International Student Research Conference
From Amsterdam Wiki
Thursday, 23 August 2007, 13:00 - 17:00, Location: International School for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Prins Hendrikkade 189
overview
University of Wasington Honors Program
Pragmatic Tolerance and Urban Culture in Amsterdam: International research through the lens of interdisciplinarity
Summer 2007: July 30-August 25
program
12:30 - 1:00 Coffee & Tea
1:00-1:15 Welcome and Introductions
Paul Wouters, Virtual Knowledge Studio
Mirjam Schieveld, University of Amsterdam - ISHSS
Julie Villegas, University of Washington
Clifford Tatum, University of Washington
Session A: 1:15-2:45 -- Urban Native -- Chair: Jessica Burstein
Title: Addiction Services and the Harm Reduction Model in the Netherlands
Jennifer Sager, Jana Slovic, Jonathan Karademos - University of Washington
Harm reduction focuses on minimizing harmful consequences of drug use for the user and for society. It consists of various levels of control ranging from government policies to services such as needle exchanges and free heroin. Overcoming addiction is incredibly difficult and harm reduction works to keep addicts healthy until they are able to get clean. However, many oppose harm reduction because of the ethical issue of simply regulating their usage or by putting addicts on “less dangerous” drugs instead of actually treating their addiction. We would like to explore the Dutch harm reduction model, and then through a series of interviews, find out whether the efforts to control the population of users gets in the way of actual treatment.
Title: "Dutch Drug Policy, Coffeeshops, and Information"
Chase Marotz, Jack Baur, E. Crabbe - University of Washington
This exploratory study concerns the complex legal and social situation of coffeeshops in the Netherlands, with a focus on the municipality of Amsterdam. It begins with a close reading and analysis of several national and international documents which have had a significant impact on the political and legal space around marijuana, and coffeeshops in particular. It then moves to an examination of how these policies play out ad impact coffeeshops on a local level, with a particular focus on the information environment. It concludes with an analysis of a “coffeeshop union” called the Bond van Cannabis Detaillisten (BCD) as a response to this regulatory environment, and a brief discussion of their efficacy in furthering the interests of coffeeshops and the people who work in them.
Title: National identities overseas - Chinese in the Netherlands
Annie Hsieh, Universiteit van Amsterdam - Research Methods Crash Course
Dutch Chinese people in the second or third generation who were born in the Netherlands and speak Dutch as their mother tongue develop an urge to connect back to Chinese identity, e.g. by learning the language, their partner choice (e.g. marrying within the Chinese community) etc.
Title: Muslim Women's Fashion in Amsterdam
Irina Kolobova and Shirley Chen - University of Washington
This research project focuses on the motivations behind Muslim women's fashion choices here in Amsterdam - particularly focused on the headscarf. The researchers have interviewed Muslim women for their personal opinions on how religious doctrine, culture/family, and sociopolitical issues have affected their ultimate decision to wear or not wear a headscarf. Field observation in immigrant rich neighborhoods have added to the understanding of social conditions here in the Netherlands.
Title: Maximizing Use of Physical Resources in Amsterdam
Alex Gwozda and Julia Hamilton - University of Washington
Packaging Waste Management
This exploratory research seeks to understand Amsterdam's packaging waste management. Besides future value to the researcher, the work aims to provide a meaningful and understandable introduction to any American with some college education. A complex network is involved in the politics and implementation; these are distilled into their key components, and the more environmentally-sustainable innovations are emphasized.
Squatting Movement
Many factors in Amsterdam's history have contributed to the development of the Squatters' Movement, including the establishment of social housing and housing corporations, and the persistent housing shortage. The Squatters' Movement of Amsterdam has progressed from the middle of the 1960s as a practical approach to solving housing problems by the choice of an alternative lifestyle. The problem of the housing shortage is still evident in the present time even though there have been many actions for improvement. The act of squatting has helped promote social change in urban planning with an effective network of communication. In response to the squatting action, housing corporations have developed antisquatting measures to discourage squatters. This project will focus on two examples of squats in Amsterdam although the squatting scene is very diverse.
