The Forum on Education Abroad Undergraduate Research Awards
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The Forum on Education Abroad, an Abroad View Sponsor, is an association that serves the international education field. It organizes the annual Under-graduate Research Awards Competition, which showcases the most rigorous and significant undergraduate research that occurs as part of education abroad programs or that focuses on education abroad itself. This research speaks to the many ways in which students come to understand other cultures and societies through a research framework and how they connect their learning overseas to their academic and professional pursuits.
Congratulations to the 2007 Undergraduate Research Award Winners!
The Forum on Educationn Abroad announced the winners of the 2007 Undergraduate Research Awards in November 2007.
Brittany Murlas, of the University of California Berkeley, studied on the University of California Education Abroad Program to Ghana and her research topic was: “Mother Tongue Literacy in Ghana: A Sociolinguistic Approach."
Lauren Gersbach, of Butler University, studied abroad with the School for Field Studies/Centre for Rainforest Studies, Queensland, Australia. Her research topic was: “Resistance vs. Resilience: Alternative Mechanisms to Survive Severe Cyclones in Mabi Type 5b Rainforest Tree Species of North Queensland, Australia.”
The following abstracts were adapted from the papers
of the Forum Student Research Award winners.
Heather Craig: Shifting Roles of Lake Victoria’s Women Fisherfolk
Global free trade and industrialization often strike us as benign phenomena, natural and essential to the development of the impoverished Third World. Heather Craig’s research in Kenya shows, however, that the opposite effect can also be true. Heather studied how commercialization of the fishing industry of Lake Victoria has undermined the socioeconomic interests of local, small-scale “fisherfolk,” of whom women comprise the majority.
Heather became interested in this topic while studying abroad in Kenya. She says, “studying development in a classroom setting provided me with a theoretical grounding but left me struggling to grasp the reality of the situation facing much of the world’s population.”
After enrolling with the School for International Training (SIT), Heather spent her first months in Kenya learning basic Kiswahili, attending development and health seminars, learning field research techniques, and visiting various NGOs. These structured opportunities, along with living with Kenyans and traveling throughout the country, gave rise to her appreciation for “the complex and multifaceted nature of Kenya’s social and political climate.” They also helped her to acclimate to Kenyan social mores, which she says was “imperative” for later approaching local fisherfolk in a culturally sensitive manner.
Traditionally, hundreds of species of fish thrived in Lake Victoria. Men would harvest the fish and women would buy their catch, acting as crucial traders in nearby markets. In the 1980s, though, commercial fisheries spurred the proliferation of Nile Perch—a carnivorous, economically viable fish that has proceeded to dominate the ecology of the lake as well as the economic scene. Half of all fish exports and millions of local livelihoods are now tied to harvesting, processing, and shipping Nile Perch.
The advent of commercial fisheries as direct customers of the fisherman has combined with the decline in supply and diversity of Lake Victoria fish to severely marginalize the economic role of female fisherfolk. “While women previously had open access to the buying and selling of various fish species, the proliferation of Nile Perch severely limited the availability and types of species women could deal in,” writes Heather. She based her research findings on field interviews and observations of a cross-section of fisherfolk and industry representatives, as well as academic literature. “The agents select the largest and highest quality fish from the fishermen’s catches, and the women are left to buy the smaller, reject fish.”
Laws against peddling undersized fish have further debilitated women traders. In attempt to secure favorable catches, many women have resorted to having sex with certain patron fishermen in exchange for fish. “I believe that the incredibly high rate of HIV/AIDS in Kisumu district is directly linked to the sexual exploitation occurring within beach communities,” writes Heather, noting healthcare ignorance and socioeconomic disempowerment as primary factors.
In the reality of the Kenyan fisherfolk, Heather concludes, “HIV/AIDS, globalization, sexual exploitation, commercialization, trade liberalization, and myriad other issues are all mutually constitutive elements that determine the state of people’s lives. Addressing the intersections between these issues is the first step in promoting sustainable development.”
