Julia Alvarez and Haiti: Transgressing Imposed Borders in In the Time of the Butterflies, A Wedding in Haiti, and Protests against Ruling 0168-13

Throughout her writing career Julia Alvarez has been examining definitions of the “Americas” and rethinking conceptualizations of the nation. Her multiperspectivist literary works have given voice to women of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the United States, and to those who, as Alvarez says, “shift from foot to foot.” This article looks at Alvarez’s recent activism along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border and calls upon Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) to establish how the author uses the feminist and activist transgressions of the Mirabal sisters to speak against the Dominican legacy of anti-Haitian sentiment and political action, so firmly entrenched by Rafael Trujillo and by subsequent Dominican leaders. It then examines Alvarez’s travel memoir, A Wedding in Haiti (2012), to analyze how she uses memoir as her own testimonio of the possibility of redefined relationships across Hispaniola’s national borders. These relationships eschew masculinist, dictatorial, and anti-Haitian vitriol and embrace person-to-person encounters and grass-roots activism, core elements of Alvarez’s notion of comunidad

UNENDING REFORM: POLICE RESISTANCE TO CONSENT DECREES AND FEDERAL MONITORS

The murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that engulfed the United States in 2020 reignited public attention towards the violent and discriminatory practices of police departments across the country. While methods of reforming these institutions were debated with new vigor, the federal courts have been quietly overseeing efforts to obtain constitutionally compliant policing in numerous cities for decades. Using legal tools such as consent decrees and monitors, the Department of Justice has enlisted the assistance of federal courts to ensure that police practices are in congruence with the Constitution. As pervasive police violence against black and brown people continues unabated—and these lengthy consent decrees show no resolution in sight—it appears that these court-overseen efforts have not been successful. This Note explores the Department of Justice’s practice of entering consent decrees with aberrant police institutions and the work of the federal monitors appointed as overseers of such reform efforts. In reviewing the near-decade long consent decrees governing police departments in Seattle and New York City, this Note utilizes monitor reports to identify why these institutions have eluded constitutional compliance. Ultimately, this Note argues that the Department of Justice, or the governing court, must take a proactive role in the enforcement of these consent decrees and must coerce constitutional compliance with the use of civil contempt sanctions against the respective municipalities. Such contempt creates a downward pressure upon police departments and will spur the municipal legislatures to take greater interest into reaching compliance with these reform efforts

The impact of the US global war on terror on Moroccan and Algerian security

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Auswirkungen des ‚Globalen Anti-Terror Kriegs’ (GWOT) auf zwei der bevölkerungsreichsten Länder Nordafrikas: Marokko und Algerien. Diese Länder sind die militärstrategisch wichtigsten Partner der Vereinigten Staaten in dieser Region. Das seit 2003 zunehmende politische und militärische Engagement der USA in Algerien und Marokko hat in erster Linie drei Auswirkungen: Es erschwert die bilaterale Kooperation, die als Voraussetzung für ihre gemeinsame und dauerhafte Sicherheit gilt, es stärkt die autoritären Regierungen dieser Länder gegenüber internationalen und nationalen Forderungen nach mehr Demokratie und schürt die Abneigung gegenüber den USA bei der unterdrückten Bevölkerung. Zusammenfassend wird in dieser Arbeit die These vertreten, dass die Amerikanische Strategie im Kampf gegen den Terror unter dem Banner des GWOT eine Entwicklung in Richtung Sicherheit und Demokratie in diesen beiden Ländern eher negativ beeinflusst hat.This paper will address the impacts of the ‘Global War on Terror’ (GWOT) on Morocco and Algeria – two of North Africa’s most populous countries and the United States’ most valuable allies in the region in terms of military strategy. The increased US political and military activity in Algeria and Morocco since 2003 has three principle effects: it obstructs the needed bilateral cooperation that is required for their sustained collective security, hardens these authoritarian governments against international and domestic calls for democratization, and inspires resentment of the US among the disenfranchised population. Overall, this paper will argue that the American strategy used to fight terrorism in these two countries under the banner of the GWOT has compromised progress toward security and democracy

