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VOL. 15 | 2019-20

THE NORTHWESTERN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL

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be unable to produce the 2019-20 edition of the Journal.

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Northwestern University, along with Provost Kathleen Hagerty, and
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Cover by Siying Luo.

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MASTHEAD
vol. 15 | 2019-2020

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Andrew Cao + Emily Suen

FACULTY ADVISOR

Allen Taf love

MANAGING EDITORS

Leslie Bonilla + Irene Chang

ART DIRECTORS

Maia Brown + Sarah Tani

DIRECTOR OF OUTREACH

Joy Zheng
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS

Lucy Yuan + Shreya Sriram

EDITORS

Pranav Baskar, Haley Chang, Daisy Conant,

Hongrui He, Shreyas Iyer, Niva Razin,
Lydia Rivers, David Zane, Joy Zheng

DESIGNERS

Jenna Greenzaid, Siying Luo,

Bryan Sanchez, Nancy Qian
OUTREACH TEAM

Gabrielle Tsoi, Alex Solivan, Khaled Abughoush

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Khaled Abughoush, Ina Huang, John Cao

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 TABLE OF
CONTENTS
4 6 17
Letters Statistics Feature
Dedications from Editors-in- Assessing Racial Discrimination Lamar Jackson and Patrick
Chief Andrew Cao and Emily of Quarterbacks in the NFL Mahomes: Portending a
Suen, and Faculty Advisor Draft Different Future for
Allen Tavlove Black Quarterbacks?

21 33 36
African- Feature International
American Studies Degrees Don’t Make Them Studies
Radical Redress: Black Birth Distant: Researching with #MeToo In The
Workers Respond to Maternal Graduate Students European Parliament: A
Mortality Case Study in Feminist
Institutionalism

54 56 74
Feature German Feature
Interview with Type 2 Diabetes Care A Day in the Life of
Kimani Isaac and Management: A a Summer Student
Comparison of German Researcher
and American Approaches

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 76 82 86
History Feature Mathematical
“A Man With Many Tracking Northwestern’s Methods in the
Faces, All Turned in the Same Research Response Social Sciences
Direction”: Julius Lester on Anti- to COVID-19
Semitism, Anti-Blackness, and Colonial Distortions
Black Jewish Coalitions

98 102 117
Feature Political Science Philosophy
"Keep going in the face of Quyud: Educational The Subsumptivist
inevitable setbacks": Constraints in Generalist Position
Research advice from Palestine in Ethical AI Research
faculty and students and its Motivation

126 129 144

Feature
Media Studies Goes
Transnational, with
professor Anthony Fung
Human Development Feature
Evaluating Interactive Social Office of Undergraduate
Justice Education: Research Features
The Relationship between
Responsive Fiction and Social
Empathy

150 158 163

Asian Languages Feature Contributors
and Cultures 2019 Research Biographies and
Missing the Point: China, Award Winners interviews from our
Chineseness, and Rhinoceros thesis contributors
Endangerment

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 LETTER FROM THE
ADVISOR
Dear readers:

Welcome to Volume 15 (the 2019-20 issue) of the Northwestern Undergraduate

Research Journal! NURJ is an annual student-produced print and web-based
publication funded by the Offices of the President and the Associate Provost.

We are very grateful to President Morty Schapiro and Provost Miriam Sherin for their
generous support, especially during these challenging times when the University’s
normal campus life and finances have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I have been the faculty advisor of NURJ since its inception in 2003. But for me, in that
context, the past academic year has been unique (even before COVID-19).

Namely, during 2019-20, NURJ has been led by an extraordinary group of student
editors whose dynamism and vision has been breathtaking. It’s been my privilege to get
to know these students, and I’d like to express this in a public shout-out to them!

As readers of NURJ Volume 15 and as online visitors to thenurj.com, you will experience
the results of their year-long efforts: excellent Northwestern undergraduate student
research published in a professional manner by a group of talented undergraduate
student editors.

It’s enough to make anyone associated with Northwestern very proud, including me, a
Tech alum (‘71, ‘72, ‘75).

Best regards,

Allen Taflove, Professor

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
McCormick School of Engineering
Northwestern University

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 LETTER FROM THE
EDITORS
Dear readers:

The NURJ has witnessed tremendous growth in the past two years. In July 2018, we
were only a two-person team with a greater vision for what the Journal could be.
Since then, we have grown to 65 members across eight teams and have solidified our
newest digital publication, the NURJ Online. This year, we are pleased to announce
that both the NURJ Paper and the NURJ Online publications have registered ISSNs,
and individual works are equipped with Digital Objective Identifiers (DOIs), enhancing
the visibility of our published content.

The global pandemic that we are currently facing is unexpected and unnerving for all
of us. In these uncertain times, we are also reminded of the importance of research and
publicizing new findings. We are immensely proud of our team for quickly adapting
and constructing this Journal. In your hands, you will find a selection of department
recommended senior theses, as well as features written by our staff. In addition to the
NURJ Paper Volume 15, we also invite you to read the most recent Volume 3 of the
NURJ Online, which follows a global health theme, and the NURJ x EXPO issue, a
collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). Both of these can be
accessed on our website, thenurj.com.

We would like to thank President Morton Schapiro and Associate Provost Miriam Sherin
for their generous sponsorship and continued guidance. We would also like to thank
Dean Sarah Pritchard, Dr. Peter Civetta, Dr. Megan Wood, Professor Jocelyn Mitchell,
Chris Diaz and numerous other faculty, staff and student researchers at Northwestern
University for all their support. Lastly, we want to give a huge shoutout to Professor
Taflove, who created this journal 18 years ago and has served as our faculty adviser
since. We would not be where we are today without him. Although we are graduating
this Spring 2020, we are excited to see where our newest Editors-in-Chief, Maia Brown
and Shreya Sriram, will take the Journal next!

Sincerely,

Andrew Cao and Emily Suen

Editors-in-Chief

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 Department of Statistics

Assessing Racial
Discrimination of
Quarterbacks in the
NFL Draft
by Sam Allnutt

Introduction This event brought racial issues in the

In recent years, the National Football NFL to the forefront of public attention,
League, known as the NFL, has been rid- but it is by no means the first racial con-
dled with controversy regarding racial is- troversy to face the league. For one, 94% of
sues. One such controversy was brought to NFL franchise owners are white, and there
the national spotlight with Colin Kaeper- is currently only one minority general man-
nick’s kneeling protest of the nation- ager in the league.34 This dismal minority
al anthem, which he began in 2016. As a representation is in stark contrast with the
result of his act of defiance against police racial makeup of the NFL’s players, 70% of
brutality and racial profiling, Kaepernick whom are black.5 The quarterback position
was not offered a job from a single NFL is a notable exception, as 82% of NFL quar-
team when his contract expired, despite a terbacks are white. Until 1993, only 8 black
strong performance in the prior season.1 quarterbacks had ever played in the NFL.6
Kaepernick sued the NFL for colluding to The exceptionally low number of mi-
keep him out of the league, and in Febru- nority quarterbacks is at least partially due
ary 2019, the league paid settlements to to longstanding stereotypes regarding mi-
both him and fellow protester Eric Reid.2 nority athletes. The quarterback position
is widely considered the most important
1 V.A, Mather, “Timeline of Colin Kaepernick vs. the N.F.L.” The New York Times, 2019, https://www.nytimes.
com/2019/02/15/sports/nfl-colin-kaepernick-protests-timeline.html
2 Ibid.
3 S. R., Harper, “There would be no FL without black players. They can resist anthem policy.”, The Washington Post, May 24,
2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/24/there-would-be-no-nfl-without-black-players-
they-can-resist-the-anthem-policy/?utm_term=.92367bb814b2\
4 Jahmal, Corner, “NFL: League under Scrutiny for Lack of Minority Coaches.”, Reuters , January 1, 2019, www.reuters.com/
article/us-football-nfl-coaches/nfl-league-under-scrutiny-for-lack-of-minority-coaches-idUSKCN1OV1CQ
5 Harper, “There would be no FL without black playes...”
6 David J., Berri, and Rob Simmons, “Race and the Evaluation of Signal Callers in the National Football League.”, Journal of Sports
Economics, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/04/27/nfl-draft-profiles-are-full-of-racial-stereotypes-and-
that-matters-for-when-quarterbacks-get-drafted/?utm_term=.e5584096c4e7, pp. 23-43.

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 in the game, and success depends heav- performed by labor economist Lawrence
ily on mental traits like leadership ability M. Kahn in 1992 and Mark Gius and Donn
and football acumen. Early in their athletic Johnson in 2000. These authors developed
careers, minority youth players are often log-linear regression models to determine
ushered away from the quarterback posi- whether race influences salary while con-
tion due to stereotypes about their capacity trolling for exogenous variation. In his
to learn these intangible skills.7 Stereotypes final model specification, Kahn observed
have been shown to play out at the profes- no significant effect of race on salary when
sional level as well. A Washington Post controlling for other known determinants
study found racially-stratified language in of player wages.9 Gius & Johnson observed
quarterback draft profiles hosted on the a 10.27% pay premium for minority play-
NFL’s website; while minority quarter- ers, a surprising result given the NFL’s his-
backs tend to be discussed in terms of their tory of racial controversy.10 However, I ar-
physical attributes, white quarterbacks are gue that the results in these papers are not
more often praised for their intelligence, reliable, given the sensitivity of the models
understanding of the game, command of employed to crucial omitted variables. Both
the team, and poise under pressure.8 of the papers fail to include a numerical
To address the potential effect of ra- measure of on-field performance, which is
cial stereotypes on NFL players, this study a key influencer of player salary. As such,
will use quantitative methods to determine any existing pay discrimination against mi-
whether minority quarterbacks are sys- norities could easily be washed out by re-
tematically undervalued in the NFL Draft. sidual performance differences that are left
By comparing empirical data on draft de- unaccounted for in these analyses.
cisions and outcomes, statistical method- James Doran and David Doran pro-
ology may be used to isolate the potential vide a more reliable study by including a
effect of racial stereotypes on draft day. measure of performance in their analy-
sis.11 Their log-linear regression approach
Prior Studies is largely similar to the papers discussed
Previous studies have reached differ- above, but Doran & Doran notably include
ing conclusions in evaluating quantitative a “skill” variable in their model to predict
evidence for discrimination in the NFL. salary, which they define as an unspeci-
Overall, researchers have employed simi- fied combination of on-field statistics.12
lar methodologies, but certain nuances in Additionally, Doran & Doran narrowed
their analyses and assumptions have re- their focus to analyzing the quarterback
sulted in conflicting findings. position, and found 28% higher wages for
The earliest relevant studies were white quarterbacks when controlling for
7 Patrick, Ferrucci, and Edson C. Tandoc, “The Spiral of Stereotyping: Social Identity and NFL Quarterbacks.”, Howard Journal of
Communications, pp. 107-125
8 Christopher, Boylan, et al., “NFL Draft Profile Are Full of Racial Stereotypes. And That Matters for When Quarterbacks Get
Drafted.”, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/04/27/nfl-draft-profiles-are-full-of-
racial-stereotypes-and-that-matters-for-when-quarterbacks-get-drafted/?utm_term=.e5584096c4e7.
9 Lawrence M., Kahn, “The Effects of Race on Professional Football Players Compensation.”, Industrial and Labor Relations
Review, pp. 295-310
10 Mark, Gius, and Donn Johnson, “Race and Compensation in Professional Football.” Applied Economics Letters, pp. 73-75
11 James S., Doran, and David R. Doran, “Inequality in Pay: A Study of Wage Disparity in the NFL.”, Social Science Research
Network Electronic Journal, pp. 107-125
12 Ibid.

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 7 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 player skill and other factors.13 David Ber-
ri and Rob Simmons conducted a similar
study in 2009, and also found evidence for
discrimination against minority quarter-
backs at salary quantiles above 50%14. As
such, both of these papers conclude that
minority quarterbacks are paid lower wag-
es for comparable performance and con-
tract characteristics.
The inconsistent results in the prior
literature highlight the perils of omitted
variable bias, or OVB, and the importance
of adequate model specification in the
study of discrimination. If a key variable
is omitted that is also correlated with race,
the discrimination that we seek to detect
may be washed out by OVB. Additionally,
every existing study has been constrained
by using wage discrepancy as the basis
on which to assess discrimination. NFL
salaries are largely influenced by external
bargaining factors, which dilute the effect
of a team’s decisions on salary outcomes and
inhibit the interpretation of discrepancies
as team/owner racial preference.15 In this
study, I will use NFL Draft decisions as a
tool to better understand these preferences.
Methodology and Findings
Methodology Overview
As a starting point to develop models
to detect discrimination among NFL quar-
terbacks, I rely on a generalized labor mar-
ket research methodology outlined by the
National Academy of Sciences.16 To detect
discrimination in observational data, it is
critical to adequately control for variables
that are correlated with both race and the
outcome in question, in order to avoid
13 Ibid.
14 David J., Berri, and Rob Simmons, “Race and the Evaluation of Signal Callers in the National Football League.”
15 Frank,Therber, “The Anatomy Of An NFL Player Contract.”, Forbes, www.forbes.com/sites/franktherber/2016/03/08/the-
anatomy-of-an-nfl-player-contract/#7b4238aa3faa.
16 Rebecca M., Blank, et all, “Measuring Racial Discrimination.”, National Academies Press
17 Ibid.
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 8
mistakenly attributing non-discriminatory
racial differences as due to employer racial
preference.17 Following the guidelines set
forth in the NAS report, I developed sev-
eral statistical models to tease apart these
non-discriminatory racial differences, thus
isolating the residual differences that may
be due to discriminatory behavior.
To build these models, we require an
outcome variable on which to assess racial
differences. No prior literature has used
the NFL Draft to assess discrimination,
which is a missed opportunity to observe
the preferences of NFL teams. At the be-
ginning of each season, teams are given the
chance to select top young players emerg-
ing from college football to play for their
franchise. Each team is assigned a num-
ber of draft picks, and players are selected
sequentially until all 250 picks have been
used. The draft provides a strong basis
on which to observe decisions behind the
evaluation of players, as outcomes are or-
dered, easily comparable, and entirely at
the discretion of NFL teams.
I use both collegiate and NFL data to
assess two distinct research questions re-
garding racial differences in the NFL Draft.
I will first use pre-draft information to ex-
amine whether race influences teams’ quar-
terback assessments, controlling for factors
related to college career and performance. I
will then flip this research question and use
professional career data to examine wheth-
er minority quarterbacks are systematical-
ly under-valued in the draft based on how
they go on to perform in the NFL.
My methodology is not exempt from
potential estimation biases resulting from
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 unobservable variables. It should be noted
that NFL teams rely primarily on qualita-
tive scouting to evaluate collegiate quarter-
backs. We must then consider the potential
for OVB arising from differences between
our quantitative proxy and the true scout-
ing evaluation. Generally, omitting a factor
that is important in predicting an outcome
variable leads to misspecification bias in
the model, such that the expected value of
the estimated parameters differ from their
true population values.18 In developing a
model where this OVB is unavoidable, it
is valuable to understand the direction and
magnitude of the biases on the coefficients
of interest.
The bias is dependent on the pair-
wise correlations between race, scouting
evaluation, and the other covariates.19 It
can be shown that that the bias on the race
coefficient, say c , is Bias (L Ny ,
c ) = bk d
where b k is the slope coefficient for the
effect of scouting evaluation on draft pick
in the population model, and is the slope
coefficient for the effect of race on scouting
evaluation in an auxiliary regression — see
full text for detailed analysis. We assume
b k will be negative, as higher scouting
evaluations will lead to earlier selection
in the draft. The effect of race on scouting
evaluation, dNk , is unknown. However, we
can infer that any effect of race on scout-
ing will be due to the same discriminatory
behavior that we are seeking to assess in
our estimated model, and expect the bias to
work in the same direction as our observed
discrimination coefficient. As such, our es-
timate of the race effect may be an inflated
overestimate, but the directionality will be
reliable.
Because of the potential for OVB,
18 Jeffery M., Wooldridge, “Introduction to Econometrics: A Modern Approach.”, Cengage Learning
19 Ibid.
20 David J., Berri, and Rob Simmons, “Race and the Evaluation of Signal Callers in the National Football League.”
21 Ibid.
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 9
it is critical to find an adequate proxy for
scouting. This proxy should be directly
indicative of a quarterback’s value to his
team. For this purpose, I rely on a metric
employed by Berri & Simmons that they la-
bel “Net Points.” To benchmark a quarter-
back’s in-game contributions, Berri et al.
regressed points scored by a team’s offense
on factors associated with moving and
possessing the ball.20 These models provide
marginal effects of the performance of an
individual quarterback, or QB, on the out-
come of a typical game.
Given the marginal effects, the au-
thors normalize the value of plays and
turnovers around one yard, thus obtain-
ing an intuitive metric that they label “QB
Score”.21 The weights on these three quar-
terback statistics are outlined as follows in
Equation 1:
(1) QB Score = All Yards - 3 * Plays
- 30 * Turnovers
QB Score provides a straightforward
metric on which to evaluate quarterbacks
based on their direct statistical contribu-
tions to a team’s probability of winning.
Assessing Relationship between Race and
Draft Evaluation
The first component of this analysis
will examine whether race influences NFL
teams’ evaluation of quarterbacks, con-
trolling for information available before
the draft. I seek to answer two questions
at this stage in the analysis. First, does race
influence draft order among players who
are drafted, all else equal? Second, among
collegiate players, does race influence the
likelihood of being drafted at all?
The sample contains NFL Draft data
for 2002-2018, and collegiate passing sta-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 tistics and other factors from 2002-2017.
This information was available for 849
NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
quarterbacks, 180 of whom were selected
in the NFL draft. All collegiate and draft
data were obtained from ProFootballRef-
erence.com. All data manipulation and sta-
tistical analyses were performed using R
software version 3.5.3.
In an effort to isolate the effect of race,
we must identify covariates that are known
to influence a player’s pre-draft evaluation.
Because in-game performance will certain-
ly affect a player’s perceived value, I include
the “QBScore” metric outlined in the pre-
ceding section. Player evaluations are also
influenced by the caliber of competition
faced by a QB in his college career.22 To
account for this, I include “Conference,”
a 6-factor categorical variable. To control
for team success, I define “Ranked25” as a
binary variable taking a value of 1 if the
player’s team finished in the top 25 in AP
polling in more than half of his seasons, and
“WinPercent” as the proportion of games
won during his career. Finally, because the
data span over a 16-year time period, bias
may arise from aggregate changes in the
value of the QB position over time. Thus,
I include yearly fixed effects terms to ac-
count for variability of quarterback value
in the draft.
The literature suggests that the effect
of race will not be consistent at differing
levels of on-field performance; for exam-
ple, Doran & Doran observed a significant
effect of race only at certain salary quan-
tiles.23 This differential race effect by skill
level makes sense intuitively, as teams may
moderate discriminatory behavior in order
to land a highly-touted player. Slope-vari-
22 Blair, Kerkhoff, “SEC Leads Breakdown of NFL Draft Picks by Conference since 1998.”, The Kansas City Star
23 James S. Doran and David R. Doran, “Inequality in Pay: A Study of Wage Disparity in the NFL,” Social Science Research Net-
work Electronic Journal, 2004, doi:10.2139/ssrn.628422.
10
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 10
ant effects are captured by interacting race
and QBScore in the model.
I will first focus on the 180 quarter-
backs drafted between 2002 and 2018 to
determine whether race affects the order
in which players are selected in the draft.
Overall draft pick is used as the outcome
variable, and is treated as numeric. A linear
model to predict overall draft pick using
the established set of covariates is shown
below in Equation 2:
Picki = b 0 + cRi + b1 (Ri # QBScorei)
(2) 5 15
/ b j Xij + / dt Yearit + fi
j=2 t=1
where Ri represents a race indicator tak-
ing on a value of 1 for minority players,
Xij represents the value of covariate j for
player i, represents the race difference at
QBScore = 0, and b1 represents the rate of
change of the race effect at differing values
of QBScore. A significant and positive co-
efficient in this model would signify lower
average all-else-equal draft selections for
minority quarterbacks.
Estimated parameters for the regres-
sion model and their standard errors are
shown in Table 1. The estimated coeffi-
cients are statistically insignificant on both
the race dummy variable (p = .509) and the
race-QBScore interaction term (p = .805).
As such, we fail to reject the null hypoth-
esis that the effect of race on overall draft
pick is equal to zero, and conclude that
race does not seem to influence draft order
among players selected in the draft.
Though race does not appear to affect
the order that a player is taken in the draft,
there is still the potential for racial differ-
ences to play out among fringe players who
are on the cusp of being selected. To ad-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “For the 92% of
quarterbacks in our sample
below this performance
threshold, being a minority
decreases the odds of being
selected in the draft, all else
equal.”
dress this question, I include all 849 FBS
quarterbacks in the sample period and con-
struct a logistic regression model to pre-
dict the likelihood of being drafted, again
controlling for quantitative information
available to teams before the draft. The co-
variate model specification is identical to
the preceding analysis. A generic form of
the logistic regression model is shown in
Equation 3:
11
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 11
Pi
(3)
ln ( 1 - P ) = b 0 + cRi + b1 (Ri # QBScore)
i
5 15
+ / b j Xij + / d t Yearit
j=2 t=1
where the symbols on the right-hand side
of the equation are identical to those in
Equation 2, and Pi represents the proba-
bility that player i is selected in the draft.
In order to develop a more useful interpre-
tation of the model, the coefficients may
be exponentiated to obtain odds ratios, as
demonstrated in Equation 4.
The interpretation on the odds ratio
is more intuitive; a unit increase in X mul-
tiplies the odds of being drafted by the odds
ratio. Thus, in the presence of discrimina-
tion, we would expect the sum of the ex-
ponentiated coefficient and interaction
coefficient to be less than 1, implying de-
creased odds of being drafted for minority
quarterbacks.
Odds ratios for the estimated param-
eters in the logistic regression model and
their standard errors are shown in Table 2.
In this model, we observe a significant (p
= .002) odds ratio on the race dummy co-
efficient of 0.436, and an odds ratio on the
interaction coefficient of 1.017 (p = .012).
Thus, race has a significant negative effect
in predicting the odds of being drafted,
with the negative effect diminishing and
eventually flipping at higher levels of QB-
Score.
The sign of the race effect flips at a
QBScore of 48.765, which is in percentile
92 of the QBScore distribution. Thus, for
the 92% of quarterbacks in our sample be-
low this performance threshold, being a
minority decreases the odds of being select-
ed in the draft, all else equal. At a QBScore
of 100, the race effect is insignificant, with
95% confidence bounds [.484, 10.817]. As
such, we may infer that among high skill
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 quarterbacks with high levels of QBScore, ination, the discriminated group will re-
there is no significant effect of minority ceive less compensation for comparable
status on the odds of being drafted, while performance. If this is true, a team that
for lower-skill quarterbacks, there is a employs more of the discriminated group
strong and significant negative effect. will receive greater output per unit cost,
This result is represented visually in and thus perform better over time.24
Figure 1. Each point represents a predicted I will extend Syzmanski & Preston’s
probability of being drafted for each player logic to player-level characteristics. In the
in the sample, as generated by fitted values presence of discrimination, minority quar-
for the logistic regression model. Logistic terbacks will be drafted later on average
regression estimates are shown for white
and nonwhite subsets on the data. The
selective effect of race on low-skill quar-
terbacks can be observed by noting the
lower predicted probabilities for nonwhite
players on the left side of the figure.
Assessing Racial Differences in Draft Error
I will now flip the question in the pri-
or analysis and use post-draft NFL perfor-
mance data to determine whether minori-
ty players are systematically under-drafted.
The idea is similar to that used in a 2008
paper by Stefan Syzmanski and Ian Preston
in detecting discrimination in English soc-
cer. The authors compared the success of
soccer clubs to determine whether teams
with higher minority representation tend
to perform better. The logical basis in the
analysis is that, in the presence of discrim-

24 Stefan, Syzmanski, and Ian Preston, “Racial Discrimination in English Professional Football.”, Scottish Journal of Political Econ-
omy

12

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 12 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 than under purely skill-based evaluation.
As such, minority quarterbacks will have
higher average performance for compara-
ble draft placement. Under this framework,
I will determine whether there are system-
atic racial differences in “draft error;” that
is, examine whether minority quarterbacks
tend to out-perform their draft ranking to
a greater degree than white players.
To employ this strategy, we need
outcome variables that are indicative of a
quarterback’s career success at the profes-
sional level. I again use QBScore from Ber-
ri et al. to account for per-game on-field
performance factors. To assess team suc-
cess, I will use career win percentage and
number of wins over the quarterback’s ca-
reer. Longevity is also an important factor,
so I include games started over a player’s
entire career.
The sample contains NFL passing and
team statistics from 2000-2018, and NFL
Draft data from 2000-2011. To avoid cen-
soring bias, I only include players drafted
in or before 2011 to allow sufficient career
development. This procedure resulted in a
sample of 99 quarterbacks.
To detect racial differences in draft
error, I regress each outcome measure on
race and overall draft pick. Once again,
to account for differential effects of race
across the skill spectrum, race and draft
pick are interacted in each model. I ob-
served a non-linear, decaying relationship
between overall draft pick and the longev-
ity outcomes, so I assign an inverse func-
tional form to the pick variable in the mod-
els for “Wins” and “Games Started.”
A generic regression equation for this
analysis is shown in Equation 5 below:
(5) Yi = b 0 + cRi + b1 (Ri # QBScorei)
+ b2 Pick + f i
where Yi represents the outcome for each
13
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 13
model, and the “Pick” independent variable
is assigned an inverse transformation for
the Wins and Games Started models. Es-
timated coefficients and their standard er-
rors are shown for each model in Table 3.
As anticipated, overall draft pick is
significant and negatively associated with
each performance outcome (p < .001 in all
models), that is, players taken earlier in the
draft tend to perform better in the NFL.
Both the race dummy variable and the
interaction term are insignificant in pre-
dicting QBScore and career winning per-
centage. However, turning to the longevity
outcomes on the right half of the table, we
observe significant coefficients for both
the race dummy variable and the interac-
tion term.
In the model to predict games start-
ed, we observe a coefficient of -29.410 (p
= .048) on the race dummy variable, and
an offsetting positive coefficient of 0.281 (p
= .077) on the race-pick interaction term.
Given these parameters, the sign of the ef-
fect flips in the early fourth round of the
draft, at pick 104. As such, we infer that,
with regard to longevity, minority players
tend to be under-valued relative to white
players in the later rounds of the draft and
over-valued in the early rounds.
We observe a similar result in the
model for career wins, with a coefficient of
“In both stages of the
analysis, I observe racial
differences only at the
lower end of the skill
spectrum.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 -16.50 (p = .067) on the race dummy and a
positive coefficient of 0.168 (p = .081) on
the interaction term. With similar inter-
pretation to the prior result, we infer that
minority players are under-valued relative
to white players in the later rounds of the
draft.
The results for games started and
wins are represented visually in Figure 2.
Each player in the sample is represented by
a point, and model estimates are shown for
white and nonwhite subsets of the data for
the regression with an inverse transforma-
tion on the pick variable. We can observe
the differential effect of race over the draft
range by inspecting the varying slopes of
the subset models.
Discussion
Though the present analysis does not
escape the limitations inherent in detect-
ing racial discrimination through obser-
vational data, several of the shortcomings
in the prior literature were addressed and
palliated through this new methodology.
The use of the draft as an outcome variable
improves upon past research, as the draft
is not diluted by guidelines surrounding
contract negotiations. Additionally, this
14
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 14
study improves upon existing methodolo-
gy by adequately controlling for individu-
al player characteristics, most notably in-
game performance. In using NFL data to
detect differences in outcomes controlling
for draft order, there is no need to make
assumptions about the NFL’s consensus
player evaluations. Rather, I am able to use
differences in factual outcomes to deter-
mine whether minority players are system-
atically overlooked.
There are still limitations inherent
in this analysis. In addition to the omitted
variable bias discussed above affecting the
collegiate data models, there is a limited
sample size of minority quarterbacks avail-
able for the NFL analysis. Of the 99 quar-
terbacks in the sample, only 19 were non-
white. Having such an unbalanced sample
limits the precision of estimates. Though
these results may point to the presence of
discrimination in the draft, the limitations
inherent in observational analysis as well
as those specific to this study make it dif-
ficult and unjust to label the differences as
outright discrimination.
However, the historical evidence for
racial controversy in the NFL makes the
present results worth considering. In both
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 stages of the analysis, I observe racial dif-
ferences only at the lower end of the skill
spectrum. This selective effect among low-
skill quarterbacks may have a meaningful
practical interpretation. Highly valued mi-
nority players are unlikely to be discrimi-
nated against given their well-known po-
tential to add value to an NFL team, which
could likely offset any discriminatory ten-
dencies. In addition, these players are high-
ly touted and discussed in the media before
the draft, and discrimination against these
players would have to be played out much
more visibly in the public eye.
Further, minority players with lower
natural ability may be easier targets for dis-
crimination. While higher draft picks are
primarily evaluated on their raw athletic
talent that they demonstrated in college,
lower draft picks will be highly scrutinized
based on their potential to learn and im-
prove. Evaluation of these “intangible”
skills may be influenced to a greater degree
by racial biases. This point is well illus-
25 Boylan, Christopher, et al. “NFL Draft Profiles Are Full of Racial Stereotypes. And That Matters for When Quarterbacks Get
Drafted.”
15
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 15
trated by the Washington Post study cited
earlier, which found that white players are
more often praised for their intelligence,
understanding of the game, and command
of the team.25 These are the “intangible”
assets that NFL teams are looking for in
late-round draft picks, which may partially
explain the selective effect of race on low-
skill quarterbacks observed in this study.
Though these findings must be taken
with a grain of salt due to fundamental lim-
itations, they do point in the direction of an
ongoing and problematic trend in the NFL.
The issues surrounding race in the league,
such as the anthem protest, the Kaeper-
nick lawsuit, and the weak representation
of minorities in ownership have often es-
calated into full-blown controversies and
have become politicized beyond the point
of productive dialogue. Given the sensitiv-
ity of these issues, empirical study is critical
in order to understand the problem from
a neutral perspective. This study serves
as an attempt to uncover and understand
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 the controversies that have faced the NFL to acknowledge Dr. Hongmei Jiang for
for years, and hopefully future research in volunteering as a reviewer and providing
a valued second opinion on the thesis. I’d
this area will spur the league to address any
problematic tendencies. like to thank all of the professors in the
statistics department who have served as
Acknowledgements role models and mentors to me in the past
I’d like to thank Dr. Thomas Severi- four years. And of course, I want to thank
ni for serving as my advisor this year. His my family for their continued support and
support throughout the research process encouragement through my four years at
and contributions to the methodology and Northwestern. ■
manuscript were invaluable. I’d also like

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that-matters-for-when-quarter-
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 FEATURE

Lamar Jackson and

Patrick Mahomes:
Portending a Different Future for
Black Quarterbacks?
by Shreyas Iyer

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 O n Sept. 22, 2019, the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens faced off in a
battle between two of the National Football League’s brightest stars, in quarter-
backs Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes. Although the Ravens held a 6-point lead
after the first quarter, the team’s defense fell prey to a Chiefs onslaught in the second
quarter, as Kansas City scored 23 unanswered points. The Chiefs won the game 33-28,
en route to the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory in February 2020 against the San
Francisco 49ers.
That September game may eventually reside in the footnotes of football history:
a normal Week 3 game on just another fall Sunday in America. That contest, how-
ever, may be a harbinger of a different NFL that most football devotees have not yet
seen, one in which black quarterbacks thrive in offenses tailored to their skill sets and
inspire legions of fans to enjoy a new generation of stellar quarterback play.
In Sam Allnutt’s thorough examination of minority quarterbacks in the NFL,
he finds that lower-evaluated minority players are undervalued by the NFL’s draft
process. Whereas higher-ranked black stars — Heisman-winning Arizona Cardinals
quarterback Kyler Murray comes to mind imme-
diately — tend to be graded more fairly, low-
er-ranked quarterbacks may face more obsta-
cles to carving out a stable playing career.
“Production,
As Allnutt notes, racial controversy and accolades, and
discrimination is no stranger to football; from
youth leagues on, black players are shepherded abilities be damned;
away from the quarterback position toward po-
sitions that rely less on intangibles and leader- a black quarterback
ship. Despite a record-setting Heisman cam-
paign in 2016 and a similarly astounding 2017 is a runner first, and a
follow-up, NFL commentators, most notably
former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill
passer second.”
Polian, ascribed the seemingly-perfect role for
someone of Jackson’s build: running back.
Production, accolades, and abilities be damned; a black quarterback is a runner
first, and a passer second. Although Allnutt’s analysis does not take into consideration
players drafted after 2011, the recent play of black quarterbacks across the league is
inspiring optimism for those who want greater parity in football’s most important
and influential position.
Mahomes and Jackson were the most recent two NFL Most Valuable Players
and are at this point surefire stars, but the current spate of black quarterback success
remains unprecedented in NFL history. Last season should have put to rest any lin-
gering doubts of if minority quarterbacks can succeed in the NFL. Jackson, Mahomes,
and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson dominated MVP chatter last fall
when all three scored in the top 5 in total quarterback rating, or QBR, for the season.
The rating, created by ESPN in 2011, quantifies all of a quarterback’s impacts
on winning. Fellow signal-caller Deshaun Watson dragged another decent Houston
Texans squad to the playoffs, and much-maligned Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak

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 FEATURE

Prescott threw a personal record of 30 touchdowns off of 4,902 yards. Four black
quarterbacks finished with an elusive perfect passer rating in at least one game out
of five quarterbacks total. Four black quarterbacks finished in the top five in total
touchdowns scored last season. Four black quarterbacks led their team to the playoffs,
and won a combined five playoff games. By any measure, black quarterbacks in 2019
excelled in ways we have not seen before.
And yet, racial controversy continues to rear its ugly head. After a 20-17 loss
to Tennessee in 2018, Watson was castigated on social media for his performance.
One of those comments, by Texas school superintendent Lynn Redden, claimed that
“you can’t count on a black quarterback” to make “precision decision making.” The
statement went viral and cost Redden his job. San Francisco 49ers analyst Tim Ryan
compared Jackson’s skin color to a football and claimed that defenders could be easily
misled by the quarterback’s fakes. Quarterbacks at the collegiate level, as Bill Polian’s
earlier running back comment shows, are still subject to double standards when com-
pared to their white peers, who are often considered more intelligent than they are.
The quarterback position is one of the few positions in any sport that has at-
tained an almost superhuman significance in popular culture. Star quarterbacks are
deified by fans and vilified by foes, and are almost always the face of their respective
teams. Tales of winning under pressure and leading a team in the face of adversity
typically feature a quarterback rallying his troops. As such, improving equity at the
quarterback position is vital for how we perceive traits such as leadership, poise, acu-
men, and other factors that Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks possess.
In the past, pseudo-intellectual myths of subpar black intelligence buttressed
the notion that only white players could play quarterback. Whenever a commentator
suggests that a black college star transition to wide receiver, they reinforce, perhaps
unknowingly, these Jim Crow tropes. Americans accustomed to football management
shuttling black players to these more “athletic” positions may view the positive traits
associated with quarterbacks as reflecting whiteness. An NFL brimming with black
quarterbacks, however, could cement black leadership on millions of TV sets around
the nation and eradicate many of the pernicious falsehoods that surround black ath-
letes.
In this regard, it may be more important for us to look not at the top of the QBR
rankings to observe progress on this front, but rather at the bottom of the depth
chart. A stronger measure of where minority quarterback stands may lie with how
NFL management views lower-performing black quarterbacks.
Allnutt writes that scouts frequently undervalue black quarterbacks during the
draft process; they end up less heralded than their more successful peers. If this is
the case, the next standard by which we discern the state of black quarterbacks in the
NFL should be whether black quarterbacks that lack the talent of a Mahomes or a
Prescott can stick around in the league.
The verdict on this statistic is historically not great, but more black quarterbacks
are establishing themselves as backups and spot starters. Tyrod Taylor established
himself as a reliable starter and back-up after making the 2015 Pro Bowl and lead-
ing the Buffalo Bills to the 2017 playoffs. Teddy Bridgewater was one of the most

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 sought-after free agents this past winter after not losing a game for the New Orleans
Saints, and should start for the New York Jets this fall. Others, such as Brett Hundley,
Geno Smith, Josh Johnson, and Robert Griffin III still compete for backup spots. The
Las Vegas Raiders signed Marcus Mariota to compete with Derek Carr, and Jameis
Winston should land on his feet by the time training camp begins after throwing 30
touchdowns last season.
The future is undoubtedly bright for younger minority quarterbacks. Last year,
Murray and Dwayne Haskins, Jr. were first-round draft picks and started for their
respective teams; Murray went on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and displayed
tantalizing potential in spurts for the Cardinals. Alabama star Tua Tagovailoa and
Utah State’s Jordan Love, and Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts heard their names called in
the first two rounds of this year’s draft. Ohio State’s Justin Fields led his team to the
College Football Playoff, and a slew of other quarterbacks, including Arizona State’s
Jayden Daniels and Georgia’s Jamie Newman, can increase their national profiles with
strong seasons.
Minority quarterbacks have taken the league by storm as NFL teams have begun
to design their offenses around the prodigious abilities that these quarterbacks have
brought to the league. Alnutt points to discrepancies at the lower end of the talent
spectrum as an indication that despite the success of minority quarterbacks, the NFL
still has work to do to ensure racial parity at the position. Alnutt’s research should
serve as a springboard for the tough discussions we need to have in order to develop
the mindsets required to ensure equal opportunity for all budding athletes. Hopefully,
we will begin to view black quarterbacks, and black leadership, as emblematic of an
NFL that supports the best of what our country’s athletes have to offer. ■

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 Department of African American Studies

Radical Redress:
Black Birth Workers
Respond to Maternal
Mortality
by Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike

Abstract
Since the postpartum death of #BlackLivesMatter activist Erica
Garner in December 2017 and the harrowing birth narrative released
by tennis champion Serena Williams in January 2018, an apparent crisis
of Black maternal mortality has breached public discourse in the Unit-
ed States.12 The public’s uptake of this tragedy aligns with the nation’s
anti-Black preoccupation with sensationalizing Black pathology (Cole).3
Media representation of the crisis elides the pre-existing grassroots ac-
tivism through which Black people directly confront the social structures
that endanger Black birthing people. This paper centers the narratives
of Black birthers and birth workers — midwives and doulas — to reveal
the practices through which Black people heal themselves and one an-
other through birth work. I will briefly analyze the media coverage of
Black maternal mortality and establish how Black birth workers address
it through counter-representational movements toward honoring Black
embodied knowledge. Using qualitative interviews with seven Black
doulas and midwives, I argue that Black birth workers draw from their
positions as Black people in an anti-Black society to oppose obstetric vi-
olence. This study demonstrates how Black people enact radical care to
combat popular media’s pathologizing treatment of Black birth and con-
solidate birth and racial justice agendas.

1 Katie Mitchell, “Why We Need To Talk About Maternal Mortality After Erica Garner’s Death,” Bustle,
www.bustle.com/p/after-erica-garners-death-we-need-to-talk-about-how-maternal-mortality-affects-
black-women-7739678.
2 Rob Haskell, “Serena Williams on Motherhood, Marriage, and Making Her Comeback,” Vogue, www.
vogue.com/article/serena-williams-vogue-cover-interview-february-2018.
3 Haile E. Cole, “Reproduction on Display: Black Maternal Mortality, The Newest Case for National Action,”
Northwestern University Department of African American Studies, 19 April 2018, Kresge Centennial Hall,
Evanston, IL. Talk.

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 #BlackBirthsMatter ically effaced. To begin, Efe retold the sto-
On Feb. 18, 2019, Ancient Song Doula ry of hospital birth as an emerging norm:
Services, a community-based birth justice Black women home-birthed throughout
organization, and BYP100, a national racial the 20th century due to anti-Black hospi-
justice organizing coalition, rallied outside tal discrimination. Black and Indigenous
of Kings County City Hospital in Brook- grand midwives “stepped up” to act as
lyn, New York. I streamed their rally via holistic healthcare providers “while they
Instagram Live at 1 p.m.,1 becoming one of were being criminalized and over-regu-
hundreds of global participants witnessing lated.” According to Efe, there is a history
the storytelling of Black birth workers and of Medicaid and other state health depart-
birthing people.2 One birth worker, a dou- ments “eradicating” Black and Indigenous
la and student midwife named Efe, spoke at grand midwives and “only then” allowing
the rally with a mother for whom she had Black people into hospitals in lieu of Black
provided doula care. New York had recent- midwifery. She argued that “bringing our
ly proposed a Medicaid expansion to cover midwives back into our hospitals” should
doula services, but Efe’s speech sought to be a key fight under the banner of birth
steer the conversation away from this de- justice, asking, “Why isn’t [midwife sup-
cision. Efe shifted focus toward the impor- port] our focus? So that doulas can con-
tance of Black and Indigenous midwives, tinue to act as bodyguards?” She said that
who she said laid the groundwork for the she was tired of being “kicked out of hos-
very inception of doula care. pital rooms” and “cornered by nurses” so
Efe’s storytelling reframes doula care’s that her clients could be manipulated and
potential for redressing Black maternal abused. Efe explained that doula care alone
mortality, calling attention to Black mid- cannot sufficiently shift a system built to
wifery as a radical tradition being systemat- silence and harm Black birthing people and
1 A great deal of the social media sources here analyzed were ephemeral texts. For example, Instagram stories and lives (videos)
often disappear after 24 hours unless the original person who posts the story or live elects to archive that material for continuous
public access. That being the case, if an item is not cited it is because it cannot be referenced again, but I was fortunate to engage
with it and analyze it while it was available. Instagram posts (videos and pictures on a public page), tweets, Facebook statuses, and
other social media with more permanence are cited.
2 Throughout this work, I have tried to remain skeptical of how birth has been gendered as the inherent domain of cis-women.
In an era in which trans and gender nonconforming people are increasingly gaining access to labor, facing obstetric violence, and
seeking birth work, it would be inaccurate to suggest every Black person who gives birth identifies as a woman. Additionally,
gender nonconforming and birth workers who identify as men are often erased from this practice (Graham). When speaking of
Black people engaging childbirth as a general experience, I will aim to use genderless language (birth giver, birther, person giving
birth, people, etc.). When speaking of professionals facilitating birth in general, I will use “birth worker,” “doula,” and “midwife”
as genderless terms (although gender has been built into the etymology of these labels, and another space for radical imagination
would be formulating new vocabulary for more accurately discussing birth). When gendered language is incited, it will be because
I refer to a specific entity whose gender identity is publicly known and has been stated in the source. For example, many of my
featured Black midwives refer to themselves as Black women. Unfortunately, only two of my respondents identified as queer Black
people, and only one used the gender-neutral pronoun “they” interchangeably with “she” (which is reflected in the section in which
their sentiments are used). It would be a priority of future, more extensive research to expand my body of respondents to include
more gender non-conforming, gender non-binary, and genderqueer persons.

