectiveness In A Peri-Urban Community In Kisumu, Kenya., Fiona Yohannes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Community Health Promoters (CHPs) in Kenya are the liaison between the community and higher levels of healthcare. As CHPs’ responsibility in the country has grown, stipends started being distributed, and digitization efforts have begun to support them. This ISP paper aims to investigate how recent digitization and payment of CHPs impact their motivation and effectiveness in a peri-urban community in Kisumu, Kenya. The project includes data analysis on CHP performance data from 2016 to 2021 and analyses of interviews with CHPs and CHAs in April of 2024. It was found that time was positively related to CHP performance. It was …

Defining Greekness: The Effect Of Ethnic Identity On Foreign Policy Opinions, Iliana Tzafolias

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many scholars agree: identity plays a significant role in shaping political opinion. What about foreign policy opinions, though? The literature on ethnic identity focuses on how ethnic identity affects domestic political opinion and political activism, paying little attention to its effect on foreign policy opinions. However, in a nation like the United States, where ethnic interest groups hold much power to influence US foreign policy, it is important to understand how people’s ethnic identity affects their foreign policy opinions about homeland politics. The Greek diaspora is widely considered one of the most politically involved diasporas in the US. By conducting …

Censorship Of Family Violence In Cinema In Iran, Atefeh Batyari

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Prevention and control of family violence require an accurate understanding of its causes and effects. Iranian filmmakers try to fulfil their mission to raise awareness about family violence by showing hidden and unpleasant social issues in the family and presenting an accurate picture of family violence. However, to do so is taboo and goes against the Islamization policy of the Iranian regime against portraying family violence. Breaking the taboo leads to the seizure and censorship of films that show negative perspectives of family relationships. This article analyzes the Iranian regime’s approach to film productions based on Islamization policies and investigates …

Perceptions, Attitudes, And Behaviors Of Young Jordanian Women On Their Second-Class Citizenship, Umulkair Mohamed

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study examines the societal impact of Jordan's gender-discriminatory nationality law on the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of young women. Utilizing quantitative interviews with six Jordanian women, aged 21-37, the research explores their perspectives on the law's implications and justifications. Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, the 1954 Jordanian Nationality Law disproportionately favors men in citizenship transmission, violating international human rights principles ratified by Jordan. This results in Jordanian women who marry non-national men not being able to transmit their nationality to their children in most cases. Without Jordanian nationality, these children suffer many challenges such as limited employment and …

Unveiling Colonial Legacies: Women’S Marginalization Through The Lens Of Coffee Cultivation In Northern Angola, Posi Oluwakuyide

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigates the historical dynamics of gender and labor by investigating the colonial production coffee production in northern Angola, the history examined spanning from the pre- colonial era of the Kongo and Ndongo kingdoms to the colonial period in the Uíge, Zaire, Bengo, and Cuanza Norte provinces. It aims to shed light on the marginalization of women within both colonial and post-independence contexts. Utilizing the Harvard analytical framework as a guide, this research explores the enduring effects of Portuguese colonialism on women's agency and economic participation. Through an examination of primarily scholarly works, this study reveals how Portuguese colonial …

The Influences, Experiences, And Sentiments That Create Indonesian Identity, Jack Wood

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research delves into the multifaceted and complex concept of Indonesian identity. Indonesia is a large archipelago nation with a populace who employ a varied and diverse collection of associations with their Indonesian identity. The notion of cultural pride, its expression across different backgrounds within the Indonesian populace, and the experiences that help create this sense of Identity are the main inquiries of this research. Through focusing on these questions, this paper seeks to understand what it means for individuals to take pride in their Indonesian identity and how this sentiment varies among Indonesians of diverse backgrounds, encompassing distinctions such …

