Faculty Proposals

Africana Studies Department

Pashington Obeng,
Siddi Women as Scheduled Tribe

This summer, I hope to collaborate with a student to research the Implications of the 2003 Indian government's granting of Scheduled Tribes Status to Siddis (African Indians) of Karnataka, South India. I will focus on how Siddi women, as Scheduled Tribe people, fashion and re-fashion their identities in a highly stratified and patriarchal society. I have a chapter in my book Shaping Membership, Defining Nation: The Cultural Politics of African Indians in South Asia, that addresses identity formation among Siddis, but I do not examine the complex ways in which Siddi women, descendants of Africans, who have lived in India for over 400 years understand, articulate, and represent their newly found identity as Scheduled Tribes people. This research therefore aims to investigate the multiple identities among the women who have been classified as Scheduled Tribe people. Present-day Siddi women include business women, birth attendants, and founders and leaders of religious groups. Some of the women define themselves with reference to their religion as Muslims, Hindus or Christians. There are other Siddi women who stress their membership in their sanghas (local/community groups). Also, I will use the data to analyze how Siddi women reconstruct their present status through new interpretations of their past as Africans, as Indians, and as members of a global community of women. Scheduled Castes (SCs) are Indians of the lowest social status (also known as “Dalits” or “Untouchables”), often classified with reference to the Hindu world-view. Scheduled Tribes (STs) are those communities that live in hinterlands and other depressed areas but are not classified along caste lines. Both SCs and STs are Indians recognized by the government as people qualified to receive government benefits, representation on legislative and political bodies, and other rights as citizens. In light of such new opportunities, the student and I will examine the extent to which designation as a Scheduled Tribe might shape the status and power relations between Siddi women and men in Siddi communities as well as in the larger India society.

Economics Department

David L. Lindauer, Department of Economics

Economics of Development (Norton) is a widely used textbook in development economics. I became a co-author for the 6th edition (2006). I will begin work on revisions for the 7th edition during the coming summer. The 6th edition began “a complete makeover” of the text, a process my co-authors and I hope to finish in the next edition. In addition to updating and revising chapters I previously wrote on poverty, population, education and health, I plan to overhaul several chapters that focus on issues of trade and development. Subtopics include the relationship between trade and growth, alternative trade strategies, sweatshops, outsourcing and many other topics often discussed (far from rigorously) in the popular press.

I would like to work with a student who has completed both principles courses in economics and has some background in statistics, preferably having completed Econ 103 and 203. You should also be interested in development economics. You will support the background work required for revising textbook chapters. You should enjoy working with data and have facility using Excel. Much of your time will be devoted to generating the charts and tables on development outcomes that will appear throughout the textbook, using data sets available from the World Bank and other agencies. You might also undertake literature reviews. In the summers of 2004 and 2005, two Wellesley students supported the research that helped to produce the 6th edition. Both found the experience worthwhile and I hope your experience will be similar.

Julie Matthaei, Economics

The Solidarity Economy

I am seeking a student to assist me in my research on the solidarity economy who has a heartfelt interest in this topic, and excellent research and writing skills.

The solidarity economy is a conceptual framework for characterizing and analyzing socially responsible and sustainable economic values, practices and institutions in the U.S. and the world, such as “high road” businesses, worker-owned cooperatives, fair trade practices, and ethical consumption, investment and finance. In their most developed and solidaristic form, such solidarity economy initiatives are not only ecologically sustainable but also feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, and anti-homophobic; in short, they involve an active commitment to eliminate hierarchy and domination. The solidarity economy also involves networking among its different actors, facilitating mutual support as well as the emergence of alternative, solidaristic economic systems within contemporary capitalism-dominated market economies, systems which represent a possible economic way forward.

While solidarity economy values, practices and institutions are quite common in the U.S., the solidarity economy concept, which is well-established and studied in Canada, Latin America, and Europe, is virtually unknown here, and there is very little research on the topic. I co-edited the first collection on the topic, and am now in the process of writing two journal articles on it – one for a left economics journal, The Review of Radical Political Economics, and the other for Feminist Economics – which my research assistant would work on with me. A third related project, which I see as taking the majority of her energies, is a project of “mapping” the solidarity economy in the Boston area, as part of an intercontinental mapping project being undertaken by RIPESS (Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy). Mapping involves identifying, describing, and categorizing various solidarity economy initiatives.

Olga Shurchkov, Economics Department

I would like to apply to the Office of the Dean of the College for funding to supervise a student research assistant on a summer project entitled "Political Elites in Russia and the Effect of Their Background on Economic Outcomes."