2:45-3:00 Break for refreshments
Session B: 3:00 -3:40 -- Digital Native -- Chair: Clifford Tatum
Digital Methods Initiative, The Digital Methods Initiative of New Media, University of Amsterdam; Interactive Media, Amsterdam Polytechnic; and the Govcom.org Foundation
Title: Favorite Brands of Hyves’ Users: Public and Less Public Displays of Social Life on a Social Networking Site
Sabine Niederer & Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff - University of Amsterdam New Media
Social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Hyves in the Netherlands have stirred anxiety about the public display of the informal. Researchers of social software have concentrated on what especially a non-member -- a mother, a prospective boss or a teacher -- can see about a person. Here the research concerns how Hyves cleans the space for acceptable looking content of all its members. The list of Hyves members’ top brands, according to Hyves, is compared to a list of top brands according to all Hyves users. Through an analysis of the site we found many brands favored by users are not displayed in the Hyves overview.
Title: Indexing Issues for the Blogosphere: The Case of Nofollow
Anne Helmond, Rosa Menkman, Michael Stevenson, Clifford Tatum, Esther Weltevrede - University of Amsterdam New Media
The exponential growth of the blogosphere in recent years has gone hand in hand with its stratification - attempts to define and categorize blogs and to otherwise map the terrain. In a sense, this work is done most effectively by the (blog) search engine (Google, Technorati, Google Blog Search). One issue in blog indexing is the 'Nofollow' HTML tag, which arguably limits the presence of blogs in search engine returns by excluding or ignoring links placed in blog comments. With Nofollow and other search engine ‘editorial decisions’ in mind, the authors have prepared a case study using the blog http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl to show how different indexes may produce different blogospheres.
Title: Distance from the Top: Climate Change Skeptics in “Climate Change” Search Engine Results
Laura van der Vlies, Bram Nijhof & Richard Rogers - University of Amsterdam New Media
To what extent are climate change 'skeptics' present in Google search engine returns? The question is posed in order to gain insight into whether the Web, and the devices that rank information, privilege the skeptics in ways similar to other ‘spheres’ such as the news. Does Google grant the skeptics voice in its returns for a “climate change” query? In the journalistic convention both sites of the story are represented, but in the climate change space provided by Google, the skeptics’ presence is scant.
Title: Climate Change Issue Animals
Sabine Niederer & Esther Weltevrede - University of Amsterdam New Media
With climate change, animals become endangered. Global warming as well as global cooling threatens the habitat of species, as animals migrate or become extinct. Organizations such as Greenpeace and WWF are committed to raise awareness of these issues. For this research, data and images were scraped from Google News, Google and Technorati to find out which animals that are endangered by climate change (Issue Animals) turn up in the different spheres (Web, News, Blogosphere). The popularity of endangered species in different spheres is ranked and presented in text and image clouds. In all it was found that the animals that stand for the issue differ according to the sphere, or sphere’s leading device, whereby in particular the news favorite (the polar bear) loses ground in other media spaces.
Session C: 3:40-4:40 -- Urban & Digital -- Chair: Paul Wouters
Title: Amsterdam Urban Transportation Studies
Mark Stevens and Sathi Maiti - University of Washington
This study explores the interaction between individuals and the overlooked aspects of their environment, specifically related to public and private transport. In private transport investigation was done on both personal traces left on bicycles and elements of urban design as a reflection of bicycle use in Dutch culture. Public transportation research was at Amsterdam Central Station with focus on wayfinding within the public transportation space.
Title: Health Information Needs of Sex Workers
Haley Anderson and Colleen Stevenson - University of Washington
Prostitution has always been legal in the Netherlands. With legalization comes the ability to regulate and provide for the workers in the industry. Further possibilities for regulation came with the legalization of brothels in 2000. However, there are still issues with illegal migrants who come or are brought to work in the profession. Regulation is impossible in group that is so adept at hiding from the government. Often, illegal sex workers do not have much experience with the Dutch language or social and legal system. This leads to questions about how well they understand the health care system in the Netherlands. We are conducting this study with the intention of understanding how they and their legal counterparts acquire their health information and what their health information needs are. Sex work is considered a high health risk job and it is important to understand the ways sex workers gain the health information they need. In our study, we will be researching the question: What are the issues with access to health care information for sex workers in Amsterdam?
Title: Wayfinding in real & virtual space
Ray Baldwin, Ann Swearingen, Sunil Garg - University of Washington
How do people with differing levels "nativeness" to a physical environment annotate that environment, either in real space or virtual space? Or do they?
