Iddrisu Adam, UW-Marshfield/Wood County
Rocio Cortés, UW-Oshkosh
Toye Johnson Ekunsanmi, UW-Washington County
Grace Kyungwon Hong, UW-Madison
Sandra Magaña, UW-Madison
Sherrill Sellers, UW-Madison
Lisa Tatonetti, UW-Oshkosh
Iddrisu Adam, Department of Geography-Geology, UW-Marshfield/Wood County -
"NGO Effectiveness in Local Resource Management: A Local Perspective."
The increasing dependence on nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) is a
tacit acceptance of the fact that "third
world" governments have not been able
to effectively handle development
challenges such as poverty,
environmental degradation and declining
living conditions. It is also an acceptance
of the failure of multilateral and bilateral
aid programs in the developing world.
The promotion of these NGOs by the
international community, and especially
western governments, led to the
proliferation of both indigenous and
international NGOs in Africa in the
1980s and 1990s. To some, NGOs
promote alternative strategies for
development; others see them as
duplicating and pluralizing the
institutional environment with projects
that are often uncoordinated, isolated and
with no relation to the overall
development strategy of the region or
country at the macro level.
These NGOs, especially the local
ones, are operated under traditional rules
using what has come to be referred to as
indigenous knowledge systems (IKS).
Focusing on NGOs (especially at the
local level) implies acknowledgment of
the importance of local IKS which are
vital for any meaningful, successful
attempt to incorporate local people in
development. There has been increasing
awareness of the importance of IKS in
the fight against environmental
deterioration, in particular, and
development, in general.
The increasing problem of resource
degradation in rural Ghana (Adam 1996;
Obeng, 1990; Baffuoh, 1985) and the
sense of neglect by the central
government make finding local solutions
to local problems all the more vital for
the long-term sustainability of
environmental resources. A good starting
point, according to Professor Adam, is to
know what local people think of NGOs
that are already working in the
communities, since they purport to bring
the people closer to the decision-making
process regarding the use and
management of local environmental
resources. This study will investigate and
assess the role of NGOs in the
management of local environmental
resources. This would be accomplished
through interviews and questionnaires
administered to a sample of the resident
population within which the NGOs
operate. Questions would include the
following:
- Has there been a change in the structure of NGO management of local environmental resources since the mid-1990s?
- What is the perception of the local resident population on the activities of these groups (NGOs) within the community in which they operate?
- Have there been changes in vertical or lateral linkages between these NGOs and other groups (including government agencies, traditional authorities, and other NGOs)?
Serving as mentor will be Benjamin Ofori-Amoah, Department of Geography/Geology, UW-Stevens Point.
Rocio Cortés, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, UW-Oshkosh -
"Mexica-Tenochca Projections and Reflections in the Colonial Period."
Don Hernando de Alvarado
Tezozomoc (ca. 1525-1610) was the
grandson of Moteuczoma Xocoyotl
(1503-1520), the emperor of Mexico-
Tenochtitlan (otherwise known as the
Aztec empire). After the Conquest
interrupted the traditional transmission of
collective memory, Alvarado Tezozomoc
assumed the responsibility of
transcribing the pre-Hispanic Mexica-
Tenochca history. His Crónica mexicana
(ca.1598) was written in Spanish and
recounts the glories of the Mexica
empire, probably to an audience
composed mainly of vice royal officials.
His Crónica mexicayotl (1609),
conversely, was written in Nahuatl and
addressed directly to the Mexica-
Tenochca, instructing them in the
importance of remembering their past
and taking pride in their heritage.
In this project, Professor Cortés will
explore the historical context of sixteenth
and early seventeenth century New Spain
in order to illuminate the complexities of
indigenous historical narrative
production. Tezozomoc's chronicles
about Mexica history are representative
of autochthonous cultural practices of
survival engendered by the colonial
situation. The research embraces a
diversity of theoretical approaches to
study his narratives as cultural texts,
from literary and linguistic methods and
cultural studies to those that draw on the
social sciences, analyzing what is said,
how it is stated, and to whom they are
addressed. There is no doubt, says
Professor Cortés, that the reconstruction
of pre-Hispanic past, which has been the
goal of many social historians, has
contributed enormously to our
understanding of indigenous past.
However, his study will not center on the
accuracy of past events, but will focus on
the cultural, social, and political
conditions in which the texts are
produced.
Margarita Zamor, Department of
Spanish and Portuguese, UW-Madison,
will serve as mentor.
Toye Johnson Ekunsanmi, Department of Biological Sciences, UW-Washington County - "Enhancement of Corn-Cob Hydrolyzate Fermentation."
Ethanol is second only to water as an
industrial solvent. It is also being used as
a bifuel, and is generally expected to
replace fossil fuels in the near future.
Agricultural wastes, such as corncobs,
offer a cheap source of material from
which ethanol could be obtained.
