Vietnam as a class war: Myth or reality?

This article reports an extension of the analyses of the fatalities in the Vietnam War presented by Barnett, Stanley, and Shore (1992) as printed in the September‐October 1992 Operations Research. The additional analyses involved an examination of results by Barnett et al. in numeric as well as percentage form and a consideration of how the revised analyses generalize to the population of all American fatalities in Vietnam. These analyses yielded a different conclusion about the role of economic class in the fatalities in the Vietnam War than those drawn by Barnett et al. They suggested that the term class war was not supported by their data analyses. Our analyses indicate that their conclusion is incorrect. The lower class sacrificed considerably more lives than the upper class.     

The Sonoran Desert’s Domestic Bracero Programme: Institutional Actors and the Creation of Labour Migration Streams

This paper traces the journeys of male migrants to Empalme, Sonora, Mexico to uncover the development of the often overlooked domestic bracero programme that operated in conjunction with its well‐known international equivalent. Drawing on interviews and observations with ex‐braceros who met at a park near the Mexico‐US border, I examine their experiences and participation in Mexico’s domestic bracero program, an unintended and unexplored consequence of its international counterpart. The study shows how regulation and control were constantly reinvented at every step of the selection process by state actors and their affiliates in Mexico. The paper reveals how the oversupply of labour and modernization of agriculture in Sonora resulted in the development of a migration industry where local municipal leaders, coyotes, the state, and Mexican agribusiness capitalized from men’s displacement. The migration industry during the bracero selection process controlled who gained access to the United States labour market by capturing migrant labour en route to the United States in the process fueling a thriving cotton industry in the otherwise stagnant Sonoran Desert economy. The study concludes by taking the lessons from the historic domestic bracero programme to show one instance in which internal and international labour markets were closely interwoven. In the end, I call for more research that examines the relationship between markets on both sides of the border that uncovers how networks are not only structured by personal ties but also by state and market relations.     

Defending America against its devotees Presidential Address,First World Congress of the International American Studies Association,Leiden, The Netherlands, 22–4 May 2003

Abstract

This presidential address at the International American Studies Association's first world congress was composed while the invasion of Iraq was under way. Like the Vietnam War that was launched through an historic act of mendacity called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the current pre-emptive war may be based on claims and ideological agendas equally suspect in their veracity that may well prove a watershed for American culture and paradigm-altering for American Studies. This first IASA presidential address traces the historical precedents of the National Defense Strategy of the United States of America of September 2002, since called the Bush Doctrine, and reads it as a Monroe Doctrine writ globally and as a new US Martial Plan that displaces the Marshall Plan on which the current American Studies field was founded. The portentous changes implicit in this displacement bode a transformation in the foundation of American Studies similar to the changes precipitated by the Vietnam War, with the difference that the global scope of American Studies as an international field today will resist the re-absorption of these changes into a national and nationalist project of US Americanism.     

Managing Helicobacter pylori in college health,with special considerations for international students

ABSTRACT

Objective: Helicobacter pylori infection is the major cause of dyspepsia, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric cancer. This paper will make specific recommendations for a diagnostic and treatment strategy tailored to the international student population. Participants/Methods: This paper is a case report and narrative review based on recent international epidemiologic studies and consensus conference recommendations identified in MEDLINE. Results: In the nations (mostly Asian) that send the largest number of students to the United States, the prevalence of H. pylori is generally 60% to 80%, whereas the prevalence in the United States is about 25%. The patterns of antibiotic resistance in those countries are also different than that in the general US population. Conclusions: Health care providers should have a higher index of suspicion for Helicobacter infection among international students with dyspepsia and need to use a different treatment regimen than is standard for the general US population.     

Social Norms of Alcohol,Smoking, and Marijuana Use Within a Canadian University Setting

Abstract

Objective: To study actual and perceived substance use in Canadian university students and to compare these rates with US peers. Participants: Students (N = 1,203) from a large Canadian university. Methods: Participants were surveyed using items from the National College Health (NCHA) Assessment of the American College Health Association questionnaire. Results: Alcohol was the most common substance used (65.8%), followed by marijuana (13.5%) and cigarettes (13.5%). Substance use and norms were significantly less than the NCHA US data. Overall, respondents generally perceived the typical Canadian student to have used all 3 substances. Perceived norms significantly predicted use, with students more likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana if they perceived the typical student to use these substances. Conclusions: Similar to their US peers, Canadian university students have inaccurate perceptions of peer substance use. These misperceptions may have potentially negative influences on actual substance use and could be a target for intervention. Further research examining the cross-cultural differences for substance abuse is warranted.     

