This is a colonial reading of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, in which I examine the politics and push-back surrounding the attempted demolition of the Aldea Marcanal: an Indigenous museum in Rio de Janeiro. With a context of historical racism and colonization, I examine FIFA’s participation, the continuing colonial efforts made possible by the Brazilian government and elite, that included the removal of  Indigenous peoples from their land and the continuing marginalization and exploitation of Indigenous peoples in the region. I also examine the role of performance as a method of resistance undergone by public demonstrations and protests, as exemplified by Indigenous peoples’ rejection of the colonizing mission. How Indigenous people resist dominant narratives of neoliberalism and nationhood intertwined with the ways in which they enact visual sovereignty through perfomativity. Claiming to be a "racial democracy," the Brazilian government has persistently pushed aside marginalized groups such as Indigenous peoples in an effort to achieve an image of progress and modernity. By putting census numbers in conversation with texts of race in Brazil, I highlight the complexity of race relations in the country. Drawing from media sources such as news, blogs and videos I attempt to deconstruct narratives and discourses surrounding the attempted demolition of the museum for the World Cup, paying particular attention to the representations of Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Through an examination of the political power of representation and performance, this paper contributes to our understanding of coloniality, modernity, and Indigenous agency.

Health disparities are highly prevalent among American Indians for preventable diseases. Health disparities are caused by various factors and may include subtle forms of racial discrimination and the stress that associated with it. Subtle forms of racial discrimination have been coined as microaggressions. Microaggressions are verbal and nonverbal comments, insults and everyday sights that can be unintentional and unconscious by the perpetrator. Individuals who are the victims have serious physiological and psychological affects having an impact on health behaviors. Chronic psychosocial stress notably impairs physical, mental, and behavioral health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 47 American Indians asking about their experiences of accessing healthcare services. A significant majority of the participants reported experiencing microaggressions when accessing healthcare services. Microaggressions have an affect on stress that in turn affects health, which is a one of the many facets that produces health disparities among American Indians. This will be discussed along with the relationship between these experiences and other measures.

Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and the Korean War in 1953, the Cold War perpetuated the division of Korea (North and South) and China (Mainland China and Taiwan). Nonetheless, in the late 1980s, as the Cold War dissolved, South Korea and Taiwan adopted opposite policies of unification and independence. When the Cold War ended, why did Taiwan pursue a policy of independence and South Korea a policy of unification? The study hypothesizes that Taiwan and South Korea pursued opposite policies of independence and unification, respectively, because democratization empowered the civil society that revived a theretofore suppressed ethnic identity and fostered ethnic nationalism as the main theme of diplomacy. This study analyzed state-society interaction after democratization with a special emphasis on the development of diplomatic discourse on independence and unification. Specifically, the research studied how the civil society’s demands for unification and independence influenced the government to adopt new diplomatic approaches. To understand civil society’s demands, this study conducted discourse analysis on the civil society’s speeches during protests, its codes of conduct and editorial pages that covered the civil society movement. Then, the study analyzed how Presidential speeches and government’s diplomatic documents refined and accommodated the civil society’s demands to formulate a feasible policy. Based on my analysis, I conclude that civil society’s demands developed an ethnic nationalist discourse that influenced the governments in Taiwan and South Korea to pursue an ethnic nationalist agenda aimed to pursue independence and unification, respectively. As a comparative research on two civil conflicts in East Asia, this study contributes to a deeper understanding how South Korea and Taiwan developed diplomatic strategies after democratization at the end of the Cold War.

The American Dream (financially engineered) is an investigation into the subprime mortgage crisis of the Great Recession of 2008. Specifically, the project will analyze some of the most prevalent models used for forecasting the probability of default in the subprime mortgage sector. The motivation of the project is to understand the variables most reliable in predicting default probability and to create a model that will most reliably capture the inherent risk in subprime mortgage financing. Additionally, we consider some of the product innovations that were created during the years leading up to the crisis and their potential contribution to the crisis. The model will be tested against available data and the results will be published in the 2015 McNair Scholar Journal.

The legacy that Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) is a mixture of controversy and praise, the way Catholics choose to remember him varies with how they chose to see him during his lifetime. A thorough study of the Vatican in the 1980s and 1990s shows that the beatification and canonization process has evolved to mirror the ideals of the Opus Dei, an institution that teaches that everyone is called to holiness. This ideal holds true for many countries that are a majority Catholic, but this study will be primarily focused on Mexico. Through a primary source analysis of Mexican Religious Politics in the 1990s, it is essential to notice that the romanticization of La Cristeada, a war between the Mexican Catholic Church and the Mexican Government in 1926-1929, has a significant relationship with the mass beatification of many priests, children, and other normal citizens who died as a result of the Cristero War. By looking into the general history of Mexico and the manner in which the Catholic religion has evolved since the 1920s, specifically looking into martyrs of Religous wars, I hope to answer the following questions:

In what manners have the ideals of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints Causes mirrored those of the Opus Dei? What has been happening in the Vatican that allows for the mass beatification/canonization of devout Catholics from all around the globe? In relation to Mexico, what is the importance of the beatification/canonization of Jose Sanchez Del Rio, a child martyr from Sahuayo, Michoacan, and other Cristero War Heroes? To what purpose do stories of child martyrs, like Jose Sanchez del Rio, serve the Vatican?

The results of this study will form a foundation for further research on the developing Catholic Church in Mexico and in other countries where idolization of war heroes has seen a boost in the recent decades.

Every day, whether or not it’s obvious, we use strategy to face the day. Turning these decisions into numerical values can allow us to take action in the most efficient manner. However, does the discipline a student decides to peruse dictate how much of a strategist they are? The purpose of this research is to find this out via simple zero sum matrix games and a simple questionnaire. Subjects will access these demographic questions, through the internet, using Google Survey and then be directed to play a computer game. The interactive game portion will be presented as a numerical matrix with given strategies. Within the game matrix there will hold at least one, but no more than two, mathematical saddle points. The saddle point, or equilibrium point, is the point where the student participating gains the most while losing the least amount of points possible. The games given will be a zero sum game which means the net loss and the net gain between the two players sum is zero. The objective of the research is to determine if there is a correlation in success between natural sciences and social sciences. Ultimately, it’s a game within a game.