IDSC Final MA Project Topics

Luke Abong (IDSC/MA '08): Challenging the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) of the Ugandan Government within the Pastoralist Development Thought

Kamilia Al-Eriani (IDSC/MA '08): Microfinance and Empowerment of Women: A Comparative Study between Tropical Plains in Tihama and Highlands in Rural Yemen

Tara Arthur (IDSC/MA '08): Sport: An Agency for Women

Meghan Barritt (IDSC/MA '08): Negotiations at the Interface: An Examination of Refugee Resettlement Processes

Adela Blanco-Roman (IDSC/MA '08): Leaving Home, Destination Unknown: Sex Trafficking in Cambodia and Shadow Networks

Fresnel Devalon (IDSC/MA '08): Social Networks in Rural Haiti and their Implications for Food Security

Ian Dezalia (IDSC/MA '08): Imagined Diasporas: Nationalism in Rwandan Reintegration Efforts

Steven Fischer (IDSC/MA '08): Caminamos Preguntando - From the Zapatista Uprising to the Eighth World Social Forum: The Global Justice Movement and the Beginnings of a Postdevelopment Era?

Kerstin Freudenthaler (IDSC/MA '08): Neo-Liberalism and Education in Development; A Closer Look at the World Bank’s Educational Policies

Allen Gallant (IDSC/MA '08): A Tale of Two Seas: Crisis and Continuities in the Aral Sea Basin

Edil Gudal (IDSC/MA '08): Analysis of the Brain Drain from Developing to Developed Countries

Brigitta Jozan (IDSC/MA '08): Problems and Prospects of Alternative Education of Gypsies in Hungary: A Case Study of the Kis Tigris Vocational High School

Sauliloa Niumeitolu (IDSC/MA '08): Moving the Movement: How Tongan Women Participate in the Tongan Pro-Democracy Movement

Yeti Oktaviani (IDSC/MA '08): The Silenced Slavery: Neoliberalism Impacts on Women Labor Conditions Working in Sweatshops in Indonesia

Sarah Pack (IDSC/MA '08): Growing Capitalism from Within: Civil Society and USAID Funding in Post-1990 Bulgaria

Christopher Patterson (IDSC/MA '08): Keeping Haitians “Haitian”: The Manipulation of Citizenship Policy in the Dominican Republic

Sheela Pradhan (IDSC/MA '08): Analysis of Gender, Poverty and Social Equity in the Community Forestry Program of Nepal

Usha Prajapati (IDSC/MA '08): Organizing Invisible Home-Based Women Workers in India

Charleen Richards (IDSC/MA '08): Mosaics of Empowerment: Discourses, Meanings and the Case of Women in Bangladesh

Corrina Simon (IDSC/MA '08): Redefining “Basic” Needs: Resettlement and Health Challenges of Refugee Families

Benjamin Stephens (IDSC/MA '08): Unsettled Resettlement: Refugees and Changed Family Dynamics in Worcester, Massachusetts

Anna Tecklenburg (IDSC/MA '08): Sustainable Tourism Development in South Africa: In the Shadow of Apartheid and Neoliberalism

Anne Murenha (IDSC/MA '08) has been awarded a Environment and Sustainable Development Fellowship from the Compton Foundation, administered through IDCE. The award will enable each student to return to carry out a research project on a theme related to integrating environmental management and sustainable development. Read more.

Jason Coleman (IDSC/MA '07): Corruption and Culture: Are Development Agencies Missing Something?

Lara Fedorov (IDSC/MA '07): Multi-level Conservation Frameworks: A Case Study of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei

Kristen Hawkins (IDSC/MA '07): Increasing the Benefits of Organization: How to Make Government Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Other Farmer’s Organizations More Beneficial to Smallholder Farmers in Vihiga District of Kenya’s Western Province

Anne Hendrixson (IDSC/MA '07): Conceiving Economic Development

Mika Hirai (IDSC/MA '07): Education as an Instrument of Social Mobility. Linking ‘Education for Development’ to ‘Development Education.’

Melissa D. Horn (IDSC/MA '07): The Price of Neglect: Youth, Conflict & the Humanitarian Response

Jacob Kasell (IDSC/MA '07): Disempowerment in Practice: A Critique of CARE Mali’s Development Education for Girls’ Empowerment Project

Emebet Samuel Kassa (IDSC/MA '07): Food or Pills? Food Security and Family Planning in Ethiopia: The Case of Borena and Sidama

Aaron Kenney (IDSC/MA '07): Depoliticizing Democracy: Decentralization of Natural Resource Management in Mali

William C. Konicki (IDSC/MA '07): Haitian Folk Medicine, Biomedicine, and Sacramental Healing coexist in Haiti: Can these three types of healing collaborate to provide the best health care in rural Haiti?