“My next birth is gonna be different. It’s gonna be so

different, because I’m not gonna have to feel like I’m
not gonna be heard. ”
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 birth workers.
Efe’s birth work is informed by a larg-
er project of racial justice, and she provides
care in connection to the history of crimi-
nalization marking Black midwifery in the
U.S. For Efe, as she would go on to state in
our later interview, radical Black doula care
requires the genuine recuperation of Black
midwifery. These coupled care practices
vitally disrupt a birth industry in which
obstetricians hold the greatest power.
Efe’s client shared her own experi-
ence at Kings County. Her words demon-
strate her imagination of what birth justice
could afford her and other birthers: “The
reason I’m out here is so simple: my next
birth is gonna be different. It’s gonna be
so different, because I’m not gonna have
to feel like I’m not gonna be heard. I’m
not gonna have to feel like I’m gonna walk
into a hospital, and they’re gonna do what-
ever the hell it is that they’re gonna want
to do with my body without my consent.
...That’s gonna be a story that’s not gonna
be told anymore.”
This speaker participated in this rally
to register her outrage and manifest her vi-
sion of repair. She asked whether the disre-
gard she experienced in a city hospital was
due to her race, age, or her use of Medic-
aid. She queried whether some facet of her
social identity determined her experience.
She asked, “Why? Why do you treat us this
way?!” Her voice and body shook, as she
exclaimed, “How can you strap me down
to perform a c-section? I’m the last person
to hold my baby! I had to wait a whole 24
hours to hold my son! He was in the NICU;
I didn’t know why!”
This mother shared her trauma to
demonstrate the violent alienation and
3 Michael J. Dumas and Kihana Miraya Ross, “‘Be Real Black for Me,’” Urban Education, vol. 51, no. 4, 2016, pp. 415–442.,
doi:10.1177/0042085916628611.
4 “What Is Birth Justice?”, Black Women Birthing Justice, www.blackwomenbirthingjustice.org/what-is-birth-justice.
23
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 23
dehumanization Black birthing people ex-
perience in labor and the postpartum peri-
od. While the popular media stories about
Black maternal life focus on sudden death
and neglect, Black birth workers and birth
justice activists have long exposed the sub-
tler wounds inflicted on birthing people.
These wounds accumulate in the body and
result in a disproportionate risk of death.
The protesters marched to another
city hospital with a similar reputation of
harming Black birthing people. Organiz-
ers made it clear that the second hospital,
which predominantly served Black people,
had such poor quality of care that it was
“basically a grave site.” The Instagram Live
ended as organizers remarked, “Black death
is literally in the air as we stand.” Sever-
al people can be seen gripping their coats
closer to their skin, as if to seal themselves
up from lingering fragments of literal and
“social death”.3
I open with this vignette to illustrate
the powerful organizational and personal
partnerships characterizing Black birth as
a site of activism and radical care. Efe and
her client illustrate how birth workers and
birthing people ally in their Blackness to
reconstruct the stories told about Black
birth.
The Birth Justice Banner
The previously-detailed rally aimed
to advance birth justice. The Black wom-
en-led birth justice grassroots organiza-
tion Black Women Birthing Justice defines
birth justice as the end-state that results
when “women and transfolk are empow-
ered during pregnancy, labor, childbirth,
and postpartum to make healthy decisions
for themselves and their babies.”4 Birth
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 justice attends to the ways in which social
structures determine one’s experience of
the physiological event of birth, perinatal
“Anti-Blackness, which is
care, and childrearing. Birth justice activ-
ists such as the organizers in the vignette
the belief that the Black
confront racial disparities in childbirth,
contending with Blackness as a social po- body exists as mutually
sition shaping one’s birth.
In 2016, a jarring statistic from the exclusive from the human”
Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion, or CDC, circulated via numerous
media pieces, such as “Black mothers die
mational support to women during labor,
at three to four times the rate of white
delivery, and the immediate postpartum
mothers.”5 In 2017, ProPublica and NPR
period.”7 This quote characterizes doula
co-published the story of Shalon Irving, a
work as a “profession” but many doulas,
Black mother who died postpartum despite
especially those interviewed as part of this
having attained high levels of education
thesis, such as Efe, reflected an under-
and financial security, factors generally
standing of doula work that resists profes-
expected to protect birthing people from
sionalization. Doula care has been proven
adverse outcomes.6 This story led a wave
to improve birth outcomes for marginal-
of news coverage that seemed to suggest
ized populations, significantly lowering
Black birthing people were dying of their
preterm births, improving birth weight,
own accord; a media sensation emerged,
and bettering birthing people’s chances of
fixated on a pathological image of Black
completing often life-saving postpartum
birth. This paper will illuminate the ap-
visits.8
proaches, practices, and networks through
An under-examined underpinning to
which Black people redress Black maternal
the efficacy of doula care is its continuity
mortality through birth work, centering
with the community-based care of gran-
the (counter) stories they tell about Black
ny midwives. Granny midwives, who Efe
birth.
mentioned in her rally speech, are general-
This research focuses on doula care
ly local female elders who assist births and
and midwifery as forms of birth work, al-
provide other health resources.9 Granny
though birth work is a term representing a
midwifery leverages ancestral knowledge;
wide umbrella of professions and roles en-
it is a practice passed down generational-
listed to support the perinatal experience.
ly, initiated during the time of Black en-
A doula is “a trained childbirth [aid] who
slavement and eroded by governmental
provides emotional, physical, and infor-

5 Nina Martin, and Renee Montagne, “Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth,” ProPublica,
www.propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth.
6 Ibid.
7 Mary-Powel Thomas et al., “Doula Services Within a Healthy Start Program: Increasing Access for an Underserved Population,”
Maternal and Child Health Journal, vol. 21, no. Supplement 1, 2017, pp. 60.
8 Ibid., pp. 60-61.
9 Susan Lynn Smith, “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women’s Health Activism in America, 1890-1950,” University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 119.

24

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 24 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 “Afro-pessimism holds that there has never been a
discontinuation breaking contemporary Black life from the
traumatic condition of enslavement. ”
intervention.1011 Birth justice activists and that there has never been a discontinuation
birth workers nationwide have mobilized breaking contemporary Black life from the
behind doula access, but my conversations traumatic condition of enslavement. This
with Black birth workers suggests a pivot continuity means that Blackness is always
in focus toward healing the historical den- “already targeted for death, in the literal
igration of Black midwives. By centering sense and in terms of what Orlando Pat-
and honoring Black birth workers as au- terson (1982) calls ‘social death,’” which is
thorities on Black birth, we extract a richer where “the participation of Black people in
picture of the care and crises intermingled civic life, as citizens, is made unintelligible
in the Black perinatal experience in the by the continual re-inscribing and re-jus-
U.S. tification of violence on and against Black
bodies.”13 Anti-Blackness, which is the
Theorizing Birth Justice belief that the Black body exists as mutu-
The birth workers featured in this ally exclusive from the human,14 is consis-
research actively generate racialized birth tently present as racialized subjects move
theory through which they imagine jus- through the medical complex of the U.S.15
tice. The social location of Blackness in Throughout this nation’s history, extreme
an anti-Black society shapes the relation- policing has marked Black peoples’ birthing
ships Black people have with structures of experiences, codifying Blackness as a social
the U.S. medical complex. This research location characterized by reproductive op-
will wield the following assumption about pression.16 Birth justice is an end-state in
what it means ontologically to be racial- which one may birth and parent outside
ized as Black in the U.S.: “Antiblackness the reach of harm regardless of one’s social
is endemic to, and is central to how all of location; birth justice activists engage re-
us make sense of the social, economic, his- sistance tactics to work toward this vision.
torical, and cultural dimensions of human
life.”12 Toward Justice: Defining Birth
This tenet of Black critical race the- Worker’s Field of Action
ory, BlackCrit, comes out of the project I pull the term “field of action” from
of Afro-pessimism. Afro-pessimism holds Saidiya Hartman’s “Scenes of Subjection.”17
10 Ibid.
11 Onnie Lee Logan, and Katherine Clark, “Motherwit an Alabama Midwife’s Story,” Plume, 1991.
12 Dumas and Ross, “Be Real Black,” pp. 429.
13 Ibid.
14 Sylvia Wynter, “‘No Humans Involved:’ An Open Letter to My Colleagues,” Forum N.H.I. Knowledge for the 21st Century, vol.
1, no. 1, 1994, pp. 42–73.
15 See Bridges for examples regarding pregnancy.
16 Dorothy Roberts, “Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty,” Vintage Books, 1997.
17 Saidiya V. Hartman, “Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America,” Oxford Universi-
ty Press, 1997, pp. 50.

25

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 25 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 “Field of action” describes the context in
which resistance is performed. For birth
workers, this context is defined by histor-
ically-rooted obstetric violence and the
structures that protect it. Deidre Cooper
Owens’ “Medical Bondage: Race, Gender,
and the Origins of American Gynecolo-
gy” analyzes the torture of enslaved Black
women at the hands of James Marion
Sims, the American Father of Gynecology.
Owens explains obstetrics’ foundations in
this violence. Owens says, “Slavery, medi-
cine, and science had a synergistic relation-
ship,” in that “the various medical inter-
ventions performed on enslaved women’s
bodies were the sine qua non of racialized
medicine and the legitimization of medical
branches like obstetrics and gynecology.”18
Owens narrates how the emergence of ob-
stetrics as a medical profession required
the eradication of Black midwifery, pro-
viding obstetrics with Black bodies as sites
of experimentation. He explains, “When
white men integrated obstetrics and gy-
necology, pregnant enslaved women who
experienced difficult birthing processes
became disproportionately represented in
surgical cases in which doctors used blades
and forceps to remove fetuses. Surgeries
were quite rare in the first half of the nine-
teenth century, so it is astounding how
many medical journal articles listed en-
slaved women as surgical patients.”19
Black birthing people were not over-
represented in medical journals due to
some recurrent racial birthing pathology;
they were overrepresented as medical sub-
jects because they were made more avail-
18 Dierdre Cooper Owens, “Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology,” University of Georgia
Press, 2018, pp. 11.
19 Ibid., pp. 54.
20 Harriet A. Washington, “Medical Apartheid: the Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial
Times to the Present,” 1st ed., Doubleday, 2006, pp. 48-64.
21 Roberts, “Killing the Black Body,” pp. 9.
22 Owens, “Medical Bondage,” pp. 63.
23 Ibid., pp. 62.
26
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 26
able for intervention. In the early- to mid-
1800s, physicians targeted Black midwives
and healers alongside their birth-giving
clients. Midwives were subject to punish-
ments including execution, although their
practices were often regarded amongst
enslaved Black and white women alike
as “more efficacious.”20 Dorothy Roberts’
“Killing the Black Body” depicts how Black
birthers, there gendered as women, are dis-
proportionately vulnerable to policing and
surveillance, because the state assumes that
they will pass their inherent “degeneracy”
down to their offspring.21 The over-po-
licing of Black birthing people more con-
temporarily is continuous with the logic of
slavery-era obstetricians and gynecologists
who, “[w]hen infants died, castigated the
sloth and ignorance of their mothers and
the black midwives who attended them.”22
Black birthers and midwives were blamed
for the deaths, ignoring “antebellum doc-
tors’ disdain for hand washing” and the
unsanitary settings to which slave shacks
were relegated to keep them as far as possi-
ble from “whites’ dwellings.”23 Conditions
and context, as well as the harmful practic-
es of white authorities, were overlooked in
favor of criminalizing the Black body.
Obstetricians mobilized racialized im-
agery to construct midwives’ Blackness as a
source of contagion claiming Black infant
lives. For example, in 1925, a doctor “read
a paper before the Southern Medical As-
sociation in which he described the black
midwife as ‘filthy and ignorant and not far
removed from the jungles of Africa, laden
with its atmosphere of weird superstition
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 and voodooism.’”24 Interestingly, as recent-
ly as 2018, birth workers described obste-
tricians who said similar things to their
Black clients. One said, “I was once assist-
ing a mom from Sudan who didn’t want to
do a vaginal exam because she was a victim
of female genital mutilation ... Later, when
this mom was having trouble pushing, I
remember the doctor saying, ‘What’s your
problem, you have other kids. Didn’t you
give birth in the jungle, anyway?’”25 Here,
the common incitation of “the jungle” as
a signifier of proximity to animality and
backwardness speaks to the underlying co-
lonial racism that haunts birth in the U.S.
The anti-Blackness of the U.S. medical
complex is a vestige of racial chattel slav-
ery, and Black birth workers utilize vari-
ous practices to intervene upon this field
of action.
Roberts, Owens, and Washington
revisit the ghost of enslavement as foun-
dational to Black people’s navigation of
reproductive healthcare, because, as one of
my research respondents said, this trauma
“has to live in the body.”26 The institution
of slavery naturalized Black pain and re-
jected Black sentience, according to Said-
iya Hartman. She imagines “redress” for
this violence as predicated upon a theory
of “practice.” For Hartman, practice en-
24 Smith, “Sick and Tired,” pp. 125.
25 Emily Bobrow, “What It’s Like to Be a Doula for Women of
Color,” The Cut, New York Media, www.thecut.com/2018/08/
what-its-like-to-be-a-doula-for-women-of-color.html.
26 “Bailey, Doula”. Interview. By Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike. 13
Mar. 2019. Telephone Interview.
27 Hartman, “Scenes of Subjection,” pp. 50.
28 Martin and Montagne, “Nothing Protects Black Women.”
29 Nina Martin and Renee Montagne, “Black Mothers Keep Dying
After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s Story Explains Why,” NPR,
https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-mothers-keep-
dying-after-giving-birth-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why
30 Linda Villarosa, “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are
in a Life-or-Death Crisis,” The New York Times, www.nytimes.
com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-mater-
nal-mortality.html.
31 “SJ, Doula”. Interview. By Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike. 4 Mar.
2019.
27
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 27
tails “a way of operating defined by ‘the
non-autonomy of its field of action,’ in-
ternal manipulations of established order,
and ephemeral victories.”27 In other words,
practices are short-lived moments resist-
ing the determination of an overarching
structure. Birth work is a practice that ma-
nipulates the medical order from within,
providing inroads by which Black birthers
may access more respectful and pleasurable
care. Hartman characterizes practice as be-
ing constituted by “ephemeral victories.”
Each delivery is a single, transient instance
within the lifetime of a birthing person,
but it has the potential to reflect and trans-
form their relationship to medical power, a
potential that respondents such as Carmen
and Qiddist center in their birth work.
Stories & Counter-Stories
By erasing Black people’s health activ-
ism and the history of medical marginal-
ization in the U.S., media coverage of Black
maternal mortality has sought to make
Black birth givers responsible for their
own deaths. ProPublica,28 NPR,29 and The
New York Times30 led a wave of news cov-
erage that many of my respondents refer to
as “sensationalizing” Black maternal mor-
tality.31 Already previewed in these article
titles, it would appear that Black mothers
“Media coverage of Black
maternal mortality has
sought to make Black birth
givers responsible for their
own deaths.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “Through redressive practices that intervene on the birth
industry as an oppressive field of action, they hope to
craft new potential for pleasure and healing for birthing
Black bodies.”
are trapped in hopelessly pathological birth
experiences.
According to Haile Cole, a professor
of sociology and anthropology at Amherst
College, the current conversation sur-
rounding Black maternal mortality simply
replicates a national obsession with the dis-
eased Black body. Her emerging research
on this topic asks, “Why is it important to
locate reproduction within the larger dia-
logues about racial domination and con-
trol, and how does reproduction work in
conjunction with other technologies of
racial and gender-based oppression?”32 Po-
tential answers to these questions begin
at analysis of the spectacle made of Black
birth, especially as the media’s storytell-
ing serves to erase Black agency — mak-
ing Black birthers into people who “need
saving” to fit easily into the American
psyche.33 By demonstrating that neither
wealth nor education could protect these
birthing people, these reports suggest that
race — the identity of Black womanhood,
especially — is irrevocably damning. These
reports never made the essential pivot to-
ward elucidating race as an “organizing
principle” of power.34 They did not attend
to how Black birthers have historically and
contemporarily been made vulnerable to
violence.
32 Cole, “Reproduction on Display.”
33 Ibid.
34 Khiara Bridges, “Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization,” University of California Press,
2011, pp. 16.
28
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 28
Centering Black Birth Work as
Radical Redress
In interviewing seven Black doulas
and midwives, I learned how Black birth
workers approach their care in response to
Black maternal mortality, both as a public
health crisis and a media sensation. I inves-
tigate how Black birth workers approach
Black birth, asking them to reference their
own and their clients’ social positioning
using semi-structured interviews. I ana-
lyzed my transcripts using codes organized
by three key themes: race and storytelling,
including the media surrounding Black
birth; race and birth work, or the tangible
practices informed by social positioning;
and race and redress, or how birth workers
imagine solutions to maternal mortality
disparities. The first names or pseudonyms
of birth workers are used to properly attri-
bute their insights, according to their stat-
ed preference. Applying critical race fram-
ing to my coded transcripts, I learned that
Black birth workers approach birth work
as racial justice activism and seek to redress
deep obstetric wounds that result from his-
tories of medical violence.
Storytelling
All the birth workers interviewed de-
scribed the media sensation surrounding
Black maternal mortality as de-histori-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 cized, and many of them saw Black birthers
bearing disproportionate blame rather
than having their accounts believed.35 Birth
workers also spoke to how the media sen-
sation created around Black maternal mor-
tality influences their work with clients.
When Efe, doula and student midwife,
sees people talking about Black maternal
mortality on Instagram and Twitter, “peo-
ple are scared; they’re terrified.” As Qiddist,
a doula, says, headlines such as her “least
favorite but most telling,” which was the
ProPublica “Nothing Protects Black Wom-
en From Dying in Pregnancy and Child-
birth,” relegate Black birthers to a position
of fear and doom. Qiddist says that Black
birthing people seem like “a lost cause,” and
ultimately, “[t]hat’s just not true!” Qiddist
feels that her role intervening in this nar-
rative is to provide clients with diasporic
practices, which she calls “protective fac-
tors,” reminding birthers that they “are not
broken” and instead live within a violent
system. Efe and Qiddist respond to the
media sensation by guiding their clients
toward avenues by which they can birth
safely.
Trauma as a Basis for Black Birth Work
As Black midwives and doulas are
personally familiar with the specifics of be-
ing Black in an anti-Black world,36 they use
birth work to combat the systematic dehu-
manization of their clients and themselves.
Based on the responses of my interlocu-
tors, I understand birth work as a practice
of reciprocal healing because its radical
care grasps at the root, addressing obstetric
violence as just one of many manifestations
of “endemic anti-Blackness.”37 What does
it mean to perform birth work from this
depth of consideration? It means assuming
35 “Venus, Nurse Midwife”. Interview. By Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike. 6 Mar. 2019. Telephone Interview.
36 Dumas and Ross, “Be Real Black”
37 Ibid.
29
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 29
trauma as a presupposition for clients and
seeing birth work and training as racially
circumscribed. Doula SJ reflects that most
of her Black clients specifically had “com-
plicated relationships either to doctors or
Western medicine” or knew “about how
Black women are at higher risk for all sorts
of complications during labor, and they
[came] into that experience with more
apprehension and more worry.” Similar-
ly, doula Sade was attracted to doula care
via her personal encounters with medical
professionals, who generally treated her
like she had no knowledge of her own
body. She found doula work as a method
for facilitating the reclamation of bodily
autonomy for others, “specifically Black,
indigenous, and queer” birthers. Sade acti-
vates her racial empathy into a birth work
practice focused on recuperating personal
power. In this way, Sade finds healing for
herself and her clients.
Radical Redress
Efe applies an abolitionist framing
to birth justice because she finds the en-
tire medical system culpable for maternal
deaths and aims to dismantle it. To think of
birth justice through an abolitionist frame-
work, making contemporary Black mater-
nal mortality continuous with the legacy of
slavery, indicates that Efe processes her role
as a birth worker in relationship to a larger
project of racial liberation. Interviews with
doula Bailey and professional midwife Car-
men were similarly saturated with radical
imaginations of what redress could resem-
ble for Black birthing people. For instance,
Carmen considers her midwifery a method
of direct action, emphasizing that she uses
midwifery to “interrupt trauma.” Bailey
hopes greater visibility for Black maternal
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 mortality in public media will culminate incal care seeks to nourish alienated bodies.
support for more birth centers, communi- Through redressive practices that inter-
ty-based doula collectives, and greater con-
vene on the birth industry as an oppressive
cern for Black women’s health overall, not field of action, they hope to craft new po-
just when they are “dying in pregnancy and tential for pleasure and healing for birthing
childbirth.”38 These doulas invoke birth Black bodies. Blackness and its attendant
work toward a vision of repair in which social death inspire these birth workers to
life in a Black body is not immediately tied
think about “care” differently from their
to death. white counterparts, as they “comfort, and
defend…those living lives… in the pres-
Conclusion ence of death.”39 Assisting birth in the con-
SJ, Efe, Venus, Sade, Carmen, Qid- text of constant death looks like teaching
dist, and Bailey all approach their birth childbirth education in view of an altar
work from the social location of Black- for the lost. Black birth work, sitting in
40

ness. The specificity of being Black in an the wake of slavery, must be centered in
anti-Black world makes the body a target conversations of Black maternal health be-
for dismemberment and dehumanization, cause it leads us to unpack what it means
both in birth as a physio-social event and to birth when one is socially constructed in
the stories we tell about it. These birth antagonism to life.
workers’ often trauma-informed, radi-
38 Bailey referencing the title of the article by Martin and Montagne.
39 Christina Elizabeth Sharpe, “In the Wake: on Blackness and Being,” Duke University Press, 2016, pp. 38.
40 See Appendix Image 1.

Appendix

Image 1: A screenshot of @ancientsong’s

Instagram story depicting an altar in
honor of the Black mothers recently
lost nationwide to maternal mortality.

30

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 30 11/12/20 2:38 PM

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 Johnson, Kimberly Ann, host. “Racha
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11/12/20 2:38 PM
 FEATURE

Degrees Don’t Make Them

Distant:
Researching with Graduate Students
By Andrew Laeuger

Given Northwestern University’s outstanding reputation, it is no surprise that

this school has a sizeable graduate student population. In fact, according to the offi-
cial Northwestern website, more than 8,000 undergrads call this place home, while
over 13,000 graduate students hide among us, sneaking back to their apartments on
the 201 while we eat at Sarge and Allison.
Though there are few classes on campus in which graduate and undergraduate
students mix, there are many opportunities to interact with graduate students within
Northwestern’s academic research environment. To learn more about the experience
of researching with graduate Wildcats, I caught up with Daniel Grass, a junior in the
Integrated Sciences Program who works with many graduate students and postdocs
in a laser optics lab.

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 AL: When you first joined your optics lab, were you the only undergraduate at the
time?
DG: I was the only undergraduate at Northwestern in this lab. However, when I
joined, the lab at Reno (University of Nevada, Reno, the prior location of the optics
lab group) was transitioning to Northwestern, so I believe there were undergraduates
back there. However, I never interacted with any of them.

AL: Since you were the first Northwestern undergraduate in your lab, was that new
step in your college experience daunting?
DG: It was a little daunting. … But everyone was really supportive. The postdocs
specifically gave me projects that I could work on at my own pace and that weren’t too
high-pressure or dependent on the results or a certain calculation. Everyone felt new
to the environment and I had been at Northwestern longer than most of the graduate
students moving here from Nevada. So, in my specific scenario, there wasn’t much
pressure or any awkwardness really.

AL: What did you do to adjust to a lab setting with a lot of grad students?
DG: In high school, I definitely knew a decent amount [about physics], but you have
to reset that idea and know that you’re one of the least informed people, or the least
informed person, in the room. This doesn’t necessarily mean biting your tongue, but
just remembering that they know what they’re doing better than you do.

Sometimes, when making comments or suggestions, I would preface those comments

with the notion that “I might be telling you that water is wet, but here’s an idea to con-
sider.” I just made it clear that I knew my position, and in turn, no external pressure
was placed on me.

AL: You’ve now been researching with grad students for 3 years. What has been the
best part about your time, and what part has taken the most time to become comfort-
able with?
DG: I like knowing that these graduate students and postdocs have been in my shoes
before — they’ve taken courses that I might want to take. It’s nice to have a bunch of
different experienced voices in the room that I can just chat with.

As for the hardest thing to adjust to, there really isn’t much. We all had relatively
shared experiences here at Northwestern, so we all took life as it happened.

AL: Are there any other advantages to working with graduate students that you’ve
seen specifically within the realm of research?
DG: Generally, it’s the sort of advantages you would expect with more educated
students: they would always be helpful with ordering parts or just bouncing off ideas.
Postdocs are also able to easily adjust their daily schedules — they usually roll up
whenever they feel like it, but work until they finish the work they need to do.

34

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 FEATURE

I also worked for six months at Northwestern in a chemistry lab, where the postdocs
show up at 11 a.m. but stay until 8 at night. They definitely get their work done, and
they work hard. Since the postdocs worked rather adjustable schedules, I could be
confident that when I came into the lab after classes, there would be at least one grad-
uate student there to answer any questions or concerns I had.

AL: Northwestern has twice as many graduate students as undergraduates. Do you

think this hampers the ability of undergraduates to embark on their own projects?
DG: A lot of professors have specific projects and tasks set aside that undergraduates
can complete. They’re certainly not menial, whereas a project given to a high school
student may be. They’re important, but not too daunting. Professors know that to do
good research, you need a mix of undergraduates and graduate students to take on a
variety of projects. It’s just a matter of finding a professor who is doing work that is
undergraduate-friendly, and that’s a relatively easy process.

AL: You mentioned that when you first joined this lab, your projects or contributions
were generally proposed by other group members. What habits can undergraduates
pick up to get the most out of their time researching with older students?
DG: Listening is a key component. These experienced researchers know the common
pitfalls and have likely made mistakes similar to those you can and will make. For
research in general, always assume that you’ll forget things — constantly document
your work and check over your steps for consistency. Even in minor details, always be
asking yourself, “What am I missing here? What haven’t I counted for? How can this
go wrong?”

Every little part needs to be checked when you’re doing novel research. Be aware that,
however incredibly helpful graduate students may be, you will be the most informed
person regarding your specific project. Have confidence! Second check rather than
second guess.

AL: Do you have any other final advice for new researchers about getting involved in
this process?
DG: In my experience, as long as you try at something, your teammates will be gra-
cious that you are contributing to their work. It’s extremely unlikely that if you en-
counter difficulties, you will be holding up the entire lab. There aren’t any downsides
to it, so I’d say it’s good to just jump in and see what you learn and where you go. And,
of course, there will always be people there to help you.

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 Department of International Studies

#MeToo In The
European Parliament:
A Case Study In Feminist
Institutionalism
by Nicole E. Fallert

Introduction were treated in this environment, and

It all started with a notebook. Jeanne experienced unwanted sexual attention
Ponte was 23 years old in 2014 when she and aggression.1 Amidst rampant sexual
began working as an Accredited Parlia- harassment, Ponte saw that a “culture of
mentary Assistant, or APA, for a French silence” dominated the European Parlia-
Member of the European Parliament, or ment, or E.P. Ponte said her colleagues told
MEP, in Brussels, Belgium. As a young her, “‘This is normal behavior. You can’t
woman in a male-dominated workplace, change the rules. Politicians are like that.’”2
she immediately noticed how females Ponte’s friends and family know her
to always be carrying a notebook, so it
1 The definition of “sexual harassment” in this paper will accord with the EU’s official definition; “where any form of unwanted
verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature occurs, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in
particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading humiliating or offensive environment.”
2 Appendix 1

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 36 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 Figure 1 ◀
wasn’t an odd choice for her to begin re-
cording accounts of inappropriate be-
havior in a small flowered journal in re-
sponse to what she saw. The “Little Sexism
Notebook” contained over 80 testimonies
by the time the Harvey Weinstein scan-
dal broke in October 2017 and the viral
#MeToo movement shook storied insti-
tutions around the world.3 Then Ponte’s
boss French MEP Edouard Martin men-
tioned the notebook, with her permission,
in an interview on a local radio station at
the same time #MeToo went viral on so-
cial media. As the world opened its eyes
to the reality of sexual harassment, Pon-
te’s story went everywhere within days.
The notebook’s revelation signaled
the start of the Parliament’s own #MeToo
movement. The months following Mar-
tin’s interview brought rapid action to ad-
dress Ponte’s revelation of the “open secret”
of gender-based violence in the Parlia-
ment.4 Interview requests flooded Ponte’s
inbox. Strangers recognized her on trains.
But spokespeople from the E.P. encour-
aged Ponte to tell her story, so she went
for it. Ponte answered every interview
request, never speaking alone and never
3 Corine Goldberger, “Jeanne Ponte, the Parliamentary Assistant Who Pins the Machos.” Figure 1.
4 Nicole Fallert, “Inside the Fight to Make the European Parliament Take Sexual Harassment Seriously.” Figure 2.
37
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 37
giving names in an effort to keep the story
about the problem, not the perpetrators.
Then, in January 2018, Ponte and
a coalition of Parliament workers offi-
cially started the MeTooEP movement.
The following October, they established
MeTooEP.com, an anonymous blog for
survivors to publish testimonies of sexu-
al violence in the E.P. Shortly after, they
announced the MeTooEP pledge in Febru-
ary 2019 for candidate MEPs to sign and
promise to no longer condone this behav-
ior ahead of the E.P. elections that May.
The activism following the note-
book’s reveal raised an essential question
for me: How do feminist movements
“The ‘Little Sexism
Notebook’ contained over
80 testimonies by the
time the Harvey Weinstein
scandal broke.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 2014
Jeanne Ponte begins 10/15/17 10/26/17 May 2019
recording accounts of Alyssa Milano’s EP passes anti- October 2018 European
sexual harrassment #MeToo tweet harrassment MeTooEP.com Parliament
goes Viral resolution established Elections

2014 10/5/17 October 2017 January February 2019

Bureau decisions The New York Jeanne Ponte’s 2018 MeTooEP conference
establishes EP Times breaks the notebook goes MeTooEP announcing MeTooEP
Advisory Committee Harvey Weinstein public Movement Pledge
on harassment scandal established

▲ Figure 2

make institutional change? This the- a feminist institutionalist lens to a social

sis used the unprecedented campaign of
MeTooEP as a case study to make sense
of the way feminist movements can per-
manently impact patriarchal structures.
My study of MeTooEP demonstrat-
ed to me that the movement’s strength
was its ability to focus public attention on
the internal, formal attempts the E.P. had
been taking to address gender-based vio-
lence, and how that focus revealed mech-
anisms that favored those in power, rather
than their victims. MeTooEP is a “causal
story;” it is a reaction which explains the
issues of sexual harassment through sym-
bology and storytelling.5 These totems
also instigated a refocusing on the gender
equality agenda across the international
political environment; at the same time
that the E.P. refocused its gender equality
agenda, so did other organizations in the
international political environment, such
as the United Nations. By making sense
of this recent history, this discussion de-
velops the study of #MeToo’s contribu-
tions to gender equality policy by applying
movement.6 This thesis is meant to be a
tool for feminists building movements,
so they too can change their institutions
from within. I hope this thesis becomes
part of a growing scholarly body of work
concerning #MeToo as a defining social
mobilizer, rather than as a viral flashpoint.
The image is a striking testimony to
the power of a social media message such
as #MeToo. First, I want to establish how
the virality of #MeToo was a “focusing
event” for the issue. According to Birkland,
Focusing events can lead interest
groups, government leaders, policy
entrepreneurs, the news media, or
members of the public to identify new
problems, or to pay greater attention
to existing but dormant problems,
potentially leading to a search for
solutions in the wake of apparent
policy failure.7
#MeToo re-oriented MEP and in-
terest group attention regarding the issue
of sexual harassment. Subsequent “media
propagation” of symbols related to the

5 Deborah Stone, “Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas.” 285
6 According to Lune (2014), social movements are “sustained and organized campaigns for social change” (p. 161).
7 Thomas A. Birkland, “Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting.” 55

38

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 38 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 event, such as Ponte’s notebook, “give less
powerful groups an advantage in policy
debates.”8 MeTooEP also draws symbol-
ogy through the MeTooEP blog and the
Pledge. This is one explanation why we see
anti-harassment policy reach the agenda
created — or, an opportunity to make in-
stitutional change, in the eyes of Birkland.
Work had been done before #Me-
Too’s rise, but the image of MEPs holding
signs in a 2017 Strasbourg plenary session
alerted feminists within the institution
that this was the chance to do more. Un-
precedented issue visibility in the Parlia-
ment heightened the importance of gen-
der-based violence to its members. The
pro-change group, some of whom are
victims of such violence, were “suddenly”
given enough attention to mobilize their
cause, while more powerful groups, such as
E.P. leaders and MEPs, were given a win-
dow to respond — or defend the existing
policies. The understanding of #MeToo as
a focusing event explains how MeTooEP
rose as a highly-organized advocacy coa-
lition which was able to achieve sustained
relevance within the E.P. community.
One reason MeTooEP has sustained
the energy from the focusing event for
nearly two years is that the movement
asserts who, and what, is to blame for
the issue.9 The coalition identifies caus-
al factors for sexual harassment and vi-
olence in the Parliament: failed formal
mechanisms and a culture of silence.
As 2020 looms, many discussions of
#MeToo read as if the movement is over
and done. MeTooEP’s strategy has kept
the focal event from “blowing over;” it is
8 Ibid. 56
9 Ibid. 67
10 Ibid. 72
11 Howard Lune, Understanding Organizations. 2
12 Ibid. 125
13 Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, Gender, Politics and Institutions. X.
39
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 39
unique in that the movement has been mo-
bilized for over two years.10 Focal events
are received differently among policy com-
munities, but the case of #MeToo upholds
Birkland’s argument about saliency. If the
event gives human agency and cause to
an issue, interest groups will better influ-
ence the policy agenda. The interpreta-
tion of #MeToo as a focusing event helps
us understand why the mobilization of
MeTooEP was significant, and how the
movement’s sustained visibility and polit-
ical pressure — especially given the status
quo of the pro-change coalition in the Par-
liament — are leading to the 2019 elections.
Feminist Institutionalism (F.I.)
In studying MeTooEP, I have drawn
on the feminist institutionalist approach.
If institutions are a “collective entity or any
way of organizing relationships that are
widely familiar and routinely practiced”
and often contain “unwritten rules,”11 fem-
inist institutionalism is an approach that
strives to examine how institutions’ orga-
nization and rules form, and how they are
influenced by gender inequalities. Kro-
ok and Mackay explain that F.I. theory
evolved along with neo-institutionalism
to provide a framework that explained
how our increasingly organized world is
gendered.12 In other words, feminist insti-
tutionalism looks at how ideas, norms and
values are experienced unequally along the
lines of gender.13 In the E.P. context, F.I.
urges us to evaluate the Parliament’s orga-
nization and rules in relation to gendered
criteria.
In an ever-structured society, gender
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 norms become further incorporated into
institutions’ policies.14 Feminist institu-
tionalists study how these invisible social
constructs are reflected as a “logic” deter-
mining attitudes and actions.15 For fem-
inist institutionalists, metrics frequently
used to provide gender equality do not do
enough to correct disparity and the patri-
archal structures that constraints women’s
actions.16 This thought process emphasiz-
es the importance of paying attention to
qualitative factors to measure how organi-
zations are gendered.
A byproduct of a more organized
world is an increase in the number of social
movements, including MeTooEP.17 The
F.I. lens also provides an understanding of
the potential impact of movements such as
MeTooEP by showcasing how these coali-
tions can become “legitimate participants”
in the organizational world.18 In an envi-
ronment of organizations, external social
movements like MeTooEP are issue “en-
trepreneurs” advocating new demands.19
Furthermore, feminist institutionalism
evaluates organizations as “open systems,”
suggesting that the internal structure of the
Parliament does not function in “isolation”
of the greater European political and his-
torical environment.20 Values, norms, and
beliefs concerning gender trickle in from
the European political context into the
Parliament’s culture and decision-making.
The F.I. lens reveals that this environment
affects the Parliament because gender in-
equality and discrimination are functions
of power more broadly in Europe.21 The
14 Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay. IX
15 Howard Lune, Understanding Organizations. 79
16 Ibid.
17 Howard Lune, Understanding Organizations. 127
18 Ibid.
19 Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, Gender, Politics and Institutions. 191
20 Howard Lune, Understanding Organizations. 107
21 Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, Gender, Politics and Institutions. 3
22 Ibid 4-6
40
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 40
E.P. is a gendered institution because ex-
ternal conditions in Europe influence the
Parliament’s status quo.
My analysis follows the three com-
ponents of the feminist institutionalist
framework: formal processes, including
the mechanisms, committees, laws, etc. al-
ready addressing gender-based violence in
the Parliament; informal processes, such
as the empowering social movement that
rose in reaction to a focal event; and con-
nections between the formal and informal
processes, or how long a social movement
lasts until its terms must be institution-
alized.22 The efficacy of the Parliament’s
formal processes regarding sexual harass-
ment demands an analysis of MeTooEP as
an empowering reaction to these formal
processes. However, social movements
may only last to an extent before they must
work with institutional structures.
Why the E.P.’s steps against
gender-based violence weren’t
enough
It’s important to acknowledge that
a history of gender equality work existed
in the Parliament and the greater political
environment long before #MeToo went
viral. While gender-based violence was on
the Parliament’s policy agenda, these for-
mal attempts did not successfully change
the institutional logic which enables an en-
vironment of harassment in the first place.
Reflecting on the Parliament’s formal pro-
cesses, which existed before #MeToo, lets
us understand how they do not “have the
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “Values, norms, and beliefs concerning gender trickle in
from the European political context into the Parliament’s
culture and decision-making.”
effects the creators intended” and are too Council “call[ing] on the Member States to
weak to support survivors of gender-based improve their national laws and policies to
violence.23 combat all forms of violence against wom-
The E.U. has taken legislative steps en and to act in order to tackle the caus-
against gender-based violence since its ini- es of violence against women, not least
tiation. The Maastricht Treaty (1993), the by employing preventive measures, and
Treaty of Rome (1957), and Treaty of Ac- called on the Union to guarantee the right
cession (1973) provided initial protections to assistance and support for all victims of
to women in E.U. institutions, establish- violence.”28 However, member countries
ing “equal opportunities and equal treat- have been slow to implement anti-discrim-
ment” for all E.U. citizens.24 The European inatory measures, let alone criminal pun-
Convention on Human Rights (1953), as ishment for sexual harassment. By 1992,
well as these treaties, expect that all new France was the only member state with
member countries promote human rights penal law addressing sexual harassment.29
and anti-discriminatory policies in order In other states, broadly written laws con-
to be granted accession — a meaningful cerning domestic violence are applied to
first step against gender-based violence.25 cases of sexual harassment.30 E.U. policy is
Formal measures to protect women have not sufficient because it does not require
been a priority in the Parliament’s work for member countries to implement universal
years since the E.U. was founded. In 2009, anti-discrimination standards and specific
the Parliament passed a resolution which rules applying to gender-based violence.
recognized that male violence against fe- But the fact these policies reached the
males was an “inequality” issue and a “pub- Parliament floor reveals to us that legisla-
lic health problem,” heightening the status tors knew gender-based violence was an
of gender-based violence on the E.P. agen- issue long before MeTooEP. In February
da.26 A related 2011 resolution “demands 2014 — three years before #MeToo went
Member States to ensure that perpetra- viral — the European Parliament Recom-
tors are punished in accordance with the mendations to Commission on Combating
gravity of the crime,”27 while a 2012 direc- Violence against Women were announced.
tive was passed by the Parliament and the The recommendations focus on six areas
23 Howard Lune, Understanding Organizations. 11
24 Gender Equality in Ireland, “Equality between Men and Women.”
25 European Court of Human Rights, “Gender Equality.” 1
26 European Parliament, “Elimination of Violence against Women.” 2
27 European Parliament, “European Parliament Resolution of 5 April 2011 on Priorities and Outline of a New EU Policy Frame-
work to Fight Violence against Women.”
28 “Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 Establishing Minimum Standards on
the Rights, Support and Protection of Victims of Crime and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220JHA.”
29 Tanya Martinez Shively, “Sexual Harassment in the European Union: King Rex Meets Potiphar’s Wife.” 1103
30 Ibid.

