Poverty Law 101: The Law and History of the U.S. Welfare State

Poverty law will remain marginalized so long as we confine it to a population that we and our students understand as marginal. Tani discusses Professor Wax’s characterization of the “old welfare law framework,” as well as her account of what happened to it, and would not advocate a return to a court-centered, advocacy-oriented approach

On the Borders of the Academy: Challenges and Strategies for First-Generation Graduate Students and Faculty

One of the most significant achievements in US higher education during the latter half of the twentieth century was the increasing access enjoyed by historically marginalized populations, including women, people of color, and the poor and working class. With this achievement, however, has come a growing population of first generation students, including first-generation graduate students and faculty members, who struggle at times to navigate unfamiliar territory. This book offers insight into the challenges of first-generation status, as well as practical tools for navigating the halls of the academy for both academics and their institutional allies.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1140/thumbnail.jp

Social enterprise and tourism, the key to a better integration of indigenous populations

Indigenous affairs are always sensitive and controversial. For centuries, Indigenous populations around the world have suffered from oppression, discrimination and genocide. Even though Governments today are trying to improve their situation, most Indigenous communities are still marginalized disadvantaged minorities lacking in opportunities, and are therefore not integrated to the mainstream population. Social enterprise applied to tourism can offer Indigenous peoples opportunities to develop their economic potential and to become empowered, self-sufficient communities.Entreprise sociale, Tourisme indigène, Tourisme aborigène, Commodification, Modèle économique

Statistical model for overdispersed count outcome with many zeros: an approach for direct marginal inference

Marginalized models are in great demand by most researchers in the life sciences particularly in clinical trials, epidemiology, health-economics, surveys and many others since they allow generalization of inference to the entire population under study. For count data, standard procedures such as the Poisson regression and negative binomial model provide population average inference for model parameters. However, occurrence of excess zero counts and lack of independence in empirical data have necessitated their extension to accommodate these phenomena. These extensions, though useful, complicates interpretations of effects. For example, the zero-inflated Poisson model accounts for the presence of excess zeros but the parameter estimates do not have a direct marginal inferential ability as its base model, the Poisson model. Marginalizations due to the presence of excess zeros are underdeveloped though demand for such is interestingly high. The aim of this paper is to develop a marginalized model for zero-inflated univariate count outcome in the presence of overdispersion. Emphasis is placed on methodological development, efficient estimation of model parameters, implementation and application to two empirical studies. A simulation study is performed to assess the performance of the model. Results from the analysis of two case studies indicated that the refined procedure performs significantly better than models which do not simultaneously correct for overdispersion and presence of excess zero counts in terms of likelihood comparisons and AIC values. The simulation studies also supported these findings. In addition, the proposed technique yielded small biases and mean square errors for model parameters. To ensure that the proposed method enjoys widespread use, it is implemented using the SAS NLMIXED procedure with minimal coding efforts.Comment: 28 page

Dirty Recycling: Auto Salvage and Its Potential Impacts on Marginalized Populations

The salvage yard represents the final waypoint in the cradle-to-grave cycle of the automobile. Residual amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and acids used in automobiles can be extremely harmful to human health and the environment if not managed correctly. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which minority populations were exposed to the hazards of the auto salvage industry. Census data for population, income, race/ethnicity, sex, and age were organized using ArcGIS software. Population demographics were analyzed in the areas surrounding 98 auto salvage yards found in Philadelphia and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia County, the results showed that low-income minorities, females, and 65+ individuals are over represented groups near auto salvage yards. Conversely, Adams County showed few spatial relationships in demographic distribution. Our findings suggest that in urban counties, such as Philadelphia, depressed property values have resulted in a large percentage of below average income minorities inhabiting areas in close proximity to auto salvage yards. On the other hand, auto salvage yards in rural areas, such as Adams County, do not appear to have the same effect because population density and racial diversity are much lower

Chicana/Latina Undergraduate Cultural Capital: Surviving and Thriving in Higher Education

This study addressed the retention of Chicana/Latina undergraduates. The problem explored was one; how these women perceive campus climate as members of a marginalized student population and two; which strategies are used to survive the system. As a qualitative study, this work was guided by a confluence of methods including grounded theory, phenomenology and Chicana epistemology using educational narratives as data. The analysis indicated that Chicanas/Latinas do maintain a sense of being Other throughout their college experiences and this self-identity is perceived as a survival strategy while attending a mainstream campus. Further analysis also showed that Chicanas/Latinas begin their college careers with social/cultural capital and is used as a fluid source of support during their stay at the university

A New Look at Massive Clusters: weak lensing constraints on the triaxial dark matter halos of Abell 1689, Abell 1835, & Abell 2204

Measuring the 3D distribution of mass on galaxy cluster scales is a crucial test of the LCDM model, providing constraints on the nature of dark matter. Recent work investigating mass distributions of individual galaxy clusters (e.g. Abell 1689) using weak and strong gravitational lensing has revealed potential inconsistencies between the predictions of structure formation models relating halo mass to concentration and those relationships as measured in massive clusters. However, such analyses employ simple spherical halo models while a growing body of work indicates that triaxial 3D halo structure is both common and important in parameter estimates. We recently introduced a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to fit fully triaxial models to weak lensing data that gives parameter and error estimates that fully incorporate the true shape uncertainty present in nature. In this paper we apply that method to weak lensing data obtained with the ESO/MPG Wide-Field Imager for galaxy clusters A1689, A1835, and A2204, under a range of Bayesian priors derived from theory and from independent X-ray and strong lensing observations. For Abell 1689, using a simple strong lensing prior we find marginalized mean parameter values M_200 = (0.83 +- 0.16)x10^15 M_solar/h and C=12.2 +- 6.7, which are marginally consistent with the mass-concentration relation predicted in LCDM. The large error contours that accompany our triaxial parameter estimates more accurately represent the true extent of our limited knowledge of the structure of galaxy cluster lenses, and make clear the importance of combining many constraints from other theoretical, lensing (strong, flexion), or other observational (X-ray, SZ, dynamical) data to confidently measure cluster mass profiles. (Abridged)Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Promoting Justice in the Classroom: Looking Beyond the Label to See the Individual

Christian educators are faced with the task of promoting and encouraging justice from the viewpoint of Christ as they encounter the broad strokes of diversity within their classrooms and schools. Following Christ means that the Christian educator must look beyond the labels that have been applied by the religious and secular to see each student as made in the image of God. This article presents a paradigm that recognizes the worth of each individual within the context of the student’s background knowledge, language abilities, academic achievement, and behavior (BLAB) instead of the singularly focused labels that marginalize students