This thesis explores the intersection of politics, religious ideology, and gender norms in the context of the Turkish labor market. I aim to shed light on the increasing interplay of these forces under AKP governance and, by extension, provide a rationale for Turkish women’s consistently low labor force participation. Further, I intend to expose that, despite introducing several legal reforms geared towards promoting gender equality, the party continues to frame the traditional family unit as the main pillar of social stability, thereby forcing women into a domestic box from which they have not been able to escape. I hypothesize that several of the AKP’s reforms, which involve various domains of Turkish society—the social security system, the institution of marriage, the family unit (specifically public childcare), and, more indirectly, the education system—have deterred Turkish women from entering and/or remaining in the labor force, as they are predicated on the party’s idealization of domesticity. Ultimately, I grapple with the ways in which the AKP’s policies and ideology have led to Turkish women’s low labor force participation rate—reported by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to be 32.37 percent in March 2017.[1] [1] “Labor Force Participation Rate, Female (% of Female Population Ages 15+) (Modeled ILO Estimate): Turkey,” The World Bank, November 2017, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS?locations=TR.

This thesis examines selections of Appalachian women’s personal narrative as well as Affrilachian Poetry written by Kentuckians Bianca Spriggs and Nikki Finney. This project’s goal lies in resisting oppression and erasure of Appalachian culture’s heterogeneity. Contrary to constructions of Appalachians as lazy, complacent, and white, many Appalachians organize communities of resistance from within the region itself. Challenging these representations, I argue that Appalachian feminists as well as Affrilachian poets create countercultures that disrupt monolithic, colonialist, and unquestioned constructions of Appalachia.

Developed countries give foreign assistance for many reasons, one of which is the protection of national interests. Foreign aid gives a donor country leverage in international relations and is used as a tool of foreign policy. The United States and Japan are the two largest aid donors in the world. Each of these countries exert influence over specific regions through foreign assistance. Although the national interests of each country are different, both use foreign aid to protect these interests. This thesis discusses the means by which the United States and Japan use foreign aid in foreign policy. It looks specifically at U.S. food aid to Central America and Japanese aid to Asia.

China’s increase in economic and military force projection capability has grown substantially since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This rapid evolution, has in turn, triggered a rush for resources in Least Developed Countries, opened up new markets for Chinese-manufactured products, and has frequently been accompanied by an increased Chinese military presence in those nations in which it maintains an economic or industrial presence. The PRC’s activities in Least Developed Countries, such as those in Africa, have had a direct impact on cultures, regional politics, economies, infrastructure creation, and the environment, yet the complexity of these dynamics has to date precluded an in-depth analysis of their effect on conflict and stability. In order to effectively gauge China’s influence on the continent, localized studies of Chinese operations and activities in different locales were scrutinized. China’s Interest in Africa: Conflict or Stability? examines Chinese infrastructure and financing packages, Chinese-owned extractive and non-extractive industries, Chinese military and defense industrial enterprises, and finally, Chinese military activities on the continent. In order to determine whether Chinese loans, infrastructure creation, and resource extraction operations contribute to development in Africa, this work examines case studies from diverse locales, which include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Angola.

This paper analyzes the the past and current security landscape in Northeast Asia with particular emphasis on the Korean Peninsula and the United States' involvement there. The paper assess policy successes and failures and presents several new policy options. The proposals include economic and diplomatic solutions to encourage the normalization of relations on the Korean Peninsula.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the field of Planning. In 1992, the United Nations Earth Summit brought international attention to SIDS; the combination of geographic isolation, small size, and limited resources were listed as a few of the unique environmental and economic disadvantages facing these islands. The island of St.Lucia, located in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, is classified by the United Nations as one of the vulnerable SIDS in the Caribbean region. Since the 1992 Earth Summit, the literature on planning strategies for SIDS has shifted away from an economic based mass tourism strategies toward a culturally and environmentally focused sustainable tourism strategies; such as eco-tourism and community-based tourism. Mass tourism, through the form of cruise ship tourism, is currently the largest sector of the Caribbean tourism market. Based on the cruise tourism trends over the past 30 years, the Caribbean cruise tourism industry is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace. The continual growth in this form of mass tourism contradicts the current planning policy trends toward sustainable tourism strategies. In order to better understand ways of connecting cruise tourism to small island sustainable tourism, this thesis examines aspects of the mass cruise tourism-sustainable tourism contradiction. This thesis evaluates the various types of tourism development strategies for SIDS, as well as, examines St.Lucia’s current tourism development policies. Interviews with local onshore business owners were then conducted in order to understand the relationship between local cruise-dependant businesses and the cruise ship industry. Finally, recommendations are given on ways to incorporate cruise tourism into St.Lucia’s existing community-based tourism goals.