41

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 41 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 ▲ Figure 3: Members of the European Parliament hold up #MeToo signs in plenary
session in Strasbourg, France in October 2017.
“underlying any measures to combat vio- received a formal complaint of sexual ha-
lence against women:” policy, prevention, rassment, according to a E.P. press release
protection, prosecution, provision, and immediately following an episode in which
partnership.31 By recommending policy to MEPs held up #MeToo signs during the
the Commission, the Parliament appears plenary session.3233 By 2019, the Commit-
already aware of issue prevention in the tee had received 16 complaints, according
context of Europe. The irony is how quick- to E.P. Quaestor and Committee Member
ly it becomes clear that the Parliament’s Elisabeth Morin-Chartier. Fifteen of these
recommendations do not recognize what cases have been closed and one is ongoing.
is happening within its own walls. The president has imposed sanctions on
five cases, two involving MEPs.34 There
The Committee is a clear discrepancy between the num-
MeTooEP also drew public attention ber of cases which reach the president’s
to the fact that existing response mech- desk and the pages of testimonies acces-
anisms did not allow victims to feel safe sible on MeTooEP.com, however. After
enough to share their stories. Since 2014, Ponte’s notebook became public, an offi-
the Advisory Committee on Harassment cial statement entitled “Parliament rolled
and its Prevention at the Workplace has out campaign against sexual harassment
been the body that hears victim testimo- last year,” claimed the Committee was
nies. It consists of five members nomi- ahead of MeTooEP in battling sexual ha-
nated by the Parliament’s president. As of rassment. However, the high number of
October 2017, the Committee had never harassment reports exposed by MeTooEP
31 Parliament, “European Parliament Resolution of 25 February 2014 with Recommendations to the Commission on Combating
Violence Against Women.”
32 European Parliament, “Parliament Rolled out Campaign against Sexual Harassment Last Year.”
33 Judith Mischke, “#MeToo: Female MEPs Tell of the Own Sexual Harassment Experiences.”
34 Appendix 6

42

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 42 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 and the low number of cases reviewed by
the Committee contradicts this claim that
the Parliament was in control of the situ-
ation. The Committee’s “campaign” con-
sisted of mere leaflets distributed to MEPs
explaining “how to avoid improper behav-
ior towards your staff.”35 The “pro-active”
action by the Committee was clearly not
successful, given that over 127 female and
11 male E.U. employees reported cases of
sexual harassment to POLITICO Europe
in 2017.36 Even more revealing is the fact
that only about 40 out of 751 MEPs have
opted for mandatory anti-harassment
training.37 Therefore, few officials are even
aware of the E.P.’s official definition of sex-
ual harassment, let alone that the Commit-
tee exists to hold them accountable. The
80 testimonies in Ponte’s notebook alone
demonstrate the issue is much greater than
the Committee can handle.
Barriers to a European Solution
MeTooEP brought attention back to
the resolutions the Parliament had previ-
ously passed to address sexual harassment.
It also indicated that these attempts didn’t
succeed. Resolutions are non legally-bind-
ing “[suggestions for] a political desire to
act in a given area.”38 These create policy
windows for the E.U. — opportunities for
ideas to reach the Commission’s agenda
and the Parliament to pressure member
countries to pass specific national laws.39
The most significant reason Parliament
resolutions aren’t credited with addressing
this issue is the absence of an E.U.-wide
35 European Parliament, “Parliament Rolled out Campaign against Sexual Harassment Last Year.”
36 Ryan Heath, “Harassment in the Brussels EU Bubble.”
37 Appendix 1
38 Nicholas Moussis, “3.3 The Legal System of the European Union.”
39 Thomas A. Birkland, “Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting.”
40 “Right of Initiative.”
41 European Parliament, “Combating Sexual Harassment and Abuse in the EU.”
42 Ibid.
43 Moya Lloyd, “Power, Politics, Domination, and Oppression.” 112
43
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 43
law against gender-based violence at the
time this thesis was written.
Especially in the case of the Octo-
ber 2017 Parliament resolution reacting
to #MeToo, these suggestions from the
Parliament have not yet influenced the
Commission to use its right of initiative
to propose such a law. According to E.U.
law, the right of initiative is only for the
Commission; the Commission pitches leg-
islation and the Parliament sees through its
development with the help of the Coun-
cil.40 Given that ideas of harassment and
legal approaches vary by member country,
the likelihood that MEPs would agree on
a single policy seems low, even if it is ini-
tiated.
The October 2017 resolution may not
have resulted in an E.U.-wide law, but the
measure is different from the previous an-
ti-harassment resolutions passed from the
1970s through 2014. The resolution was
an instance in which #MeToo was men-
tioned in an E.P. measure, the first official
response to the movement.41 The fact the
resolution is a direct response to the #Me-
Too movement also changes the meaning
of a “zero-tolerance” approach to gen-
der-based violence. The 2017 resolution
reiterates a 2014 resolution’s zero-toler-
ance policy, but this time it was a response
to a feminist social movement.42 In the F.I.
perspective, the Parliament’s decision to
formally address #MeToo and advocate for
those without power is considered a fem-
inist win.43 As a result, the resolution is a
“resource” that gives power to individuals
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “Only E.U. law fully binds
the member countries.”
in the institution.44 In this way, we see how
the Parliament was making the greatest ef-
fort within its competence to address gen-
der-based violence.
The absence of a Commission propos-
al is one part of a long history of approach-
es to gender-based violence existing on the
policy agenda without resulting in execut-
ed change. For example, the E.U. Commit-
tee on Employment and Social Affairs was
appointed in February 2001 to produce a
report on harassment at the workplace.45
Nearly six months later, the report moved
for a motion for a resolution addressing
the “calls” and “recommendations” for in-
stitutional action. This resolution merely
suggested that member countries establish
procedures, training programs, and confi-
dential mechanisms for reporting. As long
as formal responses remain in the form of
resolutions, member countries will nev-
er be legally compelled to make changes
on the national level. Only E.U. law fully
binds the member countries.
As a result of the resolutions system,
each E.U. member country has approached
the Parliament’s October 2017 resolution
differently. It is up to them to decide how
to implement the document’s suggestions.
France, for example, legally banned street
harassment in August 2018. In a November
2017 survey of Hungarians, half of all re-
spondents believed sexual harassment cas-
es require no legal consequences.46 Recall
how the Parliament is not “isolated” from
44 Ibid.
45 Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, “Report on Harassment at the Workplace.”
46 Kitti Erdo-Bonyar, “Hungarians’ Views On Sexual Harassment - Survey.”
47 European Parliament, “Men and Women Distribution.”
48 European Parliament, “MEPs Adopted Measures to Combat Mobbing and Sexual Harassment.”
44
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 44
the European political context. National
lethargy toward the issue of gender-based
violence trickles into the Parliament.
Courts have also diminished inter-
est in proposing a European anti-gender
violence law. In connection to the afore-
mentioned parliamentary immunity, few
member countries would feel compelled
to direct their resources to European ha-
rassment cases rather than their own le-
gal priorities, further disincentivizing the
acceptance of an E.U.-wide law. Gender
parity within the Parliament also matters
in making E.U. law. If there were more
female MEPs, the 2017 resolution may
have been more widely endorsed, prompt-
ing the Commission to initiate a law. For
example, Hungary has many more male
MEPs, a likely explanation for why that
country has yet to act locally on behalf of
the Resolution. Hungary’s MEPs are only
19% female.47 Official Parliament measures
are only as effective to a member country,
and the E.U. at large, as the priorities of
that nation’s MEPs.
Further, the Resolution may have
been passed for more political reasons by
some MEPs. The fact that members have
been slow to implement the resolution na-
tionally suggests some may have voted to
pass the measure in solidarity with the Par-
liament, but fear local repercussions from
voters for promoting such a policy.
The Parliament continues to make
suggestions, however. On Nov. 9, 2018,
MEPS adopted renewed measures against
sexual harassment.48 As in previous ex-
amples, the language used by the E.P. can
recommend, but not make law. By merely
“adopting measures,” the E.P. is not indi-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 cating a permanent change on any level.
The measures instead constitute another
kind of resolution. However, 528 of 751
MEPs voted in favor of the measures,
which ask the Commission to develop le-
gal standards concerning violence against
women. These standards may be applied
within the E.U.’s jurisdiction. By creat-
ing a unified judicial approach to sexual
misconduct, MEPs would be considered
under European law — potentially elimi-
nating the power of parliamentary immu-
nity. The fact remains that the Parliament
can only work within its competences; an
E.U.-wide law would need to come from
the Commission and the Council. How-
ever, even if this were passed by the E.P.,
successful implementation would not be
guaranteed. Because the Parliament is not
isolated from the European political en-
vironment, the E.U. would struggle to re-
move local barriers and pass a supreme law
banning gender-based violence.
#MeToo’s storytelling devices
What is dangerous is silence. Sexual
harassment is an open secret because
every worker, woman or man, knows
who they need to avoid. They know
what kind of strategy you need to
develop in order to not be looked at as a
piece of meat — to try to protect yourself.
- Jeanne Ponte49
Causal stories like those of MeTooEP are
amplified through illustrative tools. Ac-
cording to Stone, “[the] deliberate use of
language and of symbols in particular [is]
a way of getting an issue onto the public
agenda or, alternatively, keeping it off.”50
The #MeToo movement has largely main-
49 Appendix 1
50 Deborah Stone, “Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas.” 282
51 Ibid. 289
45
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 45
tained public relevance through its sym-
bology. Time magazine’s cover of “the
empty chair,” the Time’s Up logo, actresses
donning black gowns at the 2018 Golden
Globe Awards, and pussy hats at the 2017
Women’s March: these images have come
to represent the #MeToo ascendence to
the public agenda. Ponte’s flowered note-
book now joins these symbols as artifacts
of this history.
While an artifact implies temporali-
ty, Ponte’s notebook joins these symbols
as signals of a more permanent realiza-
tion: the breakage of a culture of silence.
Recurring symbols of #MeToo like Ponte’s
notebook are more than a flash of celeb-
rity endorsement or scandalized firings.
They demonstrate cause and intent. Stone
writes, “[Causal stories] claim that a condi-
tion formerly interpreted as accident is ac-
tually the result of human will, either indi-
rectly (mechanical or inadvertent cause) or
directly (intentional cause); or they show
that a condition formerly interpreted as
indirectly caused is actually pure intent.”51
Symbols attribute intent over acci-
dent. Ponte’s physical representation of
the invisible culture of harassment “de-
scribes harms and difficulties, attributes
them to actions of other individuals or or-
ganizations, and thereby claims the right
to invoke government power to stop the
“Activists use symbols
like the notebook to
“manipulate” the issue —
to myth-make.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Figure 4 ▶

“Resources” “Power”
• MeTooEP.com EM- • Privileges
• Feb Conference • Broker deals
• MeTooEP pledge • Power as
domination

harm.”52 Activists use symbols like the context of a feminist movement, “em-pow-
notebook to “manipulate” the issue — to erment” is a process in which resourc-
myth-make. The narrative associated withes transform into the power necessary to
the symbols reinforces the issue’s humanmake institutional change.
culpability everytime it confronts the pub- When the Parliament’s formal pro-
lic eye. We see the notebook and we assign
cesses couldn’t address an institutional is-
how all are responsible for this, and what
sue, a group of workers without political
we can do to address this violence. power gathered resources: testimonies on
In the F.I. perspective, causal symbols
the MeTooEP.com, participation in the
are “resources” which give power to Me- MeTooEP conference, over 300 signatures
TooEP. For someone encountering these on the MeTooEP pledge. This conceptual-
symbols for the first time or the hundreth,
ization of empowerment as a process ex-
they provoke the mind to recount why theplains how these resources made the group
issue was caused and to what end it has powerful enough to influence the policy
been addressed. Consider the MeTooEP agenda, according to a 2019 article for the
logo: the feminine pink-purple color, the
journal Women’s Studies International Fo-
logo with a faded E.U. flag; the logo is a
rum by S. Laurel Weldon. Weldon writes
causal device. The logo keeps the issue in
that #MeToo was able to make an impact
public consciousness when shared on social
on the institutional level because of its
media or posted on the MeTooEP pledge. specific approach to de-powering patriar-
Subconsciously, we see these symbols chal structures and em-powering targeted
and attribute causality to the image. This
groups.53 Weldon also suggests that “pow-
meaning-making process fueled MeTooEP er flows through us by virtue of our social
into public consciousness following #Me-identity and institutional position, whether
Too’s virality. or not we wish to exercise power (fig. 4).54
On the other hand, we may be silenced by
Empowerment these same identities and social positions
Empowerment is a word frequently in other contexts.” Highly bureaucratic
55

used in media concerning #MeToo. In the environments like the Parliament quiet the
52 Ibid.
53 S. Laurel Weldon, “Power, Exclusion and Empowerment: Feminist Innovation in Political Science.”
54 S. Laurel Weldon, “Power, Exclusion and Empowerment: Feminist Innovation in Political Science.” 130.
55 Ibid.

46

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 46 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 power of certain groups, such as APAs, fe-
male MEPs, and other marginalized groups
in order to maintain a functioning system,
often without these groups’ conscious con-
sent. Em-powerment refers to the con-
scious process of breaking that silence. The
“em” prefix to the word “power” implies the
act of silenced groups of gaining governing
ability by collecting resources. According
to feminist institutionalists, MeTooEP is
an example of em-powerment because vic-
tims whose voices were previously silenced
by an institutional force are now given the
power to speak, and, eventually, influence
dominant Parliament decision-makers.
Em-powerment is a necessary phe-
nomena, given women’s traditional roles
within institutions. Historically, female
power in this context is implicit rather than
explicit.56 Their authority is so silenced
that women cannot access labor without
the help of men and must influence others
indirectly in order to achieve their goals.
Resources such as money and education
are typically given by men to women so
they may gain access to any level of labor,
let alone excel. According to the October
2017 Parliament resolution, 75% of wom-
en in top management positions in Europe
have been sexually harassed. Even if wom-
en gained enough resources to be influen-
tial in institutions, they still lack sufficient
social resources to protect themselves from
the dominating power of men.
While men have the pleasure of ac-
cessing any organizational resources they
please, women must only engage with men
in situations which are dictated by the level
of resources they own.57 By merit of their
position, women in the Parliament have
acquired enough resources to presumably
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid. 114
59 S. Laurel Weldon, “Power, Exclusion and Empowerment: Feminist Innovation in Political Science.”
47
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 47
be influential; however, they cannot be to-
tally powerful in the way that males in the
institution can, as “power consists in the
relationship between men and women, a
relationship that accords men certain pow-
ers over women.”58 Here we see why no
amount of formal work by the Parliament
could successfully address the invisible dis-
crepancy between the resources available
to men versus women.
Due to socialized institutional logics,
organizations dominate social groups in
the way that men dominate women.59 In
the social understanding of men as sexu-
ally dominant of women, masculine insti-
tutional logics are dominant to feminist
institutional logic. MeTooEP is propelled
by feminist institutional logic. There-
fore, through the process of em-power-
ment, MeTooEP has gathered resources
to challenge the power of dominant de-
cision-makers. Because the Parliament is
in the resource-holding role, the institu-
tion will dominate MeTooEP no matter
what. Therefore, MeTooEP must use the
Parliament’s own institutional logic as a
means to an end, in order to make an or-
ganizational change. This explains why the
em-powerment process is a continuous cy-
“‘Em-powerment’ is a
process in which resources
transform into the power
necessary to make
institutional change.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “Feminist solutions like male APAs may seek further responsibility
or promotion by silencing and objectifying
their female equals. Male employees are
Burke’s and Ponte’s have also more likely to work full-time — there
were 367 males on part-time E.P. staff vs.
adapted to being left out of 1,221 female part-time staffers in 2017
— granting them more opportunities to
formal peace talks.” connect with promotion opportunities.61
In 2017, the number of women in middle
cle of gathering resources, gaining power, management posts in the E.P. Secretariat
and making change. increased by nearly 40%; however, merely
The em-powerment process can be incorporating women within a patriarchal
stalled by conflicting ideas of gender equal- structure does not eliminate the risk of
ity among EU decision-makers. Even if gender-based discrimination.62 For these
MeTooEP appeals to their decision-mak- reasons, em-powerment must be an effort
ing logic, inherent norms can conflict from the ground up. If only top officials
with the acceptance of the cause. An em- make changes, the issue will persist on oth-
powered formal Parliament approach to er levels.
gender-based violence must coalesce the
diverse positive and negative associations #MeToo as Entrepreneurship
of female power from within the bloc, but
Em-powerment from the ground
this is easier said than done.
up requires issue entrepreneurship — the
With thousands of international em-
campaigning of a movement within an
ployees, the Parliament consists of conflict-
institution to gather resources. MeTooEP
ing perceptions of female value. For exam-
exemplifies how feminist movements
ple, only two women hold management
within organizations are self-starting and
positions in the Parliament, whereas over
risk-averse.
half of APAs are female.60 Employing more
The Me Too Movement is a recent
women in secondary and tertiary roles in chapter in a much longer feminist history.
the Parliament reinforces ideas that wom- In the U.S., the Me Too Movement existed
en should supplement men’s work. Even if long before #MeToo went viral on Octo-
APAs are working for female MEPs, they ber 15, 2017, eleven days after The New
still exist beneath the dominating power of York Times published an report reveal-
the institution. Male APAs may presume ing sexual harassment allegations against
they have more power than their female Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.63
counterparts and even exert that power in
Tarana Burke founded the Me Too Move-
the form of sexual misconduct. Perpetra-
ment in 2006 to support victims of sexu-
tors sexualize victims in situations when
al violence and “to build a community of
both actors hold the same amount of pow-
advocates,” initially for black and low-in-
er in order to appear dominant. Therefore,
come women.64 The hashtag didn’t go vi-
60 European Parliament, “Women in the European Parliament.”
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.
63 Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.”
64 MeToo Movement, “History & Vision.”

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 48 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 ral until American actress Alyssa Milano
posted: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or
assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this
tweet” on October 15th.” According to the
Pew Research Center, #MeToo has been
used more than 19 million times through
September 30, 2018.65 The virality of the
phrase stimulated responses from organi-
zations across the globe,66 and allegations
against powerful individuals in politics,
television, and journalism, among other
industries, came to light.67
“Just because the media pressure of
Hollywood is behind us does not mean
it is not still happening,” Ponte told
EUobserver in October 2018.68
The MeTooEP movement was of-
ficially started in March 2018 by Jeanne
Ponte and a coalition of E.P. workers in an
effort to break down normalized behavior
and make invisible violence visible. The
coalition supported the implementation
of the October 2017 resolution, which had
been passed in plenary session the previous
October, gaining 1,000 signatures within
one week to present to the Parliament.69
The blog followed this petition, especially
as it became clear that enforcing new mea-
sures against sexual harassment could be
an uphill battle; change means giving up
normative, formal patriarchal structures.
The resistance brings a historically private
issue into the political arena, through in-
dividual workers who call attention to the
blurred boundary between governmental
and personal behavior.
“Sexual harassment in the
Parliament is a form of
social war.”
The understanding of the em-pow-
erment process raises a new point about
the nature of feminist movements like
#MeToo. The process is entrepreneurial.70
Feminist institutionalists argue that “gen-
der equality entrepreneurs ... are needed
to construct and frame reform proposals
to mobilize coalitions of different inter-
ests to work together.”71 Women create
solutions to social violence and have been
self-starters when brokering deals because
they have historically been unseated at the
negotiation table, according to Casale.72
She added that peace talks which include
women are 35% more likely to last 15 years
or more. This fact is not because women
are pacifiers:
Often there’s this inherent argument
being made that women are inherently
more peaceful. I do not subscribe to
that school of thought. I think if the
situation were flipped, we would do
just as much as men. It’s about power.
It’s about resources. It’s about getting
the most inclusive view of how to solve
society’s problems — which is what
a peace agreement is — how to solve
societal problems ... The argument is
that no, it’s not that women are more
peaceful, nice or better people. We
have been traditionally left of power

65 Monica Anderson and Skye Toor, “How Social Media Users Have Discussed Sexual Harassment since #MeToo Went Viral.”
66 Google Trends, “Me Too Rising.”
67 Zarkov, Dubravka, and Kathy Davis. “Ambiguities and Dilemmas around #MeToo: #ForHow Long and #WhereTo?” European
Journal of Women’s Studies 25, no. 1 (February 2018): 3–9. doi:10.1177/1350506817749436.
68 Petter Teffer, “Frustrated EU Parliament Staffers Set up #MeToo Blog.”
69 Sally Farhat, “#MeTooEP: Fighting Sexual Harassment in the European Parliament.”
70 Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, Gender, Politics and Institutions. 191
71 Ibid.
72 Appendix 7

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 49 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 structures and had to go around the
system to be entrepreneurs of our
own needs, and society’s needs. That
creativity gives us a leg up in solving
problems.73
Feminist solutions like Burke’s and
Ponte’s are distinct because they have
adapted to being left out of formal peace
talks. An example of a formal peace agree-
ment is the structure of the Advisory Com-
mittee — victims were not at the decision
table. Low trust in the Committee pushes
victims away from formal mechanisms and
toward their own answers: the MeTooEP
blog and pledge.
Sexual harassment in the Parliament
is a form of social war. If victims had been
included in discussions at the beginning,
the violence may have been avoided. If
victims had been included as the conflict
started to arrive, they could have asked
for protection for their bodies. Now, the
conflict has occurred, and the victims are
finally being included in reconstructive
conversations to demand equal resources
to recover.74 Women in the Parliament are
now creating structures to heal on their
own because they never got to fight for
their security in the first place.
But no entrepreneurial venture goes
73 Appendix 7
74 Appendix 7
75 Ibid.
50
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 50
without risk. The consequence of #MeToo
is the potential loss of some goals as a com-
promise for investment from institutional
leaders. Thus, MeTooEP cannot gain the
support of all MEPs without capitulating
on some elements of its platform, an issue
that will likely be raised in the 2019-2024
mandate. The success of any entrepre-
neur depends on the interest of investors.
For MeTooEP, the investors are people
with power in the Parliament. Until the
Parliament has a full stake in the cause of
movement, i.e., feminists holding all the
positions of influence, MeTooEP will have
to strike deals with Parliamentary leader-
ship. According to Casale, the movement
must “play the short and the long game.”75
To focus too soon on the end goal — new
Parliament organizations and E.U.-wide
laws against sexual harassment — would
be self-sabotage for MeTooEP. Empow-
ering less powerful individuals too quick-
ly shocks the patriarchal system and is an
impetus for even more social violence,
i.e., pushback from powerful Parliament
voices, such as the conservative MEPs. For
now, as the movement’s symbols gain vis-
ibility, their testimonies will legitimize the
need to put more resources into the issue
of sexual harassment, helping the issue
gain stakeholders — to em-power. ■
11/12/20 2:38 PM
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 FEATURE

Interview with
Kimani Isaac
By Caroline Hsu

Kimani Isaac is a fourth-year Learning and Organizational

Change (LOC) student, and a knowledgeable resource for everything
to do with Northwestern’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR).
During her time at Northwestern, she’s participated in many of the
programs that the OUR offers, from Summer Undergraduate Research
Grants (SURGs) to Undergraduate Language Grants (ULGs). I sat
down to talk to Kimani about her experiences with the OUR and the
wonderful world of undergraduate research.

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 CH: How did you first hear about the Office of Undergraduate Research?
KI: Wow, that takes me back! When did I get so old? I believe the first time I heard of
the OUR, I was doing this summer academic workshop, and they came to do a pre-
sentation. I remember they had these weird (but cute!) cut-outs of all their research
grants, and I think it was [OUR Director] Peter [Civetta] who came to give the pre-
sentation to us. I think it was during the same week that I learned about the Office of
Fellowships, so that was the week I learned about really cool opportunities to design
projects or do research. Basically, that was the week I learned about making money at
Northwestern!
CH: What grants and programs offered by the OUR have you participated in?
KI: It’s not every single one, but it’s definitely close! I’ve been very lucky in my expe-
rience at the OUR. I started out with a URG for the summer, and that was the first
major project that I did. It was a series of paintings that depicted two people’s expe-
riences of their synesthesia. [Note: Some of Kimani’s SURG paintings are currently
hanging on the walls of the OUR!] Then, I also applied for the ULG, and was lucky
enough to get that. I studied in Morocco for two months learning French. I’ve also ap-
plied for the Circumnavigators Travel Grant and the Academic Year URG, but for the
Circumnavigators Grant, it was my study abroad that interfered with my eligibility.
CH: What advice do you have for students who want to get into undergraduate re-
search, but don’t know where or how to start?
KI: Go talk to an advisor! I don’t mean that in a rude way, or a dismissive way, I just
mean that everyone who works in the OUR is a sweet and caring human being who is
hired to help you do the things that you want to do. If you are unsure of what it is you
want to do, or unsure about what research even is, it costs nothing except a half hour
of your time to come in for an advising appointment, talk through your interests, talk
through what research is, and learn about it. Or, if you’re shy or introverted, you don’t
have to make a one-on-one advising appointment. During normal life, when there
isn’t a pandemic, there are on-campus events where you can go and learn about what
research is and what opportunities are available. At what other point in your life are
you going to get paid to do a project that you designed, from start to finish?
CH: Lastly, what is the most underrated resource that the OUR offers? What’s some-
thing that a lot of people don’t know about, but has been very helpful for you?
KI: There’s a lot! When you walk in, there are a lot of awesome decorations and
posters and pictures of cats, and it’s a really fun, cool office. It’s scary, because you’re
walking into the Financial Aid building, so I personally get sweaty, but when I walk
past Financial Aid and see the lighted office behind the glass door, and there are all
these cat posters and paintings and snacks, it’s just a really warm and welcoming en-
vironment. People get really intimidated either because of the building that it’s in, or
the location, or the fact that it has “Office” in its name, but it’s really not that stressful
if you just pop in, say “Hey” and grab some Teddy Grahams and go about your day!

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 Department of German

Type 2 Diabetes Care

and Management:
A Comparison of German and
American Approaches
by Sarah Dinegar

Abstract
Type 2 diabetes, or T2D, affects over 422 million people worldwide.
In 2017, diabetes care for the 29 million T2D Americans cost $327 billion,
an approximately 88% increase from an American Diabetes Association esti-
mate of $174 billion in 2007. These exorbitant costs are primarily associated
with the consequential secondary complications and hospitalizations of T2D.
These include cardiovascular disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, neu-
ropathy, Alzheimer’s, and lower limb amputation. Within their multi-payer
healthcare system, Germany has used standardized, evidence-based inter-
ventions called Disease Management Programs, or DMPs, to manage T2D
since 2002. Studies have shown markedly improved healthcare delivery and
health outcomes since DMP implementation, including reduced incidence
of diabetic secondary complications, decreasing financial burdens of T2D in
Germany. No such programs exist in the United States’ fragmented health-
care system. American reform configuration warrants examination of and
comparison with German T2D DMPs’ successful methods. This study em-
ploys interviews and surveys to investigate German and American primary
care physicians’ opinions of the efficacy of their nation’s respective T2D
management methods in improving health outcomes, healthcare costs, and
quality of care. German physicians reported similar protocol and resource
availability for T2D management, as they all enroll their T2D patients in
DMPs. In contrast, American physicians’ responses varied widely by clin-
ical network and patients’ insurers. This thesis will discuss strengths and
weaknesses of both systems as well as outline several universal challeng-
es encountered with management of T2D. It will also provide insight into
primary care physicians’ opinions and recommendations on best directions
forward for chronic disease management, particularly addressing these uni-
versal challenges.

56

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 Background Information & according to Deutsches Ärzteblatt Inter-
Literature Review national.5 From 2012 data, the nationwide
German National Health Interview and
1. Why Type 2 Diabetes Needs to be Examination Survey for Adults found the
Noticed overall prevalence of T2D to be 7.4% in
Type 2 Diabetes, or T2D, is one of the German population between 18 and 79
two types of Diabetes Mellitus, a pathol- years of age.6
ogy characterized by the body’s inability Average healthcare expenditures for
to control the blood concentration of the diabetics were 2.3 times higher than what
small sugar called glucose that is central to expenditures in absence of diabetes would
nutrition and metabolism.1 Type 1 Diabe- be.7 Furthermore, care for diagnosed dia-
tes Mellitus usually manifests itself early in betics accounts for 1 in 4 healthcare dollars
life and is defined by the body’s inability to in the U.S., more than half of that expendi-
produce insulin, the hormone that controls ture being directly attributable to diabetes,
blood glucose levels.2 T2D, however, typi- according to the American Diabetes Asso-
cally develops later in life and is defined by ciation.8 These massive costs in both na-
progressive increased resistance to insulin tions are not primarily associated with the
due to prolonged high blood glucose levels. molecular cause of diabetes — the body’s
This thesis deals exclusively with T2D. inability to properly metabolize glucose
T2D has steadily risen to be one of the — but instead are largely associated with
most significant health concerns world- consequential long-term complications
wide: the number of individuals affected and hospitalizations due to prolonged high
has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 glucose levels, including cardiovascular
million in 2014.3 According to the National disease, leading to heart attack and stroke,
Diabetes Statistics Report in 2017, 8.9% of blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage,
the U.S. population, or 29 million people, Alzheimer’s, and lower limb amputation.9
have T2D. It was America’s seventh lead- In Germany, individuals with T2D had
ing cause of death in 2015. The number 1.81 times higher direct annual healthcare
of adults diagnosed with T2D is estimated costs, €3352 vs. €1849, and 2.07 times
to have tripled in the last 20 years,4 which higher indirect annual healthcare costs,
would suggest there are fundamental en- €4103 vs. €1981 annual healthcare costs
vironmental or behavior contributors as- than those without diabetes.10 As expect-
sociated with this non-communicable dis- ed, these increased costs were significantly
ease. There were approximately 5.8 million associated with cardiovascular complica-
people with T2D in Germany as of 2010, tions, long duration of diabetes, and treat-
1 American Diabetes Association, https://www.diabetes.org/diabetes/type-2.
2 Ibid.
3 C.D. Mathers and D. Loncar, “Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030,” PLoS Med, 3(11), e442.
4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “National diabetes statistics report” (2017).
5 T. Tamayo , R. Brinks, A. Hoyer, O. Kuß and W. Rathmann, “The prevalence and incidence of diabetes in Germany: an analysis
of statutory health insurance data on 65 million individuals from the years 2009 and 2010,” Deutsches Ärzteblatt International,
113(11), 177.
6 Ibid.
7 CDC, “National diabetes statistics report” (2017).
8 American Diabetes Association, “Economic costs of diabetes in the US in 2017” (2018), Diabetes care, 41(5), 917-928.
9 C.D. Mathers and D. Loncar, “Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030.”
10 S. Ulrich, R. Holle, M. Wacker, et al., “Cost burden of type 2 diabetes in Germany: results from the population-based KORA
studies,” BMJ open, 6(11), e012527.

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 ment with insulin.11 Beyond the intangible diabetic. More than one in three American
costs of pain, suffering, and decreased qual- adults fall into this category of prediabetes
ity of life that Type 2 diabetics experience — approximately 33.9% of the U.S. adult
with the accompanying health problems of population.17 Perhaps even more concern-
T2D, these economic estimates highlight ing is the fact that nearly 90% of those 84.1
the substantial financial burden that diabe- million adults are unaware they are predia-
tes imposes on society. betic.18 Prediabetes often leads to T2D, and
The estimated total economic cost due elevates risk of heart disease and stroke.19
to diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. in 2012 The consequential health and economic
was $245 billion, a 41% increase from the detriment that the massive and growing
previous estimate of $174 billion in 2007.12 epidemics of prediabetes and T2D in both
This cost was estimated to be $327 billion Germany and the U.S. calls for drastic ac-
in 2017, a further 26% from 2012 once ad- tion. This study will examine how such ac-
justed for inflation.13 Of this total, $237 bil- tion ought best be taken.
lion were due to direct medical costs while 2. German & American Healthcare
$90 billion can be attributed to reduced Systems Compared
productivity.14 These ever rising costs are Many industrialized countries employ
due to both the growth in T2D prevalence a universal mandate for healthcare cover-
and the increased medical costs per diabet- age, of which there are three primary pro-
ic, particularly among the population aged gram types. Universal coverage is charac-
65 years and older, thus contributing heav- terized by a health insurance mandate and
ily to the growing economic burden of the alleviates the costly overreliance on emer-
Medicare program.15 While these reported gency services that comes from a lack of
costs did not distinguish between Type 1 preventive care for uninsured populations.
and 2 diabetes, 90 to 95% of diabetes cases In the first type of universal coverage, a na-
in the U.S. are T2D, so the heavy majority tional health service, medical services are
of these costs can be assumed to be associ- delivered through government-salaried
ated with T2D.16 physicians in publicly-owned and -oper-
Diabetic progression is identified by ated hospitals and clinics, financed by the
a patient’s glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) government through tax payments. Pri-
value, a key diagnostic marker used as an vate physicians collect their fees from the
index of mean glycemia, or blood glucose government and have specific regulations
levels, in diabetics. HbA1c levels corre- on their practices. Examples of this system
spondence to diabetic progression do vary include the United Kingdom, New Zea-
slightly among individuals, but the general, land, and Spain. In the second type, a na-
universal parameters are as follows: <5.7% tional health insurance or single-payer sys-
= normal, 5.7–6.5% = prediabetic, >6.5% = tem, a single government entity collects all
11 Ibid.
12 American Diabetes Association, “Economic costs of diabetes in the US in 2012” (2013), Diabetes care, 36(4), 1033-1046.
13 American Diabetes Association, “Economic costs of diabetes in the US in 2017” (2018).
14 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “National diabetes statistics report” (2017).
15 American Diabetes Association, “Economic costs of diabetes in the US in 2017” (2018).
16 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “National diabetes statistics report” (2017).
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.

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 “American medical treatment is often overspecialized,
extremely inequitable, and problematically neglectful of
primary and preventative care.”
healthcare fees and pays out all healthcare
costs. Canada, Denmark, and Sweden all
employ this method in which medical ser-
vices are publicly financed but not publicly
provided. In the third type, a multi-payer
health insurance or all-payer system, uni-
versal health insurance is provided via
not-for-profit health insurance funds, or
“sickness funds,” that collect premiums
from employees and employers and that
are used to eliminate the administrative
costs for billing by paying physicians and
hospitals at uniform rates. Japan, France,
and Germany all utilize this system. In con-
trast, the U.S. healthcare system is unique
and not uniform, with no universal health
care coverage mandate.20 Instead of operat-
ing a national health service, a single-pay-
er national health insurance system, or a
multi-payer universal health insurance
fund, the U.S. healthcare system can be
best described as a hybrid system.
In a Commonwealth Fund Commis-
sion healthcare comparison contrasting
the U.S. with Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
U.K., the U.S. ranked last overall in many
categories.21 This demands attention, espe-
cially with the American healthcare system
being by far the world’s most expensive
per capita. U.S. healthcare specialists are
among the best in the world, but American
medical treatment is often overspecialized,
extremely inequitable, and problematical-
ly neglectful of primary and preventive
care.22 While the U.S. ranked fifth for
quality of care, it came in last in efficiency,
healthiness of citizens’ lives, and efficien-
cy among those 11 countries. Germany fell
in the middle of the pack among the 11
countries regarding healthcare spending
per capita at $4,495, while the U.S. ranked
highest at $8,508. However, Germans
were the most likely of the 11 nationalities
to hear back from a doctor quickly if they
had a question, the most likely to be able to
get a same-day or next-day appointment,
the most likely to be able to access doctors
after-hours without problem, and were
found to rarely use emergency rooms.
The U.S. was at low end for each scenar-
io.23 Additionally, according to an analysis
in the American Journal of Public Health,
for each $100 Germany spends on health-
care, it extends life by about 16 weeks.
Meanwhile in America, each $100 spent
on healthcare resulted in only two to three
weeks more of longevity.24
3. Type 2 Diabetes Care Compared
3.1. Type 2 Diabetes Care in the German
Healthcare System
The nearly 6 million Type 2 diabet-

20 Department of Professional Employees, “The U.S. Healthcare System: An International Perspective Factsheet.”
21 K. Davis, K. Stremikis, D. Squires, & C. Schoen, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care
System Compares Internationally, 2014 Update.” The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
22 Department of Professional Employees, “The U.S. Healthcare System: An International Perspective Factsheet.”
23 E. Mossialos, M. Wenzl, R. Osborn & C. Anderson, “International Profiles of Healthcare Systems,” The Commonwealth Fund.
24 O. Khazan, “What American Healthcare Can Learn from Germany,” The Atlantic.

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 “Prevention is a priority healthcare,29 so Germany has tried to com-
bat its diabetes epidemic with a preventive
outlook. Disease Management Programs,
in German healthcare, so or DMPs, are programs geared towards
specific groups of patients suffering from
Germany has tried to combat a chronic illness, such as T2D, who receive
a standardized, coordinated, set of evi-
its diabetes epidemic with a dence-based interventions. The goals are
to enhance the patients’ long-term health
preventive outlook.” outcomes, lower healthcare spending
by reducing the need for hospitalization
and other costly treatments, and improve
quality of medical care.30 Though many of
ics in Germany is shown to be a 38% in- America’s pioneering DMPs in the 1990s
crease from 1998.25 Individuals with T2D did not show short-term positive impacts,
in Germany were found to incur approx- other nations including Germany have
imately twice as high both direct and in- since tried to follow suit with their own
direct healthcare costs annually than those nuanced approaches.31 German statuto-
without it.26 T2D complications, which in- ry health insurance funds started offering
clude foot amputation, retinopathy, blind- DMPs nation-wide in cooperation with
ness, nephropathy, end-stage renal disease, primary care physicians in 2002.32 As of
stroke, myocardial infarction/cardiac ar- 2006, 75% of primary care physicians in
rest, ischemic heart disease, chronic heart Germany were registered with DMPs,33
failure, and angina pectoris, have been and nearly four million patients had been
shown to have a significant impact on to- enrolled in T2D DMPs by 2014.34 In Ger-
tal healthcare costs in Germany not only at man DMPs, the primary care physician sees
the time of an event, but also in subsequent DMP-enrolled patients approximately ev-
years.27 Direct medical costs of diabetes in ery three months, keeps close tabs on their
Germany averaged 21 billion euros, and adherence to program protocol, and coor-
the prevalence of the disease in Germany dinates specialist referrals. The DMP pro-
is projected to continue increasing in up- tocol includes diabetes education, nutrition
coming years.28 consultation and guidelines, enrollment in
Prevention is a priority in German fitness classes and gym membership, reg-
25 “Diabetes in Zahlen,” Deutsche Diabetes Hilfe.
26 S. Ulrich, R. Holle, M. Wacker, et al., “Cost burden of type 2 diabetes in Germany: results from the population-based KORA
studies.”
27 K. Kähm, M. Laxy, U. Schneider, et al., “Health Care Costs Associated With Incident Complications in Patients With Type 2
Diabetes in Germany,” Diabetes Care, 41(5): 971–978.
28 I. Köster, I. Schubert & E. Huppertz, “Follow up of the CoDiM-study: cost of diabetes mellitus 2000–2009,” Deutsche Mediz-
inische Wochenschrift, 137:1013–16.
29 O. Khazan, “What American Healthcare Can Learn from Germany.”
30 S. Brandt, J. Hartmann & S. Hehner, “How to design a successful disease-management program,” McKinsey & Company.
31 Ibid.
32 Bundesversicherungsamt, Zulassung der strukturierten Behandlungsprogramme (Disease Mangement Programme – DMP)
durch das Bundesversicherungsamt (BVA).
33 H. Nagel, T. Baehring & A. Scherbaum, “Implementing Disease Management Programs for Type 2 Diabetes in Germany,” Ger-
man Diabetes Center, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at the Heinrich Heine University of Dusseldorf, Germany, 50-53.
34 S. Fuchs, C. Henschke, B. Blümel & M. Reinhard, “Disease Management Programs for Type 2 Diabetes in Germany,” Deutsches
Ärzteblatt International, 111(26), 453–63.

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 ular foot, eye, and kidney exams, medica-
tions (varies by disease progression), and
strict, routine blood sugar checks.
Recent studies have shown markedly
improved health care delivery and decreas-
es in enrolled patients’ HbA1c values35.
Furthermore, Germany’s DMPs signifi-
cantly reduced incidence of several diabet-
ic medical complications and had lowered
overall cost of care by 13% as of 2010.36
These successful results, coupled with
some of the past, more mixed, results war-
rant further investigation into these pro-
grams’ efficacy, as there are many variable
factors. This study approached evaluating
the efficacy of T2D DMPs via inquiry of
opinions of Germany primary care phy-
sicians. As they have been administering
T2D care through these programs to their
patients for many years, they have im-
portant firsthand insights into the strong
and weak points of the DMPs. Due to the
lack of centralization of information from
the nature of the U.S. healthcare system,
comparable statistics for the U.S. disease
management are largely inaccessible and
progress is thus harder to discern. Howev-
er, the nationwide success of German T2D
DMPs apparent from these certain studies
warrants a point of comparison with the
differing American approach.
3.2. Type 2 Diabetes Care in the American
Healthcare System
With the rising burden of chronic
disease, America’s aging population, and
a tight financial healthcare climate, de-
livering better care in a more cost–effec-
tive and health outcomes–focused way is
a necessity. As discussed in the German
healthcare section, disease management
programs emphasize educating the patient
on how to better self-manage their con-
ditions using evidence-based guidelines.
Fragments of U.S. healthcare have also
been making efforts to utilize models of
integrated care with some characteristics
similar to the German DMPs. Integrated
care, also known as coordinated care, and
patient-centered collaborative care, or dis-
ease management, have the clear purpose
of providing individuals with chronic dis-
eases with coordinated care that empowers
the patient and as a result reduces demand
for hospital admissions and improves
health outcomes. One particular initiative
in the U.S. towards better disease manage-
ment is seen in the rise of accountable care
organizations, or ACOs, which have been
piloted in recent years by private insurers,
states, and the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services.37 ACOs stand to im-
prove clinical integration and coordination
and build a sharper focus on prevention,
disease, management, and self-care.38 An-
other example of American disease man-
agement can be seen with the American
Diabetes Association’s Standards of Med-
ical Care for Diabetes. Their guidelines in-
clude recommendations for glucose mon-
itoring, nephropathy screening, glycemic
control, blood pressure control, lipid man-
agement, immunizations, detailed guide-
lines for lifestyle management regarding
nutrition, weight management, physical
activity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption,
and effective strategies for coping with

35 K. Kostev, T. Rockel & L. Jacob, “Impact of Disease Management Programs on HbA1c Values in Type 2 Diabetes Patients in
Germany,” Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 11(1), 117-122.
36 S. Brandt, J. Hartmann & S. Hehner, “How to design a successful disease-management program.”
37 Health Policy Institute, McCourt School of Public Policy, “Diabetes Management Programs: Improving Health while Reducing
Costs?,” Georgetown University.
38 M. McClellan, J. Kent, S. Beales, et al., “Accountable care: focusing accountability on the outcomes that matter: report of the
Accountable Care Working Group,” World Innovation Summit for Health.

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 stress.39 Providing guidelines-based care
is challenging for primary care physicians “There is an enormous need
largely due to the insufficient amount of
time primary care physicians have to spend to more robustly incentivize
with each patient; studies found that only
on average 54.9% of necessary recommen-
dations were found to have been provided
both patients and providers
to adult patients by their primary care phy-
sicians.40
to focus heavily on
U.S. healthcare’s current fee-for-
service reimbursement system, which is
successfully fulfilling
characterized by physicians being paid per
person per visit rather than being paid on preventative protocol,
a basis of patient health outcome metrics,
generally does not offer specific compen- particularly in the case of
sation to healthcare providers for em-
phasizing preventative guidelines to help T2D.”
patients make changes to improve their
care costs, and quality of care for patients
health. Prevention is not deemed to be at
– from the approaches used in the doctor’s
the forefront of importance in American
office with the patient to the insurance and
healthcare.41 But for T2D, research clear-
policy level.
ly shows that high-risk individuals can
avoid developing T2D — or, those already 4. Purpose of Research Study
diagnosed can improve or reverse the Questions
condition — by implementing preventive This study will address the following ques-
lifestyle improvements, including losing tions:
weight through dietary intervention and A. In the opinion of German primary care
regular physical activity.42 Given both the physicians, what are T2D DMPs’ big-
health outcome and financial motivations, gest:
there is an enormous need to more robust- 1. Strengths?
ly incentivize both patients and providers 2. Weaknesses?
to focus heavily on successfully fulfilling 3. Areas of possible improvement?
preventative protocol, particularly in the B. In the opinion of American primary care
case of T2D. As no experiential research physicians, what are their T2D care’s
of primary care physicians with disease greatest:
management programs exists, this study 1. Strengths?
provides new insight into what methods 2. Weaknesses?
of chronic care management providers of 3. Areas of possible improvement?
primary care themselves believe most ef- C. In the opinion of German primary care
fectively improve health outcomes, health- physicians, how effective are German

39 American Diabetes Association, “Standards of medical care in diabetes,” (2017), Diabetes Care, 40(S1), S1–S131.
40 E. A. McGlynn, S. M. Asch, Adams, et al., “The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States,” New England
Journal of Medicine, 348(26), 2635-2645.
41 B. Frist & A. Rivlin, “The Power of Prevention,” U.S. News and World Report.
42 C. D. Mathers & D. Loncar, “Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030,” PLoS Med, 3(11), e442.