Even though Russia transitioned to a democratic institutional system in 1991, old Communist institutions persist in some of its regions. These "shadow institutions" have a significant effect on economic outcomes and such as the development of small businesses. Using regional data for 1994-2000, I show that Russian regions run by old Communist elites have had lower levels of economic development than regions led by newcomers to the political arena.

Over the summer, I would like to extend the existing dataset to include the more recent years in order to increase the power of the analysis. The main explanatory variable that needs to be constructed by hand is a proxy for the old power structure: the persistent Communist “shadow” institutions. This variable classifies the leader of a particular region into one of two categories: if he or she is someone who was an important Communist leader prior to democratization, then we dub him or her "old elite;" on the other hand, if the leader was never a party boss under Communism, we consider him or her a "new elite." This leader variable will be generated by reading biographies of current and previous leaders of a region and assessing their position prior to year 1991.

This project presents a unique opportunity for a student interested in Economics and in the Russian language and culture. She will be able to learn about transition economies and about the history of Russian political and economic institutions as we know them today.

Proficiency in Russian is required for this project as the student will be involved in searching for and reading biographies in Russian. Basic knowledge of statistics is necessary for simple analysis of the data that the student will be able to present at the end of the project.

Environmental Studies

Beth DeSombre, Environmental Studies and Political Science

Forum Shopping in International Institutions

International institutions often operate as though they are entirely independent of each other; the only relevant rules in an institution are its own, and members address conflicts with each other over substance or process by whatever institutional mechanisms that institution sets out. In practice, however, international institutions are a haphazard collection of separately-negotiated agreements with overlapping mandates and inconvenient spaces between their obligations.

What are the implications of the existence of multiple institutions within the same issue area? This project examines both the big picture – comparing the regulatory robustness of issue areas in which there are many institutions within which a given goal could be pursued with issues areas in which there are fewer.

It also looks at the micro picture: how do states that have an interest in an issue choose which, of the many available institutions, to use? What are the effects on the regulatory process when states use different institutions for the same goals?

The project will focus initially on environmental institutions, particularly those relating to species protection, but it will also branch out to include international institutions pertaining to other issues, like trade and labor regulations. There is a lot of leeway for a student to work on an issue area that interests her. Research will involve theoretical reading as well as the creation and analysis of a database of specific proposals introduced in international organizations.

Jay Turner, Environmental Studies

Climate change has emerged as the leading environmental issue over the past five years. Indeed, it is difficult to open a newspaper or surf the web today without reading about new scientific research, green economic recovery plans, and personal actions important to climate change. Social scientists have studied the important role of the media in explaining climate change to the public. In particular, they've focused on how the media has handled reporting on scientific skeptics, uncertainty in climate change science (particularly with respect to short-term disasters), and whether the media has entered into a 'climate trance.' What scholars have not done, however, is to consider how coverage of other environmental issues -- such as endangered species, water pollution, or toxic waste sites -- has changed over the past five years as attention to climate change has surged. That is the goal of this project. In short, the question I wish to explore is whether the growing focus on climate change has drawn attention to or away from other environmental issues. This is an important question, because efforts to address climate change may help address other environmental problems (such as the biodiversity crisis), but they are not substitutes for such efforts. I am interested in working with a student who has a background in environmental studies, strong skills with Excel, and a willingness to systematically analyze coverage of environmental issues in various media outlets.

History Department

Pat Giersch, History Department
I am working on two interrelated, long-term projects. The first seeks to unravel the connections between global economic change, long-distance trade, and Han Chinese colonization of South and Southwest China from the seventeenth through the 1930s. More specifically, the project traces the impact on Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces of two major transformations: (1) the explosive commercial growth in eighteenth-century East/Southeast Asia and (2) the reorientation of Asian trading networks and business practices in response to European colonialism. The project’s major question: Is there a relationship between these transformations, Han merchant and miner migration to Guangxi and Yunnan, and the development of economic/business practices that marginalized indigenous (non-Chinese) peoples in frontier China?
The second project is research for a book on the making of modern China. Most recognize China as an ancient land, but which historical trends have shaped the nation’s turbulent transition from imperial times to present? The book focuses on China’s frontier history and its legacy of conquest along its East and Inner Asia frontiers. Part of the project’s goal is to provide a historical background and interpretative framework for understanding vexing modern issues, such as Beijing’s explosive conflicts with the Tibetan Government in Exile, the ongoing disputes over Taiwan’s international status, and the issue of Muslim separatism in the Chinese Central Asian territory of Xinjiang. Last year’s research fellow contributed to an article on the conception of the modern state in Inner Asia. This year’s topic will focus on the development of minority identities in the first half of the twentieth century.
A research fellow may choose either project. She will read background literature, prepare reviews on a wide range of topics, and seek out relevant primary materials. For example, the first project’s topics may include Chinese merchant and business practices, ethnic minorities in China, European imperialism in East and Southeast Asia, and comparative works on trade and economic development. Necessary skills include an ability to read and summarize scholarly arguments. Strong reading skills (able to read scholarly material) in Chinese and/or Japanese would be helpful, but are not required.