Doubly troubling narratives Writing 'the oppression of possibility' in Puerto Rico and Cuba

Abstract

Since the 'boom' of US ethnic writing, a number of writers have published novels dealing with the colonial-era Hispanic Caribbean. US-authored novels such as The Agüero Sisters (Cristina García, 1998) have received little critical attention in the USA. Similarly, English language novels written by Hispanic Caribbean authors such as The House on the Lagoon (Rosario Ferré, 1996) have received even less, if not hostile, critical attention from Caribbean scholars. Both novels locate the origins of Caribbean modernity in the violent movement from Iberian colonialism to US neo-colonialism. By comparing these novels' narrative concerns about writing, history and race, the complex relationship between 'possibility' and 'violence' they depict is delineated. Such texts reflect a growing corpus of historical fiction about the Hispanic Caribbean and complicate the flawed and persistent schism between US Latina and Latin American literary traditions.     

Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.     

Cigarette Smoking Among Korean International College Students in the United States

Abstract

Objective and Participants: This study explored (1) the prevalence of cigarette smoking among South Korean international college students in the United States, (2) differences in smoking between on- and off-campus living arrangements, and (3) predictors of an increase in smoking over time in the United States Methods: An online survey was completed by 1,201 students at 52 4-year US universities (34% response rate). Results: The overall smoking prevalence was 43.5%. The smoking rate (29.0%) of female students was higher than that (4%) of female college students in South Korea. Sex, living place, living situation, length of stay as a student in the United States, home smoking rules, campus-wide tobacco-free policies, and levels of acculturative stress, anxiety, and depression were significantly associated with an increase in smoking (p < .05). Conclusions: Given the high smoking prevalence among the South Korean students on US college campuses, targeted prevention efforts for these students may be warranted.     

American Studies in the time of Empire

Abstract

This article argues that in terms of political economy, political/military power, and culturally, the USA is 'worlded' in two important ways. In terms both of power and self-perception, the national space of the USA is no longer contained within the boundaries indicated on political maps, but has come to encompass the globe, projecting the nation onto a global space. At the same time, intensified population flows into the USA – part of the same process – 'worlds' the USA from within, transforming American society. These contemporary developments need not be projected upon the past, but they do enable us to see the past in different ways – with colonialism integral to the US national formation both in North America and elsewhere. The article suggests on these grounds that an American-centered view of the USA, understanding the US as a sui generis formation is insufficient to understand the US past or present; such an understanding requires constant attention to the entanglement of the USA in the world and of the world in the USA.     

The Inter-ethnic Return: Racial and Cultural Multiplicity in Foundational Asian American and Chicana/o Literatures

Abstract

This article advocates that inter-ethnic contact and cross-cultural traffic condition the possibilities of imagining Asian American and Chicana/o identities, respectively, in early Asian American and Chicana/o novels. Using Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street as my primary examples, I demonstrate how early Asian American and Chicana/o literatures that have been critiqued almost exclusively within binary analytic paradigms articulate identity within a diverse field of racial and cultural differences. I argue that, in order to regard properly the inter-ethnic trends of recent US fiction and to liberate foundational minority texts from ethnic specific enclaves within US institutions, scholars need to recognize how negotiating a diverse spectrum of racial and cultural distinctions is a critical element of the early Asian American and Chicana/o literary imagination.     

Hemispheric Visions and Border Divisions: Differential Decolonizations at the US National Museum of the American Indian

Abstract

While many populations have suffered unique forms of colonial oppression, what these varying populations seem to share is an understanding of the importance of community support and cultural continuity in the face of struggle. Drawing on notions of differential oppositional consciousness and decolonization, this article examines the US National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC in light of its efforts to represent a hemispheric indigeneity. The Our Lives gallery exhibit co-curated by the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians (whose aboriginal lands straddle the border between the US and Mexico) is analyzed alongside the author’s personal reflections of her encounters with the NMAI as a US Chicana/Latina subject. The article urges scholars to recognize how they have been differ entially positioned against power and, furthermore, to acknowledge how and when efforts to decolonize may result in the re-colonization of another already marginalized group. This project asserts that the strength of alliances may not always be built on sameness, but perhaps can be built out of differences.     