If navigators of a given digital environment (like the blogosphere, for example) can categorize themselves as either native or newcomer, and can also categorize themselves similarly with respect to a real space environment, we can locate them along those axes in a matrix (see image). In which quadrants do individuals opt to use annotative tools? Which don't? And if tools are used, like maps or web bookmarks, which tools do get used? Finally, is the use consistent over one axis or another? In other words, is the same type of tool used to annotate virtual space and real space; is the same type of annotation done in multiple spaces with the same characteristic – real or virtual?
Conference Closure
4:40-5:00 Ending Remarks and Discussion
5:00-6:00 Reception
presenter bios
University of Washington
Ray Baldwin
Grad Student, UW Information School
Jack Baur
Jack Baur is a graduate student pursuing a Master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of Washington. His professional orientation is towards public information service in a library setting. Jack received a BA in Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Oregon in 2003.
Edward Crabbe
Edward Crabbe is an undergraduate student at the University of Washington. He is interested in conflicts between systems of international law and in the dynamics of trade regulation.
Sunil Garg
Undergrad Student, UW CSE
Alex Gwozda
Undergrad Student, Biology and Sociology Honors intended
Alex Gwozda maintains an active environmental interest in his community, volunteering regularly. He also seeks to maintain a current knowledge of increasingly sustainable innovations being developed around the world. Next year, he plans to create a student group to raise awareness and interest in the world's most sustainable technologies, models, and systems. Alex emphasizes the interdependence of sustainably healthy social systems and sustainable environmental practices.
Julia Hamilton
Julia Hamilton is a junior at the University of Washington. She is currently working on an Honors degree in music performance with clarinet as a principal instrument. In addition, Julia is working on the prerequisites for medical school. After her undergraduate degree, she plans on studying osteopathy. As a career as a doctor of osteopathy, Julia hopes to spread knowledge of health throughout communities that need it the most.
Irina Kolobova
Irina is a senior at the Univesity of Washington working on an Honors degree in Psychology focusing mostly on child development. After graduation, she plans on applying to graduate school in either clinical psychology or developmental psychology but until then she enjoys travelling, learning and snowboarding. During the summer in Amsterdam, she is finding passion in the complex topic of immigrant identity focusing mostly on Muslim fashion choices.
Chase Winslow Marotz
Chase Marotz was born in Boise, Idaho on July 9th, 1986. He was moved to Idaho Falls shortly thereafter. Seeking a habit a bit less agrarian, he migrated to Seattle, Washington in 2004 to attend the University of Washington, where he is currently a senior studying Creative Writing. After graduation, he hopes to move to Los Angeles to spend some time with the sun and pursue a career in comedy screenwriting.
Jenny Sager
Jenny is an undergraduate majoring in Microbiology and Biochemistry. Jenny will eventually go into Biomedical research, and is currently working in a Pathology lab where she studies aging and age related diseases.
Jana Slovic
Jana is an undergraduate at University of Washington Honors Program and is majoring in Microbiology. She is from Seattle, but is a native of Serbia of former Yugoslavia. At UW, Jana works in a Radiation Oncology Research lab and chose this summer program to gain more experience in another research field.
Ann Swearingen
Grad Student, UW Information School
Universiteit van Amsterdam - Research Methods Crash Course
Annie Hsieh, UvA European Communication Studies. Annie is from Taipei/Taiwan and has studied "Leisure and Tourism" in Leeuwaarden in the Netherlands since 2003. She now starts her masters degree program studying European Communication Studies at ISHSS.
Universiteit van Amsterdam - New Media Program
Sabine Niederer is Managing Director of the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam.
Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff is a bachelor student in new media at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Laura van der Vlies is a masters student of new media from the University of Amsterdam.
Bram Nijhof is a masters student of new media from the University of Amsterdam.
Richard Rogers is head of new media at the University of Amsterdam.
Michael Stevenson is a Research Master's student in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He writes for the blog http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl.
Anne Helmond is completing her Master's degree in New Media at the University of Amsterdam with a thesis on the politics of blogging software. Details on her research, as well as on her work as a photographer, can be found at http://www.annehelmond.nl.
Rosa Menkman is a Research Master’s student at the University of Amsterdam. Her main interest is in digital art. She blogs at http://rosa-menkman.blogspot.com.
Esther Weltevrede is a Research Master's student in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam and part-time New Media teacher at Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
participating institutions
University of Washington - Honors in Amsterdam Program
Universiteit van Amsterdam ISHSS