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 T2D DMPs in:
1. Improving health outcomes of
T2D patients?
2. Reducing costs associated with
secondary complications of T2D?
3. Improving quality of care deliv-
ered to T2D patients?
D. Considering the opinions of all of the
physicians questioned, what are the cur-
rent most effective management and
treatment practices for T2D?
E. Looking forward, what changes in phy-
sicians’ practicing or healthcare policy
would be most effective at improving
the health outcomes, cost burdens, and
quality of care of T2D patients?
Research Methods &
Designs
Overview
In Germany, I interviewed 8 prima-
ry care physicians, emailed them a link to
an online survey, and requested they for-
ward the link to primary care physician
colleagues to fill out the survey as well.
The length of time they have practiced
medicine was asked in the survey, but oth-
erwise, no other personal or demographic
information was recorded. Data from all 8
interviews were used in results, and a total
of 7 survey responses were correctly filled
out and recorded. All recruitment of and
communication with German physicians,
including emails, the interviews, and the
surveys, was conducted in German. In the
U.S., in Colorado, I interviewed 9 prima-
ry care physicians, emailed them a link to
an online survey, and requested they for-
ward the link to primary care physician
colleagues to fill out the survey as well. I
also interviewed a care coordinator in one
of the primary physician’s offices for sup-
plemental, contextual data. Additionally, I
63
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 63
conducted an informative interview with
an employee of the YMCA who runs Den-
ver’s branch of the Diabetes Prevention
Program, or DPP. The YMCA runs their
DPP in a partnership with the CDC’s Na-
tional Diabetes Prevention Program. This
DPP program is a version of a nationwide,
year-long lifestyle intervention program
for individuals at risk of developing T2D
that was started by the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases. Data from all 11 interviews was
used in interview results, and a total of 24
survey responses administered to primary
care physicians were correctly filled out
and recorded. The interviews were all ini-
tially recorded, and I listened back to each
recording following the interviews to take
detailed notes, then deleted the recordings.
The data from the results were compiled
into qualitative results, analysis, and con-
clusions.
Results
1. German Physician Results
1.1. T2D Diagnosis & Disease Management
Program Protocol in German Healthcare
Every 2 years after age 35, patients
have a check-up that is covered by health
insurance, though not everyone goes in
reality, physicians reported. There is a
screening for T2D at this check-up in the
measurement of HbA1c, and it was stressed
that many patients do not realize they have
T2D. Though the exact designations of
HbA1c levels vary by age and race, general
parameters in Germany were the same as
the U.S., where under 5.7% is normal, 5.7–
6.5% is pre-diabetic, and over 6.5% is dia-
betic. If patients have a prediabetic HbA1c,
physicians typically do not yet recommend
DMP enrollment but rather recommend
lifestyle changes, including nutritional in-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 struction and an increase in physical activ-
ity. They also request the patient come in
for more frequent appointments.
When a patient is diagnosed with a
diabetic HbA1c, they are enrolled in a T2D
DMP. To enroll their patients in a DMP,
German physicians must take an educa-
tion course; most primary care physicians
participate in DMPs. DMPs are largely
covered by “Krankenkassen,” or health in-
surance. Approximately 75 to 90% of the
program components are fully covered by
insurance, and patients are generally will-
ing to pay the remaining small amount out
of pocket, reported physicians. Health in-
surance pays for most medicines that the
doctor deems necessary. The T2D DMP
protocol includes enrollment in a diabe-
tes education course, enrollment in fitness
programs, and consultation with a dietician
to supplement nutrition recommendations
from the doctor. The DMP protocol also
includes regular check-ups with an oph-
thalmologist, or an eye doctor; a podiatrist,
or a foot doctor; a nephrologist, or a kid-
ney specialist; and in extremely progressed
cases, an endocrinologist, a hormone spe-
cialist.
The primary care physician receives
feedback from each specialist; they over-
see and direct all aspects of care for the
patient. A DMP participant must come to
regular appointments every three months.
Participants receive a phone call from the
health insurance company if they miss an
appointment, in which the health insur-
ance company tells them that they will be
dismissed from the program if they miss
two appointments in a row. One doctor
explained how the requirement of seeing
all of his DMP patients every three months
is not a challenge, thanks to the appoint-
ment scheduling format that changed with
the implementation of DMPs: the blocks
64
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 64
from 9 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 5:30 p.m. ev-
ery day are only for the already planned
appointments like these DMP appoint-
ments, which are each very brief, leaving
sufficient time throughout the day for ap-
pointments regarding more proximate or
urgent illnesses, explained this physician.
1.2. Strengths & Weaknesses of T2D DMP
Most of the doctors reflected that
they remembered having been quite an-
noyed with DMPs when they were first
implemented. They thought, “Why do I
need to do this? This is pointless; I already
administer good enough care myself. For
whom should we do this? For the health
insurance companies?” But now, approx-
imately 16 years after DMP implementa-
tion, almost every physician interviewed
admitted that they think the DMPs do add
value for a variety of reasons.
These reasons include the structure
and regularity inherent to DMPs, the sus-
tainability of lifestyle changes they have
seen in their DMP-enrolled patients over
time, the decreased incidence of secondary
complications in DMP-enrolled patients,
and the accountability that results from the
DMP platform. However, physicians also
reported weaknesses, including excessive
documentation and bureaucracy, a lack of
customization to patients, the potential for
alternate financial motives, and a lack of
added value.
2. American Physician Results
2.1. T2D Diagnosis and Care Protocol in
American Healthcare
U.S. physicians typically start check-
ing for T2D around age 40, though they
may begin at a younger age if the patient is
obese or if there is family history of T2D.
T2D used to be called “adult onset” diabe-
tes, but it is now called Type 2 instead; in
recent years, there have been more and
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 more children diagnosed. Thus, screening
of overweight individuals for T2D is start-
ing much younger and more often. Most
physicians interviewed said they are able to
catch T2D patients fairly early and on the
preventive side, if the patients are coming
for their regular annual or biannual check-
ups. While older patients tend to meet
those standards, younger adults generally
are not as consistent. A physician noted
that amidst their busy lives, adults often
do not want to make the time to go to the
doctor for these preventive visits and are
further disincentivized when their insur-
ance doesn’t cover it. Although regular
preventive visits are covered in Medicaid
and some private insurers, they are unfor-
tunately not covered by all insurers. Some
physicians interviewed have encountered
this problem in practice, and these physi-
cians said they thus pick up T2D inciden-
tally more often than through preventive
care. One physician explained that, in ad-
dition to the financial and time reasons, “A
lot of people don’t want to have a chronic
disease, so they ignore it for a while.” The
high blood sugars characteristic of T2D do
not cause debilitating symptoms until they
are present for a prolonged period of time.
A physician said that in her patient popula-
tion in her smaller practice, some patients
will not come in until their glucose level
is so high that it can’t even be read on the
glucometer, which tops out at 600. Often
the reason patients visit the doctor’s office
is because of a yeast infection or bacterial
infection in the skin, which can occur as a
result of these prolonged high blood sug-
ars. At this point, patients have presum-
ably had high glucose levels for a long time
and thus often have the severe secondary
complications of long-term organ damage,
such as kidney failure, gangrene, neurop-
athy, and retinopathy. Manifestations of
65
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 65
secondary complications are very hard to
predict and widely vary from patient to pa-
tient. An inadvertently helpful area of inci-
dental T2D detection is in pregnant wom-
en, as they are all screened for the disease
at their first prenatal visit. One physician
remarked that many patients who do not
come in regularly often go ten years with
T2D before being diagnosed. She inquired,
“Is that the fault of [the] health system? Of
the patients for not coming in? Of the doc-
tors? Hard to say.”
However, networks such as Kaiser
Permanente, America’s largest integrat-
ed managed care consortium, and Heal-
thOne Colorado Care Partners, a clini-
cally integrated network and accountable
care organization, focus more heavily on
prevention. The physicians within these
networks reported that they diagnose
pre-diabetes much more often from pre-
ventive screening than by chance, as their
patients tend to come more regularly for
their insurance-covered, preventive vis-
its. A HealthOne physician stated that he
rarely sees secondary complications in his
patients as compared to 30 years ago, be-
cause they “catch [T2D] earlier, treat it
harder, and have more drugs.” Though
the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force
has recommended HbA1c as the best test
for screening for T2D, a HbA1c test is cur-
rently covered by most insurances only
if an abnormal glucose level has been di-
agnosed first for many practices. Kaiser
Permanente, however, runs preventative
labs including HbA1c on a regular basis.
For anyone with a BMI of over 25, which
is considered overweight, HbA1c screen-
ing is always included. HbA1c testing will
probably be more widely covered, without
needing the glucose test first, in upcoming
years, however, one physician explained.
After discussing weight loss, diet,
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “Universal coverage alone
does not solve every
problem. But such universal
healthcare access would
at least remove financial
barriers for T2D patients.”
exercise, lifestyle changes, and food dia-
ries, most physicians put T2D patients on
the fairly inexpensive, generic medication
Metformin. Metformin works by low-
ering glucose production in the liver and
improving the body’s insulin sensitivity,
and the majority of T2D patients stay on
Metformin for life. At Denver Health, the
physician said she puts almost all T2D pa-
tients on, in addition to Metformin, a low-
dose ACE-inhibitor, which lowers blood
pressure and maximizes blood flow to the
kidneys, and a statin, which lowers cho-
lesterol. After these “first line of defense”
options come sulfonylureas, which help
the body secrete more insulin. These are
followed by newer, more expensive medi-
cations, including GLP-1 receptor agonists
and SGLT-2 inhibitors, which lower blood
sugar, help enable weight loss, and lower
risk of heart disease and cardiovascular
events, or, at last resort, insulin. GLP-1
receptor agonists respond quickly to rises
in a patient’s blood sugar but also do not
cause hypoglycemia. This new medication
is thus extremely beneficial for elderly T2D
patients, as hypoglycemia is a common
problem that arises with insulin use and
can be particularly dangerous for seniors.
Physicians noted that many patients have
66
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 66
trouble with insurance coverage of these
newer, more effective medications and
thus cannot afford them. Retrospective
research showed that German physicians
utilize fairly similar medication guidelines;
the medication details were discussed in
this American section because this infor-
mation was learned from the American
physicians; the language barrier inhibited
discussion of specific medications beyond
Metformin and insulin with German phy-
sicians.
In regards to the specialist visits that
are sometimes part of T2D care, the ma-
jority of physicians said that they only send
their very progressed cases of T2D to en-
docrinologists and nephrologists, though
many T2D patients do end up needing
nephrologist attention at some point in
their care. Most physicians said they give
foot exams at every appointment and ad-
minister an annual microalbumin check
for kidney function. In addition, an annual
eye doctor visit is required for all T2D pa-
tients to check for retinopathy. Patients are
referred to specialists under supervision of
the primary care physician when needed.
One physician noted that if a specialist rec-
ommends an expensive medication, Medi-
care or Medicaid is more likely to cover it
than if a primary care doctor recommends
it, so that is sometimes the reason for spe-
cialist referral. However, it is often difficult
to make an appointment with a specialist,
particularly for Medicare and Medicaid
patients, as many providers do not get a
significant reimbursement for seeing these
government-insured patients.
2.2 Strengths & Weaknesses of American
T2D Care Protocol
The majority of strengths of T2D
care in the U.S. revolve around the oppor-
tunity for innovation that is possible to
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 some degree within the American health-
care system. This flexibility enables the
potential for rapid evolution of improve-
ment of care. While this potential has cer-
tainly not yet been realized throughout the
entire healthcare system, there are strong
examples of promise that were elucidated
in several of the American physician in-
terviews. Such strengths include increased
utilization of technological tools for T2D
management and accountability, devel-
opment of nuanced, robust management
programs such as the Diabetes Prevention
Program, increased use of the motivational
interviewing technique with patients, and
the evolution towards team-based care and
improved transitional care.
The majority of the weaknesses
stem from the disparities within the U.S.
healthcare system, given its lack of unifor-
mity across payers and providers. While
this gives rise to some of the benefits of
innovation discussed above, it also pos-
es many challenges revolving around un-
equal access to adequate care and resources
for both patients and providers. As one of
the physicians interviewed said, “Access
is everything. If it wasn’t disincentivizing
to come see me, patients would come in
more often and be able to get questions
answered. If the healthcare system was
free, socialized, single-payer, whatever you
want to call it.” However, as previously
discussed in the weaknesses of Germany’s
T2D care, universal coverage alone does
not solve every problem. But such univer-
sal healthcare access would at least remove
financial barriers for T2D patients, allow-
ing them access to the medications and ef-
fective intervention programs they need.
Key weaknesses include the high cost of
medications, the lack of insurance-covered
diabetes education, overcrowding of the
public healthcare system, and America’s
67
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 67
somewhat cultural focus on reactive rather
than proactive healthcare.
Analysis
1. Similarities Between German and
American T2D Care
Despite the wide variance of resourc-
es available to T2D patients across Germa-
ny and the U.S., the two nations do share
much of the basic protocol when diagnos-
ing and administering care for this dis-
ease. To start, both German and American
physicians stated that the target HbA1c,
and thus recommendations surrounding
it, varies from patient to patient, especial-
ly in respect to age. Older patients do not
need to keep their HbA1c as low as mid-
dle aged or younger patients, because older
patients may die before most of the conse-
quences of T2D affect them, and because
a low blood sugar is more dangerous for
elderly people. Next, doctors in both coun-
tries generally want to see their T2D pa-
tients every three months until they have
their condition controlled, at which point
bi-annual appointments become the norm,
although this frequency is typically not
achieved across all patient populations in
reality. Both American and German phy-
sicians also agreed that diabetic education
is a factor critical to success for their T2D
patients, and that the intensity of this edu-
cation need be improved, delivered more
frequently and for a longer total period of
time, and, in the U.S., made more widely
available at no cost to all T2D patients.
Another shared characteristic of the
T2D protocol was that primary care phy-
sicians usually oversee most diabetic care.
Doctors universally try to personalize care
to each patient and recommend small, re-
alistic lifestyle changes with which they
follow up at the following three month ap-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 pointment. Examples of such recommen-
dations from both German and American
physicians included to only drink water
and cut out sugary drinks, eat five hand-
fuls of veggies per day, or lose ten pounds,
rather than 50 pounds. Both nations’ phy-
sicians also said that they send their T2D
patients who have progressed so far as to
need insulin to the endocrinologist ap-
proximately every three months, in ad-
dition to the three-monthly primary care
visit. Finally, some German physicians ex-
plained that the success of DMPs in pre-
venting secondary complications does not
usually come from completely curing the
patients and graduating them from the
program. It rather comes from the typical-
ly lifelong enrollment in the DMP where
patients achieve a state of controlled T2D,
in which they have an HbA1C of 7 to 8%
and are stabilized with just Metformin. In
the same light, American physicians largely
agreed that while T2D is reversible, most
patients do not enact drastic enough sus-
tainable lifestyle change to achieve such
reversal but rather are stabilized or con-
trolled with Metformin and some small
lifestyle improvements. The physicians in-
terviewed generally concurred that while a
T2D patient’s health will rarely be rapidly
reversed, success comes through working
together as patient and doctor, month after
month, year after year, to implement and
sustain small lifestyle changes that all add
up to a healthier patient.
Both nations also encounter several
similar challenges with T2D management,
however. One challenge is how diabetes is
a “silent disease” that often is not tended to
until it has progressed, because many peo-
ple are unaware that they are diabetic. Phy-
sicians have to work to convince the pa-
tient of the importance of lifestyle changes
and motivate them to make these chang-
68
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 68
es, because high sugar levels alone do not
have immediate detrimental effects. Other
challenges include the inevitable variety of
patient compliance level, the difficulty of
sustaining lifestyle changes, the immense
control possessed by pharmaceutical com-
panies, and healthcare professionals’ lack
of time; they complained of spending too
much time on bureaucratic paperwork and
not enough time with patients. Anoth-
er challenge both German and American
physicians strived to solve was reaching
rural patients. A primary care physician
interviewed who works in a small, rural
German town explained how, in rural ar-
eas, primary care physicians must try to
do all treatments for their patients since
specialists are so few and far between. One
hopeful solution to this issue of reaching
rural populations is increased use of tele-
medicine, which will be discussed in the
upcoming recommendations and future
directions section.
2. Differences Between German and
American T2D Care
Challenges unique to the U.S. include
T2D’s disproportionate detriment to mi-
nority populations and people of lower
socioeconomic status, prohibitively expen-
sive pharmaceuticals, conflicting financial
interests within American healthcare, and
rising T2D rates in children. Challenges
unique to Germany primarily consisted
of the aforementioned downsides of the
DMP. The main distinct forte of American
T2D care, as discussed in the U.S. strengths
section, is the greater prevalence of new,
creative methods to try to drive behavior
change and lifestyle improvement of T2D
patients. The German physicians em-
braced much the mindset that this DMP
is a set protocol; regardless of whether it
was succeeding at improving health out-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 comes and reducing costs incurred, they He thought that cultural and generational
would follow it and not challenge it to be improvement could be contributing fac-
improved. Some German physicians stat- tors (“70 is the new 60,” he said). He ex-
ed they wouldn’t change anything about plained that people exercise much more
the DMP when asked in interviews — they now; many of his T2D patients enroll in
considered it a very good and well-struc- sport programs that are insurance covered
tured program. They believed the lack of a as part of their T2D “Kassenleistung,” or
100% success rate for it was due to patients’ services covered by health insurance. Most
discipline, thus outside of their responsi- of the German physicians recounted that,
bility. While this physician satisfaction il- on average, their T2D patients’ health has
lustrates potential effectiveness of DMPs improved since DMP implementation.
on one hand, it also illustrates an inflexible This view, paired with the studies showing
cultural mindset within Germany that pre- DMP efficacy, suggests that DMPs have,
vents flexible innovation, as in the U.S. in fact, been an advantageous addition to
In the U.S., some of the more pro- German chronic care management.
gressive primary care practices put heavy
3. Recommendations for
emphasis on the constant effort to inno-
Improvement of T2D Care
vate new and better ways to improve their
The concluding recommendations
T2D patients’ health outcomes and reduce
for improvement include increasing use of
their cost burdens. While not all American
motivational interviewing to better ascer-
providers are of this mindset, it was more
tain root causes, addressing and striving to
common as compared to Germany. And
alleviate social determinants of health, in-
though Germany’s T2D DMPs have been
creasing use of technological tools for T2D
more successful in improving T2D than
accountability and management, providing
American healthcare on average, the novel
broader access to free T2D education, in-
T2D care in some of the more progressive
creasing employment of team-based care
primary care practices in the U.S. most cer-
and home visits, and revisiting payment
tainly trumped the results of the DMPs in
incentive structures to shift towards more
terms of both economic savings and im-
value-based, rather than fee-for-service,
proving patient outcomes through inno-
healthcare. Several German physicians
vative methods of driving lifestyle change.
stated that the problem with the T2D
Many of the recommendations for future
DMPs was a lack of a rewards principle;
directions in the upcoming section come
they believed there would be greater suc-
from these American primary care prac-
cess in improving patient health if both the
tices, as the German physicians offered far
patient and the physician were rewarded
fewer ideas for change and means of im-
monetarily for achieving progress. They
provement as compared to the U.S. physi-
explained how they thought that such
cians. As for fortes unique to Germany, sev-
monetary incentives would end up saving
eral of the German physicians did recount
money at the end of the day. However, it is
very positive results of success from their
highly improbable that T2D patients will
T2D DMP patients. One physician talked
be paid by health insurance companies for
about how he observed significant lifestyle
adhering to program protocol and achiev-
improvements in his patients, though he is
ing health improvements any time in the
not positive if it is a result of the DMPs.

69

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 69 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 near future, in either German or American
healthcare. Change that is more probable,
however, is change surrounding physician
payment.
Several physicians interviewed
brought up the recently catalyzed shift in
American healthcare from fee-for-service,
or FFS, to value-based reimbursement.
The FSS payment model that has dominat-
ed U.S. healthcare for decades is character-
ized by physicians being paid per person
and per visit, as mentioned in the intro-
duction. Since physicians are not incentiv-
ized to make efforts to provide preventive
care to patients and American culture does
not emphasize prevention, many patients
wait until they are in dire need before com-
ing in to the doctor’s office, compromising
prevention efforts. Additionally, physi-
cians are not reimbursed based on quality
of care or their patients’ health outcomes,
so there is little differentiation between
effective and ineffective patient-physician
interactions. This payment model based
on patient volume also disincentivizes
doctors to take the time to explain the nec-
essary lifestyle change advice to patients;
prescription writing is faster thus allows
for seeing more patients. A societal shift
from the exorbitantly expensive reactive
care to the much more cost effective and
quality-of-life-improving proactive care
described throughout this paper can likely
only be driven by economic means.
The answer to this need comes from
the value-based primary care reimburse-
ment model, which incorporates clinical
outcomes into provider payment and pro-
vides differential reimbursements based
on measures of medical costs incurred and
clinical quality.43 This transition is well un-
43 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases, “Changing Landscape: From Fee-for-Service to Val-
ue-Based Reimbursement.”
70
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 70
derway, as nearly a quarter of reimburse-
ment among U.S. healthcare organizations
has turned value-based in recent years, re-
placing a fee-for-service dominated system
that had been stagnant for decades. To suc-
ceed, the value-based revolution will have
to overcome barriers including changes in
infrastructure requirements, regulation/
policy, information technology, and ad-
ministrative details. But value-based con-
tracting does hold promising potential for
chronic care management, because, as stat-
ed by a HealthOne physician, “To succeed
in value-based contracting, you’ve got to
focus on prevention.” Only the upcoming
years will tell to what extent value-based
care improves the health outcomes of,
quality of care for, and cost burdens in-
curred by T2D patients. If it is successful,
perhaps Germans will be investigating
American value-based T2D management
programs in the future, instead of Ameri-
cans investigating the German T2D DMPs
as has been done in this thesis.
Conclusion
This paper has laid out findings of
similarities, differences, strengths, and
weaknesses of T2D management methods
in Germany and the U.S., as well as best
directions forward. Germany champions
the strength of providing fairly effective
DMP-administered T2D care through
their universal health insurance coverage,
while the quality of T2D care and resourc-
es available varies widely in the U.S., de-
pending on healthcare providers and in-
surers. With a high number of Americans
lacking comprehensive insurance, or with
none at all, many who need healthcare to
control their T2D end up suffering ex-
pensive hospitalizations due to secondary
complications that occur with the lack of
preventive care, which is detrimental to
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 all parties.
Noteworthy strengths of Germany’s
T2D DMPs included better blood sugar
level monitoring, due to the frequency
of visits; improved patient accountability,
from health insurance companies call-
ing patients if they miss an appointment;
more regular specialist visits, reducing oc-
currence of secondary complications; and
availability of access to T2D management
resources without financial barrier. Ger-
man DMP key weaknesses included lack
of customization and excessive bureau-
cratic documentation for minimal added
value. Strengths of American methods
revolved around a greater prevalence of
innovation, exemplified by increasing uti-
lization of technological tools and moti-
vational interviewing techniques, as well
as an evolution towards team-based care
delivery and value-based reimbursement
models. Weaknesses stemmed from sys-
tematic inequality of access in U.S. health-
care, including lack of insurance-covered
diabetes education, prohibitively high
costs of medication, and insufficient pro-
vision of affordable preventive care. De-
spite these differences between German
and American T2D care, both nations do
encounter several universal challenges in
T2D management. Such shared challeng-
es include imperfect patient compliance
71
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 71
and difficulty of achieving sustainable
lifestyle changes — indicating a need for
improvement in both nations’ T2D care.
Due to the strict structure of German
DMPs, there was less impetus to create
creative methods to overcome this barrier
and drive patients’ lifestyle improvements
among German providers, as compared
to select U.S. providers. Yet, nearly all
physicians agreed on needing to address
these universal challenges. Primary rec-
ommendations included restructuring
the payment incentive system, based on
rewarding improved health outcomes, as
well as increased utilization of home vis-
its, dieticians, mental health counselors,
technological tools for patient commu-
nication and accountability, team-based
care, and rigorous diabetes education.
Evidently, the future of improving T2D
care and management hinges on an inten-
sification of preventive measures, which
must be directed by primary care provid-
ers, incentivized by insurers, and achieved
by patient–physician cooperation. This
heightened prevention is the only way for-
ward — not only for the sake of financial
reduction it is sure to bring, but first and
foremost, for the health outcomes of mil-
lions of present and future T2D patients
that it can improve. ■
11/12/20 2:38 PM
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individuals from the years 2009 and
2010. Deutsches Ärzteblatt Interna-
tional, 113(11), 177.
Tilburt, J.C., Wynia, M.K., Sheeler,
R.,D., et al. (2013). Views of US phy-
sicians about controlling health care
costs. JAMA. 310(4):380-388.
Ulrich, S., Holle, R., Wacker, M., et
al. (2016). Cost burden of type 2
diabetes in Germany: results from
the population-based KORA studies.
BMJ open, 6(11), e012527.
U.S. Health in International Perspective:
Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. (2013).
National Research Council.
Winkler, E., Basch, P., & Cutler, D.
(2012). Paper Cuts: Reducing Health
Care Administrative Costs. Center
for American Progress.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 A
Alexander Ross, a
biomedical engineering
student in his junior year,
shares what a typical
day in the BIGMed Lab
looks like. He spent

D
summer 2019 working in
the lab after receiving a
Summer Undergraduate
Research Grant (SURG)
for an independent

A
project, “Optimizing
superparamagnetic iron
oxide nanoparticles for
natural killer cell
labeling.” Ross

Y
conducted in vitro cell
studies to analyze and
manipulate the
interaction between cell
cultures and
nanoparticles. He
looked at the toxicity of
nanoparticles to
tumor cells, furthering
in the life of
the BIGMed Lab’s cancer a summer
immunotherapy student
research. researcher

74

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 74 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 7:00 a.m.: Wake up,
shower, and get dressed.
7:30 a.m.: Eat
breakfast, usually a
bagel.
8:00 a.m.: Leave
Evanston residence and
head to the nearest bus
stop. Take the Inter-
campus shuttle to
Northwestern’s Chicago
campus, to the Feinberg
School of Medicine.
9:00 a.m.: Arrive at
the BIGMed Lab.
Prepare cell cultures and
synthesize nanoparticles
for experiments later in
the day. Take inventory
of lab supplies.
10:00 a.m.:
Depending on the day
of the week, attend lab
meetings, in which lab
members present findings
from recent experiments,
or attend journal club,
in which a lab member
shares relevant literature
and avenues for future
research. Engage in
discussion and receive
feedback from the
principal investigator.
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 75
11:00 a.m.: Receive 8:00 p.m.: Relax! Call
daily or weekly tasks for friends, work on language
independent project from learning, plan a trip for
postdoctoral later in the summer,
mentor. Tasks may watch a movie, and so on.
include incubating cells,
applying nanoparticles 10:00 p.m. :
to cells, running tests with Get ready for bed, then
a photometer or infra- sleep and recharge!
red spectrometer, and/
or designing magnets to
fine tune the properties
of nanoparticles.
Ross said that
Noon : Grab lunch
with colleagues. future summer
researchers
1:00 p.m. : Continue
work on independent should try to
project. Leave the lab stay
once there’s a good
stopping point, depend- open-minded.
ing on the stage and “Things change
success of the experiment
at hand.
in research very,
very quickly,”
5:00 p.m. : Take the
Intercampus shuttle back he said, as he
home to Evanston. discovered with
6:30 p.m. : Make his own
dinner or get takeout continuously
— Chipotle is always a
go-to!
evolving project.
7:00 p.m. Eat dinner.
Interview conducted by
Niva Razin
75
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Department of History

“A Man With Many

Faces, All Turned in
the Same Direction”:
Julius Lester on Anti-Semitism,
Anti-Blackness, and Black-
Jewish Coalitions
by Jessica Shcwalb
Beginning in the early 20th centu- and repeated, reciprocal accusations of an-
ry, Black and Jewish civil rights activists ti-Semitism and anti-Blackness that cap-
joined forces to protest racial discrimina- tured national media attention and divided
tion, forming institutional and individual the former allies.
relationships.1 However, countless histor- Historians appear undecided on
ical scholarship has highlighted that the whether the Black Power movement insti-
popular mythology around this so-called gated the end of the Black-Jewish alliance
Black-Jewish alliance romanticizes a rela- or merely revealed how frayed the alli-
tionship that was in fact fraught with con- ance had already become.3 However, most
tradiction from its inception.2 A particu- scholars mark the end of the Black-Jewish
larly potent strand of the myth describes a alliance with the rise of Black Power, and
conflict-free Black-Jewish coalition in the tend to blame Black leaders’ anti-Sem-
early 1960s, emblemized by the Rev. Mar- itism for causing the tension.4 Yet, his-
tin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham torians have not adequately taken up the
Joshua Heschel, religious and civil rights question of how and why Black activists
leaders, who marched arm in arm across accused Jews of anti-Black racism during
the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Al- major moments of tension between the
abama to advocate for voting rights. The two groups. Few scholars address Jewish
myth then turns sour around 1965, with racism against Black Americans as a key
the rise of the Black Power movement factor in damaging Black-Jewish relations.
1 Clayborne Carson, “Blacks and Jews in the Civil Rights Movement,” in Strangers and Neighbors: Relations between Blacks and
Jews in the United States, edited by Maureen Adams and John Bracey (University of Massachusetts Press, 2000) https://kinginsti-
tute.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/blacks_jews_civil_rights.pdf
2 Melanie Kaye-Kantrowitz, The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporaism. (Indiana University Press, 2007).
3 Eric Sundquist, Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, and Post-Holocaust America (Belknap Press, 2009)
4 This line of thinking is repeated in, for example, Robert G. Weisbord and Arthur Stein Bittersweet Encounter: The Afro-Ameri-
can and the American Jew (Negro Universities Press, 1970); Struggles in the Promised Land: Toward a History of Black-Jewish Re-
lations in the United States, edited by Jack Salzman and Cornel West (Oxford University Press 1997); Cheryl Greenberg, Troubling
the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century (Princeton University Press, 2007).

76

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 “Lester straddled both sides of the debate about Black
anti-Semitism and Jewish anti-Black racism .”
Although the popular historical nar- career, Lester straddled both sides of the
rative of Black-Jewish relations tends to debate about Black anti-Semitism and Jew-
paint with broad strokes, activists and ish anti-Black racism. His writing reveals
critics held lively debates over anti-Black that these debates were embedded in con-
racism and anti-Semitism in essay col- versations about whiteness, and about the
lections and leftist newspapers from the tension between American Jewish privi-
1960s through the 1980s. Black and Jewish lege and the persistence of anti-Semitism.
writers publicly disagreed about the cause Lester’s work allows us to grapple with
of tension between their communities and how Black activists viewed their Jewish
presented a nuanced analysis of the reasons allies’ relationship to racial privilege and
the Black and Jewish communities increas- power. By analyzing moments of Lester’s
ingly clashed after the mid-’60s. life when he was deeply involved in ma-
Julius Lester was a key participant jor conflict between Black and Jewish civil
in these debates about Black-Jewish rela- rights groups, we can better understand
tions. A folk singer born in St. Louis, his how and why Black activists’ critiques of
guitar brought him into collaboration with Jewish racism were transformed into de-
Pete Seeger and into grassroots organizing bates over whether those critiques were
with the Student Nonviolent Coordinat- antisemitic.
ing Committee (SNCC). Lester became Throughout his career as an activist
involved in the most polarizing moments and intellectual, Lester encouraged Ameri-
of tension between Black and Jewish civil can Jews to reconsider how they discussed
rights organizations in the late 1900s. He race, power, and privilege. In the 1960s,
wrote essays, political treatises, and novels Lester frequently called out Jewish racism
about anti-racist activism and Black identi- against Black people. His early work re-
ty. In the early 1980s, Lester converted to flected a growing consensus among some
Judaism and published a memoir entitled Black activists who argued that anti-Semi-
“Lovesong: Becoming a Jew.”5 tism was far less important than anti-Black
That Lester both instigated racism. Lester and others described how
Black-Jewish conflict and later became a Eastern European Jewish immigrants to
Black Jew is more than historical anomaly. the United States were not always consid-
His life circled around issues of Black an- ered white in the country’s racial hierar-
ti-Semitism and Jewish anti-Black racism chy, but by the mid-1900s, most American
when he was studying at Fisk in Nashville, Jews had gained access to the privileg-
organizing for civil rights in New York City es of whiteness long prohibited to Black
and Mississippi, and teaching in Amherst, Americans, including housing, education,
Massachusetts. At various moments in his jobs, and freedom from violence.6 Though
5 Julius Lester, Lovesong: Becoming a Jew (Henry Holt & Co, January 1988).
6 A small number of historians have analyzed the ways European Jewish immigrants to the United States navigated civil rights
coalitions while grappling with their own whiteness, notably Eric Goldstein’s The Price of Whiteness. See also Cheryl Greenberg
“I’m Not White -- I’m Jewish: The Racial Politics of American Jews” in Race, Color, Identity: Rethinking Discourses about “Jews” in
the Twenty-First Century, edited by Efraim Sicher (Berghahn Books, 2013) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qd22t.

77

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 “Many Jews struggled
to reckon with their
newfound privilege while
still defining themselves as
victims.”
American Jews’ relationship with white-
ness was tenuous, Lester’s early writing
epitomized how, as literary scholar Efraim
Sicher notes, “Blacks have often perceived
Jews as whites and identified them with
the dominant White society that segregat-
ed and enslaved them.”7
In the face of Lester and other Black
activists’ critiques, many Jews struggled
to reckon with their newfound privilege
while still defining themselves as victims,
“feeling [themselves] oppressed and poor
yet anomalously burdened with prosperi-
ty.”8 American Jews’ newfound whiteness
in the United States did not preclude them
from experiencing anti-Semitism, nor did
it minimize their fears of potential future
anti-Jewish violence.9 Paul Berman de-
scribed this mindset well in a 1994 New
Yorker essay about American Jewish pol-
itics: “For the driveway may be long and
circular, and the living-room carpet may
be thick, but the enemy-memory does not
fade.”10 Many Jews clung tight to their “en-
emy memory” and rejected Lester’s, and
others,’ charges to contextualize anti-Sem-
itism with the fact of white Jewish privi-
lege. In response to Lester and other Black
writers who critiqued their privilege and
power, American Jews and Jewish institu-
tions tended to exaggerate the threat of an-
ti-Semitism and minimize the racism that
Black Americans faced. Whereas Lester
in his early activism dismissed anti-Semi-
tism and emphasized anti-Blackness, most
Jewish groups claimed anti-Semitism was
more important than racism and implied
that one should choose which oppression
was most severe and dismiss the other.
In the 1960s, Lester was part of a
cadre of Black civil rights activists who re-
jected national outrage over Black activist
groups’ alleged anti-Semitism and instead
emphasized the importance of discussing
Jewish anti-Black racism. In his later writ-
ings, Lester reversed course and began to
argue that anti-Semitism was more press-
ing than anti-Black racism. Most scholars
have ignored Lester’s analysis of these is-
sues, perhaps because his views complicate
questions about Black-Jewish relations,
whose answers the historical literature
has tended to oversimplify. A handful of
scholars from religious studies, history,
and gender studies have analyzed Lester’s
political and personal evolution, but they
tend to read his complex relationship to
identity, race, and radicalism rather un-
charitably. These authors describe Lester
as disingenuous, and some argue that his
1982 conversion to Judaism was motivated
by a psychological desire to redeem himself
from having been accused of anti-Semitism

7 Efraim Sicher, introduction to Race, Color, Identity: Rethinking Discourses about “Jews” in the Twenty-First Century, edited by
Sicher, Berghahn Books, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qd22t, 3.
8 Blacks and Jews: Alliances and Arguments, ed. Paul Berman (New York, Delacorte Press, 1994), 13.
9 “Jews...are both white and not quite white; they are simultaneously participants and antagonists of whiteness.” Susannah Heschel
“Reading Cynthia Baker’s Jew with James Baldwin” Marginalia (LA Review of Books) July 5, 2017. https://marginalia.lareviewof-
books.org/reading-cynthia-bakers-jew-james-baldwin/
10 Paul Berman, “Reflections: The Other and the Almost the Same,” The New Yorker, February 28, 1994, 61-66. http://writing.
upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/jews-blacks-berman.html

78

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 in the past.11 In a chapter dedicated to Les-
ter at the end of his history of Black-Jewish
relations, “Strangers in the Land,” literary
scholar Eric Sundquist argues that Lester’s
writing presents “Jewishness ... as one way
to escape the most hateful stereotypes and
primordial fears of black life.”12 But neither
Sundquist nor academic historians ade-
quately address Lester’s countless essays
about the relationship between Black and
Jewish identity and between anti-Semitism
and anti-Black racism. Few explore how
Lester’s trajectory helps illuminate Jewish
and Black Americans’ changing relation-
ships to politics and race.
To solely focus on Black activists’ al-
leged anti-Semitism, as many Jews at the
time did and historical scholars have done,
clouds historical understanding of the de-
bates around Black-Jewish tension. This
also ignores Black Jews, whose unique re-
lationship to both anti-Semitism and rac-
ism complicates easy assumptions about
race and identity. Lester and his contem-
poraries mostly referred to Black and Jew-
ish communities as discrete and non-over-
lapping, and tended to see an interest in
racism and anti-Semitism as mutually ex-
clusive.13 Unlike many Jewish writers and
activists who argued that Black Americans
disproportionately held latent anti-Jewish
prejudice, Lester made space in his writing
for the idea that American Jews could be
racist, even as they themselves could also
be the targets of anti-Semitism. After he
converted to Judaism, Lester also opened
a conversation about the often-ignored
fact that not all American Jews are white.
Lester frequently decried the skepticism
and isolation he faced when entering
mostly-white synagogues as a Black man.
Accusations of Jewish racism take on new
weight when we consider Black and other
non-white Jews, such as Lester, who in the
late 1980s wrote of facing prejudice from
fellow Jews.
However, for most of his life, non-
white Jews were hardly on Lester’s radar,
with little more than the oft-ridiculed
Sammy Davis Jr. to refer to as a prominent
example of someone who traversed Black
American and Jewish identity. To this day,
the perspectives of non-white Jews re-
main absent in most scholarly work about
Black-Jewish relations. The recent publica-
tion of sociologist Bruce Haynes’ “The Soul
of Judaism” is one of few inquiries into
Black Jewish identity. Haynes surveyed
various Black American Jewish communi-
ties, currently estimated at around 2% of the
American Jewish population or approxi-
mately 200,000 people. He delved into how
anti-Semitism, racism, and representation
manifest uniquely for Jews of color.14 But
Haynes is one of few scholars engaging in
the depth and singularity of the experience
of non-white Jews. In light of scholarly ne-
glect, Lester represents a singular voice on
the history of Black-Jewish relations, as a
figure both involved in moments of debate
over Black anti-Semitism and Jewish rac-
ism and who himself complicates the his-
toriography around such moments.
Julius Lester’s role in and writing
about key moments of Black-Jewish ten-
sion are important reminders of the reduc-

11 See: Alyson Cole, “Trading Places: From Black Power Activist to ‘Anti-Negro Negro’.” American Studies 44, no. 3 (2003): 37-76
and William D. Hart, Black Religion : Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis. (1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
12 Eric Sundquist, Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, and Post-Holocaust America (Belknap Press, 2009), 510
13 See: Bruce D. Haynes. The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America. (New York University Press, 2018), 6-7.
“Though two rabbis in Greenwich Village in 1964 formed a network of “assistance” for Black Jews that also sought to increase
Black-white Jewish interaction called Hatzaad Harishon, most mainstream Jewish perception remained that American Jews were
white until the highly publicized airlifts of African and Ethiopian Jews flown to Israel in 1985 and 1990.”
14 Haynes, introduction to The Soul of Judaism.

79

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 “Black Jews, whose unique relationship to both anti-
Semitism and racism complicates easy assumptions
about race and identity.”
tive ways activists, reporters, and histori-
ans discussed anti-Semitism and anti-Black
racism. Lester was widely seen as a spokes-
person for Black radical anti-Semitism
during the 1968 New York City teachers’
strike, and thus his subsequent critiques of
Jewish teachers’ anti-Black racism fell on
skeptical ears. During the following de-
cade, Lester critiqued what he perceived
to be widespread Black anti-Semitism in a
moment of national Black-Jewish tension
over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and en-
tered a dispute over domestic and foreign
policy issues. In the 1980s, Lester accused
famed author James Baldwin of anti-Sem-
itism and sparked a national controversy
about anti-Semitism, academic freedom,
and Black Studies. In each of these mo-
ments, reciprocal accusations of Jewish
anti-Black racism and Black anti-Semitism
divided former coalition partners, forcing
activists to pick sides and either ignoring
or insulting those who crossed the prover-
bial, and sometimes literal, picket line.
Lester’s role in these three moments
of Black-Jewish tension, coupled with his
personal evolution from Black Power ad-
vocate to critic of Black Studies and new-
ly-converted Jew, reveal that Black and
Jewish activists used accusations of an-
ti-Semitism and anti-Black racism to rein-
force reductive myths about Black-Jewish
relations. Lester’s life and work prove that
more complicated stories about anti-Semi-
tism and anti-Blackness rarely stick. ■

Bibliography
Archival Materials
Julius Lester papers, Jones Library,
Amherst, Massachusetts.
Folders used:
About Lester 1968-89
About Lester 1990-96
Correspondence — personal: A
(general)
Journals — 1959/60’
Lectures and conferences –– radio
commentary
Notebooks –– blue
University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Archives, University Library, Am-
herst, Massachusetts.
Boxes used:
Lester, Julius.
Faculty Senate Committees 1987/88.
1988 Chancellor’s Office Drawer IX
Faculty Personnel, Box 15 of 18
Chancellor’s Files 1985-88 Graduate to
Long 90-050 box 3 of 6, file “Lester,
Julius”
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Crisis of the Negro Intellectual
Reconsidered. New York: Routledge,
2004.
Weisbord, Robert G. and Stein, Ar-
thur. Bittersweet Encounter: The
Afro-American and the American
Jew. New York: Negro Universities
Press, 1970.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 FEATURE

Tracking
Northwestern’s
Research Response
to COVID-19
By Grace Lee and Prerita Pandya

The coronavirus pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of every-

one’s lives. As of May 2020, over 3.5 million people around the world
have been infected, and more than 30 million people in the United
States have filed for unemployment. In the midst of this global crisis,
Northwestern staff, faculty, students, and researchers are working
tirelessly to research and develop drugs effective against the virus.

Take a look at this timeline for a glimpse of Northwestern’s research

efforts against COVID-19.

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 82 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 March 2, 2020
In collaboration with the University
of Chicago, the U.S. Department of
Energy, and the University of Cali-
fornia Riverside School of Medicine,
Northwestern University Feinberg
School of Medicine identifies a po-
tential drug target. Using a model
from the earlier SARS outbreak, the
researchers suggest that the inhibi-
tion of the protein nsp15 may be ef-
fective in slowing viral replication.
March 24, 2020
A Northwestern laboratory receives
the rapid response research (RAP-
ID) grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) for its project de-
veloping self-sanitizing face masks.
As the coronavirus is thought to
spread through respiratory droplets,
including antiviral chemicals in face
masks could reduce the virus’ activity
in these droplets.

March 13, 2020 March 27, 2020

Dr. Karla Fullner Satchell, a profes-
sor of Microbiology-Immunology
at Feinberg, publishes a study about
using soluble angiotensin-convert-
ing enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a potential
coronavirus infection therapy agent.
ACE2 is a receptor that is critical in
allowing the virus entry into host
cells.
March 19, 2020
Feinberg researchers reveal another
potential drug target: nsp10/16. The
protein plays a critical part in viral
replication by allowing the virus to
“hide” from the host’s immune sys-
tem.
83
Dr. Robert O. Bonow, a cardiol-
ogist at Northwestern Memorial
Hospital, publishes a study, “Associ-
ation of Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) with Myocardial Inju-
ry and Mortality.” The article out-
lines data from various studies done
in China, Italy, and the U.S. during
the earlier days of the pandemic, es-
pecially regarding the interaction of
COVID-19 and myocardial injury
and how that impacts mortality.

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 83 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 FEATURE

April
The Feinberg School of Medicine implements a COVID-19
taskforce with the purpose of facilitating research projects,
by connecting them to samples, clinical information, and
other relevant information. The task force is working to en-
sure that Northwestern can facilitate the many ideas that the
Feinberg faculty has for innovative research.

March 30, 2020 April 2, 2020

With a growing influx of COVID-19
tests that need to be processed at
Northwestern Medicine, a special
testing team is established in what
was previously lab space. The team is
made up of six Feinberg research staff
that work in shifts.
Working with Cornell University,
Northwestern researchers develop
a new, bacteria-based platform to
assist in the race to find COVID-19
treatments. This cell-free biotech-
nology is projected to accelerate drug
production by almost tenfold.