Jodi Lasseter (IDSC/MA '07): Another World Without Feminism? Addressing Marginalization within the World Social Forum

Seung Hyung Lee (IDSC/MA '07): A Study on Cooperative as a Community Organization (Focused on the Wonju Medical Cooperative in Wonju, Korea)

Maud Mabika (IDSC/MA '07): Conflict and Public Health: The Role of the Health Workforce for Peace Initiatives in Conflict Zones

Sisay Getahun Metaferia (IDSC/MA '07): A New Face of Ethiopian Development at the Grassroots Level: “The Awra Amba’s Social Change” in Ethiopia

Kimberly J. Miller (IDSC/MA '07): From Behavior Change to Human Rights: The Problematization of HIV/AIDS and Policy Discourse in International Development

Casey Morrison (IDSC/MA '07): Changing Livelihoods: Conflict and Peace-building in the Nuba Mountains Region of Sudan

Benjamin Munro (IDSC/MA '07): Clouds on the Horizon: Globalizations, Agriculture and Social Change in North Dakota

Tara O’Connor (IDSC/MA '07): Emerging Humanitarian Aid: Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan

Patrick Obrist (IDSC/MA '07): A Likkle This, A Likkle That: Livelihoods and Marine Park Policy Implications for a Jamaican Fishing Community

Tanya Palit (IDSC/MA '07): Radical Notions Durbar’s Struggle for Sex Workers’ Rights in India

Bishnu Maya Pariyar (IDSC/MA '07): Dalit Women and HIV/AIDS in Nepal

Jennifer Peck (IDSC/MA '07): Formality: The Tie that Binds A Closer Look at Nonformal Education Initiatives

Ledi Pite (IDSC/MA '07): Huong Thi Thanh Tran (IDSC/MA '07): Social Capital and the Sustainability of A Health Network Building Project in The South of Vietnam, A Case Study

Xiaomei Wang (IDSC/MA '07): Mirroring Modernization: Between the Miao and the Outsiders in the Villages of Jidao and Langde, Guizhou Province, Southeastern China

Monique Wollan (IDSC/MA '07): “It’s hard for a woman to survive with just one husband.” Gender, Livelihoods, and Polyandry in Rural Nepal

Rajesh Aryal (IDSC/MA '06): Impacts of Decentralization in Nepal: A Case Study of Local Development Fund

Karen B. Bengoa (IDSC/MA '06): The Intended and Unintended Effects of Food Security Interventions in Rural Nicaragua

Berthelomiyos Bayou (IDSC/MA '06): Elusive Human Security: Foibles and Future Implications of African Union Security Structure

Jaimee Elizabeth Braun (IDSC/MA '06): Rebuilding the Social Infrastructure Through Reconciliation: Addressing the Social-Psychological Issues in Post-Conflict Development

David M. Dauer (IDSC/MA '06): Enhancing Development: A Peace Project

Elisa J. Dry (IDSC/MA '06): Dispute in the Jordan River Valley: Public Participation in Water Resources Management as a Matter of Security

Jonathan Robert Gosse (IDSC/MA '06): Production of Port, Social Capital and Community Development: Lessons Learned from the Libresse Cricket League in Oracabessa, Jamaica

Phuong Thi Minhi Huynh (IDSC/MA '06): Impacts of Resettlement Projects on Gender Relations: Coho Community, Loc Nam Commune, Central Highlands, Vietnam

Frislain Isidor (IDSC/MA '06): Challenges and Coping Strategies of Haitian Human Rights Organizations in Haiti

Jennifer A. Keahey (IDSC/MA '06): Organic Agriculture Production and Market development in Latvia During the European Union Accession Period

Trang Thi Quynh Le (IDSC/MA '06): Availability and Accessibility of HIV AIDS information, Education, and Communication in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Hicham Elias Maalouf (IDSC/MA '06): Sustainable Development and Tourism in a Fragile Landscape in Ne Brazil

Michael Derek Metivier (IDSC/MA '06): Post-Capitalist Economics and the Democratic Workplace: A Pilot Study of Argentina’s Unemployed Workers’ Movement

Rukaya Mohammed (IDSC/MA '06): Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Women Micro Enterprises Marketability: The Case of NGOs in Ghana

Tohru Nakaya (IDSC/MA '06): A Study of Deforestation in the Western Ghats, South India

Hang Thi Nguyen (IDSC/MA '06): Integrated Conservation with Development Project: A Case-Study Based Research in Pu Mat National Park, Nghe An, Vietnam

Ipek Ozgul (IDSC/MA '06): Easy Solidarity: The Emergent Mobilization of Women Home-Based Workers and Their Feminist Supporters in Turkey

Naoko Omuro (IDSC/MA '06): Talking the Talk, without Walking the Walk: How the Japan International Cooperative Agency Avoids Mainstreaming Gender

Mette Fog Olwig (IDSC/MA '06): “Bought Out” Practitioners and “Paralyzed” Academics: Can There Be a Middle Ground?

