Theses

My thesis is a study of the disadvantaged position of Arab-Israelis within the Israeli labor market. Decades of discrimination have led to Arab-Israelis being concentrated in poor-paying jobs with few opportunities for upward mobility. My thesis explores the concept of “upward mobility” with respect to Arabs in the Israeli labor force and researches the ways in which their occupations limit their ability to improve their socioeconomic status. The study analyzes the occupations with an over-representation of Arab-Israelis and the extent to which those jobs facilitate or prevent upward transitions.

The history of political economy suggests that technology is a politically disruptive force. While the literature focuses on Western countries, this study fills a gap by examining automation within an emerging economy with a different political history—Kenya. Investigating the attitudes of displaced and still-employed tea pickers towards the political system, particularly government trustworthiness and perceptions of outsider exploitation, I isolate the impact of automation at the individual level. Results reveal that displaced tea pickers harbor significantly more negative perceptions of the government and external influences than their nondisplaced counterparts, suggesting a heightened sense of disenfranchisement. Interviews with various actors reveal that responses to automation engage with the colonial origins of multinational tea companies operating in Kenya. From protests and break-ins rooted in land theft narratives to legal actions seeking to redress injustices, the response to automation intertwines with a complex web of historical grievances. Overall, automation has played an exogenous, revealing force, disrupting a longstanding equilibrium based on the promise of jobs, housing, and education and laying bare the contradictions embedded within the postcolonial state.

This thesis addresses the emerging rivalry between two allies: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It tracks differences in how they have handled three civil wars in their region (Yemen, Sudan, and Syria), funding competing proxies and working toward different goals. Using historical and interview data on the two countries' increasingly divergent foreign policies, I test how well core theories from the alliance cohesion literature explain Emirati and Saudi foreign policy behavior, particularly the emerging rift between the two.

My thesis aims to discover why some European countries depenalize drug use while others increase penalties. To accomplish this, I compare legislative debates, newspaper archives, secondary source data, and expert interviews with politicians in Spain and Portugal to see why the former increased severity right before the latter decriminalized completely. I plan to demonstrate the critical leftward shift of Catholicism in Portugal following the country’s democratization process, a trend which was not matched in neighboring Spain. I then will expand on the chains of policy shifts in Spain and Portugal, respectively, showing how neutralization of religious stigma came about and allowed for an innovative policy solution in the latter.

My thesis investigates the extent to which the political misinformation consumption lowered democratic confidence and engagement prior to the 2022 Italian general election. In my thesis, I use the term democratic confidence to encapsulate several attitudinal measures, such as political cynicism, political trust, and internal and external political efficacy. A second term, democratic engagement, describes political behaviors like mobilization for activism and voter turnout. 

My preliminary results suggest that political misinformation has decreased democratic confidence within the Italian electorate. In-person interviews revealed that political misinformation is pervasive in Italy, spreading not only on social media, but also via mainstream sources like television. As a result, voters have reported high political cynicism and low levels of political trust, internal and external political efficacy. A content analysis of YouTube comments and an online survey (in progress) will provide more conclusive data regarding these findings, as well as stronger data on democratic engagement. 

My thesis argues that the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) represented the transformation of an American childhood leisure activity into a performative labor of citizenship. The GSUSA played a pivotal role in the War Relocation Authority’s PR campaign to convince the American public that Japanese American incarceration was constitutional and civilized. My thesis uses primary source material from archives and historical sites in Utah, California, Massachusetts, and across the UK—specifically London, Scotland, and various regional British Girl Guide archives. Though I completed my thesis this past October, I hope to expand on this project next year to investigate the role of the Boy Scouts in GSUSA activity in the incarceration camps. By focusing specifically on girlhood, this project would provide a more intersectional perspective on my previous work. Additionally, though my thesis utilized a lot of already documented oral histories, I hope to conduct further oral history interviews and on-site research to focus on the role of memory in this very recent history. I would love insight into any of these topics or themes!

This thesis explores the Bolivian MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) government’s decision to expel USAID in 2013. I analyze this case study to understand the impact of ideological discord between aid donor states and recipient governments. I apply theories of trust in international relations to explain that the fundamental cause of Bolivia’s aid rejection lies in concrete historical experience, rather than abstract ideology. This historical experience shaped the belief within the Bolivian government that USAID's activities and programs were harmful to the left's political goals. Under the MAS—a leftist, pro-labor government that grew from a social movement in rejection of the US-led War on Drugs—Bolivia experienced unprecedented economic growth. The convergence of the two necessary conditions for aid rejection—motivation (distrust of the donor state) and capacity (economic strength)—empowered the Bolivian government to expel USAID.