Political Science

Hahrie Han, Political Science

Understanding Political Mobilization and Political Activism

The Obama presidential campaign was a watershed moment in the civic history of the United States. More so than any campaign in recent history, it showed the power of grassroots mobilization and the impact it can have on political outcomes. Using data from that and other campaigns, this project will analyze what kind of organizing techniques are most effective in mobilizing political activism. The student may assist in gathering data, and will assist in coding and analyzing existing data. The student must know how to do basic statistical analysis (preferably with STATA), experience manipulating large datasets and an interest in political organizing and U.S. politics is a plus.

Marion Just, Political Science

Focus on the Media

This summer I have been invited to contribute a chapter on “What is Newsworthy and Why,” for the new Oxford Handbook of American public Opinion and the Media. The essay will discuss current debates about news gate-keeping and journalistic norms. I will need an assistant to help me with bibliographic search and summaries of the relevant scholarly literature. The research can be done in the library or on electronic data-bases. I am looking for a student who is a strong researcher and writer to work with me on all aspects of the project. The student will receive appropriate acknowledgment or publication credit depending on her role. In addition, I am collaborating with a colleague in Germany on a proposed book about media coverage of women leaders. This project will involve contacting potential contributors and assisting in the editorial and writing process. An assistant could help me to draft my chapter on Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin or she could strike out on her own by studying another woman leader outside the United States such as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf or Yulia Tymashenko. Both of these projects will give a student a good sense of what is involved in scholarly writing and publication.

Psychology Department

Jennie Pyers, Psychology Department

Spatial language and analogical reasoning in deaf and hearing children

Images of spatial relationships are holistic: a picture with a cat on the mat is a unitary, simultaneous scene. English speakers translate holistic spatial relationships into sequential sentences, e.g., “a cat is on the mat,” and mark the spatial relationship with the preposition, “on.” Signers of American Sign Language (ASL), however, can map real-world space onto signing space and articulate the same spatial relationship iconicly without the use of a preposition, e.g., the sign for cat is placed on a sign for mat. Although iconic constructions are most common in ASL, signers sometimes sequentially describe spatial relationships using prepositions. The availability of both holistic and sequential language about spatial relationships allows us to ask key questions about the cognitive prerequisites for acquiring spatial language. Iconic representations of space depend on analogical reasoning, the understanding that elements of the sign map onto the actual referent. Prepositions are purely symbolic and bear no relationship to the referent. In this study we ask, which form of spatial language is acquired first in children learning ASL.

Because this research involves work with both deaf and hearing children, knowledge of sign language is helpful but not necessary. The student will learn to administer, videotape, and code a language comprehension task, as well as conduct basic statistical analyses. She will also help find reference material relevant to the write up of this study. The ideal student should feel at ease learning new computer (Mac) and video skills.

Jeremy Wilmer, Psychology Department

Human Variation in Vision - 2 projects

Have you ever wondered if we all see the same thing when we look at a passing car, a person's face, a bird flying, or the night sky? In fact, there are striking differences in how each of us experiences the world through our eyes. My lab studies these differences in order to learn about the origins, nature, and consequences of our visual abilities. We are currently investigating: 1) ability to perceive moving things and precisely lock onto them with our eyes, 2) ability to recognize faces, and 3) ability to perceive the third dimension by combining the slightly different views of the two eyes (aka stereovision).

Project 1 - Keep your eye on the ball: Tracking eye movements to smoothly moving objects

We have been studying three skills involved in following a moving object with the eyes. First, the ability to quickly accelerate the eyes to catch up to the moving object. Second, the ability to effectively lock onto the object. And third, the ability to maintain one's lock on the object. Interestingly, we have found that different motion perception abilities predict the first and second skills, and that gender predicts the third skill. This summer we will be seeking to replicate and extend these findings.

The student will receive two days of training at Wellesley from the manufacturer on how to operate the lab's new eye tracker. The student should therefore feel at ease learning new computer (Mac) skills and working with (and trouble-shooting) high-end technology. The student will also work to set up a system of recruiting subjects from off-campus through mechanisms such as Craigslist. A knowledge of computer programming (esp. Matlab or Javascript) is desirable but not required. Student should be a self-starter with a willingness to take on independent responsibility. For more information about my research program, please visit www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Wilmer

Project 2 - Seeing double: Web-based studies of twins and non-twins

We have been studying twins to determine the relative contributions of nature (genes) and nurture (environment) to visual abilities such as memory for faces, gut sense of number (estimating, for example, the number of persons in a crowd at a quick glance), and binocular coordination of the two eyes to see in 3D depth. This summer we will be collecting, processing, analyzing, and writing up web-based data related to these efforts.

