Mironesco, Monique

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    Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: Environmental Awareness in Hawai‘i
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020-06-26) Mironesco, Monique
    While voter turnout is often seen as one definitive aspect of civic engagement, this paper argues that there are more nuanced ways to reflect on the impact of service-learning experiences on students’ environmental awareness and environmentally responsible behavior changes. Using course evaluation qualitative comments in environ-mental politics-themed courses that have used service-learning as a pedagogical tool for the past 8 years, this paper argues that environ-mental awareness and its subsequent application in activism reflect civic engagement through changes in environmental behavior. Service-learning enables students to make connections between the course material and real-world environmental issues, showing them how various communities are attempting to solve certain environ-mental problems. The focus on problem-solving skills in this particu-lar domain enables students to see themselves as agents of change, though the long-term effects of these changes are difficult to ascer-tain. The Hawaiʻi context is particularly important due to the pleth-ora of environmental problems we face, and the additional fact that we live both in somewhat of a closed and geographically isolated system as well as being susceptible to a variety of outside systemic influences and forces. If we are not enabling the next generation of environmental problem solvers through higher education, our “sea of islands” as aptly termed by scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa, has a lot to lose.
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    Disconnection: Advertising and Editorial Content in the Housewives League Magazine (1913-1916)
    (University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, 2011) Mironesco, Monique
    The editorial content of the Housewives League Magazine published between 1913 and 1916 provides an interesting parallel with the contemporary food movement. During the 1910s, the Housewives League, led by Mrs. Julian Heath, started a public campaign for “clean, sanitary, and wholesome food” in response to what they conceived to be unsanitary conditions on farms, in grocery stores, and in markets. Their campaign took them into the public sphere, even as they invoked their roles as housewives in the private sphere as their central identity. The League was instrumental in promoting what they called green or municipal markets, the equivalent of contemporary farmers’ markets. The members of the Housewives League used their identities as wives and mothers, as nurturers of the family, the home, and their accepted realm—the private sphere—to seek changes in the nation’s food system—a very public demand indeed. In seeking wholesomeness, they weren’t stepping out of their traditional boundaries. In demanding access to farmers’ markets, they were asserting their collective might as newly organized consumers—realizing the importance of united purchasing power. As this transformation, both in the public and private spheres was taking place, however, the disconnections between the editorial content of the Housewives League Magazine and the advertising copy became apparent, causing a rift among League members, leading to its eventual demise.
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    Student Civic Engagement Outcomes and the “Politics of Food”
    (Community College National Center for Community Engagement, 2010) Mironesco, Monique
    This paper explores the challenges and student learning outcomes of teaching a class entitled “Politics of Food” through service learning two years in a row. The students’ journal reflections on their service learning experiences are used as text for narrative interpretation to provide a qualitative dimension to the study of learning outcomes. The relative success of the service learning activities at two farms is analyzed through the students’ journal narratives. The findings identify potential challenges with the service learning model found in this course.
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    Advancing Feminist Thinking on Globalization
    (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2008) Mironesco, Monique ; Ferguson, Kathy E.
    We bring this intellectual and political journey to an end, not with a final summary or act of closure, but with our reflections on what we have learned and where we might go from here. While no single or unified conclusion is available, or indeed desired, to sum up this complex, layered material, the collective force of these analyses makes fresh thinking possible. Returning to the three umbrella themes we developed in our introduction, we find that the first two—representations/reproductions and spaces/borders—have endured while morphing in unanticipated directions, but the third—voices/bodies—has dispersed among the others and an unexpected newcomer—methods of scholarship/ activism—has joined the fray.
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    Gender, Globalization, and Militarization: An Interview with Cynthia Enloe
    (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2008) Mironesco, Monique ; Ferguson, Kathy E. ; Kirk, Gwyn
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    Introductory chapter to Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pacific: Method, Practice, Theory
    (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2008) Mironesco, Monique ; Ferguson, Kathy E. ; Merry, Sally Engle

    What is globalization? How is it gendered? How does it work in the complex and varied societies of Asia and the Pacific?