My thesis examines how the twentieth-century US colonial policy of English-only instruction in the Philippines both reflected and established the rules of knowledge that permitted the dominance of the US colonial state in the Philippines during the first decade of US occupation. In particular, I trace how curricular structures, teacher-student engagements, and disciplinary formations simultaneously revealed and produced a transnational colonial episteme that centered Anglo American subject-knowledge to the exclusion of Filipino subjects’ vernacular knowledge both in and about the Philippines. In turn, I hope to illuminate how US epistemic colonialism in the Philippines was not geographically or temporally restricted to the early twentieth-century archipelago, but rather involved a process of contestation and co-creation between academic and colonial subjects that continues to shape the rules of knowledge in the former colony and metropole to this day.

My initial research goals are to understand the emergence of Muslim nationalism in South Asian late-colonial thought by constructing a genealogy of Muhammad Iqbal’s works that illuminate the development of Muslim nationalism in the progression of his poetry and philosophy. My thesis then focuses on connecting this philosophy to the state-building process in Pakistan. I look at the ways through which Muslim nationalism influenced the constitution-making process of Pakistan and how it constructed its vision for society through a novel discursive analysis of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. This assembly consisted of the state’s political architects converging to write a constitution that they believed would enshrine the founding principles of a successful state in South Asia. Because Muslim nationalism was the principle behind the formation of Pakistan, it is an important arena to analyze in trying to understand how this philosophy was incorporated into the national fabric of Pakistan.

This thesis analyzes how the Gold Coast reformed the teaching and popular understanding of history in the midst of its political reorganization towards independence. In the period between 1945 and 1966, especially under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, the Gold Coast (later called Ghana) aligned the content and form of education with the ideals of pan-Africanism and the governing CPP party. While Gold Coast began the decolonization of its curriculum before the formal end of British rule, British influence in the content and aims of education remained long after Ghana’s independence in 1957. The close analysis of textbooks, curricula, and government policy reveals how early independent Ghana prioritized education as a means of political change and an end to colonial domination. 

This thesis argues that contemporary Rwanda has acquired high levels of agency in its development relationship with China due to its status of being a developmental state and the country's moral foundation in the postcolonial Rwandan principle of agaciro. This argument is made by analyzing interviews with members of the Rwandan government who work at the Rwanda Development Board and other government ministries that focus on development as well as historical and statistical analysis. According to Thandika Mkandawire’s framework, Rwanda should be considered a developmental state due to its developmentalist ideology which has become hegemonic among key national actors and its high levels of state capacity. Agaciro represents the replenishing of Rwandan civilian dignity and pride after the 1994 genocide. The characteristics of the developmental state and the principle of agaciro combine to enable the Rwandan government to extract substantial value from Chinese development partnership. 

This thesis aims to investigate what caused the unexpected revitalization of Indo-American relations in the year 2000. My hypothesis is that the key variable that brought about this transformation was a change in the content of Indian nationalism. I argue that there have been two distinct types of Indian nationalism before and after the year 2000, each manifesting in its own strategic culture, and each producing its own character of foreign policy outcomes in the Indo-American relationship. In this paper I first demonstrate the expected variation in the dependent variable by quantitatively employing ideal point distance analysis to measure the proximity of Indo-American relations over time and qualitatively examining critical junctures in the relationship’s history. I then analyze how the divergent systematic preferences of Indian foreign policy before and after 2000 constitute two different strategic cultures. Finally, I make the case for how this change in strategic culture can be attributed to a change in the content of Indian nationalism.

In 2011, economic sanctions were placed on Syria from entities including the European Union, United States, and Arab League in an attempt to compel the regime to engage in negotiations and to address a range of allegations related to weapons use, political oppression, and human rights. However, sanctions on Syria have not only been ineffective, but further deteriorated the economy and strengthened the regime. This thesis explores the role of economic sanctions on Syria in exacerbating socioeconomic inequality in the country. By analyzing the interplay between sanctions and various factors such as trade decline and price increases, government-supported shadow economies, and the disruption of public services and aid, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted effects of sanctions and their impact on the most vulnerable. 

My thesis explores histories of corporeal violence by the Indian occupation of the Kashmir Valley, reorienting visions of occupation in the most militarized region on the planet from the geopolitical to everyday scenes of life. Invoking the Kashmiri body as one critical yet understudied frontier of occupation, my analysis makes sense of the everyday, embodied nature of militarized violence and is psychosomatic expressions, as enacted through state institutions and the slow, even cryopolitical, violence of occupation. Thus, I estimate the body as a site of colonial and militarized violence and approach psychosomatic, indigenous symptoms of mental illness in Kashmir as sedimented symptoms of Indian occupation. This work is enriched by two months of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research conducted at the sole public psychiatric hospital in Kashmir, where interactions with patients and physicians revealed constellations of “occupied” symptoms and the complicated position of state psychiatry in this embodied violence.