Kamala Gurung (IDSC/MA '05) received an IDCE Travel Grant to Nepal pursue her research on "Gender Relations and Socio-economics of the Indigenous People in Sustainable Management of Livestock and Pasturelands in the Upper Mustang Region of Nepal." Her research is part of a larger research project examining "Livestock Technology Change, Livelihoods Impacts and Policy Lessons (LTIP)" with support from DFID Livestock Production Program (LPP) in London and FAO Rome. Gurung worked in the field with a research team including Dr. Pradeep Man Tulachan (ICIMOD), Dr. Simon Anderson, (Imperial College London), Mr. Ram Ghimire (Nepal Agriculture Research Council), and Mr. Pradeep Rokaya (Himalayan Agriculture College) on this project. Gurung hopes that her research findings will have considerable implications in addressing the critical issues of policy making for ethnic minorities and disadvantaged groups in the high mountains of Nepal, who are presently deprived of the benefits from the growth and development of mainstream economy.

Shukri Omar Abdillahi (IDSC/MA '05): Linking Community Development, Participation, and Peace Building in Post Conflict Situations: A Case Study of Dararweyne Village in Somaliland

Lina Abdul Hameed Al-Eryani (IDSC/MA '05): The State and Women's Employment in the Formal Economy: An Ally of Enemy? A Case Study of South Yemen

Brian Thomas Atkinson (IDSC/MA '05): Fumigation in the Putumayo: Sowing Seeds of Human Crises and Conflict

Thin Thiri Aung (IDSC/MA '05): Growing a Measure of Independence: Refugees, Food Security & Gardening

William Bradley (IDSC/MA '05): Farm Aid meets Fair Trade

Stephen J. Browne, Jr. (IDSC/MA '05): Corn to Cola: Dietary Transitions in a Rural Mexican Community and the Implication for Nutritional Programs

Maxwell L. K. Chance (IDSC/MA '05): Challenges to the Formation of Water User Associations in the Republic of Uzbekistan

Alex Ernesto Chen Chiquin (IDSC/MA '05): Study of the Problem of Municipal Solid Waste in Coban Alta Verapaz, Guatemala C.A.: Suggestions and Alternatives in the Context of Integrated Solid Waste Management

Carrie Conway (IDSC/MA '05): Understanding Refugee Livelihoods through Analysis of a Case Study in Gambia

Dimsoy S. Cruickshank (IDSC/MA '05): One Love, One People: The Road to CARICOM Integration

Zenia E. Dacio-Mesina (IDSC/MA '05): Cooperation not Domination: Alternative Approaches for Resolving Mining Disputes in the Philippines

David Matthew Dauer (IDSC/MA '05): Enhancing Development: A Peace Project

Ayako Eda (IDSC/MA '05): Sustainable Peace Through A Conflict Resolution Curriculum Program in Northern Iraq: The Importance of Gender Equality and Transformation of Relationships of the ACCCR Members

Zachery Lee Feris (IDSC/MA '05): Assessing the Use of Development as a Connector for Sustainable Peace in Post-Conflict Ecuador

Jessica L. Grillo (IDSC/MA '05): Corn to Cola: Dietary Transitions in a Rural Mexican Community and the Implication for Nutritional Programs

Kamala Gurung (IDSC/MA '05): Gender Dynamics in Sustainable Livestock and Pastureland Management: A Case of Indigenous People from Upper Mustang, Mustang District, Nepal

Yeerzhati Karibai (IDSC/MA '05): Policy responses to Agricultural Trade Liberalization: The Case of China's Bortala Prefecture

Katarzyna A. Kedzia (IDSC/MA '05): Underestimating the Political Consciousness of Post-Cold War Polish Women: Polish Feminists and Przecietne Women

Sara Lynn Krosch (IDSC/MA '05): "A New Race of Women": The Challenges of Reintegrating Eritrea's Demobilized Female Combatants

Robyn Blue Long (IDSC/MA '05): Walling in Palestine: The Discourse of Development and Occupation

Kiran H. Mian (IDSC/MA '05): Education in Pakistan: The Stakeholders Perspective

Laura Elizabeth Miller (IDSC/MA '05): Botswana's War with HIV/AIDS: Striving for an AIDs-free Generation

Tamirat M. Demessie (IDSC/MA '05): Niche Coffee Market and Sustainability: Examining the Links in Ethiopia

Aparna Nepal (IDSC/MA '05): Aging without Safety Nets in Nepal: Who is Responsible for Senior Citizens in a Changing Society?