March 31, 2020 April 9, 2020

A COVID-19 drug trial begins at
Northwestern Medicine. Remde-
sivir, the drug being tested, is an an-
tiviral drug that was developed for
Ebola virus treatments. The first Chi-
cago-area patient to enroll in the trial
was an 89-year-old man in intensive
care. Animal models have shown that
this drug exhibits antiviral capacity
against coronaviruses, including the
current SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.
Northwestern sociologists lead a na-
tional survey investigating the pub-
lic impact of COVID-19. The data
are organized into a web database,
CoronaData U.S. Their “COVID-19
Social Change Survey” asks respon-
dents about their current feelings in
regards to the current situation, as
well as how they are preparing and
managing during the pandemic.

84

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 84 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 April 13, 2020
In collaboration with ShanghaiTech
University, Northwestern research-
ers use the cell-free production meth-
od to produce valinomycin. Valino-
mycin has been shown to effectively
target SARS-CoV strains in vitro.
Using cell-free technology ramped up
the production by almost 5000 times.
April 24, 2020
Northwestern Medicine begins test-
Northwestern, in collaboration with ing the drug Sarilumab for patients
the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- who experience what is called a “cy-
nology, leads an effort to create a tokine storm.” The cytokine storm
peptide-based therapy that targets is caused by a hyperinflammatory
the coronavirus’ spike proteins. If response that can be potentially fa-
successful, this could reduce the vi- tal. Sarilumab is commonly used to
rus’ ability to infect healthy cells and reduce inflammation associated with
cause COVID-19. rheumatoid arthritis.

April 20, 2020

Another NSF RAPID grant is issued for a group of Northwestern syn-
thetic biologists who are working to develop a one-step diagnostic
tool. The researchers hope to produce a user-friendly test that is both
convenient and quick in generating results, much like a pregnancy test.

Working hand in hand with many institutions around the world, Northwest-
ern University’s researchers are working hard to stand against this crisis. In this
time of immense uncertainty, each of these events is a step that Northwestern
is taking towards understanding and managing the virus and global pandemic.
The Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal thanks our researchers and
all those who are working in the front lines of this pandemic, and we encourage
our readers to show their support by practicing social distancing and maintaining
safe practices.

85

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 Department of Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences
Department of Economics

Colonial Distortions
by Hassan Sayed

In this paper, I present a simple game-theoretic model in which

a colonizer can both extract resources from local populations and dis-
tort the “social fabric” of this local society as a means of suppressing
threats of rebellion. This concept of social fabric, in turn, derives from
a primitive notion of cooperation in repeated games played by a con-
tinuum of players in the local society. The analysis of social norms
and social fabric is motivated by literature in postcolonialism that em-
phasizes cultural and social spaces as some of the main sites through
which colonization operates. The game generates a sub-game perfect
Nash equilibrium where higher rates of extraction accompany greater
distortion of social fabric; economic extraction and social repression
operate in simultaneity. In the context of multiple equilibria, social
fabric distortion and extraction are positively correlated. By empha-
sizing “informal” social channels rather than “formal” institutional
channels, this paper also provides new ways in which to examine the
persistent effects of colonialism on postcolonial economic growth.

1: Introduction postcolonial states can be explained by the

Since the turn of the century, eco-
nomics’ discourse on colonialism has fo-
cused on the effects of formal colonial in-
stitutions on economic outcomes within
the modern day. Acemoglu, Johnson, and
Robinson’s “Colonial Origins of Compar-
ative Development”1 utilizes empirical data
analysis to posit that economic gaps in
degree of extraction resulting from insti-
tutions established by colonizing powers.
Acemoglu and Robinson’s “Why Nations
Fail”2 suggests that inclusive institutions,
characterized by ease of entitlement to
property, economic security and involve-
ment in political processes, allow for great-
er long-run economic prosperity than

1 Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An empirical
investigation,” American Economic Review, 91(5), 1369-1401.
2 Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” Crown Publishing
Group.

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 86 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 those with extractive institutions, where
a state extracts resources and wealth from
one subset of the population for the use of
another, reducing incentives for work and
investment. These institutions find their
origins in the colonial period, and hence
serve as the primary means for looking at
the effects of past colonial policies on fu-
ture economic growth.
However, most of this work on colo-
nialism has been confined to “formal insti-
tutions” — usually measured via property
rights or corruption indices — and has pre-
dominantly utilized empirical rather than
theoretical frameworks. This presents two
problems. First, there is no basic economic
model or “theory of colonialism.”3 Second,
there has been little done to center the cul-
tural and social effects of colonialism at
either a theoretical or empirical level. A
sole focus on economic actions (property
rights, taxation, and resource extraction)
leading to economic outcomes (modern
property security or output per capita)
ignores violent channels, such as the sup-
pression of local religious, social, and cul-
tural practices, that impact postcolonial
economic livelihood.
In other social sciences and the hu-
manities, the field of postcolonialism en-
gages with the destructive and exploitive
impacts of colonialism and imperialism
on the culture and society of previously
colonized peoples. Said4 writes that “[a]t
the heart of European culture during the
many decades of imperial expansion lay an
undeterred and unrelenting Eurocentrism
... [that] subordinated [colonized peoples]
3 One of the only game theoretic works is Nunn (2007), who presents a game-theoretic model where colonizers choose a tax and a
parameter of institutional strength that affects the output of colonized people.
4 Edward Said, “Culture and Imperialism,” Vintage Books.
5 pp. 224.
6 Homi K. Bhabha, “The Location of Culture,” Routledge.
7 Michihiro Kandori, “Social Norms and Community Enforcement,” The Review of Economic Studies, 59(1), 63-80.
8 Charles Stanish, “The Evolution of Human Co-operation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless Societies,” Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.
87
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 87
by banishing their identities, except as a
lower order of being. ... This culture pro-
cess has to be seen as a vital, informing,
and invigorating counterpoint to the eco-
nomic and political machinery at the ma-
terial center of imperialism.”5 Processes of
social organization based on stereotyping
and othering are inherent to the process of
colonialism; the colonizer demarcates the
boundaries of what a colonized people can
or should be, in terms of race, religion, and
caste, and rules over peoples precisely in
terms of these manufactured boundaries as
a process of subjugation.6
How can economic models link colo-
nialism’s resource extraction with its social
effects? A literature on social norms has
emerged within game theory that could
be used to analyze the effects of colonial-
ism on local social order. Kandori7 uses
the Folk Theorem to define social norms
as a subset of the informal enforcement
mechanisms that generate cooperation in
infinitely played games. Stanish8 takes the
view that for a rational agent to maximize
long-term utility and achieve an objective,
cooperation with others may be necessary;
this gives rise to altruistic behaviors. Dif-
ferences in these objectives and the degree
of cooperation necessary to achieve them
generate cultural divides depending on
geographic and historical phenomena.
The goal of this work is to establish a
simultaneity in what I call “social fabric dis-
tortion” and extraction of resources from
colonies by colonizing powers, and to es-
tablish this simultaneity via a (game) the-
oretic approach rather than an empirical
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 one. I describe a model that uses repression
of “social fabric,” an indicator of the intact-
ness of local social norms, as a means of re-
pressing resistance to colonial rule, thereby
easing the process with which a colonizer
can extract profit and resources.
In the second section of this article, I
provide a model of social fabric and social
norms created through repeated cooper-
ation within a population and which de-
scribes a mechanism through which out-
side powers can disrupt that cooperation.
Section 3 utilizes this model as a primitive
model to set up a basic game between a
“colonizer” and colonized “local society,”
where the local society can choose to re-
sist colonial rule or accept a given level of
extraction. Notably, the colonizer can re-
duce the threat of successful rebellion by
distorting social fabric. Conclusions of the
work are drawn in Section 4, where I out-
line future avenues of research.
2: A Model of Social Fabric
Distortion
This section presents a model of “so-
cial fabric” within a society that derives
from primitive notions of social norms
as cooperative strategies within repeated
games.
Let the population of a to-be-colo-
nized society S be represented by a unit in-
terval continuum [0,1]. Moreover, let each
member of this society S have a disposi-
tion θ towards cooperation with local so-
cial norms. This θ is precisely the discount
factor of that member of the population,
which drives cooperation in the context of
repeated games. θ has a cumulative density
function D with support on [0,1] such that:
• D (0) = 0 and D (1) = 1 ;
• D is continuously differentiable with
probability density function d;
88
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 88
#
x2
• and d (x) dx > 0 for any
x1
0 # x1 # x2 # 1 .
A population member with a higher
value of represents a member of the pop-
ulation who views local social norms as
more important and is thereby more will-
ing to cooperate with those local customs
and traditions.
I define the local society S to have a
level of social fabric s signaled by the share
of the population [0,1] that follows the lo-
cal social norms of that society. Suppose
that the people of this local population can
choose between two actions: L, cooperate
based on local social norms and receive a
continuous flow of income f(θ), or A, devi-
ate from those norms (or cooperate based
on “alternative” principles) and receive a
one time payoff of c . The payouts from
L and A for a member of the local society
with a cooperation parameter of θ are:
3
f (i )
v ( L, i ) = / f ( i ) i t =
t=0 1-i
3
and v (A, i) = c + / 0 = c
t=1
f is a continuous function
f : [0, 1] 7 [0, + 3) such that f (0) $ 0,
f (i) > 0 for θ > 0, and f ($) is weakly in-
creasing. The weakly increasing property
reflects that individuals may receive some
additional sort of utility from cooperating
dependent on their discount factor.
This structure provides a powerful
and intuitive interpretation for a popula-
tion member’s willingness to cooperate
based on local social norms. Each period,
an individual with a cooperative tendency
(or discount factor) receives a payout of
f(θ) from cooperation, leading to a lifetime
present discounted value of 1 - i . Choosing
f (i )
to “cheat” on said cooperation leads to a
one-time payoff of c .
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 The parameter c represents an
incentive for a member of a local soci-
ety to switch to a non-cooperative equi-
librium based on an external stimulus.
In one sense, it is more useful to look at
v (L, i) - v (A, i) = 1 - i - c , which is the
f (i )
“gain” from following local norms. To this
end, c can be interpreted as a bribe or
threat put forth by a colonizer which forces
a portion of the locals to deviate from their
original institutions and norms. A coloniz-
er could offer a member of the population
landownership in exchange for financial or
religious patronage, or could discourage
the use of local languages in favor of a col-
onizer’s language, with failure to subscribe
to this policy resulting in physical punish-
ment. In the presence of no colonization in
a precolonial world, c = 0 so that there is
no incentive to deviate from L to A for any
member of the population.
2.1: Deriving the Cost Function
For any value of c , a member of the
local population will switch from local so-
cial norms L to alien social norms A if and
f (i )
only if #c.
1-i
For every i d [0, 1) , there ex-
ists a unique c ≥0 such that 1 - i = c .
f (i )
Consequently, for i > i, 1-i > c ,
f (i )
and for i < i , 1 - i < c . In turn, exact-
f (i )
ly 1 - s = D ( i ) of the population will
weakly prefer alien norms so that s will
prefer local norms.
Let c = 1 - i $ 0, which gives the
f (i )
necessary c since i < 1. To see that c
is unique, note that since f(θ) is weak-
ly increasing, 1 - i is strictly increasing
f (i )
in θ, meaning that for i > i , 1 - i > c .
f (i )
Similarly, for i < i , 1 - i < c . Since
f (i )
i~D, 1 - s = D ( i ) of the population
9 The domain is [0,1) rather than [0,1] because the social fabric can never be set precisely to 0 for any finite cost c
89
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 89
will prefer A to L, meaning the rest of
the population will prefer L to A. Since
lim i " 1 1 - i =+ 3 , it is impossible for a
f (i )
member of the population with θ = 1 to
prefer A to L unless c =+∞. By incurring a
cost c , an outsider (i.e. a colonizer) is able
to set the social fabric to s , but can never
set social fabric to 0.
The correspondence between cost
and social fabric naturally gives rise to a
cost function c (1 - x) : [0, 1) 7 [0, 3)
such that for a given level of social fabric
1 - x, a cost c (1 - x) is necessarily in-
curred to set the social fabric to that level.9
The choice of the argument as 1 - x rath-
er than x is such that when x = 0 , the level
of social fabric is at 1 - x = 1 so that the
colonizer is not changing the social fabric;
as x increases, the costs represent larger
and larger changes to the social fabric away
from 1.
Note that if f (0) = 0 , c (1 - 0) =
c (1) = 0 since 1 - 0 = f (0) = 0, so a
f (0)
member of the population with θ = 0 will
be indifferent between L and A when c
= 0.
Throughout this paper, I will
also define c ($) to be a function
c (s) : (0, 1] " [0, + 3) , where s = 1 - x
is the level of social fabric. The actual
function c (s) and c (1 - x) are identical,
they simply utilize different arguments. A
strictly increasing distribution D of θ gives
rise to a cost function c ($) for the coloniz-
er such that:
• c (s) : (0, 1] 7 [0, + 3) gives the cost
of setting social fabric to s;
-1
• c (s) = 1 - D (1 - s) ;
f (D (1 - s))
-1
• c (0) = 0 if f (0) = 0 ;
• lim s " 0 c (s) =+ 3 ;
• c'(s) # 0 for all s (this holds strictly
for s < 1 );
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 • c" (s) > 0 for all s in a neighborhood members of the local society have no prob-
of 0. lems generating cooperation and following
similar customs and traditions and are able
3: The Colonization Game to fully enjoy whatever level of resources
This section utilizes the primitives of they are endowed with. However, at lower
social fabric from the previous section to levels of social fabric, there is an imbalance
build a simple model of colonization cen- in cooperative incentives that manifests it-
tered around two ideas: distortion of social self as a lack of ability to cooperate based
fabric and extraction of resources. After set- on local norms. Consequently, the society
ting up the initial conditions of the game, I has a harder time sharing its resources.
solve for sub-game perfect Nash equilibria, Suppose that the local society possess-
derive properties about the solutions to the es some resource endowment y . While
game, discuss comparative statistics to the a very narrow interpretation of y may
solutions, and end by computing a solution consist of just raw materials, I take this
to a very basic iteration of the model. Sup- measure of “resources” to be very general,
pose there are two players: C, the coloniz- including the value of labor that a given
er, and S, the local society under threat of society possesses, which a colonizer can
colonization, above. Let N be the notation utilize through forced labor and enslave-
for the player “nature” to formalize notions ment. Within the model, the local society
of uncertainty. Throughout the model, I can take two actions in the presence of col-
assume that C and S are risk-neutral in re- onization. They can take action W, work
gards to uncertainty. and receive utility from whatever resourc-
es they possess. The full level of resourc-
3.1: The Local Society es may potentially be extracted at a rate
t d [0, 1], , meaning that locals only pos-
The locals’ payoff is governed by the
sess resources (1 - t) y so that their total
amount of resources they can derive ben-
payoff is u ((1 - t) y , s) . The other action
efit from, denoted y, as well as their social
is to rebel against potential colonization,
fabric s, which is precisely the level of so-
denoted R. The set of possible actions is
cial fabric as determined in the previous
hence {W, R}.
section. In particular, s = 1 corresponds
In the event of a successful rebellion,
to an intact, cooperative society based on
s is reset to 1 and with certainty the local
local norms and s = 0 to a chaotic, un-
society receives payout u ( y , 1) = y ; that
cooperative society. Then, the payoff of
is, any external social stimuli generated by
the local society is given by the function
the arrival of the colonizers are erased. If
u (y, s), u : R # [0, 1] 7 R, where
rebellion fails, they receive payoff –M, for
• u (y, $) is strictly increasing in s for y > 0;
M $ y . The process of rebellion is gov-
• u ($ , s) is strictly increasing in y for s > 0;
erned by uncertainty, and the probability
• u (y, 1) = y ;
of successful rebellion is directly depen-
• u (y, s) > 0 for all s > 0 and y > 0;
dent on the level of social fabric. Let this
• u is C2 ;
probability be given by a function p (s) ,
• lim y " 3 u (y, s) =+ 3 for all s;
where p : [0, 1] 7 [0, 1], such that
• and u (0, s) = 0 for all s.
• p ($) is strictly increasing in s;
At higher levels of social fabric, the
• p is continuously differentiable;

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 90 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 • and y +MM d p ((0, 1)), that •
lim s " 0 c (s) =+ 3;
is, there exists s* such that and c'(1) # 0 with c'(s) < 0 for all
•
p (s *) = y +MM , p (s) < y +MM for all s < s < 1.
s*, and p (s) > y +MM for all s > s * . Since the probability of successful re-
When a society is more intact and s bellion is dependent on s through the func-
is closer to 1, it is easier to coordinate re-tion p (s), the colonizer is able to suppress
bellion. When social fabric is less intact, itthe threat of potential rebellion by exerting
may be harder to coordinate rebellion and, a cost to suppress social fabric.
moreover, some deviant locals may ally The colonizer makes two moves: first
themselves with a colonizer. The final as- it proposes a rate of extraction t d [0, 1]
sumption guarantees that when faced with on S’s resources y ; second, it sets the level
the lottery of rebellion, there is a thresholdof local social fabric to s, thereby incurring
of social fabric at which the expected value the corresponding cost c (s) . If the local
of rebellion is 0; below that threshold the society decides to work, the payoff for the
expected value of rebellion is negative and colonizer is given by
above it is positive. The expected payoffs rWC = ty - c (s)
of the locals S from each action are given In this event, the colonizer’s payoff is
as below: strictly increasing in extraction t and de-
rWS = u ((1 - t) y , s) creasing in s. If the locals decide to rebel,
Er SR = p (s) y - (1 - p (s)) M the expected payoff of the colonizer is giv-
In the event the locals work, their pay-
en by
off is strictly decreasing in t and strictly in- Er CR = (1 - p (s)) y - p (s) M - c (s)
creasing in s. In the event of rebellion, their If rebellion succeeds with probabili-
expected payoff is strictly increasing in s, ty p (s), the colonizer “loses” and receives
since p (s) is strictly increasing in s. That is,
payoff –M; if rebellion fails with comple-
for any level of social fabric, working with mentary probability, the colonizer captures
no extraction is weakly preferred to risking all the resources and receives y . In either
rebellion at that specific level of social fab-
case, the colonizer will have already chosen
ric. Note that this holds strictly at s* sincea level s of social fabric distortion and incur
u ( y , s *) > 0 = p (s *) y - (1 - p (s)) M ,
the cost c (s) . Since - p (s) is decreasing in
and holds weakly at s = 1. s and - c (s) is increasing in s, there is am-
biguity as to whether the expected payoff
3.2: The Colonizer from rebellion is increasing or decreasing
The other player in the model is the with respect to changes in s.
colonizer C. The colonizer is able to extract
from the locals by imposing a rate of ex- 3.3: Design of Game
traction t d [0, 1] on the locals’ resources The basic design of the game is as
y so that the payoff the colonizer gains follows. First, the colonizer makes a choice
from extraction will be ty . (t, s)d [0, 1] # (0, 1] of extraction of re-
The colonizer can reduce social fab- sources and social fabric. Then, observing
ric to the level s by incurring a cost c (s), these proposed choices, the locals decide
which is precisely the one introduced whether to work or rebel. If the locals de-
above, such that cide to work by playing W, the game ends
• c (1) = 0; with the colonizer and local society respec-

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 91 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 tively receiving payouts:
rWS = u ((1 - t) y , s) and rWC = ty - c (s)
If the locals pick action R and rebel,
the player nature N moves. With probabil-
ity p (s), rebellion succeeds and the game
ends with payoffs:
r SR,succeed = y and r CR,succeed =- M - c (s)
If rebellion fails, with probability
1 - p (s), the payoffs are respectively
r SR,fail =- M and r CR,fail = y - c (s)
This is illustrated in the exten-
sive-form game tree in Figure 1, where the
top payoffs are those of the colonizer and
the bottom those of the local society.
3.4: Solving for Sub-game
Perfection
In this section, I describe a series of
sub-game perfect Nash equilibria to the
colonization game.
3.4.1: Finding the Optimal Rate of Extraction
Fix y and M d R + . Recall that
the respective expected payoffs for S from
working and rebelling are given by
ErWS = (1 - t) y (s)
and
Er SR = p (s) y - (1 - p (s)) M
For a given t d [0, 1] and s d (0, 1],
working is weakly preferred to rebellion if
and only if
u ((1 - t) y , s) $ p (s) y - (1 - p (s)) M
In particular, for a given value of
s = s , the locals are indifferent between
work and rebellion if and only if
u ((1 - t) y ), s ) = p ( s ) y - (1 - p ( s )) M
By utilizing the strictly-increas-
ing properties of the utility and prob-
ability functions, the Implicit Func-
tion Theorem suggests that for every
s d [s *, 1], where s * = y +MM there ex-
ists a unique t d (- 3, 1) such that the
locals are indifferent between rebellion
and working. This generates a function
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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 92
t (s) : [s *, 1] 7 (- 3, 1] which gives the
rate of extraction that makes the locals in-
different between rebellion and working.
Since the local’s payoff is strictly decreasing
in the rate of extraction t, if the colonizer
sets an extraction rate t > t (s) at a given
level of social fabric, the locals will strictly
prefer rebellion over work; if the colonizer
sets t < t (s) , the local society will strictly
prefer work over rebellion. Since the col-
onizer’s payoff is strictly increasing in t,
they will set t as high as possible to extract
maximum possible resources from the lo-
cals. If they desire a situation with no re-
bellion, the colonizer will always try to set
t = t (s) . In this case, for a level of social
fabric, they will set a rate of extraction T(s)
as follows:
Z]0 t (s) < 0
]]
]
T (s) = []t (s) t (s)d [0, 1]
]]
]1 t (s) > 1
\
T(s) can be further reduced to:
max {0, t (s)} s $ s *
T (s) = )
1 s< s*
where as before s* solves p (s) = y +MM .
For s d [s *, 1], setting the ex-
traction rate and social fabric to (t (s), s)
results in a local society that is indifferent
between working and rebellion. However,
if t (s) < 0 (which can happen when p ($)
and u ($ , $) assume certain forms), the col-
onizer is forced to set an extraction rate
equal to 0, and the locals prefer rebellion.
Any extraction rate in [0,1] will result in
a local society that prefers working over
rebellion. In turn, given that the colonizer
would like the locals to work instead of reb-
el, T(s) gives the optimal rate of extraction
for a given level of social fabric s, allowing
the colonizer to extract as much of the lo-
cals’ resources as possible without encoun-
tering a credible threat of resistance.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 ▼Figure 1. Extensive-Form of
Colonization Game
A graph of t (s) and T(s) is shown in
Figure 2. t (s) is shown in a dashed line at
the bottom to illustrate a situation where
t (s) goes below 0, thereby binding T(s) at
0.
3.4.2: The Colonizer’s Preference for
Extraction
Since the colonizer is always playing
an optimal extraction rate by choosing
T(s) for a given s, they next evaluate for
which, if any, values of s the colonizer will
prefer a non-rebellion situation — since
M $ y $ (1 - t (s)) y for all s, it does fol-
low that the colonizer always weakly pre-
fers a local society that is working to one
that rebels. Then, the colonizer chooses s
to maximize
T (s) y - c (s)
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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 93
Note that for s < 1 , the colonizer
can set (t, s) = (0, 1) = 0 , which yields a
higher payoff than and hence dominates
picking T (s) = 0 for any s < 1 . In turn,
it is sufficient to look at t (s) on [s*,1] only
when T (s) = t (s) .
It turns out that since the do-
main [s*,1] is compact, the equation
T (s) y - c (s) has a solution. There are
naturally three types of solutions: set
s = 1, set s = s *, or set s = s' d (s *, 1) .
These result in extraction rates of
t (1) = (1 - p (1)) + (1 - (p (1)) My ,
t (s *) = 1, and t (s'), respectively. This
gives rise to the following solutions:
• The colonizer sets social fabric
s = 1 and sets the extraction rate to
(1 - p (1)) + (1 - p (1)) My . Minimal
extraction and resource extraction
follows in the stead of no social fab-
ric distortion. The locals work. If
p (1) = 1 , this equilibrium is a “no
colonization” equilibrium ( t = 0 and
s = 1 ).
• The colonizer sets social fab-
ric to s' ! (s *, 1) and a tax rate
t = t (s') d (0, 1] . Partial taxation or
extraction is accompanied by some
non-trivial degree of social fabric dis-
tortion. The locals work.
• The colonizer sets social fabric
s = s * and fully extraction with rate
t = 1 . Full extraction of resources ac-
companies a heavy erasure of social
fabric. The locals work.
These equilibria possess a set of
properties that positively correlate the
extraction rate directly to distortion of
social fabric: as extraction increases, the
level of social fabric falls. That is, rates of
extraction and social fabric levels are neg-
atively correlated: for any two data points
(t, s) and (t', s') , if s' < s, then t' < t.
Suppose there were two observed
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 equilibria, one where the the extraction
rate and social fabric were at (t, s) and
another where the extraction rate and so-
cial fabric were at (t', s') , where s' > s but
t' $ t. Suppose that the locals prefer to
work in either case. In the first case, the
payoff for the colonizer is ty - c (s), while
in the second the payoff is t' y - c (s') .
But since c (s) is strictly decreasing,
c (s') < c (s), and since t' $ t, it follows
that ty - c (s) < t'y - c (s') . That is, since
the locals will work in either case, (t', s')
strictly dominates (t, s) . This contradicts
that (t', s') and (t, s) are both potentially
optimal choices for the colonizer.
This result forms the core finding of
this paper: historically, the more colonizers
extract from a local population, the more
it is necessary for them to distort social
fabric. In practice, it is possible that funda-
mental differences in the distribution of θ
(and hence the cost function), the shape of
the rebellion probability function, the en-
dowment of a region with resources y for
extraction, and the potential punishment
for rebellion M will cause variation in op-
timal solutions; these last two properties
are discussed in the next section. However,
controlling for these factors, the pattern
we should observe is one of negative cor-
relation between economic extraction and
social fabric levels (or a positive correla-
tion between economic extraction and so-
cial fabric distortion). The purpose of the
case studies in the next chapter is to take
these results and discuss historical exam-
ples which fit the predictions of this colo-
nizer model.
4: Conclusions
In this paper, I have provided an eco-
nomic framework that links colonial re-
source extraction with its social effects. Col-
onizers can directly extract resources from
94
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 94
▼Figure 2. The Extraction
Function T(s)
colonized populations and, by incurring a
cost, can also distort “social fabric” to sup-
press the threat of local resistance against
colonization. The colonizer first chooses a
rate of resource extraction t d [0, 1] on a
level of local resources y and then a lev-
el of social fabric s d (0, 1] . A social fab-
ric value of 1 represents an intact society,
while social fabric closer to 0 represents in
an increasingly chaotic, noncooperative,
and suppressed population. When choos-
ing a level of social fabric s, the colonizer
incurs a cost of c (s) $ 0. This reflects that
there are administrative or military costs
associated with distorting social fabric. As
s approaches 0, c (s) approaches infinity,
meaning that it is increasingly difficult to
set social fabric equal to 0.
After observing the rate of resource
extraction and the level of their social fab-
ric, the colonized local society then decides
whether to rebel against colonial rule or to
accept their fate. In the case of rebellion, the
probability of successful rebellion is strict-
ly increasing in the level of social fabric;
if the colonizer sets social fabric to lower
levels (i.e. distorts social fabric more), the
probability of successful rebellion is lower.
Hence, to reduce the threat of successful
resistance, the colonizer has a tangible in-
centive to distort social fabric. In the event
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 that rebellion is successful, locals are able
to enjoy the entirety of their resources y
without any level of extraction or taxation.
In the event that rebellion fails, however,
locals receive some negative payoff –M.
From the colonizer’s end, successful re-
bellion results in a payoff of –M and failed
rebellion in the payoff y . Whoever wins
the rebellion is able to enjoy the entirety
of resources, while the other player is duly
punished.
In the event of working, locals receive
a payout (or utility) u (ty , s) for a rate of
extraction t and social fabric s. u ($ , $) is
strictly increasing in both arguments and
u (y, 1) = 1 for all y. Hence, social fabric
acts as a sort of “scalar” for locwal payoffs;
higher levels of social fabric allow a soci-
ety to enjoy its resources more than lower
values.
This game generates three types of
Nash equilibria. In the first, a colonizer
does not distort social fabric and is able
to extract from the local population just
enough to keep them indifferent between
rebellion and work in a risk-neutral frame-
work. In turn, the locals work. Assuming
that the probability of successful rebellion
is equal to 1 when s = 1 , this leads to a
rate of extraction of 0. Hence, this equilib-
rium corresponds to a situation of “no col-
onization”: there is no resource extraction
and no social fabric distortion. Since this
equilibrium involves “no colonization,” we
would not expect to observe such a situa-
tion if we notice a system of colonization
in place.
In the second equilibrium, a rate of ex-
traction between 0 and 1 accompanies so-
cial fabric distortion: the rate of extraction
t is set strictly greater than 0 and the level
of social fabric strictly less than 1. In the
third Nash equilibrium, a total extraction
of resources also accompanies social fabric
95
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 95
distortion: t is set to 1 and s < 1. In both
cases, the locals work, but are precisely in-
different between working and rebelling.
If there are multiple equilibria, the set of
optimal solutions for the colonizer in-
volves higher rates of extraction occurring
with strictly lower levels of social fabric, or
higher rates of social fabric distortion. This
in turn establishes a simultaneity of social
fabric and extraction. Observed resource
extraction does not occur without distor-
tion of social fabric, and social distortions
never occur without nontrivial extraction.
What exactly is “social fabric,” and
what is the economic basis for the notion
of “social fabric” I present? I define a level
of social fabric s d [0, 1] to be the share of
the local population that cooperates with a
local social norm. I define a social, or cul-
tural, norm as a unique Nash equilibrium
strategy that generates cooperation in a
repeated game and is derivative of some
past historical evolution of norms within
a given society or culture. I model the local
population as a unit interval in [0,1] and
endow each member of that population
with a disposition towards cooperation of
i d [0, 1] which is distributed via a con-
tinuous and differentiable CDF D. θ is the
discount factor of a given member of a
population, which comes into play during
infinitely repeated games. Based on this
parameter, each member of the population
chooses to “cooperate” or “not cooperate”
with a local norm. Cooperating based on
social norms leads to a payout of f (i)
each period for an infinite sequence of pe-
riods, leading to a lifetime payoff of 1 - i .
f (i )
Failure to cooperate with these norms re-
sults in an instantaneous payoff of c for
some c given exogenously, and 0 in all
periods afterwards. In the absence of col-
onization, c = 0 so that all members of
the population cooperate with the local
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 norm. However, if colonization occurs and
the colonizer incurs a cost of social fabric
c (s), c = c (s) $ 0. . By setting c high
enough, the colonizer can get a fraction s of
the population to abandon local norms in
favor of some instantaneous reward from
the colonizer depending on the shape of
the CDF of D. Hence, the shape of the colo-
nizer’s cost function c ($) is fundamentally
linked to the distribution of the parameter
θ within the local population.
The direct interpretation of c is that
it is the utility gained from deviating from
a local norm. However, it is much more
useful to look at the relative gain from
following a local norm versus deviating
from that norm, which is equal to 1 - i - c .
f (i )
Now, as c grows, for a given θ, there is a
lower incentive to cooperate with the lo-
cal norms. This may not be because there
is an actual reward for refusing to coop-
erate with a norm (in the sense of a bribe
from the colonizer) but that there is an ac-
tive punishment for cooperating with local
norms. Resistance to colonial rule may be
punished via threats of violence, or local
social or cultural practices may be actively
criminalized.
Why are the “social” or “cultural” ef-
fects of colonial policies particularly im-
portant? The massive work in postcolo-
nialism through fields like anthropology,
history, and critical theory has tasked itself
with looking at the effects of both formal
and informal colonial policies on the co-
lonial and postcolonial populations. This
extends beyond a simple “institutional”
characterization of colonialism and moves
to study the everyday livelihoods of co-
lonial populations, analyzing the ways
in which they engage with and conceive
themselves in relation to colonial powers
and their own populations. In the cases of
Western European colonization of Africa
96
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 96
and Asia, colonialism was motivated not
only by a desire to extract profit but also
to “civilize the savages,” non-Western pop-
ulations, which occurred amidst an obses-
sive backdrop of othering, racial hierarchy,
and a desire to document, organize, and
reproduce organized forms of knowledge.
colonialism operated through physical and
psychological violence, geographic and
identity-based separation, institutional and
informal policymaking. The way in which
European colonization busied itself with
resource extraction from local populations
cannot be separated from the persistent so-
cial disruption it inflicted upon those same
populations.
The first contribution of this paper is
to develop an economic “theory” or “mod-
el” of colonialism. A proper theory behind
economic phenomena is necessary to per-
form serious structural, empirical inves-
tigations of these phenomena. While the
model I present in this paper is very simple,
it is simultaneously effective, and should be
seen as the starting point for a swathe of
future literature on economic theories of
colonialism. Such theories, I argue, should
not simply involve notions of “extraction”
in an institutional sense, by providing con-
tinuity with the current literature on in-
clusive and extractive institutions, but also
model the interplay between colonialism
and social behavior.
The second contribution of this pa-
per is to turn discussion of the effects of
colonies on current economic growth
increasingly towards the role of social
norms and structures. The social divisions
and trauma caused by the colonial project
have path-dependently endured into the
present day. Manipulation of populations
and social fabrics as collections of social
norms has forever changed how postcolo-
nial populations have conceived of them-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 selves in relation to their own populations,
their ex-colonizers, and the rest of the
world. There is no reason to believe that
identity formation exists in a vacuum and
disappeared immediately after colonizers
abandoned their colonies; rather, the social
traits and divides populations took on as a
result of the colonial period have persisted.
Said10 writes that the intertwined projects
of imperialism and colonialism most par-
adoxically allowed “people to believe that
they were only, mainly, exclusively, white,
or Black, or Western, or Oriental. ... No
one can deny the persisting continuities
of long traditions, sustained habitations,
national languages, and cultural geogra-
phies.”11
While this paper has not explicitly
examined the postcolonial period, it serves
to lay the groundwork for future economic
studies of colonialism by stressing the key
role of social norms and social fabric in
serving as a backbone of colonizers’ capac-
ity to assert dominance and thereby ease
their process of profit extraction. In turn,
these factors are instrumental in looking at
10 Said, “Culture and Imperialism.”
11 Ibid., pp.336.
persistent colonial effects on modern-day
economies. For the time being, litera-
ture in the field of economics has largely
confined itself to a narrow study of the
path-dependent effect of “formal” colonial
institutions on modern economic growth.
While formal institutions are key for look-
ing at incentives for investment and no-
tions of economic mobility within mar-
kets, the marked and persistent social and
cultural effects of historical events have
shown themselves to be equally as import-
ant. Hence, the development of theories
of social fabric and colonialism are neces-
sary to look at the postcolonial persistence
of these effects and, in turn, provide new
empirical and theoretical frameworks for
examining central questions within eco-
nomics. ■

Bibliography
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson,
J. A. (2001). The Colonial Origins
of Comparative Development: An
empirical investigation. American
Economic Review, 91(5), 1369-1401.
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2012).
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of
Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.
Crown Publishing Group.
Kandori, M. (1992). Social Norms and Stanish, C. (2017). The Evolution of Hu-
Community Enforcement. The man Co-operation: Ritual and Social
Review of Economic Studies, 59(1), Complexity in Stateless Societies.
63-80. Cambridge University Press.
Nunn, N. (2007). Historical Legacies: A
Model Linking Africa’s Past to its
Current Underdevelopment. Journal
of Development Economics, 83(1),
157-175.

Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Said, E. (1994). Culture and Imperialism.

Culture. Routledge. Vintage Books.

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97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 97 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 by
Niva Razin

"KEEP GOING
IN THE FACE OF
INEVITABLE
SETBACKS"

Faculty researchers and

underclassmen share
advice that they would
have given their
younger selves at the
start of their research
journeys.
98

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 98 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 “Be direct with a mentor [or]
supervisor about how much
independence you want on a
project. Be mindful of what sorts
of techniques and what sorts of
research you’d like to do. Comb
through some journals and find
things that really fascinate you
and then try to find an advisor for
that.”

Tzvi Herzog ’20,

The Meade Group

Patrick Kim ’20,

“It’s important to be The Lee Lab,
open-minded because the The Mirkin
project that you think you’re Research Group
going to work on isn’t
always going to turn out the
way you want it to. If you’re
more open to more
opportunities and different
directions, then you can
realize the potential in
different routes and ... choose
the type of research that you
want to do better and more
quickly.”

99

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 99 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 “There are really two parallel things that one
should do: be familiar with the
literature and be familiar with the tools one is
going to use for the research. The most
important thing is that you have to know what
has been done in [your]
particular field. In the old days, we had to go
to the libraries and search the literature
[manually]. That’s a very laborious
process, but today, with computers, it’s a lot
easier. Then, for experimental
research, I think the young researchers should Dr. Yip-Wah Chung,
also get familiar with the tools Professor of
required for the research.” Materials Science and
Engineering and
(by courtesy)
Mechanical
Engineering

Richard Richter ’20,

Language and
Communication in
Aging and
Neurodegeneration “The relationship that you
Research Group have with the other people in your lab
and with your principal investigator is
really important. So, try to establish
relationships early on. I wish that I
connected to my lab members earlier on
in the process. I know I wouldn’t have
had to figure out so much on my own if
I were just more willing to ask for help
when I needed it.”

100

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 nurj – vol. 13

“I would advise my younger

self to go for the dreams that I had,
that inevitably there would be some Dr. Allen Taflove,
disappointments but that overall Professor of Electrical
the enjoyment … the achievements and Computer
would be significantly greater and Engineering
more worthwhile than the few
disappointments. … Keep going
in the face of the inevitable
setbacks.”

“I would [also] encourage my

younger self to deal with
everyone in a mature and
Dr. Alvin Bayliss, reasonable manner,
Professor of regardless of personality type,
Engineering and hope for the best as far as
Sciences and Applied colleague-ships and
Mathematics relationships.”

“Make sure you leave different routes open

to do research; [don’t] get too focused in one
particular area so that you can’t deviate; take
another path to another area. In my research, I
have worked in many, many different areas, and
that’s given me an advantage over other people
who specialize and are just focused in one area.”

101

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 Northwestern University Qatar
Political Science

Quyud:
Educational Constraints in
Palestine
by Noor Mazen

Introduction tion, and Area C’s civil and security admin-

The right to education is a universal istration. Israel’s control over Areas B and
human right. It is fundamental for the ex- C further complicate Palestinian students’
istence of other human rights since it pro- mobility to schools; in particular, Israel has
motes independence and empowerment.1 not provided permits to schools in Area C,
This research learns from Palestinians so they are considered illegal and are under
themselves on how their educational jour- constant threat of destruction.4
neys have been affected by the political, This paper examines the historical
economic, and social situation in the occu- background of the occupation, and dis-
pied West Bank.2 cusses previous research on educational
To study educational constraints in constraints in the West Bank because of
Palestine, I, along with my research part- this occupation. It analyzes the collected
ner Mariam Al-Dhubhani, collected eth- interviews in the context of previous re-
nographic interviews from cities and vil- search and discusses its methodology.
lages in Areas A and B.3 The difference
between the areas is that the Palestinian Literature Review: Education
National Authority, or P.A., controls Area Under Occuption
A’s civil and security administration, while When Israel declared its indepen-
Israel controls area B’s military administra- dence in 1948 after Britain’s withdrawal,
1 Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN 1948; Article 13, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cul-
tural Rights, UN 1966. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
2 Acknowledgement: I was able to conduct this research (IRB #MODCR00000) with a summer URG grant (758SUM-
MER1915583) from Northwestern University. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Jocelyn Sage Mitchell, my
research supervisor, Mariam Al-Dhubhani, my research partner, and all the interviewees for sharing their stories.
3 As I discuss in my Research Methodology section, visa issues prevented me from conducting interviews in Area C the summer of
2019.
4 “Israeli Authorities Knock down Part of Bedouin School in West Bank,” Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-is-
rael-palestinians-school/israeli-authorities-knock-down-part-of-bedouin-school-in-west-bank-idUSKBN1FO0M2

102

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 102 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 tensions between Israelis and Arabs esca-
lated into the 1948 war,5 resulting in the
expulsion of at least 750,000 Palestinian
Arabs, the occupation of 78% of historic
Palestine by Israeli forces, the destruction
of about 350 villages and cities, and the
killing of about 15,000 Palestinians.6 This
event, known as “Nakba,” defined Palestin-
ians’ future of statelessness and occupation,
and now forms the basis for their distinct
national identity.7
One of the biggest consequences of
this series of historical events has been the
lack of Palestinian territorial autonomy,
which was further deepened by the 1967
Arab-Israeli War. Israel seized control over
the Golan Heights from Syria and the West
Bank from Jordan, as well as Gaza and the
Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, bringing the
remaining Palestinian population under
Israeli governance.8 Popular resistance
movements began to develop as a response
to the occupation, including the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 60s9
and Hamas in 1988.10 The first intifada
“uprisings” started in 1987 when Palestin-
ian frustration turned into protests and Is-
rael responded with heavy violence. This
drew international attention, resulting in
the Madrid Talks in 1991, where Israel and
Palestinians joined official negotiations for
the first time, but the PLO was excluded.11
As the Madrid process slowly continued,
secret talks began between Israel and Pal-
estinian negotiators from PLO to com-
plete the Declaration of Principles (DOP),
known as the Oslo Accords, without the
knowledge of Yesha Council, an Israeli
extremist settler movement, or Hamas.12
In 1993, leaders from Israel and the PLO
signed the Oslo Accords, excluding Hamas,
to start a peace process between Israel and
Palestinians.13
The Oslo Accords were intended to
give self-determination to the Palestinian
people14 and create a future Palestinian Au-
thority to govern Palestinians in Gaza and
the West Bank.15 The type of power and
responsibilities of the Palestinian Author-
ity was stated in the Interim Agreement.16
Importantly for this research, Oslo 2 called
for the division of the West Bank into
three areas: Area A, B, and C, with varying
levels of control by Israel and the P.A., and
specified a gradual withdrawal of Israel and
a transition of power to the P.A., but these
deadlines were never met.17 To address
these issues, U.S. President Bill Clinton
held the Camp David Summit in 2000, but
it ended without an agreement between
both parties.18,19 The Oslo Peace Process
collapsed with the controversial visit of Is-

5 “Palestinian territories - Timeline,” Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29362505.

6 “The Nakba did not start or end in 1948,” Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/nak-
ba-start-1948-170522073908625.html.
7 Hussein Ibish, “A Catastrophe That Defines Palestinian Identity,” Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/
archive/2018/05/the-meaning-of-nakba-israel-palestine-1948-gaza/560294/
8 Johnny Harris and Max Fisher, “The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history,” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=iRYZjOuUnlU
9 Ibid.
10 Charles D. Smith, “Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict: a history with documents,” Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, pp. 411.
11 Ibid., pp. 419.
12 Justus Weiner, “Spoiler Diagnosis And Management In The Oslo Peace Process: A Critical Analysis,” 1–64.
13 Harris and Fisher, “The Israel-Palestine Conflict.”
14 Smith, “Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” pp. 436.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., pp. 447.
17 Ibid.
18 “Palestinian Territories - Timeline”
19 Weiner, “Spoiler Diagnosis.”

