2014 Grant Recipients

Summary of Graduate Grant Projects:

  • Kathryn Miller, Political Science: There is a long history, in the United States and elsewhere, of failing to recognize intimate partner violence (IPV) against immigrant women as criminal harm. IPV continues almost unabated throughout the world, affecting all countries, cultures, and economic class. In the US, there is a decisive gap between the numbers of immigrant women facing IPV, and those afforded state amelioration (i.e. visas or grants of asylum); insofar as they exist, state responses have failed to adequately address this form of gendered violence. Rather than viewing legal and administrative institutions in the US as well-meaning, though inept, I ask to what extent they may be directly implicated both in legitimating IPV against immigrant women, and creating the space necessary for it to continue. Given that the existence of this legal space is an essential precondition to the acts of violence themselves, how should we understand the role of US governmental institutions in IPV against immigrant women? That is, what is the relationship between state actions/inactions and the perpetuation of this form of gendered violence? This dissertation examines the ways in which categories of victimhood (e.g. “battered immigrant”), formed through policy and policy implementation, operate on women seeking state intervention. I hypothesize that these categories have an exclusionary and disciplinary effect on IPV survivors in two instances treated as separate in policy and the literature: 1) Women seeking asylum on account of IPV, and 2) immigrant women facing IPV in the US. I examine this through an analysis of legal processes, relevant policies and administration, court cases, and interviews with employees at NGOs that serve immigrant women. I also re-conceptualize what it means for the state to do harm in this context.
  • Thiago Pereira Vital de Castro, Linguistics: The primary goal of my research trip to Brazil this summer is to continue the documentation of the Djeoromitxi language and culture. These recordings will form the basis from which I ask further questions necessary to understand how the forms of the language combine both to encode the universal communicative functions shared by all languages (who did what to whom, when, why, etc.) and to create the unique kinds of information that the Djeoromitxi speech community found essential for their life before integration.
  • Charlie Hankin, Music Performance: I propose to carry out a preliminary oral history study of the reception and dissemination of hip hop lyrics in Cuba as a means for exploring race and identity on both local and global levels. I will conduct a series of interviews in Havana of young writers, artists, and intellectuals before, during, and after the International Hip Hop Festival in early August. In particular, I plan to examine the reception and dissemination of the lyrics of Los Aldeanos, a group given prominent billing at the festival in 2013 and identified in a 2006 New York Times article as part of “Cuba’s Rap Vanguard.”

Summary of Faculty Projects:

  • Analisa Taylor (Romance Languages); Audrey Lucero (Education Studies); Claudia Holguin (Romance Languages); and Angel Dorantes (Education Studies)
    Project: Assessing the experiences of Latino/a students at UO
    Abstract: We are seeking to carry out a detailed assessment of how Latin@ students at the University of Oregon perceive and negotiate the academic as well as socio-cultural barriers they face. We have anecdotal evidence to suggest that Latin@ students often learn upon enrollment or advancing to upper division courses within their majors that they do not possess some of the insider knowledge needed to take advantage of academic and professional opportunities. They also report challenges relating to unspoken class, ethnic, linguistic and cultural norms within the university. The results of this study will allow us to name the problem within a wider constituency and advocate for an expansion of those resources in the form of academic support as well as financial aid and scholarship support for Latin@ students. See also: Lucero, Audrey; Dorantes, Angel; Holguín Mendoza, Claudia; & Romero Montaño,Luz. Reforzando las Redes: Supporting Latina/o Undergraduates at a State Flagship University. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. 1-22.
  • Ellen McWhirter (Counseling Psychology and Human Services)
    Project: Assessing the experiences of Latino high school students in Oregon
    Abstract: This project is part of the CLLAS Research Action Project (RAP) “Advancing Latino Equity in Oregon”, for which our RAP group is planning a comprehensive report. These funds will allow me to combine and analyze data from 8 years of collaboration with the Cesar E. Chavez Leadership Conference into a report that provides contextual descriptive and correlational data on samples of 500-1000 Latino high school students from over 90 schools in Oregon. Report contents will include information about Oregon Latino graduation and college enrollment rates, educational achievement and attainment, as well as descriptive information yielded by my data sets regarding Latino students’ postsecondary plans, outcome expectations, the barriers they experience as they complete their high school education, microaggressions they experience, school related self-efficacy expectations, and indicators of their critical consciousness. I will synthesize and present this data for the RAP report.
  • Edward Olivos (Education Studies) and Audrey Lucero (Education Studies) 
    Project: Study of dual language education programs
    Abstract: We plan to conduct a yearlong multi-site comparative case study of elementary dual language education programs around the state of Oregon. Such programs are designed to ensure that Spanish-speaking Latino children receive equitable, high quality learning experiences in both English and Spanish. A key goal of this research study, therefore, is to examine how schools in various areas of the state implement and sustain dual language education programs in ways that address these needs. The research is also intended to highlight opportunities and challenges associated with providing such an education through dual language education.

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