Read AV's Interview with Heather Craig
Emily Kanstroom
Justifying Torture: Explaining Democratic States’ Noncompliance with International Humanitarian Law
One day a Moroccan girl in one of Emily Kanstroom’s classes at Paris’s renowned Institut d’Études Politiques (Sciences Po) asked how Americans could be proud of their country, given its recent string of disturbing human rights abuses in the War on Terror. Though Emily explained to the class that not all Americans agree with the actions of their government, she was unsatisfied with her own response. The Moroccan girl had a point, she thought. How could the United States—the historically great champion of human rights and democracy—fail to observe international humanitarian law during a war that was set up to deliver it?
Emily had planned on writing her thesis on the U.S. Global War on Terror prior to leaving for France on her Brown University study abroad program. She chose Sciences Po because of her interest in French culture and politics as well as for the international, rigorously intellectual flavor of the institution. Through the connections she made with knowledgeable faculty, students, and institutions, Emily found a wealth of resources specializing in political science, sociology, history and law. When one of her professors suggested that she look into France’s analogous record of human rights protection and violation, Emily finally had her research topic. After returning to Brown, focusing her questions and securing a grant, she returned to France to complete her thesis.
Specifically, Emily compared U.S. noncompliance with international humanitarian law during its Global War on Terror with that of France in the French-Algerian War. “Although the Geneva Conventions banned torture over 50 years ago, compliance is not universal,” she writes. She identifies three main explanations for the disregard for human rights by these two great liberal democracies. These include the state’s perception of the enemy, the belief that the human rights violations will increase security, and the idea that reputation is less vital than the concerns of the conflict. She finds that disregard for international law has varied with direct proportion to how much the states consider their enemies as “uncivilized” or “terrorist.” On the U.S. side, her case studies analyze the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the lack of due process for the detainees in Guantanimo Bay, and other abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to Emily, pressure from NGOs and individual activists is crucial in confronting state-justified torture. She hopes that her research will help encourage changes and updates to international humanitarian law. In particular, she notes the need to address the “paradigm of terrorist warfare,” in which states deem that human rights standards do not apply to combatants of terrorist regimes.
“This is not an American problem, nor is it a French problem; it is a systemic failure,” Emily now says. “International humanitarian law in the modern era has not successfully prohibited torture even among the world’s most liberal democracies. This affects every country in the world now.”
Read AV's interview with Emily Kanstroom
Colin Smith
Heroes and Healing: Sharing Our Stories with South African Literature
We can all be healers—this is what the children in South Africa taught Colin Smith when he studied there through a Brigham Young University-structured program. Studying the relationship between stories and identity among the Xhosa of South Africa, Colin realized the reconciliatory power of relating personal experiences in the face of oppression and divisiveness. “Whatever the forces that afflict and torture us, there is a simple beauty in sharing our loads with others,” he writes. “Though our tears are of sweat and blood, we can find profound solace if our mouths meet the ears of a friend.”
Colin studied the significance of stories while working independently as a teacher at Daily Bread, a home for AIDS orphans, abuse victims, street kids, and kids from financially destitute homes. “Some were traumatized from witnessing violent beatings and murders; others were trying to come to terms at the beginning of their lives with the disease that would end them; a few felt humiliation for their young pregnancies; all suffered from being marginalized in society,” writes Colin. He was surprised by his students’ “amazing resilience” and acceptance of one another.
Through his interactions with the children as well as his academic research, Colin learned that much of his students’ strength was inspired by their ancestral stories. Stories provide a common cultural heritage that has long been an important unifying model of perseverance and healing for Xhosas, especially as they resisted the divisive powers of apartheid. Like their fathers and forefathers, Colin’s students looked to the heroes of their myths as models for perseverance and healing.
Colin also observed that the telling of those stories was just as important, if not more so, than the heroes of the stories. Building on the findings of scholars and his own observations, Colin realized that stories help facilitate self-expression, allowing individuals to purge feelings of victimization by recounting their struggle-filled pasts. “Especially now with the recent demise of apartheid and some of its effects lingering on,” he writes, “the need for expression about past sorrows through stories is greater than ever before.”
Children in particular derive a sense of dignity from therapeutic storytelling. Colin met a boy named Lindile who, at age 12, was one of a number of children beaten by mercenaries for protesting corruption. Despite the trauma, Lindile told Colin that recounting his personal story had transformed pain into peace of mind.
“I’ve told that story so much and now I know that on that day those who were the most wounded were those mercenaries,” Colin reports the boy saying.
