Category: Labs

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Arabela Urpi Iggesen Valenzuela’s Signature Work project.

Student: Arabela Urpi Iggesen Valenzuela

Mentor: Professor Umair Sajid 

During the summer of 2022, Pakistan experienced monsoon rains 3-5 times as heavy as the national average, and subsequently the worst-ever recorded floods in their history. This caused unprecedented damage across the country. Combined with pre-existing gender health inequalities, this catastrophe amplified the disease burden faced by women in the most affected areas. This project aims to study the impact of the 2022 “superfloods” on women’s health compared to men and identify patterns driving gender health inequality in times of disaster, through cross-sectional surveys and interviews conducted in the rural communities of southwestern Punjab province, Pakistan. The outcomes of this study will provide valuable insight into the nexus between natural disaster, public health, marginalization, and gender relations in Pakistani tribal communities, which can help future relief efforts address the needs of affected populations more efficiently.  

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Yutong Shi’s  Signature Work project.

Student: Yutong Shi

Mentor: Professor Mengqi Wang

In China’s ongoing real estate crisis, a significant number of contractors have abandoned construction, leaving apartment buildings unfinished. On social media, images of unfinished homes, known as lanwei lou/烂尾楼, proliferate. Many apartments in these buildings were already sold to families who are making mortgage payments to this day. Developed from my previous research, this project will explore how these families visit, decorate, and/or move into these unfinished apartments to make a home out of the bare concrete. The project explores how these families’ inflexible pursuit of a home has left them suspended in between being housed and homelessness. It aims to conduct a multi-sited ethnography on unfinished homes, using research methods including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, digital mapping, and visual documentation. To date, the researchers have located unfinished homes in Nanjing, Zhenzhou, Kunshan, Shanghai, and Wuhu. The next step is to visit these unfinished homes and conduct long-term and semi-structured interviews with owners/occupants of these homes, as well as other personnel involved (developers, government officials, lawyers, etc.) in these projects. 

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Yueqi Dou’s  Signature Work project.

Student: Yueqi Dou

Mentor: Professor Robin Rodd

Censorship, the suppression or control of information and communication, is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that has been an enduring aspect of current societies and the media landscape. It takes various forms, ranging from government-imposed restrictions on media content to self-censorship driven by societal norms and values. However, people have continually grappled with the challenges of censorship, coming up with tactics to avoid being censored. The censorship guidelines often are inexplicit and blurry, leaving people space to interpret and test the boundaries. To deliver messages and prevent content from being banned, people tend to internalize the censorship and regulate their own behaviors. Under the shadow of censorship, content and art work manage to thrive in the grey area. This research aims to examine activist movements and artistic practices under censorship in online and public spaces. Starting with a review of these practices and related literatures, I will explore and categorize the strategies people have used to escape censorship. Drawing on anthropological, sociological, and media theories and methods, I intend to go deep into these practices and their social impact. I will primarily focus on the landscape in China. Then I will make comparisons with cases in other cultures and countries, such as Korea and Russia. 

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Lucas Chacko and Cody Schmidt’s Signature Work project

Students: Lucas Chacko and Cody Schmidt

Mentor: Professor Robin Rodd

From a broad perspective, our project will focus on degrowth and biocultural movements in Colombia. We have a shared interest in such alternative forms of sustainable economics, particularly in the Global South with the region’s history of colonialism, extractivism, and exploitation by the Global North. Degrowth specifically focuses on challenging traditional conceptions of a country’s wealth and success, posing critical questions regarding the environmental degradation and social stratification that traditional economic relations create.  

Related to this is the idea of bioculturalism, focusing specifically on the intersection between the environment and society, and their subsequent coexistence. Colombia in particular has been a home to a number of social and political movements led by citizens advocating for environmental justice. Moreover, recent political developments in Colombia have placed such arguments and initiatives at the center of political conversation. We will spend one month in Colombia observing the ways in which this conversation takes place, with Chacko focusing on citizen mobilization and coordination, and Schmidt focusing on how current environmental policies are experienced. 

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Enkhkhuslen Bat-Erdene’s Signature Work project

Student: Enkhkhuslen Bat-Erdene, Class of 2025, Institutions and Governance / Public Policy

Mentor: Professor Annemieke van den Dool, Ph.D. (Public Policy)

In East Asia, economic powerhouses like China, Japan, and South Korea are experiencing a decline in fertility rates due to historical gender discrimination. Despite the growing presence of feminist movements within these nations, gender disparity remains a deeply rooted issue. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, South Korea, China, and Japan rank 105th, 107th, and 125th, respectively, out of 146 countries, making them the East Asian countries with the most significant gender disparities. 

South Korea’s recent feminist movement, known as #MeToo, has brought about significant changes but also faced fierce opposition. The movement appears to have unintentionally exacerbated, rather than bridged, the gender gap in South Korean society. Consequently, this project seeks to explore the obstacles female leaders and policymakers face in South Korean politics and to uncover the underlying reasons for their exclusion from critical gender policy decisions. By shedding light on the persistence of gender disparities within the government, I aim to provide valuable insights into potential solutions to increase women’s involvement in policymaking.