This dissertation focuses on the psycho-cultural perceptions and social interactions among a sample of 58 Chinese immigrant women in the Maricopa County, the Phoenix metro area of, Arizona, and the manner in which they are able to negotiate multiple identity markers that in part influence and define their capacity to achieve and maintain self-referential growth. The central question this dissertation seeks to address is: what historical forms have emerged, accumulated and reproduced through the actions of women in spaces within and between households, networks and social relations, voluntary associations, political participation, economic and financial transactions, and educational, religious, and civic, recreational and artistic activities; and how are these symbolically represented?This research is comprised of three stages. First, I show how a group of Chinese immigrant women living in, Arizona, combine the Eastern and Western connotations of the Phoenix metro area, to create a fourfold conceptual metaphor of the phoenix. Second, I demonstrate that how such symbolization and metaphorization represent their personal immigration experience, femininity, ethnic identity, and geographic location. Third, I also highlight how they associate themselves with the heuristic of the phoenix as a tool for self-empowerment, virtue, well-being, and self-representation. This dissertation concludes that the Chinese women living in the Phoenix area not only apply the metaphor of the phoenix to themselves, but also reference this mythical bird in their social media ID, clubs names, and themed events, and include it in their oral traditions. In contrast, they reject, negotiate, or resist the stigma and stereotypes attached to the “dragon” symbol which often convey qualities of overpowering and irrational oppression in western mythology. Instead, they associate themselves with the heuristic of the phoenix as a tool for self-empowerment, virtue, well-being, and ethnic self-representation. Such metaphorization and symbolization contribute to their resistance to the symbolic violence by countering with their own powerful self-referential narratives, that have shaped their Chinese community.

I spent the first half of my project researching Mexican cuisine, as well as the history of traditional recipes and how various ingredients became incorporated into the food of the Southwest region. The second half of my project was focused on creating a video to document my family's recipe for making tamales. I analyzed the recipe and its larger cultural and social implications which I presented with a PowerPoint.

I spent the first half of my project researching Mexican cuisine, as well as the history of traditional recipes and how various ingredients became incorporated into the food of the Southwest region. The second half of my project was focused on creating a video to document my family's recipe for making tamales. I analyzed the recipe and its larger cultural and social implications which I presented with a PowerPoint.

The purpose of this study is threefold: highlight the present health, self-sufficiency and integration needs and assets of asylum seekers in Phoenix, Arizona during the asylum seeking process phase (while an asylum claim is awaiting a decision); understand the City of Phoenix’s response to asylum seekers; and contextualize and compare the city’s present response to increased arrivals of asylum seekers against municipal responses in other contexts and academic discussions of the “local turn.”. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with asylum seekers and community leaders, this study finds that asylum seekers’ physiological healthcare needs are sometimes met through emergency department admissions and referrals to sliding scale services by caseworkers in the International Rescue Committee’s Asylum-Seeking Families program in Phoenix. Mental and behavioral health service needs are less likely to be met, especially for women who want to speak with a medical professional about their traumatic experiences in Central America, trip through Mexico, detention in the United States (U.S.) and their often-marginalized lives in the U.S. This dissertation concomitantly explores how other municipalities in the U.S. and internationally have responded to increased immigration of asylum seekers and refugees to urban centers, and how certain approaches could be adopted in the City of Phoenix to better serve asylum seekers.

My central hypothesis is that macroaggressions and microaggressions seem to be prevalent as the outcome of immigration policies and some may be regarded as macroaggressions themselves. Utilizing established research from 1991 to the present, it is highly probable that even though there were a plethora of immigration laws prior to 2001, the terrorist attack on September 11, 2002 initiated even more severe measures that resulted in immigrant populations suffering numerous aggressions as a consequence to the present. My research has uncovered three central themes from the literature on the social determinants of health which were used to outline the differences in effects that the immigrant related macroaggressions and microaggressions have on Mexican-origin and Latino youth and adults. In order to properly determine how to consider possible interventions, there must be an understanding of their impacts on the social and community context, mental health and health care issues that arise, and finally, impacts on education and the lived environment of this vulnerable population.

Flora Thew Elementary School is a Title I elementary school in the Tempe Elementary School District. The student body is predominantly Hispanic with an additional large portion of African American students, all coming from low-income backgrounds. The purpose of this project was to investigate the efficacy of American education in these groups of students as well as a personal analysis of the organization, Arizona Mentor Society, that serves to promote student success. The investigation found that while the American education system already fails these students in many ways, the elementary school itself propagates this failure in a faculty body that is unfamiliar with the culture of their student body. Solutions to this problem would include the diversification of the teacher workforce, more strict but inclusive training of educators, and changes in the assessment of these students.

Femicide, the purposeful killing of women because they are women, has become a systemic epidemic in Mexico much do in part to two machista actors over the past few decades. These two actors are drug trafficking organizations, better known as cartels, and the government of Mexico at all levels. The investigations by many non-governmental organizations, like Amnesty International, and those by international governmental organizations, like UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have estimated that an average of 7 women are killed per day simply because of their gender, and the government has yet to take their urgent recommendations to enact true changing legislation. Meanwhile, the government continues to provide impunity for the murders, many times cartel members. Thus, while cartels are the perpetrators of violence against women and use their body counts as a weapon of war resulting in the majority of cases of femicide, the Mexican government are using their body counts as a tool for political repression and resorting to their machista culture. This thesis works to further provide evidence of this through investigating failed laws and programs set by the government and revealing links between machismo - intense hypermasculinity - and the reason by which these perpetrators of genocide continue to do so, especially in places like Ciudad Juarez. The paper ultimately explains that cartels and governments, use women's fear of being killed to make them solidify their power over them and the country of Mexico as a whole. Recommendations to end this genocide includes holding the government completely accountable for their blatant wrongdoings against women as a population, place more women in positions of governmental power, and ensuring that corrupt and self-interested officials do not get placed into office as well as ensuring that impunity is not seen as the absolute for killing, raping, or violating women at any level in Mexico.

Changes in Latino neighborhoods in Tucson, Arizona that occurred between 1990 and 2010 were studied. The overall Latino population increased substantially within the larger metropolitan area during the target time period. Neighborhoods were selected that had changed to become predominantly Latino during the target time period based on maps measuring ethnic clusters. Research was designed to characterize Latino neighborhoods in Tucson in terms of transformation. Methodology for comparison between changed and unchanged neighborhoods was developed. Observations were made in the three new neighborhoods, as well as in three historically Latino neighborhoods that experienced little change during the same time period. Interviews were conducted with residents from each neighborhood. Exploratory findings were made regarding the transformation of the neighborhoods with increased Latino populations. Findings showed that two areas of transformation increased largely because of the rise of higher density rental housing while one area transformed because two new affordable subdivisions were created within the studied time period. One new neighborhood's physical domain changed from an undeveloped land to a neighborhood with tract style houses. The historical areas have transformed in different ways including a decrease in crime and an increase in the younger population. The historical areas have experienced little change in the physical domain. All neighborhoods studied had evidences of a Spanish speaking population, and have businesses that cater to the surrounding Hispanic population.