Seeing the way his lessons “tended to overemphasize the importance of looking to the past,” Colin also helped his students “see that the past does not resolve itself and that it depends on the vision and drive of real heroes who step up to solve the problems.” He began teaching them about present-day heroes through a series of lessons about politicians and activists who have fought against apartheid.
Heidi Boutros: Bonded Slavery in India and Methods of Intervention
After reading Good News about Injustice by Gary Haugen, the founder of the International Justice Mission, Heidi Boutros became interested in bonded slavery. “The book brings to life the abuses that bonded slaves in India face and tells stories of their rescue,” she writes. “Unlike many other publications I had read on human rights abuses, which left me despairing about mind-numbing statistics of horrific abuse, this book left me with a sense of hope and optimism.”
Inspired by the stories of rescue, Heidi went to Chennai, India to assist with the International Justice Mission’s bonded slavery rescue efforts. “My primary concern in India was positively impacting the lives of bonded slaves; my research questions grew out of a desire to see greater effectiveness and efficiency in organizations’ efforts to secure the release of bonded slaves,” she writes.
Bonded slavery refers to the situation in which a debtor is forced to work for a creditor in order to repay an advance. In a state of financial emergency, individuals in need of a loan may be compelled to go to a local moneylender who will give them a loan in exchange for their labor or that of their children. Bonded slaves are forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, six to seven days a week with little or no compensation, and many are beaten for failing to meet their owners’ unreasonable quotas. Because owners, called mudalalis, often charge exorbitant interest rates and require that the loan be repaid in a lump sum, many people spend their entire lives in bonded slavery.
“Although bonded slavery has received little media attention, it is one of the most horrific and prevalent abuses of our day,” writes Heidi. “Low-end estimates suggest that there are at least 10 million bonded slaves in India alone. Despite the insidious nature of this form of oppression, little has been written about the abuse and even less has been done to combat it.”
Over the course of two trips to Southeast India, involving meetings with bonded slaves, government officials, police officers, and leaders of NGOs, Heidi gathered information about bonded slavery, intervention methods, and obstacles to effective intervention.
“India has numerous obligations under international and domestic law to eradicate bonded slavery, yet its government has failed to take significant steps toward this end,” writes Heidi. “Thus, the burden for the release of India’s bonded slaves now lies with non-governmental organizations.”
However, she soon discovered deeply rooted institutional obstacles that impeded various NGOs’ efforts to release the slaves and decided to research other methods of combating bonded slavery in hopes of finding a more effective procedure. With little scholarship and few articles on the topic, she focused on writing a paper that accounted for the prevalence of bonded slavery in India, examined the weaknesses of current intervention methods, and suggested modifications of intervention strategies.
Her research experience inspired her to dedicate her life to rescuing victims of oppression. “Through this and other experiences in the human rights field, I have learned that the degree to which international human rights standards are respected depends on the quality of local law enforcement. Most countries have aligned their domestic laws with international laws, and domestic laws will only be effective insofar as local police enforce them,” writes Heidi.
Heidi Boutros graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a major in Plan II Liberal Arts Honors and Government and a minor in French. She studied abroad in Bethune, France as a sophomore in high school. While in college, she interned in Russia, the Netherlands, and India, and conducted thesis research in South Africa.
Brian Hoyer
NIPE NIKUPE: Dependency, Reciprocity, and Paradoxes of Food Aid in Lugufu Refugee Camp Kigoma, Tanzania
Brian Hoyer first considered refugee issues during his spring 2002 semester studying abroad in Uganda through the School for International Training (SIT) program in Development Studies. For the final part of the semester he traveled to a Sudanese refugee settlement in Moyo District, on the border of Sudan, where he interned with a humanitarian organization in charge of managing the settlement. He conducted fieldwork and “encountered some of the hopes and realities of refugees in East Africa,” he writes.
Enthused by his experience, he returned to East Africa to conduct research for his senior thesis. “The effort I poured into my thesis project during the following months grew from the feeling that I had something unique and important to say,” he writes. “In continuing my learning beyond the walls of the classroom I gained an invaluable experiential dimension to my research and was forced to think more creatively and confidently than ever before. Without the background of studying abroad I would never have possessed the confidence to conduct original primary research on a topic I had become passionate about.”