Huanxia Ning (IDSC/MA '05): Culture, Reproductive Health and Self-empowerment of Women in Poor Mountain Villages of Shaanxi Province, China

Nathan Cort Oetting (IDSC/MA '05): Woodfuel in Rural West Africa: Politics, Rhetoric and Reality

Mary Ofori (IDSC/MA '05): Poverty, Youth, and HIV/AIDS: A Case Study in the Manya District of Eastern Ghana

Maria Amalia Pesantes (IDSC/MA '05): Cultural Differences, Community Participation and Health Programs: The Challenges of Promoting Community Participation in Rural Peru

Sarina Piya (IDSC/MA '05): Decentralized Governance: Is the Center Ready to Redistribute Power?

Basanta K. Pokharel (IDSC/MA '05): How NGOs Can Influence Violent Conflict? A Case of Maoist Rebellion in Nepal

Pranita Pradhan (IDSC/MA '05): Agricultual Surplus and Food Insecurity in the Tarai Region of Nepal

Katherine A. Scott (IDSC/MA '05): Revisiting Integrated Watershed Management in the Blackstone Valley

Jennifer Lee Smith (IDSC/MA '05): Latino Experience in Small Learning Communities in Worcester, Massachusetts

Andre Guy Soh (IDSC/MA '05): Police Reforms in Peacekeeping operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Studies of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia

Samuel M. Stratton (IDSC/MA '05): Reviewing the Success of Federal Brownfields Redevelopment-related Programs: The Story of Portland, Oregon

Sulley Sumani (IDSC/MA '05): Exploring the Differential Impacts of Trade Liberalization on Livelihoods of Women in the Shea Industry in Northern Ghana

Rie Taniguchi (IDSC/MA '05): Can Small Business be a Good Development Strategy for the Marginalized Poor?: A Case Study of a Women's NGO in the Bolivian Neoliberal Context

Saeed Abubakari (IDSC/MA '04): The Role of Participatory Approaches in Strengthening Sustainable Development: A Case of Peasants' Struggle for Empowerment in Northern Ghana (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Saulo Araújo (IDSC/MA '04): Local Autonomy and Decentralization of Water Management in Guanajuato, Mexico (Advisor: D. Rocheleau)

Waddington Chinogwenya (IDSC/MA '04): Collective Responsibility: The Quest for Land Redistribution and Food Security in Zimbabwe (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Bezaiet Dessalegn (IDSC/MA '04): The Ethiopian Food Security Strategy: A Wish List or a Practical Plan? (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Kathleen McHugh (IDSC/MA '04): Clandestine Abortions and Child Abandonment: Reproductive Rights of Burmese Refugee Women Living Illegally in Thailand (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Francis Odeke (IDSC/MA '04): Challenges and Options to Enable Sustainable Rural Energy in Uganda (Advisor: T. Downs)

Veena Sampathkumar (IDSC/MA '04): Engendered Liaisons: Empowerment, Microcredit and Development (Advisor: K. Asher)

Monika Szymurska (IDSC/BA/MA '04): Organizing Domestic Labor - A Case Study of Polish Immigrant Workers and Transnational Identities (Advisor: S. Hanson)

Sehin Teferra (IDSC/MA '04): Tackling Tradition: Examining the Successes of Strategies Used for the Mitigation of Female Genital Mutilation in Ethiopian Communities (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Elikem Tomety (IDSC/MA '04): Making Our Own Beds: Harnessing Community Leadership in Peacebuilding in West Africa's Mano River Basin (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Zhanna Alkhazova (IDSC/BA/MA '03): How Are the Goals, Objectives, and Success of New Immigrant Communities Determined in Worcester, Massachusetts? (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Ruth A. Allen (IDSC/MA '03): Modeling Partnership: Linking Theory and Practice for More Effective Conflict Management (Advisor: L. Hammond/W. Fisher)

Jason Aplon (IDSC/MA '03): From Perception to Practice: Challenges and Opportunities for Post-Conflict Developmental Peacebuilding (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Mary Armistead (IDSC/BA/MA '03): An Integrated Approach to Land Cover Classification and Time Series Analysis Using Ancillary Data and Regression Analysis (Advisor: R. Ford)

