4th Annual

Graduate Research Conference

• Friday April 14 2006 • 12:00 - 5:00 PM •

• Wayne & Lois Shields Case Room, 227 Chiles Business Center •

Attendance free and open to the public - No registration required

 

Sponsored by

The Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC)

and

The University of Oregon Graduate School

 

Presentation Abstracts

[2006 Conference] [2005 Conference] [2004 Conference] [2003 Colloquia Series]

 

Request for Proposals 2006-07

(PDF format)

 

Schedule of Events

12:00

 Introduction and Welcome
 

Mia Tuan Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Director, Center on Diversity and Community

Mia Tuan is one of CoDaC's founding members. Tuan received her B.A. in Sociology from UC Berkeley and M.A./Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. She is the author of Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites? The Asian Ethnic Experience Today (Rutgers University Press, 1999). Her research interests include: racial and ethnic identity, racial reconciliation/mediation work, and immigrant adaptation. She is currently conducting a qualitative study (along with Jiannbin Shiao) of Asian adoptees raised by White families. The study is funded by the Russell Sage Foundation.
 

12:15 - 1:00

New Directions in Cultural Psychology

 

 

Choosing Sides: Mixed Race Identity and the College Context
Presenter James Lyda Ph.D. Candidate, Counseling Psychology Program
  An examination of US demographic trends reveals that mixed-race populations are growing rapidly. This growth is reflected on US college and university campuses, as well. This presentation examines an emerging paradigm for understanding racial identity development that is inclusive of mixed-race identity individuals, including ecological factors contributing to mixed-race experience. This presentation also reports theoretical and conceptual findings of a pending dissertation project that will explore relationships between identity, social connectedness, and college adjustment experiences among mixed-race identity college students.

Traumatic Disclosure within a Cultural Framework

Presenter

Melissa Ming Foynes Ph.D. Student, Department of Psychology
  Despite the fact that trauma affects all ethnic and cultural groups, clinical psychology typically investigates traumatic experience within the framework and context of European American culture. The findings from this proposed research project will offer a better understanding of the role of culture in disclosure of trauma and provide insight into cultural mechanisms underlying disclosure and societal reactions to disclosure within Asian American and Latina/o cultural frameworks. By identifying factors that hinder or aid disclosure, community members can be educated on supportive and appropriate techniques for responding to disclosure of trauma.
   
Session Chair Linda Forrest Professor, Counseling Psychology and Family Services
   
 

1:15 - 2:30

 State & Cultural Constructions
 
  Presenter The Romance of Affirmative Action: How Immigration Debate Affects the Dynamics of Affirmative Action
  Kennedy Luvai J.D. Candidate, School of Law
  Against the backdrop of economic slowdown in the early 1990s, a controversy over the relationship between two seemingly unrelated policies -- affirmative action and immigration -- gained traction. This debate recently reignited following remarks attributed to noted Harvard University scholars decrying the disproportionate representation of Black immigrants relative to African Americans at elite universities. The current presentation discusses the convergence of these two policies by tracing their respective evolutions with the groundbreaking 1960s era civil rights and immigration reforms as a starting point. Of particular import, this presentation sifts through and makes sense of the murky discourse that informs any assessment of the impact of immigration on the "romantic" construction of affirmative action as a means of enhancing opportunity for historically-marginalized communities.
   
  Toward an Intersectional Analysis of the State: The Production of Filipina Migrants in the United States
Presenter Sandra Ezquerra Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology (read by Lora Vess Department of Sociology)
  This presentation examines the relationship between individual experiences of female immigrants going from the Philippines to the United States and the state practices for managing immigration. My main research question is "How do state policies affect the experience of Filipina migrant workers?" My tentative framework is that the state facilitates situations of dependency and exploitation, with gender, class, and race as key variables through which state policies organize Filipina migrants' experiences.
 
  The Politics of the Marked Body: An Examination of Female Genital Cutting & Breast Implantation
Presenter Courtney Smith Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political Science
  This project attempts to untangle a messy web of forced gender roles, racial identities, postcolonial power structures, and thinly-guised claims of multiculturalism that surround the central issue of cultural practices of female genital cutting. Looking specifically at the practice in Senegal, I attempt to unpack the meaning of female genital cutting practices and understand their importance within racial and gender societal structures. I use this gained understanding to reflect on certain raced and gendered cultural practices within American society.
   
Session Chair
 Joe Lowndes Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
   
 
2:45-3:30 UO Center Directors - Graduate Research
 
Participants Linda Fuller Interim Director, Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)
  Michael Hames-Garcia Director, Proposed Center for Race, Ethnicity and Sexuality Studies (CRESS)
  Jeffrey Hanes Director, Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS)
  Robert Proudfoot Director, Center for Indigenous Cultural Survival (CICS)
  Steve Shankman Director, Oregon Humanities Center (OHC) - or designee
  Mia Tuan Director, Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC)
 
 

3:45 - 5:00

Globalization and Migration

 

 

St. Petersubrg's Chinese Quarter as Calibration between East and West
Presenter Megan Dixon Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geography
  This presentation examines a constrction project currently underway in St. Petersburg, Russia, that is financed by five development firms from Shanghai, China. My analysis seeks to position this project in globalization processes by analyzing the nature of the construction plans as well as reactions to them. A key source for this analysis is interview data collected in August 2005 in St. Petersburg.
   
  Ethnic Communities in Diaspora: Constructing Tibetan Identity in the United States
Presenter Brittany Jones M.A. Candidate, Department of Geography
  This project examines the effects of community size and local organizations on the maintenance of ethnic and cultural identity amongst Tibetans in Ithaca, New York. An examination of geographical processes (e.g. transational connections, "imagined community," and social networks) demonstrates the advantages of population numbers below a certain threshold in maintaining community organization. The current proejct highlights the Tibetan Association of Ithaca and Namgyal Monastery as locally organized cultural institutions that are important for sustaining local Tibetan community ties to ethnic and cultural roots.

 
Refugees, the State, and Resistance: Bosnians and Southern Sudanese in the Midwest

Presenter

Jennifer Erickson Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology
  This presentaiton explores relationships within and between refugee populations and their host society by focusing on the situations of Bosnian and Southern Sudanese refugees in the American Midwest. I examine how refugees and people who work with them negotiate identities based on multiple intersecting and divergent cultural factors, including but not limited to "race," ethnicity, gender, religion, class, family structure, and degree of involvement with others from their home country. This presentation draws upon research conducted during Summer 2005 as well as previous work experiences with refugee individuals and communities.
   
Session Chair Susan Hardwick Professor, Department of Geography
   
 
  DISABILITY ACCOMODATIONS
All sessions will take place in 227 Chiles (the Wayne and Lois Shields Case Room) adjoining the Lillis Business Complex. This is a wheelchair-accessible facility. For any accommodation requests related to a disability, please inform CoDaC no later than Monday, April 4.
FOOD

The Café at the Lillis Business Complex will be open on Friday for lunch, snacks, baked goods and beverages. A light offering of afternoon refreshments will be made available at the conference, as well.
DIRECTIONS AND PARKING
The Lillis Business Complex is located on the corner of KincaidStreet and 13th Avenue, Eugene, Oregon 97403. Visitor parking information and passes are available at the Department of Public Safety (1319 E. 15th Avenue) or at the UO Parking Kiosk (E. 13th Avenue and Agate Street, in front of Oregon Hall). Metered street parking, either under the jurisdiction of UO or the City of Eugene, is enforced all day until 6:00PM. Residential street parking is also available near campus. Please observe all posted signs and other parking restrictions.