Emily Crain-Castle, “New Form of Colonialism on the Rise”
Mentor: Paru Shah, Political Science

Research shows that most international volunteer programs are detrimental to the host countries development. The imagery of international volunteer work promotes a simplistic, and paternalistic, set of expectations of what volunteers will observe during their experiences (Tiessen 2018). Volunteer abroad programs advertise simple solutions resulting in a misconception of communities and the set of expectations for humanitarian aid. I will utilize the Critical Race Theory (CRT) to analyze how each tier directly relates to the factors that influence the impact of international volunteer programs. I plan to design a survey that will be administered to hundreds of participants of volunteer abroad programs. The survey questions will be catered to the framework of CRT theory. I will pursue this avenue further in graduate school this upcoming fall.