Brian’s research filled him with a deep respect for the people who chose to share their knowledge with him. “Quickly, through necessity,” he writes, “I learned many lessons that will stay with me for life. I came to understand the virtues of flexibility and trust. I improved my skills in Kiswahili conversation and harvesting cassava root during the dry season. I grasped the true meaning of trial and error and how to navigate bureaucratic mazes. I also learned the necessity of pushing one’s comfort zone in order to grow.”
Brian’s experiences also gave him the chance to understand and convey the tragic position of displaced persons, who exist in a state of limbo. “In Lugufu refugee camp in western Tanzania, food aid provides the foundation to a camp power structure and dramatically influences rapidly changing social roles,” writes Brian. “The patron-client relationship forged between refugees and relief agencies becomes entrenched during the distribution of food, establishing a demoralizing culture of dependency. Food aid provides another example of the power of humanitarian aid, which resonates with dangerous reproductions of the colonial framework based on domination and submission.”
Brian’s thesis focuses on the social implications of refugee food aid throughout a broad spectrum of geographic and anthropological scales. It explores the power inherent in humanitarian aid and shows how aid influences the ways refugees view their community, their families, and themselves. Analyzing hierarchies of authority, gift giving, and systems of exchange on a global to local level, he concluded that it is clear that the overall viability of food aid is in question. Brian writes, “When a collectivity that is defined by its ability to endure adversity becomes dependent on international institutions for survival, the fabric of the society comes undone. Rather than entering this vicious cycle, the international humanitarian relief regime must reconsider the system of food distribution to find an appropriate means of temporary relief.”
Brian Hoyer graduated from Middlebury College in February 2004. He earned a major in International Studies with a focus in Anthropology, African Studies, and the language of Kiswahili, and a minor in Spanish.
Kevin McAdam
The Human Right to Water: Market Allocations and Subsistence in a World of Scarcity
Kevin McAdam’s interest in global water issues began in the summer of 2001, after his freshman year in college, when he spent several weeks in Kenya working on an irrigation project in the northern part of the country. Having just decided to major in International Studies, he felt there would be no better introduction than the practical experience of volunteering abroad. “Little did I know that my time in Kenya would provide the cornerstone upon which I would build my academic career,” he writes.
Kevin went to Kenya with several students from Boston College to help a small Turkanan community transition from traditional nomadism to self-sustained agriculturalism. He witnessed many of the hardships of life in a developing country, but he was particularly drawn to the problems associated with acute water scarcity.
Kevin revisited the topic of water scarcity during his junior year, when he participated in Kent State University’s semester-long course in International Relations in Geneva, Switzerland. At that time he was interning at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and taking classes on International Trade and International Organizations from leading experts in those fields. His internship converged with several topics he was studying, and he became especially interested in issues surrounding the protection of human rights and the formulation of international law in the context of development. Consequently, he co-authored a term paper with two of his classmates on “The Right to Development.” He was able to research the topic at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which was taking place while he was in Geneva, as well as at the Human Rights Library of Geneva´s Graduate Institute of International Studies.
Around the time he was choosing his topic, Kevin was writing several news pieces on global water issues for one of ICTSD’s trade-related publications. The U.N.’s World Water Day, March 22, had just taken place; the Third World Water Forum had just concluded in Japan; and many academic works were being published in light of a previous declaration stating 2003 to be the International Year of Fresh Water. Needless to say, he focused his section of the paper on water scarcity within the framework of the right to development, and he concentrated specifically on multinational corporate ownership of water resources and the World Trade Organization’s trade-related role in water availability.
Kevin continued researching and writing over the summer of 2003 and the next academic year. He knew that he wanted to write his senior thesis on global water scarcity, but he wanted to do so from a human rights perspective. “In the paper I wrote in Geneva,” he says, “I had to access the human rights dimension of water scarcity through the right to development, implying a human right to water by the integral role water plays in the process of development. For my senior thesis, however, my goal was to establish water as a human right.”
Kevin McAdam graduated from Boston College in May 2004 with a major in International Studies. He is now in a year-long Poverty and Development Studies program at La Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. This program runs in conjunction with La Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, where he is completing a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. After he finishes, he plans to return to the U.S. for law school, with the goal of practicing law in the context of international development.