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 raeli politician Ariel Sharon to the Temple
Mount, which helped spark the eruption
of the Second Intifada.20 More than twenty
years later, as a result of the Accords, the
West Bank and Gaza suffer from a lack of
economic prosperity,21,22 a lack of freedom
of movement,23 as well as many constraints
Israel continues to apply on Palestinians
living inside the West Bank and Gaza.24
Israel’s creation and occupation of
Palestine marginalized Palestinians, leav-
ing them with little control over their lives
and futures. The protocol that has been
implemented after the Oslo Accords works
to restrict Palestinians from receiving full
autonomy over their land and resources.
Israel’s occupation extracts political auton-
omy from Palestinians by governing the
majority of the West Bank’s security and
administration through military control
and checkpoints. The Israeli government
also controls the economy of the West
Bank by surveilling imports and exports.
By looking at education in the West Bank
within this context, it will be clear why
Palestinians continue to face educational
constraints.
The Israeli occupation of Palestine
creates political, economic, and social ob-
stacles to education.25 Israeli army occu-
pation creates many political constraints
in Palestine through frequent house dem-
olitions, school and university invasions,
forced displacement, hundreds of military
roadblocks, visa restrictions, and barrier
wall construction, which is illegal under
the Geneva Convention. All of these pre-
vent thousands of teachers and students
from reaching their schools or universi-
ties.26,27,28,29 During the second intifada,
Pearlman (2003) stayed in the West Bank
for a month to conduct interviews with
Palestinians who experienced the upris-
ings under the occupation. Some of the
constraints Palestinians faced during the
second intifada are similar to the political
constraints Palestinians continue to face
today. In an interview with three friends in
a village near Bethlehem, Narimen, Jami-
la, and Sultan described the checkpoints
they face as they travel between Hebron
and Jerusalem.30 Specifically, Jamila talked
about how soldiers closed schools to stop
children from throwing rocks.31 In another
interview, Osama, a financial advisor, talk-
ed about how he was arrested at the age of

20 Smith, “Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” pp. 482.

21 Rabeh Morrar and Faïz Gallouj, “The growth of the service sector in Palestine: the productivitychallenge,” Journal of Innovation
Economics & Management, 19(1), pp. 179-204. doi:10.3917/jie.019.0179.
22 “The World Bank In West Bank and Gaza,” Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/westbankandgaza/over-
view.
23 Hanaa Hasan, “The Paris Protocol and the impoverishment of the Palestinian people,” Retrieved from https://www.middleeast-
monitor.com/20180920-the-paris-protocol-and-the-impoverishment-of-the-palestinian-people/.
24 Petter Bauck and Mohammed Omer, “The Oslo Accords fell well short of their goals,” Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.
com/indepth/opinion/2013/09/2013912114245222394.html.
25 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Access to Education in Area C of the West Bank,” Re-
trieved from https://www.ochaopt.org/content/access-education-area-c- west-bank
26 Maya Rosenfeld, “Confronting the Occupation: Work, Education, and Political Activism of Palestinian Families in a Refugee
Camp”, 2004.
27 UNICEF, “Education Under Occupation: Access to Education in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” https://www.unicef.org/
oPt/UNICEF_Under_Occupation_final-SMALL.pdf
28 Bree Akesson, “School as a place of violence and hope: Tensions of education for children and families in post-intifada Palestine,”
International Journal of Educational Development, 41, 192–199. doi: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.08.001
29 “Israel Restricting Visas for Academics Visiting Palestine Universities,” Retrieved from https://www.middleeastmonitor.
com/20190711-israel-restricting-visas-for-academics-visiting-palestine-universities/.
30 Wendy Pearlman, “Occupied voices: stories of loss and longing from the second Intifada,” New York: Thunders Mouth Press/
Nation Books, pp. 28.
31 Ibid., pp. 29.

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 17 for six months in an ‘administrative de-
tention’ without clear reason.32 Although “Schools in the West Bank
he did not specifically talk about education,
he faced these constraints during his school can be seen as places of
years.33 Sana, a ninth grader, talked about
how Israeli soldiers shot at them as they
left school.34 He also took the longer route
violence and nurture.”
face as they pursue education. Alzaroo and
because roads were closed due to the con-
Hunt conducted 13 ethnographic inter-
flict.35 In an interview, a mother, Muna,
views with households in two camps, Al
narrated the story of her son who was
Fawar and Al Aroub, both in the Hebron
shot to death while he protested outside
area.40 The authors use ideologies of polit-
a checkpoint.36 The mother talked about
ical education,41 conservative, liberal, and
how her child was a kind person, but with
radical education, to assess their results.
his death, his future was cut to an end.37
Conservative education is when education
As a result of these constraints, schools
reinforces, supports, and legitimizes the
in the West Bank can be seen as places of
existing system of government.42 It is con-
violence and nurture. Bree Akesson (2015)
nected to the idea of school as a “place of
conducted ethnographic interviews in
violence” since education is used as a tool
Area A, B, and C to weight schools in the
of oppression. This includes the closure of
West Bank as a place of both “violence”
Palestinian educational institutions, op-
and “hope.” Akesson’s analysis of schools
pression of teachers and students in the
as a “place of violence” shows how polit-
West Bank by the Israeli army, the Israel
ical constraints by the Israeli occupation
Defense Forces (IDF), as well as censorship
affect education in the West Bank. In her
of the curriculum for Israelis and Palestin-
research, she describes schools as a “place
ians.43
of violence” because of harassment from
Akesson’s44 analysis of school as a
Israeli military (checkpoints and school
“place of hope” shows how Palestinians try
invasions) and settlers (throwing stones at
to defeat these political constraints by re-
Palestinians), as well as the demolition of
sisting occupation through a liberal educa-
schools in Area C.38 Similarly, Salah Alza-
tion, which allows an individual to make
roo and Gillian Hunt’s39 research analysis
up his or her mind after consideration
shows the political constraints Palestinians
and discussion of relevant evidence.45 The
32 Ibid., pp. 41.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid., pp. 63.
35 Ibid., pp. 64.
36 Ibid., pp. 83.
37 Ibid.
38 Akesson, “School as a Place of Violence and Hope.”
39 Sarah Alzaroo and Gillian L. Hunt, “Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability: The Palestinian Case,” Social Policy and
Administration, 37(2), 165–180. doi: 10.1111/1467-9515.00332
40 Ibid.
41 Clive Harber, “Schools and Political Learning in Africa: themes and issues,” Compare: A Journal of Comparative and Interna-
tional Education, 21(1), 61–72. doi: 10.1080/0305792910210105
42 Alzaroo and Hunt, “Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability.”
43 Ibid.
44 Akesson, “School as a Place of Violence and Hope.”
45 Alzaroo and Hunt, “Education in the Context of Conflict and Instability.”

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 “Palestinians continue to cation in Palestine considerably, including
gendered views of the role of women as
housekeepers and mothers, and the role of
face these constraints on a men as providers and a main source of in-
come.51 Many females pursue an education
daily basis.” in the West Bank, but social constraints
and gender inequality still exist. Although
authors discuss how Palestinians have ac- it is not always directly linked to the oc-
cepted education without looking at the cupation, a research study by Karam Dana
economic factor because they value educa- and Hannah Walker52 explores how the
tion and because they have nothing to lose. occupation affects both genders who travel
A liberal education is connected to the idea to work or school because of checkpoints
of education as a “place of hope” because and how females are more likely to be dis-
education is used as a coping strategy for criminated against by the IDF.53 As a result,
the occupation — although Palestinians some families will prevent their daughters
will not benefit fully because of unem- from working because of harassment.54 If
ployment.46 Research conducted by Maya we look at how the occupation results in
Rosenfeld47 in Dheisheh, a refugee camp gender inequality, it relates to schools as a
in the south of Bethlehem, notes the fol- “place of violence.” The study also shows
lowing attitudes towards education among gender differentials in both employment
Palestinians: education is considered an at- and compensation. In the study, male re-
tribute or trademark comparable to other spondents answered that there are many
character qualities and is seen as enlight- service jobs suitable for women, as op-
enment rather than a certificate. Education posed to labor positions, but females still
is highly valued among families across Pal- receive lower wages for their jobs.55 Mean-
estine, with 95.4% of children enrolled in while, men have added pressure to find
basic education.48 masculine jobs that pay well to support
Besides political constraints, econom- their families.56
ic and social constraints imposed by the oc- These are the common political, eco-
cupation affect the quality and level of ed- nomic, and social constraints Palestinians
ucation. Classrooms and curriculums are face as they pursue education. Although
underdeveloped as a result of low budgets, many of the existing research was conduct-
high unemployment rates, and low sala- ed in the early 2000s, Palestinians continue
ries.49,50 Social constraints also affect edu- to face these constraints on a daily basis.
46 Ibid.
47 Rosenfeld, “Confronting the Occupation.”
48 “Education and adolescents,” Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/sop/what-we-do/education-and-adolescents.
49 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, “Education Denied,” Retrieved from http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/2011/education%20
book.pdf
50 UNICEF. (2018). State of Palestine Country Report on Out-Of-School Children. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/oPt/
OOSC_SoP_Full_Report_EN.pdf
51 Karam Dana and Hannah Walker, “Invisible disasters: the effects of Israeli occupation on Palestinian gender roles,” Contempo-
rary Arab Affairs, 8(4), 488–504. doi: 10.1080/17550912.2015.1090100
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.

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 Israeli occupation has halted Palestinians
for progressing and developing themselves
for the better. Therefore, it is important to
amplify the existing narratives to show the
continued effects of the Israeli occupation.
Research Methodology
In conjunction with my research
partner, Mariam Al-Dhubhani, our field
research in Palestine encompassed 29 days
over the summer of 2019. I was in the
field on July 2–18 and August 18–24 while
Al-Dhubhani was in the field July 2–28.57
Our research method was primarily
ethnographic, recording and transcribing
interviews for future use in both written
and visual narratives. We had three in-
terview guides for students, teachers, and
workers.58 The interview guide was in
Arabic. Interviews were semi-structured,
meaning that, while the section order is
followed, the questions are not fixed —
they vary based on the direction of the
conversation and based on the subjects’
answers.59 The interview guide was always
subject to change based on the subjects’
responses. The semi-structured interview
guide, in general, consisted of five sections.
The first section aimed to ease the sub-
jects into a conversation by asking them
to paint a picture of their daily life and the
village they come from. The purpose of the
second section was to ask the subjects to
paint their educational journey. The third
section examined educational constraints.
The fourth section queried the dreams and
hopes of subjects in the absence of these
constraints. In the last section, we asked
subjects to be creative by offering solutions
to their own constraints.
57 Mariam Al-Dhubhani originally received the summer URG grant with me in a joint proposal, but she had to decline the award
due to early graduation. Nevertheless, due to personal interest in the project, she self-supported her travel to Palestine this summer
to conduct the research with me.
58 For the full thesis, including appendices with interview guides, see www.thenurj.com/theses/
59 H. Russel Bernard, “Research methods in anthropology qualitative and quantitative approaches,” Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
107
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 107
My research had nine separate strat-
ified groups of people whom I wanted to
interview: people in all three areas of Pales-
tine (Areas A, B, and C) because life in each
of these areas deals with a different set of
constraints on education, and three groups
of people within each of these areas — stu-
dents, workers, and teachers — to make
sure to capture a diverse group of voices
about how educational constraints have af-
fected them. However, due to logistical and
security reasons, we were only able to cov-
er Areas A and B. To cover Area A, Mari-
am and I traveled to Ramallah, Nablus, and
Bethlehem. In Ramallah, we went to uni-
versities and downtown Ramallah to con-
duct interviews with students, teachers,
and workers. In Nablus and Bethlehem, we
went to different universities to interview
students. Since people from Area B come
to universities in Area A, we were able to
simultaneously interview students from
different villages. We were also able to in-
terview Arab Israelis who study in Area A.
During my second visit to the West Bank,
I stayed in Salfit to interview teachers and
workers in Area B. I was able to interview
private tutors, school teachers, and Pales-
tinians who work in Israel.
Demographics and Sampling
In these two areas, we used non-prob-
ability and intercept sampling. Although
non-probability sampling is not a perfect
way to collect data, due to the increased
chance of bias in the respondents sam-
pled, Reynolds, Simintiras, and Diamon-
topoulous (2003) have highlighted how
probability sampling in developing coun-
tries is often a luxury, and non-probabil-
ity methods are often the best option for
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 scholars with slimmer research budgets.
Nevertheless, there are many scholars who
have successfully used non-random sam-
pling in the Middle East, such as Martin’s
(2009) assessment of political socialization
and media consumption among youth in
Jordan and Kousha and Mohseni’s (2000)
assessment of Iranians’ level of happiness
and general life satisfaction. Most relevant
for my project, Wendy Pearlman of North-
western University has successfully used
non-random interview techniques in Pal-
estine (2003) and Syria (2017) to capture
Palestinian voices and give humanizing
details to the dry facts reported in the me-
dia or collected by organizations. Because
the point of my project in Palestine is not
to give, or claim, a representative sample
of all Palestinian voices, but rather to high-
light the experiences of individuals who
have experienced problems with pursu-
ing their human right to an education, the
non-probability sampling of my interviews
does not detract from the power of these
108
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 108
voices or the usefulness of the research.
That said, there are ways to ensure
that a diverse sampling of voices is heard,
through the use of stratified sampling
(Levitin 2017). I chose to create targeted
quotas of people in Areas A, B, and C, be-
cause life in each of these areas deals with a
different set of constraints on education. I
also created targeted quotas of three groups
of people within each of these areas — stu-
dents, workers, and teachers — to make
sure that I heard from a diverse group of
voices about how educational constraints
have affected them (see Table 1).
Besides our initial contact list, we
also used intercept sampling (McKenzie
and Mistiaen, 2007) to collect interviews,
which helped us access a more diverse pool
of people, especially workers and high
school students. During different times
and days, we approached subjects, intro-
duced ourselves and the research purpose,
then asked for an interview. Instead of sig-
natures, we asked for verbal consent.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 In sum, while my interviews were not the age of 30 experienced either the First
randomly selected, by stratifying my sam- or Second Intifada. Their memories of the
ple and by using intercept sampling, my Intifada are related to violence, which ul-
interviews provide a diverse selection of timately hindered their journey to educa-
different viewpoints across Palestine. tion.
Anas, a 49-year-old construction
Results and Discussion worker in Israel, recalls the closure of
To analyze the collected 58 inter- Al-Najah University in 1994:
views, each interview is coded with num- The [military] surrounded the
bers based on the following groups: Mil- university for four days … because
itary Occupation, Checkpoints, Economic they wanted to arrest several armed
Concerns, Gender Issues, Political Divi- men inside the campus, and at that
sions, and the Educational System. Each time there were university elections
group has a list of entries with a specific … but the security closed the doors
code, which is used whenever an inter- and refused to let the military inside
… I still remember these days. … In the
viewee talks about a particular constraint,
last two days, there was no food left.
such as jail, a low salary, unemployment,
During the first two days, they used to
etc. For example, if an interviewee speaks give us boiled hummus twice a day, and
about being detained by the IDF, the quote during the last two days, they gave us
is highlighted with a code, such as 1002a. water and salt to drink.
Military Occuption The IDF still frequently invades uni-
Many Palestinians mentioned specific versities and schools to arrest politically
instances of violence by the Israeli occupa- active students. Palestinians have been de-
tion. Those who witnessed or experienced tained and tortured in Israeli jails for their
violence are the same interviewees who political activism. Mohammed, a 23-year-
mentioned jails, checkpoints, house dem- old university student, has been arrested
olitions, settler violence, school invasions, twice for his political activism, which
etc. Violence is also associated and men- forced him to miss a year in high school:
tioned by Palestinians who have experi-
I was arrested once during school
enced the First or Second Intifada. Among
and once during university. During
the interviewees, 20 Palestinians above
109

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 school they jailed me for a year and
four months. This is why I entered
university late. I am 23 and I am still a
senior ... I missed a year during school,
and I had to repeat it with students
younger than me … It was during Nakba
protests. Two Palestinian martyrs
lost their lives, Nadeem Nawarah
and Mohammed Abu Daher. During
the protests, I stayed nearby to rescue
them but I was caught by the military
… When I saw two people sacrifice
their lives in front of me, I could not
run away and leave them alone … I felt
like I could offer them help … I was also
detained for the second time during a
protest against a military checkpoint.
During the second arrest, he was de-
tained for ten months, which affected his
university studies. Mohammed said he
wanted to pursue a master’s degree abroad,
but he is not allowed to leave the country
due to his previous arrests.
Fayza, a 41-year-old teacher, spoke
about her husband’s arrest, and how it pre-
vented him from attending their daugh-
ter’s graduation:
He was arrested for the second time in
2014 at the administrative detention
for six months. It was the most difficult
time for me. He was one of the people
that refused to eat for 63 days, and he
suffered a lot to the point he almost
lost his life because of a stomach bug
… Imagine [that] every day you are
waiting to hear the bad news because
[the prisoners] are demanding their
rights … What made it more difficult
is that my eldest daughter … was
graduating from high school … He
was supposed to be released four
days before her results were out, but
his detention was extended … Well,
she now graduated with a degree in
laboratory medicine, and life goes on.
Many Palestinians continue to face
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 110
similar political constraints and violence
resultant of the Israeli occupation, prevent-
ing or hindering their attendance at class
or graduation. Children are also prone to
this violence. Mariam, a 47-year-old teach-
er, decided to major in education after her
two twins witnessed violence during the
Second Intifada. Her children thought
their father had died after he was shot in
the shoulder at a checkpoint. Mariam’s
children feared going to school because of
this incident. She decided to help children
like her own. After taking a gap year from
university, Mariam returned and changed
her major.
What happened to my children is
also what children in Palestine suffer
from. … Our children face direct and
indirect violence from the occupation
… and if we fail to take their hands and
help them, they will get lost … [Our
children] are our biggest investment.
Checkpoints
Palestinians who travel to different
cities for work or school are likely to face
checkpoints on the way. The problem is
that they are unpredictable. Some days
it takes less than ten minutes to pass the
point, while on other days, it takes several
hours.
Hazem, a 22-year-old university stu-
dent in Bethlehem, spoke about strug-
gling through checkpoints as when returns
home to Jerusalem:
Sometimes there are 100 or 200 people
at the checkpoint, so we have to wait
an hour. There were days we returned
to sleep in Bethlehem. The road that
usually takes ten minutes in the car
can take more than an hour … If I leave
university at 4 p.m., I arrive home at
6 or 7 p.m. I lose all my willpower to
study with the exhausting road and the
traffic, but then I have to go study, and
110
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 on the other days I have to go work.
Since checkpoints are unpredictable,
Palestinians cannot plan ahead for days
they will be late. This uncertainty can be
mentally exhausting and can result in con-
sequences for students and teachers as well
as workers. Lana, a 19-year-old finance stu-
dent, recalled what happened to her friend
on the same day she was interviewed:
Today, when my friend was inside the
ford passing [Hallamis Checkpoint],
the soldier told them to return. She
was going to be one hour late, but by
coincidence, the soldier shift changed,
and they told them to come back
because they opened the border.
Due to the uncertainty related to
checkpoints, many students and workers
decide to move from home to the dorms,
while others choose universities in more
accessible areas.
Economic Concerns
The Oslo Accords have affected the
Palestinian economy considerably, creat-
ing high levels of unemployment and re-
sulting in low salaries. Because of the low
salaries, both teachers and students often
work multiple jobs to provide for them-
selves and their families. The economic sit-
uation in the West Bank also demotivates
students as they pursue education, since it
is hard to cover university fees, and stu-
dents may not find jobs after graduating.
One mechatronics engineering stu-
dent said he knew he would not find a job
with his major once he graduated:
I chose the major I wanted … and I
was hoping and planning … to finish
the bachelor’s degree [here] … and
if God wills and blesses me with a
scholarship … I will leave for a country
like Germany that is interested in
the industrial area. … My major is
111
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 111
insignificant in Palestine because we
are a state that depends on imports
more than exports.
This reliance on imports is because
the West Bank was not allowed to have
industrial factories after the Accords. Fur-
thermore, if there are jobs available for
specific majors, it is difficult for graduates
to find a job because the market is too sat-
urated:
Why does no one major in pharmacy?
It is because there are 3000 unemployed
pharmacists … For example, in our
village, … only two pharmacies are
allowed, but this year, four people are
studying pharmacy.
Those who do manage to gain em-
ployment earn low salaries, not enough to
provide for their families. Tamer, an own-
er of a gold shop in downtown Ramallah,
said:
As I work, many people come to sell
their gold to pay for their children’s
university fees. Now it is the time for
university admissions, and a Birzeit
student would need to at least pay 1000
dinars. This installment is a lot, so some
people come to sell their gold to educate
their children.
In addition to the low salaries, teach-
ers and civil servants’ salaries were cut in
half when Israel withdrew tax money from
the P.A. Alia, a geography teacher, spoke
about how this affected her family’s eco-
nomic situation:
I built the second floor of our house,
and all the loans were on me, as well
as installments for furniture, which
I paid with half of my salary. My
husband is also a teacher, but he owns
a car, and half of his salary goes to
installments for the car. … When they
cut our salaries, how are we supposed
to live? The bank takes 1500 to 2000
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 shekel, and only 500 are left. What is it
enough for? Fuel? Water? Electricity?
Vegetables, or for my children’s pocket
money?
Because of the economic situation in
the West Bank, many people tend to work
in Israel to receive a higher salary. Bushra,
a 19-year-old university student, whose fa-
ther is a teacher, said:
Nothing motivates people to study
nowadays. A student [that] my father
teaches said, “I go to Israel, and the
salary you make in a month, I can
receive it in one day.”
Gender Norms
Men have added pressure to provide
for the family. Thus, they only focus on
ways to obtain money rather than to pur-
sue their dreams. As a result, men tended
to be more pessimistic towards education,
and were likely to study primarily for the
degree. In contrast, although many females
provide for their families, they tended to be
more optimistic and focused on receiving
education in the best possible way. Tala,
a 38-year-old teacher in Ramallah, talked
about why males prefer working:
My son in grade ten is asking me why
he should study at the university for
four years, and then return to work in
Israel? Why doesn’t he work in Israel
from the beginning? It is because he
sees [the difference between] his uncles
and neighbors who work in Israel,
and the people who work in the West
Bank. So, he says he does not want to
study. But then look at my daughter,
she just graduated from the university.
She added:
There was a kid called Monjd that I
taught. He was an orphan and refused
to attend school for the first three
years … When he was eight years old,
112
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 112
he enrolled in grade one. I used to
follow up with him because he was
unique. When he enrolled in grade ten,
despite having high grades, he dropped
out. I went to his house, his teachers,
school consultant, and people from
the ministry also went, but he refused
[to return], saying he wanted to help
his family and sisters. His sisters are
finishing their university years, but he
decided to work to support his mom
and sisters … Until today, he did not
return to school.
These gender norms affect teachers
as well. Since male teachers have to work
multiple jobs, they cannot put their full ef-
fort into teaching, which ultimately affects
students. Shatha, a 44-year-old social stud-
ies teacher, said:
No offense, but a male teacher is
different than a female teacher ... A
male teacher has students, a family and
responsibilities to take care of, and his
salary is not enough. He has to work an
additional job at night to spend on the
house ... His priority is not the school
anymore, but to find a source of living.
However, some women also contin-
ued to face social constraints because of
culture and traditions. Nada, a 29-year-old
jewelry designer from Ramallah, could not
work in the field she majored in:
I studied civil engineering … but the
major did not suit my parents’ culture
and traditions. Unfortunately, I had
to study another major that pleased
my parents, so I studied English. I did
not like it, and I did not want to work
with this degree … As I was majoring in
English, I learned how to make jewelry
… I decided to pursue this path. It has
been nine years since then.
Political Activism
Interviewees also talked about the po-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 litical division in the West Bank and how
it affected education. Hamas supporters
in the West Bank are marginalized by the
P.A., as well as by the Israeli government.
Those who show support for Hamas can
either be detained or left unemployed af-
ter graduating. Birzeit University Student
Council runs free elections every year, and
almost every year Hamas wins the seats.
However, they are usually arrested.
Radi, a 19-year-old student, recalled
the arrest of Omar Al-Kisawni, a previous
student leader:
Israelis came as Arab journalists,
claiming they wanted to shoot footage
of the university, since it is historical.
They manipulated the security guards
using verified papers from an official
institution, and they were allowed
inside the campus. A few hours later,
around 3 p.m., I was walking near the
college of literature and I wanted to
visit the student council for help. Then,
I saw our previous leader on the floor,
while they were stepping on him and
hitting him severely ... The violence
was inhumane. University students
tried their best to fight back by
throwing rocks, but they had weapons.
Sameera, a 23-year-old political sci-
ence and international relations student,
said that an arrest could put students far
behind in school:
When you talk about Hamas, you
are talking about being chased by
an occupier. … Many students were
removed from the university for six
months, and this is not a short period.
Six months means a semester, and
for engineering students, six months
means a full school year.
She said that many students were ar-
rested in administrative detention without Besides teachers, many students com-
any charges, and that the period of time was plained about the current curriculum,
113
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 113
extended repeatedly. This was not only ap-
plicable to Hamas-supporting students, but
also students affiliated with other political
parties. Sameera mentioned a friend, also a
journalism student, who missed a full year
of school while being detained without be-
ing charged for a crime.
Educational System
Many teachers complained about the
educational system. Some teachers end
up working with temporary contracts for
years, and those who have a permanent
contract can be transferred to more than
three schools in less than a year. Basel, an
Islamic teacher at a male school, said:
We are like soldiers; we go wherever
they want us to be. The ministry has
the power and can relocate us to any
school whenever.
This can be exhausting to teachers
who are forced to continuously adapt to
different environments. For temporary
teachers, it can take years to sign a perma-
nent contract and sometimes they never
do. Abdullah, a 64-year-old teacher, said
he retired without any benefits:
I worked with the Ministry of Social
Affairs … I served eight years with a
temporary contract on the illusion
they would give me a permanent one
the next year. When I turned 60 years
old, they referred me to retirement,
but I only had a permanent contract
for eight years, which is not applicable
for retirement … I served for 16 years
in total, and only eight years with a
permanent contract. … They gave me
hope that the previous eight years
would count for the service, but when I
turned 60 they told me I am not eligible
for retirement.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 since it relies on rote memorization. Dalia,
a business student, said:
I could not wait until I graduated
from school. All you do in school is
memorize text, and teachers only want
you to finish the assigned readings.
Students in high school also face the
pressure of Tawjeehi, the General Second-
ary Education Certificate Examination, the
college entrance exams used in Palestine
and Jordan. Entire families and villages
wait for high school seniors’ grades to be
released. Students can only pursue specific
majors based on their grades after graduat-
ing from high school. Some disappointed
students are forced to repeat senior year
to enter the major they want, while others
receive the “good” news. Tamer, a journal-
ism professor at one of the universities in
the West Bank, recalled the moment he re-
ceived his grade:
It was one of the happiest days of my
life when Tawjeehi grades were out.
I was working at a construction site
[in Israel], and returning back in the
cars that take workers to the village
… Palestinians were throwing rocks …
and the Israeli military got us out of the
vehicle, and asked us to pick [up] the
rocks from the road. I was picking up
the rocks after a very long day of work.
… I heard my friends congratulating
me behind the trees that I passed. … I
was excited and scared as I picked the
rocks. … I asked for my grade … and
they told me. … I did not know if I
should side with the soldier or not, but
from the excitement, I worked extra
hard to pick up the rocks.
114
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 114
Conclusion
Palestinians until today struggle to
attain their fundamental human right to
education due to the ongoing Israeli occu-
pation. From the collected interviews, Pal-
estinians face political constraints, such as
checkpoints, imprisonment, as well as uni-
versity invasions and closures by the IDF.
Regarding economic restrictions, students
and teachers suffer from high university
fees, unemployment, having to work mul-
tiple jobs, and salary cuts. Students and
workers complained about unemployment
after graduating and working in jobs dif-
ferent from their major. Therefore, many
Palestinians decide to work in Israel as
laborers for higher salaries. Finally, so-
cial constraints differed based on gender.
From interviews with male and female
students, it was evident that women tend-
ed to be more interested in education and
were more likely to perform well, while
men cared more about earning money. For
Palestinians in the West Bank, these con-
straints are a reality they have no control
over. Since the occupation of Palestine
began, Palestinians’ autonomy over their
lives, land and resources has been taken
away, as well as their autonomy over their
own narrative. Existing research about ed-
ucation in the West Bank has been avail-
able since the early 2000s, but 20 years lat-
er, Palestinians continue to face the same
constraints without many improvements.
Does this not say much about the nature of
the occupation, and its ability to halt prog-
ress and change in Palestine? ■
11/12/20 2:38 PM
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The Subsumptivist
Generalist Position
in Ethical AI Research
and Its Motivation
Enframing
The future will see autonomous
machines acting in the same
environment as humans . . . thus hybrid
collective decision-making systems
will be in great need.1
Given that propositions made by ar-
tificial intelligence researchers on the fu-
ture ubiquity of artificial agents are true,
making sure artificial agents operate under
the purview of morality seems evident-
ly important. Indeed, it can be dangerous
to give artificial agents tasks that have to
be carried out in a mixed environment
with both humans and machines, in a “re-
al-world” environment with ethical risk.
Take an example of a service robot in a
home tasked with cleaning up the house.
What would happen if the robot is not
able to make the value distinction between
a baby and an empty paper bag?2 Although
human agents may also make mistakes in
1 Greene, J. et al, “Embedding Ethical Principles in Collective Decision Support Systems,” in Proceedings of the Thirtieth AAAI
Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2016. p.4147.
2 Wallach, W, and Colin A. Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong. Oxford University Press, 2010. p.15.
117
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 117
Department of Philosophy
by Jun Kyung You
navigating situations with ethical risk such
as these — for example, we could con-
ceivably hit the baby with a broom while
sweeping the floor without knowing —
that does not mean we cannot gauge the
ethical risks involved and decide what to
do. In other words, we are capable of “ethi-
cal decision-making.” If we want an auton-
omous artificial agent that can serve as an
adequate replacement of a human agent in
a real-world environment, it follows that
the artificial agent must replicate this ca-
pability to some degree as well. For this
replication to be adequate, we should ask
ourselves what ethical decision-making
exactly entails.
I argue in this paper that, in asking
what ethical decision-making entails, many
current approaches in ethical AI research
are misguided in their inquiries. The ap-
proaches where a “correct moral theory” is
proposed either through reference to evo-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 lutionary psychology3 and machine learn- into the Rhine River as was the old
ing4, or through aggregation of individual wooden bridge that joined bank with
preferences into a general policy,56 seem bank for hundreds of years. Rather
particularly problematic. Where these ap- the river is dammed up into the power
plant. What the river is now, namely, a
proaches go wrong is best explained by first
water power supplier, derives from the
introducing Heidegger’s idea of enframing,
essence of the power station ... But, it
which is suggested in his essay, “The Ques- will be replied, the Rhine is still a river
tion Concerning Technology.” in the landscape, is it not? Perhaps.
Enframing, the character of modern But how? In no other way than as an
technology, according to Heidegger, “is a object on call for inspection by a tour
challenging [Herausfordern], which puts group ordered there by the vacation
to nature the unreasonable demand that industry.10
it supply energy that can be extracted and
Heidegger notices that modern tech-
stored as such. ...7 Agriculture is now the
nology’s optimizing, stockpiling, and
mechanized food industry. Air is now set
streamlining of nature express a particular
upon to yield nitrogen, the earth to yield
approach to nature: nature is an exploit-
ore, ore to yield uranium.”8 Enframing
able system that should be organized and
forces and organizes something into a
made ready for a further purpose.
“standing-reserve,”9 or a posture of read-
Consider the difference between the
iness for a further purpose. Heidegger’s
significance of the wooden bridge and the
discussion of the Rhine’s transition into a
hydroelectric plant over the Rhine. The
“standing-reserve” is perhaps the clearest
wooden bridge was used for people to be
illustration he gives of this idea:
able to live despite the existence of the
The hydroelectric plant is set into the Rhine. The Rhine as it stands was taken for
current of the Rhine. It sets the Rhine to granted, and no efforts were made to alter
supplying its hydraulic pressure which it. There was no purpose to the Rhine; it
then sets the turbines turning. This was simply a part of the landscape. The
turning sets those machines in motion
dam connected to the power plant, on the
whose thrust sets going the electric
current for which the long-distance
other hand, was built with the intention to
power station and its network of cables exploit the hydroelectric potential in the
are set up to dispatch electricity. In the Rhine. The Rhine itself was optimized to
context of the interlocking processes produce this hydroelectric resource. The
pertaining to the orderly disposition of Rhine was repurposed to provide resourc-
electrical energy, even the Rhine itself es, and is seen as something exploitable for
appears as something at our command. an additional end. Even the scenery that
The hydroelectric plant is not built the Rhine provides was repurposed for use
3 Sotala, Kaj., “Defining Human Values for Value Learners,” in AAAI-16 AI, Society and Ethics Workshop, p. 113-123.
4 Conitzer, V., Walter, S., Borg, J., et al. “Moral Decision-Making Frameworks for Artificial Intelligence,” In Proceedings of the
Thirty-First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-17) Senior Member / Blue Sky Track, San Francisco, CA, USA,
2017, pp. 4831-4835.
5 Noothigattu, R. et al., “A Voting-Based System for Ethical Decision Making,” Proceedings of Autonomous Agents and Artificial
Intelligence (AAAI) Conference, 2018
6 Awad, E., et al. “The Moral Machine Experiment.” Nature vol. 563, 2018.
7 Ibid.
8 Heidegger, p.15.
9 Ibid., p.17.
10 Ibid., p.16.

118

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 118 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 “Ready-Ethics is more
interested in the practice
of morality than the
justification behind what
is determined as morally
acceptable.”
by the vacation industry for its exploitation
of entertainment value. Technology’s pur-
poseful organization of the world in readi-
ness of a further end — that is what Heide-
gger means by enframing.
With the exposition of enframing at
hand, I can now state the goal of this paper.
I propose that there is a risk where ethics is
influenced by enframing in ethical AI re-
search. Ethics is stripped of contextualism,
altered in its moral motivation, and even
trivialized in some cases to further enable
the wider adoption of AI. I call this result-
ing ethics “Ready-Ethics.” In this paper, I
explain and demote the approach to nor-
mativity that Ready-Ethics endorses, with
the aims of steering ethical AI research
to more sensible ethical frameworks and
more desirable motivations.
Ready-Ethics
Arguably the main obstacle to
automating ethical decisions is the lack
of a formal specification of ground-
truth ethical principle, which have
been the subject of debate for centuries
among ethicists ... When ground-truth
11 Noothigattu, R. et al., “A Voting-Based System for Ethical Decision Making,” Proceedings of Autonomous Agents and Artificial
Intelligence (AAAI) Conference, 2018. p.1.
12 Ibid.
13 Habermas, J. “On the Pragmatic, the Ethical, and the Moral Employments of Practical Reason.” Justification and Application.
119
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 119
ethical principles are not available, we
must use an ‘approximation as agreed
upon by society.’11
Ready-Ethics, above all, is the trans-
formation of ethics into an empirical field
of study. This transformation has under-
standable incentives. AI is a tool meant to
not only enhance, but also to complete-
ly replace human agency where it seems
valuable to do so. For replacement to be as
widespread as possible, it must be able to
replicate what is essential to human agen-
cy. Since ethical decision-making is an im-
portant aspect of human agency, it follows
that ethical decision-making must be rep-
licated to some extent. In the face of this
need, ethics is expected to be answerable
to the demands of technology as a “stand-
ing-reserve.” Ethics is expected to have a
“formal specification of ground-truth eth-
ical principle”12 prepared for ethical AI re-
search. The history of moral philosophy,
in light of technology’s demand, is reinter-
preted as a process to arrive at this “formal
specification” — as if the great names in
moral philosophy all were, in fact, looking
for this “formal specification.” The rein-
terpretation of ethics through technology
mirrors what happened between nature
and technology in Heidegger’s Rhine ex-
ample. Just as the hydroelectric plant al-
tered the meaning of the Rhine, ethics is
also enframed into Ready-Ethics due to
technology.
Ready-Ethics and ethics contrast in
their attitudes and, consequently, their ap-
proaches, to normativity. Ethics, among
other things, inquires, “What should I do
here? Is what I have done a good thing?”
In ethical inquiries such as these, the
“should” “remains indeterminate.”13 What
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 is intuitively good or morally desirable is
not accepted by the virtue of it appearing
so. Rather, we look for justifications that
can ease the indeterminacy. Ethics is also
necessarily intertwined with moral moti-
vation. Behind the normative inquiries in
ethics, there is always the assumption that
one must aim for moral improvement.
Ready-Ethics, on the other hand,
treats normativity as a subject of an em-
pirical study because it is only concerned
with finding instances of human moral
acceptability. No motivation to improve
one’s moral conduct is involved. There is
only, or at least overwhelmingly, the mo-
tivation to make artificial agents comply
with current norms. Ready-Ethics is more
interested in the practice of morality than
the justification behind what is determined
as morally acceptable because ethics is only
inquired with the purpose of replicating an
aspect of human agency. To bring ethics
into an implementable form, Ready-Ethics
assumes the existence of a useful pattern
to be found in the practice of morality and
attentively follows what is available based
on observable conduct. Therefore, despite
dealing with the same subject matter of
normativity, Ready-Ethics is not a branch
of ethics. Rather, it is a branch of AI re-
search where the technological need for
the social acceptance of AI launches an em-
pirical inquiry into the normative.
Ready-Ethics is an enframing of eth-
ics’ motivation and how it engages with
normativity, which is pushed forward
by the need to propagate AI technolo-
gy. The interested reader may have two
questions: First, why should I believe that
13 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. p.2
14 Awad, E., et al, p.1.
15 Conitzer, V., and Zhang, H.. “A PAC Framework for Aggregating Agents’ Judgments,” AAAI (2019).
16 Strahovnik, V. “Introduction: Challenging Moral Particularism.” Challenging Moral Particularism, edited by Mark Norris, Lance
et al., Routledge, 2008, p.1.
120
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 120
Ready-Ethics is indeed the approach that
drives the research in replicating ethical
decision-making in artificial agents? As
Heidegger presented a real-life case with
the Rhine to prove his point with enfram-
ing, I shall do the same through examining
actual cases.
Subsumptivist Generalist
Position in Ethical AI
First, we summarize global moral
preferences. Second, we document
individual variations in preferences,
based on respondents’ demographics.
Third, we report cross-cultural ethical
variation, and uncover three major
clusters of countries ... We discuss how
these preferences can contribute to
developing global, socially acceptable
principles for machine ethics 14
We consider approaches that query
[people] about their judgments
in individual examples, and then
aggregate these judgments into a
general policy. We propose a formal
learning-theoretic framework for this
setting.”15
One recognizable trend in the re-
cent literature on ethical decision-making
replication is the prominence of the Sub-
sumptivist Generalist Position, or SGP. It
believes that “the moral status of an act is
determined by its falling under a general
moral principle,”16 meaning that the mor-
al value of an action “X” is determined by
the degree of its compliance to a gener-
al moral principle “Y.” One may question
what is meant by a “general moral princi-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “A programming approach aims to make artificial agents
act in morally acceptable ways via programmed moral
principles.”
ple.” While there are at least six different
ideas of moral principles in circulation,17
since the ethical principles that guide ac-
tions of artificial agents are expected to be
strictly applied, it suffices for our purposes
to think of moral principles as generalized,
exceptionless imperatives for or against ac-
tions, such as “thou shalt not kill.”
SGP, with little exaggeration, defines
current ethical AI discourse. The domi-
nant viewpoint seems to be that ethical
decision-making should be replicated in
artificial agents, under the assumption that
the moral life is sufficiently representable
through principles.18,19,20,21,22 These works
usually start by citing Asimov’s three laws
of robotics — which apparently does more
than simply fascinating the lay.23 Asimov’s
laws are provided as a springboard to jus-
tify the researcher’s motivation in devis-
ing moral principles that are sophisticated
enough to be compelling, who uses the
insufficiency of the three laws to show the
relevance and necessity of her approach.
The direction of inquiry into normativity
is framed in terms of principles from the
very start. The dismissal of Asimov’s laws
are followed by the elaboration of other
moral systems that seem more applicable
and more impressive, such as the “utilitar-
ianism, Kantianism, Smithianism, and de-
ontological” moral theories.24
Sharkey provides a useful recapitula-
tion of the ideas presented by and imple-
mented in ethical AI research, from which
one may observe the dominance of SGP.25
She makes the distinction between “pro-
gramming” and “training” approaches in
producing ethical artificial agents. A pro-
gramming approach aims to make artificial
agents act in morally acceptable ways via
programmed moral principles. The most
concrete example that she features is pre-
sented by Anderson and Anderson, who
used inductive logic programming with a
machine learning approach so that the ar-
tificial agent could extract moral principles
from a set of human decisions.26 The ar-
tificial agent can then make choices based
on the extracted principles in hypothetical
situations.
In the “training” approach, efforts are
made to “raise” artificial agents so that they
can be a part of the moral community. The

17 Schroeder, M. “A Matter of Principle.” Noûs, vol. 43, no. 3, 2009, p. 569.

18 Goodall N.J. (2014) Machine Ethics and Automated Vehicles. In: Meyer G., Beiker S. (eds) Road Vehicle Automation. Lecture
Notes in Mobility. Springer, Cham. p.7
19 Anderson, M. et al. “A Value Driven Agent: Instantiation of a Case-Supported Principle-Based Behavior Paradigm.” AAAI
Workshops (2017).
20 Powers, T.M. “Prospects for a Smithian Machine,” International Association for Computing and Philosophy, College Park,
Maryland, July 2013.
21 Powers, T.M. Prospects for a Kantian Machine, IEEE Intelligent Systems 21 (4), 2006.
22 All the block-quoted articles except for the Heidegger one may also join this list of footnotes.
23 Asimov, I., Runaround. Astounding Science Fiction 29, 94-103, Mar., 1942.
24 Goodall, p.7
25 Sharkey, A. Ethics Inf Technol (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-017-9425-5
26 Sharkey, p.5

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 rationale behind this approach is that “pro-
gramming” an artificial agent to act in a
morally acceptable way seems too difficult
because moral norms that yield definite
judgments are “subtle and context depen-
dent” on the time of application.27 One no-
table research example that Sharkey cites is
that of Riedl and Harrison, who, in their
research, “told” stories that contain socio-
cultural values to artificial agents, and at-
tempted to instill those values via machine
learning techniques.28
The programming approach is most
clearly reliant on the view of moral life
that ethical decision-making depends on
principles or algorithmically-interpretable
patterns. A non-SGP approach to morali-
ty precludes the possibility of morality be-
ing fully programmable in terms of laws.
The programming approach requires the
existence of generalized and exception-
less moral principles so that these moral
principles are programmed into the agent.
Winfield et al. engage on a project on the
“ethical robot” that serves as a good exam-
ple in showing that SGP is required for the
programming approach. The most import-
ant piece in Winfield’s decision-making
model of ethical robots is the Consequence
Engine, which provides the capability to
“generate and test what-if hypotheses.”29
The testing of hypothetical situations and
actions is done through pre-programmed
principles. Having formalizable moral
principles at hand would surely streamline
this process. The pragmatics of SGP, or
the benefits of assuming a principle-driv-
en moral life, is clear for the programming
approach.
27 Sharkey, p.6
28 Ibid.
29 Winfield, A. F. , Blum, C. and Liu, W. (2014) Towards an ethical robot: Internal models, consequences and ethical action
selection. In: Mistry, M. , Leonardis, Aleš, Witkowski, M. and Melhuish, C. , eds. Advances in Autonomous Robotics Systems:
Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference, TAROS 2014, Birmingham, UK, 1-3 September 2014. p.87
30 Sharkey, p.6
122
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 122
As for the training approach, the big-
ger problem is with its reliance on a dif-
ferent product of Ready-Ethics, which I
will return later in a later section. Howev-
er, it must still be noted that the training
approach was suggested with the intent
to circumvent the technical problem of
assuming SGP, rather than with the in-
tent to have a different take on the moral
life. Malle, for instance, only seems to find
the training approach desirable because it
seems hopelessly difficult to program mor-
al principles that are too “subtle and con-
text dependent,”30 and so cannot readily be
expressed in decipherable form.
The predominance of an SGP-mo-
tivated approach in ethical AI research is
troubling. SGP as a moral theory is not
in a secure enough position to be the de-
fault framework for the replication of eth-
ical decision-making. Pointing out that
SGP does not hold a particularly intuitive
swing is borderline trivial. We can think
of Kant’s example of the murderer at the
door and see how intuitive the strict ad-
herence to the principle “one should not
deceive” looks, and quickly move on. Mor-
al theories that completely reject the need
“In the ‘training’ approach,
efforts are made to ‘raise’
artificial agents so that they
can be a part of the moral
community.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 for contextual considerations in evaluating
an action, as opposed to considering the
action’s adherence to a principle, are dis-
credited.31 This is because there are power-
ful arguments against SGP. There at least
needs to be a dedicated defense of SGP to
justify its applicability in ethical AI. I find
Dancy’s argument for the holism of moral
reasons especially effective in showing the
flaws of SGP.
The holism of moral reasons is that
what counts as contributing to the assess-
ment that an action is “good” might con-
tribute to the assessment that an action
is “bad,” depending on the circumstance
where the actions are delivered. Dancy
gives an example of a man who strikes
a woman with his car and puts her in a
hospital, to provide a case for the holism
of moral reasons.32 It is apparent that we
would approve of the man’s decision to
make amends by visiting her, paying for
special care, and so on. Perhaps the prin-
ciple that could be extracted from this is
that “it is approvable that a person who
gets another person involved in a car acci-
dent make amends for this other person.”
But we do not approve the man’s doing so,
say, with the ultimate ends set at seducing
her away from her partner. We cannot rea-
sonably say that we approved of the first
situation because we knew that the man
was not intending to seduce the woman
and that this knowledge could have been
part of the extracted principle. This is be-
cause there could be a myriad of defeating
reasons introduced to make the man’s deci-
sion look repulsive. For example, the man
may have provided such care only to pre-
vent her from suing him. If all the possible
exceptions were to have been included in
31 Lance, M., Little, M. “From particularism to defeasibility in ethics,” Challenging Moral Particularism, edited by M., Lance et al.,
Routledge, 2008. p. 54
32 Dancy, J. Moral Reasons. Blackwell, 1993. p.80.
123
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 123
the formed principle, it would cease to be
meaningful.
The change of our overall moral judg-
ment between the two situations is depen-
dent on the flux in the valence of each of the
man’s actions and on the information that
is revealed to us. The man’s actions to make
amends in the first situation is not morally
equivalent to what he does in the second
situation, although the content of the ac-
tion itself, if taken in isolation, does not
change. For example, payment for special
care for the sake of the woman, although
the action itself is same on its own, can be
interpreted as a “necessary investment” for
the man’s seductive projects. These efforts
add to our disapproval of the man’s actions
rather than the approval of the man’s ac-
tions. The more elaborate and time-con-
suming the man’s effort to provide care for
the woman, the more approving or repul-
sive our reaction grows, depending on the
context. SGP at least seems to be a view
that requires thorough examination if
there are reasons to think that generalized
moral imperatives cannot reliably apply to
another situation. Reasons for a judgment
in a situation is not guaranteed to have the
same valence in other situations.
By taking the lengths to express a
Particularist point, I do not suggest that
Particularists necessarily have it right
when it comes to understanding what a
moral life entails. Rather, what I claim is
that the amount of argumentative defense
that is required for an SGP-motivated
approach is not a simple task and there-
fore does not coincide with the unquali-
fied dominance it has as the philosophical
background for ethical AI research. Also,
I wish to make the larger point that there
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “SGP as a moral theory is not in a secure enough
position to be the default framework for the replication
of ethical decision-making.”
must have been a reason external to the ar-
gumentative soundness or intuitive appeal
that made SGP gain its prominent status.
I hypothesize that the technological need
of ethical AI research enframed ethics into
Ready-Ethics, which views normativity as
fully explainable through SGP. As ethics
was reorganized into its empirically trac-
table counterpart that is Ready-Ethics, the
need to propagate artificial agents present-
ed by technology gave way to an approach
to normativity where it only makes sense
to adopt SGP as the default theory for the
replication of ethical decision-making.
SGP, which posits that the totality of mor-
al life is explainable through principles,
allows for the possibility that a “formal
specification” of morality is discoverable.
Although SGP is a theory of what moral
life consists of, it cannot have been cho-
sen as a default theory for the replication
of ethical decision-making by a responsible
moral theorist given its controversiality.
Given these reasons, I believe that SGP was
promoted through the needs of technolog-
ical development, specifically through the
mechanism of enframing that Heidegger
proposed.
Conclusion
Through this paper, I provided an
exposition of Heidegger’s theory of en-
framing and provided an explanation for
why that phenomenon can be useful in ex-
plaining an existing trend that adopts SGP
as the philosophical basis for the ethical
AI research projects. From this, it may be
re-emphasized that all decisions made by
those who devise ethical decision-making
frameworks contribute to their projection
of a certain viewpoint about ethics that is
embodied through the implementation of
those frameworks, whether the creators of
such agents actually believe in those moral
viewpoints or not. Additional argumen-
tation is needed to examine whether the
implementations based on enframed ethics
are indeed dangerous. ■

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 FEATURE

Media Studies Goes

Transnational
with professor Anthony Fung
by Sally Hong

Anthony Fung, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s

School of Journalism, was a visiting professor at the Buffett Institute for Global
Affairs in the Winter 2020 Quarter. During this time, he taught two classes
regarding transnational media and cultural studies, both of which were a part
of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of
Radio/Television/Film. Professor Fung is a prominent researcher and author
in the field of global media, popular culture, creative industries, and youth cul-
ture, among several others. He is particularly interested in studying and pro-
moting cultural studies in Asia.