Thousands of U.S. students travel to other countries each year to participate in study programs offered either by their home or the target country institutions. This study explores the effects that these study abroad experiences have on decisions that returning students make with regard to their future educational goals, career choices, and further foreign travel. Using the alumni database of Cultural Experiences Abroad, a student travel organization, data were gathered from 185 primarily undergraduate students who spent from two weeks to one year as participants in a study abroad program. The students were from various geographic locations in the United States and Canada, and represented over 120 U.S. academic institutions. The survey consisted of an on-line questionnaire that included topics such as interest in working in international companies, studying other cultures, and traveling abroad both prior to and following the study abroad program. All students completed their study abroad during the past five years.

Immigration may be an effective survival strategy for individuals from countries involved in war or political unrest.However, the immigration process may exacerbate a number of physical and psychological health symptoms. There are limited data on the health status of new Canadian immigrants, and some social support networks are not formally connected to settlement programs.The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study was to assess the level of stress and self-esteem of 400 recent and older immigrants in Canada, and to investigate the impact of social support networks on the mental well-being of recent immigrants.Cultural care and general adaptation theory provided the theoretical frameworks for the study. Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that there were no significant differences in stress and self-esteem levels between recent and non recent immigrants. Results also indicated marginal significance for new immigrants with Hispanic ethnicity, who had lower stress scores than African immigrants (OR:0.196, 95%CI: 0.034-1.150, p<0.071). Afro-Caribbean recent immigrants had4.36 odds of having low self-esteem compared to African recent immigrants (OR:4.36, 95%CI: 1.113-17.078, p<0.05). Implications for social change include providing information to immigration and public health authorities on factors affecting stress and self-esteem of immigrants to promote the best possible integration outcomes.

Immigrants to Canada report better health status than the Canadian-born population when they first arrive in Canada, a phenomenon called the Healthy Immigrant Effect. However, by the fourth year after immigration, immigrants report a health status that is worse than that of the Canadian-born population. Visible minority immigrant women report the largest deterioration in health. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of visible minority immigrant women with encounters with the Canadian healthcare system to examine the multiplicative impact of gender, ethnicity, and immigration on their health. This phenomenological study, guided by Crenshaw's feminist intersectionality framework, explored the perspectives of a purposive sample of 8 immigrant women in Ottawa, Canada, about their encounters with the healthcare system. Data were collected through individual interviews. These data were inductively coded and subjected to thematic analysis following the process outlined by Smith et al. for interpretative phenomenological analysis. Key findings of the study revealed that immigrant women define health more holistically and have expectations of the encounters with healthcare that are not met due to barriers that impact them accessing healthcare services, experiencing healthcare services, and following the recommended options. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations for public health to consider immigration and racism as determinants of health; and for Health Canada to undertake system-level lines of inquiry to shed light on the ways structural discrimination and racism have had an impact on immigrant women's social and health trajectory.

Cyber attackers targeting large corporations achieved a high perimeter penetration success rate during 2013, resulting in many corporations incurring financial losses. Corporate information technology leaders have a fiduciary responsibility to implement information security domain processes that effectually address the challenges for preventing and deterring information security breaches. Grounded in corporate governance theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between strategic alignment, resource management, risk management, value delivery, performance measurement implementations, and information security governance (ISG) effectiveness in United States-based corporations. Surveys were used to collect data from 95 strategic and tactical leaders of the 500 largest for-profit United States headquartered corporations. The results of the multiple linear regression indicated the model was able to significantly predict ISG effectiveness, F(5, 89) = 3.08, p = 0.01, R-² = 0.15. Strategic alignment was the only statistically significant (t = 2.401, p <= 0.018) predictor. The implications for positive social change include the potential to constructively understand the correlates of ISG effectiveness, thus increasing the propensity for consumer trust and reducing consumers' costs.