With urbanization’s expansion over the past decades, the composition of municipalities across LA County has exhibited significant variabilities concerning environmental and spatial development. This research confirms the correlation between imbalanced vegetative density distributions and relative vulnerability along the lines of environmental health and other metrics associated with standard of living and quality of life. Data was collected using geospatial information systems, remote sensing, and public spatial data analysis softwares to generate composite scores to quantify spatial variabilities in the project’s relative vulnerability assessment of 4 municipalities within LA County. Additionally, this research proposes urban ecological restoration (UER) as a sustainable development methodology for mobilizing environmental justice at the municipal scale. UER advocates for ameliorating adverse environmental health conditions through rehabilitating climate-suitable native vegetation within economically and ecologically vulnerable urban built environments. This project found that UER and the general densification of regions containing low vegetative coverage may pose significant implications on property economics and urban housing markets, facilitating this phenomenon regarded as the “green space paradox.” The data gathered, along with the presented trade-offs associated with the UER methodology, help establish a basis for consulting prospective economic and sustainable development policies in the municipalities examined.

Our research explores human-wildlife coexistence in the mixed agricultural landscape of Pichare, Southern Chile, where small-scale farmers face recurring livestock predation due to their proximity to the El Cañi Wildlife Sanctuary. Our goal was to determine which predator mitigation techniques (PMTs) are the most pragmatic for encouraging human-wildlife coexistence in Pichare. Further, we aimed to gain an understanding of how the values and narratives of local farmers influenced their preferred PMTs and how this related to their views on conservation. To answer these questions, we conducted individual interviews, farm tours, free lists, and pile sorts with a sample of small scale farmers from the region. The findings of our research indicated that electric fences, flashing lights, scarecrows, and good livestock management are the most preferred PMTs by farmers because they’re effective and ethical. In analysis, we found generational knowledge and community education are critical in the adoption of sustainable PMTs. Finally, the most impactful result of our study was uncovering the impact of human migration patterns on predation patterns. Since the COVID pandemic, migration to rural areas has increased, which our participants believe is driving an increase in livestock deaths due to domestic dog attacks, changing which PMTs are most effective. Exploring this issue uncovered a complex relationship between tourism, development, and predation conflict among Pichare communities.

Historically, migrant workers have been concentrated in the secondary labor market, while American citizens tend to occupy positions in the primary labor market. However, various factors contribute to this distribution, such as political repression, economic hardships, and ethnic conflicts. This paper seeks to examine the drivers of occupational segmentation, focusing on how Eastern European migrants are positioned within the primary and secondary labor markets in Los Angeles through the lens of Dual Labor Market Theory. I question how Eastern European migrants are distributed across primary and secondary labor markets in Los Angeles, what factors influence this occupational segmentation, and the implications for their economic integration. By analyzing data from the American Community Survey (ACS) via Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from 2000 onwards through regression analysis, I argue that Eastern European migrants face occupational segmentation due to barriers such as language proficiency and the non-recognition or transferring of foreign credentials.

Allensworth was founded in 1908, making it one of the first Black freedom colonies in California. Founders envisioned it as the Tuskegee of the West, most known for its self-governing nature, utopian ideals, and focus on African American self determination and progress. This paper answers the question: How does California’s history of liberalism and colonial violence lead to our understanding of Black resistance and efforts of repair, such as reparations? This paper looks at the logics of settlerism through analysis of historical newspapers, public pamphlets, oral histories, and biographies of the founding colonel. At the same time, I also argue that the destabilization of Allensworth is due to California statecraft that facilitates dispossession and coercion under the guise of moral liberalism. The final section will look at the contradictions within the black colonization project and settlerist ideology, suggesting that state aligned practices of memorialization and reparation merely mediate the demands requested from the current and descendant community.

In recent years, the National Hockey League has seen growth in outreach, including a docuseries, increased social media presence, animated game streams, and partnerships. Alongside innovative expansions in outreach meant to reach new audiences, there is also a spotlight on individual players. However, in the landscape of professional sports, hockey does not reach the same levels of interaction as other sports. This research project will explore the relationship between star power, content categories, and engagement on NHL teams’ Instagrams. The research question is primarily how post subjects and content categories correlate with engagement levels. The data will consist of over 1,000 Instagram posts from three weeks dispersed throughout the regular season. The manual coding of each post will include type of subject (team or individual), content category, and engagement rate (calculated in the spreadsheet). Qualitative content analysis is used to identify content categories and subjects. Quantitative content analysis includes the tabulation of frequencies. Preliminary results suggest that posting contract updates of individual players may correlate with more engagement than posting the game schedule. This project could provide insight into how teams can most effectively build community engagement with their fans and could impact how teams and players create brands and marketing on social media. Future projects could compare star player engagement rates across professional sports leagues.

As AI systems become increasingly integrated into everyday communication, their ideological underpinnings in culturally diverse societies need closer examination. This research investigates how embedded ideologies in AI-generated content influence trust among collectivist and individualist communities in the U.S. Grounded in Feenberg’s Critical Theory of Technology and Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory, the study includes two parts. Study 1 uses content analysis via LIWC-22 to examine how six U.S.-based and China-based large language models (LLMs) reflect individualistic versus collectivist ideologies across six cultural dimensions, such as motivation and conflict resolution. Study 2 employs a within-subjects experimental survey with 210 U.S. participants evaluating solutions framed from different cultural ideologies across six scenarios. Responses are assessed on value alignment, likelihood of implementation, and perceived AI origin. Preliminary results from Study 1 show U.S.-based LLMs are more individualistic, using more first-person singular and achievement-related language, while China-based models are more collectivistic, favoring plural pronouns and affiliation terms. Study 2 reveals participants generally trust content aligned with their cultural orientation, though many show mixed ideologies. This research has key implications for equitable AI development, suggesting that embedding diverse ideological frameworks into AI design can foster cultural resonance, reduce bias, and support inclusivity for marginalized groups.