2019

My thesis follows the voyage of the ship Lord Amherst in 1832 along the Chinese coast led by Hugh Hamilton Lindsay from the East India Company (EIC), and examines how, through various interactions at the very frontiers of two empires, people like Lindsay observed and concluded about the nature of government, law, commerce, and national character of the subjects of the “Celestial Empire.” It tells the story from the perspectives of the Select Committee of EIC in Canton, of merchants like Lindsay who were anticipating the end of EIC’s monopoly, of the Chinese officials in the port cities they visited, and of the Court of Directors of EIC and British politicians in London. What I hope to portray, in the various strands of narratives of and attitudes toward the voyage, is the process through which the different visions of the relations between war, peace, and trade were formed when the future held much uncertainty and possibility, and their complex roots in a mix of British ideas of political philosophy and moral considerations. The exchange of information and opinions among the characters of this story continued well into and beyond the Opium War, and so did the competition of these different views.

While the vast majority of Russian settlements in the first quarter of the twentieth century were shrinking in population and suspending infrastructure projects, the city of Irkutsk experienced a developmental ‘boom’. This is despite the fact that the primary force driving migration and expansion in this period has been shown to be centered around the industrialization in the Empire’s largest cities. Paradoxically, Irkutsk added few factories and moved away from heavy industry in this period. It was the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, and the international trade, seasonal labor, and commodities movement that this new network brought through its geographically most important junction, Irkutsk, that allowed the city to thrive. The city thus developed in a uniquely ‘transit-oriented’ fashion. It was only once the Bolsheviks came to power, bringing with them a distaste for international trade and the movement of its citizens outside of the Union, that the city stopped expanding and faded into relative obscurity. This thesis aims to trace the unique urban development that characterizes this transformative period in Irkutsk; what ultimately emerges is a nonindustrial international metropolis that defies neat characterization by current historiographical approaches to late Russian imperial urbanism.

My thesis seeks to reinterpret Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, and historian Gilberto Freyre’s magnum opus Casa-Grande & Senzala (1933) as a national myth rather than as a scientific essay, assessing it as a literary piece that can create a multiracial theory of nationalism for 1930s Brazil. As an intellectual history of this seminal work, it begins with the context of Luso-Brazilian nationalism in the twentieth century, exploring the writings of Brazilian and Portuguese nationalists and their own constructions of both nations. It then proceeds to analyze how Freyre co-opted the logic of these nationalisms to subvert them, using their language of family and genealogy to turn race into a moot category. Freyre’s mythical narrative theorizes a genealogical nationalism for Brazil, based on the miscegenation prompted by colonial patriarchalism, its unique family structure, and its socioeconomic consequences. Through this interpretation, I also seek to understand the complex internal logic of Casa-Grande & Senzala, interpreting its use of social science as an accessory element to his mythical account of Brazilian nationality. As of now, the thesis concludes with a tentative third chapter on Freyre’s political thought, linking his theories about the nation to his writings on the State.

This thesis investigates the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing social services in modern-day Russia. Through an overview and critique of hybrid regime and civil society theory, it creates a space for the discussion and analysis of the legitimate role of civil society in nondemocratic regimes. Then, it draws upon interview and ethnographic data to present the argument that socially-oriented NGOs (SONGOs) in Russia play a significant role independent of the government, though beneficial for both the government and the general public. This thesis challenges the notion that Russian NGOs’ main challenges result from government repression and co-optation, highlighting challenges outside of this dynamic that have hindered growth and necessitated innovative, citizen-led development strategies. It investigates a state-society relationship between SONGOs and the Russian government characterized by mutual benefit, despite difficulties caused by a lack of knowledge and experience within both parties.

In 1956, the British-administered Operation Buffalo commenced in remote South Australia, and on September 27 of that year, the first atomic bombs to be tested at Maralinga exploded into the atmosphere. This activity marked the beginning of a series of nuclear tests to be conducted on indigenous-held lands which had, up until that point, been overseen by the Maralinga Tjarutja, a Pitjantjatjara people in western South Australia to which Maralinga held fundamental spiritual significance. Despite this, the Maralinga Tjarutja were forcibly relocated to a settlement at Yalata, on the south coast of the state, and when the lands were returned to their custodianship in the mid 1980s, they remained contaminated with nuclear residue. Although some efforts have been made in an attempt to remedy the injustice caused by the British and Australian governments in their efforts to become global superpowers, fundamental failings prevail today. This research focuses on domestic and foreign government policy, legal systems, and British-Australian international relations to better understand the Western world’s ongoing colonial relationship with the concepts of indigeneity, ownership, and land.

