purcc 2012 - University of the Pacific

Oral Presentation Abstracts
are unwilling to change their lifestyle to better
provide for their children. This project adds to
the discussion of reunification and parental
rights, and serves to suggest a possible solution
to the dilemma of reunification.
Sugar, Slavery, and Sovereignty
Jennifer Immel
Faculty Mentor: Analiese Richard
With the discovery of the New World and
economic shifts towards mercantilism,
competition between European nations promoted
the conquest and extraction of raw materials in
the Caribbean. During the seventeenth century,
the shift from the extraction of raw materials to
the production of crop commodities affected the
economic structures in both Europe and the
Caribbean colonies. This research explains how
changes in economic thought affected the
economic, political and social structures of
France, and by extension Haiti, Martinique, and
Guadeloupe. Using primary and secondary
sources, my research connects the rise of French
sugar in the world market to the emergence of
the French slave trade. I examine the relations
between the plantation modes of production and
the social relations surrounding the French sugar
trade in Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The French slave trade from the West African
coast to the Caribbean created a shift in the
French labor force in the Caribbean, which
affected the social, political, and economic
relationships between different classes and races
in Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Finally, I
explore the how the circulation, and exchange, of
revolutionary ideas of liberty, fraternity, and
equality disrupted the social, political, and
economic class structures in France, Haiti,
Martinique, and Guadeloupe in the nineteenth
century.
that could impact why students chose particular
seats over others in a classroom. The variables
under study included: race/ethnicity, physical
attractiveness, familiarity, and gender of the
respondent in reference to other people that may
be present within the classroom at the time of
seat choice. Other variables include access to
goodies of the classroom such as attention from
the professor, and approximate location to the
door, windows, board, etc. Traditional classroom
setting is operationalized by a room with: four
walls, one of which is lined with windows; 20-30
student desks assembled in rows and columns; a
professors’ desk in the front of the room and
parallel to some kind of board or projector; and a
door. The research design used was a survey
questionnaire distributed to five different classes
within five different undergraduate major
departments of the University of the Pacific
campus, with a total of 98 respondents. Sampling
was limited by both time and conflicting
schedules. Utilizing a table of random numbers,
a list of departments from the university website,
and a series of e-mails to network with
professors, classes that were administered the
survey were selected based on willingness and
availability of time that could be taken out of the
professors’ lecture. The survey consisted of: nine
Likert-scale questions, two fill-ins, one openended
question, and a diagram where
respondents were able to physically mark their
ideal seat if all seats were available upon arrival
in a classroom. Data collection was
accomplished through a tally of responses to
each question based on the respondents’
race/ethnicity and sex, followed by the
calculation of each category’s mean and mode
responses. The main findings of the inductive
survey are as followed: males are more inclined
to sit next to a person that they find physically
attractive, Asian-Americans are more likely to sit
against the wall in order to gain access to outlets,
and females prefer to sit in areas to minimize the
number of distractions they would be exposed to.
Why Do Students Sit Where They Sit in a
Classroom?: A Survey of University of
the Pacific Undergraduate Students
TyaCamellia Allred, Chynna Andeola,
Aliza Moody
Faculty Mentor: George Lewis
This inductive study examined the various
variables within a traditional classroom setting
Law and Politics of FDI
Jin Kim
Faculty Mentor: Yong Kyun Kim
Purpose of my paper is to study why states
would bind themselves to hand-tying agreements
in investment treaties that would undermine their
state sovereignty. To that extent, I will study the
various political and economic conditions that
might force or induce the respective states to
31