Supporting LGBT lives in Ireland: A study of the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

This research set out to examine mental health and well-being, including an investigation of suicide vulnerability (risk) and resilience, among LGBT people in Ireland. A survey instrument, which took approximately 15-20 minutes to complete online, was designed to capture the experiences of LGBT people living in Ireland in a variety of settings and contexts. This instrument included demographic variables, schooling experiences, perceptions of belonging, victimisation and harassment, workplace experiences, and patterns of alcohol use. Indicators of mental health and well-being were also ascertained, including history of self-injurious behaviour and attempted suicide. In the community assessment process phase of the research a total of 14 interviews were conducted. Specific interview topics and questions targeted experiences that may have been challenging, difficult or stressful (e.g. experiences of discrimination, homophobic bullying, stress associated with ‘coming out’ to family and peers). Questions also focussed where relevant on respondents’ experience of depression, anxiety and loneliness and on their use of alcohol and/or drugs. Other sections of the interview concentrated on positive experiences and protective factors. P.16 Alcohol use Prevalence • Ninety two percent of the survey sample were current drinkers, about half of whom consumed alcohol on a weekly basis. • The vast majority of survey respondents who drank (84%) also reported that they engaged in heavy episodic or ‘binge’ drinking either intermittently or regularly, a fifth of whom did so at least twice a week. Problem drinking • Over 40% of survey respondents reported that their alcohol consumption made them ‘feel bad or guilty’ and that almost 60% felt they should reduce their intake of alcohol. • Responses to standardised measures of alcohol use (CAGE and AUDIT-C) suggest that the alcohol consumption patterns of a significant minority of online survey participants could be characterised as problematic, as they exceeded the threshold for hazardous drinking or probable alcohol misuse. • Qualitative findings suggest that regular or heavy alcohol consumption was strongly associated with a felt need to ‘mask’ distressing emotional states and that some used alcohol as a coping mechanism or a form of self-medication

Women negotiating power and control as they ‘journey’ through homelessness: a feminist poststructuralist perspective.

While homelessness is increasingly seen as differentiated by gender, dominant narratives only rarely incorporate the experiences of women. Using a feminist poststructuralist framework, this paper examines homeless women’s trajectories through and out of homelessness based on data from a qualitative longitudinal study of women’s homelessness in Ireland. Sixty women were recruited and interviewed at baseline and ‘tracked’ over a three-year period alongside the conduct of ethnographic fieldwork at strategically chosen sites throughout the duration of the study. At the time of follow-up, forty women were re-interviewed and reliable information was attained on the whereabouts of an additional nine participants. For the sample as whole, there was strong evidence that the presence or absence of children and the presence or absence of more complex needs impacted women’s ability to access housing and exit homelessness. Those women who had transitioned to stable housing by the time of follow-up were more likely to have children in their care and to report lower levels of need related to substance use and/or mental health. A detailed examination of the women’s service experiences and interactions reveals the complex way in which they engaged with the discourses embedded in the structures they encountered as they moved through the service system, very often along trajectories of long-term homelessness. The analysis uncovers women’s agency, mobilised through acts of ‘resistance’ and ‘conformity’, as they navigated a landscape where assumptions about ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ women prevailed and also significantly influenced their housing outcomes

Living in limbo. Homeless young people’s paths to housing.

This publication documents the findings of a qualitative longitudinal study of youth homelessness in Ireland. Initiated in 2013, the research aimed to ‘track’ homeless young people over time in order to more fully understand their trajectories through and possibly out of homelessness. A key aim was to generate in-depth knowledge and understanding of the factors, processes and dynamics that impact the housing transitions of homeless young people over time. The research makes an innovative departure from previous qualitative longitudinal studies of youth homelessness, both in Ireland and elsewhere, by including the views and perspectives of a family member of approximately one quarter of the study’s young people. The findings presented in Chapters 3–7 are concerned primarily with uncovering the drivers of young people’s ‘journeys’ through homelessness, with specific attention directed to their experiences of accessing housing