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 H aving grown up exposed to music and film from around the world, professor
Anthony Fung had a strong conviction that whatever he did in the future, it
would be related to the media. Not only did he obtain undergraduate, masters, and
PhD degrees in media studies, but he also took on jobs in the industry, including a
reporter, TV program host, radio show DJ, and fashion columnist.

“My work, my hobby, and my leisure are all the same thing,” he said. He finds it
meaningful to study what he calls “day-to-day knowledge,” or knowledge we are con-
stantly surrounded and influenced by.

“People spend so much time listening to music, watching videos, and socializing
on social media,” said Fung. “I think my research is most related to our daily lives but is
the least studied.”

Fung said he initially studied music because it was less limited by cultural and geo-
graphic boundaries than other forms of pop culture.

“People these days might not know

Korea, but [they] listen to K-pop. I grew up “In the past, when
listening to both Western popular music and
J-pop,” he said. we referred to
However, Fung’s research interests globalization, it
have changed as dominant forms of media
give way to new mediums and methods of
always meant
communication. Fung noticed that the most
prominent form of media was also constant-
Americanization.”
ly changing, and that his topic of research
had to change with it. When television was
the most important form of entertainment, he conducted research regarding Korean
and Japanese TV dramas, as well as Asian shows influenced by American TV, like “Ugly
Betty” or “Survivor.” Now, Fung spends most of his time researching social media and
games.

Fung is fascinated by how media is constantly changing. In the past, his research
was classified as “popular culture,” broadly referring to music, animations, TV, and
movies. Now, popular culture is increasingly global and creative. With the rise of new
forms of media, including social media platforms like Youtube and TikTok, it is often
called the “creative industry.”

Fung also noted that media studies is becoming increasingly globalized, recalling
“Parasite,” a Korean film that won the Oscar for best picture in February, the first Asian
film to do so. Researchers like Fung now have to study the international flow and im-
pacts of diverse cultures and markets, in addition to local influences.

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 FEATURE

“In the past, when we referred to globalization, it always meant Americanization,”

Fung said. “TikTok started as a company based in Beijing, but now teenagers all over
the world are using it. The impact is far bigger than what we expected.”

While working in the internal research department for TikTok, the widely
popular video-sharing app, Fung realized that social media had become a new form of
professional culture.

“Professional culture in the old days meant it must be recognized by others in the
community of others in the same profession,” Fung explained. “Now, with the new
culture, not only is it online, but it is also often transnational.”

Fung’s own research keeps him busy, but he also finds time to serve as a mentor
for undergraduate researchers. He considers students especially valuable assets in media
studies, since young people are the primary consumers of social media and are particu-
larly knowledgeable about its production, functions and culture.

Fung said he hopes that undergraduate students continue to maintain their inter-
est in research and academia, fields that he believes have unique merits.

“There are not many jobs one could find that are always interesting. Many treat
their job as a burden, but research is different. You find it interesting, and you study a
topic because you like it,” said Fung. “It’s a kind of lifelong job: if you finish a topic, you
will always find a new one. It’s a never-ending process.”

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 Human Development and Psychological Services

Evaluating Interactive
Social Justice
Education:
The Relationship between
Responsive Fiction and Social
Empathy
by Samantha Oberman
In our current political climate, there tional research has shown an indirect posi-
is an increased effort to make a difference tive influence of social justice education on
in the world. Companies are paying for various educational outcomes. However,
diversity and inclusion programs to try to analyses of the addition of social justice
eliminate racism and sexual harassment in frameworks to curriculums have focused
the workplace.1 There is a push for schools on the effects on schools as a whole, rath-
to fund civics programs that encourage er than analyzing the programs’ effects on
students to take action within their com- learners.3,4,5,6
munities,2 while non-profits continue to Social justice education — the teach-
educate the public on social justice issues ing of systemic inequality and social op-
to encourage positive change. Despite this pression with the goal of developing a
increase in programming and attention, commitment to lasting changing and skills
there has not been a commensurate in- necessary to foster that change — has a ro-
crease in research on the efficacy of such bust theoretical foundation.7 It rests on the
educational programs. Of the work that notion that a deep understanding of sys-
has been done, ethnographic and correla- temic injustice, and how we contribute to
1 Josh Bersin, “Why Diversity and Inclusion Will Be a Top Priority For 2016,” Forbes, accessed May 13, 2019, https://www.forbes.
com/sites/joshbersin/2015/12/06/why-diversity-and-inclusion-will-be-a-top-priority-for-2016/#1139a0922ed5
2 Sarah Shapiro and Catherine Brown, “The State of Civics Education,” Center for American Progress, accessed May 13, 2019,
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/02/21/446857/state-civics-education/
3 Kathleen Marie Brown, “Leadership for Social Justice and Equity: Weaving a Transformative Framework and Pedagogy,” Educa-
tional Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 77–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X03259147
4 Aaron Einfeld and Denise Collins, “The Relationships Between Service-Learning, Social Justice, Multicultural Competence, and
Civic Engagement,” Journal of College Student Development, 49(2), 95–109. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2008.0017
5 Carolyn M Shields, “Dialogic Leadership for Social Justice: Overcoming Pathologies of Silence. Educational Administration Quar-
terly,” 40(1), 109–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X03258963
6 George Theoharis, “Social Justice Educational Leaders and Resistance: Toward a Theory of Social Justice Leadership,” Education-
al Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X06293717
7 Maurianne Adams and Ximena Zúñiga, “Working for Social Justice,” In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, D. C. J. Catalano, K.
“Safire” DeJong, H. W. Hackman, L. E. Hopkins, … X. Zúñiga, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (4th ed., pp. 599–604). New
York, NY: Routledge.

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 forms of oppression through our language,
behavior, and thoughts, can teach us to
“Evaluating social justice
analyze and change our behavior, leading
to individual accountability and ally-ship education is a largely
towards marginalized groups.8 This educa-
tional theory requires a deep level of empa- unstudied field.”
thy in order to analyze one’s own privilege
and treat everyone with respect and value, lem solving,14 and student participation.1516
regardless of social identity.9 In addition, there is ample evidence that
In addition to the educational theo- storytelling and fiction can increase empa-
ry, there is strong psychological evidence thy and improve theory of mind17 because
that empathy, specifically social empathy, it forces the reader to strengthen their
leads to prosocial and helping behaviors.10 perspective-taking skills.18 Therefore, in-
Research has shown that by increasing teractive fiction and choose-your-own-ad-
one’s likelihood to develop empathy about venture stories that focus on social justice
a social issue, such as by having someone issues are a theoretically robust area of
focus on how another person in that situ- study.
ation feels, rather than focus on objective This study analyzed the strengths and
facts, they become more likely to aid in that weaknesses of two social justice education
particular issue.11 However, there is a gap pedagogical approaches, online and facil-
in the literature analyzing the effect of so- itated, and the differences in how partic-
cial justice education and the differences in ipants demonstrate empathy between the
participants’ empathy levels after engaging two approaches. Analysis was conducted
in this type of education. through both quantitative and qualitative
Although limited, research on specif- measures. Adult-age participants attend-
ically interactive and web-enhanced learn- ing a social justice education workshop in
ing has shown to increase engagement in Chicago were given a pre- and post-test to
students.12 Introducing an interactive com- analyze changes in their social empathy.
ponent to education results in higher levels They then participated in a one-hour focus
of conceptual learning,13 cooperative prob- group interview where they discussed their
8 Barbara J. Love, “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness,” In “Readings for Diversity and Social Justice.”
9 Suzanne Pharr, “Reflections on Liberation,” In “Readings for Diversity and Social Justice.”
10 C. Daniel Batson, Johee Chang, Ryan Orr, and Jennifer Rowland, “Empathy, Attitudes, and Action: Can Feeling for a Member of
a Stigmatized Group Motivate One to Help the Group? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,” 28(12), 1656–1666. https://doi.
org/10.1177/014616702237647
11 Batson et. al, “Empathy, Attitudes, and Action.”
12 Peter DePietro, “Transforming Education with New Media: Participatory Pedagogy, Interactive Learning and Web 2.0,” Interna-
tional Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society, 8(5), 1–11.
13 Carl N. McDaniel, Bradford C. Lister, Michael H. Hanna, and Harry Roy, “Increased Learning Observed in Redesigned Introduc-
tory Biology Course that Employed Web-enhanced, Interactive Pedagogy,” CBE—Life Sciences Education, 6(3), 243–249. https://
doi.org/10.1187/cbe.07-01-0003
14 Jennifer K. Knight and William B. Wood, “Teaching More by Lecturing Less,” Cell Biology Education, 4(4), 298–310. https://
doi.org/10.1187/05-06-0082
15 Rina Benmayor, “Digital Storytelling as a Signature Pedagogy for the New Humanities,” Arts and Humanities in Higher Educa-
tion, 7(2), 188–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022208088648
16 Knight, J., and Wood, W.B., “Digital Storytelling.”
17 David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind,” Science, 342(6156), 377–380.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239918
18 Loris Vezzali, Sofia Stathi, Dino Giovannini, Dora Capozza, and Elena Trifiletti, “The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing
prejudice,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(2), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12279

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 experiences in the workshop. Interview
responses were coded using a combination
of established social empathy subscales, di-
mensions of knowledge and cognitive pro-
cesses, and grounded theory. Evaluating
social justice education is a largely unstud-
ied field. This study begins to fill that gap
through its evaluation of two social justice
education pedagogies, online and facilitat-
ed, by analyzing how participants demon-
strate social empathy in both conditions
and what their strengths and challenges
are in each.
The decision to focus on demonstra-
tions of social empathy is rooted in the
research that social empathy is a strong
predicting factor of social action.19,20 Since
informed social action is one of the main
goals of social justice education, social em-
pathy is a strong proxy for success. This
study examined the program “Tomor-
row,”21 which is hosted on the website of
the non-profit Unsilence. Unsilence is
a Chicago based social justice education
501(c)(3) non-profit. Its mission is “to illu-
minate stories of human rights and ignite
action against injustice,” (UNSILENCE,
n.d.)22 which it works to accomplish by
designing and implementing educational
programming on social justice and human
rights in schools, community centers, mu-
seums, and other institutions. Unsilence
programming is rooted in its educational
framework, which breaks down barriers
to social justice and access to human rights
into three forms of silencing: institutional,
cultural, and personal silencing. Unsilence
creates both online and facilitated learning
experiences that teach participants about
the systemic silencing of injustice in an
effort to increase empathy and lead to in-
formed action.23 “Tomorrow” is a choose-
your-own-adventure story24 based on a
teacher’s original testimony that navigates
participants through the aftermath of a
student’s suicide at a high school. “Tomor-
row” can be completed online or be facil-
itated by a trained Unsilence facilitator.
This study analyzed the implementation
strengths and weaknesses and learning
outcomes of “Tomorrow” as both an on-
line tool and as a facilitated workshop for
students and educators in the Chicago area,
by analyzing how participants demonstrat-
ed social empathy
Research Questions
In light of the gaps in research on so-
cial empathy and interactive storytelling in
social justice education, there are two cen-
tral research questions at the heart of this
study:
1. What are the differences in the
way social justice education participants
demonstrate social empathy between on-
line group learning experiences and facil-
itated learning experiences?
2. What are the implementation
strengths, challenges, and learning out-
comes of online versus facilitated interac-
tive social justice pedagogies?
Methodology
Participants
Participants consisted of educators,

19 Batson et. al, “Empathy, Attitudes, and Action.”

20 Elizabeth A. Segal, Karen E. Gerdes, Cynthia A. Lietz, M. Alex Wagaman and Jennifer M. Geiger, “Assessing empathy,” New
York: Columbia University Press.
21 Danny M. Cohen, Sammi Oberman and Anya Patel, “Tomorrow,” Retrieved from www.unsilence.org/tomorrow
22 “UNSILENCE,” accessed May 6, 2019, from www.unsilence.org/about
23 “UNSILENCE.”
24 Unsilence uses the phrase “choose-your-own-adventure” because that is established terminology associated with this type of
methodology. However, it is in no way meant to trivialize suicide or stories of suicide.

131

97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 131 11/12/20 2:38 PM

 ▶Table 1

students, and other Chicago residents (Ta- Social Empathy Index (SEI). A
ble 1). The demographic breakdown aligns modified version of the SEI,27 was used as
with the overall demographic data of Un- the pre- and post-survey. This instrument
silence participants.25 The sample was gen- is the most recent and robust empathy mea-
erally equally distributed between online sure currently available and has a particular
and facilitated conditions. As shown in focus on social justice and systemic social
Table 1, all demographic factors were split justice issues. Therefore, it is a particularly
between workshop type, and a series of useful measure to assess change in partic-
t-tests showed no significant differences ipants’ social empathy. The final measure
based on demographic factors between the consisted of 32 items (α = .78) focusing on
two randomly assigned groups. self-other awareness, perspective-taking,
The program: “Tomorrow” contextual understanding of systemic bar-
“Tomorrow” is a social justice pro- riers, and macro self-other awareness or
gram that can be experienced as an online perspective-taking (Appendix A; Appen-
tool or as a facilitated workshop. It consists dix B).
of a choose-your-own-adventure story Procedure
that follows a high school the day after one This study implemented a mixed
of its students has died by suicide.26 The method design to collect data. All partici-
story in “Tomorrow” is based on an orig- pants began by completing the Social Em-
inal testimony from a high school teacher pathy Index, or SEI, pre-test (Appendix
who submitted her story to Unsilence for A) before participating in the workshop. I
use in mental health programming (See randomly assigned participants to receive
Appendix E for sample of “Tomorrow”). either the online or the facilitated program
of “Tomorrow.” The facilitated group re-
Measures
ceived a completely facilitated group ex-
25 “UNSILENCE.”
26 Cohen et. al, “Tomorrow.”
27 Elizabeth A. Segal, Karen E. Gerdes, Cynthia A. Lietz, M. Alex Wagaman and Jennifer M. Geiger, “Social Empathy Index [Mea-
surement Instrument],” New York: Columbia University Press.

132

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 perience. The online group completed the
program on a tablet in small groups and
received no facilitation. I met with both
groups in person. After the workshop,
for both the online and facilitated, partic-
ipants completed a post-test, repeating the
SEI (Appendix B). This provided data on
participants’ change in beliefs related to
the contextual understanding of systemic
barriers and the macro self-other aware-
ness and perspective-taking.28 I then col-
lected qualitative data through in-person
semi-structured small group interviews.
Focus Group Interview Analysis
I used a grounded theory approach
to analyze the focus group interview tran-
scripts.29 From the open codes, I saw three
general themes begin to emerge: demon-
strations of social empathy, demonstra-
tions of learned knowledge, and personal
reactions and opinions. I wrote the coding
scheme based on the literature in these cat-
egories. The codes for demonstrations of
social empathy were rooted in the litera-
ture on subscales of social empathy: Af-
28 Segal et. al, “Assessing Empathy.”
29 Kathy Charmaz, “Grounded Theory: Objectivist and Constructivist Methods,” in N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln, Handbook of
Qualitative Research (Second, pp. 509–536). California: Sage Publications, Inc.
30 Segal et. al, “Assessing Empathy.”
31 David R. Krathwohl, “A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview,” Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. Retrieved from
JSTOR.
32 Ibid.
133
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 133
fective Mentalizing, Perspective-Taking,
Self-other Awareness, Affective Response,
Emotion Regulation, Contextual Under-
standing of Systemic Barriers, and Macro
Self-other Awareness or Perspective-Tak-
ing.30
When grouping open-codes about
knowledge, I realized that they aligned
with Bloom’s Dimensions of Knowledge
Taxonomy.31 In order to understand and
compare demonstrations of different types
of knowledge, I used the updated version
of Bloom’s taxonomy as a guide when writ-
ing the coding scheme. Bloom’s taxonomy
describes four dimensions of knowledge:
factual, conceptual, procedural, and meta-
cognitive. These dimensions of knowledge
exist as distinct categories and not as a
spectrum or a hierarchy.32 When I created
the codes, I did not assign values to them.
I instead described the qualifications for
each dimension of knowledge and cogni-
tive process together in addition to how
they related to the data. Lastly, I separated
participants’ personal reactions and opin-
ions from social empathy and knowledge
▶Table 2
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Figure 2◀
in order to conduct separate analyses.
Social Empathy Index Results
I analyzed the differences in the way
participants demonstrated empathy be-
fore and after the “Tomorrow” workshop
by comparing participant scores on the
SEI33 before and after participating in a
one-hour workshop on mental health and
social justice. All numerical results can be
found in Table 2. As shown in Figure 2, the
post-test score distribution, the red dotted
line, is significantly greater than the pre-
test score distribution. An insignificant
difference would visually have more over-
lap, specifically around the mean.
I found that there were no statistical-
ly significant differences in social empathy
between participants in the online condi-
tion (M = 5.36, SD = 0.09) and the facilitat-
ed condition (M = 5.28, SD = 0.08); t(19) =
0.171, p = 0.05) at the end of the program.
This means that there is not enough evi-
dence to conclude that the slight difference
found between the scores of participants
in the facilitated versus online conditions
were due to the different conditions.
33 Segal et. al, “Assessing Empathy.”
134
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 134
Discussion
In accordance with social justice the-
ory and social justice education learning
objectives, I hypothesized that participants’
social empathy scores would increase af-
ter participating in the workshop. I also
hypothesized that the increase would be
greater for those who participated in a fa-
cilitated version of the workshop than for
those in the online version. The dependent
variable was the difference between the
pre-test and post-test scores. Both tests
were adaptations of Segal et al.’s (2017)
SEI. As shown in Table 2, the results
aligned with the first hypothesis. While
causal claims cannot be made due to the
absence of a control group, a paired t-test
showed a statistically significant increase
of 0.14 points between pre-test and post-
test scores, resulting in a 0.52 effect size.
This means there was a moderately large
increase in social empathy scores from
before and after the workshop that was
not due to chance. However, the results
showed no significant difference between
the online and facilitated conditions. I used
qualitative focus group data to investigate
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “There was a pattern showing a connection between
empathy and engagement.”
what a 0.14-point increase on the social
empathy index looks like in reality. The
focus group data were purely exploratory
and were used as an opportunity to de-
scribe the quantitative results and explore
the nature of what had been gained from
the experience.
Associations Between Social Empathy and
Dimensions of Knowledge
Through an iterative process, the fi-
nal coding scheme included three main
themes: Investment in Characters, Social
Justice Learning, and Connection to Self.
The following abridged section will ex-
plain each theme and the practical implica-
tions of the data.
Theme 1: Investment in Charac-
ters. Through grounded theory, I found
that participants who demonstrated high
levels of affective mentalizing and perspec-
tive-taking also reported high levels of en-
gagement and enjoyment in the program.
Affective mentalizing occurred when a
participant imagined a character’s response
or how an individual would feel in a given
situation. It is common for people to expe-
rience affective mentalizing when reading
a vivid book, speaking to someone on the
phone, or listening to a friend describe an
experience. All of these situations elicit the
creation of a visual image, which can spark
a physiological response.34
Perspective-taking, another aspect
of empathy, is the attempt to understand
what other people are thinking and feel-
ing based on their personal situations.35
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
135
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 135
Perspective-taking utilizes theory of mind,
the psychological process of understanding
that other people have their own thoughts
and experiences that differ from our own.
Therefore, perspective-taking is the ability
to receive information regarding how an
individual is responding to a situation, and
to utilize the knowledge to infer how the
individual feels in that situation. In order
to achieve actual perspective-taking, one
must separate how their own reaction to
the situation and use the information giv-
en to imagine how the other person feels.36
This is commonly referred to as “stepping
into someone else’s shoes.”
Throughout the interviews, there
was a pattern showing a connection be-
tween empathy and engagement. These
findings are significant because they not
only contribute to new paths for research
but are essential for social justice education
designers in understanding what aspects
increase empathy.
Theme 2: Social Justice Learning.
The second theme combined the empathy
subscales that specifically focus on social
empathy — the contextual understanding
of systemic barriers and macro self-other
awareness or perspective-taking — with
conceptual and procedural knowledge di-
mensions, based on Bloom’s taxonomy.
Contextual Understanding of Systemic
Barriers, referred to as “contextual under-
standing” for brevity, is the ability to apply
a sociohistorical context on a macro-scale
to a given situation in order to fully un-
derstand the differences of one’s lived ex-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 periences compared to those of one in a
different social group or identity.37,38,39 It
is crucial for an individual to understand
the systemic nature of oppression and how
it affects individuals differently based on
context and culture, in order to develop a
true sense of social empathy. Participants
demonstrated this throughout the inter-
views.
Macro Self-Other Awareness or
Perspective-Taking, or MSP, is the most
complex aspect of social empathy and the
most difficult to achieve. MSP combines
macro self-other awareness and perspec-
tive-taking by using the contextual un-
derstanding of sociohistorical factors to
simultaneously put oneself in the shoes
of someone who holds different identities
— perspective-taking — and understand
that they are different and will never ful-
ly comprehend their experience — macro
self-other awareness.40 One cannot express
social empathy without reaching a level of
acceptance with this dichotomy. Perspec-
tive-taking is essential in gaining empath-
ic insight, which often leads to social re-
sponsibility. However, believing that one
understands the experiences of those who
have been oppressed is an impossible and
potentially harmful practice. Therefore,
MSP is demonstrated by an ongoing will-
ingness and desire to learn about others’
perspectives, experiences, and needs.41,42
Social justice learning is rooted in
making informed social change, either
within oneself or in the world. This re-
search highlighted the importance of com-
37 Ibid.
38 Elizabeth A. Segal, “Social Empathy: A Model Built on Empathy, Contextual Understanding, and Social Responsibility That
Promotes Social Justice,” Journal of Social Service Research, 37(3), pp. 266–277.
39 Karen E. Gerdes, Elizabeth A. Segal, Kelly F. Jackson and Jennifer L. Mullins, “Teaching Empathy: A Framework Rooted in
Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Social Justice,” Journal of Social Work Education, 47(1), 109–131. https://doi.org/10.5175/
JSWE.2011.200900085
40 Segal et. al, “Assessing Empathy.”
41 Ibid.
42 Segal, “Social Empathy.”
43 Krathwohl, “A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy.”
136
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 136
bining conceptual knowledge, procedural
knowledge, contextual understanding, and
MSP in motivating participants to not only
make change but to make this change in-
formed and positive.
Theme 3: Connection to Self. The
final theme focused on metacognitive
knowledge and the connections partici-
pants made between the workshop and
their own lives. Many participants relat-
ed the content to their own lives without
being prompted by the facilitator. This is
significant for two reasons: social justice
education requires learners to self-reflect
and think critically on their own life and
past behaviors, and it acts as an example of
overcoming personal silencing. According
to the taxonomy, metacognitive knowl-
edge refers to one’s awareness of their own
knowledge and understanding.43 It was de-
fined on the coding scheme as demonstrat-
ing self-awareness in relation to mental
health or social justice.
This theme does not include any
empathy subscales because empathy does
not require a connection to oneself. This
theme solely focuses on using the informa-
tion in order to critically analyze one’s own
thoughts and behaviors.
Many participants brought up their
personal experiences without being
prompted. This is because the interview
protocol did not directly ask participants
to bring up their own experiences in order
to ensure their own emotional safety. Re-
gardless, six participants shared a story of
someone who had either attempted suicide
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 or died by suicide.
It is important for practitioners
of social justice education to be prepared
to handle students who disclose personal
experiences. Participants in this workshop
were never asked to share their own ex-
periences, but many chose to do so. The
story in “Tomorrow” highlights the lack
of training that teachers and educators re-
ceive on mental health issues, and the con-
sequences for that lack of training; partici-
pant responses further supported the need
for practitioners and educators to be able
to safely handle these conversations. Be-
cause the fictional narrative is so close to
students’ experiences, it is highly likely that
students will express a wide range of reac-
tions when implemented in classrooms.
While these results show that the tool has
benefits when experienced online or when
facilitated, teachers must always be aware
of what it can evoke in students and be
trained on how to safely handle those reac-
tions.
Limitations
Study design. Due to a lack of re-
search in social justice education evalua-
tion, the present study was exploratory.
Therefore, no causal claims could be made.
However, the study made a significant con-
tribution to the field by analyzing patterns
between social empathy and dimensions of
knowledge.
This study utilized a within-group de-
sign, analyzing change within participants
44 Gary Charness, Uri Gneezy and Michael A. Kuhn, “Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design,” Journal
of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.08.009
“Choose-your-own adventure stories did not ask the
reader to play the role but instead gave them agency in
their education.”
137
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 137
rather than between groups. While this
type of research design is subject to prac-
tice effects, I am confident that this did not
significantly alter the data because practice
effects tend to be seen when assessments
measure a skill or ability that can be in-
creased simply by taking the assessment.44
The SEI does not meet this requirement,
and instead asks participants to rate their
reactions and feelings to given statements.
Future Research
Most importantly, this study did not
allow for the generation of causal claims.
Therefore, this research shows patterns
in how participants understood and made
sense of what they experienced in the
workshop. Future research should not only
test for a causal increase in social empathy
due to social justice education, but also test
the relationship between social empathy
and various dimensions of knowledge. In
addition, future research should also ana-
lyze the long-term effects of social justice
education.
Implications for Education Design and
Implementation
Engagement and perspective-tak-
ing. The associations found in this study
between engagement, knowledge, and so-
cial empathy discovered in this study are
helpful for further work in the design and
implementation of social justice education.
Engaging students can be an uphill battle,
and many educators utilize harmful peda-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 gogies such as simulations and role playing
in an effort to increase student engage-
ment.45 The results in this study highlight-
ed a pattern between engagement, per-
spective-taking, and affective mentalizing
that participants enjoyed without being
subject to emotional manipulation, student
shock, or trivialization of issues.4647 It also
found that interactive storytelling, specif-
ically choose-your-own-adventure stories,
did not ask the reader to play the role but
instead gave them agency in their educa-
tion to learn about different perspectives
from a safe distance. Educational designers
should prioritize having students practice
perspective-taking skills using storytelling,
particularly by reading stories from differ-
ent perspectives.
Social justice learning. The most
complicated relationship demonstrated in
this study was that between conceptual and
procedural knowledge, contextual under-
standing, and MSP. All of these domains
are essential to social justice learning (Ad-
ams & Zúñiga, 2018; Bell, 2010; Love, 2000;
Segal, 2011; Zúñiga et al., 2012); however,
this study highlighted the interconnected-
ness of these concepts in how participants
learn. Conversations about social justice
within focus groups had aspects of all of
these codes. Therefore, when designing
social justice education, it is important to
have multilayered learning objectives that
cover all of these concepts. Participants
benefited from having both abstract con-
cepts and specific examples at their dis-
posal. When teaching about complex so-
cial justice theory, it is useful to combine
conceptual knowledge with stories that
45 Rebecca Onion, “Classroom Historical Role-Playing Games Can Easily Go Wrong. So Why Do Teachers Keep Assigning
Them?”, accessed May 21, 2019, https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/05/history-classroom-role-playing-games-slavery-holo-
caust.html
46 Lee Anne Bell, “Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching,” New York, NY: Rout-
ledge: Taylor & Francis Group.
47 Stacey Mann and Danny M. Cohen, “When a Boxcar Isn’t a Boxcar,” Exhibitionist: The Journal of the National Association of
Museum Exhibitions, 30(2), pp. 26–31.
138
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 138
demonstrate the application of these con-
cepts. This helped students demonstrate
contextual understanding and MSP, or
social empathy, because they could use
specific examples from the story to apply
the knowledge they had learned. Because
contextual understanding and MSP are
most important in motivating individuals
to take social action (Segal et al., 2017a), it
is important to ensure students have tan-
gible examples to demonstrate they have
mastered this material.
Teacher preparedness. Social jus-
tice education evokes a wide range of re-
sponses from learners. This workshop
did not require or encourage any form of
self-disclosure. However, at least one per-
son in every group spoke about themselves
or their own experiences in some capacity.
Therefore, it is essential that teachers are
able to facilitate these conversations with
their students and have access to additional
resources when necessary.
Conclusion
Based on the SEI results in this study,
it is clear that there was a statistically sig-
nificant increase in social empathy in par-
ticipants from before the workshop as
compared to after. The interview data con-
textualized this finding and demonstrated
that an increase in social empathy is relat-
ed to engagement and knowledge. These
findings are essential in moving forward
for researchers, educational designers,
and teachers. Utilizing affective mentaliz-
ing and strengthening perspective-taking
skills are related to engagement and have
the potential of making social justice learn-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 ing richer and more enjoyable through in-
teractive storytelling. Conceptual and pro-
cedural knowledge and social empathy are
interrelated concepts that should be taught
and researched together. Lastly, social jus-
tice education evokes a lot of emotion and
self-reflection in students that teachers
need to be prepared for. There is a strong
need and desire for social justice education.
However, this education is not sufficient
without robust research and evaluation of
its impact. This study demonstrated a nov-
el method for evaluating social justice edu-
cation by using social empathy as a proxy
for success and utilizing mixed methods.
Appendices (A-D)
Appendix A: Pre-test Survey Adapted Social Empathy Index
139
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 139
Increasing social empathy increases one’s
likelihood to take social action (Gerdes,
Segal, et al., 2011; Hoffman, 1989; Segal,
2011; Segal et al., 2017a) and participate
in helping behaviors (Batson et al., 2002;
Hoffman, 1989). Therefore, working to
increase social empathy through educa-
tion helps to make tangible change against
injustice. This is an incredibly important
and relevant field of research because to-
day’s society needs to enact change. More
research on this topic should focus on how
to expand the impact and access of social
justice education in order to keep working
towards a more just society. ■
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Appendix B: Post-test Survey Adapted Social Empathy Index

Appendix C: Interview Protocol

140

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 Appendix D: Sample of “Tomorrow”

141

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 Meet the
Office of
Undergraduate
Research
by Joy Zheng

Northwestern’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR)

was formally established in the 2012-13 academic year to
extend support for student research beyond campus labs
and research groups, and to serve as an information source
for undergraduate researchers and prospective researchers.
Every year, the OUR awards research funding to hundreds
of students, often for independent research projects. The
office also provides advising, peer mentorship and work-
shops, and hosts the annual Undergraduate Research and
Arts Exposition. Read on to meet the people behind the
OUR, who work to make these opportunities possible.

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 Office of Undergraduate
Research

Megan Novak Wood

As the associate director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Megan Novak Wood
advises students and administers the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program and
Undergraduate Language Grant program. Novak organizes the programs and helps
students throughout the grant application process. She also runs workshops on creat-
ing and presenting poster presentations, orientation for the Summer Undergraduate
Research Grant, and other professional development workshops.

One of her favorite research projects was an interdisciplinary materials science project
that incorporated the sciences and the arts. The student researcher created an electro-
spray to replicate Japanese ink marbling techniques. Using the traditional method, a
significant amount of paint is wasted, so the student worked to develop a technology
that would reduce the amount of waste while maintaining the visual appearance of
traditional techniques.

In her free time, Novak explores the neighborhoods of Chicago with her family. They
enjoy picking a single neighborhood and spending whole days getting to know the cul-
ture and people, and learning more about the city.

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 Office of Undergraduate
Research

Bryce O’Tierney
Bryce O’Tierney is the first face you see when you enter the Office of Undergraduate
Research (OUR). Not only does she let your advisor know that you are here for your
appointment, but she is also in charge of administration and communication in the office.

O’Tierney supports other staff members by helping them establish the budget, coordi-
nate the Weekly Blast, and arrange the Chicago Research Symposium. On an average
day, she assists students with paperwork, conducts onboarding sessions to the various
grants sponsored by the OUR, plans for workshops, or greets visitors to the office and
answers their questions.

She enjoys getting to know Northwestern students and often chats with them about
their classes and interests. One of the most memorable research projects she has encoun-
tered explored sneaker design and its relationship with gender roles and social interactions.

O’Tierney is also a professional musician. She is a Bienen and Weinberg alumna and is
currently in a duo with her twin sister. She mainly plays the violin, but she enjoys play-
ing the piano and singing as well.

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 Office of Undergraduate
Research

Jenna Thompson-Vasquez
Jennah Thompson-Vasquez plays an integral role in the Office of Undergraduate Re-
search (OUR) as the third advisor and outreach coordinator. She works with students
to develop their research ideas and interests, directing them to resources, helping them
draft proposals, and connecting them with faculty. For outreach, she often visits classes,
distributes promotional materials, and communicates with other offices around campus
on the behalf of the OUR.

One research project that stands out to Thompson-Vasquez was that of a first-year
student interested in the effects of the Maoist Revolution in Nepal. The student studied
how the political and domestic roles of women in Nepali society shifted as a conse-
quence of the Revolution.

To relax, Thompson-Vasquez partakes in hobbies that fuel learning; she loves to read,
enjoys the visual arts, and, when the weather allows, she also cares for her garden.

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 Office of Undergraduate
Research

Evangeline Su
Evangeline Su is the undergraduate workshop coordinator. She runs the Science Re-
search Workshop during winter quarter and the Finding a Lab workshops throughout
the year. She helps students apply for the Summer Undergraduate Research Grant
(SURG) program and identify potential labs and faculty with whom to work. She also
teaches students how to read research papers and make the most out of their mentor-
ship experience. Su enjoys seeing students grow, gain knowledge about their interests,
and learn from their peers over the course of the workshops.

Su is an avid advocate for women and underrepresented identities in STEM. She advis-
es both the Association of Undergraduate Women in Science, providing resources and
opportunities for its members to be involved in science research, and Maker Girl, which
supports STEM Circuits, a graduate and postdoctoral program for women in STEM.

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 Office of Undergraduate
Research

Peter Civetta
Peter Civetta is the founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR).
He oversees all aspects of OUR operations, from outreach and promotion to grant man-
agement and administration. Depending on the day, he could be in classrooms talking
about the resources that the OUR offers, or in his office advising students on their
emerging research ideas, or running grant workshops.

The projects that Civetta enjoys the most are the more untraditional and artistic ones.
Five years ago, a watershed moment occurred when two Bienen students applied for a
Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) to fund their recording of a big band
jazz album. Ever since, there has been a rise in creative arts projects, from screenplays
to music recordings to choreography. Civetta said he is excited to see more arts and
humanities students create their own projects.

Outside the office, Civetta continues his passion for the arts by running a non-profit
children’s theater, The Extraordinarily Sophisticated Imagination Club, for kids ages 5
to 12, and the Secret Grandpa Improv Company, for high schoolers. Some participants
have been in the organization since they were in the sixth grade, and Civetta said he
loves watching them develop creatively and as individuals.