    This collection of sixteen original essays offers critical feminist analyses of dynamic global processes. We take our three anchor concepts—gender, globalization, Asia/Pacific—as points on an interactive triangle. There is no single starting point, but rather an energetic and changing set of relationships among the three areas. Each point both causes and is affected by changes in the others. Our inquiries are produced out of the vigorous intellectual energy our triad of concepts provokes. We take fresh stock of globalization’s complexities, pursue critical feminist inquiry about women, gender, and sexualities, and produce new insights into changing life patterns in Asian and Pacific Island societies.

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    Notes from the Field(s): From Pulling up Weeds to Putting Down Roots in the Community
    (Indiana University Press, 2010) Mironesco, Monique
    Among other things, food can both be our sustenance, necessary to our survival, and our downfall at the same time, with alarmingly high rates of obesity and diabetes related to overeating, and for women specifically, high rates of eating disorders. The politics of the food industry have started to become more transparent through the efforts of academics and consumer advocates, as well as public health and environmental advocacy groups. This article explores the pedagogical results of teaching a class entitled Politics of Food, and assesses the student learning outcomes for the course over two semesters through the lens of several service-learning projects.
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    The Politics of School Lunch in Hawaiʻi
    (Northern Arizona University, 2012) Mironesco, Monique
    School lunch reform is taking place at many different levels, from the legislature, to certain school lunch personnel, down to parents at individual schools. How did school lunch develop differently in Hawaiʻi from that found in the continental United States? The Hawaiʻi DOE 5 week cycle menu has remained unchanged for the past 30 plus years. It still has a high fat content, uses agricultural commodity surplus meat and dairy in every meal, and includes little fresh produce. This article uses qualitative methods to examine the implications for children's health and behavior in the classroom, along with the institutional barriers to school lunch reform in Hawaiʻi.
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    Farmers’ Markets in Hawai‘i: A Local/Global Nexus” in Food and Power in Hawai‘i: Visioning Food Democracy
    (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016) Mironesco, Monique

    From Wal-Mart superstores to farmers’ markets, there is a spectrum of food purchasing and distribution options in Hawai‘i. This range includes warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club; supermarkets like Foodland, Safeway, and Times Supermarket; gourmet stores like Whole Foods; mom and pop stores and health food stores like Down to Earth; food cooperatives like Kokua Market; both large and small “ethnic” markets and convenience stores; community-supported agriculture (CSA) and various types of farmers’ markets all over the islands. While national and international supermarket chains dominate the retail markets, the popularity of local food has resulted in the expansion of direct-sale outlets like farmers’ markets. The call for localization of food resonates with environ-mental movements in Hawai‘i. Due to Hawai‘i’s geographic isolation as a chain of islands in the middle of the North Pacific, a large proportion of our food supply comes through shipping and air cargo. While food purchased on the US mainland travels an average of 1,500 miles, Hawai‘i’s food travels an average of 2,500 miles (Leung and Loke 2008).

    This chapter considers farmers’ markets as alternative food institutions in Hawai‘i. It uses farmers’ markets as a lens through which we view the special location (both geographic and metaphorical) of Hawai‘i. As a post-colonial state, a generally poor and isolated indigenous population coexists with large numbers of visitors to the islands and divergent settler populations in Hawai‘i, each with particular food interests. Finally, it ex-amines the relationship between consumers and producers/vendors within the variety of the Hawai‘i farmers’ markets in order to provide clarity on how farmers’ markets can potentially serve as a political tool to address agricultural issues in Hawai‘i.

    In examining the variations of farmers’ markets and their accomplishments, this chapter critically assesses their role in the pursuit of food democracy. While farmers’ markets are often celebrated as a step towards improving the local food system, their contributions to farm security, food security, and consumer awareness and mobilization also vary considerably. The case from Hawai‘i highlights the conflicts in farmers’ markets such as the tension between improving farmers’ income and serving low-income communities, being a space for local community or catering to well-paying tourists. The chapter ends with a discussion of how to address some of these tensions.