Click here to see Summer Research papers from 2005.
 

Adoption benefits both children who are abandoned or orphaned and couples who are eager to raise children.  International adoption has contributed to globalization by increasing international migration and fostering diversity in recipient nations. Since World War II, the number of international adoptees in the United States has continuously increased.  The United States has based its international adoption policy on the nation’s political, economic, and social goals; humanitarian goals have been secondary.  The nations that send their children to the U.S. also pursue their national interest in the process.  From 1953, when the Korean War ended, to 1994, Korea sent more children to the United States than any other countries. In 1995, China took Korea’s place as the leading nation for sending children to the United States.  The number of adoptees these countries send has always been influenced by their political, economic, and social interests.  This process of international adoption has thus been enabled and enhanced by the convergence of national interests. 

In pursuit of political and humanitarian goals, the U.S. federal government has directly and indirectly followed a policy of both encouraging and restricting international adoption, depending on their current goals.  In the beginning of its international adoption history, the U.S. government started allowing the entry of World War II orphans, revising its Immigration Law to issue them special visas.  In doing so, the government was responding both to the increasing demand of American couples for children to adopt and to the emergent needs of suffering children.  In the article “Transnational Adoption,” Carson argues;

By lifting restrictions preventing or delaying the immigration of adoptable children, the federal government     has endorsed transnational adoption as a means of satisfying the needs of its own citizens, as well as the needs of homeless children in foreign lands.

The U.S. government’s commitment to the welfare of children coincided with its national interests; from the first, then, America’s international adoption policy has been inseparable from its national interest. (Click here to see this paper in its entirety (html / PDF).)

Building New Foundations: A Transition for all Ladakhis
by Benjamin Fash

Connecting Flights: The Trans-Pacific Streams of Filipino Literature
by Cecil Apostol

Despite the multitude of traditions available to choose from, I seek to examine the two traditions that are commonly conflated with one another: Philippine Literature in English (or Filipino English Literature) and Filipino American Literature. Though separated by a vast ocean, both the Philippines and the US are bound together by a complicated, and at times, painful history. Out of this love-hate relationship emerge two distinct literatures that are shaped by the policies, influences, and cultures of both nations.  With Philippine Literature in English, writers are obviously utilizing an American imported language while at the same time writing from a culture still very much influenced by American culture. And with Filipino American literature, many (but not all) writers use the Philippines as the material and inspiration for their work. Yet, because this transnational exchange is not a recent phenomenon, both literatures have had time to evolve and alter their foreign influences. While English has become Filipinized and Philippine pop culture has become an entity of its own, memories of the Philippines from Filipino Americans become mythical remembrances of lost paradise. Although these transnational streams seemingly run parallel to each other (like the two planes over the Pacific), I intend to find out where and when (if at all) they intersect. (Click here to see this paper in its entirety. (html / PDF))

Practices of Exhibiting Tibetan Art in New York City: A Diagnosis and Possible Alternatives 
by Daniel Zolli

Art museums have become one of our preeminent institutions for learning about other cultures.  As a cultural, historical and material repository, the art museum is of critical importance in defining and maintaining the identities of the public that it serves, which include minority groups such as the Tibetans.  Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project in 1991, an influx of Tibetan exiles and immigrants has resettled in host cities throughout the United States, creating a unique Tibetan milieu in this country. But how is their cultural heritage represented to the West?  This paper examines current practices of exhibiting Tibetan cultural artifacts in major art museums in New York City, and considers how to create the ideal circumstances in which to cultivate co-operation and mutual respect for Tibetan cultural artifacts in ways that respect the priorities of both museums and the Tibetan people.  Summer research yielded six practical solutions, which I offer to provoke and promote conversation about alternative practices to exhibiting Tibetan artifacts in museum contexts. To address these issues is to help preserve the integrity and agency of the Tibetans in exile, and to facilitate the diffusion and adaptation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition in America. (Click here to see this paper in its entirety. (html / PDF))

Los Angeles Korean Churches: Its Role in Ethnic Identity Formation in the Korean Second Generation
by Jean Park

As the children of the post-1965 Korean immigration boom come of age, the role of the church in ethnic identity formation is decidedly less studied and known.  This research focuses on the impact of the church on ethnic identity adaptation experienced by the second generation.  Through interviews and participant observation, research focused on the preservations and manifestations of ethnicity, the idea of ethnic minority status, as well as how participants viewed themselves in society.  Among the participants interviewed, the church became an important physical location where one’s ethnic identity was formulated and reinforced.  This research will be incorporated into a senior thesis that will explore further the complex discourse of generation, spiritual and ethnic identity. (Click here to see this paper in its entirety. (html / PDF))

The Interface of Buddhism and Science: Will it alter a tradition?
by Jeffrey Walker

My research focused on the interface of Buddhism and science in the context of how the traditions of Buddhism have migrated from Asia to the West.  Two projects at this interface, the Shamatha Project and the project of Neurophenomenology, served to illustrate the state of the contemporary discussion between Buddhism and the mind sciences.  Through these projects I explored the effect that the interface might have on both traditions, the issues that must be taken into account in such cross-cultural/interdisciplinary collaboration, and the ways in which this collaboration might benefit society. (Click here to see this paper in its entirety. (html / PDF))

The Always-Going-Home Syndrome: An Examination of the Diasporic Indian’s Search for Identity and Place in the Globalized World.
by Joshua Arjuna Stephens

To better understand Indian and Indian-Americans in a globalized world, I did research seeking to explore the themes of a reverse migration and its effect on the identity of the diasporic Indian. The sentiment of eventually returning home, what can be deemed the “always-going-home-syndrome”, has been present in the extensive South-Asian Diaspora to America over the past 100 years. But while this sentiment was initially a gesture of homage to their country of origin, and the mention of the intent to return being a matter of manners or protocol among immigrant Indians, it evolved to become an important element in the identity of an Indian in the United States. Now, as current economic conditions bring great change to India, the idea of a return, something that existed mostly in myth for an earlier generation, has become a possibility, even a probability, for the present generation of students and young professionals.  In this context, the “always-going-home syndrome,” although still an important component of the identity of Indian-Americans and Indians in America, takes on new complexity.  My research, which is to lead into senior honors thesis work, focused on a particular group of Indians, Gujarati’s, and the individual struggle to live in the States along with the personal desire to return to the India they left. How will the tensions between staying and going home, between saying that you are going but really attempting to stay, between trying to go home and yet finding the pull of the U.S. too strong, trying to go home but finding both it and you have changed, play out for this younger generation in comparison with those who preceded them? (Click here to see this paper in its entirety. (html / PDF))