acCLAim Research and Scholarly Work Newsletter

Vol. 13, Issue 5

Researcher of the Month

Chris Upton
Assistant Professor, Anthropology

I am a legal anthropologist working in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on Taiwan. As a lawyer and cultural anthropologist, I am interested in new configurations of Indigenous courts, rights, identities, and sovereignty emerging in the Asia-Pacific region, and what these developments reveal about new geographies of settler colonialism and the diverse consequences and effects of Indigenous rights struggles.

My initial fieldwork examined the creation and operation of ad hoc Chambers of Indigenous Courts in Taiwan’s national court system. Funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright Foundation, I conducted research in the Hualien District and High Courts in eastern Taiwan, where I worked with judges assigned to the Indigenous court units and legal aid lawyers representing Indigenous persons in cases over cultural practice and territories. I spent time in Bunun and Truku communities following cases as they moved from the courts into villages and back again. I aimed to understand how various actors in the specialized units navigated the tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous discourses of land, law, and culture.

My current field work focuses on Indigenous hunting rights in Taiwan. Funded by a grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the project examines contemporary hunting activities in two Bunun communities. It studies how hunting has been shaped by notions of human-animal-land relations, local systems of law and ethics, engagements with state laws and police personnel, and new orders of hunting regulation. I am interested in hunting as an emergent, unstable edge of contemporary Indigenous sovereignty-making in Taiwan.

Featured Publications

Coordinated Work Schedules and the Gender Wage Gap

Pedro Silos
Associate Professor, Economics

In “Coordinated Work Schedules and the Gender Wage Gap,” my co-authors and I study how coordinated work schedules impact the gender wage gap, a topic of both personal and academic interest to me. Drawing on US time diary data, we have discovered that higher coordination in work schedules correlates with higher wages but also exacerbates the gender wage gap. This gap is particularly pronounced for women with children, who often juggle more household responsibilities and face penalties for missing work during peak hours. Our quantitative model shows that these scheduling demands contribute to an 8.9% gender wage gap within occupations. Our findings suggest that reducing coordination requirements could significantly narrow this gap.

Accolade Highlights

  • Hamil Pearsall (Geography and Urban Studies) has received continuation funding from Saint Vincent College (William Penn Foundation) for the project “A Proposal to Integrate Technical Assistance and Program Evaluation to Support the Planning, Design, and Implementation of Literacy-Rich Neighborhoods.”
  • Lisa Briand (Psychology and Neuroscience) has received continuation funding from NIH for the project “Examining Mechanisms Underlying Drug-Associated Memory Erasure by Zeta-Inhibitory Peptide.”

Announcements

NSF Grant Application Changes Coming Soon
As of May 20, 2024, NSF grant applicants will need to adapt to the changes outlined in the updated Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide. In the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 23-1) continue to apply. More information here.

Upcoming Events

OVPR, CST and the Hungarian Consulate invite you to The John von Neumann Series Conference (on Pi Day).

Exploring the Frontiers of Science Learning from the Past, Sharing for the Future
March 14, 2024
9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Guests of Honor:
Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman
2023 Nobel Laureates in Medicine
CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR THE CONFERENCE
Reception to follow at 4:30 pm for faculty, staff, graduate students, and post docs only.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR THE RECEPTION

Innovation Nest Grand Opening
March 19, 2024
3:45 p.m. – 5:30 p.m
Innovation Nest
3223 N. Broad Street, Suite 490
Philadelphia, PA 19140
Please RSVP for the Open House by March 11.

Sampling of External Funding Opportunities