However, the challenges of fermenting
the sugars from the breakdown of such
materials are great. Only a few yeasts
ferment xylose, the second most
abundant sugar, in nature, and it could be
the most abundant in some agricultural
wastes.
Many techniques, including genetic
engineering of yeast, fusion of the
protoplasts from two different organisms,
the use of immobilized cells as well as
co-cultures of different organisms have
been used.
Although much has been done in this
field, more work is needed in order to
improve the yield of ethanol in these
fermentations. Most of the previous work
has been on genetically engineering the
yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to
ferment xylose, which it normally does
not, in addition to glucose, which it does.
However, Professor Ekunsanmi hopes to
investigate some yeasts such as Pichia
stipitis, Candid shehatae and Pachysolen
tannophilus which ferment both glucose
and xylose naturally, with a view to
improving their ethanol tolerance and
ethanol production. He also hopes to
improve ethanol yield by the use of
various buffer systems.
Serving as mentor will be Thomas
Jeffries, Department of Bacteriologoly/
Food Science, UW-Madison.
Grace Kyungwon Hong, Department of English, UW-Madison - "Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization."
Under the auspices of this grant, Dr. Hong will edit a collection entitled Strange Affinities: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Comparative Racialization that will feature new scholarship centering on gender and sexuality in comparative race projects. Many scholars, says Hong, have recently been looking at African American, Latino/a, Asian American, and Arab American racial formations in relation to each other, but there has been no edited collection based on comparative work. This volume will collect work which takes advantage of the opportunities that the different role of the nation-state and nationalisms under globalization affords us to reimagine what kinds of connections and collectivities are possible beyond those suggested by nationalist modes of organization. That is, we might understand globalization as the process by which the former preeminence of the nation-state as the most important mode of economic, political, and cultural organization is being displaced, and instead, other modes of organization, both more global and local, emerge. Hong cites Benedict Anderson's foundational work on nationalism, Imagined Communities, where she argues that nationalism is fundamentally based on producing a sense of similarity and identification amongst the people of a nation in ways that erases their various historical and material differences. Feminist and queer scholars, Hong adds, have noted that the supposed universality of nationalist identity is, in fact, often very masculinist; the differences, therefore, suppressed are those of gender and sexuality. Under globalization, nationalist and masculinist discourses do not disappear; rather, they are mobilized in the service of global capital. As such, centering gender and sexuality is a crucial part of comparative race research. In other words, posits Hong, so that the scholarship on comparative racialization does not inadvertently preserve masculinist and nationalist affiliations, the authors in this collection will explore the ways in which these alternative racial collectivities emerge at their intersections with gender and sexuality.
The title of this book, Strange Affinities, registers the complexity of comparative racializations. While creating and recognizing new modes of affinity are at the basis of this project, doing so means recognizing the strangeness at the heart of this enterprise. In so doing, these scholars examine instances of what Angela Davis has termed "unlikely coalitions" across a variety of differentiated histories. Merely fastening upon broad similarities between African American and Latino communities, between Asian American and Arab communities, and so forth, risks erasing the very important differences between these communities. Therefore, the scholarly work in this volume seeks to create a new methodology by which contradictions, conflicts, and disidentifications emerge as the very ground on which cross-racial relations are forged.
Lisa Lowe, Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego, will serve as mentor.
Sandra Magaña, School of Social Work and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program, UW-Madison - "Latino Families Caring for Members with Developmental Disabilities and Mental Illness."
Dr. Magaña has been involved in three research projects: (1) analysis of the National Health Interview Survey; (2) a study of adolescents and adults with autism; and (3) a study of families who have a member with serious mental illness. With these research projects, she will examine three different dimensions of Latino family caregiving: (1) understanding the impact of caregiving on their health and well-being; (2) understanding how cultural factors interact with the experience of caregiving; and (3) understanding Latino caregivers perceptions of mental illness and disability.
Research on the well-being of Latino caregivers of a family member with a mental disability has found that these caregivers experience burden and depression at equal or higher levels than their white counterparts. In addition, Latino caregivers in these studies have been found to be severely disadvantaged as indicated by low education, income and poor health. Typically, studies of caregiver well-being have compared Latino caregivers to non-Latino white caregivers. The cultural and environmental context between non-Latino white and Latino caregivers may be so different that comparisons do not shed full light on the experiences that Latino caregivers face. Studies that compare Latino caregivers to Latino non-caregivers are important to understand the impact that caregiving has on caregiver well-being. It is also important to examine physical health outcomes for minority caregivers in addition to psychological well-being. This will be the focus of Project I of the study.
Cultural factors such as familism and traditional gender roles may interact with the caregiving experience, thus producing differential outcomes from other groups. The importance of family with respect to maternal well-being is a common finding across the research literature. Maintaining family members with disabilities in the family home is often an important goal for Latino families, who are less likely to place their family member in an outside home or facility. Understanding how placement or co-residence of family members with disabilities impacts the family is an important area of study with respect to cultural issues. This will be the focus of Project 2 of the study.
