Addressing Language Barriers: Building Response Capacity for a Changing Nation

Language learning and language culture in a changing world

To  communicate  effectively,  learners  have  to  become  proficient  in  both  the  language  and  the culture of the target language.  Being aware of socio-cultural frameworks does not mean that as an outcome of instruction learners have to become "native-like," but an awareness of L2 cultural norms can allow learners to make their own informed choices of how to become competent and astute l...

Nation - building

Nations stay together when citizens share enough values and preferences. Homogeneity amongst people can be built with education, teaching a common language to facilitate communication, but also by brute force such as prohibiting local cultures. Democracies and dictators have different incentives when it comes to choosing how much and by what means to homogenize the population. We study and we c...

Modernism and Nation Building

Motivators, enablers, and barriers to building allied health research capacity

PURPOSE A sound, scientific base of high quality research is needed to inform service planning and decision making and enable improved policy and practice. However, some areas of health practice, particularly many of the allied health areas, are generally considered to have a low evidence base. In order to successfully build research capacity in allied health, a clearer understanding is require...

Nation-Building, Nationalism, and Wars∗

This paper explores how the increase in army size observed in early modern times changed the way states conducted wars. Starting in the late 18th century, states switched from mercenaries to a mass army by conscription. We model the incentives of soldiers to exert effort in war and show that as army size increases paying mercenaries is no longer optimal. In order for the population to accept fi...