Third World Studies Association Meeting
Omaha, Nebraska
October 2004
Beyond Paris, London, and Madrid: Undergrad Scholars and Emerging Research in Third World Studies
Dianna J. Shandy and Jess Thimm (Organizers), Macalester College
Paris, London, Madrid. These constitute the typical destinations for the majority of undergraduate students on a study abroad semester or summer program. This panel draws on research conducted by undergraduate students who elected to spend their “study away” in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. This panel draws on their fieldwork in Mongolia, Ecuador, South Africa, and Albania to explore emerging directions in Third World studies from the vantage point of the newest generation of scholars. The papers on this panel explore struggles over cultural authenticity in such far flung locations as shamans in transforming Mongolian society and African entrepreneurs in South Africa. It evaluates the effectiveness of specific programming in women’s prisons in Ecuador, reproductive health projects in Albania, and nurse training programs in South Africa. Many of the papers conclude with recommendations for how their findings might improve delivery of services.
Lauren Bonilla (Macalester ’05)
Shamans and Social Change in Mongolia
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, Mongolia faced the dual difficulties of finding its position in the international economic and political order while at the same time finding its national identity at home. As part of this process shamanism re-emerged publicly in the new democracy of Mongolia as one of the major forces in shaping a new national identity. This paper not only explores the ways in which the struggling post-communist economic and social environment of Mongolia enabled and supported this religious emergence, but also how shamanism transformed from seven decades of government repression to a form of nationalist expression. The research methodology is primarily field-work based using ethnographic interviewing and participant observation in Mongolia and among the Mongolia diaporic community in the U.S.
Elizabeth Hutchinson (Macalester ’05)
Nursing in Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Exploratory Study of the Perceptions of Nurses Working in the Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex
This study explores the experience of being a hospital nurse in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. More specifically, it investigates: (1) the vital roles nurses play as healthcare providers in an urban hospital, (2) nursing education, (3) the biggest challenges nurses face, and (4) their perceptions of the current issues surrounding nursing within the PE Hospital Complex and throughout South Africa. This study employed research methods such as observation and formal and informal interviews with nurses and hospital staff at three hospitals within the PE Hospital Complex. Findings of this study suggest several departures from past training and education of nurses and expected activities in the delivery of care, e.g. a curricular shift from book knowledge and theory to a focus on community based education.
In conclusion, this study reveals a number of challenges facing nurses at present including: emigration of nurses, ineffective incentives, and inadequate enabling factors such as human and material resources and transportation and accessibility. Thus, this study concludes with specific recommendations for changes to make a positive difference in the nursing experience.
Jess Thimm (Macalester ’06) and Kirsten Bean (Macalester ’06)
Family Planning in Rural Albania: Using the arts for a grassroots promotion of healthy lifestyles
Family planning and reproductive health are among the many social issues that development projects in Albania have attempted to address since the fall of Communism in 1991. Once a pro-natal society that banned any form of family planning, Albania still lacks information on and discussion of the dangers of sexually transmitted infections and family planning issues. Although progress has been made in urban areas, the subject of reproductive health remains largely a taboo topic in rural areas, which have been particularly resistant to change due to imbedded cultural norms. Although there have been projects aimed at reaching these remote villages, they have been largely ineffective.
This paper evaluates the effectiveness and sustainability of the “Grassroots Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles” program, which is presented here as a case study. Launched in July 2003, this initiative was designed to promote reproductive health using a grassroots method of training local volunteer health promoters to use the arts to communicate information and stimulate discussion about reproductive health. Our findings suggest that this program largely is successful, thereby challenging traditional assumptions about the value of incorporating the arts as an approach to effective adult education and as a means to broach sensitive topics.
Lauren Schrero (Macalester ’05)
Women’s Prisons and Human Rights in Ecuador
This paper, based on fieldwork in a women’s prison in Quito, Ecuador, examines the role of a religious organization’s treatment of human rights issues. This paper compares the work American missionaries and an Ecuadorian human rights commission are doing to secure inmates’ human rights in this unique setting. Preliminary findings suggest that the missionaries appear to be more effective in this task than their human rights commission counterpart. This unexpected finding is explained in part by the bureaucratic hurdles the human rights commission must negotiate in carrying out its mission.
Alex Rubenstein (Macalester ’05)
Taste of Africa: Issues of Authenticity in Two “African” Restaurants
in Cape Town, South Africa
This paper compares the cuisine offered and the ways that culture is portrayed in two African restaurants in Cape Town, South Africa. Both establishments are aimed at drawing tourists, and this paper reviews the cultural authenticity of the product these outsiders are provided during their dining experience. Interviews, participant observation both as a diner and an insider, as well as secondary research were used to develop theories relating to authenticity and to discover how accurately the dining experience at the restaurants in question present “traditional” African culture. Descriptions of the restaurants and discussions of different issues surrounding the concepts of authenticity and culture are the main focuses of this discourse.
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