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First Annual CISA Student Symposium

(Go to the main Student Symposium page)

The Americas as Borderland May 2, 1998 Seelye Hall Smith College Session I: Perspectives on Change Sarah Little Crow-Russell, Hampshire College "Culturally Appropriate Responses to Native American Nutritional Deficiencies and Excesses" - The death rate of Native Americans is 37% higher than that of the general U.S. population. A major contributor to this death rate is nutrient excess and deficiency. This paper examines cultural and behavioral contributors, many of which are related to transition to the cash economy. The paper also considers concrete solutions. Brenda Fitzpatrick, UMass Amherst "José Marti and Sustainable Agriculture in Cuba" - From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Cuba practiced "modern" conventional agriculture based upon "Green Revolution" ideology. Following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989, this agriculture became unfeasible due to the unavailability of needed imports, particularly petroleum and petroleum-based products. As a result Cuba changed its state agricultural policy to low-input sustainable agriculture. This paper examines how the thought of Cuba's national hero, José Marti, has legitimized Cuba's post-1989 conversion from conventional agriculture to low-input sustainable agriculture. Nathan Mealey, UMass Amherst "The Ideological Foundations of Economic Development in Post-Colonial Peru" - This paper explores the relationship between Peru and the developed contries of Europe and the U.S. while examining changing Peruvian economic policies from 1820 to 1860. It analyzes the relationship which took form between ideologies concerning economic development (both Peruvian and foreign) and economic policy decisions made by the Peruvian government. The paper will also explore the manner in which these ideologies were manifested within Peruvian class relations. Cristina Maldonado, Amherst College "Recent Evolution of Development Represented in Chile's Bío Bío River Dams" - This project examines a 'new' development model exemplified in the case of the two dams, Pangue and Ralco, planned for the Bío Bío River in Chile. these are the first dams to be built in Chile under the new democratic government. Construction has been undertaken within a new regulatory context and by a privatized national energy company. So, when the planned construction provoked opposition from the Pehuenche Indians and environment NGOs, it was expected that the national energy company conducting the construction, ENDESA, would address the issues of environmental damage transparently and proactively. Instead, the 'new' development model's emphasis on national growth and economic development has created expectations that weaken the pursuit of socio-environmental interests. Session II: Resistant Identities Danika Meedak-Saltzman, UMass Amherst "Ainu Historic Roots and Legal Uprootings: The Indigenous Experience of Colonization in Japan and the United States" - The relationship between the Japanese Government and the Ainu (the indigenous people of Hokkaido, presently the northern-most island of Japan) is a multifaceted one that has evolved as the result of both domestic and international developments. The record of this relationship, both legal and historical, is one that reflects the experiences of other indigenous and marginalized populations with their colonial governments. This presentation explores parallels between the Japanese Government/Ainu relationship and the American Government/Native American relationship in reference to legal policies, historical roots, and contemporary issues. Despite the obvious situational differences facing the world's indigenous populations, an understanding of their similarities will empower us with the ability to decolonize minds. Rebecca A. Kandel, Hampshire College "El Carcel, La Hospital o el Cemetario: Deported Salvadoran Gang Members in Photography and Theory" - My project stems from time I spent working in El Salvador with deported gang members from Los Angeles. I use photography and sociological analysis to explore the journey of the youth from a childhood in El Salvador, through an adolescence in the United States, to their return to El Salvador as deportees. Using this illustration and drawing on the work of contemporary researchers, I explain how gangs provide a continuing alternative kin group for young men and women facing lives of multiple marginalization. Session III: Power and Resistance Jeffrey Tapick , Amherst College "Accomodationists and Dissidents: A Comparative Analysis of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Tejano Communities in San Antonio and Brownsville" - Tejanos in San Antonio and Brownsville (Texas) responded differently to the Anglo ascendancy to political power in the nineteenth century: in San Antonio, Tejanos tended to assimilate to Anglo-American culture; in Brownsville, they displayed a high degree of separation from it. My thesis suggests that social and economic aspects of these Tejano communities such as class, eduation, and degree of integration with the Anglo Texan population heavily influenced these choices. My presentation explores themes such as the impact of Anglo expansionism on the native Texan populations, the process of assmilation and bi-culturation among the Anglo and Tejano populations and cultures, and the heterogeneity of the Tejano community in the mid-nineteenth century. Irene Lin, Amherst College "Whitewashing a 'Conspiracy': News Framing of the San Jose