Beyond Blood: Informal Adoption And Family Dynamics In Yaoundé, Cameroon. Examining The Social, Traditional, And Family Values Associated With Informal Adoption, Elizabeth Greenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although formal adoption exists in Cameroon, it is governed by colonial systems that directly contrast with the values and traditions of the citizens the laws are meant to protect. For this reason, informal adoption is the most prominent method of child circulation. This informal movement of children occurs for various reasons, many of which reflect the sociocultural context in which the children live. The intention of this study was to determine how adoption processes demonstrate Cameroonian notions of family, how individuals perceive the concept of family, and how informal adoption impacts family dynamics. Informal observations and interviews informed the conclusion …

“Njangi Never Dies”: The Social Impacts And Non-Financial Benefits Of Njangis In Batoufam And Yaoundé, Cameroon, Georgia Schaefer-Brown

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Rotating Credits and Savings Associations (ROSCAs) are present in much of the developing world and are incredibly common in Cameroon. The financial impacts of ROSCAs have been researched extensively, but there has been less research on the social impacts and non-financial benefits. This research aims to fill this gap and add to the discussion of ROSCAs in Cameroon (called njangis), as well as demonstrate how njangis are social institutions. This project is in the specific context of njangis in Batoufam and Yaoundé, Cameroon. Interviews and observations informed the conclusion that there are extensive social impacts and non-financial benefits within the …

Diaspora As A Cultural Hearth: A Case Study Of The Amazigh In Morocco, Maximo Ellis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Diaspora consists of a group of people who reside in a location different from their imagined homeland. Despite the growing prevalence and prominence of diasporas around the world as contact between cultures becomes more frequent, there is relatively little consensus regarding the nature of diaspora communities and their identity construction. This paper uses the case study of the Amazigh diaspora to reveal some of the nuances and aspects that affect both the creation and spread of identity within diasporas. The Amazigh diaspora differs from other diasporas because it is a historically marginalized and oppressed group within their countries of origin, …

Beyond The Ballots: An Exploration Of Indonesian Democracy Through The Lens Of Campaigning And Dynasticism In The 2024 Indonesian General Election, Alexandra Richmond

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of Indonesian democracy, focusing on the dynamics of campaigning and dynasticism within the context of the 2024 Indonesian General Election. Drawing on the anthropological frameworks of historical particularism and functionalism, the research employs a mixed-method approach, combining cultural and participant observation, archival review, and interviews. Through cultural and participant observations in Bali and Java, the study unveils the intricate connections between political support, community unity, and the influence of vote-buying practices. Archival review delves into contentious issues surrounding electoral laws, particularly the Constitutional Court's exception to the age requirement for presidential candidates, revealing conflicts …

Acceso A La Salud De Mujeres Migrantes Venezolanas En La Ciudad Autónoma De Buenos Aires (2024) / Female Venezuelan Migrants’ Access To Healthcare In Autonomous City Of Buenos Aires (2024), Karen Gonzalez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación se enfoca en indagar y describir el acceso al sector de salud en la población de mujeres migrantes venezolanas con trabajos como monotributistas que residen en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA). En la última década, Venezuela se ha enfrentado a una crisis económica y humanitaria. Esta crisis ha provocado una ola de migración sin precedentes por todo el mundo. Dentro del Cono Sur, Argentina se cataloga como el sexto país receptor de migrantes venezolanos. Considerando las leyes de migración y el sistema de salud universal en Argentina, me propuse describir las barreras de acceso a la …

How Can Morocco’S Crisis Management And Disaster Response Be Optimized? Lessons From The Al Haouz Earthquake Response, Clara Normand

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco’s disaster management strategy has evolved in reaction to historical crises. On September 8th, 2023, the Al Haouz region of Morocco was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. The area was especially vulnerable to such a disaster due to its underdeveloped infrastructure, remote location, and lack of services. As the last phase of the disaster management cycle is unfolding, seven months after the earthquake, this research assesses the successes and challenges of the response and establishes areas of improvement to implement in national policies to optimize future crisis management across all four stages of the disaster management cycle.