Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

Perspectivas contradictorias: La necesidad de reconfigurar la Educación Bilingüe en Estados Unidos en el siglo XXI

Margaret Hutchison — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:39:41 PDT

The current-day field of Bilingual Education in the US finds itself at a critical juncture. While some proponents of Bilingual Education emphasize its ability to form multilingual students for academic and economic success on a global stage, a contrasting perspective within the field emphasizes the importance of Bilingual Education to best support the achievement of language-minority students in particular. Interviews with three employees of St. Paul Public Schools in St. Paul, Minnesota, who are each involved with the implementation of a Bilingual Education program indicate the existence of this ideological split within the local context of St. Paul. This division suggests that a reconfiguration of Bilingual Education in the US is needed in order to successfully reunite the two opposing perspectives and fulfill educational goals for both native English-speaking and language-minority student populations in the 21^st century.

Actualmente, el campo de la Educación Bilingüe en EE.UU. se encuentra en una encrucijada. Mientras que algunos de los defensores de la Educación Bilingüe enfatizan la habilidad de formar a estudiantes multilingües con éxito académico y económico en el escenario global, los detractores enfatizan la importancia de la Educación Bilingüe como un modo de asegurar el éxito de los estudiantes que no hablan el inglés como lengua materna, en particular. Entrevistas con tres profesionales involucradas con la implementación de un programa de Educación Bilingüe en San Pablo, Minnesota, apuntan la existencia de esta división ideológica dentro del contexto local de San Pablo. Esta escisión sugiere que una reconfiguración del campo de la Educación Bilingüe es necesaria para que sea posible conciliar perspectivas contradictorias y cumplir con las metas educativas tanto para estudiantes que son nativohablantes de una lengua minoritaria como para los estudiantes anglohablantes del siglo XXI.

El derecho para decir “sí, quiero”: el movimiento LGBTQ en los EE.UU., España, y la Argentina

Jamila A. Humphrie — Wed, 04 May 2011 07:41:15 PDT

This Honors Project reflects my four years of experiences as a student of the Hispanic Studies Department. The project incorporates my experience and research conducted during my study abroad experience in Argentina, Spanish, and critical study and theory. Throughout the project, I examine the dichotomy between assimilation and liberation as a framework for the LGBTQ movement, and the commonalities in the histories of the three countries. My thesis states that: as a result of globalization and what I call the transatlantic trade of ideas, the LGBTQ movements in Spain, Argentina and the U.S. have all adapted a limited and ultimately unsuccessful strategy (gay marriage) for liberation of their community.

La Inmigración Africana a España y Argentina en la Época de la Globalización

Laura K. Cullenward — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:15:52 PDT

International migration, with its complex web of economic, social, demographic, and political consequences, is a theme that dominates national and international interests. This thesis explores a connection between illegal African immigration to Spain and a recent phenomenon of Senegalese immigration to Argentina through an examination of historical trajectories of immigration, legal and illegal entries, and migration legislation. In particular the focus will be on the role of Spanish national migration law and border control as a deterrent against illegal African immigration and a resultant wave of Senegalese immigrants representing a new phenomenon of ecologically pushed migration from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Beyond Corporatism and Liberalism: State and Civil Society in Cooperation in Nicaragua

Hannah Pallmeyer — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:59:39 PDT

The Nicaraguan state has historically attempted to control Nicaraguan civil society using corporatist and liberal-democratic frameworks. This has created a difficult organizing environment for civil society organizations to struggle for social change. In this thesis, I argue that civil society organizations, operating in 2008 in a corporatist or liberal framework, were less effective in achieving national social change than organizations that worked cooperatively with the state, yet maintained some autonomy. This hypothesis is developed using the case study of three water rights organizations, and is further tested using the case of corporatist-structured Citizen Power Councils, created in 2007.

¿Librería o Biblioteca? El Español y el Inglés en Contacto en las Cuidades Gemelas

Martha Truax — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:51:25 PDT

Numerous studies have been done in order to draw conclusions regarding languages in contact. This study looks at Spanish/English contact and departs from a more theoretical camp, focusing instead on documentation of Spanish in contact with English through the Spanish of fourteen Mexican immigrants in the Twin Cities. The main part of the study had a lexical focus and consisted of participants being asked to name forty everyday objects and concepts to determine language preference and patterns of lexical shifting in their Spanish. The results of the study contribute in a general manner to the existing body of work on Spanish in contact with English in the United States by providing documentation of Spanish in the Twin Cities, and more specifically, indicate that more time spent in contact with English correlates to a greater number of direct, unaltered lexical borrowings from English.