Problem: African Americans account for 13% of our population but account for 47% of HIV infections. New York City represents the epicenter of this epidemic with the largest - over 110,000 - cumulatively reported HIV – Infected African Americans. The scale of the problem indicates a basic failure of HIV/AIDS policies and programs in African American communities in New York City.

Research Question: Why is there a significantly higher incidence of HIV / AIDS among African Americans and can the new National HIV / AIDS Strategy reduce it?  Link to full text

Developing Living Streets in Highland Park
By Derek Chiampas '12

The concept of Living Streets in urban planning and design has developed over the past few years and includes a vast array of design projects and policy measures intended to improve neighborhoods, promote healthy communities, make cities more sustainable, and encourage people to reclaim public space. Included in these features are bicycle lanes that reclaim space from cars; pedestrian spaces that better utilize public space to encourage interpersonal interactions; and making the streetscape ecosystem more natural, environmentally friendly, and aesthetically pleasing. My project focuses on pedestrian/biking infrastructure, and water management mechanisms that can be applied to Los Angeles. There are many other components of Living Streets which are described in detail in the “Model Design Manual for Living Streets” developed by Ryan Snyder and Associates. In my project, I utilize this Manual as a “best practices” reference, as it is intended for cities, like Los Angeles, to use and adapt when designing Living Streets in their communities.  Link to full text  

From Co-op to Cooptation: The Changing Source of Fair Trade
By Nicholas Conti '12 

This research was done to evaluate the changing dynamics of the fair trade movement and the prospects of the proposed changes. The paper first discusses the defining characteristics of the fair trade movement as well as its historical origins and motivations. After that, the benefits and limits of ethical consumerism, which drive the movement, are considered. I then analyze Fair Trade USA’s decision to branch off from the international fair trade umbrella organization: Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO).  Subsequently, I assess the reception of the proposed changes from a broad spectrum of stakeholders and evaluate the potential outcomes.  Lastly I make recommendations on how to sustain the strong fair trade movement while maintaining the original objective of producer empowerment. I argue Fair Trade USA’s unilateral decision to leave FLO and create an independent certification system is in direct conflict with the founding principles of the fair trade movement.  Link to full text 

The Industrial Food Complex: How Corporate Profit Undermines Public Health
By Anna Dalton '12

Slum Housing and the City of Los Angeles: An Analysis of the Intersection of Human Rights and Enforcement Policies
By Maddisen Domingo '12

Slum Housing and the City of Los Angeles: An Analysis of the Intersection of Human Rights and Enforcement Policies closely examines city slum housing enforcement policies from the point of view of tenant organizers and tenant advocates and seeks to answer how the City of Los Angeles can strengthen its housing code enforcement policies in order to best protect the health and human rights of tenants.  The point of view of tenant organizers and advocates is emphasized as it is often overlooked and ignored in policy creation and these individuals have an intimate relationship with the system as well as personal connections with the tenants who live in these conditions. Their unique insights, focusing both on the personal and the system, make their voice extremely valuable in analyzing Los Angeles slum housing enforcement policies. This report uses the city of Los Angeles as a case study for how a human rights framework can be applied to address city policies and programs regarding slum housing problems in order to provide recommendations for policy and program reforms that move towards securing the rights of all tenants to safe and healthy housing while addressing the underlying causes of slum housing.  Link to full text 

The Rise of Wealth Disparity in the United States and Its Effect on Democracy: An Evaluation of the Great Recession and the Dodd-Frank Act
By Teresa Eilers '12

This research paper attempts to provide insight on the significance of rising wealth disparity in the United States. Despite the global proliferation of social movements centered on inequality in 2012, wealth disparity remains a politicized issue and an in-depth, bi-partisan analysis of increasing wealth disparity is absent in American discourse. The Occupy movement’s frame, “We are the 99%” begs the question: There will always be a bottom 99% and a top 1%, so what is the greater implication of increasing wealth disparity? During the 2008 financial crisis, as the amount of total wealth owned in the nation plummeted, wealth inequality increased at, debatably, the greatest rates seen in American history. An analysis of the financial crisis, rising wealth disparity, and the federal government’s attempt to reconcile a financial market in collapse suggests that the American public lives within a cyclical system where the accumulation of wealth perpetuates the accumulation of political power at the expense society at large.  Link to full text  

The Education and Empowerment of Pregnant and Parenting Students in Los Angeles Unified School District
By Morgan Flake '12

Although teen pregnancy has declined dramatically in California and the United States in the last two decades, it remains an issue associated with poor educational, social, health, and economic circumstances for young women and society. While public schools take some measures to reduce unintended pregnancy through sex education and health programs, they must also fulfill their obligation to educate pregnant and parenting students. Schools frequently exclude pregnant and parenting students from school activities, remove them to alternative school settings, or expel them, despite federal Title IX laws that are designed to prevent this gender-based discrimination. This is a study of the education and empowerment of pregnant and parenting students in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).  Link to full text 

A DREAM Deferred: An Uncertain Future for Undocumented Students in California
By Katrina Gould '12

