Stander Symposium abstract book - University of Dayton

ORAL PRESENTATIONS
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Making Money and Making a Difference in Malawi, Africa.
Presenter(s): Hillary A Cook, Allison M Varricchio
Advisor(s): Jason L Pierce
Political Science
1:00 PM-1:20 PM
Independent Research Kennedy Union - 312
Maji Zuwa is a newly established NGO in Malawi, Africa that aims to operate as a profitable economic empowerment lodge while enabling
sustainable development within the surrounding villages. Maji Zuwa, meaning water and sun, operates as a social entrepreneurship enterprise
that encompasses a lodge where vacationers, students, and service groups can visit for an atypical travel experience. Maji Zuwa also operates a
non-profit organization, Determined to Develop, a registered 501(c)(3), to lift Malawians out of poverty through grassroots development projects.
The goal of Maji Zuwa is to empower Malawian people to live a life of dignity without providing handouts to those in need. This paper assesses the
effectiveness of Maji Zuwa in meeting its goals and utilizing its resources to promote development. The researchersÂÂ conducted ethnographic
field research in Malawi and collected over forty interviews with individuals directly impacted by the developmental projects carried out by Maji
Zuwa. The findings suggest that since Maji Zuwa is in its preliminary stages of operating as an NGO, it does not have the resources, specifically
monetary, to successfully promote sustainable development in the region. However, in time Maji Zuwa will receive the necessary domestic and
international support to promote development.
Slavery through the Ages; An Historical Narrative on Bondage and Ideology and the
Institution of Slavery Today
Presenter(s): Rebecca M Elderkin
Advisor(s): Dorian Borbonus, Anthony N Talbott
Political Science
1:00 PM-1:20 PM
Course Project, 11_FA_POL_300_04 Kennedy Union - 311
The purpose of this research is to identify major categories in which slavery in the West is defined in order to create a historical narrative on the institution
of slavery. This narrative will end with contemporary slavery, whereby history and historiography will be used to frame the way in which
slavery is popularly thought of today. The study will briefly cover slavery during five major time periods; the purpose of chronological separation
is to illustrate how slavery influenced each of these societies and how each society influenced the institution of slavery. The first time period will
be antiquity, covering what is known of slavery in ancient Greece and Rome. Second, medieval slavery will be compared to ancient slavery and be
analyzed as a precursor for the third era, the oft referred “Enlightenment era.” Here, focus will be on the contrast between popular literacy and the
reality and tenacity of the institution of slavery. The fourth era will be narrowed to civil controversy over slavery in the United States. Finally, the
fifth period is the modern-era, wherein twenty-seven million slaves exist, a larger number than any other period in history.
U.S. Foreign Policy in an Era of Change
Presenter(s): Maria Alarcon Garcia del Real, Alex K Antony, Chin Yi Chen, Lindsey E Cummings, Timothy J
Finnigan, Amanda L Fioritto, Brian P Focareto, Scott Fogel, Belmari Gonzalez,
Nuria Eugenia Gonzalez Pedrol, John E McGinnis, Erika C Morris, Sandra Rodriguez Pintor
Advisor(s): Margaret P Karns
Political Science
1:00 PM-4:00 PM
Course Project, 12_SP_POL_408_01 Marianist Hall Learning Space - 217
The rise of emerging powers such as China and India and the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2008 global financial crisis, and high
budget deficits have created a number of challenges for US foreign policy in responding to these changes. This series of research presentations
will examine some of those challenges and analyze factors that have shaped specific US foreign policy decisions. One group of presentations will
concern responses to “Drug Trafficking and Violence in Mexico” as well as “The Leftward Turn in Latin America” and “Cuba and the Continuing US
Embargo.” A second set of presentations will focus on “The US and Pakistan,” The US and the Palestinians,” “The US and the Egyptian Revolution of
2011,” “Comparing the US Decisions to Invade and Withdraw from Iraq,” and “The US and Reconstruction in Iraq.” The third group of presentations
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