Read AV's Interview with the 2004 Winners
Abroad View: Did you ever doubt what you were doing or want to give up?
Brian: Yes. Returning to a refugee camp in East Africa I was well aware of the challenges of getting access to such a highly restricted space. When my promised permits failed to materialize upon arriving in the capital, I spent my waking hours traversing the bureaucratic mazes of Tanzanian refugee policy and experiencing firsthand the institutionalized fear of researchers from wealthy Western nations.
Thanks to much assistance and good advice from the people at various organizations (plus the goodwill of the 10 weapon-bearing men who abducted me in a phony police car on two separate occasions, each time releasing me unharmed and with enough of my funds to carry out my research) I finally made it past this first roadblock. I think the only way to cope was, for once, to take my own advice, which I usually tell people traveling to the region: “Flexibility is the key to success.”
AV: Do you think you succeeded in what you set out to accomplish?
Heidi: There is always more work to be done, always more people in need than there is the capacity or resources to help. Having said that, there were certainly success stories from the time I spent in India, and those sustained me at times when I felt like all our efforts were being thwarted.
AV: What does it mean to have your work recognized among academics and your paper published and presented at a national conference?
Kevin: It was a wonderful honor. To be recognized in this manner for undergraduate work is virtually unheard of, and to be recognized in such a way by those working so hard to promote such an important field of academics (the field of study abroad, that is) is amazing. The recognition also serves to draw much-needed attention to the topic of my paper, and, on a personal level, it will open doors for future academic opportunities.
AV: What advice would you give other students who wish to pursue serious field research abroad?
Brian: Have a backup project in case things don’t work out. Make contact early and often with an organization or person you want to work with. Read everything you can get your hands on before beginning your fieldwork. Investigate the situation of research permits and access in your country of destination. If you read a particularly helpful book or paper, write to the author with your questions. Utilize the international network (both students and staff) at your school to help set up your fieldwork. Do not take a lot of expensive cameras and recorders, which may only further separate you from the people you are working with. Get travel insurance. Avoid going to a place where you have no grasp of the local language. Be open to changing your plans and always respect the integrity of those who choose to share information with you.
Heidi: 1. Dream big. Think of what research question you would most like to pursue; even if it seems impossible, go after it. You will be surprised what you can do if you try and are persistent. 2. Think outside the box. You do not have to do research through an established program. I had some of my most meaningful experiences on my own. This can be more challenging, but it also gives you the freedom to choose how to spend your time and to focus your energy on substantive work. 3. Funding is available if you look for it. Search online for research grants and talk to your professors and university administrators about resources. 4. Never underestimate the importance of planning ahead.
Kevin: First, establish faculty advisers early. Doing so will help get your project off the ground in its beginning stages. Second, keep the project focus narrow. A three-, six-, or even 12-credit paper will seem insurmountable if the focus becomes too wide. Lastly, get to work before you think you need to. No one, at least in my experience, hands their work in early.
AV: What was the most difficult aspect of your research experience?
Heidi: The most difficult part of my experience had little to do with my research. It was simply adjusting to living in India—the heat, the dirt, the food, etc. It was also emotionally taxing to be surrounded by extreme poverty and make sense of the tremendous privilege I’ve been given simply by being born into a middle-class family in a first-world country.
AV: Are you aware of any real-world results because of your research?
Heidi: Some of the recommendations I made in my paper have been implemented by the International Justice Mission. I can by no means take full responsibility for this, as there were a number of other factors besides my research that contributed to these modifications in strategy. Nevertheless, the International Justice Mission’s Southeast India office has grown by leaps and bounds in its effectiveness since I was there.
AV: What is your favorite memory?
Heidi: The first bonded slave I personally saw released.
Brian: The daily ritual rehearsal of The Lugufu Live Band. Hearing the pumping rhythms and blood stirring guitar riffs of Congolese soukous anywhere in the world is one of the most healing and revitalizing things imaginable. Seeing this particular group of musicians come together mainly because they were the sole survivors of their families or had suffered particularly badly in the war in the homeland served to balance the harsh realities of life in a refugee camp and remind us all of our common humanity.
Kevin: Getting the paper printed and bound. As far as my experience as a student goes, nothing compares to the feeling of accomplishment that comes from holding the final copy of such a challenging project.