From massive investments in infrastructure, the growing prominence of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and the extension of the Belt & Road Initiative into the continent, there is no question that China is changing the way African politicians seek aid and investment. However, many in Washington fear that China’s economic diplomacy efforts to promote more non-Western government engagement in Africa are in fact intended to demonstrate that Western democratic ideals are not universal. In light of this persistent narrative of an ideological struggle between the United States and China on the African continent, politicians, scholars, and the media alike typically focus on evaluating whether China seeks to use its soft power to export an alternative model of development to liberal democracy and the Washington Consensus—one predicated on a greater reliance on market capitalism while retaining an authoritarian political structure. 
 
However, the underlying mechanisms that condition the extent to which African states themselves find the so-called “China model” attractive remain relatively underexplored. In order to shed light on the recipient country perspective, I interview government officials, scholars, and development professionals in Kenya and Ethiopia about their attitudes not only towards the lack of stringent conditionality attached to Chinese assistance, but moreover the appeal of China’s internal ideology and governance approach for their own countries. Despite Kenya’s and Ethiopia’s respective regime types as democracies and closed anocracies, I find that the party system that each country engineered as a means of ethnic conflict management—and the political stability, or lack thereof, that each produces—plays a critical role in determining the extent to which government officials are receptive to the lessons in political governance offered by the China model. I then evaluate the generalizability of this argument beyond my two case studies by conducting large-N regression analysis using the Varieties of Democracy dataset and Afrobarometer’s household surveys, in order to determine whether there exists a correlation between electoral instability and perceptions of China as an attractive development model for one’s country. 

This thesis explores how kink communities’ constructed histories shape their relations to the globally venerated “Dutch tolerance,” first in discussing highly visible leather establishments in the Netherlands, and then moving into smaller BDSM subcommunities formed by queer women of color. The constructed histories in the gay male leather scene reflect a nostalgia for the 1970s, composed of transnational images of machoness, muscles, leather, and dirtiness. However, the leather nostalgia for a lost “grittiness” is also a nostalgia for a racialized gay masculinity reiterating ideas of liberalism that colonial Dutch discourses actively cultivate.  But while the white gay male leather scene mostly understands the power in kink as individual and agential, BDSM necessarily implicates more “social” forms of power, like racial hierarchy and cis-heteropatriarchy. The BDSM subcommunities I discuss centralize marginalized experiences of kink, in which the boundary between kink and daily life is inherent to kink desires and practices. In doing so, these communities refute glorifications of apolitical and fun kink spaces and the claim that extensive kink negotiation processes are “too American,” which is a position with strong connections to Dutch disavowals of race as solely coming from the US and other European countries, ongoing racism toward Afro-Surinamese diasporas, and nascent fears of the conflated Muslim/terrorism/refugee/immigrant category.

Through fifteen qualitative interviews with Manitoban foster parents who have fostered Indigenous children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, I examine the ways in which stigma impacts the lives of both parents and children. I analyze how the label of “foster” creates stigma for both parents and children as well as how this exists alongside racism and ableism. I examine briefly how policy and practice minimizes or amplifies the experience of stigma faced by foster children and foster parents through their interactions with the Manitoban Child Welfare system.

Globally, the urban poor have far worse access to services like clean water and sanitation than the rich. This project investigates a technological intervention being deployed in Nairobi’s slums that ostensibly improves water access: prepaid water dispensers. By using electronic payments, the “water ATMs” promise to cut out the rent-seeking vendors that sell water to households in slums at 10–100 times the scheduled tariff. This thesis investigates how water ATMs have impacted the urban communities of Mathare Valley in Nairobi.
 
By performing OLS regression analysis on data from an original survey of 654 households, I find that water ATMs have nearly halved average water prices paid by households. However, 45 percent of households using the ATMs report paying prices higher than the digitally-fixed price. This is because some community-based organizations that manage the water ATMs are seeking water rents from ATM users. Ethnographic interviews with the members of these organizations muddy our normatively-charged understanding of “rent-seeking” as rapaciousness. Water rents are not necessarily understood as exploitation, but instead thought of as the legitimate and formally sanctioned right of community-based organizations. Water ATMs are thus understood as disruptions to this social arrangement.

In 2012, the metropole of Grenoble, along with the local Centre Communale d’Action Social (CCAS), commissioned an administrative assistance program called Maîtrise d’Oeuvre Urbaine et Sociale (MOUS) which specializes in the labor and social integration of Roma informal settlement residents. Emphasizing attainment of temporary housing and social accompaniment, the MOUS program Avenirs Emploi utilizes a candidature process based on an assessment across “integration criteria.” Since its inception, the MOUS program has assessed 167 applications and accepted seventy individuals with an acceptance rate of 42 percent. Panel data of 714 observations spanning seven lag-years, application assessment data, and difference-in-differences regressions were used to assess causal effects of the MOUS program on labor outcomes. This thesis finds that conceptions of “motivation” by the MOUS program rest primarily on French language ability, which interacts with other integration criteria in an additive—not multiplicative—way in acceptance decisions. The MOUS program exists in a network of other administrative assistance programs that work through a similar "accompaniment" mechanism. Those accepted into the MOUS program are more likely to obtain job contracts, participate in job-specific training programs, and be enrolled in French language workshops primarily provided by administrative assistance programs outside the MOUS in the post-acceptance period. Participation in the MOUS program increases both utilization of administrative assistance programs outside the MOUS and utilization density of these programs. This study finds that the MOUS program may help beneficiaries develop accompaniment-specific skills that make participation in outside administrative assistance programs more effective.