Editorial

Abstract

This article considers the way in which documentary writing was used to represent both Cuba and the US South as sites of economic underdevelopment. Focusing on Carleton Beals and Walker Evans’ collaboration of text and photography, The Crime of Cuba (1933), I reorient conventional understandings of 1930s documentary from its focus on the US South and argue that the origins of the form can be traced to a much broader interest in representing poverty throughout the Americas. As areas of the South sunk into uncharted depths of hardship, the nations of Latin America became a frequent point of comparison and served as a way to measure poverty in the US. The role of Latin America as economic and cultural counterpoint to ‘modernization’ took on new significance during the Depression, and the inhabitants of the US South were simultaneously incorporated into this construction of underdevelopment. The narrative of progress was applied to both of these regions as a way of explaining the unequal distribution of wealth in the hemisphere.     

No Fear,Just Relax and Play: Social Anxiety,Alcohol Expectancies,and Drinking Games Among College Students

Abstract

Objective: The authors examined the association between social anxiety and drinking game (DG) involvement as well as the moderating role of social anxiety–relevant alcohol outcome expectancies (AOE) in social anxiety and DG involvement among college students. Participants: Participants were 715 students (74.8% women, M _age = 19.46, SD = 1.22) from 8 US colleges. Methods: Data were collected via self-report survey from Fall 2005 to Spring 2007. Results: Tension Reduction and Liquid Courage AOE moderated the association between social anxiety and DG participation. Tension Reduction AOE and DG participation were positively related among those with high social anxiety, but were associated negatively for those with low social anxiety. Liquid Courage AOE were associated with increased DG participation for those with low social anxiety, but not for those with high social anxiety. Conclusions: Findings suggest that social anxiety acts as a protective or a risk factor for DG participation among college students, depending upon AOE.     

Hybrid diaspora and identity-laundering: a study of the return overseas Chinese Vietnamese in Vietnam 1

Among the overseas Vietnamese around the world, many are Chinese Vietnamese. They fled from Vietnam for different political and economic reasons during the 1970s and the 1980s. Many of them have returned to Vietnam since the 1990s to work, invest or retire. What is interesting about these returned Chinese Vietnamese migrants is the fact that when they left Vietnam they were called by the Vietnamese the Hoa (華, Chinese) or Hoa ki?u (華僑, overseas Chinese) by the Vietnamese. This identity was actually one of the reasons for their escape. When they returned, they were lumped together with all other returnees into the category of Vi?t ki?u (越僑, overseas Vietnamese) and enjoyed the special rights offered by the Vi?t ki?u policy of the Vietnamese government, which was aimed at boosting the national economy. Although their ‘Chinese’ identity had once made them to risk their lives by sailing out on the roaring sea, their ‘Vietnamese’ identity brought them back to Vietnam at other turning points in their lives. The shifting identity of these Hoa ki?u-turned-Vi?t ki?u has produced an interesting migration story and an intriguing category of ‘hybrid diaspora.’     

US college and university student health screening requirements for tuberculosis and vaccine-preventable diseases, 2012

ABSTRACT

Objective: Colleges are at risk for communicable disease outbreaks because of the high degree of person-to-person interactions and relatively crowded dormitory settings. This report describes the US college student health screening requirements among US resident and international students for tuberculosis (TB) and vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) as they relate to the American College Health Association (ACHA) guidelines. Methods/Participants: In April 2012, US college health administrators (N = 2,858) were sent online surveys to assess their respective school's TB screening and immunization requirements. Results: Surveys were completed by 308 (11%) schools. Most schools were aware of the ACHA immunization (78%) and TB screening (76%) guidelines. Schools reported having policies related to immunization screening (80.4%), immunization compliance (93%), TB screening (55%), and TB compliance (87%). Conclusion: Most colleges were following ACHA guidelines. However, there are opportunities for improvement to fully utilize the recommendations and prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases among students in colleges.     

