Authors:Melinda Harrold-Menzes Abstract: The article traces an EnviroLab Asia research trip designed to learn how “traditional” music and “folk” dance had been used to transform a loose configuration of farms into an integrated organic agricultural cooperative. This trip was second part of a multi-pronged case-study project looking at music, agriculture and sustainability in Indonesia and China. The importance of this research trip was to build collaborative relationships with our colleagues in Shanxi so that we will be able to produce interdisciplinary research with multinational partners in the future. PubDate: Tue, 10 May 2022 15:06:05 PDT
Authors:Alicia Ngo et al. Abstract: Over the past 30 years, the combination of over-hunting, habitat loss, and increased bear bile demand has caused significant declines in Asiatic black bear (aka moon bear; Ursus thibetanus) and sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) populations. In Eastern medicine, bear bile is extracted from the gallbladders of bears and is then used to treat a wide range of inflammatory, liver, and degenerative ailments. However, the use of bear bile has had significant impacts on bear populations. Given that communities in Northern Vietnam have a lengthy history of using bear bile and bear bile is easily accessible, merely advocating for wildlife conservation is not an effective, culturally sensitive solution. This research took place one hour outside of Hanoi, Vietnam in a peri-urban bear bile farming community that is a bastion of bear farming. Human-centered design was trialed as a tool to identify culturally appropriate means to shift Vietnamese villagers away from using bear bile. During four months between 2018 and 2019, the research team used a combination of human-centered design and social science experimental research to survey community and identify influential community members and their motives for various health decisions. We then created and tested messaging and behavior change experiential prototypes aimed at reducing bear bile demand in the target bear farming community. In 2019, we iteratively tested and refined prototypes for the most accessible persona to our all-female team - the family matriarch (aka “Granny” persona) as a potential change agent in shifting the behaviors of the majority of community members - women and children - away from bear bile use. The final and most compelling design idea was a collection of herbal medicinal recipes collaboratively created by and for family matriarchs that would be shared through a recipe book and workshops to demonstrate how to harvest and create herbal medicinal alternatives to bear bile. PubDate: Fri, 09 Apr 2021 16:52:32 PDT
Authors:Hao Huang Abstract: The idea of planetary health as a form of scholarly analysis and scientific investigation has particular relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic and to Asia, where the outbreak of the novel coronavirus was first reported. Over the past three decades, the continent’s rapid urbanization and industrialization have played a significant role in the region’s economic growth, increase in per capita income and the concentration of wealth, and the creation of some of the world’s fast-growing cities. These profound benefits have come with some serious consequences, however, and planetary-health experts have stressed that one of them has been the sharp uptick in zoonotic diseases such COVID-19. PubDate: Mon, 31 Aug 2020 17:00:59 PDT
Authors:Anushe Engineer Abstract: As a result of Amid Karachi, Pakistan's "smart lockdown" during the COVID-19 pandemic, local Parsis, those of the Zoroarastrian faith, have found technology to have been a blessing: it has enabled them to listen to and participate in the annual communal prayers. PubDate: Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:11:04 PDT
Authors:Hao Huang et al. Abstract: Bali is notable for the degree to which music, dance, and visual art permeate everyday life--a result of historically rooted and continuously evolving religious philosophies and rituals. With this context in mind, we wondered what role the arts play, and can play, in addressing environmental concerns. PubDate: Wed, 20 May 2020 09:25:45 PDT
Authors:Kathleen Kile Abstract: Stepping off the plane in Hue, Vietnam took my breath away. I was slammed with heat and extreme humidity that is common for mid-May. I stood at the bottom of the jetway, trying to adjust not only to my new environment, but to the fact I took this leap of faith and traveled half way around the world to teach children with intellectual disabilities about art made from trash. Little did I know that that step would have such a huge impact on my life and further strengthen my core values. PubDate: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:27:52 PDT
Authors:Katie Purvis-Roberts Abstract: I received a course redevelopment grant from the Claremont Colleges EnviroLab Asia for my Environmental Chemistry (CHEM139) course. This allowed me to add a focus on environmental issues in Asia to the course and, more important, co-teach the class with a colleague at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).Te many results of that cross-Pacific teaching project are the key subject of this reflective essay. PubDate: Sat, 14 Sep 2019 14:02:27 PDT
Authors:Karin Mak Abstract: Claremont Colleges students and faculty studied the carbon footprint of the Asia Rural Institute, an organic farm and school, in Japan. PubDate: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:03:38 PDT
Authors:Karin Mak Abstract: Studying Accessibility in Japan shows the research project led by Professor Angelina Chin (history, Pomona) with students who studied universal design and accessibility in Japan during the EnviroLab Asia 2019 Clinic Trip. The group also worked with the Osaka Institute of Technology's Robotics Department. PubDate: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:03:28 PDT
Authors:Karin Mak Abstract: "Learning Experimental Design" captures the work of the students and faculty who participated in the "Trees Lab" of the EnviroLab Asia Clinic Trip that took place in Japan in May 2019. Under the guidance of Professor Wallace "Marty" Meyer, students learned about experimental design and how to study the amount of particulate-matter filtered by different trees alongside Kyoto's Imperial Palace. PubDate: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:03:19 PDT
Authors:Karin Mak Abstract: Giving Sound Equal Weight as Vision, Capturing Soundscapes in Japan shares the experiences of the Claremont Colleges students who did deep listening in Japan during the EnviroLab Asia Clinic Trip in May 2019. PubDate: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:02:58 PDT
Authors:Karin Mak Abstract: In the Mangroves captures the performances of students from the Claremont Colleges, Burapha University, and Yale-NUS College. Their workers were based on the interdisciplinary research that took place during the 2018 EnviroLab Asia Clinic Trip to Thailand. PubDate: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 11:02:25 PDT
Authors:Luyi Huang Abstract: During the May 2018 EnviroLab Clinic Trip to Thailand, and as part of the performance group, the author encountered an important linguistic barrier. Because the Thai and US-based dancers did not know each other's language, they had to learn to trust each other's body language as their form of communication. The unfamiliar became familiar. PubDate: Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:41:35 PDT
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