Some research has indicated that Latino families maintain dual understandings of disability: medical explanations as well as cultural explanations and beliefs. Medical explanations may be called upon to access resources for the family member, and cultural explanations and beliefs may help families to stay grounded in their culture. Little is known about how conceptualizations relate to behavior with respect to caring for family members with mental illnesses and disabilities. Project 3 of the study will focus on broadening the knowledge of conceptualizations of mental illness among Latino caregivers and how that relates to the process of caregiving.
In summary, the three research projects will address the following three questions: (1) How does the physical and psychological health of Latino caregivers compare to similar aged Latino noncaregivers?; (2) How does out-of-home placement versus co-residence influence Latino caregivers' outlook?; and (3) How do Latino families conceptualize mental illness and how does this relate to caring behavior?
Serving as mentor will be Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Waisman Center (director) and School of Social Welfare, UW-Madison.
Sherrill Sellers, School of Social Work, UW-Madison - "Exploring the Influence of Goal Striving Stress on Mental Health."
Despite substantial growth in the research on race and mental health and gender and mental health and the nearly obiquitous findings that the lower socioeconomic status is related to poor mental health, much of what is known about mental health focuses on one (e.g., gender) or two (e.g., race and gender) categories. Very little research, says Dr. Sellers, has examined the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, class, and mental health. To try to understand the disparities in mental health outcomes, she adds, health must be conceptualized as a field of interactions rather than direct relationships.
This research will address some of these gaps and center on the examination of the impact of social inequalities on mental and physical health. Dr. Sellers' objective is to go beyond previous analysis of health by focusing on both physical and psychological well-being. This research will examine the relationships between goal striving stress and health (including hypertension, happiness, depression, and suicide). Sellers states that goal striving stress links socially derived aspirations with the realities of social inequality. It is the discrepancy between aspirations and achievements, between wants and efforts, and is a function of the hard work and persistent effort that often fuels the quest for accomplishment. She hypothesizes that goal striving stress is a universal source of stress - every individual, regardless of race, class, or gender, feels striving stress; yet, the antecedents and consequences of goal striving stress may vary across these groups.
During this study, Sellers will: (1) examine the antecedents and consequences of goal striving among lower SES blacks and whites; (2) investigate race, class, and gender differences in goal striving and its relation to mental health; (3) analyze the impact of goal striving stress on mental health longitudinally; and (4) explore intergroup ethnic differences in goal striving and mental health in a sample of native-born, immigrants, and Caribbean blacks, with particular attention to variations in SES and explanatory styles.
Dr. Sellers' mentor will be Carol Ryff, Institute on Aging (director) and Department of Psychology, UW-Madison.
Lisa Tatonetti, Department of English, UW-Oshkosh - "Revising Tradition: The Ghost Dance in Global Context."
During her award period, Dr. Tatonetti will complete the last chapter of her book manuscript From Ghost Dance to Grass Dance: Postindian Resistance in American Indian Literature, which examines how native authors from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries adopt, resist, or reject the figure of the 1890 Lakota Ghost Dance and the Wounded Knee massacre in their constructions of American Indian identities. While the Ghost Dance, a nineteenth century revitalization movement that dominant culture has long equated with the myth of the vanishing Indian, has been the subject of innumerable historical inquires, scholars of American Indian literature have not yet considered its importance. Professor Tatonetti argues for the prevalence and significance of Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee imagery in American Indian literature, contending that the observable shifts in literary representations of these two historical events illustrate a paradigm shift in Native authors' definitions and constructions of their ethnicity. She will first use archival research to examine contemporary representations of the Ghost Dance. Drawing from government documents, letters, and eyewitness reports, she contends that early accounts of the Ghost Dance actually subvert the picture of loss so prevalent in popular culture; while most white observers offer the dominant narrative of cause (the Ghost Dance) and effect (the Wounded Knee massacre), Native observers clearly separate the two events. Next she will analyze the canonization of dominant Ghost Dance representation in early twentieth century American Indian literature. By scrutinizing the critical reception of several key texts of the period, she will chronicle the transformation of the Ghost Dance from historical event to a literary trope that stands not for Native resistance, but rather for the erasure of Native peoples and cultures. The final section of her manuscript examines how a number of important contemporary American Indian authors employ the Ghost Dance, or in some cases deliberately eschew the Ghost Dance for the Grass Dance, to redefine pan-tribal, specific tribal, and global constructions of American Indian identities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Ultimately, her project offers a significant new locus for the study of identity and ethnicity in Native American texts.
Allen Chadwick, Department of English, Ohio State University, will serve ar Dr Tatonetti's mentor.
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