This paper will begin by addressing relevant background information, including the complexity of the U.S. immigration system and why so many people immigrate illegally, as well as the political and legislative context of undocumented students in California higher education.  Next, the following questions will be explored: How do various state and federal policies intersect in the lives of undocumented immigrant students? What are the biggest challenges and obstacles that undocumented students and college graduates currently face? What conditions and actions are necessary in addressing these challenges? What factors influence the public debate about undocumented students’ access to higher education?   The final section of research findings details the actions that immigrant rights groups are currently taking to advance the undocumented students’ fight for justice. The paper concludes with short-term, intermediate, and long-term recommendations, as well as a list of resources for undocumented students and the public.  Link to full text

Is There a Place for the Union?  A Study of the Opportunities and Challenges for Organizing Target Corporation
By Kevin Hom '12

Unions have remained relatively absent in the big-box retail industry.  The two largest “one‐stop shop” retailers in the United States, Wal‐Mart and Target, have managed to stay clear from collective bargaining agreements and third party representation.  Is There a Place for the Union? A Study of the Opportunities and Challenges for Organizing Target Corporation examines the big--‐box retail industry and addresses if unionization is a successful method for protecting these employees.  More specifically, this industry is examined by way of Target Corporation, which has developed a reputation as a humane, trendy, and progressive company.  This report seeks to advance the literature on big box retail, but most importantly, bring attention to Target Corporation.  For years, this company has been overlooked by unions, community groups, city officials, and organizers, as it is in the shadows of Wal-Mart.  In the winter of 2011, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 attempted to organize these employees but failed.  This report addresses why this campaign failed, what could be done differently in the future, what a successful Target campaign might look like in Los Angeles, and if organizing these employees is feasible.  Link to full text 

The War on Teacher Unions: Detroit Charter Schools as a Failed Experiment in Non-Unionized Education
By Carly Kirchen '12

Cultivating Successful Transit-rich Communities in Los Angeles: Strategies for Equitable TOD
By Michael Kralovich '12

With the support of pro-transit Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, backing from neighboring municipalities and a public hungry for more transportation options, LA has begun an ambitious expansion of its public mobility infrastructure. Encouraging inclusive, community-oriented development in the City’s transit-rich neighborhoods will stimulate economic opportunity, increase mobility in underserved neighborhoods, improve public health and mitigate climate change through a reduction in automobile emissions.  Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), would create vibrant, walkable, mixed use and mixed-income communities while ensuring that existing residents benefit from subsequent community investment, access to jobs in construction and operation and access to high-quality public transportation options. This report details the strategies that were used to implement Equitable TOD in Oakland, Denver and Hollywood, in order to inform the policy and land-use decisions that will guide future TOD in Los Angeles.  Link to full text 

Supersized in China: Consumer Implications of the American Fast Food Industry in the World's Second Largest Economy
By Alexander Kwong '12

As corporate pioneers that have been successful in fostering a working relationship with Chinese consumers, the American fast food industry has managed to define for all other industries the rules for marketing and expansion within China. The lesson here is that Western companies in China need not only sell products that engage the tangible senses of touch, smell, and/or taste, they need to market a social experience that pacifies consumer psychological comforts as well. While many might consider the fast food industry an abomination, the Chinese have actually benefitted socially from this industry that has helped to redefine the guiding practices of standardized, consumer friendly business in China.  This industry has also played a tremendous role in dismantling China’s cultural prejudices and has trail blazed a corporate growth model that has allowed its businesses and its products to reach millions of consumers of varying background and social class. In China, the American fast food industry has been vastly transcendent and has helped to redefine life, food, culture, design, and sociability in the world’s second largest economy.  Link to full text 

Health Care and Healthy Food: An Examination of Sustainable Food Purchasing Practices in U.S. Hospitals
By Tyler Morgan '12

Health Care and Healthy Food: An Examination of Sustainable Food Purchasing Practices in U.S Hospitals looks at the ways influential supply chain players such as hospitals and Group Purchasing Organizations can facilitate innovative food purchasing strategies. The report discusses the growing demand for healthier, sustainably produced foods in hospitals, and outlines how traditional food procurement methods have failed to take human, and environmental health into consideration. It also summarizes new food procurement models, such as Regional Food Hubs, currently being undertaken by hospitals across the country. Drawing on interviews with hospital foodservice representatives at 20 hospitals in six states, and an in depth case study of Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder, Colorado, this study examines barriers currently preventing hospital systems from pursuing environmentally preferable purchasing in the foodservice department.  Link to full text 

From Suspension to Sing Sing: A Study of Discipline, Education and Criminalization in Buffalo, New York
By Robert Sozanski '12

Across the United States, urban education is in a state of crisis, and students are being funneled into the justice system whether they know it or not. Although this case study was conducted in Buffalo, New York, it sets out to determine how disciplinary policies affect high school graduation rates, which in turn, end up affecting community disenfranchisement and incarceration. Background research was conducted to provide a national context for the case study. Newspapers, scholarly journals, books and magazines contributed to the discourse. The primary research came from time spent in Buffalo, touring high schools and the Juvenile Detention Center. Teachers, counselors and community activists were interviewed, as well as experts in the field of educational policy.  Link to full text 

Healing Spaces: Developing a Holistic Approach to Planning and Design
By Kristin Sullivan '12

Towards Beloved Community: the Role of Religious Leaders in Mobilizing their Memberships in an Interfaith Context for Social Justice
By David Telfort '12

Organizing in the Third California: An Analysis of the Intersections of Power Between Asian/Pacific Islander Communities and Environmental Justice in San Joaquin County
By Kaitlin Toyama '12