Some 60 percent of US-based international development organizations are faith-based, with many around the world claiming that their faith enables them to provide more holistic and comprehensive services, raising the question: How does organizational religiosity influence development service delivery? Using a four-part methodology, including case studies of four international NGOs working in the Ethiopian Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, a novel survey experiment assessing NGO partnership behavior, analysis on the potential impact of faith leaders on WASH behavior change, and a large-n analysis of one hundred NGOs’ administrative characteristics, I test the theory that organizational religiosity improves NGO coalition capacity—that is, their ability to build and maintain partnerships that improve efficacy with peer NGOs, government actors, beneficiary communities, and key influencers in these communities. I find that, when leveraged, religiosity confers INGOs with access to broader international and local partnership networks than they would have otherwise, including those with congregational development actors, local religious institutions, and faith leaders. These partnerships encourage culturally competent and community-led service delivery that improves reach, sustainability, and thus, efficacy. 

Water pollution from the mining of heavy metals along the Pilcomayo River Basin of Bolivia has been investigated within the last several decades. The priorities of the mining industry in communities such as Potosí often conflict with efforts to preserve environmental health and natural resources. While several studies have been published, there remains a need to increase monitoring of water quality and provide accessible data on the topic. To investigate this issue, samples were obtained from surface and drinking water in the river basin and IRB-approved interviews were conducted with researchers, government officials, and mining engineers. Overall, this thesis aims to assess the primary causes of pollution of the Pilcomayo River, evaluate the extent of pollution and its effects on public health, and propose potential policies that fit the context of the region. The water testing, analysis of interviews, and writing of this thesis is currently in progress.

My project, ‘A story from a room with a window overlooking a cemetery’, is a creative senior thesis in the Comparative Literature and TDM departments which explores the interrelation of historical narratives and personal stories. Loosely based on the two plays that examine the role of memory in identity formation in Poland and Chile, the performance takes the form of a guided museum tour. Its set is a museum archive, in which material documents, recordings, photos and objects that refer to polarizing events in Chilean and Polish history are combined with items that relate to personal stories of my family. Juxtaposing private experience with public memory, the performance draws parallels between the myth-making practice in two seemingly different cultural contexts, examining how memory is curated and institutionalized into official narratives of the state. 

The period 1946–1986 was a turbulent yet pivotal moment in the history of Sino-Philippine diplomatic relations. The Philippines had just achieved independence, seeking to gain political and economic footing; China was witnessing dramatic economic, political, and ideological shifts under Communist rule. A major territorial dispute between them was brewing on top of other issues surrounding “overstaying” Chinese and China-backed subversive groups in the Philippines, all against the backdrop of a continuing Cold War. Amidst the many challenges of the period, China and the Philippines resolved to uphold their common economic, political, and socio-cultural aspirations, finding ways not only to preserve but also strengthen their centuries-long relations. What was their driving motivation for doing so? How did they overcome their respective and shared challenges? What lessons can they glean from these experiences as they stand at yet another crossroads in their diplomatic relations? These are central questions that this year-long thesis project hopes to answer. 

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, under which the Serbian and Croatian languages were classified as linguistically the same, the language standard was changed far more extremely and rapidly in Croatia than in Serbia. This thesis explores the impact of the divergent language policies on linguistic identity in those countries. First, a sentiment analysis was performed on tweets about language from Serbia and Croatia to identify how people think about their own language. Then, field research was conducted in both countries to explain how those identity differences were impacted by language policy. The sentiment analysis showed that Croats are more likely to exhibit polarized feelings about their own language; that Croats are more likely to view the Croatian language as separate from Serbian; and that Croats are more likely to view Serbian as a language than Serbs are to view Croatian as a language. The field research revealed that this can be explained by differences in the structure of language institutes, in the construction of national narratives, and in the salience of national identity. This contributes a new perspective to the conversation on Balkan language policy and identity through its unique incorporation of social media analysis and interviews with policymakers. 

This thesis explores the development and experience of citizenship at the social margins of the Confederacy. It devotes particular attention to the experience of foreigners. Historians have seldom noted that the American South had significant foreign-born populations, comprising as much as a third of some major cities. Their presence placed significant pressure on the Confederate nation in two realms: citizenship and diplomacy. As the war progressed and the government expanded its reach (through conscription, for example), the Confederate state came into unprecedented contact with its foreign-born population, in arenas such as military conscription. I argue that, through this process, foreigners emerged as a central group negotiating the rights and obligations of citizenship in the Confederacy. They also became significant players in Confederate diplomacy. Their efforts to evade conscription set off contentious debates with European powers that affected the Confederacy’s efforts to attain international recognition. My thesis thus brings together three overlooked histories of the American Civil War: the history of immigration, international history, and the history of citizenship.