Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Caohai Nature Reserve, in Guizhou, China has been the scene of both dramatic landscape transformations and equally radical changes in resource management philosophies. When Caohai Nature Reserve was established in 1985 practices that sustained local livelihoods, such as fishing and hunting, were criminalized, leading to violent conflicts between reserve managers and local people. In the early 1990s, the introduction of NGO-sponsored community development programs changed the way the reserve was perceived by local farmers as the reserve became the most important provider of funding for community infrastructure development in the area. In spite of the China’s much touted Western Development Project, most reserve residents do not believe that they benefit from the central government’s infrastructure improvement programs. They believe that these large-scale road and railway extension projects have done little to change their poor rural livelihoods. However, they believe that the nature reserve’s smaller-scale community development programs have been a much more effective source of locally-needed infrastructure development. Many Caohai farmers now see the reserve, instead of other government agencies, as their main partner for the promotion of economic development.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper argues that we are in the midst of a huge hegemonic displacement that fractures the old political formations and realigns the traditionally progressive movements with right-wing politics. The central question of the paper is: what is the role and place of Cultural Studies in this hegemonic slide? At the center of the discussion is the changing character of feminism and anti-racism through the debate on immigration.

Cultural Studies can be said to have initially started as a project to study the production of power relations in popular culture. However, today Cultural Studies is itself being slowly hegemonized. The clearest indication is the immense preoccupation with ethnic and cultural identities.

In this presentation, I argue that what we have been witnessing in Europe is the formation of a new type of hegemony that brings cultural distinctions to the forefront. This creates tensions within antiracist and feminist movements: once inequalities are articulated in terms of culture, religion and ethnicity, the political target for the struggle for equality gets confused and creates dilemmas for the movements. The same dilemma can also be traced in scholarly work of Cultural Studies scholars and I contend that it is the result of the inattentiveness to the new hegemony that reframes traditional sensitivities of Cultural Studies into the service of hegemonic politics. What we need is a newborn reflexivity that realigns our theoretical positions and political values with the wider context of the hegemonic slide.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper reports on research that investigates the effect of different types of service learning activities on student's attitudes towards the communities they are serving (Mcknight 1996).

Publication Type: Poster Presentation
Abstract: The purpose of this Conservation Innovation Grant Project is to convert biomass, specifically chicken litter, into an energy source that can be easily used by producers. This addresses the CIG component concerns of Natural Resources, Atmospheric Resources, and Bio-based energy opportunities. It accomplishes this by providing a renewable source of energy for the producer, reducing the country’s use of and dependence on fossil fuels (foreign petroleum), reducing the producer’s energy expenses, and demonstrating a method to protect water resources by reducing the amount of nutrients applied in nutrient surplus watersheds.
An innovative technology has recently been developed that will help address the natural resource concern of foreign petroleum consumption as well as air and water quality and agricultural practices. This new technology has been incorporated into a unique patented device called a “Noah” unit. The “Noah” unit accepts biomass and agricultural waste as input which it converts to a medium-BTU (over 600 BTUs per cubic foot) hydrocarbon fuel gas suitable for most uses similar to natural gas. The unit produces only one other output besides the fuel gas, which is an ash that, when using chicken litter, is equivalent to a 3-3.5-7 non-toxic fertilizer, suitable for vegetables and pasture. This project is to install 4 “Noah” units on poultry farms in the major poultry producing areas in Arkansas. The NOAH units convert chicken litter to fuel for generators that will supply the electrical needs of four to six broiler houses. Excess electricity may be supplied into the grid.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper discusses possible connections between imagined political and legal orders that are represented in contemporary science fiction television series and models of contemporary global governance. The process by which international lawyers, international relations specialists and globalization theorists describe and project the nature of the international order is similar to science fiction in its dependence on piecing together social trends using imagination. Judging from the success and loyal fan base of recent space-oriented science fiction series, science fiction imagination both informs and is informed by American culture. My paper analyzes the most influential science fiction series that were produced primarily for the U.S. market in the past forty years to address two questions. First, to what extent are popular science fiction’s visions of interplanetary law and governance similar and potentially enriching to theories of global order? Second, what, if any, is the basic trend in the connection between televised science fiction and Americans’ understanding of societies other then their own? In short, my paper aims to depict trends in globalization theory and American attitudes towards global order through the novel prism of popular science fiction. I consider several Star Trek series, as well as Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Farscape and Andromeda. I conclude that these series indeed contribute to expanded ways of conceptualizing global order, but also reflect a narrowing of vision over time about the possibilities of global change which is consistent with broader American foreign policy trends.