Chafiou Bakari (IDSC/MA '03): Sustainable Development through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD): For a More Proactive Role of Civil Society (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Laura Burnham (IDSC/MA '03): Package Tours and Package Cures: Rhetoric, Realities, Tourism, and Development in Toubkal National Park, Morocco (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Kelly Campbell (IDSC/BA/MA '03): Youth, Gangs, and Corruption in Honduras: Social Group Membership and Political Opinion as Grounds for Political Asylum in the United States (Advisor: L. Hammond/M. Cruz)

Jeremy Casterson (IDSC/MA '03): Non-Resident Cultivation in Kenya: Improving the Equality and Efficiency of Taungya in Kenya's Forests (Advisor: T. Downs)

Christopher Coppenbarger (IDSC/MA '03): Against the Globalization Mainstream: The Need for Restraint against Unbridled Capitalism (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Susana Crespo (IDSC/MA '03): No One Eats Like Abuelos Anymore: Perceptions of Food, Agriculture, and Health in the Changing Socio-Economic Landscape of Santa Ana, Ecuador (Advisor: D. Bell)

Briera Dale (IDSC/BA/MA '03): Impacts of the Mexican PROCAMPO Rural Assistance Program under NAFTA in Plan de Ayala, Guanajuato - A Peri-urban Case Study (Advisor: T. Downs)

Tannagda Salifu Fatima (IDSC/MA '03): The Impact of Free Trade and Privatization on African Peasant Women: A Case Study of Tolon and Tampueng in Northern Ghana (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Robyn Fink (IDSC/MA '03): Living on the Edge: The Vulnerability of Bozo Fisher People in Djenne Circle, Mali (Advisor: T. Downs)

Josset Sky Gauley (IDSC/MA '03): Understanding Youth-Defined Empowerment Strategies in Transitional Society: The Case of Youth-Created Organizations in Kuldiga and Valmiera, Latvia (Advisor: L. Ross)

Boni Jiang (IDSC/MA '03): The Household Registration System Reforms in China: A Case Study of Shijiazhuang's Reform in 2001 (Advisor: P. Ropp)

Sahar Rahman Khan (IDSC/BA/MA '03): A Study of Factors Affecting the Political Left in Pakistan (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Stephany Ladimer (IDSC/MA '03): Training Programs vs. Direct Involvement: The Role of the U.S. in Peacekeeping in Africa (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Oscar Maroto (IDSC/MA '03): Use of GIS and Stakeholder Participation to Determine Conservation Priorities in the Massachusetts Section of the Blackstone River Watershed (Advisor: E. Marcano)

Samson Kigera Murage (IDSC/MA '03): Political and Economic Contribution to Ethnic Clashes in Kenya (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Stephen K. Musee (IDSC/MA '03): Options for Sustainable Development without Environmental Degradation in Rural Kenya (Advisor: T. Downs)

Agnes Pala (IDSC/MA '03): Evaluating Microcredit Programs - The Rangach Case (Advisor: R. Ford)

Scott Pavolko (IDSC/MA '03): Civil Society and Democracy: A Case Study of the Mungiki Sect and Civil Society in Kenya (Advisor: D. Bell)

Natalie Nola Peled (IDSC/BA/MA '03): Patriarchal Underminings of the Potential for Peace: Israeli Women Peace Activists, Male Peace Activists, Radicalism, and the Local and International Media

Anne Marie Pliska (IDSC/MA '03): Community Participation in Native American Health Care Programs (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

Ryan Russell (IDSC/MA '03): Conservation, Culture, and Development in the High Atlas of Morocco: Making the Case for Collaborative Management of Natural Resources for Biodiversity Protection and Local Livelihoods at Toubkal National Park (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

John D. Tomczuk (IDSC/MA '03): Impacts of Public Perception on Invasive Species Management in an Aquatic Ecosystem: A Case Study of Eurasian Watermilfoil in Lake George, New York (Advisor: T. Downs)

Ka Vang (IDSC/MA '03) and John Granville (IDSC/MA '04): Measuring the Impact of Humanitarian Response in a Complex Emergency (Advisor: L. Hammond)

Alison Dawn Williams (IDSC/MA '03): A Research Proposal Exploring a More Equal Balance of Power: The Case of Romanian Children's Relief (Advisor: L. Ross)

Terry H. Williams (IDSC/MA '03): The Commercialization of Microfinance and Its Impact on Microfinance NGOs (Advisor: B. Thomas-Slayter)

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