A Novel,Self-guided,Home-Based Intervention to Improve Condom Use Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men

Abstract

Objective: This pilot study tested the efficacy of a brief, novel, theory-driven, self-guided, home-based intervention designed to promote condom use among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Participants: Thirty YMSM were recruited from a large public US midwestern university during spring of 2012. Methods: The intervention was tested using a repeated measures design with the primary follow-up assessment occurring 6 weeks after enrollment. Results: Forty-five percent of men reported a reduced frequency of unprotected insertive penile–anal intercourse in the past 30 days compared with baseline (p = .01). Consistency of condom use improved (p = .013), as did motivation to use condoms correctly, condom use self-efficacy, and condom attitudes. All participants indicated that they were glad they participated, would recommend the program, and that overall, they had liked the program. Conclusions: This pilot study supports an expanded trial of this intervention with MSM at high-risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infections (HIV/STIs).     

'Traveling Barbies' and rolling blackouts Images of mobility in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding

Abstract

This article proposes to read Mira Nair's film Monsoon Wedding through a critical framework provided by transnational anthropology. Such a framework suggests that approaches celebrating transnational mobility must be balanced against nationally specific forms of constraint. It is argued that Monsoon Wedding bears out precisely such a balance. Nair's film suggests that the mobility of human lives may not be quite as unfettered as that of cultural commodities. Moreover, the filmic narrative insists on a differentiation within the Indian diasporic community. Similarly, some theorists of transnationalism have cautioned that the concept of a 'diasporic community' may serve to obfuscate class distinctions. At the same time, Nair's film is read in conjunction with theories of commodity circulation. Through the image of the 'traveling Barbie', this article explores the ways in which US cultural commodities may be indigenized, while also suggesting that Indians at 'home' may hardly benefit from such indigenization. Rather, Non-Resident Indians may travel from the US to India to buy a token of their own 'Americanness' in Delhi.     

Effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among youth in the United States and South Korea: A cross-national study

ObjectiveThis cross-national study examined the direct and indirect effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among separate samples of 10th grade youth in the US (N = 3784) and South Korea (N = 3079).MethodsData from two national probability studies—Monitoring the Future (MTF) for US youth and Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS) for South Korean youth—were used. Both studies incorporated school-based, multi-stage, stratified, and randomized clustered sampling methods.ResultsPath analyses results indicated that while parental monitoring was directly and negatively related to aggressive behavior among US youth, it had no direct effect among South Korean youth. We also found significant indirect effects of parental monitoring on youth aggression through cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem among both groups. Both US and South Korean youth who perceived increased monitoring from their parents reported less cigarette and alcohol use and higher self-esteem, which in turn reduced the likelihood of aggressive behavior.ConclusionsThis study serves as an example of conducting cross-national research using existing data to investigate significant issues related to youth well-being. Although there are cultural differences between US and South Korean youth, parental monitoring is still important in deterring both groups of youth from engaging in aggressive behavior.     

College Health: Biomedical and Beyond

Abstract

Excessive and underage drinking by US college and university students continues to be a significant problem. Curtailing the misuse of alcohol on college campuses is an important goal of college and university administrators because of the many negative consequences resulting from alcohol misuse. As part of their prevention programs, US colleges and universities are required by law to make information about their alcohol policies available to students. Often the source of this information is the school's Web site. The authors evaluated the alcohol-policy information that is available on the Web sites of the 52 top national universities listed in the 2002 rankings of US News and World Report. In general, they found that the information was difficult to find, was located in many areas of the Web site, and did not provide complete information about the school's alcohol policy.     

The State of the Union: Sexual Health Disparities in a National Sample of US College Students

Abstract

Objective: To examine sexual health disparities between blacks and whites in a national sample of US college students. Participants and Method Summary: Analyses utilized secondary data from 44,165 nonmarried undergraduates (aged 18–24; M = 20.1) responding to the Spring 2007 American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment; 64% were female and 94.7% were white. Results: Whites reported more experience in oral and anal sex, were less likely to use condoms for oral, anal, and vaginal sex, and less likely to have been tested for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) compared with blacks. However, blacks reported more sex partners, lower use of hormonal contraceptives, and higher rates of adverse sexual health outcomes, such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancy. Sexual behaviors and outcomes also varied across gender. Conclusions: This study highlights a need to increase access to hormonal contraceptives and early STI screening/treatment among blacks, improve HIV testing among whites, and increase condom use promotion for all students.