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 Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

Missing the Point:

China, Chineseness, and
Rhinoceros Endangerment
by Isabelle Zinghini

Introduction endangerment and extinction problems

Rhinoceroses are being killed in stag- are “primarily cultural issues, questions of
gering numbers in Africa to fuel an illegal what we value and what stories we tell, and
trade driven mostly by demand for horns only secondarily issues of science,” law, or
that comes primarily from China and trade.3 Heise’s research shows that certain
Vietnam. The black rhino population, for endangered species, often called “charis-
example, has dropped from 70,000 indi- matic megafauna,” are disproportionately
viduals in 1970 to an estimated 5,500 to- represented in conservation efforts and lit-
day.1 Although the trade in rhino horn was erature, while other species — most often
banned in China in 1993, a thriving black species of fish, reptiles, plants, insects, and
market has emerged and demand for rhino fungi — are not given the same amount of
horn remains high; in 2014, the price peak- attention. “Charismatic” animals attract
ed at $60,000 per kilogram. Anti-poaching attention not only because they are big
efforts in South Africa have failed because or cute, but also because they are invest-
the trade is so lucrative.2 The threat posed ed with deep symbolic and cultural mean-
to rhinoceros populations by poaching ings. It is essential to take these meanings
and the illegal trade in horn threatens to into account when looking at discourses
drive certain species of rhino to extinction. surrounding extinction and endanger-
This is not, however, just a matter of con- ment because conservation efforts and the
servation. As Ursula Heise argues, animal representational forms they deploy are
1 The Javan rhino is even more critically endangered, with only 69 Javan rhinoceroses left in the wild
“Rhino Populations | Rhino Facts | Save the Rhino International,” Save the Rhino, accessed May 01, 2019, https://www.savether-
hino.org/rhino-info/population-figures/
2 Andrea Crosta, Kimberly Sutherland, and Chiara Talerico, “Grinding Rhino: An Undercover Investigation on Rhino Horn Traf-
ficking in China and Vietnam.],” Elephant Action League, July 2017, https://elephantleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/
Grinding-Rhino-July2017-Elephant-Action-League.pdf
3 Ursula Heise, Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016),
3

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 “When the threat [to wildlife] is presented as an entire
country or culture, conservation discourses can prioritize
stereotypes over accuracy.”
influenced by emotional responses to the
potential loss of a creature that audiences
hold dear. Discourses produced as part of
efforts to conserve culturally meaningful
animals go far beyond the facts — they fall
at the intersection of national pride, sad-
ness and anger about losing beloved ani-
mals, and fear of threatening entities that
are a danger to wildlife. This fear of threats
to wildlife can be as concrete as poachers,
or as abstract as climate change, but when
the threat is presented as an entire coun-
try or culture, conservation discourses
can prioritize stereotypes over accuracy.
Like the panda in China or the bald
eagle in the United States, the rhinoceros
is a culturally important animal in Africa
and East Asia, as well as a well-known and
beloved animal around the world. In South
Africa, the rhinoceros is so important that
it is on the South African 10 rand bill. Rhi-
noceros endangerment has thus attracted
attention from governments, non-gov-
ernmental organizations, media outlets,
and popular culture. In 2012, Robert Hor-
mats, the United States Undersecretary
for Economic Growth, Energy, and the
Environment, held a press briefing under
the subject, “The U.S. Strategy to Combat
Wildlife Trafficking.” He gave an overview
of the current issues in international wild-
life trafficking and the United States’ role
in prevention efforts, and answered ques-
4 Robert Hormats, State Department Foreign Press Center Briefing (As Released by the US State Department) Subject: “The
U.S. Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking,” briefer: Robert Hormats, Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the
Environment, Department of State Location: The Foreign Press Center, Washington, D.C. Time: 9:00 a.m. EST Date: Thursday,
November 15, 2012
5 Yufang Gao, Kelly Stoner, Andy Lee, and Susan Clark, “Rhino horn trade in China: An analysis of the art and antiques market,”
Biological Conservation 201 (2016): 343-347.
151
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 151
tions from media outlets around the world.
One of the topics of interest was the ille-
gal international trade in rhinoceros horn
from South Africa to China and Vietnam.
Hormats explained that rhino horn has
“become part of what people regard as tra-
ditional Chinese medicine”:
Most of these traditional Chinese
medicines are not illegal. You go to a
store — I’m sure you’ve seen these stores,
where they have roots and all these
things. You don’t know what’s in them,
but they evidently work for people. But
rhino horn certainly doesn’t work, and
these — for anything [sic].4
Hormats was adamant that the Chi-
nese government tell its citizens “what
works and does not work” as medicine in
order to reduce Chinese demand for rhi-
no horn. In doing this, he attributed rhino
horn demand to traditional Chinese med-
icine, and indirectly described this type of
medicine by associating it with “roots and
all these things” and later as “natural prod-
ucts.” Although medicine is not the only
documented end use of rhino horn, it is
the one most commonly cited in the West.5
Yet the meaning of “traditional Chinese
medicines” as cited by Hormats can be elu-
sive — what makes them “traditional”? And
what makes them “Chinese”?
Hormats’ comments exemplify a dis-
course of rhino endangerment that is root-
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Tradition as Buzzword
“Buzzwords can help reduce As with most issues in which gov-

a complex problem into a ernments and non-governmental organi-

zations intervene, the rhino conservation
discourse is shaped by buzzwords that ap-
persuasive maxim.” pear self-evident but in fact can encompass
a variety of meanings without ever being
ed in preconceptions about China and Asia
defined. Cornwall and Brock point out
that generally supersede more objective
that the reliance of global development
analyses of what is driving poaching. It is
groups on buzzwords (e.g., “participation”
this discourse, which overwhelmingly at-
and “empowerment”) has shaped policy by
tributes the Chinese and Vietnamese de-
streamlining intervention into one-size-
mand for rhino horn to culture in general
fits-all, apolitical packages.8 NGOs and gov-
and tradition in particular, that is concern-
ernment bodies often use buzzwords that
ing. As Allen Chun articulates in his article
can energize and inform the public without
on the construction of Chineseness, “it is
being overly specific, and these buzzwords
more important to know who is speaking,
can help reduce a complex problem into
how statements are produced and dissemi-
a persuasive maxim. Cornwall and Brock
nated, how they relate to other discourses,
use the example of “poverty reduction,” an
and, finally, how they become systematized
innocuous-sounding term used by pow-
and institutionalized, if at all.”6 The focus
erful development agents like the United
of this thesis is on how China’s role in the
Nations and World Bank to describe their
illegal trade in rhino horn is imagined as a
initiatives and interventions. Poverty re-
problem of culture filtered through three
duction is so frequently cited that it has
interrelated lenses: tradition, medicine,
evolved past its literal meaning of reduc-
and race. These are not mutually exclu-
ing poverty to become a blanket term for
sive concepts: they often express the same
any intervention that changes the financial
ideas in different ways, though it is useful
state of a country. Words like “participa-
to consider them separately so that we can
tion” and “empowerment” have followed
better understand both what is unique to
a similar trajectory. A buzzword is rarely
each one and where and how they over-
explicitly defined because it is constructed
lap. For the purposes of this publication,
to be self-evident, yet its vagueness allows
the emphasis will be on the tradition lens,
it to take on a variety of different mean-
and argue that this form contributes to a
ings. The buzzword that is most important
discourse of endangerment that is ground-
to this discussion — tradition — is as potent
ed in long-standing and often problematic
as it is vague, a combination that allows it
ideas about tradition as the defining ele-
to be used in a variety of ways within the
ment of Chinese culture.7 This reinforces a
Western discourse of rhino horn demand.
narrative that blames rhino horn demand,
Although never explicitly defined,
and by extension the slaughter of rhinos,
“tradition” has several different meanings
on Chineseness itself.
in the materials I study here. The web-
6 Allen Chun, “Fuck Chineseness: On the Ambiguities of Ethnicity as Culture as Identity,” Boundary 223, no. 2 (1996): 115
7 Discussion of the medicine and race lenses can be found in the unabridged version of this thesis.
8 Andrea Cornwall and Karen Brock, “What do buzzwords do for development policy? A critical look at ‘participation’, ‘empower-
ment’ and ‘poverty reduction’,” Third world quarterly, 26.7 (2005): 1043-1060.

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 sites of the World Wildlife Fund, Humane
Society International, and Save the Rhi-
no use the phrases “Traditional Chinese
Medicine,” “traditional Chinese texts,”
“traditional Asian medicine,” and “tradi-
tional medicines” to describe end uses of
rhino horn. The capitalized “Traditional”
of Traditional Chinese Medicine charac-
terizes the Chinese medicines that are in-
cluded in the canon of the state-sanctioned
Traditional Chinese Medicine institu-
tion, whereas the lower case “traditional”
in “traditional Asian medicine” seems to
refer to any medicine that falls outside of
the limits of modern biomedicine. The
phrase “traditional Chinese texts” is used
on the Save the Rhino website to refer to
the “Bencao gangmu,” or “本草綱目,” a
Chinese pharmacopeia written in 1597. In
this case, “traditional” might just as easily
be replaced with ancient, pre-modern, or
imperial. While uppercase Traditional as
part of “Traditional Chinese Medicine”
and lower case traditional as in “tradition-
al Asian medicine” are both functioning as
adjectives, the former is part of the noun
phrase “Traditional Chinese Medicine,”
whereas the latter is used to directly de-
scribe a certain type of medicine practiced
in or attributed to Asia.9
Perhaps the most striking use of “tra-
ditional” is in describing the use of rhino
horn as an anti-cancer strategy — a prac-
tice that seems to have begun following an
early 2000s rumor that rhino horn cured a
high-ranking Vietnamese official’s cancer.
According to the WWF website, “pow-
dered horn is used in traditional Asian
medicine as a supposed cure for a range of
9 This is a case in which two of my lenses, tradition and medicine,
overlap. There is a discussion of TCM from a medicinal stand-
point in the next section.
10 “African Rhinos,” World Wildlife Fund website, Accessed May
01, 2019, http://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/endangered_
species/rhinoceros/african_rhinos/
11 Crosta, “Grinding Rhino”
153
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 153
illnesses — from hangovers to fevers and
even cancer.”10 The use of rhinoceros to
cure cancer and hangovers is a demonstra-
bly recent phenomenon, but there is no
definition of “tradition” that could make
this WWF statement factually accurate.11
Nor is there clear evidence that this is a
widespread practice, if it is even happening
at all. Instead, the rubric of tradition is used
not only to substantiate a rumor, but also to
suggest that the use of rhino horn for cur-
ing cancer or treating hangovers is com-
mon practice. Perhaps most importantly,
the power of tradition as a way to explain
China and Asia in this context comes from
its opposite, an implicit Western moderni-
ty, which is the position from which Hor-
mats and the WWF speak. In this way, the
discourse surrounding rhino poaching and
the illegal trade in horn is part of a much
older discourse of China and Asia as sites
of an only partial or superficial moderni-
ty, overlaying a traditional essence. As a
method of creating meaning, this discourse
renders Chinese practices, whether real or
imagined, not simply traditional, but also
decisively not modern.
The use of “traditional” to describe
medicines that have no clear roots in
long-standing medical practices exem-
plifies how NGOs, governments, and the
media tap into a discourse of Chinese and
Asian backwardness. This is reinforced by
“Orientalism has little
to do with a ‘real Orient,’
but rather with ideas about
the Orient produced by and
for the West.”
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 “The use of [the word] tradition ... characterizes China
as a place that is insufficiently modernized.”
the maintenance of an implicit traditional/ purchasing and investment power, or the
modern binary. In “The Idea of Provincial- excesses of its consumer culture, but rather
izing Europe,” Chakrabarty writes, as one defined by China’s and Asia’s tra-
If ‘political modernity’ was to be a ditional essence, which is also to say their
bounded and definable phenomenon, failure to be fully modern.
it was not unreasonable to use its The idea of China as a site of tradition
definition as a measuring rod for social always in contrast to Western modernity is,
progress. Within this thought, it could of course, part of a long strain of Western
always be said that some people were scholarship. For Edward Said, the West’s
less modern than others, and that the production of knowledge about Asian or
former needed a period of preparation “Oriental” traditions created a cultural bi-
and waiting before they could be nary that privileged the West and its claims
recognized as full participants in
to progress. Said famously calls this process
political modernity.12
“Orientalism,” in which a certain under-
The use of “traditional” to describe standing of Asia is created as the inverse of
Chinese medicines, texts, and culture in- the West. Orientalism has little to do with
vokes this traditional/modern binary and a “real Orient,” but rather with ideas about
uses it to perpetuate stereotypes about the Orient produced by and for the West.
China as a place that is not yet capable of A feature of “the Orient” as constructed by
fully participating in a modernity, defined the West is its position as “a kind of ide-
in this case by care for endangered species. al and unchanging abstraction.”13 This
Characterizations of the traditional and idea of an “unchanging abstraction” comes
modern often split along the East/West through in the frequent use of “tradition-
binary in general — for example, modern al” in descriptions of Chinese demand for
medicine and Western medicine are near- rhino horn. The label “traditional” charac-
ly synonymous. This discourse about tra- terizes these medicines as unchanging, and
dition as a feature of Chinese culture that the medical culture in which they are pro-
bars it from modernity is omnipresent in duced as stagnant. This perception of the
discussions about China, and the rhino Orient as an unchanging entity allows for
horn trade is just one area in which it can be Western media outlets and government
found. While tradition has different literal officials to refer to recent or rumored med-
meanings in different contexts, its constant ical phenomena, like using rhino horn as a
presence reinforces its status as not only an cancer cure, as “traditional.”
important feature of Chinese culture, but a As the examples above have shown,
feature that differentiates it from Western tradition functions as a buzzword with
cultures. China’s role in the rhino trade is special potency in the discourse of rhino
thus signified not as a function of increased endangerment. More often than not, the
12 Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference-New Edition (Princeton Universi-
ty Press, 2009), 9
13 Edward Said, Orientalism: western conceptions of the Orient, 1978 (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Press, 1995), 5

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 term is used directly, though in some cas-
es, tradition is evoked in subtler ways that
also reinforce the fundamentally Oriental-
ist nature of this discourse. Because of this,
certain images and sounds, regardless of
their origin, are immediately recognizable
as Chinese or Asian, as is shown in the mu-
sic of a video released by WWF called “De-
mand for rhino horn in Asia fuels African
poaching crisis.”14
This WWF video exemplifies how
Orientalist representations of China subtly,
almost subliminally, link Chinese tradition
to the demand for rhino horn. The video
consists of a series of photos and captions
with background music. It opens with an
image of the WWF logo, and the sound of
chimes and a flute in the background. The
music uses a pentatonic scale and instru-
mentation that is not only instantly recog-
nizable as Chinese to Western audiences,
but also of a classical style that evokes ideas
about pre-modern China. Beyond simply
signaling that rhino poaching is an Asian
or Chinese problem, this music suggests
that it is also a problem of Chinese culture.
After the video shows the WWF logo, it
fades into a photo of a majestic-looking
rhino, and then to another of a rhino with
its young. It then abruptly shows a photo
of a poacher selling a horn, and then cuts
to a bloody rhino with its horn cut off. The
transition is jarring, and the gory photo
feels out of place with the upbeat music in
the background. The disjunction between
the soundtrack and this gruesome and up-
setting photo links traditional Chinese cul-
ture to the slaughter of animals in a way
that elicits a strong emotional response.
The use of tradition, both as a buzz-
word and as an aural cue, links the poach-
ing problem to a particular aspect of Chi-
14 International, WWF, “Demand for Rhino Horn in Asia Fuels African Poaching Crisis | WWF,” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Sept.
2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7IWJWNK_W0
155
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 155
nese culture. It reinforces the traditional/
modern binary and characterizes China
as a place that is insufficiently modern-
ized through Orientalist framings of the
rhino-poaching problem. But discourses
about tradition are not the only ways that
representations of demand for rhino horn
point to Chinese culture and Chineseness.
In addition to using music immediate-
ly coded as Asian, the WWF video rep-
resents Asia through a still-life photo of
medicine bottles and boxes with photos
of rhinoceroses and Chinese characters on
them. This image and others like it repre-
sent an important representational mode
that, although fundamentally tied to the
discourse of tradition, draws attention to
another element of Chinese and Asian cul-
ture: medicine. A discussion of medicinal
representations of rhino horn can be found
in the unabridged version of this thesis.
Conclusion
My research on the discourse of en-
dangerment as it pertains to the rhino
horn trade is only one small part of a larg-
er set of scholarship on the exotic animal
parts trade to Asia. The rhinoceros is not
the only animal trafficked to Asia — ani-
mals like the pangolin, tiger, and elephant
have been poached and illegally traded for
their scales, bones, and tusks. These cas-
es, like that of the rhinoceros, warrant the
attention of cultural scholars to assess the
similarities and differences in their repre-
sentations of China and Asia. There is also
work needed on representations of the
supply side of the rhino horn trade, as little
has been done to situate representations of
poachers in existing scholarship on Africa.
This research has practical implica-
tions for conservation efforts. If discourses
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 of endangerment are more closely gov-
erned by problematic ideas about Asian
and Chinese medicine, tradition, and race
than by facts and evidence, policy respons-
es will fail to adequately address the issue.
On October 6, 2018, the Chinese govern-
ment released a notice of its intent to repeal
the 1993 prohibition on the trade of rhino
horn and tiger bone to allow the trade in
special circumstances. The government
emphasized its commitment to strictly reg-
ulating the trade, but detailed new excep-
tions to the ban.15 Exceptions to the ban
include uses of rhino and tiger products for
kexue yanjiu (科学研究), or “scientific re-
search,” including the collection of genetic
materials. Another exception is for yixue
yanjiu (医学研究), or “medical research,”
and treatment of critical and incurable dis-
eases. The report reads, “medical research
and treatment of critical illnesses, incur-
able disease, etc. necessitates the use of
rhino horns or tiger bones…”16 This move
defies simple interpretation, but could be
seen as part of the Chinese government’s
desire to promote the state-sanctioned in-
stitution of Traditional Chinese Medicine
as a form of soft power. A month later,
however, the Chinese government an-
nounced its decision to reinstate the ban
after fierce backlash from conservation-
ists.17 The legalization of the rhino horn
trade for medical and scientific research
perhaps indicates a shift in Chinese policy
that promotes science and medicine with
Chinese characteristics. In a landscape that
consistently characterizes China as a place
of tradition, the temporary lift on the ban
of rhino horn products can be seen as an
attempt to restructure modernity in a way
that is pluralistic and can include China in
its definition.
The Chinese government’s quick re-
versal of the new policy after outcry from
conservation groups is puzzling. The
blowback from conservation groups was
not an unprecedented response, and the
Chinese government could have easily an-
ticipated it. If the government was willing
to withdraw the new policy after these or-
ganizations responded in a way that was
appropriate and expected, why try lifting
the ban in the first place? Did the Chinese
government not expect conservationists
to react this way? Or was the govern-
ment planning on trying to weather the
criticism, and changed its mind for some
reason? Although the Chinese govern-
ment’s motivations cannot be fully known
without more information, there is a clear
miscommunication between these actors.
If conservation organizations are as seri-
ous about reducing China’s demand for
rhino horn as they claim to be, there is a
disconnect somewhere in that network. I
suspect that this miscommunication is at
least partly due to the tendency of govern-
mental, nongovernmental, and popular
characterizations of rhino horn demand to
prioritize long-standing stereotypical ideas
about China over other factors, ultimately
Orientalizing the issue.
To move forward, conservationists
need to separate factual evidence of rhino
horn demand in China from the Oriental-
ist discourse in which it has become inter-
twined. Animal endangerment is as much
a cultural issue as it is a scientific issue, and

15 All translations of the Chinese language text are my own. The source for the original report can be found here: 国务院关于
严格管制犀牛和虎及其制品经营利用活动的通知（国发〔2018〕36号）_政府信息公开专栏, Accessed May 15 2019,
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2018-10/29/content_5335423.htm
16 The original Chinese reads: “三是因医学研究或临床救治危急重症，疑难杂症等需要利用犀牛角或虎骨的”
17 Javier Hernández, “China, After Outcry, Reinstates Ban on Rhino and Tiger Parts in Medicine,” The New York Times, Novem-
ber 12, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/world/asia/china-rhino-tiger-ban.html

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 understanding the cultural nature of this
issue is a necessary step in the process of
shedding Orientalist attitudes. Recogni-
tion of this discourse of endangerment also
has tangible policy applications. A fuller
understanding of the place rhino horn oc-
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 2019 Award
Winners
Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research Awards
Starting in Spring 2018, the Northwestern University chapter of Sigma Xi, the
Scientific Research Honor Society, partnered with Northwestern’s Office of Under-
graduate Research to fund awards for the best overall poster and the best overall oral
presentation at the University’s annual Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition
(Expo). Expo is the largest student conference on campus and focuses on original
research and creative work by Northwestern’s undergraduates across all disciplines.
The $500 Sigma Xi Best Oral Presentation Award was presented to Hollyn Ce-
trone for her project entitled “Maternal Depression in Tanzania”.
The $500 Sigma Xi Best Expo Poster Presentation Award was presented to Talia
Waxman for her project entitled “Teen Girls Participatory Photovoice”.

Harold B. Gotaas Award

This award is given annually to a senior in the McCormick School of Engineer-
ing who has performed exemplary engineering research. The winner is determined
by a panel of faculty members on the basis of a research paper and presentation by a
group of selected finalists before the judging committee. The award is named for Dr.
Gotaas, who was Northwestern’s Dean of Engineering between 1957 and 1970.
The 2019 Gotaas Award was presented to Shristi Dugar, for her project entitled
“Phase Boundary Mapping of Tin-doped Zinc Antimonide”.
.

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 2019 McCormick School of
Engineering Gotaas Award

Shristi Dugar
Shristi Dugar graduated from Northwestern in June 2019 with a bachelor’s in
materials science and engineering. After graduation, she worked in Chicago as a sup-
ply chain and procurement consultant at GEP, a global provider of strategy, consult-
ing, software, and managed services solutions. In the near future, she intends to work
in the field of renewable energy in Nepal, her home country.
Dugar started working in professor Jeffrey Snyder’s group in materials science
after receiving an undergraduate research grant for summer 2017. She continued
working on the same project for her thesis. Dugar’s research involved the study of
thermoelectric materials, in particular, zinc antimonide (ZnSb).
Thermoelectric materials can generate electric power from temperature differ-
ences, completely in the solid state, thereby allowing flexibility in size and shape of
the generator. Thermoelectric generators are used in specialty applications like pow-
ering probes for deep-space missions. They could also potentially be used for waste
heat recovery in electronics and cars.
Zn, Sn, and Sb are environmentally friendly, cheap, and abundant and would
be viable from a commercial standpoint for mass production and availability. How-
ever, the use of ZnSb, or any other thermoelectric material, for practical applications
depends upon its energy efficiency and consistency of properties upon manufacture.
The latter is the sticking point: while many researchers have studied ZnSb properties,
their results have not been reproduced consistently.
In the course of Dugar’s research, she investigated how making ZnSb samples
at different starting points in the phase space of the Zn-Sn-Sb system affects the

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 samples’ thermoelectric properties and efficiency. She hypothesized that the wide
variability of these starting points is the probable cause of discrepancies in the ul-
timate measured values. In fact, she found this to be the case. Her research showed
that thermoelectric materials can be synthesized for maximum energy efficiency and
consistent operating characteristics. This finding opens the door for their widespread
commercial application.
In addition to Dugar’s undergraduate experience at Northwestern, she has been
the education director of the Himalaya Project. In this capacity, she mediates between
international and local Nepalese organizations to organize human resources and in-
frastructural facilities and curriculum materials to provide scholarships to students to
study Himalayan Tibetan medicine and provide health services in the remote region
of Dolpo, Nepal. She reported on the activities of the Himalaya Project at the 2018
Clinton Global Initiative Conference. ■

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 2019 Sigma Xi $500 Best Expo Oral
Presentation Award

Hollyn Cetrone
Hollyn Cetrone graduated from Northwestern in June 2019 with a neuroscience
major and a global health studies minor. She is originally from Orinda, California.
Cetrone started research in the Young Research Group lab with Sera Young in
January 2018 and began her own independent research project within the lab the fol-
lowing summer, when she traveled to Tanzania. She is currently attending Northwest-
ern’s Masters in Public Health program, where she is concentrating in epidemiology.
In the summer of 2018, Cetrone worked with the research team of Tanzania’s
Singida Nutrition and Agroecology Project (SNAP-Tz) to evaluate the project’s im-
pact on maternal depression. SNAP-Tz is a participatory agriculture and nutrition
intervention aiming to improve sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and gender equity
in Singida, Tanzania.
Cetrone assisted in data collection for the annual survey, which is issued
throughout the 20 villages included in the project. She conducted cognitive interviews
with survey enumerators to qualitatively understand how depression is perceived in
the region. She conducted quantitative analyses and found that SNAP-Tz women were
at an 11% decreased risk for probable depression compared to women in the control
group after two years of interventions. Qualitative data from cognitive interviews also
supported these findings.
To see why this impact on maternal depression occurred, Cetrone ran a media-
tion pathway analysis. She found that food security was a significant mediator of the
pathway and accounted for 22% of the changes seen in maternal depression. This was
one of first findings indicating that a nutrition and agriculture intervention can de-
crease maternal depression. Cetrone was invited to present her findings at the annual
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health Academy Conference in Hyderabad, India in June
2020.

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 2019 Sigma Xi $500 Best Expo Poster
Presentation Award

Talia Waxman
Talia Waxman graduated from Northwestern in June 2019 with a bachelor’s in
anthropology and global health studies. As an undergraduate, she participated in the
Kaplan Humanities Scholar Program, volunteered as a health educator and leadership
council member with Peer Health Exchange, served as a counselor and co-chair for
the Chicago Undergraduate Program, and interned at Family Matters, a community
organization. Her passion for health equity and social justice motivated her research
experience.
Waxman’s senior thesis research explored how the process of community-based
participatory research amplifies previously marginalized voices and illuminates
important kinds of knowledge. She drew on her experience facilitating a multi-week
Photovoice project in fall 2018 with a research team of Teen Girls in Chicago, Illinois.
Their photographs and group discussions documented the ways that young women
respond to, resist, and heal from impacts of violence. The process of this participatory
research was itself transformative by building community, challenging power dynam-
ics, and producing unique and embodied narratives. It was a form of responding to,
resisting, and healing from structural violence.

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 Noor Abunabaa—
Quyud: Educational Constraints
in Palestine
Noor Abunabaa (Class of 2020) is a Palestinian
journalist and filmmaker. She is currently a
senior at Northwestern University in Qatar and
works for the Daily Q, the university paper. She
has previously interned at the Brookings Center
in Doha and Vice News on HBO. Last year, Noor
co-produced two documentaries in Yemen, “In The
Middle” and “Samsurat Al-Nuhas” (2019), which
are currently being screened in different festivals.
“In The Middle” has recently won the best
documentary award at Ajyal Film Festival, 2019.
Noor is also interested in research and human
rights, and is currently conducting a study about
educational constraints in Palestine.
What is your research,
in a nutshell?
The research learns from Palestinians themselves how
their educational journeys have been affected by the
political, economic and social situation in the occupied
West Bank.
How did you come to your
research topic?
I was having a conversation with my supervisor,
Dr. Jocelyn Sage Mitchell, during my first days as a
freshman. As we were talking, I mentioned my goal
to write narratives about Palestinians living in the
West Bank. Although it was a plan for the far future,
163
97023 Body_174pg_6.7x9.8_R2.indd 163
professor Mitchell still suggested applying for the
Summer URG grant and recommended several books,
including Occupied Voices by professor Wendy
Pearlman. The book included stories from Palestinians
during the second intifada, an event I knew a lot about,
but never connected too. I only understood the weight
of the event after relating it to people, their faces and
their stories. After all, stories humanize people, and as
a Palestinian living in the diaspora, I only felt attached
to Palestine by reading them. The research follows a
similar stance.After several discussions with Professor
Mitchell, we agreed on narrating stories of Palestinians
through the lens of education. By reading stories about
the constraints Palestinians face while pursuing their
basic human right, I hope for people to associate with
their struggle and understand the continued cost of
occupation.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
The current research only uses few quotes from many
stories, but I am hoping to turn these quotes into full-
fledged narratives written in a book or documented in a
movie. Nonetheless, I hope that future researchers will
continue adding to the existing narrative, or building
new ones, until progress is made.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Sam Allnutt—
Assessing Racial Discrimination
of Quarterbacks in the NFL Draft
Sam Allnutt (Class of 2019) graduated with a
major in statistics and minor in economics. He
is interested in the application of statistical
methods to economics and other social sciences,
particularly as applied to policy research. After
spending the summer relaxing and traveling post-
graduation, he is now working as an economic
consulting analyst for Analysis Group. He plans to
attend graduate school to pursue a PhD in either
statistics or economics.
biases and stereotypes may be working their way into
decisions made by NFL franchises. I became curious
about what goes on behind closed doors in NFL front
offices, which led me to this research question. As with
any sensitive and politicized topic, empirical research
based on sound methodology is critical to work towards
a productive solution.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?

What is your research, Quantitative research is a good jumping-off point

in a nutshell?
My research aims to evaluate quantitative evidence for
racial discrimination against minority quarterbacks
entering the NFL Draft. The quarterback position,
possibly the most important in sports, has historically
been predominated by white athletes. I use empirical
performance data to determine whether minority
quarterbacks are systematically undervalued by NFL
organizations.
to begin to understand these issues, but we can only
interpret so much from observational data analysis. If
there is discrimination at play, it will take a collective
effort of interdisciplinary research to develop
comprehensive evidence and perhaps spur the NFL into
action.

How did you come to your

research topic?

Back in 2016, I followed Colin Kaepernick’s National

Anthem protest saga closely, hoping that he wouldn’t
be punished for an act of defiance against profiling
and police brutality. The collusion settlement reached
in 2019 led me and many others to believe that racial

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 Sarah Dinegar—
Type 2 Diabetes Care and
Management: A Comparison
of German and American
Approaches
Sarah Dinegar studied biological sciences and
German as an undergraduate. She is passionate
about spearheading efforts to bring adequate
preventive care to populations whose quality
of care is compromised by social determinants
of health through her future career as a
physician, as she believes that broadening
access to primary care is fundamental to
improving health outcomes. Since graduation,
she has applied to medical schools for Fall
2020 matriculation and started work as an
analyst on the Patient Education team at
DaVita Kidney Care in Denver, Colorado. She
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works with team members to analyze clinical
effectiveness of educational programming,
develop program improvement proposals,
and work to increase utilization of kidney
disease education programs worldwide.
With this healthcare management and policy
groundwork, she hopes to enter medical school
well-equipped to improve her future patients’
lives at both the individual and larger scale
by working to drive healthcare policy shifts
towards heavier investments in preventive
care, particularly for chronic disease patients.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 What is your research, in the US, I decided to compare the overall
in a nutshell? American T2D management methods with the
German T2D DMPs and ask all the physicians what
I interviewed and surveyed German and American they believed to be the most effective methods as
physicians to learn about their experiences with well as best steps forward.
and opinions of their nation’s Type 2 Diabetes
management methods regarding efficacy in Where do you see the future direction of this
improving health outcomes, healthcare costs, and work leading?
quality of care. As I assessed the merits of the two
nations’ differing chronic disease management Evidently, a future of improving T2D care and
practices, I learned a wealth of information about management hinges on an intensification of
both healthcare systems regarding the insurers, preventive measures, which must be directed by
providers, and resources available. After analysis primary care providers, incentivized by
of my interview and survey data, I found that insurers, and achieved by patient–physician
the most effective methods to improve health cooperation. This heightened prevention is
outcomes and reduce cost burdens for Type the only way forward – not only for the sake of
2 Diabetics include restructuring of payment financial reduction it is sure to bring, but first
incentive system based in rewarding improved and foremost, for the health outcomes of millions
health outcomes, broader insurance coverage of of present and future T2D patients that it will
home visits, dieticians, mental health counselors, indisputably improve. Future researchers might
and rigorous diabetes education, as well as identify primary care practices using any of the
increased utilization of technological tools for above recommendations and seek to prove most
patientcommunication and accountability and effective methods by analyzing the impact of each
team-based care. factor quantitatively (with HbA1c levels, other
health outcome metrics, hospitalizations, overall
How did you come to your T2D patient costs) and qualitatively (quality of
research topic? care, satisfaction of patients and
physicians).
As a double major in Biological Sciences and
German with a passion for healthcare reform, I
sought to combine my interest into this research
project. I had learned about the molecular cause
of Type 2 Diabetes in my biochemistry class
sophomore year. I was very fascinated in learning
how the biological manifestation of this disease,
while affected by some genetic predisposition,
was actually heavily preventable and manageable
through lifestyle improvements. While abroad
junior fall, I felt a strong cultural difference of
Germans having much more of a preventive
mindset in all aspects of health and lifestyle (as
well as other areas of society) as compared to the
more reactive mindset of many Americans. I was
thus curious of the prevalence in Germany of the
chronic diseases that had been skyrocketing in the
US with the obesity epidemic particularly T2D,
heart disease, and kidney disease. As I researched
the German healthcare system’s reaction to trying
to reduce rates of these diseases, I found out about
Disease Management Programs (DMPs). The most
successful of the German DMPs appeared to be
for T2D, so I thought it would be interesting to
investigate primary care physicians’ opinions of the
efficacy of these programs in terms of improving
health outcomes, quality of care, and healthcare
costs. While there are no exactly parallel programs

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 Nicole Fallert—
#METOO in the European
Parliament: A Case Study in Feminist
Institutionalism
Nicole Fallert (Class of 2019) has always been
passionate about storytelling with a global
perspective. At Northwestern University, she
double-majored in journalism and international
studies with a minor in business institutions, a
path which led her to SciencesPo in 2017 to study
European Union policy. The following summer,
she reported for Politico Europe in Brussels,
Belgium, where she drew from specific insights on
the female experience within this institution to
write her senior thesis. Her reporting also appears
on 90.5 WESA and Vox.com. She currently lives in
Washington, D.C., where she is a news consultant
at Meltwater, an international media monitoring
firm. Nicole eventually plans to pursue a Master's
degree in either journalism or international
policy and would love to be an editor or professor.
What is your research,
in a nutshell?
Making sense of the impact #MeToo had on
international institutions through the specific case
study of MeTooEP in the European Parliament from
the years 2017-2019.
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How did you come to your
research topic?
When studying at SciencesPo in Paris, France in
2017, I gained a unique perspective of the way this
movement was received abroad. The following summer
I reported for Politico Europe in Brussels as the
MeTooEP movement was initially making headlines.
The combination of these two experiences specifically
raised questions regarding the way #MeToo was being
discussed globally and how we could make sense of the
true impact.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
My hope is this work is a roadmap for future feminist
movements looking to impact their own
institutions. Also, I intended to add to the growing field
of scholarship dedicated to #MeToo by adding a unique
international perspective (which I felt was largely
missing from the narrative). What is left to discover
is whether the momentum iniated by MeTooEP will
have permanent impact as the newly-elected parliament
is initiated following the spring 2019 EP elections.
Hopefully right-leaning political coalitions in the EP
do not deconstruct the fibers of the policies set by
feminists the past two years.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike—
Radical Redress: Black Birth Workers
Respond to Maternal Mortality
Onyinyechi Jessica Ogwumike (she/they) (Class
of 2019) graduated from Northwestern’s Weinberg
College of Arts & Sciences with departmental
honors in African-American studies. Jessica
completed pre-health coursework, and their
primary passions include birth and racial justice.
At Northwestern, Jessica worked as a Writing
Place tutor, organized toward the improvement
of the university’s mental health resources and
the well-being of Black students, and co-founded
an artist collective for creatives of color. They
are a labor doula and look forward to serving
the Lawndale community as a Northwestern
University Public Interest Program (NUPIP)
fellow, working as a care manager of Lawndale
Christian Health Center. Jessica hopes to go on
to develop a birth work practice, using empathy
and curious communication to support people
and communities as they grow lives that center
healing justice and connection.
How did you come to your
research topic?
I came to a passion for alternative birth storytelling by
attending events hosted by Chicago Volunteer Doulas
and witnessing the re-orientation of national
conversations that Black birth workers perform via
social media.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
I would like to see future researchers attend to how the
conversation surrounding Black maternal mortality
post-media sensation has and has not influenced policy
change, and the efficacy of such policy for Black
birthing populations specifically.

What is your research,

in a nutshell?

My research responds to predominant depictions

of Black maternal life and death by centering
Black birthing people and birth workers’ counter-
representation of Black birth.

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 Samantha Oberman—
Evaluating Interactive Social
Justice Education: The Relationship
between Responsive Fiction and
Social Empathy
Samantha Franzblau Oberman (Class of 2019)
studied human development and psychological
services, gender and sexuality studies, and
psychology. During her time at Northwestern, she
was a member of WildCHAT, Northwestern’s only
student-run mental health hotline, and served on
the organization’s executive board for two years.
She started and ran a listening workshop to teach
Northwestern students how to better support
their friends and promote positive mental health
on campus, and served as a listener on the hotline.
Samantha also worked as a research assistant for
Terri Sabol in the Development Early Education
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Policy (DEEP) Lab, and for Danny M. Cohen in the
Unsilence Lab. In the Unsilence Lab, she
was a general member for a year, after which
she began to serve as a mentor for other
undergraduate students. She helped to create
social justice education programming, including
“Tomorrow,” which can be found at www.
unsilence.org/tomorrow. Now, Samantha is
working at the Noble Academy in Lincoln
Park, teaching high school diverse learning
students. She is simultaneously getting her
master’s in teaching, specializing in special
education, from the Relay Graduate School of
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 What is your research,
in a nutshell?
My projected analyzed two different social justice
interactive pedagogies in relation to participants’ social
empathy. I studied Tomorrow, a social justice program
that guides participants through an interactive story
about the barriers to addressing mental health and
suicide in high school. Through this story participants
learn about the personal, cultural, and institutional
factors that prevent conversation about these topics,
and how that silencing hurts students. Through a peer-
reviewed Likert-scale measure I compared how going
through these program, either facilitated or working
through the online program in small groups without
facilitation, affected participants’ social empathy. In
addition, I interviewed participants to collect qualitative
data on their experience of the program and what
they learned. Overall, I found promising results on the
relationship between SJE and social empathy. I focused
my final claims on a call for education designers and
teachers to include interactive storytelling in their
classrooms; a call for researchers to do more research
on the relationship between conceptual knowledge and
social empathy to empower our students to be socially
aware; lastly, a call for teachers and administrators to be
prepared to have these crucial conversations.
social justice education. Most importantly, my study was
exploratory and designed to look for relationships rather
than make causal claims. Future research should take
the relationships I found and run true randomized
control trials to identify any causal relationships. In
my conclusion I hypothesized the nature of these
relationships based on participant responses, however
the field requires more rigorous experiments.
Additionally, this project also discussed education design
and implementation. Not only researchers, but teachers,
education designers, policy makers, and donors could use
this research to inform what types of education should be
prioritized. SJE has historically been ignored due to the
lack of understanding of its impact. However, now more
than ever it is essential that we teach our children to be
empathetic and socially aware. My study highlights
the importance of this work, and the potential impact it
can have.

How did you come to your

research topic?

I’ve always been passionate about education and what

the main goal of education should be. During my time
at Northwestern I spent a lot of time studying social
justice and working for a social justice education (SJE)
non-profit, which claimed that their programs increased
empathy that ultimately led to social action. I was
fascinated by the idea that empathy could lead to
action and found a lot of literature supporting that claim.
However, I couldn’t find any robust literature on what
types of programs or pedagogies increased empathy.
There was significant research on what social justice
education (SJE) was and what the learning goals of SJE
were. However, there was not commensurate research
on what programs were achieving these goals.
So, I decided to find out myself! I studied what the
relationship was between SJE and social empathy and
how this differed when engaging in facilitated workshops
versus non-facilitated online led workshops.

Where do you see the future direction of this work

leading?

This research project was fundamental in its effort to

understand the relationship between social empathy and

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 Hassan Sayed—
Colonial Distortions: A Model of
Extraction and Social Fabric
Hassan Sayed (Class of 2019) graduated from 2) opens up avenues for structural econometric work
Northwestern’s Mathematical Studies in the that relies on my theoretical model as a
Social Sciences (MMSS) program. In his free time, primitive.
he composes music. Sayed is currently pursuing a
PhD in microeconomics at Princeton University.

What is your research,

in a nutshell?

I design a game-theoretic model that links the

extractive facets of Colonialism with its disruption of
local social orders.

How did you come to your

research topic?

I’ve always read lots about the destructive social impacts

of Colonialism in my humanities classes and my own
personal reading, partially with applications in South
Asia. However, nothing in Economics was out there
that really described these social effects, and I thought
that was a problem for economic researchers that
wanted to study colonialism in any way. So, I set
about trying to create some economic theory that tied
together colonial resource extraction and disruption of
social fabric.

Where do you see the future direction of this work

leading?

No one in Economic Theory has done any work that

combines Colonialism with its social effects
— so this 1) exhibits a model for building political
economy models on underlying social trends and
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 Jessica Schwalb—
“A Man With Many Faces, All Turned
in the Same Direction”: Julius Lester
on Anti-Semitism, Anti-Blackness,
and Black-Jewish Coalitions
Jessica Schwalb (Class of 2019) studied history and
Spanish, with a focus on civil rights history and
the relationship between Ashkenazi Jews and
whiteness in the United States. She is interested in
how collective memory and historical narrative shape
social movements, and how leftist movements form
coalitions to fight white supremacy and other forms
of oppression. Since graduating, she has accepted a
Fulbright research study award to continue her past
research about the Palestinian population of Chile.
What is your research,
in a nutshell?
I explore the life and writings of Julius Lester, a Black
civil rights activist who converted to Judaism, reveal
the lack of visibility of Black Jews in the 20th Century
and lack of white Jewish willingness to confront racism.
My research centers around the underlying assumptions
about oppression, power, and identity in major moments
of controversy over so-called Jewish racism and Black
antisemitism, moments that roiled civil rights groups
during and after the 1960s and that continue to polarize
political parties in the 21st century.
How did you come to your research topic?
I learned about Lester in an African American studies
class in the context of a feud he had with James Baldwin.
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I had long been interested in historical narrative
in American Jewish communities surrounding the
end of the famed “Black-Jewish coalition”during the
1950s-1960s, and hoped to interrogate and problematize
the popular understanding that Black activists’ anti-
Semitism was the major cause of that coalition’s rupture.
I found Lester’s work and life an unexpected, complex,
and illuminating look at the most contentious moments
of disagreement about the nature of antisemitism
and anti-Black racism between Black and Jewish civil
rights groups, and believe him to be a surprisingly
understudied figure of the Civil Rights movement.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
While historians have studied Black-Jewish relations in
the 20th century, further inquiry into the racialization
of Jews and the relationship between anti-Semitism and
anti-Blackness are crucial to understanding the criticism
of the Civil Rights movement. Where interracial
coalition and solidarity are concerned, there is no
shortage of contention — I therefore hope that other
scholars will seek out figures whose voices are not often
highlighted within dominant historical narratives of
Black or Jewish civil rights struggles in order to more
deeply contend with the legacy of deep disagreements
over the nature of racism in this country.
11/12/20 2:38 PM
 Jun Kyung You—
The Subsumptivist Generalist
Position in Ethical AI Research and its
Motivation
Jun Kyung You (Class of 2019) graduated from
Northwestern with a bachelor’s in philosophy,
with honors with distinction. At Northwestern,
You was briefly a research assistant with the
Jewish Studies Department. You served as an army
sergeant in the Korean military partway through
his studies, where he translated and edited official
documentation and communications.
What is your research,
in a nutshell?
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
Ethical AI researchers, in the course of suggesting a way
to replicate ethical decision-making, make philosophical
commitments to their view on what morality consists
of. I find that some of these commitments are not well-
examined. Consulting philosophers, which to
some extent is a process that is already ongoing in some
institutions, would allow these commitments to be
responsible commitments.

The unabridged version of the thesis is concerned with

the motivations, current efforts, and the very possibility
of replicating ethical decision-making in artificial
agents.

How did you come to your

research topic?

AI suggests a pipe-dream where, in a sufficiently

advanced state, a tool could completely “replace” a
human agent. I was intrigued by whether our capacity
to make decisions in ethical situations could also be
replaced true impact.

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 Isabelle Zinghini—
Missing the Point: China, Chineseness,
and Rhinoceros Endangerment
Isabelle Zinghini (Class of 2019) double majored
in Asian languages and cultures, with a
concentration in Chinese, and physics. She took
several engineering courses in her last two years
of college, and decided to pursue a career in
engineering after graduation. She currently uses
her physics and Chinese experience as a design
engineer in Chicago, for a company with a strong
presence in China and Taiwan.
What is your research,
in a nutshell?
The rhinoceros is being poached to extinction due
to high demand for rhinoceros horn in parts of Asia.
My thesis examines the representations of Asia’s (and
particularly China’s) role in the endangerment of the
rhinoceros, and how those representations fit into
larger discourses on China and Asia.
but as I researched my topic evolved to focus on
representations.
Where do you see the future direction of this work
leading?
I see several great opportunities for future researchers
to build on this. The rhinoceros is not the only animal
trafficked to Asia—animals like the pangolin, tiger,
and elephant have been poached and illegally traded
for their scales, bones, and tusks. These cases, like that
of the rhinoceros, warrant the attention of cultural
scholars to assess the similarities and differences in
their representations of China and Asia. There is also
work to be done on representations of the supply
side of the rhinoceros horn trade, as little has been
done to situate representations of poachers in existing
scholarship on Africa.

How did you come to your

research topic?

I spent a quarter abroad in South Africa studying public

health, during which we visited Kruger Park for a
safari. A researcher from Kruger told us that rhinoceros
were being poached to near extinction their horns were
worth exorbitant amounts in China and Vietnam, even
though rhinoceros horns are only made of keratin (the
material of our fingernails)! My initial intention was to
simply figure out why something made of a material
I found commonplace would be worth so much,

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 Join the NURJ
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We would like to thank Morton Schapiro, President of

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Cover by Siying Luo.

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 thenurj.com volume no. 15 2019-20

Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal

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VOL. 15 | 2019-20

THE NORTHWESTERN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL

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