The student will learn to monitor, process, and conduct simple analyses on data collected from twins and non-twins on our website www.testmybrain.org. The student will also likely create visual stimuli for web-based tests, help find reference material relevant to the write-up of this research, and assist in participant recruitment. Knowledge of programming (esp. Javascript or Matlab) would be a plus, but is not required. Student should be a self-starter with a willingness to take on independent responsibility. For more information about my research program, please visit www.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Wilmer

Sociology Department

Lee Cuba, Sociology

Student Learning and Academic Decision Making at Selective Liberal Arts Colleges

Colleges structure and support the academic experiences of their students in a variety of ways, such as general education and major requirements, first year seminars, writing programs, advising systems, international study opportunities, and junior or senior thesis programs. Although institutions are able to articulate the goals of these programs, they know relatively little about how these requirements or programs influence student learning or academic decision making. How do students make decisions at key points in their academic careers (e.g., choosing a major, deciding to study away, writing a senior thesis) in ways that promote both breadth and depth of learning? Who influences these decisions? What modifications to college programs and practices would significantly enhance student learning? Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, seven liberal arts colleges (Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Smith, Trinity and Wellesley) have formed a research consortium to explore these and other questions concerning the academic experiences of undergraduate students (www.wellesley.edu/NECASL). The student working on this project will read literature appropriate to these issues, collaborate on the development of interview schedules to be used in a longitudinal study of students who entered these institutions in fall 2006, and conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of data collected for this longitudinal study. She will also have the opportunity to be a student interviewer for the project during the 2009-2010 academic year.

Ira Silver, Visiting Professor of Sociology

Hurricane Katrina, Disaster Relief and America’s Poor

This project is a study of the charitable response to Hurricane Katrina. In a previous summer, a Wellesley student documented that Katrina became the target of more relief than any other disaster in American history (exceeding a billion dollars in private contributions) principally because the news media exposed graphic images of human suffering among those whose lives were already constrained by systemic barriers of poverty and race. My aim for this summer is to begin to assess the broader impacts of this relief effort on public attitudes about, and responses to, poverty in America.

Among the questions that the student who works on this project will investigate are the following:

1. To what degree have Katrina relief efforts targeted the underlying systemic reasons – pertaining to class and race – that explain why certain people were so much more vulnerable than others to the Hurricane’s wrath? She will track the kinds of organizations where charitable dollars have gone over the past 3+ years in order to determine how much disaster relief has been earmarked toward enabling people to rebuild the lives they once lived as opposed to transforming their pre-Katrina living conditions altogether.

2. How do the effects of Katrina relief on poor people compare with everyday charitable giving to the poor – giving that is not fueled by the media drama surrounding disaster?

This research will make a significant contribution to my larger project, which is to do a critical evaluation of disaster relief – what it achieves, which needs it leaves unaddressed, and how it contributes to the ways we think about social problems.
isilver@framingham.edu

Women’s Studies

Rosanna Hertz, Sociology and Women’s Studies

A: Project Description: The Gift: Sick Days

Voluntary donation carries fundamental meaning about social life and collective obligations that we have as a society. The transfer of sick days internal to an organization is an interesting example of a collective altruistic act to help those in need. The U.S., unlike the vast majority of countries globally, neither provides nor requires paid workplace benefits. Individuals are left to their own devices even though we know that the quality of working conditions affects our daily lives. I have access to a major multi-national corporation and I want to look at the use of sick day transfers as “gifts”. In short, I am interested in the conditions under which sick days become part of a collective exchange between various employees. How many days do individual employees give away? Under what conditions do they give them? Are they given anonymously? Does the workplace culture facilitate the redistribution of sick days and if so is it part of a system of working conditions that can be exchanged? In order to understand the sick day as a gift we will look at literature on other kinds of donations from blood, gametes, bodily organs.

B. Unemployed Families

America is in the mist of the worst economic crisis it has faced since the great depression.
The unemployment rate jumped to 7.2% in December 2008, the highest in 16 years. The layoffs are expected to continue through at least the next six months. Layoffs are occurring in all sectors of the economy hitting people of all social classes. I am interested in writing an indepth interview guide and beginning a small pilot study interviewing families who have been laid off.

A research assistant for these projects will work with me on both projects. This includes reviewing literature, learning how to write interview questions and interviewing families.
Please contact me if you have questions.