Mercury News' 'Dark Alliance' Series" - My thesis focuses on racial sociological issues and the media. In August 1996, The San Jose Mercury News published a three-part series on the CIA's possible complicity in allowing the crack cocaine epidemic to thrive in South Central Los Angeles. The reponse to this story within the world of elite journalism, which attacked the credibility of the reporter, but also that of the 'conspiracy prone' African Americans, reveals how the national media exercises and perpetuates its hegemonic hold over society, and exposes how the news media remains beholden to corporate and political elites at the expense, perhaps, of one community's slow genocide. While rooted in the language of 'objectivity', news reporting is ultimately a power struggle over interpretations of 'reality,' realities that differ widely for white and black America. Eliza Wheeler, Hampshire College "Dicussing a Latin American Postmodernism" - Postmodernism has undoubtedly become an important concept for many Latin American critics of culture and politics who analyze the border-cultures of the United States and Mexico. Many contemporary Latin American artists, writers, and producers of cultural texts use the aesthetic strategies of postmodernism in their work. However, there are many who firmly believe that a Latin American postmodernism is either irrelevant, or needs to be completely reworked in order to take account the 'complexity of Latin America's own 'uneven modernity' and the new developments of its hybrid (pre- and post-) modern cultures.' While addressing the implications of developing a theory that many view as eurocentric and neo-colonialist, I attempt to synthesize a position that takes into account the value of postmodernism as a framework for cultural and political analysis in Latin America. Special Greetings: Ruth Simons, President of Smith College Session IV: Discovering Historical and Cultural Identity through Performance Margaret Bruchac, Smith College "'Molly Has Her Say': Stories Carrying Culture" - In Native American culture, storytelling is more than just a pastime - it is an integral part of the process of transmitting cultural beliefs and historical traditions. In the scholarly world, storytelling can also be a part of the process of interweaving indigenous knowledge and academics, of connecting scientific and religious traditions, oral and written history. Molly Has Her Say combines historical research with theatrical interpretation to explore the lives of northeastern Native American women. This performance presentation will offer a traditional story told by 'Molly Geet', a 19th century 'Indian Doctress.' It also offers a brief discussion of the intersections between scholarly research and oral traditions and of how cultural performance contributes to the process of cultural recovery in modern Native New England. Jisook Lee, Mount Holyoke College "Yuja eh Pyungman" - During the Second World War a considerable amount [sic] of women, 80-90% of whom were Korean, were drafted for sexual labor by the Japanese military. The term 'comfort women' which refers to these women, is a euphemism that not only hides the true nature of their roles, but helps to conceal how severely they were treated by the Japanese. Why has such a peaceful sounding term been chosen to represent a fantastically horrid and disgusting role that was forced unto these women? Even the term 'comfort station' (where the women comforted Japanese soldiers and officers) is a euphemism for the hell in which these women lived. Although former wianbus ('comfort women') have begun to voice their stories and fight back in the early 1990s, there are hundreds and thousands of women whose lives were taken before they could tell their stories. Death takes lives, and in return it gives silence. And sometimes, even in life - there is silence. Yuja eh Pyungman which means in Korean "A Woman's Comfort", revolves around the rape of a young Korean-America woman. She struggles to forget this disturbing part of her life, but one night she begins to receive visits by ghosts of former Korean wianbus. Through the wianbus the young woman learns that as long as she lives in silence, she is continuously being raped - not of her body, but her soul and her voice. Sejal Shah, UMass Amherst "Against Explanation: 'Mary, Staring at Me'" - My fiction explores intersections and questions of culture, place, and identity. I am interested in how the children of immigrants, as many Amerians are (and I am), imagine and tell their stories. In my writing, I am concerned with how people read each others' ethnicity, and how characters negotiate the liminal space between cultures. Writing for an American audience without translating experience . . . how do we represent prespective and ethnic identity without explaining it? How does living in the gap between two languages inform the writing of 'hyphenated' Americans? Penny Trieu, writer, Mount Holyoke College and Jesus Maclean, director, Umass Amherst (with Uyen Nguyen, Trang Pham, Kristina Tolentino, Thang Vo) "Dancers in the Night Country" - This play is our attempt to explore one aspect of the Asian American identity. What does it mean to be an Asian American? What does it mean to be raised in a land where your parents see the danger of your becoming too 'Americanized' as an every day occurence? Who are you responsible to? Yourself? Your parents? And how can we group these answers and create these identities to such an extent that we are happy with ourselves? As always, there are more questions than there can ever be answers.