This presentation was created to supplement the Mithrax Crab culture technical report Caribbean Fishermen Farmers and provide images that can further convey an understanding of the analysis and findings presented in the Dominican Republic portion of the report.

BACKGROUND: HIV-related stigmatizing attitudes are persistent concerns in developing countries and have been shown to fuel the spread of the epidemics. The purpose of this study is to provide a comparative analysis between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in regards to the population’s attitude towards People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the Demographic Health Surveys involving 15,715 Haitians and 55,170 Dominicans from 2005 to 2007 were used. A score of attitudes was established from six items such as the willingness to care for infected relatives, the willingness to buy vegetables from an HIV infected vendor, the perception that HIV patients should be ashamed of themselves, the agreement to blame and force them to keep their serostatus secret and finally the agreement to allow infected teachers to continue their jobs. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analyses of selected socio-demographic variables were obtained by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). RESULTS: Logistic regression models showed that female Dominicans and male Haitians, respondents of higher socio-economic status and with more accurate HIV-related beliefs were significantly more tolerant towards PLWHA (p<.001). Furthermore, the Dominican Republic’s data analysis suggested that those aged between 30 and 44 years old, living in urban areas and married expressed more tolerance for the HIV- infected individuals. Overall, the attitudes and beliefs of the Haitians adjusted for socio-demographic variables did not differ markedly from the Dominicans. CONCLUSION: The attitudes towards PLWHA seem to be associated with the nature of the HIV-related beliefs in some vulnerable groups. The findings of this study should guide the design of appropriate programs aimed at the education of targeted populations.

In many developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS), coastal tourism impacts local economies and societies in significant ways, and plays an important role in transforming the environment. Rather than simply interpreting the changes that occur around coastal tourist enclaves as impacts, I argue that it is important to recognize the urban nature of spaces proliferating around these enclaves and to understand the role of the actors of coastal tourism in the production of these spaces. Utilizing a case study (Bávaro-Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), my research draws from over one year of fieldwork, including 97 semi-structured interviews with local residents, researchers, and various stakeholders. I examine the power relations between the private sector, local residents, and different levels and sectors of the State in the area’s urban development process. The context of Bávaro-Punta Cana is characterized by the following three issues. First, the newly established local government is generally impotent vis-á-vis other State actors and powerful private sector interests, and is unable to ensure the public good for its citizens. Second, many local residents live in conditions that are worse than traditional urban areas in the country. Third, the private sector has inserted itself as pivotal actor in the development and governance of the newly urbanizing area through practices of corporate social responsibility. Based on my analysis, I refer to the realities of Bávaro-Punta Cana as ‘resort urbanism.’ I utilize this term to illustrate the manifestations of tourism-related urbanization. Drawing from planning concepts, namely splintering urbanism, informality and citizenship, I analyze the physicality and spatiality of urbanization, the processes of urban development, and the rights of citizens and the relations between actors in the production of this new urban space. First, I argue that urban space in Bávaro-Punta Cana is produced as a form of ‘splintered urbanism.’ Second, this space is materially shaped by practices of informality or what is known locally as arrabalización. Last, the area lacks a local governance structure through which residents can adequately make claims to fulfill their basic needs, raising important questions regarding the rights and responsibilities of different actors in urban development.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Child malnutrition contributes to more than 33% of child deaths and is directly related to the productivity and success of the adult population. To combat these stark figures, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals set out to halve levels of malnutrition by 2015. While recent U.N. reports indicate that many countries are on track to reach the MDGs, there may be sub-populations within these countries that do not fair as well. The purpose of this study is to provide a comparative analysis of the nutritional status of children younger than five years of age in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Batey sub-population. This comparison will be based on stunting levels, reportedly the best indicator of child malnutrition, as it indicates sustained levels of nutritional deficiency. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the 2007 Dominican Republic Standard and Special Demographic Health Surveys involving 11,149 Dominican children and 919 children from Dominican Bateyes, respectively, were used. Version 20 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct descriptive statistics, analysis of variance tests, and independent samples T-test using selected socio-demographic variables. RESULTS: A significant difference in height-for-age (stunting) was identified between Bateyes (M= -83.52, SD =134.783) and the general population (M = -51.88, SD = 134.576; t (10,032) = -6.301, p = .00, two-tailed). Study findings indicate that overall, children under five years of age who reside in Dominican Bateyes are more malnourished than their Dominican counterparts (15.9% in Bateyes as opposed to 10.8% in the general population). Furthermore, Batey children are .34 times more moderately stunted, and one time more severely stunted, than children who reside in other areas of the Dominican Republic. CONCLUSION: While the Dominican Republic is on track to meet MDG Goal 1, a significant portion of the population does not fair as well. The substantial underlying differences that exist between the Dominican the Batey sub-population have led to higher rates of stunting and require further analysis. The findings of this study should guide the design of appropriate interventions aimed at reduction of malnutrition within Batey communities. KEY WORDS: stunting, malnutrition, children, Dominican Republic, Batey, Millennium Development Goals

This paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century. The systematic use of Catholic doctrine and an inquisition run by the Dominican Order of Preachers allowed France to dominate the populace of the region and destroy any indigenous social, economic, and political structures.

This dissertation investigates subject expression patterns in Dominican Spanish (DS). In this variety, the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish co-exist with the widespread use of overt subjects, which are found in specific constructions that are either rare or unattested in other Spanish varieties. Interestingly, these structures co-exist in the Dominican grammar with the null subject constructions associated with Non-Caribbean Spanish. While subject expression has been studied in a number of Spanish dialects within the generative and the variationist paradigms, monolingual Dominican Spanish, to the best of my knowledge, has not been investigated in previous variationist work. This study covers this gap by examining a large corpus of spontaneous speech (N=6005) gathered in the capital city of Santo Domingo and a rural area in the northwestern Cibao region. Furthermore, in line with the cohesive approach to syntactic variation developed in recent work (Adger and Smith 2005), theoretical implications are drawn from quantitative results. The results obtained in this study show that null and overt subject patterns in DS are regulated by the same constraints that have been found relevant in previous variationist work, i.e. discourse-related factor groups and Person (Otheguy, Zentella and Livert, 2007). These results depart from previous work in that evidence for language change in progress has been found in subject position patterns, rather than in null and overt subject distribution. When this phenomenon is examined, urban, young, high-middle class and female speakers arise as the social groups leading grammatical restructuring. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is taken into account for testing previous syntactic-theoretical proposals on DS. Taking the cartographic approach to syntactic structure (Rizzi 1997) as a point of departure, it will proposed that multiple specifier positions are available within the TP and CP fields to host strong and weak subjects. This proposal, in turn, makes it possible to account for the Null Subject Parameter profile displayed by synchronic DS without resorting to competing grammars in the minds of the speakers.

Poverty reduction and conservation can seem contradictory as integrated goals. Despite mixed results over the past several decades, both goals are increasingly being sought out together in practice. Using a case study of an integrated conservation and development project in the Azua province of the Dominican Republic, this thesis examines the definitions and measurement of poverty and wellbeing within integrated conservation and development initiatives. It asks whether the inclusion of subjective ideas and participatory approaches may present new opportunities to better integrate poverty measurements within natural resource initiatives. Four focus groups and 250 questionnaires formed the core methods for data collection. The study reveals wellbeing as a concept was better able to capture the multi-faceted nature of capabilities poverty. Wellbeing often engages with the themes of vulnerability and inequity and includes politically-sensitive considerations instead of concepts that are about assets or consumption, ideas based in the outdated income-poverty perspective. Locally developed indicators were best able to reveal nuances related to context that universal poverty indicators would miss or misrepresent. The results also found that the way poverty, wellbeing, problems and solutions are conceptually framed and defined can be highly relevant. Using asset-based concepts and metrics would lead to economic development goals whereas rights-based ideas would promote very different objectives and methods. The comprehensive identification and targeting of stakeholders was found to be a necessary focus in determining the priorities. Participatory processes, especially with a commitment to power devolution, can help ensure that an array of local ideas are accounted for, and contribute to, a nuanced understanding of complex phenomena. Overall, subscribing to a rights-based approach that targets the means (opportunities) of development and not the ends (assets) can facilitate the needed shift towards the new poverty paradigm, in both concept and practice. A more successful integration between poverty reduction and conservation will require such a shift.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Anthropology Department, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1947.

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-97).