The global cocoa industry currently suffers from interrelated issues of low productivity, farmer poverty, and environmental degradation. This study seeks to evaluate the living income of cocoa farmers and argue for how private companies of varying scales can break these cycles of poverty and improve environmental outcomes. This is a mixed methods study incorporating three waves—in 2009, 2014, and 2018—of a survey assessing hundreds of impact metrics across almost 3,000 Ghanaian cocoa farmers. The study additionally includes farmer focus groups and ethnographies in Ghana, Indonesia, and Central America, and key informant interviews throughout the global cocoa supply chain. This study is original in assessing the implications of private-sector initiatives over a ten-year period and questioning the qualitative driving factors behind these trends. Preliminary findings confirm the challenges faced by cocoa farmers and the urgency for multidimensional solutions that address a diversity of obstacles on and off the cocoa farm. This study is useful for private companies, who are funding a majority of cocoa sustainability programs, to evaluate and improve their programs.

Guyana is currently the only country in South America to have a colonial law that criminalizes buggery (anal sex), which mainly affects the gay community. However, Guyana culturally identifies as part of the Caribbean, where such laws are, in many cases, still a reality. This research focuses on LGBT activism in Guyana, and its connections to the country’s colonial history. Based on interviews with LGBT activists and community members as well as document analysis, this study examines how the power dynamics between the West and Guyana affect the struggle for LGBT rights. I explore the tension between Guyana’s buggery law having been imposed as part of the British penal code and the way the West now presents itself as progressive while sometimes disproportionately portraying Guyana as poor, undeveloped, and homophobic in articles and reports. I discuss the relation between Guyanese identity—which many participants consider to be based on diversity, multiracial inclusion, and understanding—and the exclusion of homosexuality, which is sometimes portrayed as “foreign” or a “white man’s thing.” I put forward the differences between Western and Guyanese LGBT activism, and analyze whether Western officials or activists can influence the progress of LGBT rights in Guyana. Finally, I talk about the recent oil exploitation in the country by US company ExxonMobil and its implications for economic development and LGBT rights.

Cuba reopened its doors to tourism in the 1990s after years of government disdain for the industry, as the collapse of the USSR left the country in financial ruin and with tourism as its only hope for economic stability. As a country with a strong musical tradition and whose national identity was closely linked to music, it is no surprise that music has taken a front seat in Cuba’s tourism industry. However, Cuba’s dual currency system—which makes jobs in tourism the most lucrative on the island—and the incredible international popularity of Buena Vista Social Club, a 1997 documentary and album on Cuban music from the 1940s–1950s, have created not only an industry where pleasing tourists is essential to survival, but where tourists’ preconceptions and expectations of what Cuban culture and music are like are narrow and tied specifically to the music and imagery found in Buena Vista Social Club. This has led to an overrepresentation of “traditional” Cuban music (such as that found in the film) in areas of tourism, and creation of a repertoire that is limited in terms of song and genre and constantly repeated in tourism.  
 
Using Marx’s theory of commodification as well as ethnomusicological theory of music as a representation of cultural identity, this thesis argues that music played in tourism in Cuba essentially works to represent tourists’ perceptions of Cuban music and national identity, which musicians have to satisfy in order to survive. This thesis focuses on how musicians working in tourism interact with this almost imposed, tourist-perceived identity of their country and culture which they rise to meet while performing for tourists, how this identity may complicate their own cultural identity, and how awareness of imposed identity impacts the musicians’ relationship with the music they’re playing. 

In Sonora, Mexico, corruption accusations and anti-corruption policy proposals dominated the 2018 presidential, state, and local elections. While the World Bank defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain, during the elections the term became a catch-all for any wrongdoing. As corruption accusations rallied huge crowds, the political staffers behind these campaigns seemed to define corruption differently depending on the specific action, actors, and present company. I analyze these inconsistencies by interviewing and shadowing twenty campaign staffers from the PRI and Morena campaigns for two months. I focus primarily on staffers from the center-left PRI political party, which despite having held an iron-grip in conservative Sonora for years suffered a surprising defeat to Morena—a new, socialist political party which had never before won a seat in Sonora. Based on my conversations with PRI staffers in the wake of their defeat, I analyzed the shifting boundaries they drew to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable corruption and the ways they used these boundaries to make sense of career uncertainty, political failure, and violence. Corruption rumors allowed PRI staffers to create a sense of elite belonging at a time when the Sonoran ruling class underwent massive upheaval.